Waking up was a bit different today. Bea and Tom got me up like usual and we seemed to be in a fine mood. As we began to head out and get breakfast though, our mood was not shared by the rest of the class. While better than last night, the mood was noticeably a bit more somber than usual.

I talked to Bea and Tom a bit about their issues with their squad. Even if he was the number one ranked in the class, acting selfish like he did makes for a bad experience. I told them to just get the rest of their squad and leave, even Bella agreed. They laughed it off, but I hoped they listened. You should not have to be subjected to and put up with the whims of a spoiled brat.

We finished talking about their woes, and I moved on to remind everyone of Mel's strategies from the day before. While not needed, it made things a thousand times easier. Everyone nodded in agreement and said they would try it.

—----

Back in my squad we picked the same path as last time, but we felt a lot more confident about the whole situation. We were not on guard as much, but we did stay in formation the whole way.

I noticed that we did not get attacked at a sooner or later point in the dungeon, but what felt like the exact same area. I made mention of this to Mel and she agreed, but said we would need to wait for more examples first to draw a conclusive answer. We sped up our march though and reached our second fight sooner than we did yesterday.... but it still felt like we were in the same section as last time. Glancing at Mel, she just nodded in response.

Well that was certainly interesting, which again spoke to some kind of intellect involved in the attacks. I was interrupted in my musings by Mel of all people surprisingly. She was starting to find her voice it seems.

"Everyone, I know this is where we turned around yesterday but due to our improvements in fighting and coordination we actually have some time before we need to turn around. I... I think we can get another fight in today. There's no quota we need to hit or anything, but I feel like we should be trying our best. I just thought we should put it to a vote, if that is okay?" She began to lose some of her conviction as she finished, but it was an A+ effort in my opinion.

As everyone glanced at one another to get a feel for each others' mood, I went ahead and jumped in. "Well, I'm all for listening to Mel, she hasn't steered us wrong yet, and I don't think she wants to start now. So I guess that's two votes to continue at least."

That made a few of them nod pensively and we eventually got a unanimous decision to continue. We ended up doing a light jog until we heard the familiar clawing of the goblins coming our way. We then settled in and let them come to us like normal and it was an exact copy of our other encounters.

Mel was right, I feel like our clear times for these fights was becoming quicker and quicker. When we finished Mel congratulated everyone and then turned us right around to head back. She was definitely growing into this leader position.

—----

Since we turned around right on the third encounter we still only had two fights on the way back. This time we were still in the hall when the bell tolled, but we came into the main room before it even stopped.

We were still the first group back but Mel's sense of time was impeccable. Honestly between her and Bea it seemed like I would never be late for anything.

Since we had some free time while waiting on the rest of the squads to return, I pulled Mel off to the side and was just showering her with praise. She began blushing furiously and thanking me profusely, saying it was only my constant pushing that gave her the confidence to speak up. Around this time the stern halberd girl must have noticed because she waltzed right up to us and interjected herself between Mel and myself. She didn't say anything, just glared at me. I just stared confusingly back, trying to hold back a laugh.

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"Emilia! Please! We were just talking about my recent... leadership experiences. He was praising me on leading the squad, even though its not like I did much......" Mel tried explaining things to the girl, Emilia apparently, but the girl just huffed and continued to glare.

Releasing one of the longest sighs I've ever heard, Mel decided to explain things to me instead. "This is Emilia, my sister. We came here together to build a better life for ourselves. She's a bit overprotective, but she means well! I have always been a bit meek, and she always sticks up for me." At this point she smiled fondly at Emilia.

I laughed at the revelation. I've read enough books to know not to get involved in this mess. Time to exit.

"Yep, no worries Em! Just making sure our fearless leader is aware she's doing good. She'll be leading us for the next month after all. Anyways, ya'll take care!" I swiftly departed from that conversation. Glancing back I noticed Em was now intensely talking with Mel, who was shaking her head rapidly.

Chuckling, I sat down along the wall and waited for our instructor to release us.

—----

As I waited, Bella's squad came back shortly and she made her way over to me and plopped down as well. I tried to pick her brain a bit more about learning the mana sensing technique she was teaching us, but didn't get too far into that conversation before the knight dismissed us. We both glanced around and noticed Tom and Bea were still not back. Looks like they didn't listen to us. I kind of wanted to wait again, but Bella advised me that we should just go ahead and relax. Conceding the point we went ahead and left.

We had already rinsed off and were working on our second tray of food when they finally trudged in. I didn't even notice until they sat down next to us honestly. Looking at them they seemed very irritated.

"Let me guess, same thing happened?" I inquired, and couldn't help but have a smirk on my face.

"Yes!" Bea spat out with a lot of vehemence. "Not only that, he left us before the fight was even over to continue on his own! By the time we caught up to him, he was already fighting again, but this time surrounded by goblins!"

"Oh, and thanks for the formation advice Will, even with not having him there it seemed to alleviate a lot of tension in the group. I don't know why he wants to rush and push to a fourth fight so much. Its ridiculous." Tom chimed in, gratefully.

This softened Bea's expression, just a hair. "Yes, thank you. But that guy is so insufferable! Someone really needs to put him in his place!" She slammed her hand on the table for emphasis at that.

I laughed at her, it was hard not to it was so comical. "Listen, calm down, its over now. Look, you know the formation works for your squad right? Just leave him next time. The knight said it would be hard for a goblin to damage us, so let him do his thing. You guys fight two or three groups of goblins and then return. We just hit our third group today ourselves."

Bea waved me off, "Yeah but you're probably still running into seventy goblins or so at a time, right? Ours is still only thirty or so. You're still fighting twice as many goblins as we are."

"Hey, listen. That doesn't matter. What matters is your piece of mind. If you're stressing out over this stuff it will be bad for your mental health in the long run. So ignore that guy." I tried to placate her, but there's only so much you can do for a person.

Bea just stared at me for a bit, but Bella jumped in to agree with me. She said he likely had a privileged upbringing and didn't have anyone to tell him no. "Better he learn here and now with little consequence, than later on when it could be life or death."

—----

Back in the dungeon for our afternoon run everything was much the same. My squad continued a little past the third fight, but Mel made a call to turn us around before we reached a fourth fight. She said we likely just needed a bit more practice and familiarity with the whole thing to make it further.

I tried to catch her eye and give her an encouraging nod since she was doing a good job, but I felt a gaze on me and I turned to find her sister Em was glaring at me! I raised my hands in mock surrender and then just led our way back to the instructor.

We still only encountered two more fights on the way back. Mel's timing was as impeccable as ever as we returned right as the bell tolled. To my surprise though, Bea's squad returned just a minute after mine. I walked over to them, and the squad seemed in a livelier mood, so that was good. Tom and Bea though had a slight grimace on their face.

"Hey you guys made it back in a decent time! Did you listen to Bella and me finally?" I opened a little lightheartedly for them.

"Yes. But we'll have to see what the knight instructor says." Tom stated very gravely.

"What do you mean, why should she say anything?" I was genuinely confused.

Bea answered for me. "Well he left us. So we left him. He's still in there, by himself."