Arc took a deep breath, and sweat dripped down his brow. A guard dressed in armor lay unconscious behind Arc — the third guard he had incapacitated during his short trek to the dean's old building. But he was only halfway there and knew more guards were likely coming.

"Tch, This is annoying; if I could kill them... sigh, ancestors help me."

"Did you hear that!"

Arc clenched his fist in annoyance. It seemed his little complaint had alerted more guards.

The guards saw a strange figure in the dark and instantly rushed toward it; no other thought floated in their minds.

Arc, seeing the pair of rushing guards, could only sigh in complaint.

"Old man, I don't know how, but this is your fault."

Arc was quickly getting exhausted from fighting the guards, who were much more skilled than the caretakers in the dorm building. As a result, his Path was taking a greater mental toll. Even though he had disabled dozens of caretakers with little repercussions, just three of the guards had taken a huge toll, and now, with two of these guards attacking simultaneously, Arc was concerned if he could continue.

As the guard swiftly swung his blade, Arc instinctively raised his hand to deflect the attack, feeling the rush of wind as the blade passed by. Before he could react, another blade swiftly entered his vision, forcing him to leap backward to avoid being struck. The first guard instantly stabbed forward as he saw Arc leaping backward. Arc, seeing this, reacted with a flick of his finger. Although he could not change the direction of the blade by much, it was more than enough to glide over his shoulder instead of his neck.

With a click of his tongue, the stinging of the cut on his shoulder started to radiate. Moving his hand to cover the cut, Arc could feel the irritation and annoyance flaring in his chest.

"Stupid!"

But Arc wasn't given enough time to complain as the two blades swung at him again. Arc, not missing the parallel attacks, could only smirk at the glaring opening between the two. Pushing his arms to cross one another, the blades lost their trajectory, and Arc rushed between the two guards, grabbing both of their helmed heads before slamming them into the ground as hard as he could, and with the guard's grunts, he could see their closed eyes.

"How am I struggling so much with these weak guards? Am I so dependent on..."

Arc swiftly turned around as a blade swiftly approached just under his chin. Taken by surprise, he could not do much, just barely moving to the side, but the blade easily cut deep into the side of his neck.

Coughing with his hand tightly over the slash in his neck, Arc glared at the guard across from him. The guard, on the other hand, was already preparing for another strike. Arc could care less, balling his fist and swinging it with all he could, adding his Path to make the impact more; if the guard's head explodes, then so be it; at this point, he could care less. Unfortunately for Arc, who spent more time on his Path than on his body, all he got from his punch was a thud as the guard was sent back several steps, seeming fine if not a little shaken.

The guard glared at the figure before him. He wasn't stupid, and he could tell from the red liquid seeping out of the wound that this was more than likely the Feyrisian, but why was he sneaking around?

"Lord Arc, what are you doing here? Are you perhaps testing us?"

"Perhaps, or perhaps I am not."

The guard shrugged as he put away his sword.

"It's not like it matters. We can do very little to you, but I will need to inform Istina and Ibada of this."

Arc gave a slight nod of agreement before clenching his teeth and sending his fist flying toward the guard's face again. Unlike before, when the guard was prepared and wary, this time, he was unguarded and fell to the ground unconscious.

"Sorry, but not right now. I am still busy." Arc said as he removed his hand from the healed wound.

***

Carter ambled toward the strange haunted building on the opposite side of the premises, or at least hoped. He tried to hide behind anything he could, but it was dark, and instead of hiding, he kept running into things like trees, thick bushes, and the sides of buildings. It hurt, but nothing happened for some reason, even when he made a sound. He knew there were guards who would walk the premises, but they didn't seem anywhere near him; it was strange.

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"I was hoping there would be guards so I could see," Carter spoke weakly, depressed at his incompetence.

"I should have brought a light..."

Carter weakly dragged himself forward, unsure if he was even going in the right direction. After some time, Carter hit the side of a building; it had been a while since he had run into one, so he was confused about where he was. He moved around the building clumsily as it seemed that it had been neglected, and there were a lot of overgrown shrubs and other plants around the building, making it much harder to walk around while keeping a hand on the wall. After moving for a while, he almost fell as the creaking sound of something like a hinge quietly echoed not far from him.

"The door is broken?"

With a creak, the door to the mysterious building opened, but just like outside, the inside was just as dark.

"Is this where I was going? Or am I lost?" Carter mumbled

Carter had no idea if this was where he needed to go, but something was pulling him into the building, almost like when he found the hidden switch. With a slight hesitation, he walked into the building, leaving the door open behind him, hoping that some light from something might seep into the dark building, lighting his way.

Carter's hand glided against the wall as he struggled to see anything in the pitch-black darkness. As he stumbled around the dark room, his hand touched the frame of a door. Frantically moving his hand around, he found the doorknob twisting and jerking, but nothing he did seemed to budge the door.

"...It doesn't seem locked..."

***

"Quick the Intruder..."

Arc could hear the group of guards chasing from not far behind him. Because of this, he had to dim the light he was using, making it harder to find the dean's building nearby. Luckily, he had managed to find it, but he didn't have time to look around; he just broke the door so he could get inside.

"I'll hide on the second floor and search there; after that, I can come back down to look around the old dean's office; there has to be something there."

Arc hurried up the stairs, hoping the guards running outside wouldn't notice. He had no idea what was on the second floor as he had spent all his time expecting to look only in the dean's office. So, heading to the second floor, he had no real expectations of finding anything. It was all to waste time while he waited for the guards to disappear.

Wondering down the empty halls, Arc took his time peeking into every door he crossed. If it was locked, well, they weren't that sturdy. Most of the doors hung open, and Arc didn't find anything interesting while glancing into the rooms, but he did see a small library, although empty, which was probably the only interesting room.

Suddenly, the sound of small footsteps began to echo from the floor below; Arc, in a panic, ran to the nearest room, looking for a place to hide.

"Huh, strange?"

Arc glanced over the room he had chosen to hide in, but something about the room seemed odd.

"This is smaller than it should be. Right?"

Arc wanted to look outside the room to make sure that he was right but was unsure if whoever was downstairs heard his steps above. Left with no choice, Arc began to rummage around the wall for an answer to his question, and an answer soon followed.

THUNK

The dense sound of the wall as it moved away revealed a hidden staircase leading back down. Arc lifted his hand from the indention he had just pressed; his face slacked, and he was shocked that something would be here and not on the floor below.

"It makes sense, I guess..." Arc mumbled, unsure if he was upset at the difference between reality and his expectations.

"Well, I did find something, so no harm, I guess."

***

Carter somehow managed to open the mysterious unlocked door and wandered into the room. When he walked in, he noticed a faint glow in the room, giving a little light, but it didn't seem to have a point of origin. It was as if the whole room had a faint glow. Walking around, Carter's eyes glanced around; the room was small, at least compared to most of the rooms that Carter had seen in the other buildings; it felt almost normal besides the faint glow.

Carter bobbed his head around as his eyes dashed around the room, glancing one way, then another, turning in circles like a child. There were no decorations on the walls, no shelves, and no carpet to cover the cold-planked floor. All there was was a lonely wooden desk at the back of the room, too large to move.

"Strange?" Carter mumbled as his head cocked to the side

He began to move around the lonely desk as if looking for something but was unsure as to what; it was different than before. Nothing was calling him, but the desk seemed so strange. Everything seemed to glow in a faint light in this room, but the desk was different; instead of emitting light, it seemed to be avoiding it.

"No shadow?"

Looking around the room, Carter noticed that even though there was a faint light, neither he nor the desk had a shadow. This made this almost normal-looking room even stranger than before. How was there light but no shadow? Where was the light from? Curious about the light, Carter wondered if it was like this in other rooms or just this one, so plucking up some courage to brave the dark again, he wandered the halls. As he wondered, he noticed that some had the light but not all of them; not only that, but every room was different, but what always remained the same was something in the room that seemed to avoid the light.

Carter returned to the first room and sat in front of the desk, curious about why and how but unsure of what to do about his curiosity. Throwing his head back and forth with his finger on his chin, he could only stare at the lonely desk in the room, thinking of how to test the many thoughts in his head.

"Is the light special, or is it the object themselves? If the first, then why, and if the second, then why?"

His first focus was on whether the light was special and, if so, why. The first thought was to mark a location in the room, as this was obvious. Every room with light had one object that stood out, but what if there was more? If his first thought is true, then why does the object need to be marked?

"I'm missing something, but what?"