Sitting slouched at a desk and staring at an unfinished construction in front of him, Tauruk let out a little sigh. As usual, he was having trouble.

So far, this second year had been going just as disastrous as the last. With the increasing amount of work and mounting difficulty of his classes, Tauruk had progressively become even more strung out, gaining weight and only regularly getting 3 hours of sleep a night. But still, his grades didn’t improve much. Although he was performing marginally better in his classes, receiving B’s on some of the exams, yet again, constructions were the roadblock. He would always be certain he knew the corresponding theory, but whenever he actually tried to sit down and complete his classes’ weekly constructions, it was like there was a mental block, and he just couldn’t construct the main logic correctly. There would always be some bug, some problem.

Thus, so far this year, he had already resorted to using Maisy’s Debugging Depot four times. Two of these times, his submissions had been returned in excellent condition, netting him A’s - Tauruk could instantly tell that they were the handiwork of the ‘madman.’ The third time and fourth time, however, it took a little while longer to receive back, and they just didn’t have the same reliable luster to them - they reacted slower to activate and lacked the same neat and tidy organization. Tauruk suspected that it wasn’t the ‘madman’ who had been the one to debug these ones, but since he still received B+’s on both, he wasn’t too upset. He could only hope that next time, it could be the madman again.

However, by this point in the second semester, he was in a bind. During the first semester, after walking around tirelessly for over a year to get anywhere on campus, he had finally decided to splurge and buy a basic hoverboard from the task market. Although he felt that ultimately this purchase was worth it, as it saved him a lot of effort and time, it also nearly depleted his savings of points. For the past three months, he had been living almost paycheck to paycheck, and thus was unable to use Maisy’s Debugging Depot with good conscious.

That was until a few days ago.

“It’s a bonus! Please take it, you’ve worked hard,” his employer Professor Yokoran had said, handing him a paystub.

Although Tauruk had thanked him and accepted it gratefully, in truth, he was left confused. He knew better than anyone that he was an average worker at best - he was a simple lab assistant helping Professor Yokoran conduct research on spatial manipulation formations. Although the topic was certainly advanced, Tauruk himself didn’t do anything particularly special, and thus, it didn’t pay much more than the average first or second year job. To receive a random bonus for ‘hard work’... that was completely unexpected!

That wasn’t the only thing. Ever since the start of the semester, lucky coincidences seemed to occur more and more. For example, just the previous month, when he had trouble with one of his constructions in Primary Barrier Formations, he was kindly given a free week-long extension. The professor was famed to be strict, so Tauruk had been shocked at his generosity.

And then, just a week ago, as he was heading toward his usual spot at the academic center, he found two coupons laid out on his desk, each providing a free debugging by Maisy’s Debugging Depot. Tauruk had at first thought it was a prank, but he showed them to a collector for the service, and they confirmed that they were legitimate. Had someone left them there by accident? Or was it a gift? Either way, Tauruk wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage. But still, underneath his giddiness, he couldn’t help but be left with an strange feeling.

Overall, the most puzzling thing was the sudden willingness of his professors to help him. The first semester, although he hadn’t gone to his professors’ office hours particularly often, each time he sought assistance, it had been like fishing for a guppy within a tall well - the professors were always busy and seemingly unavailable. Yet ever since the second semester had started, his new classes’ professors had suddenly turned very nice, even approaching him on occasion asking if he needed any help. Maybe he had just picked good teachers, ones much better than his first semester ones? He had thought that for a while, but despite being grateful, he couldn’t help but feel it was a bit odd.

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But out of everything, the weirdest thing had happened just earlier that day.

That morning, an upperclassman named Koriander (named after the famous figure) came to his lecture hall to make an announcement. He explained that he headed an on-campus tutoring agency called ‘Koriander Basics’ - if an underclassman was struggling in any of their courses, they could pay a fee to receive tutoring sessions from their collection of experienced upperclassmen. Many of the students in the class had heard about it, some even having used it before.

After some struggle amongst his fellow students, Tauruk managed to snag a coupon from this Koriander. Apparently, they were having a promotion, and some lucky few who wished to use the service could receive a 70% discount for a whole month of tutoring (- the ‘month’ consisted of four two-hour sessions, netting a total of eight hours of tutoring). The strange thing was, Koriander only held five measly coupons within his hands, and an entire crowd of underclassmen had crowded around him to try to receive one, yet somehow, it was Tauruk in the very back that had managed to grab one. It was almost like it was presented to him.

He stared down at the coupon now. Koriander Basics - Discount. Come now to receive a 70% discount on our month-long tutoring package! 200 points -> 60 points.

The originally 200 point four-session package had been reduced to only 60 points. Such a thing could only be described as a steal! 60 points for multiple sessions of specialized guidance from an experienced upperclassman? Who wouldn’t take that?

The entire past year, Tauruk had thought about getting a tutor, but they were incredibly expensive. Most good ones charged 30 points an hour or more, and thus, he just wasn’t able to justify it with his meager savings. But now, he was able to purchase a whole series of sessions for just 60 points? This was a great opportunity! - Tauruk decided to go visit the address of the agency the very next day to plan out his lessons.

Yet still, even as he made up his mind, he couldn’t shake a suspicious feeling from his heart.

----------

“I’m here for my first session,” Tauruk spoke kindly to the receptionist at the front desk.

He was currently standing inside the lobby of a small building on the outskirts of campus, labeled on the outside as ‘Koriander Basics.’ The space was simple and clean, with various advertisements and pictures of students, presumably tutors, laid out on the walls.

“Sure! Name?” The receptionist asked, flipping through a booklet of appointments.

“Tauruk Gorulon.”

“Great, there you are!” The receptionist checked out a box on the sheet and directed him toward the right. “Your room is the second door to the left. Your tutor is already there, waiting for you.”

“Thanks,” Tauruk nodded his head, turning toward that direction. By his side he carried two textbooks and two defective constructions he had recently been working on. Hopefully, the tutor could give him guidance about what he was misunderstanding.

The previous day, after receiving the discount coupon for the agency from Koriander, he had immediately hopped on his hoverboard and visited the agency building in order to purchase the package and schedule his sessions. He scheduled one session for the very next day, and another every week after that. Even though he was receiving some more help from his professors, they honestly weren’t that good at explaining things, so he needed all the support he could get. Many upperclassman had went through the same trials as the underclassmen, and thus could give more practical and relevant advice.

Finding the second door to the left, Tauruk took a deep breath and opened it, stepping into the space.

“...” He froze, his eyes widening. There was a familiar person sitting at the table.

Brown hair, innocent eyes… there was no mistake.

It was his squire, Emmet.