Rose continued trying to forge a weapon of pure fire as Lilias mildly watched. Perhaps, an hour later, when the strum of the guitar had died down moments prior, Elsa walked into the living room, stretching her form as she sat on the wooden ground, legs folded.

"I've looked into Alos's Mage Academy," She said.

"Oh?"

Rose let her attention drift away from her flames. In a moment, the floating sword of fire crumbled and became a flicker before drifting away into nothing. She had initially picked up this idea when she saw Bianca turn ice to spears, but now, within the span of less than two days, she had reached a state enough that it would no longer shatter from a mishap. Its strength and reliability, however, left much to be tested.

"It costs 1 million lixels per student," Elsa spoke, a frown on her face as she glanced at the display of her pad, "And, if we wanna make it into the next group of accepted students, we've got 3 months. Plus, well, we've gotta also pass the entrance tests: mana manipulation and knowledge of basic stuff."

"Hmm," Rose hummed.

So, they needed 2 million lixels. As she was unsure if she would even be herself in 3 months, much less waiting another year if they weren't fast enough, they needed to make that much money within that time frame.

At one point, she would have shook her head but, at just the first day of entering Alos's dungeon, they had made 28.8k lixels. And that was just the first floor. At a generous rounded rate of 30k a day, she calculated. . .

"It would take about 69 days, if we make about the same amount of lixels everyday as we made today," She said, "Not accounting for splitting things up, that is."

As the length of a month was exactly 30 days for all 10 of them, making 90 days for 3 months, that was more than enough time.

Lilias, who sat besides Rose, shook her head. "There's a reason being a dungeoneer is a gateway to becoming rich. Especially within Alos. You two alone should be able to easily make 2 million lixels within 3 months. As you continue to climb the dungeon, you might even make more."

"Is that so?" Rose asked.

"Yes. With the different grades of cores and the different spirits you can acquire and sell, aided by the various 'quests' you can undertake for the association, you can become rich."

Elsa's perked up at that. "Quests? Really? Like in a game?"

"Indeed." Lilias nodded. "Though no one can remember the exactness of each of the dungeon's floors once they leave, they can remember the monsters within with the right circumstances. Stretch that over thousands of dungeoneers, and years of climbing, and there exists a pseudo-database for the type of creatures you may find on each floor. With marginal possibility of errors, of course. It's a basic for cities."

It wasn't enough to change the difficulty of the dungeon by much as it couldn't tell you how many beasts you could face, or what other difficulties laid within, but it was enough for the usefulness of people.

"And, so, there are various monsters with blood, or parts, that are useful for specific purposes like magecraft, that sell swimmingly," The dragonian continued, "Making it possible for the association to sift through requests from people like mages or organizations like companies that they post as quests—becoming the middle-man who takes a chunk of the profit. Essentially, you see what floor you're heading to and check if there exists any quests currently available that are linked to it. All the same, it might also give you information on what beasts could lurk within."

As Elsa whistled breathlessly, Rose thought human creativity and ingenuity was something. Even with limited memories retained after returning from a floor, they could still come up with such a system? She didn't even know if she herself could have thought of it. Rose further pondered on Lilias's words. If the association sifted through quests and earned a cut, and Alos owned and controlled the association, then. . .

"Is that how the city makes its money off of us?" She asked.

Lilias smiled. "Now you're understanding it. It's precisely one of the ways."

"Well no wonder they like the Geared so much," Elsa said.

Rose had to agree. The Geared were, after all, the only keys to entering the dungeon. No matter how bad a Geared person could be, it would always be better to have them in the proverbial well-oiled system than to not. An addition to the economy of the city. Whether it be obtaining cores or spirits and selling them, or completing quests, nothing could be done without first entering the dungeon.

'No wonder he called me privileged. . .' Rose thought of the man who slept under the shadow of a tree. His dirtied form and dark aura contrasted against the luscious park and the bright city. She had told Elsa once before that she thought his words held some truth, and she still thought the same.

She nodded to herself and glanced at her companions.

"2 million lixels and more. Full sets of spirits for the three of us. And reaching Floor 75 before killing the Crimson Dragon," Rose stated, "And studying for the entrance tests."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

That was their three main goals for now. What went unmentioned was training in true magic, sparring with Lilias, and getting a better handle on her Gear. And. . .there was also the voice of the dungeon, telling her to reach its top floor.

"Speaking of which, what are the tests?" A curious Lilias glanced at Elsa.

The girl looked at her pad's display.

"Except for making sure we can actually control mana. . .Mathematics. Science. Coding. Basic mechanics and biology. . .and some more branches related to all of them," Elsa listed and summarized the bullet-points on the academy's website, "All above a highschool level, though, which is a bit odd."

"Not necessarily. As far as I'm aware, schooling begins at 6 years old in Alos, and highschool finishes at 16, making 10 years of basic education," Lilias explained to her, "That shouldn't matter to you two, however. I'm quite sure Alos's Mage Academy operates much like a college, taking in people of varied ages, and, so long as you can manipulate mana and pass its tests, no prerequisite schooling is required. A 'Gifted' waiver essentially. Do even better than most and you might obtain scholarships as well, reducing your tuition costs."

Rose nodded. As she couldn't find much information about homunculi on the mana web, specifically when it came to removing self-downloading memories, memories that were etching themselves to the innermost layer of her core, the academy was her next best target.

"That's good to know," She said, making her decision, "I'll start with mathematics then."

Elsa narrowed her eyes. "Hold on a minute there, don't tell me—"

In one night, Rose searched the mana web, and began memorizing every single thing she could find when it came to mathematics and its many forms. All it took was one glance, a slight moment of understanding, and she would move on to another.

"This isn't fair. This isn't fair. . ." Elsa muttered as she watched the homunculus remain seated in the same spot into the night. "This isn't hecking fair."

"It's a perk of being a homunculus," Lilias replied.

Her two swords were in her hands, being oiled and cleaned by a cloth. Though without their spirit, they were still legendary-grade spirit armaments, so there was next to no risk of any true damage coming to them, but this had become a habit since her father had tossed it to her as he did her out of Trea. She raised one of the weapons and looked at its gleaming, crimson, blade with satisfaction.

"It's something we can't hope to match," She said, taking a mana orb to hand from a bag at her side. She had to refill her weapon's charges, after all.

Momentarily, she glanced at a struggling Elsa who sighed with furrowed brows, looking at the calculations on her screen. Though the slum-born girl considered herself a decent mechanic, and someone able to do basic coding, math had never been a particularly strong point for her. Most of the time when it came up in her creations as needed, she had hopped over to the mana web and checked if there was already a written base she could work on.

". . .I wanna be one dammit," Elsa sighed once more.

"An impossibility."

"I could gene-advance my brain's power. . ."

Lilias paused. Her crimson eyes stared at the girl.

"You're a hollow, you can't get gene advancement, less you want mana poisoning," She stated, "Blame your unique body."

Elsa found herself sighing for the third time. Yeah yeah, she already knew that, but still. She was seriously considering, 'How bad is mana poisoning even?'

"Furthermore, even if you possibly could get the procedure, it's not as if you have the money for it," Lilias slashed further into her heart, shredding any remaining thoughts of an easy way out with blunt cruelty.

"Goddammit. . ."

"?"

Rose's golden eyes stared at her pad's display even as her two companions soon went to sleep. Textbooks. Documents. Texts. And videos when the other three were unavailable. Whatever was readily there, she memorized.

'Algebra. Geometry. Trigonometry. . .' She thought, '. . . Physics. Calculus. Number theory. . .'

Calculations were the easiest for her. Once a formula was known, as long as it wasn't hundreds of pages of pages of complexity, completing its calculation was as easy as a thought on her part. Certainly, being creative with them would need actual focus, but even that wasn't hard. After all, if she was too dumb to understand something right away, she could always mana-channel her brain's processing speed until she understood.

Though it was 3 months away, if she didn't get 100% on the mathematic's portion of the test, she would be surprised.

"Did you really sit there all night?"

By the time she blinked her eyes again, a waking Elsa stood before her, staring speechlessly at her form.

"I must have lost track of time," Rose replied. As 24 hours was all the same to her, she couldn't really blame herself. She would have to shower this morning, however, she thought.

Elsa raised a brow, choosing her words wisely. "How. . .how much math did you memorize?"

Rose smiled. Her golden eyes seeing the world in a way she hadn't thought possible before. She realized, if she were to toss something, she would be able to predict near-exactly where it would land. The flight of a pulse? That too could likely be aimed and shot perfectly so far as she knew its weight and speed. As for weighing things and measuring them? That would depend on familiarizing herself with different objects until the point she could estimate by holding and seeing.

"Everything," She answered.

". . ." Elsa thought the world was unfair.

"I can teach you," Rose said.

". . .thank you."

The morning was preparation. Elsa cooked sandwiches for herself and Lilias. The trio checked their equipment. Rose with her Gear. Lilias with her twin swords. And Elsa with the pulse pistol, the shield emblem, and the spirit tattooed at her visible abs. Once ready, they made their way to the Dungeon Association for the second day in a row, this time with the intention to stay longer. Sadly, however, there were no quests for floor 2 on the association's application.

Within that space where platforms of iron moved to and fro, covered in domes of mana as they carried dungeoneers, Rose touched the outer walls of the piercing dungeon. She momentarily glanced at the azure sky and the shifting clouds outside of Alos's shield before her lips moved.

"Dungeon — Access — Floor 2."

[Authorizing access.] That familiar voice rang as a sigil sprang onto the back of her right hand. The solid image of the white tower within a circle of the same color, creating two separate halves. On the left, the number '2' was shown, signifying the highest floor she had reached. On the right, the number 0 signifying the floor she currently was on.

[Authorization completed.]

[Beginning transmission.]

The sigil shined white. A circle of intricate patterns—patterns that seemed to swim and twist in shapes and sizes lost to even Rose's eyes—fell down just above the trio, passing through their form till it touched the iron ground of the platform they stood upon.

[Welcome back, Rose. I shall continue my wait.]

Rose blankly stared at the walls of the tower as it called out to her.

[Entering floor 2 — instance number 27.]

The circle ignited in a flash of light and the three disappeared.