“Alright, spill.”
James smiled ruefully, having known that Lauren would be the one to hold him accountable first. They were sitting at the parlor sofas in their training room, having showered and changed into their civilian clothes. Now that they were finally out of danger, James started feeling a drowsiness he would have really liked to explore, but it seemed his teammates had other plans.
“Well, there isn’t that much to say.” He started, getting very deadpan looks from everyone. “The E-rank who came up to me first is called Callum Wright, and he’s an acquaintance of mine. I ended up befriending his ex and now he hates me.”
“You don’t think that’s going to be enough, do you?”
James shook his head, sighing theatrically. “What else do you want me to say. He’s a bully and a thug, but you could see that much by yourselves. He has it out for me because… Well, I went on a date with his ex two years after they broke up.”
Yeah, sorry, but I’m not gonna share every little detail about Sally… It still hurts to think about her. I just hope she’s feeling better now.
“But he never let go of her, so you became enemy number one. I know that type, unfortunately.” Maria completed, grimacing.
The redhead had been quiet during the whole confrontation, which was surprising, given her usual temper, but it seemed that she too had had ugly experiences with overbearing Awakeners.
I suppose she must have had a reason not to go to a guild. The package we received is quite generous and we know they want us to succeed now, but initially, it did look dicey. The fact she took the plunge means she must have had a good reason.
“Yeah, that’s about it. I honestly didn’t want to bring you into my problems, but it was already too late when he saw us.”
Daniel reached over the armchair and patted his hand. “Don’t worry about it, Jimbo, we are all friends here. I know you would have done the same for any of us.”
Jimbo? What? Well, alright, it’s not that important. You can’t really fight a nickname anyway.
“I would have, but still, you guys backing me up even while knowing we would have gotten our asses kicked means a lot to me.”
Lauren snorted, tossing her long brown hair to the side “I’ll tell you what. Next time we clash with those thugs, you leave the smarmy bastard to me. I need to pay him back with interest.”
James chuckled, easily acquiescing “He’s all yours. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to touch him anyways, even if it was to rearrange his features.”
Laughter echoed through the room as the new friends let go of their anxieties and celebrated their first victory. Their dungeon run had been entirely successful, and though the aftermath had been marred by the confrontation with the Radiant Guild, they were all safe and sound, back in their room.
They were stronger than before, and it wouldn’t be too long before they wouldn’t have to worry about Callum Wright and his cronies. Of this, James was certain.
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With the celebrations for their victory done, the next day Team 0 resumed their regular training schedule. In the morning, they’d have law and regulation lessons with different teachers, while afterward, they’d be at Miss Walker’s mercy.
The woman had happily congratulated them on their success, apologized for not having been there to greet them back since she had been unexpectedly held up because of some work-related things, and been incensed at the confrontation they had after coming out of the dungeon.
She had seemed particularly frustrated by the fact that it had happened as soon as they got out, but had quickly refocused on the story, seeming perplexed that a high ranker from the Golden Sun had stepped in to help them.
“Well, technically, it’s his duty to do so. Since his Guild has a special relationship with the AA, they also have more rules to abide by, and keeping the peace between Awakeners is one of them. But they usually never stoop so low, especially if it’s a scrap between rookies and one of their subsidiaries.” She explained, fiddling with her armor’s straps while she thought.
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“Was there any weird behavior? Did he say anything that stood out to you?”
James tried to remember, despite having been mostly concerned with not being beaten to a pulp at the time, until he finally recalled something “He was looking at his watch. He did so several times, even though the whole thing couldn’t have lasted more than a couple of minutes”.
Miss Walker hummed, apparently also thinking it was pretty peculiar “Nothing else? No? Alright, if anything comes to mind, please tell me immediately.”
She then stood up, moving toward the center of the training area. “We can’t do much to reprimand the Radiant Guild members, especially since they didn’t end up doing anything to you, but I can promise you something.” Her eyes squinted in the way she did when she smiled, but something was off about it. An ominous aura started seeping into the room, and the lights flickered. “The next time you meet them, you’ll be able to stand up to them, even if I have to train you so hard you vomit every day.”
Team 0 members all exchanged glances before looking back at their mentor, trying to gauge how serious she was being.
“Oh, come on, I’m not that bad.” The masked woman complained, almost sounding as if she was pouting. “Now, come over here and let’s have a mock Boss battle. I want to see how much you have grown with all those new shiny stats.”
They all groaned theatrically but quickly took their positions, using the standard Boss formation they had used in the rat dungeon.
Rather than bowling them over completely with physical strength, like what they expected her to do since she was standing in for a big, bad monster, Miss Walker conjured arrows of solid shadows, making it very clear that if they didn’t go to her, she would be perfectly content keeping the fight at long range.
Since the only good fighter they had for that was Maria, and by herself, she couldn’t be more than an annoyance to their teacher, they changed tactics.
Daniel still kept his position, his shield drawing in most of the arrows thanks to his skill, while Ezekiel and Maria served as artillery behind him.
While the youngest couldn’t really do any damage directly, his healing skill manifested with a very bright glow. Thanks to his ingenuity, he had been able to develop it enough to cast it without any healing factor, concentrating all the power into the light.
It made for an excellent distracting element, especially since it didn’t take much mana, and if it hit the eyes, it could even blind a target. Coupled with his buffs to his allies and debuffs to his enemies, Ezekiel was a force multiplier all by himself.
Maria’s fireballs had also increased in strength, owed to her leveling up the skill during the last fight with the swarm of rats. Now, her spells packed a serious punch, and the explosions they let off when they hit the shadow arrows were enough to destroy all the nearby ones, too.
Meanwhile, James and Lauren served as melee attackers. Buffed by Ezekiel’s skills, they closed the distance quickly, taking different approaches.
James was the flashier one, charging directly at Miss Walker like a bull, Thakinetic Empowerment covering his limbs. His right fist crashed against a hastily constructed shield - well, hastily since the masked woman was keeping herself to an approachable level, otherwise she would have reacted much sooner. He rained heavy blows on it, cracking it with his increased power.
On the other side, Lauren used her stealth skills to sneak by, waiting for the perfect moment to slip her knife in.
She had to retreat once, when she fell for a fake opening and almost was hit by a shadow-empowered punch, but eventually managed to break through, slipping her training knife against Miss Walker’s ribs.
The surprise was enough that James managed to break the shield that kept him at bay and kicked her hard, sending her skidding on the ground.
The ending blow came from Maria, whose enhanced fireballs exploded one after the other against the woman, with enough power that most H-rank Bosses would have been dead.
“Alright, good job!” Came from within the cloud of smoke where Maria had concentrated her fire. Completely uninjured and looking as fresh as a rose, Miss Walker strolled out, nodding in satisfaction “Your synergy has increased a lot since your early days. Not only has the power you gained made you stronger, but you also managed to use it better. I’d say that this deserves an early day off.”
When no one moved, she waved them off with a hand “You are free, people!” And off they went, running towards the locker rooms.
“If we are quick enough, we’ll be able to take the metro without the rush!” Lauren commented giddily.
“I really wanted to get some shopping done. My sister should be coming out of her piano lesson now.” Ezekiel agreed, taking out his phone to shoot a text.
Daniel just shrugged. “I’m going to go play some games. God knows I miss it. I just don’t have the time for it these days.”
Maria snorted at that “Yeah, maybe because your current life is more exciting than any game? And aren’t most of them about Awakeners now anyway?”
Daniel shook his head, an expression of distaste exaggerated for comedic effect. “You are such a heathen. I don’t play modern games, obviously. Vintage is where it’s at, vintage, I tell you!”
Banter had become easier between the team now that they had all risked their lives together, and having supported each other during the confrontation with the Radiant guild thugs had only made them feel more connected.
There were some things you simply couldn’t go through without a sense of kinship forming, after all. James was still surprised at how quickly he became friends with them, having expected their relationship to remain standoffish for a long time.
This is something I don’t mind having been wrong about.
The training room was left empty shortly after, except for two people. Miss Walker had stayed behind to put things in order, even though the cleaning crew would pass by in a couple of hours, while James needed to do something.
“Miss, could you give me the authorization to access some files?” He asked, doing his best not to wring his hands. This was a fundamental part of his plan, as with his H-rank clearance, he couldn’t find anything of worth on his target.
The masked woman stared at him for a moment, her gaze piercing. Evidently, she found what she was looking for, because she acquiesced “I’ll send you the code via message.”
“Thank you!” He said giddily, already sprinting off toward the elevator. He had some very important questions that needed answers, and while he didn’t believe he would find everything in the AA servers, it was the best starting point he could think of.
“James!” She called, stopping him in his tracks “I’m here if you want to talk about anything.”
Noticing how serious she was, the brunette turned to face her “Thank you, Miss Walker. I’ll keep that in mind.”