Chapter 35
Thursday
Jay hopped out of bed feeling rested and ready for another day in Eden. He'd taken a bath yesterday afternoon and hadn't done anything since then other than lay on the grass with M'redith and then lay on his bed without her. So no need for another bath.
He got dressed and grabbed his things for weapons training, opened the door, and walked right in to Aiden who stood outside with his hand raised ready to knock. “Hey you!” Aiden said with a grin as they untangled themselves.
“Morning! How'd last night go?” Jay asked as he closed the door behind him with a click.
“Great! Aisha is amazing. Sweet, funny, soft..” Aiden trailed off.
Jay snapped his fingers, “Stay with me lover boy. The date, how did the date go?”
Aiden snapped out of his musings and fell in to step next to Jay as they walked to breakfast. “It was fun. I picked her up from work. We went out for dinner. It was this cool place where they make the food on a big griddle in front of you and use all these delicious smelling oils and spices.”
Jay looked over at his friend, “And Aisha? Did she look like she had fun?”
Aiden grinned like a fool. “She had fun.”
Jay laughed. “Well I'm glad you guys had such a good time. You certainly seem much happier than the past couple of days.”
“Well in my defense I did have a finger lopped off during one of those days. That's a pretty fair reason to look unhappy.” Aiden continued as they walked in to the dining hall. The sun outside had gotten quite hot already that morning and the two men were happy to enter the cooler interior of the dining building.
They each got a tray of breakfast which this morning consisted of glistening strips of bacon, fluffy and cheesy scrambled eggs, and a side of toast. Buttered or with jam, diner's choice.
They sat down at a table where M'redith was sitting after having already finished her meal. She wasn't studying, it appeared she had just been watching Jay and Aiden go through the line. “Morning you two. Have fun last night?” she asked with a playful smile.
“Yes.” Jay and Aiden both said at the same time. Aiden laughed and pushed Jay who almost fell out of his chair. M'redith smiled happily.
“What?” Jay asked. “I had a fun night too you know!”
Aiden calmed down a bit, “Oh yeah? What did you do last night?”
M'redith looked over at Jay and blushed before he even said anything. “I went stargazing with M'redith last night. She was teaching me the stars and constellations. They're completely different from the stars where I came from. It was great.” he said emphatically.
M'redith smiled but didn't interject anything, just enjoying Jay describe it.
“Are you going to see her again?” Jay asked.
“Absolutely. I mean, if she wants to.” Aiden replied. “I think I'm going to ask her out again for Friday night.”
They finished breakfast and ran to weapons practice. They were happy to discover that they made it on time and quickly sorted themselves in to groups without being told. Warren and T'lly stood at the front of the class but didn't speak.
The room was different than last time, and the room was entirely ringed along the walls with combat dummies all posed in various goofy positions. Each group was sorted so everyone had a dummy to fight. The sword wielders were paired with dummies wielding swords, the staff users with staffs and so on.
“Has anyone ever heard of the expression learn to walk before you run?” Warren asked kindly.
One of the students raised their hand not aware that it was a rhetorical question. T'lly chuckled.
Warren waved the student's hand back down. “No answer needed.”
T'lly spoke up, “If the past few days were you learning to walk then today you get a chance to try running.”
Jay looked over at Aiden who looked back and shrugged. Neither knew what was going on.
Warren continued, “These dummies might look goofy but those practice weapons in their hands hurt. Not as much as a real weapon would but enough that you'll wish you hadn't gotten hit. The dummies are magic, obviously, and will offer you a non-human opponent to fight against without having to hold back.”
“Today is your chance to show us what you've learned. Good luck!” said T'lly.
A muffled sound filled the room as many dummies began to move all at once as each attacked their human partner. Some of the students didn't do well initially and took various injuries to their bodies. Other students were more prepared and managed to defend themselves.
Aiden was on the ground after his dummy body checked him on to the floor. Jay looked over just in time to see M'redith deliver a crushing blow to her dummy after easily sidestepping its attack. Jay's dummy had yet to do anything and it was starting to make Jay nervous.
He needn't have worried as moments later the dummy jolted to life and attacked him with a blistering combination of strikes that Jay would have been incapable of reproducing himself. All Jay could do was defend, and even then some strikes made their way through. Jay reconsidered his early opinion that he might be able to fight after all. It was brutal.
The class fought like that for an hour or so in five minute spurts with a two minute reset. After the hour had passed a water break was called and everyone was forced to drink some water, no exceptions.
“You are not special! Your body needs just as much water as everyone else. Not drinking water does not make you a badass, it makes you an idiot. Drink up everyone!” yelled T'lly after finding one student refusing water. The student was forced to drink his water and T'lly watched him to make sure he finished it.
Class continued like that until lunch time. This time when Jay met his friends outside they were all dripping with sweat and M'redith pounced on the opportunity, “What happened to you!” she said to Aiden while pointing at him accusingly.
Aiden stood there dripping in sweat and sighed, “Ok, I had that one coming. I could have phrased that differently yesterday. I know that now,” he said still gasping for air from all the exertion in class.
Jay laughed, “We're all sweaty,” he began. M'redith looked up at him, “except for M'redith. She's a delicate flower that only glistens.”
M'redith and Aiden laughed. “Ok, ok.” M'redith said. “I'm sweaty too, I get it. I hate eating lunch like this and then having to sit in class. I wish there were time for a bath.”
Aiden nodded as they walked along the path to the dining hall. The sun was out in full force by this time and the group barely noticed the extra sweat from it. They did notice how much cooler the interior of the dining hall was however and everyone gave out a little surprised gasp when they finally entered in to the cool relaxing air inside.
Lunch was a spread of various types of soft rolls, cold meats, sharp cheeses, and chilled fruits. After the heat outside Jay wanted nothing to do with hot food. Thankfully the chefs at the dining hall knew what they were doing and everything was cool and delicious.
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They sat down and nobody spoke as they ate. They had all worked hard and needed the food for fuel. Even though they stood at a desk in the next class that didn't mean it would be any less taxing. They needed to eat to keep up with the challenges they faced in every class.
Afterwards they returned to their rooms to drop off their things from combat class and grab their trap tools. When they reached traps class they found some students already working. T'lly intercepted them as they walked in to the room.
“Just take your places and continue on from where you left off yesterday. Everyone still needs to complete their device by the end of this week.” She didn't wait for questions but left them to sort themselves out and went to speak with another student that had just arrived.
Jay took his place at his desk and gently picked up the sixth module. Warren approached but said nothing while watching Jay work with the module. After a few minutes he seemed to have seen all he needed to see and Warren moved along to another student.
There were no set water breaks in traps class that day. When a student needed a moment they would step away from their desk and go to a table set up in the back of the room with water and paper cups. After a drink and a moment to consider what they needed to do next they'd go right back to work.
Occasionally the class would be interrupted by a scream as a student lost a finger, a hand, and in one odd case, an ear. The student would be directed to head to the Infirmary and get fixed up and then return to continue the class. Warren or T'lly would quietly clean up the mess left behind. No one looked up when this happened – it was too risky. Becoming distracted when working on a trap was the perfect way to earn a trip to the Infirmary for yourself. So people kept their heads down no matter how loud a person screamed.
Jay became so focused that he had blocked everything out and was shocked when Warren patted him on the back and broke him out of his trance. “Well done!” he said with a pleased expression. “Just put the modules back in to their sockets and leave the device on your desk. After that you can wait for me outside.”
Jay looked down and discovered that he had finished his tray of nine modules. Many he either recognized from a past dungeon run or at least was familiar with how the trap might work. Thanks to all of the practice Dag had forced on him Jay found that he seemed to have an affinity with traps and was able to disarm them with a skill he didn't realize he possessed.
He was still a neophyte, a beginner, but he appeared to pick up trap related knowledge faster than others. Jay just found them fascinating. The way they worked, the design of the triggers, the way everything was hidden away – Jay thought it was fun. As long as he didn't think about the consequences of the trap going off that is.
Jay plugged all of his disarmed traps back in to their sockets in the 3 by 3 grid and walked out of the building. As he passed other students still at work he saw Aiden and M'redith along with another classmate he recognized, Carly. No one looked up at his passing however as everyone was focused on not setting their traps off.
The entrance to the building where they had traps class faced the sun and Jay felt like he was cooking just standing there. He looked about and found a nearby tree and went and stood under it to wait for Warren. It was just too hot to stand outside in the sun. Thankfully the sun would start setting soon.
Warren finally came out but instead of waiting for Jay he instead walked over to him and stood underneath the tree in the shade. “Hot today.”
Jay nodded, “Too hot.” He had no idea what to say to Warren sometimes.
Warren grinned, “So you're the first to beat the device in your class. You were pretty quick too. You didn't set a record or anything but you were first in your class and that counts for something.”
Warren looked out across the hard packed dirt baked dry by the sun. “Tomorrow's class is more of the same. Working on the device. You already beat it so you won't be doing that. You can take the time off if you really want to. Or you can do some.. extra credit? I'll give you some time to decide. Class is almost out for today but when you come to class tomorrow let me know what your decision is, ok?”
Warren picked a leaf off of the tree and rubbed it in between his fingers as Jay nodded, “Ok. Thanks Warren.”
Warren smiled like he was proud of Jay and Jay couldn't help but feel a sense of pleasure at having done well. “Again, good job. See you tomorrow.” Warren didn't wait but walked back inside and returned to help T'lly with class.
Jay decided to wait for his friends and he sat down in the shade with his back up against the tree. Opening up his Mighty Book he began to sketch out the device along with each module. He made a page for each module as well as a page showing how they all fit back together. He made callouts for each showing what each piece was for. He finished writing and was just closing his book when class let out.
The students filed out of the building in ones and twos and Jay recognized his classmate Carly as she walked by and waved in passing. Jay waved back and turned around to find M'redith and Aiden standing there.
“Who was that?” M'redith asked in an innocent tone of voice that Jay completely missed.
“That was..Carly? I think? She's in our class and waved at me. I've never spoken to her before.” Jay said as if reciting an alibi.
Aiden grinned but didn't say anything letting the scene play out.
“Oh.” M'redith said simply and then dropped the matter entirely.
The group walked to dinner while complaining about sweating and the heat. The dining room was again a wonderful reprieve from the sun and the group could see each other visibly relax as they walked in to the building and got in line.
Dinner was fettuccine alfredo served with sauteed green beans and scalloped potatoes. Again the group ate without talking. They were too worn out to talk and just ate quietly. Jay thought the fettuccine was ok but the scalloped potatoes were amazing.
They finished up dinner and were walking out when Aiden finally spoke, “What now?”
M'redith looked at him like he had two heads, “Are you kidding me right now? BATHS! Baths are what now!” She motioned to her body, “I need to feel clean again.”
The group broke up and took their baths separately. Afterwards they all met up at the library. Glenda was on duty. Jay felt like she was always on duty. The three waved to Glenda as they passed by and Jay led them to his private study room below.
“Nice,” said M'redith appreciatively as she looked around the room.
Aiden shrugged, “Its a room with books, it's not like it's a big deal.”
Jay sat down at the main table and the other two joined him. They talked about class and discussed how many modules they had beaten so far. M'redith was up to 6. Aiden was at 5. It seemed Aiden was struggling a bit with traps class. They finally managed to drag it out of Jay and he told them he had finished that day.
“Are you kidding me?” Aiden demanded before M'redith calmed him down with a look.
Jay shrugged, “I've had some practice before, that's all. I'm happy to help you guys if you want.”
They absolutely wanted help and they all took out their books and notes and Jay began to show them what he had learned. He didn't show them how to defeat the actual device and modules, that would have been cheating. Instead he taught them the basics he had relied upon so far to keep his fingers attached.
Jay went over Aiden's diagrams of the traps he had finished so far and helped him clean them up, pointing out where things weren't quite right or where Aiden had made an incorrect assumption that had unfortunately worked anyway.
The night passed quickly and soon there was a knock on the door and a head poked in to the room, “You go now. Hi!” said Glenda with a wave as she disappeared as quickly as she had appeared. The group packed up their things and they walked Aiden back to his room.
“So what are you going to do for class tomorrow?” asked Aiden.
“I could take the day off, that's what Warren said anyway.” Jay answered.
M'redith shook her head with a smile but didn't say anything.
“He offered me extra credit but wouldn't say what for. I have to decide when I get to class tomorrow.” Jay said thoughtfully.
“I'd take the time off. I'm so tired.” Aiden said as he dragged his feet along the path.
“I thought of that. I slept plenty back in my old world, I don't want to sleep in this world. I want to be awake, to see things, go places, have fun. I'm just trying to decide if extra-credit would be worth it or not.” he said.
M'redith lightly brushed up against Jay's side, getting his attention, “If you are going to stand out, and you seem to insist on doing that, then you might as well make a good impression.”
Jay nodded at that. “How bad could extra-credit be anyway?” he asked.
They dropped off Aiden and then Jay walked M'redith across the field to her building. Jay's was closer but he insisted on walking M'redith to her room instead. She gave him a hug and tiredly went in to her room, the door closing behind her with a click.
Jay walked to his room and occasionally looked up at the stars as he tried to remember all the constellations M'redith had tried to teach him. He was better with traps than stars however and he found he could only remember a handful of them. He'd just have to ask her for another session he thought with a grin.
Jay took off his things as he went in to his bedroom and finally got in to bed. He didn't even have time to settle in before he fell asleep. He dreamed of a giant dummy who outfought Jay at every turn. He was finally rescued by M'redith, whose tiny form body checked the dummy across the room leaving Jay alone with a beaming M'redith. Things got hazy after that and Jay smiled in his sleep.