DORM LIFE

In the afternoon, Instructor Shmuel gathered everyone in the castle’s yard for another lesson. Shmuel decided to give all of them an official update. The first part of his lesson was about what was happening in the town, and the preparations they were doing for the dungeon dive. It was a significant endeavor for the Lion Clan, so everyone was on their toes. The students, however, were mostly bored, since many of them already knew about the big picture, several people were talking about it in the town.

Shmuel smirked at the bored look of his pupils. “Okay, what about that? Most of you may not know,” Instructor Shmuel said to the surrounding kids and teens, capturing their attention, “but it was verified in the islands that inside a monster nest there is usually a magic crystal. No one knows yet what the monsters do with it.” With a look, he shut up some kid that seemed to want to ask a question. “When we kill the surrounding monsters and claim the crystal, the previous nest gradually turns into a human village. Crazy right? That’s why people turned into calling them dungeons.”

Everyone became wide eyed and started to murmur as Instructor Shmuel motioned for the previous kid to talk, which now had his hands in the air. “So that dungeon they are going for will be another village?”

“No one knows.” Shmuel shook his head. “It’s much bigger than the dungeons on the islands, and the first one we are invading. From the size, we hope it will turn into another town under the rule of the Lion Clan.”

This time around, Hamon was the one who raised a question. “Since it’s the first one we are invading, how did we conquer this town? Or the city? I heard there is a city.”

“Good question.” Instructor Shmuel smiled. “This town was found as is.” He scratched his head. “The clan has been lucky, really. For some reason, a few settlements are not fully conquered by monsters. When we found Hillfront, we didn’t have to fight something on the scale of the lavafall dungeon.”

“And the city, Pride?” Sally asked.

“The same. I said we were lucky. An abandoned town and city right near our founding island.” Shmuel shook his head. “The situation for the other groups is not so favorable. We help how we can, but our people are our priority, and some of the other groups are even hostile to us.”

The rest were just questions of repeated information or unrelated things. Instructor Shmuel answered them anyway with a sigh until he tired himself and sent everyone to sweat off some excess energy. Their training usually consisted of specialized focus on their abilities, but today he was in the drill instructor mood. After all, it wouldn’t do bad focusing on strengthening their bodies a bit.

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After the lesson, Hamon went for his training with Shmuel. He was blindfolded as Shmuel repeatedly attacked him from the sides.

“It’s unfair!” Hamon screamed as he, in vain, moved his head on instinct.

“Life is unfair, Hamon.” Instructor Shmuel once again kicked him on the thighs. Hamon tried to counter-attack but found nothing. “Especially in this world, there are lots of situations where your eyes will be useless.”

They kept fighting on for a while until Shmuel suddenly removed his blindfold. “That’s it for today. You have been slacking off lately.”

Hamon just grumbled in response.

“Just because you are not going out there and fighting monsters anymore doesn’t mean you get to half-ass our training.” Instruct Shmuel said in a stern voice.

“I know… I know…”

“Good, take it seriously.” Shmuel could have said for him to not even bother coming if he wanted to slack off. However, deep inside, Shmuel liked training with Hamon. The boy was strong-willed and much ahead of his peers. He had deep expectations for him; being able to be part of the boy’s growth gave him satisfaction.

The reason for Hamon’s slacking off wasn’t too mysterious for Shmuel. It was waiting for him right around the corner.

“Great! It’s finished. I promised Mila we would see the stars from the wall today.” Sally dragged a smiling Hamon by the arm as Shmuel was left behind, shaking his head but happy nonetheless.

On the same day, at night, the trio stargazed.

“That’s one thing I like about the abyss the best: stars” Sally said and Mila nodded. “They are much more beautiful. They look like two wedding rings in the sky.” Sally pointed up.

“With a thread passing through them,” Hamon too pointed up to the sky.

“So romantic,” Mila dragged her words, “should I leave some space for the lovey-dovey?” and laughed as Sally punched and kicked her. Hamon by the side was beet red, but the others were too focused to notice.

Mila held back her laughter and tears. “Enough, enough.”

The group went silent for a while, each for their own reasons.

Milan took a deep breath. “I just hope this dungeon dive goes well.”

“Don’t worry. It will be fine.” Hamon tried to reassure her.

Sally punched his arm. “She’s almost fifteen Hamon. Soon she will join the hunting groups.”

“Oh.” Hamon didn’t have anything to say. For him, it wasn’t the end of the world. Since the beginning, he had been fighting monsters, to the point life in Hillfront seemed out of the norm for a while. However, after having lived more than a week here, he could see Mila’s point.

“It’s just… I’m pretty much useless everywhere.” Mila hugged her shoulders. “I have no idea what they will do with me. Even Instructor Shmuel was avoiding the topic with me.”

“Just forget about it, okay?” Sally hugged them both, each on one arm. “You have us, right?” She smiled. “Everything will be fine.”

Hamon and Mila also smiled and let themselves be dragged by Sally’s cheerful tone. That was one thing Hamon really liked about Sally. Even if she was a year younger than Mila, she was always so sure, always smiling and decided. Maybe enjoying life in Hillfront a bit longer was worth slacking off, as Instructor Shmuel had pointed out. He could always ask Theo to level up later. Also, he didn’t think he would be as directionless as Mila, he was pretty strong after all. Yes, life is good.