The more opportunities I had to use the neural implant in my head, the more I realized it functioned very similarly to how Dex did. The morning after selecting my new job, I woke up to a blinking red light that seemed to exist behind my eyes. A dull ache accompanied the blinking light, but I shrugged it off as a minor side effect from the neural implant. Besides, Codex would inform me that something was inherently wrong.
As the blinking faded, words formed in my mind that read, “New Message.”
A screen akin to the stat screens Dex showed me when cultivating popped up as soon as I had the thought to read the message.
Someone from the academy had sent me a mental copy of my class schedule and another brand-new schedule I hadn’t seen yet: my assigned Scouting trips for the next two weeks. I’d been scheduled for five in total for that timeframe. I didn’t know how long each excursion would last, nor how much pay I would get, but at least I now had work.
First shift is tomorrow, I thought as I studied the work schedule, a grin burgeoning on my face.
I couldn’t help but feel excited at the prospect of further exploring this new planet and possibly getting in some action. And I could earn my own money and not have to rely on kind people like Emmett to feed me every day.
My stomach growled as thoughts of food entered my mind.
Well, I don’t have money now….
Groaning, I rolled out of bed and prepared myself to ask Emmett for some breakfast before my first day of classes began.
***
“Everybody split into groups of five!”
The professor of my Mastering Group Combat class, Professor Billith, strolled across the length of the room at the front, eyeing the student with her aged and narrowed eyes.
I tucked my pack of various herbs underneath my uncomfortable chair. I’d received the medicinal plants in my Non-Healer’s Guide to Healing class that morning to experiment with their uses as an after-class assignment. After safely stowing the herbs, I rose from my seat and glanced around the room for any welcoming faces.
Of course, none of the other students made their way to include me in their teams. Though this was a first-year class, I was still behind all of them in the course. And based on the excited high-fives and chatter as each group was formed, it looked like I was the only new student in the room.
“Rayden, team up with Marianne’s group,” Professor Bilith said.
It was apparent who Marianne was once I caught sight of her exaggerated eye-roll, followed by the same gestures made by the three others on her team.
I walked over to the group with heavy, hesitant steps, avoiding eye contact with all four of them.
“Teamwork,” Professor Bilith sang in a high-pitched tone with an enthusiastic clap of her hands, “is the difference between surviving…” Her tone suddenly dropped an entire register, and she glared every one of us down over her long, droopy nose. “...and getting killed.”
“Are we going to spar today?” someone hollered from behind me.
Excited whispering cascaded all around me.
“No.” Her answer was so straightforward and no-nonsense that it shocked everyone into silence. “I am assigning each group a quest.”
“A quest? What does she mean by that?” someone from my group grumbled to my right. He was about my height with hair as yellow as one of my home planet’s suns.
Is this sort of thing new? Has Professor Bilith never given her students quests before?
“In a matter of seconds, a map of the academy and city will be sent to each of you through your neural implants.”
Just as the professor said, the image of a thoroughly detailed, colored map filled my vision. And, for a second time, the arrival of a file in my brain brought a slight headache. Though minor, it felt slightly worse than the pain that had appeared with my class and work schedule this morning. But maybe it was because I’d already had a headache earlier, and this new pain just exacerbated it. At least, that’s what I hoped.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Dex, are headaches a normal side effect of the neural implant?”
“Yes.”
I froze. Codex didn’t say “Rayden” after his statement. Or even “Master.” That felt odd, but maybe he was just learning new behaviors based on our conversations.
“On the map, you will see blue dots marking different areas of the school and the entire city,” Professor Bilith continued. “Those destinations are where you will find clues.”
“Clues to what?” Marianne, our group’s obvious leader, bellowed with an uplift of her square jaw.
The professor pinched the bridge of her nose. “Alright, please, no more interruptions. I promise I will get to all of that.” She let out a long sigh, then gave a soft smile. “Anyway, the first step is to find all of these clues. Once your team has gathered them all, you will work together on piecing together what each clue is trying to tell you and use them to unlock this.”
The professor marched over to a tall metal box with a screen on the front. She wheeled it over to the center of the arena-like classroom and brandished her arms over it with a flourish.
“There is a complicated code that will open this safe, and the clues, when solved, will tell you what that combination is.”
“What’s inside the safe?” an unseen student interrupted.
Professor Bilith went on as if no one had spoken, “The first team to correctly solve the combination will reap the rewards that this safe has to offer.”
A long pause ensued. It seemed she wouldn’t reveal what those rewards would be, but the giddy jumping and enthusiastic whispers were enough to tell me that no one needed to know what prize they could win. I didn’t know much about this professor or this class, but if just her promise of winning something sparked this much interest in her students, I wanted to win, too.
“There is no time limit! The quest can take a week, a month, or no team might ever win!”
Professor Bilith said the last words, “No team might ever win,” so cheerily that it brought a frown to my face. How hard was this quest going to be?
“I will give you all the remaining time of the class to strategize with your teams. But I have one rule…” She held up a finger. “No one is allowed to skip their other classes to hunt for clues.”
With that, the professor shoved her orange-sleeved hands in the pockets of her jumpsuit, skipped over to and behind her desk, then sat down.
Discussion began immediately, and the volume hurt my ears.
“Listen up, team!” Marianne said over the noise. “Come close.”
The five of us formed a huddle, most of them towering over me by at least an entire head. The good thing, though, was that our team was too excited about this new quest to pay much attention to my presence. And if they wanted to win, they had to work with me.
“I think the best thing to do is to assign different clue locations to everyone,” Marianne said. “There are 10 in total, so we should each take two.”
“I’ll take the clues on the top floor of the academy and in the mess hall,” someone, a very young-looking girl, chimed in.
Marianne pursed her thin lips. “Those are the easiest ones, Mildred. Don’t you think we should give those to the new kid?”
All eyes turned to me.
“Uh, yeah. I could take care of those two,” I said.
Mildred wrinkled her nose. “Fine. I’ll do the one on Merchant’s Square and the one near the city entrance.”
The rest of the group threw in their requests for assignments, and Marianne nodded her approval.
“Everyone retrieve your clues by morning. We’ll meet here an hour before class tomorrow.” Marianne spoke her words like demands–no one else had any say in a meeting place or time, but it seemed the others didn’t care to voice their opinion and allowed the girl to completely take over.
I grunted in agreement along with the rest of the team but had to force away a grimace at the thought of having to wake up even earlier the next morning. My Non-Healer’s Guide to Healing class already started at 6:00. But my final class of the day, The Study of Essence, ended in the early evening. And I didn’t have a scouting shift until tomorrow. At least I’d have time tonight to hunt for the two clues I’d been assigned.
***
The lift I had dared to board after my second class of the day quickly delivered me to the 38th floor, the destination of my next class, The Study of Essence. I leaped away from the glass floor of the box and allowed myself a couple deep breaths to settle my flipping stomach. Though, I did it as casually as possible with a forced smile and arms lying flat at my sides. About two or three dozen students with their yellow sleeves milled about the hall, many splitting off to enter various doors leading to their next classes. I didn’t want to seem weak to anyone–the new kid who also hated riding that hellish lift that everyone else seemed to have no issues with. Though, my concerns were unfounded as most didn’t even notice I was there.
Room 385….
I turned on my heel and followed the red-papered hall to my left. My pace was quick, even though I still had two minutes to spare before my class started. I’d been anxious about making it from the 14th floor to the 38th on time, but those lifts really sped things up. Now, it was just a matter of getting used to them.
With my eyes directed straight ahead of me and nowhere near my feet, I didn’t notice the hilt of a sword blocking my path until my toes impacted it. I rolled over myself and onto the floor in a humiliating tumble.
The sound of student footfalls receded, and I didn’t want to look up from the jumbled mess of myself to see that I’d received many new attentions.
But I did anyway.
I pushed myself off the ground to face the onlookers, but my eyes caught sight of one person in particular poised inches away from me. She pointed the hilt of her sword precisely to where I had tripped.
Cinthara.