After Lia's demonstration, everyone could only speak about the fight and about Lia's artifact. Those who were putting off making or ordering one quickly changed their minds and got straight to getting it instead of relying only on their bracelets, which would be taken away in a year or two. When facing an Undead, especially if that one suddenly gained intelligence just the same, they had to have their own. This mindset was most prevalent among the Misfits, who started spending their CP like there was no tomorrow to gather materials and blueprints.

"Haaaahhh…" Lia sprawled out on the big dining table on their tower's bottom floor, looking exhausted.

"Good… morning?" Keily asked, walking over, sitting down with a big mug of coffee, and pushing it before her.

"Uhuuum…" She moaned, raising her head with big, black bags under her eyes, "But I’ve had better… But thanks…."

"It was your idea!" Koadriana walked down from upstairs, wearing only slightly transparent underwear, while a sapphire ring glinted on her right index finger. "You said you would help us craft our artifacts! That way, it would be cheaper! Don't start moaning now!"

"Ugh…" Lia groaned again, hitting the table with her forehead so strongly the whole thing shuddered, scaring Stumpy out from under it, right back into the flames of their fireplace.

"Still," Raufon chimed in, also coming down right behind Koa, "Rest a little! You just forged around a dozen artifacts!" He grinned, holding his right wrist, having a solid, metal strap wrapped around it, decorated with weird, foreign symbols.

"Uuuhuu…" She replied with muffled acknowledgment.

"I can wait with mine!" Keily said immediately. Beside him, Aurora was the only one who still had no artifacts. Many of the strongest Misfits were given one, which was made by Opparu and Lia together in the past few weeks. Besides lessons, training sessions with the Headmaster, and forging the artifacts, Lia only had a little time to relax, and it was catching up to her, feeling a kind of exhaustion that was never alleviated by any of the potions she drank to keep working.

"Opparu will do it…." Lia mumbled, barely audible. "I already formed yours; it is ready… it just needs strengthening and a few formations added… He will finish it up…."

"Really?" Keily trembled, excited as his artifact would be a unique necklace that incorporated the medallion he once received from Razael. It needed Opparu's full attention to melt the Amarin artifact and use it as the base material, something that he would not dare to do without permission from Lauron himself.

"Um…" She nodded, leaning back on her chair, rubbing her eyes when the front door opened, Ceiline and Aurora walking in, shaking off the snow from their traveling cloaks.

"We got news!" Ceiline said while Aurora projected a screen from her bracelet. "There will be multiple missions that take us down to the continent! There are many that have strict Tier restrictions!"

"Oh?" Lia looked around, her eyes were already wide open, and her exhaustion was pushed away, replaced with energy gained from her coffee.

"Sometimes I wonder if she has some bunny blood in her." Koa joked a little, watching Keily, who looked back at her, confused. "Never mind."

"We already claimed the best ones." Ceiline continued, "We made the rosters, delegated the tasks, and sent it to the other Misfits to prepare the teams! Our 1st and 2nd-year members will attend the competitions here, on the Island; the rest will take on at least one task that leads to the continent."

"Which one will be ours?" Lia asked, kneeling on her chair, leaning against its backrest while happily wiggling her butt.

"We are going to an abandoned sub-realm!" Ceiline explained while Aurora switched the image, displaying the details of their mission while Ceiline continued explaining. "It is under the Lake of Azurat which separates the House of Nerifit and Berisons."

"Is it true that Azurat was a dragon? And it created the lake when his body fell, dragging a million undead with himself to its depths?" Raufon asked, knowing the old legend of Azurat and the dragon's sacrifice to let the others flee and escape to Windswept Fields. In that tale, it was said that Azurat held back the Undead's main forces until he was overwhelmed and blew up his body, creating a humongous crater. Later on, it was filled up with water, coming from his mana's residue and the heavy rains throughout the centuries.

"There are truths in it." Aurora wrote, "Azurat did die there, but the lake itself was already there; he just fell into it. But… he did drag 'a million' Undead with him; that part is genuine. He was a dragon with immense powers over the element of water. He was already ancient by then."

"Anyway." Ceiline cleared her throat, continuing, "In fact, There are multiple sub-realms underwater. We are to head to the biggest and check it out to see if it is still clear and safe. It was conquered by my House back in 1E108. We periodically send forces there to check, but now it will be our mission to do so. We supposedly have some outposts established down there... so we should also have a safe base of operation after arriving."

"Cool!" Lia said, back to full strength, it seemed. "So… when do we go?"

"Two weeks from now on. The group will be made up of our core members. We have ample time to rest and prepare; plus, we are going with supervision."

"And… who will supervise us?"

"Me." Celine smiled, and then Rinzen arrived, covered in snow.

"And me." She added, nodding that resulted in shaking big chunks of snow straight into Aurora's neck, making her jump with a silent cry. "Ah… sorry." She blushed a little while the rest started to laugh.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Awesome! This will be the best adventure yet!"

"Boss, weren't you tired just now?"

"Naaaah, it is all good! Nyahahaha! I am back to full powe-aaah?!" But, although her mind was genuinely going at 100%, her body wasn't, and she fell over the chair, stopping her fall with her face. "I'm good!" She moaned, quickly sitting up with a bleeding nose.

"Rest." Koa, Celine, Raufon, Aurora, and Keily said at the same time while Rinzen walked forward, wiping her bloody face.

"O-okay… I… I might do that…" She moaned, feeling dizzy and embarrassed at the same time.

…

…..

……

Not that long later, when everything was settled, and the group left the floating Island of the Institute, they headed towards their destination on a medium-sized ship driven by Ceiline. Lia was doing her usual thing this time, surfing behind it, unbothered by the cold wintery winds, and using her sword as a surfboard.

"I am surprised that she doesn't cut herself," Koa murmured, watching while Keily was standing close by, stroking his new artifact hanging from his neck.

"Well, it is her sword; I doubt it would dare to hurt Boss!"

"True." She shrugged, yawning as it was still early in the morning. "Are you ready, by the way?"

"Hm?" Raufon asked, looking doubtful, walking up to them. "Why?"

"We are going underwater into a lake. It is winter right now. Do I need to say more?" She watched them, and seeing the realization on their faces made her giggle. "Yep! Look, I am completely fine with swimming in icy water! I did it a lot; I like that! I always loved being in or underwater, and the temperature never bothered me. I guess Lia will also be okay; it will help her further understand water magic!"

"Yeah!" She shouted from afar, doing a flip, but it was hard to say if she was listening in or just enjoying being dragged behind the fast-moving ship.

"That is why I did not bring Stumpy along. He would have been dead in minutes!" Ceiline chuckled.

"It will be fine." Rinzen also chimed in, watching Lia, looking as if she wanted to try it too but restrained herself from mentioning it. "I can protect you from the cold."

"Don't do that!" came a message from Aurora, who was standing beside Ceiline, writing to all of them through their bracelets. "Let them use their own powers to resist the cold! What if we have to go on a mission later on that is similar? What then? We have to be able to deal with something so trivial as cold weather!"

"..."

"Ouch…" Raufon chuckled, "We have been scolded…." He elbowed Keily, who had his head lowered, looking embarrassed.

"It will be fine!" Came Lia's voice, climbing back onto the ship, placing her sword onto her waist as a belt, letting it morph and disguise it with magic to look like nothing but a fancy ornament. "It is just a little swimming lesson! How deep are we going?"

"1400 meters," Ceiline answered, making them fall silent. "It is at the bottom of the lake. I mean, its entrance is."

"Damn!" Raufon cursed loudly, "And how are we going to do that?"

"With magic," Ceiline answered simply, looking dumbfounded by his question.

"It should be easy." Aurora wrote, "You are being nervous because this will be the first time for you all to experience anything for real… not inside the sheltered environment of the Academy."

"Get used to it." Lia whispered to Keily and Raufon, "She is like this when we are on a mission!"

"..." Aurora said nothing, just looked at them before shrugging. "I will try to keep my mouth shut as Lia will be the leader of this expedition."

"You are my second-in-command, so feel free to give us suggestions!" Lia laughed, "You are more experienced than all of us put together!"

“True.” Rinzen nodded.

"Don't be modest!" Aurora smiled, singing with her hands to the Head of the Berisons, "I heard you killed your first intelligent variant while only 12 years old! Yet I was never let out to fight one." She shrugged, glancing at Lia, who blushed. "Maybe this time..."

"I… It was not expected that he would evolve!"

"Nobody did," Rinzen said, her voice serious as she looked at them. "That should not have happened!"

"That sounds… ominous," Keily commented, trying to read her stoic face.

"It is," Ceiline confirmed his thoughts. "Didn't you all notice what has been happening in the past year or so? Why is the Academy becoming more... stricter?"

"We are entered into another Dark Age," Lia answered, shocking everyone, especially because she said it so nonchalantly and remained smiling from ear to ear. "We are Amarins, Berisons, and Nerifits! We are born into the Six Houses! It is our duty to face it! Now!" She turned towards Keily and Raufon, "You are also part of the House of Amarin by following me! We can't be stumped by the Undead! Whatever is coming, we will face it together! And win!"

"Yeah!" Keily shouted, brimming with energy and a strong drive to show what he could do.

"Hmph! I'll crush any Undead head that comes our way!" Raufon snorted, not wanting to be outdone by Keily.

"Teehee!" Lia giggled, winking at them, "We just have to make sure those who are weak won't suffer! We will stop anything they have before our homes are burnt down!"

"Weird… I feel like wanting to give my all now…." Koa murmured. "I wish my boys would have heard that… Then I could use the excuse we need to make babies to ensure we have a future generation."

"Err…" Keily blushed, listening to her, while Rinzen tilted her head, thinking that was logical and not a bad idea, nodding repeatedly.

"My wives are already raising the cubs!" Raufon laughed proudly. "By the time they are old enough to walk and talk, they will be proud of their daddy's achievements!"

"Err…" Keily blushed even harder, starting to fidget between the two.

"Oh, yeah!" Lia looked at Koa, "Did you get freed? You know… of that…” She whispered, but her voice was not truly muffled, as everyone could hear it clearly.

"Not yet." Koa shrugged, "Grandpa said he will take it off only after school is over. Anyway, the boys have been inducted into the Amarin family! Father branded them with magic, and they were assigned under me as subordinates in the summer. After graduating, they are going to be my personal entourage!"

"Really?" Surprised, Aurora asked, "Are they coming with us?"

"No." Koa shook her head, "They are going to take up roles in the governing arm of our branch. They will stay in our territory and learn about managing the lands under our rule. Father and Grandpa say I will need all the help, knowing my scatterbrain… well, I am not blaming them! I always hated that kind of stuff, so it will be good to have reliable husbands who can deal with all that hard stuff!"

"Honestly… even I can't argue against it." Aurora wrote, watching Koa, who just stuck out her tongue.

"So," she continued, "When we all leave for more adventures, there won't be a problem!"

"Poor boys…" Aurora signed, making Koa furrow her brows.

"You just said you can't argue against it!"

"I lied."

"Hmph!"

"Ehehe~" Lia giggled, watching them. "See?" She said to the rest while Koa and Aurora started to bicker without listening to any of the others. "As long as we are together, we don't need to worry about anything!"