Chapter 43: Important news
Felix Sythias’s POV:
“Are you feeling okay?” Alex asked.
I considered for a moment to simply lie and say I was, but I didn’t want to lie to Alex. And I didn’t want to hide my feelings, either. Because I wasn’t feeling okay. The way Viggi kept leaving me out of conversations, dismissed my answers in favor of Alex’s, and how they left me in the living room by myself for so long… I felt like an after-thought, like a third wing.
If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve thought Viggi hadn’t wanted me there at all. But I did know better. He had wanted to hang out too, and he was the one who invited me to his home in the first place. Everything pointed to him wanting me to be there, so why did he ignore me for most of the evening? Did he just like Alex more? Or was he simply more comfortable talking with Alex since he knew him better—they did attend that meeting together after all and would’ve had plenty of time to get to know each other.
At least it got better while we played the game. He actually tried including me then; to the point it was very noticeable. I hoped that if we hung out again in the future, that it wouldn’t feel so forced.
“Mostly,” I told Alex. “I guess I just expected more.”
“I get that. I expected more of him, too. He invited both of us, not just me.”
“Did you talk with him?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine any other reason why Viggi suddenly changed like that.
“I did,” he said. “If it’s any consolation, he didn’t do it on purpose. He wasn’t even aware he was doing it, and is sorry.”
“That’s good, I think. I just hope it will go better next time.”
That gave him pause. “You still want there to be a next time? I figured you wouldn’t want to hang out with him again.”
I’d considered it, and if things hadn’t changed during the game, I might have decided not to have a next time. But they had, so I hoped that if we all hung out together again, that he wouldn’t leave me out again. Besides, he’d been fine when it was just the two of us, like on the walk back, or during Aerial Combat. It wasn’t right to give up so soon, not when I had so few friends to begin with.
I only had Tiki and Alex, and I had a crush on Alex, and perhaps even feelings for him. Another friend would be invaluable, if only so I didn’t have to bother my current friends all the time.
Thinking of my crush reminded me that I’d planned to ask Viggi about Alex. I had completely forgotten to do so with everything that had been going on. It was probably for the best, though. I didn’t really value his advice right now, and it wasn’t like he could magically help me figure it out, anyway—that was up to me. I still hoped Hugo could offer me some useful advice next Sunday, however.
“I hope so,” I said. “I was thinking of maybe inviting him to go swimming with us.”
Alex blinked. “Swimming? Where do you—what do you mean us? I have no idea how to swim!”
I paused to look at him. “You… don’t?”
Alex gave me an incredulous look. “When would I have learned to swim? The only pool we had was off-limits because they didn’t want us contaminating our only drinking source.”
Oh, right, that made sense. I kept forgetting that Alex came from a smaller village and not a city or town with how well educated he already was. That kind of screwed up my plan. Maybe I could teach him, though? My knowledge of bipedal swimming wasn’t the greatest, but I should be able to teach him some basics.
“Do you want to try, anyway?” I asked. “The water where I wanted to go is really calm and there are a lot of shallow parts. I could try to teach you, too. And I would of course be there to help you if anything goes wrong.”
He took a deep breath, then smiled at me. “I trust you, so if you’re there to help me, I’m willing to give it a try. From what I’ve heard, swimming is fun, and it couldn’t hurt to learn. Besides, even if I don’t go swimming, I can always just sit on the edge of the water, right? At least, I think that’s a thing people do. I’m not sure.”
I nodded. “It is.”
“Well, then I’m definitely going.”
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The next day we woke up a little earlier than usual. We had to put on our combat suits, and that took some time. When I got down from the loft, Alex was still getting up. When I saw him, I quickly averted my eyes. Alex almost always slept naked and apparently had no issues at all with casual nudity. While he had started doing it sometime last week, he had only noticed me looking away a few days ago and had immediately apologized for his nakedness. We’d had a conversation about it, with my main point being that I had no right to complain, with me being naked all the time and all that. Aside from that, he was just used to being naked at home, and this was now home for him. I wanted him to be able to feel at home here.
Plus, if I was being entirely honest, I kind of liked it, even if I didn’t let myself look.
And I wouldn’t let myself look. With anyone else, I wouldn’t have cared. But with him, the sight turned me on, so I had to look away. It wasn’t that I’d get an erection—I needed physical stimulation for that—but I didn’t want to stare. It was rude and perhaps even wrong. I much preferred him to think I was a little shy. Maybe it’d be different whe—if we got together.
“You can turn around now,” he said, so I did. He was now wearing the under-armor for the combat suit. It looked nice on him. Very sleek. “Are you sure you don’t mind me being naked like that?”
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“It’s fine, I’ll get used to it,” I lied. “Besides, you said it was basically a habit, right? You’d forget anyway.”
“It is yeah. You kind of give up on that sort of privacy when you’re sharing a room with your parents and little brother.”
“I get it, don’t worry,” I said, waving his concern away with a talon. “It’s not like I can complain, anyway. I’m naked all the time unless you count my saddle.”
He blinked. His eyes glanced at where my groin was, before quickly flicking back to focus on my snout. “Huh, you’re right. I keep forgetting that. Why don’t you just wear clothes?”
“For the same reason you dislike t-shirts—it’s very uncomfortable,” I told him. “I did try it for a while, though. I really wanted to fit it and begged my dad for some clothes. It didn’t work like I hoped. If anything, it only drew more attention to the fact I was different. The clothes sucked, too. They kept bunching up and obstructing my movement. I got rid of them after a week.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, patting my shoulder. “Is that why you wear the saddle even when there’s no one to ride it?”
“I hadn’t thought about it like that, but I suppose so, yeah. It gives me purpose, and makes me feel less like an outsider, I guess.”
He chuckled. “Maybe I should give you a ride sometime, then.” He paused. “You aren’t going to make a joke again?”
I held out a talon. “No. You made your limits clear and I’m not breaking past them. But you’re welcome to hop onto my saddle anytime, really. It’s hardly any extra effort and the physical presence is nice. It’s like a hug but with your legs.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks.” He was quiet for a moment. “Maybe you can make those sorts of jokes in the future, but right now I’m not really comfortable yet with the idea of… that sort of stuff.”
“Gay sex, you mean?”
He winced a little. “That, yeah. It’s gotten better, but… nevermind.” He shook his head. “We need to get ready for class.”
I nodded. It was great he was improving, but there was no reason to push the limits. “Alright. If you want to talk about it, though, I’m here. I may not be an expert on the topic by any means, but I’ve read plenty of romance books and some of them were quite smutty.”
Alex paused in packing his bag. “Do… do you think you could maybe recommend one or two?”
I smiled. “Of course I can. Why don’t we go to the library this afternoon?”
He just quietly nodded and then started putting on the body suit for the combat suit. I helped him zip it up and helped him get the rest of the suit on. Then he helped me with the enchanted plates. We had to look at my notes about the placement a few times, but we got there eventually.
I had to say that the combat armor looked really nice on Alex. Not in the same way the sleek, form fitting under armor had looked nice, but more in a rugged warrior kind of way. The whole suit was covered in flexible enchanted panels. It was tough and fitted his body shape really well, from having a bit more room for his slight belly, to the armored ridges on his back. He had a scabbard at his side, though it was empty at the moment, and three daggers sitting in a holster. On on either leg, and one the top-side of his tail just behind the base.
As good as he looked, though, he also looked uncomfortable. I couldn’t blame him; the suit, in order to protect him, had also completely wrapped up his tail in armor and that could only feel weird. I had a few plates on my tail, too. The slight extra weight kept throwing my movements off, but I knew from last week that I’d get used to it soon enough. For him it had to be worse.
When we were both done dressing, we grabbed breakfast and ate while we walked to class. We’d be back to pick up our other school stuff afterwards.
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Professor Scott was excited about something. He bounced around on the ball of his feet, and he couldn’t help but glance at the clock every so often with an impatient look. The main give-away though was that all his assistants were nervous, and there was only one thing that could make them nervous: Scott had something to tell. From all the classes I’d helped him with, I knew they had every right to be nervous. I wasn’t afraid, but I couldn’t help but be nervous too.
After a minute, Scott got tired of waiting for us to quiet down and whistled to get our attention.
“Alright, before we start the class, I have some important news to share. You may have heard of the monster ‘surge’ that happened two weeks ago down in our very own training grounds. We—the faculty—have discussed the issue and we’ve decided that until we know more, we will not be doing any training down there.”
Students started murmuring. Some were happy they didn’t have to fight monsters, others were pissed they were robbed of the chance, while a few didn’t look bothered at all. Before the chatter could get out of hand, Scott whistled a second, much louder, time. I winced as the sharp, Attribute-empowered sound drilled into my skull.
“I wasn’t done talking yet! Now, this news means that practical training this semester will be a lot more limited, and we’ll only get one real chance! After some discussion, we’ve decided to have all the year-one groups take a week-long excursion to the Dungeon Caves of Elmar. This location was chosen because the mana levels and densities there are incredibly stable, and because the limited space makes monster surges impossible! Any questions?”
I did. Something very important, and something that I was sure he purposefully left out. I raised a talon and waited for him to give me a turn. He chose a different student instead. When I glanced at the student, I saw it was Alfred. I almost thought I could smell the squirrel dung from here, but he stood down wind, so I knew it was just my imagination.
“Is there any risk of cave-in’s down there?” he asked.
“Good question! There isn’t. Or at least, the risk is so close to zero it doesn’t matter. All the walls and tunnels are well supported by sturdy pillars.”
Seemingly satisfied with the answer, Alfred stepped back, and Scott chose another student—again, not me.
“What kind of monsters will there be?” the student asked.
“That depends entirely on the time of year. You’ll learn more about it when we get there.”
Scott picked another student. “I’m claustrophobic, do I still need to go?”
Dozens of questions were asked and most of them were answered. Most of them were attempts at getting out of the excursion, but there were some actual questions too, and I learned a lot from the answers. Like that the trip would be focused on combat as much as it was on general survival and similarly important skills. There would be year-four students there, too, to teach us things like harvesting mushrooms, skinning monsters, monster anatomy, etc.
We would be going to the caves with a portal, and our group would have the entire cave system to ourselves for the week. We’d be staying on the higher levels as the monsters there were weaker, and only make a few day trips to deeper levels. In total, we’d be staying there the whole week, including the weekend. Understandably, no one liked that. We were assured we’d get a few days off after, though, which calmed most of the students.
But no one asked the really important question, and I couldn’t imagine why. The question was so simple and obvious—when would we go?
Eventually when there were no other people with questions left, Scott finally turned to me. With a sigh, he asked me what my question was.
“When will this excursion be?”
Scott sighed again. “Well, there are a lot of year-one groups, and not all that much time left this semester, and you all were a little unlucky and got an early slot.”
“When?” I asked a second time, more firmly.
Scott grimaced, but actually answered the question this time. “In one and a half weeks.”