At martial arts practice, while the others were straggling in, Momo pulled Max aside. She did not beat around the bush. "I can smell another woman on you," she said softly. Max didn't feel a response was necessary and just continued to listen. "I wish for you to know that my decision has currently not not changed. You are still the only person in this place whose smell I enjoy. Other potential mates are inferior. However, I will admit that a few minutes ago, I was beginning to feel negatively until my spirit conversed with your spirit, and I found out the woman you are seeing is a Quartet worker."

Momo puffed her lips out in a curious expression. "I believe in you, Max Cunningham. If there is a way for you to take me to your world, I am sure you will do so. And if you do, that means I win automatically. The entire time we are in this place, I will not age. Instead, I will only grow in power and wisdom, just like you. And eventually, in seven more years, you cannot stay here. So when all is said and done, eventually, we will be fighting together on another world–unchanged–with years of history and loyalty between us." She smiled, and whether intentionally or unintentionally, she showed her teeth. “All I have to do is wait. Or find another potential mate that is equal or better than you. But waiting seems more likely. I promise that I will not kill the woman you are seeing. No need to ask.”

Then she turned around and went back to a target she had been practicing throwing her knives at. As she walked, Max reflexively checked how much mana she had in her body. Since last time, maybe triple.

If you are going to stare at her butt, you should have seen her instead of that Amy girl, Lavinia mentally groused.

I am not staring at her butt.

Whether you are or you aren’t, if you ever date Momo, I will approve of it.

That’s not even what’s important right now, Max said. What’s this about you talking to Momo’s spirits?”

How do you know it was me?

Of course it was you! You need to quit blabbing about my personal life. Understood?

Fine. But I still think you are making a mistake with that Amy girl. Saliron only cares about bones, but I bet if Sllck could speak to you, you'd hear the same that I've been saying."

Suddenly a screen popped up in Max's vision, very different from any of the system screens he'd ever seen before. It read,

[SLICK. SPEAKS.]

Then

[One moment]

[Much Better. Do not mind Lavinia. She is probably just mad she didn't get to watch you when you sealed the deal with Amy.]

Max was so surprised by the message, he laughed out loud. Apparently, Lavinia understood what had happened. She growled. Of all times, Slick had to figure it out now? I take it Slick is talking to you now and agreed with you ,because Slick is a fool, too.

[She’s just salty. Don’t mind her.]

How are you talking now, Slick!?

The little spirit responded with another text bubble.

[You are much stronger now. That is why I can do this now. Still takes a lot of power. So not very often. Sorry.]

Well, okay, said Max. Even if it’s only once in a while, I am glad that now I can talk to you better.

[I am excited too. Also, about time you finally got laid.]

Max laughed again and shook his head. The message screen closed. Since he figured Slick couldn’t talk anymore for a while, Max sent a mental poke to Lavinia. She didn't respond, and after that, Max left her alone. It was one thing to tease his spirit, but just in case she was actually upset, he didn't want to push it too far.

Finally, when all of Max's students were gathered in the clearing, and even Lance was standing by the sidelines to watch, Max got up on a log as a makeshift podium. He said, "Okay, people, I have an announcement before we do any classes today. I'm not sure how much I can talk about all the other stuff going on behind the scenes, but I'm going to need to fight a really important duel at the end of the semester. This is going to be super, super important. That means that I'm going to be training with all of you, not just teaching now, because the end of the semester is not far away. But I also want some of you to qualify for the Quartet competition, and I think you can. Training for all of us is going to a bit more intense now.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“This is my first year here, though. Gantry has competed before, so I kind of want to turn the floor over to him on his general thoughts, but also for any information he might have on what to expect.”

Gantry didn't seem too upset about being put on the spot by Max. In fact, if anything, he looked excited to be talking about the Quartet competition. "Max is right. I have participated before, although some others in this class have watched it for at least a year or two, so some of this probably won't be new information. Some of it will. Either way, I'm just going to kind of get through it, and then you all can decide what's worth remembering or not."

The white haired man took a deep breath. "The Quartet competition is not just duels. By the end of the competition, when it's just the lead student of each academy, and I presume at the inter-Quartet level, there are three challenges. One is a duel, one is a hunt, and one is random. All of these events have scores, and that is how the winner is chosen. Supposedly, this system makes it so any Path has the potential to win. For instance, if the random event is a group combat, then a really powerful support class could do so well they would still be able to win the entire thing even after doing poorly in duels. In reality, that doesn't usually happen, at least from what I understand. But I will admit that I have not exactly seen a million of these things."

Max asked, "Based on your perspective, especially as someone who is being groomed as the number one Summoner fighter in the junior division, what do you think the chances are of some other people here making the cut to compete at the end of the year?"

"The odds are great. Combat-wise, at least in single combat, everyone here is at least in the top thirty of the academy in the junior division, maybe higher. The only thing holding everybody back is the number of spirits we have, or maybe lack thereof. Some of the senior division summoners are still weak compared to the other paths in the Quartet, but a few of them have lucked into combinations of spirits that work really well."

"What do you mean?" asked Max, genuinely curious.

"Well, there's a seventh-year girl I know of whose spirit lowers the air temperature around her to ridiculous degrees, but she also has a spirit that keeps her warm and unaffected by the cold. So if she gets close to somebody and they're not expecting it, she can damn near freeze them before they even know what to do. Of course, that's not going to work on faster, more powerful, or more skilled fighters, but if she catches someone by surprise, or the other fighter doesn't have a way to deal with her, like ranged attacks perhaps, all she has to do is just move towards you."

"Just press W, huh?" asked Max.

"What was that?" asked Gantry.

"Nothing," said Max. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Lance give him at least a polite smile for his joke.

In the back of Max's mind, Lavinia said, Don't beat yourself up. That actually wasn't too bad, but I'm still irritated with you, so I'm not going to laugh. The way she mentally delivered the words was still underlined with humor, though.

"Don't worry about it," said Lance. "It's a gaming joke from Earth."

"Oh, okay. None of your humor makes any sense to me," admitted Gantry. "So, we all have to work really hard before the tryouts and placements at the end of the semester. Since most of us are in the group combat class, and Professor Grave Call is so heavily involved in the competition as a whole, I think anybody who wants to try participating can probably do so easily. We just need to be ready.

"I think that basically covers it, Max," said Gantry. "But I do have something more to add."

Max wasn't expecting this, and he cocked his head in question. Gantry waved at everybody around him and said, "Somebody overheard you talking to Momo about something kind of important. All of us here are sworn to secrecy, so don't worry about it, and we're out in the middle of the woods. If anyone or anything is listening to us, there's not really much we can do about it. Anyway, we know that Momo asked you to take her to uh, wherever you go. Some of us need to get home to protect our world and see our loved ones, but I think others might be interested in going somewhere else if they can. If you’ll have them. This is probably way in advance, since you have a lot more time here. And you're only a first-year so far, but I figured it was worth mentioning right now."

"Really?" asked Max. He noticed a few nods from the surrounding students. "Okay, I'll keep it in mind. So is there anything else, or is that it? I'm serious about opening the floor right now. But if there's nothing else that anybody needs to tell the group about, we're going to start working out like hell and pushing spars to the absolute limit."

"Oh, there is one more thing," said Gantry.

"Yes?"

"I'm not sure everybody knows this, but the platforms that duels take place on for the competitions are special. Usually, it takes us a while to resurrect if we die in the Quartet, but the duel platforms make it happen in just a couple of minutes. Or seconds."

"So we fight to kill."

"Not necessarily, you can get a yield too," Gantry shrugged.

"Okay, good to know," said Max. He rubbed his chin with one hand and said, "Today, we're going to start drills with real steel. We're not going to hurt each other, but I want everybody used to the sensation and sound of fighting with real steel." He glanced around and noticed that Iolas looked the most nervous, so Max gave him a grin. "It'll be easy, just wait and see."

***

Later, exhausted, Max finally crawled into bed. Everyone in his class had worked hard. Even Lance had joined in at one point. Max had decided when he got home that night that come hell or high water, he was going to fix the magic circle to help his friends find more spirits to contract with and grow stronger.

That night, he had finally succeeded. Max had the precious, completed circle under his pillow. The next time he saw everybody, he was planning on giving them a secret copy and also enough mana pills to last them probably a few more years. He'd been busy working on his own mana body and manufacturing the pills in the process. In fact, he was getting very close to finally reaching a three-star mana body.

Max's muscles hurt, but he had the glow of satisfaction from a hard day's work and accomplishing an important goal. However, once his head hit the pillow and he fell asleep, his rest was interrupted. It was his first not-a-dream, courtesy of Tom the remnant spirit.