“Well! Maybe I should drop by. Just to bask in the adulation, of course.”
Alex gritted her teeth at the amusement in her mother’s tone. “Dad, tell Mom that would be an awful idea, would you?”
Her father chuckled, his baffled amusement clear in his expression. “I think it might do just a little harm to my cover-up efforts if you got yourself a pack of worshippers, dear.”
“Oh, darn it. I suppose I’ll just have to restrict myself to you, Eric.” Her mother patted her father’s incredibly broad shoulder, a smile still twisting its way across her scarred face. Muriel’s single remaining eye was bright with the remnants of her laughter; as predicted, she’d nearly laughed hard enough to make herself throw up when Alex had sent a photo of the statue in the portal room. The reaction of her father had been one of horror mixed with sympathy, but he hadn’t been above a few barks of amusement too.
“Glad to hear you aren’t planning to drop in, Mom.” Alex sighed. “Though I do wish you could both visit. This place is… weird.”
Muriel grimaced. “We knew you’d have to leave eventually, Alex. There’s no way you would have been happy just going through the same E rank portal for your entire career, and you know it. At least this batch doesn’t seem too bad. They recognize true talent and virtue, after all.”
Her father muttered something about ‘virtue’ that the microphone didn’t quite pick up, and Muriel’s face abruptly went red. She spun slightly to slap at Eric’s shoulder, and he laughed behind one thick hand. The Crimson Blade—a name that fit all too well at the moment—turned back to the camera and tried to ignore her husband. “And the rest of your friends? Are they fitting in well?”
“Seems like they are, yeah. They made it through the first Survey fine.” Alex glanced towards the empty door of the barracks she shared with the other girls. “They went out for a post-Survey celebration, too, so I think that means the other Red Blade folks aren’t too bad to hang out with. At least they aren’t going to turn out to be griefers.”
The amusement abruptly drained from her parents’ faces. They’d pulled the details of her method of dealing with Paul and his griefer friends out of her after things had calmed down, and they weren’t remotely happy about how much risk she’d taken on herself. Muriel, particularly, had wanted to extract a promise from her that she would trust her mother to take care of a similar situation next time. Even with one arm, she’d claimed, the Crimson Blade could have dealt with a quartet of E rank griefers without breaking a sweat.
Alex had privately agreed, but she’d refused to give her word on it. Her mother had already suffered enough, and no matter what her parents had said, they couldn’t risk helping without taking the chance that someone would connect the dots the way Zach had done.
Besides, Alex hadn’t minded dealing with the griefers. It was good practice for her plans in the future.
Eric pushed in closer to the camera. “How has the company been treating you so far? I know our standards are a little low after Golden Swallow, but still…”
Alex shrugged. “They seem like they have things a bit more under control, at the very least. They are going to give us plenty of Skill training between Surveys, which seems like a good thing. The company seems like it cares about making sure the Surveyors are well prepared before they go into the portal too. Golden Swallow didn’t exactly care nearly that much about us.”
He nodded slowly. “And your boss?”
She paused. “They have a D rank that goes through the portal with us. The one I worked with today seemed nice.” Then she shrugged. “Chief Wells is in charge of the compound, and he seems a little… rough, to be honest. He seems like he throws his weight around a lot, but he might leave me alone if I train hard enough.”
“No need to worry about that, at least.” Muriel smiled broadly. “When do you think you’ll be able to get enough leave to come home? I know it’s a long trip, but we’ve already been missing you.”
Alex felt a pang of unexpected homesickness. She pictured the smell of breakfast drifting in through the open kitchen doorway, imagined her parents waiting for her and chattering. Her mind filled with the chance to train with her mother, or ask her father’s help with things. For a moment, she was tempted to leave for that same weekend.
Then she sighed. “I’m not sure yet. I think I need to stay here for the first few weeks, just to get used to it. Otherwise I’d be home every weekend.”
Her father cracked a smile. “I don’t see why that would be a problem.”
“Well, if I spend my entire stipend on bus and train tickets, I won’t exactly be doing my bank account much good.” Alex saw him grimace at the logic, and she tried to moderate her tone. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, and I’ll make sure to call you whenever I get the chance. It’ll be fine. I promise.”
Muriel nodded. “We know, Alex. It’s just hard to adjust. You’re going to do great out there, though.” Then her eye sparkled. “Just remember to follow the wonderful example of the Crimson Blade, and you can’t go wrong.”
Alex rolled her eyes and groaned. Her mother started chuckling again, and her father gave her a commiserating sigh. “I’ll do my best, Mom. Love you both. I’ll see you soon.”
They waved goodbye, and the video call closed. Alex stared at the screen for a moment longer, still wrestling with the unexpected heartache. Then she went back to preparing for bed. The next day was going to be a busy one, after all.
Alex was up early, dragged from a dream of bacon and eggs by an insistent alarm.
She groaned and slapped at the thing until it deactivated. Then she rolled over to look at her teammates. They were all still solidly asleep, something that she hadn’t expected. Alex hadn’t even woken up when they had stumbled in from the post-Survey celebration, so it had to have been fairly late at night. Neither of her early bird friends, Clara and Audrey, even cracked an eye while she got ready.
Shaking her head over them, Alex just changed into her running clothes. She didn’t know if Wells had wanted to oversee her training for Marathoning, but the Skill had been too repeatedly useful to ignore now. Part of her was actually worried about giving it up once it was time to reset her Role, but it wasn’t a real concern; Battle Maneuvers would be the Skill she kept going forwards and she’d just have to cope with the loss.
Moving quietly, Alex left the barracks and wandered through the halls for a bit until she found the exercise courtyard. The confusing twists and turns of the compound made her question whether or not she’d be able to find her way back, but maybe she’d run into someone who could help her find her way.
Magic flooded her nostrils as she started her initial run. She could have started a meandering run through the various buildings of the compound, but the idea just felt wrong somehow. Sticking to a defined course around the exercise area appealed to her sense of order better. Besides, the massive stretch of pavement was a fairly decent area, even if it was still dwarfed by the old containment area around the Golden Swallow portal.
It took her a lap or two to really hit her stride; the presence of the magic in the air had thrown off her breathing a little, compared to the relative lack of it in the air around her parents’ house. As she adjusted to it, Alex fell deeper and deeper into the rhythm of making her way along the perimeter. By the time she reached the fifth lap, her Skill was starting to kick in. She could feel it speeding her steps, drawing on the magic to reduce her fatigue. An idle part of her wondered if she could keep this pace until she fell over from thirst or hunger.
She was still pondering over the idea when she caught sight of someone running on top of the compound’s perimeter wall. Alex tilted her head in surprise, wondering why the idea hadn’t occurred to her. Whoever it was hadn’t built up quite as much speed as she had, but they were moving at a decent pace. Bemused, she waved up at them as they went by.
To her surprise, the figure came to a stumbling halt. They stared down at her for a moment and then jogged for the nearest set of stairs. Alex debated waiting for them and shrugged. She wasn’t about to break her rhythm for someone she didn’t even really know.
Except it turned out she did know the other runner. It was Ed, who waited for her to make her way around another lap before he started huffing and puffing alongside her. She nodded a welcome to him, and obligingly slowed her pace a bit. Not enough to make the Porter comfortable, but it was his choice to try to keep up with her.
He grimaced a little at the pace and swung around to take the inside lane on the perimeter. A wise move; he’d end up running the shorter distance on the curves. “So… what brings you… out here?”
Alex huffed an extra-large breath out and quietly slowed her pace just a little more. If he was being pleasant, she couldn’t deliberately run him ragged, right? “Skill training. I have Marathoning, so I need a lot of running to make it go up.”
Ed blinked. He studied her a moment, and nodded. “I can… tell. What Chain… gives that?”
“Running and Recovery. You might… be able to do it.” She raised an eyebrow at him. “What brings you out here?”
“Trying… to practice… some of my… Skills too.” He gave her a half-incredulous look. “Tough… to talk.”
Alex laughed a little. “Too bad, Porter. You’re training Recovery, or did you actually take Running too?”
“Just… Recovery.” Ed shook his head. “Crimson Blade… always ran. Good workout.”
She snorted softly. It was true, and developing Running had been some of the earliest advice her mother had given her about her own Skills. Still, to hear her quoted like some ancient source of wisdom was stretching things a little. Alex wondered briefly how Ed would react if he ever got the chance to meet the actual Crimson Blade, instead of the idealized version of her mother that he’d obviously built in his mind.
“So you just like… to get up early for a nice run?” Her own breath was starting to betray her a little bit, a fact that made Alex double down just a little. Ed grunted a little as she picked up the pace to compensate.
“No. Chief Wells… felt I should… stay home… last night.” He forced a stubborn grin. “Punishment… run.”
Alex snorted again. Were they the only E rankers who’d gotten any sleep last night? “Gotcha. Sorry about that.”
“Don’t… be.” Ed seemed to bear down a little as well, catching back up to her after some effort. “You’re… tough. All… are. We needed… to see it.”
“Oh, I’m not sorry I beat you.” She grinned at him. “Just sorry Wells is being… a pain.”
Ed grinned back, and then they fell silent as they started another lap around the pavement. Given how things were looking, they were going to have plenty of time to run before anyone else joined them, and Alex wanted to make sure she took advantage of it.
[Marathoning advances to 18!]
[Recovery advances to 3!]
Alex eyed the notification with quite a bit of disdain. The number of laps around the exercise yard had been a bit more… significant than she’d expected. Ed had hung with her through most of them, though he’d needed to take frequent breaks while she ran laps on her own. Apparently, his Recovery Skill worked well, but he’d needed to stop for it to take effect each time.
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Still, she’d managed to increase the stubborn Marathoning Skill by one. If she could keep increasing it one each day, she could afford to reset it on her next Survey. That fact alone made the fatigue worth it.
Of course, she wasn’t going to be the only one hurting now. The other Surveyors were only now starting to stagger from their barracks, mostly dressed in workout outfits or standard Red Blade uniforms. She saw Audrey and Sam staring around blearily and waved to them. Sam half-heartedly returned the wave, though Audrey seemed to brighten up immediately.
The Squire half-dragged the Adept over to where Alex and Ed were standing. “Hey! I see you’ve already started on your Skill training. I didn’t know that you and Ed set that up last night!”
Ed shared a look with Alex before she responded. “We didn’t. We just ran into each other while the rest of you were sleeping off your good time from last night.”
Sam raised an eyebrow, looking back and forth between them. “That sounds… reasonable.” Then he shrugged. “So, what’s next on the schedule? Are you still up for some sparring? I think my Skills could use some support.”
Alex winced. “Yeah. Just take it a bit easier on me at first, okay? I hard reset most of my combat Skills yesterday, so I’m not going to be quite as good this time.”
The Adept stared at her a moment. Then he exchanged victorious grins with Audrey. They both cackled in a way that made Alex abruptly unhappy to have shared her situation. “So you’re saying the invincible Alex Morrison is about to get the wholly deserved drubbing she’s been earning for weeks now? Sign me up. Right now, in fact.”
Audrey grabbed him. “Oh no. I had to deal with it just as long as you have. Do you remember that time she threw me halfway across the street?”
Sam poked her in the collarbone. “Was it before or after she knocked the spear out of my hand and sat on me?”
The squabbling continued, with an increasingly amused Ed looking on as they continued to claim more and more injustices that they needed to avenge themselves of. Alex decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and started to slip away—only for Joanna to clear her throat a moment later. She turned and saw the Adept grinning widely, a practice sword already slung across her shoulders. “Did someone say something about payback?”
Alex dragged herself onto a bench a handful of hours later. Yellow letters were still glowing in the edges of her vision.
[Battle Maneuvers advances to 8!]
[Combined Arms Axe-Shield advances to 8!]
[Recovery advances to 9!]
Just about every muscle she could still feel was sore. It seemed like everyone from her old teams, from Joanna to Tim, Alessa to Audrey, had taken turns exacting their ‘revenge’ on her. Apparently, there had been quite a bit of hostility built up that they had felt the need to vent. Even Clara had gotten in on the act, sending the occasional crossbow shot in her direction.
Not that she had let them have all their own way. She still had her basic Attributes, and as the day had gone on, her Skills had started to come back. There was still quite a way to go before she would be at the level she had reached before, but she felt sure she’d reach it before the next Survey at the very least. The others were already talking about ganging up on her in pairs again.
She heard a chuckle from nearby and spared enough energy to glare in Ed’s direction. The Porter hadn’t joined in on the beating, but she had caught him laughing about her situation a couple of times. Alex gave him a narrow look, and he held up both hands. “Don’t blame me, Ms. Morrison! This must be some violent behavior that Golden Swallow encouraged in its Surveyors.”
Alex continued to give him a low and evil look. “And you Red Blade guys are just above such things?”
“Of course!”
“Definitely not because my friends were already lining up when you were telling them about it?”
Ed blinked and laughed out loud. He shook his head. “I think they’ll be a bit more ready next time, so brace yourself for that. As it is, I think Sam and Joanna are starting up a queue.”
Alex looked over and saw a small line forming. She groaned as she saw half a dozen Red Blade Surveyors lined up for their turn to pound on her. “Great. You’d think they would just want to fight me when I was at full strength.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Ed chuckled again. “Hey, I’m just glad you’ve taken some of the pressure off. Normally, I’m the one who has to have the crosshairs on his back.”
“So glad to be of service.” She shook her head. At least it would help her Skills increase that much faster. “I don’t suppose you would volunteer to take on my next fight?”
“That would be difficult.” Ed’s grin grew a little wider. “After all, I called the next spot. Wouldn’t want to miss the chance to try a few new tricks while they had a chance of working.”
Alex groaned and put a wet towel over her head. It was going to be a very long day.
Fortunately, she was able to persuade the compound full of bloodthirsty Surveyors to take a break long enough for lunch. They crowded in with her in the compound’s cafeteria, where she drank water and shoveled food in her mouth as fast as she could make it go. She didn’t know how much time she was going to get to rest and digest before half the Survey teams were going to go back to beating on her, after all.
She was just finishing her meal when she heard someone clear their throat behind her. Alex turned and found Chief Wells standing behind her, with his stance painfully formal. “Surveyor Morrison. A moment of your time?”
Alex nodded and shoved herself up from the table. He walked a short distance away and then paused long enough for her to come around in front of him. Wells looked at her for a long moment, and then nodded. “I believe I told you about the celebration with the other Surveyors last night, didn’t I?”
The question seemed to have been very carefully phrased. Alex tried not to frown when she responded. “Yeah. You mentioned it when we were still in the portal room.”
“Ah, good.” Wells paused. “I noticed you didn’t manage to attend with the rest of the team, and I was just worried that I had somehow failed to include you.”
Her sense of danger twinged again, as if she’d just put herself into the sight of an Archer. What was it that felt so off about the man? “No, I just had some things I needed to take care of, and I felt like I needed a good night’s sleep before we trained today. I didn’t want to miss out on anything.”
Wells nodded, his expression taking on a more patient cast. “That is a good way to think of things, especially given our responsibilities as Surveyors. At the same time, the celebrations are an important event. We don’t want to forget why we are doing all of this, do we? Supporting your comrades and being a part of their lives will help you trust each other and keep us working as a team. That unity is just as important as any Skill training could be, especially since it shows dedication to our cause as a company.”
Alex blinked at the subtle emphasis on those words. Wells hadn’t exactly been as dedicated to unity and teamwork when he’d been mocking the incoming Golden Swallow Surveyors or knocking her across the exercise yard, had he? Why the change in tone now? “I see. That does sound important.”
He glanced back at the table with the others before he continued. “I’d like you to consider it a different kind of training. We’ll have another celebration after our next round of Surveys. It would be good to see you there.”
“I understand, Chief Wells.” Alex watched as he smiled, and then ambled off to the officer’s table further on. She watched him for a few more moments, wondering why the advice had been so disturbing to hear. Was he genuinely worried about Alex’s ability to fit in, or was he just trying to make sure she didn’t stand out too much?
Then she shook her head. Whatever the cause, she had more than enough to worry about lately. Maybe she could try to figure out what Wells was up to if she managed to survive the next couple of days without getting her head beaten in. There would be only one way to find out.
The next two days dissolved into something like a blur.
In the mornings, she hauled herself out of bed to go on a run. Ed was somewhat glad to have a running partner, though he did persuade her to join him in running along the perimeter wall rather than the exercise yard. It gave her a much longer lap to enjoy—and somewhat coincidentally made sure that his rests between laps were that much longer.
Clara joined her on the second day as well, though the Acolyte was definitely not optimized for that sort of activity. Her friend had just muttered something about chaperones when Alex had pressed her, and had insisted on occasionally mentioning Zach when they were running along together. Ed had seemed a bit mystified by the talk, but he’d shrugged it off and asked Alex more about where she’d learned her fighting technique. It wasn’t hard to increase the pace enough to shut them both down for a bit, but it still made for an interesting start to each day.
At the very least, running along the wall made for a beautiful new experience. The perimeter wall let Alex see an elevated view of the streets of the city below her. She got to run above busy streets, peering down at sidewalks that were choked with pedestrians. Occasionally she got to peek across the streets at offices that had their buildings next to the compound. It seemed odd to see people working at their desks while she ran along at eye level across the street. Some of them even waved, though she didn’t know if they were looking for a reaction from her, or one of her running companions.
Once the rest of the Surveyors had filtered into the yard, they went down and started the sparring drills. Her Skills had continued to increase as the others kept hammering on her, and they had been forced to come at her in small groups rather than on their own. The only exceptions were some of the higher-level Surveyors in their group. Ed was the worst one to face, but she could tell that her Skills were slowly giving her the edge as they practiced together. He seemed to recognize it too, though he wasn’t as upset as some of the other Red Blades over the fact.
Wells had been observing the training the whole time as well. He didn’t seem to be taking notes, just watching with an intense expression. Occasionally, he had stalked between the fighting Surveyors, giving out advice to those who were failing to do well. For better or worse, Wells ignored Alex completely, just stalking by with a dissatisfied expression on his face.
By the time Alex fell into her bed, utterly exhausted for the third day in a row, she was beginning to ask herself if going on a Survey would actually be easier than training was.
“Welcome!” Chief Wells was grinning, something that seemed almost ghoulish. He stalked back and forth across the exercise yards, studying the rows of Surveyors in front of him. “Today is the day we are going to send Surveyors through the portal. It is the day we fulfill the most sacred duties that we have as Surveyors. It is a precious opportunity, and one we should always be grateful for.”
He paused. “Unfortunately, not every person here has effectively prepared for this opportunity, and Red Blade Securities cannot allow anyone who has neglected their training to participate in this exercise. It would be a shame upon both our company, and on all of the other Surveyors that worked hard to be ready for this chance.”
“As a result, only half of the Surveyors here will be going through the portal, while the others will be assigned to cleaning and maintenance details to encourage them to try harder. The teams going through the portal are as follows…”
Alex waited with the others as the names were read out. She didn’t think that Wells would be petty enough to keep her from going through the portal just out of personal dislike, but that wasn’t exactly a guarantee. After all, pettiness had never stopped Liliana from doing anything at Golden Swallow, and she’d already stepped on his toes at least twice.
To her relief, though, it seemed like Chief Wells had decided to overlook the issue. He called out her name, along with Ed’s and Bob’s again. Apparently, the chief had decided that they would make a good team on the other side of the portal, though he also included another Surveyor, a Squire named Mary.
Joanna, Audrey, and Clara were all named as well. Sam was named too, on a team of otherwise Red Blade members, but Alessa, Brian, and Tim were all left waiting for their names by the time Wells had finished. She felt a burst of indignation and frustration as she saw the disappointment and anger on their faces. There were worse Surveyors that had still been assigned to the portal; what criteria was Wells even using?
The chief continued without deigning to notice the discontent he’d created. “Those of you assigned to the Survey should come to the portal and cooperate with your Vanguard in taking on the challenge of the other world. Those who weren’t chosen, your maintenance assignments are waiting for you in the administrative building. Skipping those assignments will result in more delays before you are allowed to go on a Survey.”
He smiled. “You’re all dismissed.”
Alex stood in front of the portal and fumed.
She watched as the team ahead of her stepped into the vortex and vanished. There were four of them, and she’d seen Alessa batter at least one of them to the pavement the day before. Tim and Brian had beaten another two in a team duel. Why were they going in while her friends weren’t? It didn’t make sense. What else was going on here?
Laura was their Vanguard again, though the woman seemed a little more uncertain as she welcomed Alex to the team. Their new member, Mary, raised an eyebrow and then shrugged, shouldering the gigantic, oversized battleaxe she carried.
The others saluted her mother’s statue. Alex was too frustrated to pretend; she simply stepped forward, and let the light wash through her…
[E Rank Surveyor Alex, Gatekeeper]
[Ascension Level: 4]
[Role: Page (Role Skills: None]
[Role Level: 4]
[Experience: 180/1500]
[Attributes: Strength -> 4, Speed -> 8, Life -> 0, Devotion -> 0, Control -> 0]
[Current Skills: Battle Maneuvers(17), Marathoning(20), Combined Arms–Axe/Shield(17), Recovery(14)]
[Permanent Skills: None]
[Current Titles: Lady of War (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Combined Arms, Weapon Mastery, and Battle Maneuvers by one.),
Savagery (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Weapon Mastery, and Combined Arms Skills by two.),
Innate Fighter (Increases Skill grade of Dodging, Anticipate, Battle Maneuvers, and Inspect by two),
Persistent (Increases Skill grade of Recovery, Running, and Marathoning by one.)]
Alex paused, considering her profile again. There was something about it that still seemed off, though she couldn’t tell exactly what it was. The Titles all looked correct, and if the Skills weren’t quite where she wanted them to be, she was sure that she’d be able to reset most of them by the end of the Survey. Despite that, she still felt like she was missing something.
Shaking her head, she pulled up the next set of words, examining them for a moment.
[Please select your intent]
[Exploration]
[Vengeance]
[Patrol]
[War]
[Salvage]
Laura had already told her that they were doing the same thing as last time. Despite her inner voice urging her to choose something else and cause trouble, she selected Patrol.
[Your intent is to Patrol]
[Quest Issued! Destroy eight Grue Knights.]
[Quest Issued! Clear at least eight Grue patrols.]
[Hidden Quest Issued!]
[Hidden Quest Issued!]
[Hidden Quest Issued!]
[Hidden Quest Issued!]
Alex stared at those Hidden Quests for a long moment. There had to be some way to complete some of them without screwing up the Survey for the rest of her team. Come to think of it, with Mary joining them, it was going to be even harder for them all to compete over the Knights and Archers they already needed to wipe out. Unless the Vanguard kept them in the portal for longer and picked off even more patrols than before, they’d be competing with their own teammates for targets.
Shaking her head, Alex dismissed the text and waited for the light to drag her forward. She hadn’t even seen a Grue yet, and already it seemed like things were falling apart…