It did not take Ego long to find individuals with low mana, yet neither Troy nor Arson felt comfortable fighting any of the individuals found. Of the few dozen students they came across, all seemed to be on the verge of death. Though it was more their incredible presences that stopped Troy and Arson from engaging the students.

Not a single Cultivator within the school seemed to be of the same substandard level of skill Arson and Troy were both used to experiencing. Which made they slow exploration throughout the Secret Halls of Adroit Academy that much slower.

Arson: This place is amazing, makes me wonder if I was wasting my time anywhere else, those girls we just passed could have all handled those teachers I fought with ease.

Troy: I’m trying my best not to get wrapped up in your excitement here, but I'm a little revved up at the thought of what these classes may be like!

They kept the use of their Overlay communication to a maximum. As all of the interactions they’d seen occur without violence thus far was between groups of students, all walking from area to area together.

Troy: I thought Carter said the point of his school wasn’t to form groups or guilds, but to find strong individuals?

Arson: It most likely is, but I don’t believe this place was made or is under the control of Carter.

Troy: what makes you say that?

Arson: Carter is one of the strongest individuals I have ever met, yet he’s sent me somewhere where the average level of power is way beyond both you and me? No, I think it has something to do with this being close to one of the access ways to Heaven, a place that Carter is famous for avoiding, my mother once told me that it is rumored that Heaven itself wants Carter to ascend and he has absolutely no intentions of doing so.

After a while longer of Arson sticking to the shadows following the very well received Ego. His closed eye dominion revealed a false wall nearby to where both Arson and Troy stood. Arson whistled softly, and Ego stopped sniffing the air in the empty hallway they snuck through.

“What’s up,” Troy whispered. The young woman materializing from thin air as if she’d stood next to Arson the entire time she’d been invisible.

“There is another hallway behind this wall,” Arson said running his hands over a nearby pillar. His closed eye dominion showed him that unlike other pillars they’d passed, this one was filled from top to bottom with an incredible amount of gears and even electrical wiring. Ego paced behind the pair, Arson taking his time to figure out how the pillar actually worked, only for a small bark and growl to cause Arson to peer over his shoulder in the direction Ego faced.

“That ain’t good…” Arson was quick to see what Troy was talking about, as a group of three students strolled into the hallway’s far end. Troy slowly turned invisible, and Arson whispered a command, Ego charging toward the group of students as he continued to search the pillar from the shadows for any mechanisms to get inside the hidden area behind the wall.

Ego strolled up to the group barking merrily. The pet had either been ignored, or fawned over by all who saw the puppy, until this group of three. Arson had assumed that the puppy’s adorable appearance would be enough to make any who encountered Ego treat the dog with kindness, but the sound of Ego’s whimper made Arson’s eyes shoot up toward the group.

His puppy lay crumpled up against the wall and one of the trio was amidst lifting his leg to stomp on Ego’s small form.

In that moment Arson experienced time itself stop. Not slow, or even come to a crawl, but stop entirely.

His blood ran cold, and the sensation of his dog’s own fear drifted through his soul and touched his consciousness. The chills made Arson’s wings flutter beneath his skin, and the stars within his eyes begin to rotate.

Time snapped back into motion, and the kick nearly landed on Ego’s crumpled form, but then sound filled the hall. The roar that came out of Arson was mirrored by Troy. Both he and his partner rushed the group and chaos ensued.

The young man who’d kicked Ego sneered as Arson drew Sky from his watch's inventory and swung the weapon toward the student’s neck.

Arson’s weapon was caught by the blade, the student stopping the progress of the blade with a single hand. Arson’s Living Hand Constructs rose from his shoulders and charged twin conductive water orbs in a flash.

Troy’s clones had already surrounded the group by this point, and she was doing her best to overwhelm the two students flanking the young man Arson attacked.

“You're brave for a newbie, never seen you around—“ The large young man in front of Arson was cut off by the string of attacks fired off by Arson in the very next instant.

Both conductive water orbs fired one after the other, just as Jaqueline rose from Arson’s back and began to release a spray of purple lightning.

Arson was barely able to rip his weapon out of the young man’s grip, immediately sending out a flurry of swings once he managed to free his trembling scythe’s blade, which the student easily dodged, even as Arson created additional slashes through the air with his flicker stance.

“You're weak, kid, but still dangerous,” said the young man in front of Arson. The student phasing directly through a cleave toward his mid section, before he closed the distance and uppercut Arson in the mid section. Air leaving his lungs in a rush as the punch tossed him backward and slamming back first into a pillar.

“”Thanks, I guess,” said Arson, trying to stay upright. The punch that had landed had broken ribs and Arson felt his body hard at work to repair the bones now moving around in his torso. Audible snaps heard as he straightened.

Jillian and Jane fired rays of frost in the young man’s direction, and instead of dodging as the student had the conductive water orbs they’d previously shot, he instead opened his fist, blocking both rays with his open palms. Jaqueline continued to fire purple lightning throughout the area, and Arson couldn’t tell what the construct was doing, until one of the students they fought, slipped on the ground and was overrun by Troy’s clones. A mob of doppelgängers all stomping the fallen young woman without hesitation.

“Get up, you idiot! If you lose to either one of these newbies, I’ll skin you alive myself!”

Arson continued to try and change up the flow of combat to gain the upper hand, but found himself outclassed in speed to such a degree that he knew it would take far more than a few tricks and practiced abilities to overcome the gap in his and his opponents' strengths.

Ego finally rose to his feet and clamped down on the nearest thing he could find. The puppy once more attached to the ankle of an enemy. Not the enemy Arson currently struggled with, but the third target. Who Arson was thankful was quickly overwhelmed by the ice at their feet, clones striking out all around them, and the puppy draining them of life-force and mana by the blink.

“Not you too... get up you useless pieces of garbage!”

The only enemy on their feet was the young man Arson engaged with, who was proving to be more than enough of a challenge for him and Troy to deal with. Troy refocused on the young man in front of Arson and the real fight began in earnest.

“You think you can bring me down!”

The student they fought stomped hard enough to send a tremor through the floor, unbalancing Troy and Arson simultaneously. Arson amidst a head kick was grabbed by the ankle, and Troy’s practiced superman punch was throttled to a stop as the student caught her wrist. With a balanced spin and yank, both Arson and Troy were pulled through the air, and sent sailing.

Both Arson and Troy were bounced off walls on the opposing side of the hall from one another, only for the student to move quickly enough to kick them both one after another before they could even crash to the floor below. The impressive kicks completed quickly enough for it to seem as if the student had split into two and performed both kicks at once.

Ego rushed over to Arson and started to nudge his unmoving form, and Arson snapped back into consciousness as his regeneration momentarily was thrusted into overdrive.

He lurched upright to see the student standing over Troy, and for the third time in Arson’s short life he found himself willing to sacrifice himself entirely to save a life.

He rose as his Living Hand Constructs continued their assault on the student. The young man at this point ignoring the attacks coming from Arson’s constructs completely. Frost and lightning flared in every direction, the mixture of the constructs attacks splashing uselessly of his back.

Arson roared and charged, pushing every bit of energy he could into his right palm, A deep sea palm the only thing in Arson’s mind potentially baring enough mana to affect the foe in front of him.

The moment Arson’s palm was going to make contact with his foe's spine, the young man dodged, swatting away Arson’s hand with a smooth and simple counter, a swipe of the student's elbow across Arson’s face able to knock him out cleanly.

Arson unaware that Troy was being dragged off kicking and screaming. Ego remaining by the unconscious Arson’s side, barking menacingly at the back of the young man who laughed as he pulled Troy away.

“You’ll make a good training dummy for my juniors, eh, maybe even some of my seniors,” said the young man casually.

“Let me go!” The young man swung Troy like a club her head colliding with a pillar and knocking her out as the young man sneered, stepping over her dissolving clones and the bodies of the two he’d come with.

“Shut up, this will be easier if you learn your place…!”

…

Arson woke later to see familiar faces standing over him. Not familiar because he’d seen the group with his own eyes, but familiar because he’d seen them in the limits of his closed eye dominion.

The group of five had followed Arson and Troy for quite some time, and Arson had assumed that they would never dare to show themselves, now surprised to see the group dragging him near to the wall he’d been trying to find a way to enter, before the fight had broken out.

“Troy...?” Arson asked not knowing exactly where he was just yet, only to have a young man shake his head at Arson.

“We don’t know where your friend is, my guy. That student from earlier dragged her off somewhere. Try and rest up for now, you seem pretty banged up,” replied the stranger before Arson closed his eyes, watching the young man direct the four others around him. One of which was quickly able to discern where the hidden mechanism resided on the pillar Arson had looked at briefly.

The wall opened up and the group gasped as the room inside was revealed.

Arson was quickly pulled into an octagonal room, with short hallways that led off from each side of the room excluding the entrance wall they came in through. He was finally conscious enough to think straight and immediately messaged Troy.

Arson: Where are you? I’m coming now.

Troy: I’m in a sparking cage like a freaking animal, looks like I’m going to be forced to fight other captured students.

Arson: To the death?

Troy: Not from what I can tell. These matches seem to be to first blood, but the arena is big enough that I could probably go all out in here, maybe even use my Avatar.

Arson hadn’t even realized that Troy hadn’t done nearly as much as she had when fighting him personally, but was distracted by a plethora of more sinister thoughts. He wanted to kill everyone who separated him from Troy, but knew his fury wouldn’t bring them back together any quicker.

Arson: He didn’t hurt you, did he?

Troy: The guy's name is Prince, and no, other than knocking me out, I’m fine. Luckily for me, he sees me as trash and wouldn’t have taken advantage of me, anyway.

Relief washed over Arson momentarily, only to be flooded with anger over his love being considered trash. He was going to find a way to become stronger, and fast. No one was going to just walk off with the love of his life. He knew she could defend herself, but both had been helpless against the young man Troy said was named Prince, and until Arson could change that, he knew being brash or overconfident wouldn’t work.

He brushed aside my strongest attack without even flinching…

Arson: I am inside the area I found before we were found by Prince. The group that has been following us since we left the main campus is here and they pulled me inside. Do you think you can last while I look around to find something that may help us?

Troy: Easy. My next fight is about to start anyway.

Arson: next fight?

Troy: Yeah, you must have been knocked out for a while. I’m about to start my third fight, have to win 10 fights in 10 separate stages to gain my freedom. Apparently students can be enslaved, but only for a period of time, or until they win an incredible amount of duels or brawls.

Arson: well… let me know? I’m going to work things out on my end, but you better tell me if you need me!

Troy: obviously! Just stick to the plan, you need to learn to teleport, and I need to find a way to increase my own power,. Nothing's changed, we took a loss, but now we need to grow.

The two said their goodbyes and Arson sat up smoothly, Ego lifting his head from Arson’s lap as he did so. He looked down at his puppy as he pet him, and smiled.

“You ready to get stronger, little buddy? Apparently, we are far from the top of the food chain in here.” Ego barked and Arson checked him over to make sure his dog was unharmed. Finding nothing wrong, Arson came to his feet and took in the area in full as he contemplated calling his mother, only to dismiss the urge.

Sure she’d love the call, but now is not the time to seek out childish comforts, Arson. Just breathe and think…

From where Arson stood, he could see rooms branching off from the hallways that were connected to the room he was in, and massive doors at the ends of each hall.

It was only then that he noticed that the group of five that had escorted him into the room, were nowhere to be seen. Arson began to check the area, but found no one.

He found a laboratory, a smithery, a herb garden, an armory, a small library with an abundance of rune craft materials, as well as a obstacle course generator similar to Almarine’s own, and a room suffocatingly rich with ambient mana.

What is this place?

“It is my classroom, child,” said a voice that made Arson turn around instantly, as he’d seen no one behind him in the limits of his closed eye dominion. Yet as he turned around, there was a long haired blonde man, with eyes as blue as the sky.

“Well, it is one of many classrooms connected to my soul... think of this like an instanced dungeon, all who enter are isolated and given a chance to take my trial,” said the unknown man.

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard something like that,” responded Arson, glancing at the wall that had closed once he’d been pulled inside the room, blocking him off from the rest of the secret hall.

“You are free to leave at any point, but I recommend that you stay, as you are relatively weak compared to most who enter my class.”

“I don’t even know who you are. Who are you to call me weak?”

“I am Michael Maelstrom... not that that name means what it once did, but I am a simple teacher with much to offer. My classes have been left behind on many realms. I wouldn’t even call you lucky to have found my class, they're not hard to find... and the only requirement is advanced perception skills or abilities,” said the man with a chuckle.

“How humbling. So why should I stay as a weakling who isn’t lucky enough to even find a classroom left behind for a rarified few?”

“As I stated before, you can leave at anytime, but I don’t recommend it. There are things left here for uniquely talented individuals. You’d just need to prove yourself first. There is even a relic so powerful within these trials that I myself cannot even wield it personally, doubtful that you will be capable either as it was left behind by gods of forbidden knowledge, but there are many other lessons and artifacts that may be able to help you regardless.”

Arson’s thoughts spiraled. He didn’t like the coincidence that this man shared a first name with the person he was sent here to find by Carter. Nor did he like that he suspected that this teacher may be able to teach him how to teleport, as most who could create dimensional pockets, or manipulate space could indeed teleport. Yet above all else, Arson was stuck by the potential promise of forbidden knowledge.

I’m a dead art collector at this point, maybe this is exactly what I need…?

“And if I decided to stay and learn from you, what exactly would you get out of all this?” Arson asked waving his hands all around himself. The man before him smiled a smile that made Arson feel he was staring into the eyes of a young Carter Omni; the feeling of intimidation intensified when the man appeared even more close to Arson in a flash, looking down, staring into Arson’s eyes when he spoke next.

“I need someone stronger than myself to inherit my abilities, and maybe then I will be able to leave this place, no longer duty-bound by the realms themselves to spread the power that is creation itself…”