Several nervous minutes of deliberation followed before Syllis decided against it.

‘It’s too worry-some. Alcohol is not a guaranteed loss of memory. What would I do if he remembered our conversation tomorrow and went to his parents?’

The rest of their time at the tavern was spent talking about what they would do once they got back. The decision was made for Syllis and Clyde to have their first spar since she was contracted.

Syllis was not particularly worried. Unless he was holding back during their first battle, she thought it was reasonable for her to win. Clyde had not demonstrated any extremely potent forms of strength, his speed might have been slightly faster than Aura, but still less than her own.

Overall, Clyde’s bond seemed to be somewhat gimmicky. It would likely be useful within a fable rift but in scenarios where you would fight the same opponent time after time, it did not seem too well-made for that.

Syllis bid farewell to Jyrid before the both of them headed back. The carriage ride was purely silent, Clyde was likely forming strategies in his head and she would have done the same. Unfortunately, there was another topic on her mind.

As for how exactly Syllis was meant to play the part of a sparring partner, she did not quite know. It seemed straightforward enough, but once she realized the benefits she was given just to fight Clyde, it was sort of absurd.

‘Am I supposed to give feedback or help him improve his application of his bond?’

Syllis dismissed the thought, this would have been clearly outlined in the contract she signed.

A faint chill washed over Syllis. ‘If that isn’t it then… It must mean that fable rifts are a hell of a lot more risky than I anticipated.’

Suddenly, she dreaded the day she would have to step into one. For the Boorne family to supply her with shelter, food and schooling for at least a year as per the contract, how terrifying did the fable rifts have to be?

Clark had clearly known how much Syllis liked to spar, due to her fight with Aura. Even though the contract was drafted before, he should have had a couple of variations.

As she thought about it more, Syllis realized that she was not a sparring instructor, but instead a contracted nomad. The sparring was merely something to give Syllis to do while she bided her time until they were ready to head into a rift.

The both of them sparred. They had a close fight, evading narrow blows and trading with their bonds. Eventually, Syllis had ended up taking the win—though she sustained more damage than she would have liked.

----------------------------------------

Weeks blended into a couple of months.

Syllis had gradually been adjusting to her studies at Lurgica. Most of the classes she took were entirely useless to her.

Ritualistic studies only regurgitated the same information every class while giving new circles to imitate with chalk.

History of Fable Rifts, was something that Syllis was wholly uninterested in. She had gotten a brief rundown from Clyde and even that had been a bit much for her. She did not see the point in learning from the past. It was more important to her that the future was ensured. Should this class not instead guide kindred to keep the future safe, instead of looming over a past that cannot be overwritten.

Surviving in Fables was a partially important class, but only with minor advice. The vast majority of fables were entirely different from the rest. That is what happens when they are fabricated by a plethora of different civilizations—at least that is the leading theory.

Thus, the only useful information was on how to effectively skin creatures, what meat was usable, how to cook it. Various small things that did not need to be lumped into the middle of mostly unusable advice for already expedited fables.

There was one class that Syllis had found interesting, although it had its own drawback.

Combat proficiency was essentially just an excuse for kindred to fight each other. Every student in the class just wanted to spar, instead of taking the combat tips to heart. Eventually, the professors relented and just turned it into a bracket system to prevent unfair fights.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

There were four brackets with around ten students each and Syllis—being new to Lurgica—was naturally placed into the lowest bracket. Only after winning against the majority of the students in her bracket could she move up to the next. The reverse applied if you lost to the majority.

It was a slug, the process of trying to reach the top, which was where all of the promising students were. It was frustrating, Lurgica even used this class as a method to prevent spars on campus. “Just fight tomorrow in combat proficiency.” It was unexpectedly effective.

This only enraged Syllis further, students would not challenge her outside, so she was forced to crawl up through the brackets.

“Finally, today I’m in the top bracket.” Syllis muttered under her breath and scoffed at the sheer amount of time she’d wasted climbing the ranks.

Though it was all worth it in the end.

The entire classroom quaked after seeing the bracket matchups for the day written onto the signature charcoal-black board. Every day the students would crowd around the large board and examine the matchups. There was a list of all brackets designated: A, B, C and D. All of the students fell under these categories. If there was a star next to your name, then you were sparring today.

Syllis had watched herself be moved from the very lowest tier to the highest, though she took no pleasure in it.

Students were initially tested and placed into their starting brackets at the start of the school year. Since Syllis had missed that, she had to climb up. The only reason she had ascended so fast was because many students simply refused to fight her. Lurgica obviously had no way of forcing kindred to fight so whenever there were no more kindred in her bracket to fight, then Syllis was moved up.

This was the case throughout the D and C tier. They shook in fear after seeing their star accompanying Syllis’ star. B tier marked a qualitative shift in ideologies though. No B tier had refused to spar, these were where the kindred of Lurgica began to shine, although they still were no match for Syllis.

Every fight of hers in the B tier still only took a couple minutes at most. This was only a fraction longer than the very few spars in D and C tier but Syllis had no choice but to applaud them.

‘At least they did not display the same cowardice that they had.’ Syllis found herself thinking this after every B tier spar despite them being tedious. Though she could not quite fault the D and C tiers either, most of their bonds were not made for fighting.

Syllis tried to squeeze through the drove of around fifty students.

“This is going to be an interesting matchup.” One student spoke intriguingly.

“No, not Adelphi again. I’m just going to forfeit.” Another sounded defeated, refusing to go through their same apparent struggle again.

“Oh, Oh!” A bunch of students exclaimed. “That nymph is finally going to be knocked down a peg hehe…”

‘Ok now I really have to see this matchup.’ Syllis continued to push through the crowd.

Syllis already knew that these students were referring to her.

‘Who knew that winning every spar and striking fear into the entire three lower brackets would garner me some negative attention?’ Syllis rolled her eyes, amused by the students' hatred over her.

This hatred even seemed to mend some students' past relationships. Constantly, students switched friend groups. They would exile and be exiled from them. Some would curse out former friends over the slightest injury between the two of them.

Syllis’ sudden uprising had given every student someone to put all of their anger on. It was absurd, how easily deterred the human mind is. Not that it particularly mattered to Syllis.

Although she had not made any new friends, she did not particularly need any either. Syllis was solely at Lurgica for preparation for her first fable rift and to spar with renowned juvenile kindred.

Syllis realized the former was needed on her carriage ride back from Ferrywell’s a couple of months ago, she realized it was a death sentence to just wait for the day to come. After that realization, she had heard a ton of stories about nomads never returning from their expeditions. This further urged her to seek out preparation.

Though this was not that important preparation, it was equally needed to Syllis. She had solely sparred against Clyde recently, and technically Korman but they hardly counted. Aura was still too afraid to spar with her again, though Syllis felt she was slowly accepting her.

Her bracket matches were the most tedious activity ever and she could only watch the A-tiers in class for so long before growing bored.

‘I need this relaxation. Especially since Clyde only wins every ten spars now… And those spars are after I’ve exhausted myself practicing.’

Perhaps it was a little odd to refer to it as ‘relaxation’ but that was how Syllis felt. Battling was her favorite activity but playing with the same toy for so long grew boring quickly.

The students behind Syllis realized her presence and quickly moved out of the way. Only Clyde and Korman stood staring at the charcoal-black board.

They turned to look at Syllis with an expression that teetered between sympathetic and supportive.

Syllis turned, gleaning the board. Her eyes immediately flicked past the first three tiers, all the way to A.

The corners of her lips rose and formed a wide grin.

‘It’s finally happening, that red haired bastard is going to get what’s coming to him.’