“Show me what you got!” Ruby shouted.

Sophia swung her arm awkwardly, hitting the bag very lightly.

“Okay, that was good.” Ruby smiled. “You’re getting stronger.”

Sophia shrugged. “How are Hadwyn and Lars going to convince him?”

Ruby sighed. “I don’t know.”

Hadwyn managed to get Baluk alone. Where he then took the risk of telling Baluk what they would want him to do.

“Isn’t that against the rules?” Baluk asked.

Hadwyn shrugged. “Peter said it would be okay.”

“So Peter is giving you guys clues too, huh?”

Hadwyn tensed. He wondered how much help they got from Peter.

“So you guys want me to join your team?” He shrugged. “I’ll be willing, but what’s in it for me?”

Lars was about to respond, probably to lie, but Hadwyn cut him off.

“Nothing.” Hadwyn replied. “Absolutely nothing.”

Just as Hadwyn hoped, interest didn’t disappear from his face.

“Fine. I just want to be done with this test.” Baluk raised an eyebrow. “How would I go about, you know… Betraying them?”

Hadwyn and Lars looked at each other. There were many ways it could be done.

And if they were going to do it, they would need to do it right.

Ruby frowned. “It was that easy?”

Hadwyn stuttered. “I guess so.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“Baluk doesn’t go to the frontline.” Lars replied. “First of all, we already know Baluk gets sent straight to the front because he’s just a distraction. So that’ll fuck their game plan for sure.

“Hell yeah!”

Hadwyn and Lars stared at Ruby.

Ruby turned to them, her smile slowly fading. “Oh, I just hit level 30.”

Hadwyn blinked. He hadn’t checked his level since… Well, weeks. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had talked, or even thought of his level.

Lars immediately twisted his hands, formulating a projection. A projection Lars could only see, unless his spell got hacked. The projection appeared only as a slightly luminous dot that moved too fast for Hadwyn or any other person to see. A sort of rudimentary confidentiality addon.

Ruby had this too.

She unlocked it and the dots disintegrated away. Ruby had apparently customized hers, as it was sleek and purple, with several little blurred out snapshots of something in the corners. It had several different abilities. She pulled her hands apart to zoom in. Sure enough, it read 30.

Lars unlocked his too. “Level 17.” He said proudly.

Hadwyn noticed something weird.

“Lars, yours has holes in it.”

He scoffed. “Holes? Ha! These are just unnecessary sections I removed, to prevent interference.”

Ruby laughed. “What the hell did you do to your statboard!? Why does it look like a trash bin?”

Lars took great offense to this. “So what? Enjoy your stupid pretty board! There are probably hundreds of pests in the walls!”

Ruby coughed. “And what, you're suggesting your basic statboard is safer than mine?”

Lars sneered. “Basic is better. Low profile.”

Ruby giggled again. “It's leaking.”

Lars refocused on his board. Particles were starting to come off of his board.

He immediately shut it off.

“Just buy a new board.” Ruby suggested, feigning pity.

He scoffed. “No way! Orion steals your stats and gives them to guilds.”

“I heard about that!” Hadwyn added. “Who accused them of that? I.L right?”

Lars gave a smug grin. “Gotta love I.L. After I got kicked out of college for my peaceful protest against statsharing, I got some mail from them.” He spread his hands. “Lars Sylvester, we would be glad to have someone like you among our ranks, please consider joining the Iron Legion!”

Ruby rolled her eyes. “They send those to everyone. Also, didn’t they prove Orion wasn’t taking information?”

Lars gritted his teeth. “Well, Orion said they were innocent, so I guess they were Innocent!” He mocked in his best impression of Ruby. You really just believe everything they tell you.

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Ruby turned to Hadwyn. “What’s your level anyways?”

Hadwyn looked sheepish. “I dunno. Last I checked, it was ten. Maybe it's twelve now?”

Ruby frowned. “No, it can’t be twelve. Lars was below you when we joined. He’s level 17 now, so you have to be somewhere around twenty.”

Hadwyn sighed. “Ruby… I have really terrible luck with my levels. I tried yearly progression and barely made it to nine.”

She cringed. “I believe you, Hadwyn. Are you going to check? I recommend you do, that way you can get some sort of… well, idea as to what your level would be now.”

Hadwyn relaxed. “I can’t check even if I wanted to.”

Lars stared at him. Ruby frowned even further.

“Do you… don’t you have a statboard?”

Hadwyn shook his head. “No. I never needed one, at least until now.”

Ruby seemed to be thinking for a moment. “You don’t happen to be one of those… reticent people, do you?

Hadwyn rolled his eyes. “No no, I’m not like that.” He said this while looking at Lars. Who wore yet another look of offense on his face before looking for his shoulder in an exaggerated manner. Lars then returned to glare at Ruby. “Maybe I might betray you guys like Baluk.”

Hadwyn sat back. He hadn’t meant to look at Lars. There were certain people who held the same beliefs as Lars, but even more extreme. They would refuse to trust any statboard system, and they would opt out of sharing their level with anyone or group. Those types of people were referred to as “Reticents.” Apparently, Lars didn’t go that far.

“Really? Anyways, let's get back on topic.” Ruby spun her eyes like there was no tomorrow. “Hadwyn, how much time until the substitute arrives?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, but I have another concern. What if the sub doesn’t read from the same rulebook? How’s he… or she going to react to our little plan?

Ruby stretched. She still wore her fighting uniform.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one that practices around here.” She sighed. “I spent the better part of the morning sparring with Sophia and pounding cinder blocks.”

Lars rolled his eyes. “Okay, I didn’t do much lately, but Hadwyn didn’t either.”

Hadwyn grunted. “I did. I spent a lot of time doing pushups.”

Lars laughed. “Pushups? No wonder we lost.”

Hadwyn was starting to feel pissed off by Lars.

Hadwyn gritted his teeth, Lars reminded him a bit of Loyd.

I wonder how he’s doing anyways? Wonder if Alice ever found out that he was cheating…

Hadwyn realized he was the one that started it by mentioning Reticents.

“Let's change the subject.” Hadwyn dismissed. “Do you guys know about any good boards that I might be able to buy?”

Ruby seemed to ponder for a while.

Lars answered immediately. “Listen Hadwyn, If you don’t want god-knows-who breathing down your neck, I’d suggest building yours from scratch, or pirate it.”

Ruby glared at him, “That’s illegal.” She raised an eyebrow. “Did you pirate yours, by any chance?”

“No, that would be illegal,” He said in a small voice. “I built mine from scratch.”

Hadwyn frowned. “I’m not in the know. Is this something that is a big deal?”

Ruby turned back to him. “Do you not read the aldarian section of whistling bird? That’s how they got famous in the first place.

Hadwyn leaned back in his chair. “Didn’t they cover the elven religious revival? Didn’t that get them famous?”

Ruby narrowed her eyes as non-accusingly as possible. I don’t keep up with that stuff.

“Why not? Weren’t you a missionary?”

“I was, but the elves don’t want to cooperate with the modern church, which is a long story. I’m sure it would put you to sleep.”

Lars shrugged. “You're right, I’m already getting bored.” He turned to Hadwyn. “Yes, people take that stuff seriously.”

Hadwyn recalled Macro removing the serial numbers on his weapons. Makes sense now. He thought.

“And to us, that was how The Whistling Bird even got popular among Aldarians in the first place.” Ruby added. “We all value privacy to some degree. Some more than others.” She looked at Lars.

Lars threw up his hands. “Don’t come crying to me when your info gets stolen. Actually, do come crying to me. I want to see it.”

Ruby turned back to Hadwyn. “The point is, everyone values privacy. From what I can tell, you’re worse off without a board. If you go to any statstation, your information will definitely be shared. Maybe not in Rorin, but in any other place. Like Paknov, or Graunvilk. Hell, even here in Brelkon they probably do some surveillance. You should get yourself a board. But it’s up to you, Rorin’s been cracking down on illegal surveillance. But I recommend you get yourself a board.

Hadwyn shoved his hands into his pockets. “Any brands you recommend?”

Ruby thought about it. “Uhhh… Lupin and Statstar are pretty affordable.”

Hadwyn sighed. “I heard some stuff about Orion. Is Orion affordable?”

Ruby waved her hand. “Orion is a luxury brand. They were the ones who figured out how to do 360.”

“Qvet?” Hadwyn suggested.

Ruby frowned. “They’re a Keywark brand. I don’t think it would be that high of quality, but they don’t get any complaints. Sounds okay to me.”

Hadwyn got up. “I’m gonna go to one of the shops to see if I can pick up a set. You guys need to go over the plan with Baluk to make sure he throws.”

Hadwyn got to the shop. It had all sorts of packets to buy. There was, of course, Orion. With even the most basic iteration priced at a whopping 99,999 coppers.

They guy at the store waved at him. “You have something in mind?”

“Yeah, you don't have Qvet here do you?”

“We actually do.” The guy said, sounding relieved. “They were on clearance. There are a few left.” He pointed to the back aisle.

Hadwyn found near his feet a few scattered Qvet packets. He grabbed one that looked the least damaged and brought it to the front.

He paid 999 for it and returned to the perimeter.

When he returned, he found that the substitute had arrived. A tall man with black coat.

He introduced himself. “I’m Martin. You will be referring to me as sir.” Go to your team and prepare, the test begins in 20 minutes.”

Hadwyn rushed to his room. He was pleased to find that Marco and Lars had appeared to have traded rooms, due to Lars having his coat hung up and there being no more goddamned weapons on the floor. Hadwyn did the procedure of inspecting his bedsheets to make sure there weren’t any knives waiting to stab him when he sat down.

Once he was satisfied, he immediately tore open his package.

It came with an Instruction packet. Hadwyn followed them and managed to open up Qvet. Hadwyn gave it permission to read his aura.