Adrian awoke to the horrified screams of those downstairs. He hoped it was a sign that the operation was a success. When he finally got downstairs he realised the cause of the commotion. It snuck up on you before violently assaulting your nose, an aroma so foul that only rabid animals could stand. It came from the direction of Trozes and his gang who were both trying to cover their noses while keeping their shirts as far away from their face which due to the long sleeves, was futile and hilarious to watch. When they saw Adrian they hurriedly attempted to surround him and pin him to the wall, which Adrian easily side stepped due to both his skill and their rashness.

"Thi-this is unacceptable!" shouted Trozes "You have crossed the line with this!" Adrian looked on with a wide grin on his face, he had only just begin and already they were caught off balance. Resuming a serious face, Adrian stated

"There are two major problems with your statement. One, you have no evidence it was me, after all, I don't even have a motive do I. Two, the sheer irony of your accusation is astounding, and yet you probably don't even realise due to your twisted perspective of the world, do you."

Before Trozes could say anything at all Scrya tugged at his shirt and said with mock laughter "Hahaha. Of course, we appologise for accusing you, after all," Scrya glared at Trozes as he stressed "you have absolutely NO motive to do this." As Scrya tried to drag him away Trozes proclaimed.

"Whoever did this, I will hunt you done and pulverise you until there is nothing left but a stain." He was staring at Adrian the entire time he spoke. Adrian did not back down and maintained his gaze the entire time, all while keeping his friendly grin.

The apprentices migrated to the dining room for breakfast, were Adrian was waiting to see if Trozes took the bait. His friends came up to him and ask about the smell.

"We did that, didn't we?" asked Sam

"Who would have thought that such flavourless food could carry such an odor, I wonder what other secrets it holds." said Andrei whimsically.

(A/N: Although it has absolutely no relevence to the novel, the food is actually a cure for cancer, because the worse something tastes the better it is for you. Eat your vegetables.)

"I left a little something for Trozes yesterday, we can talk after we see if he takes the bait." said Adrian in a quiet and soothing manner. They sat around him, with Emilia getting a bit too close for comfort, as they all try not to look too obvious in their spying.

Before Trozes saw the letter, Scrya had already caught ahold of it and pocketed it. Adrian saw he had great profficiency in the manuever.

"I never got to ask, but what normally happens to confessions targetted at Trozes, I assume he has been confessed to before, right?"

"Was that your plan? That was never going to work, Scrya always finds a way to interfere, making it impossible for any successful confessions to occur." explained Andrei.

"You forgot the important part." says Emilia

"Are you refering to what Scrya does with the letters? What he does, Adrian, is he examines the handwriting of the letter to identify who wrote it, then he uses it as black mail to get them to do his bidding." replied Andrei

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Then what about confessions towards Mark and Damian? Or even towards himself?"

"No one has ever confessed towards Mark and Damian, there is simply no interest in them. There has only been one confession towards Scrya, but I am not the best person to talk about that. Would you like to talk about it Emilia?" Emilia seemed to have difficulties talking were Sam cut in.

"It might be better if Emilia doesn't explain. Basically a few years back when puberty was all the rage, everyone was confessing to everyone. One person tried to confess to Scrya and well..."

Emilia regained her voice "He simple laughed at her face. His eyes were so cold that the person developed a major trauma and had trouble associating with others. This went on for years and they only had one friend..."

"And then the knight in shining armor came along and saved her from herself and then-"

"Shut Up!!!"

With that Sam burst out laughing. Adrian looked on to the clueless Andrei. Sometimes he wished he was naivé and lacked social awareness. Ignorance is bliss after all.

They headed off to class where all the seats were packed barring one. Everyone had migrated to the side opposite Trozes or, more accurately, the odor. The teacher walked in and sat down before catching a whiff of the odor.

"Out! Get out of my classroom and get yourselves washed immediately! I cannot teach my class with you idiots smelling worse than sewerage!" The thief chased them out of the class to get them washed up.

"Now that the nuiscences are no longer assaulting our nostrals lets begin todays lesson. Today we will be doing affinity testing, to see if their have been any improvements amongst you all. Normally I would dive right in but Mr. Beaucroft here was never done this before. Would you like me to explain?"

"Yes Sir."

"Very well than. As you know, we thieves steal Artifacts from gods in order to protect ourselves against their tyranny. These Artifacts come in many different forms and each is based around a certain typing, or divinity as we call it. Affinity is how well you can manipulate different types of divinity. Say you might have a high affinty in fire and a low affinity with ice. Even if you had two Artifacts of the same rating, a fire Artifact would be stronger in your hands than an ice one because you have higher affinity towards it and can draw out more power. Affinity is recorded in percentages. 100% affinity means you are equal to a god at weilding that divinity. It is possible to get over 100% affinity, like Guild Master Asrenon who has 300% affinity for light. That makes him three times better at using light than gods whose divinity involves light. It is also possible to increase your affinity. This is usually done by prolonged contact with Artifacts of that divinity. We measure it with this Artifact we stole from a Six Star God of order and records. Would you like to come up and try it Adrian?"

"Yes Sir." with that Adrian went up to the stage and got ready to use the Artifact. It had a fairly simple design. It was composed of what appeared to be a book, a crystal ball and a screen. All you had to do was select a divinity to test in the book, put both hands on the crystal ball and than your affinity would appear on the screen.

"What affinity would you lile to have tested Adrian?"

"Please select winter."

"Are you trying to compete with Scrya? He has the highest winter affinity in this class at an astounding 99%. That is really amazing and shows he has great talent. Not everyone can be a once in a century monster like the Guild Master."

Adrian put his hands on the crystal ball. It was cool to the touch and extremely smooth.

[999%]

Everyone was staring with their mouths gaped open.

"Are you sure that's not 99.9%?"

"The machine doesn't do decimals!"

"Mr. Perfect has done it again..."

"I hope that is the amount but, it could be higher. The machine only reads three digits."

"For a good reason. It is impossible to get higher than that! Look at the Guild Master, he is touted as the genius of the century and his is less than a third that amount."

"Yes but this is Adrian we are talking about. It might really be a four digit number after all..."

"Lets stop talking about it, it is making me feel bad about the 64% I was so proud of."

"That is still a really good number! Stop comparing yourself to these monsters, it will only turn out badly for you."

Almost simultaniously, the apprentices released depressed sighs. A knock was heard at the door. The teacher went over to hear what they had to say. When he returned he said

"They are here to see you Adrian."