After returning to the inn, Astrid had cast an illusion spell just to complete Sham's daily quest about using deception magic. Afterwards, she drained her mana by casting and maintaining a shield spell. By tomorrow, it would have recovered and grown stronger by a couple points. Then she went to bed feeling exhausted.

Despite that, she tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep. Thoughts about the story Walter had told kept spinning in her mind. How could so many trained people have died in a dungeon? After all, she had gotten through one on her own relatively unscathed. Sure, she hadn’t tried to clear it and tried to avoid as many monsters as possible, but it still seemed unlikely that no one else was able to do the same. Why had no one made it out?

The answer came to her almost immediately. The dungeon had contained traps that could easily kill a person. Maybe even a room full of people. If no one in the group had known how to sense or dismantle traps, everyone could have been eliminated in minutes, if not seconds. It was also unlikely anyone had the trapping skill, as it fell under the god of Deception's domain. Maybe hunters or fishermen could justify having the skill as part of their occupation, but for everyone else it would be highly suspicious. If anyone in the expedition had had the trapping skill, they would likely want to keep that information to themselves. Only too late would they have realized that their knowledge could have saved lives.

Astrid turned over to her other side, pulling the thin cover tighter around her. It did nothing to help quiet her thoughts. Part of her felt like she was obligated to tell Walter and his team everything she knew about the dungeon. After all, if they were planning to go there, they would need as much information as possible, and she was likely the only one in Largon who had returned from that place alive.

However, another much larger part of her was not interested in telling them anything. She couldn’t risk getting dragged back inside the dungeon. She had promised herself she would never go back to that dreadful place. Despite everything she had been through, she was still a fourteen-year-old girl. It couldn't be her responsibility to deal with such dangerous situations, no matter how much some of her thoughts told her it was.

*

At school the next morning, Astrid sat at her desk trying to decide what her contribution to the harvest festival was going to be. Sure, Astrid had helped with the harvest lookout and would do so again after school ended for the day. But the school couldn’t know that that was her, so she had to make a choice for her student self, and she only had a few minutes left to do it.

“Come on, Sigrid. Just pick whatever you want.” Brigitta, who sat beside her, said. “You are a student here, so no one will think you’re too low class to help with their tasks.”

It was easy for Brigitta to say, as she came from a wealthy family. She had signed up as the representative for the combat magic class at the school, so her job would be to give demonstrations and answer questions to potential new students. Astrid wasn’t exactly sure what that had to do with the harvest festival but didn’t care enough to ask. In the past few days, she had learned that people could get away with a lot of things if they were rich. If murder attempts were one of them, then using a holyday to advertise the academy seemed rather tame in comparison.

“I just don’t know what to choose." Astrid said, desperately looking at the timer counting down. Three minutes left to decide.

“Most of our class has picked between dueling for entertainment, working as security guards, or as a sponsor on different events.” Villads said. He was sitting at the table in front of Brigitta and had turned in his chair, so he faced Astrid. “Joining the decor committee or the clean-up crew are also good options.”

“What have you picked?” Astrid asked.

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“I’m a sponsor.”

“You really think your best qualified as a sponsor?” Astrid found that hard to believe.

“It’s what I have always done. Every holiday, my family pays for a portion of the décor.”

“That is so generous of you.” Astrid said sarcastically. “Do you also let everyone know who paid for the festival?”

“Yes, there are posters around the city with family names, and the major also mentions them in her opening speech.”

“You have to pick now, Sigrid,” Brigitta said. “Class starts in less than a minute.”

Astrid looked at the timer and saw Brigitta was right—fifty seconds left. She looked back at the options. She didn’t have the mana for multiple duels or the money to be a sponsor. Nor did she feel like hanging up flower garlands or clenching up after everything after the festivities. That left only one option.

With seconds to spare, Astrid selected ‘Security Guard'.

The Otimranian studies class went by quickly, and soon the combat magician class began. As always, teacher Birk assigned them numerous exercise drills before he let them practice any magic. Astrid was getting tired of practicing the same two spells—basic shield and basic blast—over and over again. She felt like she had mastered the spell and yearned to try some of the things the other students around her were doing. Shooting fire spells and water spells would be so cool. It might also be useful if she ever found herself in a situation where she needed something other than a basic blast. It wasn’t an unlikely scenario, as she encountered various monsters whenever she went on quests in the forest.

If Birk wouldn’t teach her, she could always teach herself now that she had her own quarterstaff. After all, every spell she needed to know was written in her textbook. It would be easy enough to do and would also mean she leveled up faster. Brigitta and Villads were both in level two, and Astrid wanted to join them as soon as possible.

As things were now, her experience gained in defensive magic and offensive magic had stagnated. When she mentioned this to Birk, he had told her it was the whole point. She had to increase her mana a lot more before she could start learning the other spells, so she didn’t accidentally level up too soon. She checked her stats to see how far she still had to go.

Health: 24/24

Stamina: 20/38

Mana: 4/26

Focus: 8/20

Spirit: 10/16

Although skill progression was often slow, it could be unpredictable. With books granting boosts, quest rewards giving experience, and challenging situations, she could quickly end up pushing herself enough to get to the next level even unintentionally and with relatively low mana capacity. The level-up bonus to a stat would only work once per level. Once she got a magic skill in level two, she would double her current maximum mana, but then she wouldn’t receive another mana boost until a magic skill got to level three. That meant she only got one chance to get a good bonus, and there was a big difference between starting level two with around fifty mana and two hundred mana.

The school preferred to play it safe, and Astrid had firsthand experience of why. She had leveled up her running skills before she had built her stamina up, and now she was trying to catch up. It was tedious work. For now, it was best if she focused on building mana as much as possible. Maybe after the festivities it would be high enough to start practicing more spells.

As soon as the classes ended, just around midday, Astrid left the academy. She found a spot where she could change into her adult persona unnoticed, then continued to the fields outside the city for another shift as a harvest lookout.

Today was officially the last day of harvest, as the festival began the next day. For five days, everyone would have other things to do than work in the fields. The first day was for decorating and preparation, the next three were where the festivities took place, and the fifth day was for cleanup. Astrid wouldn’t have any classes during that time.

After talking with the man in charge, Astrid was assigned the same field as yesterday. Only half of the crops had been harvested here before the monster attack had forced all the farmers to retreat back to the safety of the city. Part of Astrid wanted to help cut the grain as it was the kind of work she was used to, but she knew it would take her focus away from the forest edge and that would put lives in danger. If something attacked, she would only have seconds to react.

Therefore, she kept her eyes on the tree line, only occasionally glancing at the other guards to ensure none of them were under attack.

As she looked closer at the guards, she noticed that they fell into two categories. They were either past retirement age or in their twenties. She couldn’t find anyone that looked to be between those ages. This disturbed her deeply. Maybe it was wrong of her not to join Walter's team.