I had gotten much too used to Dex telling me everything I needed and wanted him to with less than a thought. And, as I poured over the many dusty books and digital files on various large and small devices in the library Sarah had taken me to, it really hit me how much I’d taken advantage of him when he was still… alive in my head. Even after reading my 20th file that discussed the academy’s history, I still hadn’t come even close to the amount of information Dex would have dumped into my brain by now.
However, my ability to understand the language used in this city remained intact. I had no trouble reading any of the books or files I perused, save for the trouble my excruciating boredom brought to my sanity.
“Hey, look what I found!” Sarah whispered as she pointed at a screen half the size of the wall she sat in front of.
I pulled the massive book I was reading from my lap and rolled my chair over to hers, the chair sliding smoothly with its wheels against the polished marble floor. We sat shoulder to shoulder, and I could smell a subtle, fruity scent emanating from her hair. It was nice.
“This is an old map of the academy. From when it was first built by that guy this place is named after. Solomon Rorden–or whatever his name was.”
“Rohn,” I said. “Solomon Rohn.”
She nodded. “Yeah, that’s it. Some people thought he was a god or something. But that’s not important.”
Dex had told me that when Lord Solomon had built the academy and its surrounding city on this planet, he hadn’t been a god yet. But he was so powerful that many people worshipped and followed him anyway, which would explain why people like Sarah learned that he might have been a god. And that was mostly true–Lord Solomon had become a god at one point, hence his “Lord” title.
Sarah dragged a finger along the left side of the academy building sketched into the blueprints glowing before us. “There are two passageways drawn here, and one is on top of the other. As far as my knowledge extends about this place, there is only one hall and one floor on that side of the building. But according to these plans, there’s another somewhere underneath the main floor.”
“That’s incredible, Sarah! Good find!”
Sarah’s cheeks tinged a deep red, and she tucked a piece of brown hair behind her ear. “Thanks.”
Sarah and I leaned closer to the screen, scanning our eyes over every part of the blueprint in search of anything similar to that one anomaly, but the one strange hall Sarah had found was all that looked out of place.
“Well, we should definitely check out that area,” I said, pointing to the hall sketched underneath the main floor in the left wing of the academy.
Then, remembering my approaching work shift, I turned over my right shoulder to glance at the clock hanging at the top of the high ceiling in the room we studied in. According to the schedule sent to my neural implant, I was expected to meet my scouting group at the city entrance five minutes before eight. I had 15 minutes to retrieve my armor and spear and make it on time.
“Actually, I need to go. Are you okay checking it out by yourself?”
Sarah waved a hand. “Yes, you go. I’ll do some exploring in that area.”
I stood up and retrieved my personal tablet intended for school work off the long wooden table I’d left covered with books.
“You’ll let me know if you find anything?” I asked before leaving.
Sarah whirled her spinning chair around to face me and smiled. The dim, greenish light that exuded off the screen cast her into an angelic halo that illuminated the soft features of her face.
“Of course, of course!” she insisted. “Now go; you don’t want to be late to your first day of work!”
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***
The way my assigned scouting group eyed me with disdainful scowls on their faces made me squirm. I looked anywhere but their rugged faces and tapped my gauntleted fingers mindlessly along one of my armor-plated legs.
There were 10 of us in the party, six of whom stood before the rest of us with arms crossed and noses pointed high into the air. The scouts, I presumed. The rest of us stood before them like little insects, ready to be squashed. The scout supports.
One of the scouts, the one who didn’t look quite as angry and spiteful, stepped forward and to the center of our group. He was a burly man with an impressive, bushy mustache that covered every inch of his lip. He also had a lengthy scar that slashed across the top of his bald head.
“We have two new recruits joining us today,” he bellowed gruffly. “Rayden Grim and Patricia Rhines. You two step forward and let us all introduce ourselves.”
I didn’t hesitate to take a step closer to the center of the circle that our group had made, just in front of the stone doors leading both into and out of the city. I raised my chin and set my jaw. I refused to look weak in front of the scouts. The girl named Patricia, a short, stocky girl with gill-like marks on her cheeks, stepped in beside me. I studied her in my peripheral vision and forced myself not to flinch from shock as the gills on her face flapped every time she took a breath.
“I’m Gareth,” the leader with the mustache said, pointing at the bronze breastplate on his chest. “I am the scout leader of this party. Behind me are the other scouts, Leandra…”
A tall woman with dark braids that fell down to her ankles grunted.
“Harold…”
A very short man, shorter than I’d ever seen (he stood only at Leandra’s ankles), folded his thick arms across his chest.
“Marley and Morgan…”
Twins. They had to be twins–they looked exactly alike, down to the singular curl poking out from their otherwise straight hair on the right side of their heads. Marley and Morgan, I couldn’t tell who from who, glanced at each other with raised eyebrows and shook their block-shaped heads, most likely commiserating with one another about the sorry sight we new scout supports were.
“Jill…”
Jill gave a little wave but then rolled her eyes, which was partially obscured by the long, blond bangs drooping over her forehead.
“And Killian.”
Killian merely shrugged narrow shoulders and rubbed at the back of his neck with a gloved hand, refusing to look any of us in the eye.
“The other two scout supports in our party are right behind you,” Gareth continued. “Will and Rory.”
Will and Rory seemed much friendlier than the rest of the group. Will was a stout boy, about my age, with bits of blond scruff dotting his face, and Rory was extremely tall, with tufts of orange fur surrounding the whiskers poking out of his cheeks. He reminded me of Emmett.
Gareth flicked two fingers over his shoulder, commanding someone to do something–I didn’t know enough about his body language to grasp what he was communicating. But the scouts did. They heaved large, bulging sacks from the ground and threw them over their shoulders, proceeding to walk over to us scouts supports and throw the sacks at our feet. Gareth did the same with a sack he’d had resting beside him.
Will and Rory immediately took two bags each into their grip. Gareth gestured for Patricia and me to do the same. There were just two left, so I lifted one and threw it over my shoulder, and Patricia followed suit with the remaining bag. The bag I carried was heavy, but I figured I could handle it. Especially as I directed essence through my armor to help me as we trekked on the surface. I didn’t know how long this trip would take, but I was confident. Even though my equipment was still Tier 2, once enhanced by essence, both my armor and spear would help me a great deal more than having nothing would.
“Your job will be to carry our extra equipment and supplies,” Gareth said with hands planted on his hips.
I shifted the weight of the bag I carried, resisting the urge to grumble about the situation. How much extra equipment and supplies did they need? What was in them? Extra armor? Food? Medicine?
“You were all requested to wear armor just in case you get caught in the crossfire of any fighting. And your weapons and Skills are only to be used if the situation calls for it.”
“Uh…” I cleared my throat, and Gareth raised a bushy brow at me.
“Yes, Rayden?”
“How are we supposed to know if the situation calls for it?” I wanted to fight. It had been a while since I’d taken on any monsters or made use of my spear and armor. Yeah, I had dueled Cinthara, but I wanted more… thrill. I wanted to kill something.
“You’ll know,” was Gareth’s only response.
One of my fellow scout supports, Will, eyed me and gave me a cautious shake of his head, subtly urging me to listen to our leader. I sighed. I guessed I’d obey my orders. After all, I needed money more than anything, and I wanted to get on Gareth’s good side if he in any way influenced my pay.
Gareth nodded as if everything was settled and marched to the massive stone doors that I had walked through only days ago when first arriving at this city. So much had happened in just a few days. I had left my home planet, essentially flown a spaceship, dueled a Tier 4, accepted enrollment into a massive academy, and now I was venturing out on the surface of a planet I knew nothing about.
A tingle of excitement shot through my fingertips, and I grinned as I followed my group at the end of the line back into the cave of one of Lord Solomon’s facilities.