It was a breath of relief to smell the fresh air outside of the lair. Once again, we were rushed up to the academy where healers awaited us. I was pleased to finally get the healing I needed. When the healers were done, we were sent up to Dean Weber’s conference room where she once again gave us all a chance to request a transfer to another team, which no one took. Al also kept his mouth shut this time about having him removed from the team. I hoped that meant he knew he was stuck with us.

As the debrief came to an end, Dean Weber approached me, “Mister Belov, a moment of your time please.”

I nodded.

She smiled, “I heard you had quite the adventure, we should talk. Let’s go to my office. It will be more comfortable, I think.”

I agreed and followed her from the conference room and into her office. As we walked in silence, I pulled up my Achievement menu, interested to see my new and upgraded achievements.

Achievements

Permanent Lair Defeated II - Plus 2% Strength, plus 2% Agility, plus 2% Dexterity, and plus 2% Charisma

Heroic Lair Defeated II - Plus 10% to All Statuses

Wild Hunt Defeated - Improved Tracking

That plus ten percent was a lot . . . or it could be a lot eventually, if I survived the two new lairs left for first year academy students to tackle. Then we’d be pushed back through the lairs but without help from Coach or the other Professors. Although, I wasn’t sure about that any more. We’d lost someone in our first Lair, almost lost Yui in the Gauntlet, and Plvoer and I both almost died in the Hunter’s Run. The Academy may not want us to reattempt the previous lairs without help from the Coaches, not with the increased difficulty level we’d face.

Still, I was amazed by how fast the year had already progressed, three months had already come and gone. Time sure flew by when you were putting your life on the line.

The dean motioned for me to sit as she prepared tea, serving me a cup before she also sat down behind her desk. She stared at me for a long moment, undoubtedly using her Analysis Magic on me. Her hands were steepled in front of her face, hiding any facial expression rather effectively. Eventually, she stopped staring and lowered her hands to rest on the arms of her chair. “You are something of an enigma, Mister Belov . . . or whatever your name is.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“You have emerged once again with skills that . . . well, let me just say, they make me nervous,” she said.

I furrowed my brows in confusion. What skills made her nervous? I hadn’t learned anything that dangerous, had I?

“I can practically feel your confusion,” the dean said, sounding satisfied. “That is good. It means you don’t know what you have.”

That bothered me. But rather than trying to guess what she was talking about, I asked, “What do I have?”

“How exactly did you learn Mana Cultivation?” she asked, her eyes flashing with silver light. This time I wasn’t able to resist the compulsion.

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“When I recovered from Torpor, I was hungry. I consumed dozens of my mana rich savoury rolls. I suppose I overdosed,” I answered. “I tried to expel the mana but my body just kept producing more of it. When I noticed some toxins expelled from my body, it made me think of my Mana Circulation exercises. So, that’s what I did. I circulated my mana. When I finished breaking down the mana in my body and expelling a lot of toxins, I had advanced my Mana Control to Advanced rank, and managed to learn both Mana Circulation and Mana Cultivation skills, in addition to unlocking Badger’s Constitution,” I was annoyed by how easily the answers emerged from my mouth. I hadn’t even resisted in the slightest.

“Hn,” Dean Weber grunted. “How long have you been practising Mana Circulation?”

“Almost a year,” I answered.

The Dean rubbed at the thin hairs on her chin that were common for goat-folk. “You are certainly an enigma. You are also very lucky to be alive. The amount of mana to cultivate your body like that would have killed most. Have you told anyone else about your breakthrough?”

I shook my head. “It just happened. I didn’t feel comfortable telling anyone until I learned more about it.”

The Dean nodded and the glow in her eyes faded, “That was wise.”

I frowned at the goatwoman. “Was that really necessary?”

She raised a single eyebrow at me. “You do know your Job is to lie and steal, right? Why would I trust anything out of your mouth that wasn’t a compelling truth?”

That wasn’t fair, especially not when I’d been honest with her so far. I didn’t like it but there was nothing I could do about it now. “Fine, then can you tell me about Mana Cultivation? I have a basic understanding of it from the skill. With a lot of time and practise I can refine my body, which will improve my statuses.”

“That is correct,” the dean said with a nod. “It is a skill that few of the kin have ever earned. Not much is known about it except that every kin who has unlocked the skill has become powerful.”

That was good to know. From what Yum told me, I would need all the power I could get to contest whatever the system threw at me for having the Unsung Hero Achievement and not taking the Job. If I survived the next five years, I might just have to become the Unsung Hero anyway.

“Tell me, do you think you could teach Mister Romano?” Dean Weber asked, surprising me slightly.

“What?” I asked, confused by the request.

“Can you teach Mister Romano?” she asked again.

“I . . . I don’t know,” I said. “I could give him the diary that got me started on learning Mana Circulation. It’s where I started. And I could try to repeat the process I used but without the ravenous hunger that followed using Torpor, I don’t know that he’d be able to eat that many rolls. Not to mention I nearly died in the process myself.”

The dean frowned. “I see. Well, if you wouldn’t mind, get him started learning Mana Circulation, if he asks why, I expect you to lie. I will see if I can find a safe way for him to gain the Cultivation skill without putting his life at risk.”

I returned her frown with one of my own. She was asking me for something and not offering anything in return. That wasn’t the way I did things. There was always a cost. “And what’s in it for me?”

The dean groaned irritably. “Keeping your reason for being here secret isn’t enough?”

I replied sharply, a bit of heat leaking into my voice, “If you tell him or anyone, my time here is done, and then there is no way I’m sharing anything with Al. You are asking for something above and beyond. That deserves compensation. And if you don’t want to pay for my help, then I would suggest you find someone else to teach him.”

The dean growled angrily. “You understand the fate of the world is at stake here, right?”

I glowered at her. Of course, that was where she’d go. “Then I suggest you make it worth my while.”

The dean glared a moment longer then sighed and sagged in her chair. “Fine, I suppose you do deserve payment for services. What do you want?”

I thought about it for a minute. There were many things I wanted but only a few things I needed. “I want personal training.”

“Training in what?” the dean asked.

“Skill creation. I need to create a Shadow Claw skill, you never found skill stones for it and I have yet to receive the promised tutoring,” I replied.

The dean frowned. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Great, as soon as I’ve had my first training session, I’ll get Comrade Alphonse started,” I replied.

The dean hesitated before finally saying, “Agreed.”

I nodded.

“Now, get out,” the dean ordered.

I didn’t need to be told twice. I was ready to go home. I had some reading to do.