“See you later, then,” Ryan said.
“Have fun.”
They bumped fists and Micah headed off down the hallway.
“Where’s he headed?” Alex asked.
“The hospital. Physical therapy.” He adjusted his gym bag on his shoulder—the duffel they had bought for the move—and waited for a break in the stream of his classmates before he could head into the locker room.
Tuesday morning, classes were continuing as promised. Just instead of heading into the Tower with the rest of the city, they were doing combat exercises in the gym. In some ways, Ryan was glad. Group Tower lessons could get awkward—and tedious. All teachers that weren’t named Gardener consistently mollycoddled their students, and it easily felt like a waste of time. Some others also liked it because they wouldn’t have to get into their gear and walk through the cold.
But that was about the end of the good, a remnant of their feelings toward the old Tower, and everyone was more than happy to let people know. They would have rather gone today.
“Physical therapy? For his leg, you mean?” He sounded surprised. “Is it that serious?”
Ryan frowned. Why did he care? “Well, yeah and no. He’s just doing some exercises to stay in shape. They’re showing him how and supervising to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself.”
Ryan doubted he would be able to do a lot with his combination of injuries, anyway. Maybe for his left side. He almost smiled. What would that look like in a month, then?
Alex hesitated. “Like, with a nurse then?” Suddenly, he sounded different. Almost excited.
“Uh, yeah? I guess.” He wasn’t really sure.
He had barely answered when the guy cupped his hands in front of his face and called, “Oi, Micah!”
Two thirds down the hallway, Micah turned around. He had gotten quicker with his crutches in the last two days, but he still wasn’t exceptionally fast.
“If you get a hot nurse to look over you, you better give us the details later so we can be properly envious, yeah?”
Micah seemed confused. “What’s ‘properly envious’ supposed to mean?”
“Giving you a hard time!” he said in brutal honesty.
Micah smiled. “Sure! But I’m pretty sure it’s a guy?”
“Argh. Well, you’ll have a hard enough time already. Tough luck!”
“Thanks?” Micah shrugged and headed around the corner, still smiling a little.
Ryan abandoned the other guy and ducked into the locker. He dropped his stuff on one of the benches and slipped out of his blazer, then folded it across. Two guys opposite him talked about how Baker was missing, or how they guessed Ezra wasn’t coming back, huh? Others lamented about how bad they were with some weapons.
Then there was the majority, who complained about how much standard weapon training would suck. They could be fighting new floors, leveling, and getting Skills. Everyone else was doing it. The accusation in their voices varied from person to person. Just as many blamed the school as others did the city, the Guild, or adults in general. ‘They were in school, for f—’s sake. Practically adults.’
Ryan preoccupied himself with his own thoughts on preparations. Just one week of training for [Create Fire] and he was feeling pretty confident. Having two Skills helped to make things a lot easier, even if he sometimes singed himself on quick flames. But he was practicing four different versions at once, so it would probably be another month until he learned the spell properly. That left him two more to learn other things. What should he do, then?
He could learn another fire spell for combat, as Micah had said. [Firebolt], maybe. A part of him still wanted to learn how to breathe fire, but … what if he got a [Mage] Class from that? He already had two. Did he want another?
He doubted he would level up in time either, with nothing else to do than practice. He was repeating things he had already learned over and over again. Well, except for archery, which he had always neglected. Most did.
What else could he do for Skill training? Meditation. He had little space to do that at school, not that he was getting anywhere with his new method. He always slipped and fell, and then he woke up as if he had hit the ground. [Create Fire]. Working out to improve his combat Skills … and looks, maybe.
He just felt like he didn’t have enough things to work with.
He stepped out onto the polished floor of the gym and headed for one of the benches. Behind him, a guy came jogging out and jumped into a slide across on his socks, laughing.
Ryan thought he knew him. He was one of Connor’s friends, right? Average height. Darker hair. Somehow, it bothered him that he didn’t know his name. Baker. Ezra. Mary. Philip. He couldn’t put any faces to most, though Micah claimed he should have known some of them.
This guy … He knew he didn’t like him. The grinning one. But he and his friends apparently hadn’t liked Ryan either, so that had been fine. They had been pretty vocal in their bitching.
Maybe it would help if he could change that?
Another came sliding out. The third was Alex, who stepped off at the end and walked it off. He headed for the bench where Ryan stood and sat to put on his shoes. Ryan thought about it for a second and folded his leg up to take his off.
“You want to go, too?” Alex asked.
He shrugged. “We didn’t have a gym at our old classroom. Haven’t done this in ages.”
He was a little surprised Micah hadn’t gotten the inane idea to do it the first time he’d stepped into one of these—or even just the Guild building or bathhouse … Maybe not the bathhouse. His sister had wicked accuracy with her shoes. But it seemed like the type of thing he would do.
Alex made a face. “What? You didn’t have a gym? What kind of classroom did you go to?”
“The kind that gets me eighth, fourth, and second place on the entrance exams,” Ryan told him.
“Ohh! Good one, Mr. Perfect.”
Ryan threw him his shoes to get him to shut up. “Hold these for me.”
He headed in the direction where Felix had now joined the two others in horsing around, got a running a start, slid—
And promptly stumbled as his socks caught on the smooth floor as if it were pavement. Ryan windmilled his arms to stay upright and took a few steps forward, hunched over, before he managed to come to a stop.
“What was that?” Felix asked, clapping his hands as he laughed.
The others were chuckling, Conner’s friend with a stupid smirk and Alex in the corner of his eye.
Now, Ryan remembered why he hadn’t done that in ages.
“Screw you,” he said.
[Enhanced Traction]. Everyone else could just let their feet slip, but to him, it was more like stone or planks now. He could still slip around, but there was some resistance there.
“I got a Skill.”
Felix had to stop in his chuckling to ask, “What—?”
“It sure didn’t look like it,” Connor’s friend said.
“It gives me a better grip on the ground.”
The other two seemed disinterested now and ignored him as they walked around—why had he even bothered?—but Felix suddenly looked interested. “Really?” he asked. “From your Class?”
“No.”
The first time Ryan had noticed had been in the bathhouse, but that had been a good thing. [Enhanced Traction] had helped a little here and there, like a stat. He had let it be, distracted with other things—Micah, studying for finals and entrance exams, climbing with his team, training [Enhanced Senses], and just hanging out in general. It had been a hectic seven months.
Now, he focused on it and his mental image in his mind, and tried to push it away, push it down, suppress it. Teacup Salamanders fell from walls and ceilings, or trees like Sam had, or tripped on stones mid-run in now-lost tunnels in his mind. He blinked and was in the gym again.
Just a half second of meditation. All that training had to pay off for something, after all.
Had it worked?
He took another, lesser running start and skid across the floor with much less force than before, smiling a little as he slipped about.
“‘Ey! Now you got it,” Felix said.
Ryan shrugged and headed back to the benches before Alex got any bright ideas about his shoes.
“Easy. It’s from my Path, after all.”
“Good to know.”
Ryan blinked and glanced back down at his socked feet with a slight frown. It was from his Path after all.
He took a step forward, focused, and this time, he pushed it up instead.
----------------------------------------
The lecture hall was too large for the fifteen or so students present—all that seemed to remain of the crowd in front of its doors yesterday. Micah spotted Alex near the back left, Cathy near the front. Ryan and he sat at the right end of the middle row, close to the first-floor exit.
Those were all the names he knew. His main way of learning them was paying attention when the teachers called on students. Sometimes, when he had interacted with them already, he even scribbled them down. But class had ended early after the assembly yesterday and he hadn’t had much to do with the others in the weeks before.
His Westhill classroom had about sixty students a year and he had barely known anyone there. He hadn’t interacted with them. This school had five-hundred students. Or had had, anyway.
Lots of names to learn.
Mr. Sundberg had left them alone to step out for a minute that became five. Now, he returned through the lower entrance near the front with another group of students in tow. Another course?
Micah smiled when he spotted Stephanie, talking to Lea who was practically two heads taller than her. Myra was with two of her friends, though they were doing most of the talking. Vladi and Lanh followed, the later trailing after the former like a lost puppy. They were people he knew.
He grinned when he spotted Lisa and finally, Anne. Why couldn’t he have been in their class from the start?
She headed for the front row near Cathy, but Lisa looked up as if she had known she would find them there and led her up the steps. His roommates were ahead of them and slipped into the row to his right, above the door. They greeted each other in passing.
There was plenty of room in their own row. Micah bent down to pick up his crutches so he could let the other two in.
“No. Sit. Stay,” Lisa commanded and he paused. She sat one row down, halfway turned toward them with an arm on the back of Ryan’s desk.
“Hey, Micah,” Anne greeted him as she followed her, slinging her backpack down next to where his crutches ended. She sat the other way so she was halfway facing Lisa and them and nodded to his left. “Ryan.”
“Anne.”
“Hey,” Micah hissed, smiling. He glanced to see what Mr. Sundberg was doing, but the man seemed preoccupied with his belongings. Others were chatting, too. Great. “What are you doing here?”
“We lost too many students, so they’re throwing our courses together,” Lisa explained.
“It’s also to free up personnel to assess the reports and determine educational value so they can make course plans,” Anne added.
“Cool.”
Anything that would let him have class with friends was cool, Micah decided. He was pretty sure that thought was universal.
“You don’t look like you lost that many students, though?” Ryan said. He made it sound like a question.
Micah glanced up. Their lecture hall had filled out somewhat now. Myra and her two friends were two rows up from Cathy. Stephanie and Lea were near Alex. Lots of other people had gathered near the back. There were easily double as many students, if not more.
“Oh, these are two courses. The other got split in half. It’s twelve from us and six from the other.”
Ryan frowned. “Why would they do that for just three sessions?”
“Someone has to figure out what to teach us.”
“I heard it’s because of that,” another voice said. It took Micah a moment to realize it was Lanh, speaking from one row across. He was behind Vladi, so he had to lean forward to address them.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
None of the others even paid attention until they noticed Micah was.
“Apparently, they didn’t want Mr. Sundberg to teach his daughter, so they had to split the course.”
Micah frowned. “His daughter?”
“You can’t be serious,” Lisa said. “How ridiculous is this school system here?”
“Again,” Ryan spoke up. “Why would they do that for just three sessions? Especially ones without any grades? I doubt that.”
Lanh shrugged, looking like he was trying to hide embarrassment. “It was just a rumor.”
Lisa scoffed, “Well, it was a stupid rumor.”
“Hey,” Micah complained. He knew she had basically been home-schooled, but she didn’t have to be mean because of a rumor, no matter how stupid it was. Which it was. Why would a parent not be allowed to teach their child? He knew his parents would have made his life living hell if he did poorly.
Lisa gave him the stink eye for a moment but relented.
“So which courses did you pick that you ended up in this group?” Anne asked him.
He would have gladly asked her the same question. “Biology, Tower Studies, and Alchemy as my main courses. Overseas and Mana Manipulation with Ms. Burke as my electives.”
“Mana Manipulation, not Spellcraft?”
Micah shrugged. He had regretted it a little, but it was still a good choice for a beginner. He could always choose other courses later, so he was pretty sure he was going to stick to his current plan. Besides, they were pretty similar. One was slightly more practical than the other.
Briefly, he had thought about switching to Gym as a main course with the reelections, but that would have only been for the short term and his injuries would have made things difficult.
“Gym, Tower Studies, and Social Studies, here. Linian Studies as an elective.”
“You doubled down?”
She frowned as she figured the phrase out, the nodded. “Oh. Yeah.”
She had taken Gym and Tower Studies, despite there being some overlap in the physical aspects of it.
“Ryan did, too,” Micah offered, trying to keep the small talk up. Maybe they would have some courses together? And if they got along, all of them, maybe they could hang out more often.
Anne nodded but didn’t say anything.
Ryan didn’t offer anything up, either.
“Biology, Gym, and Tower Studies,” Micah tried again, but he was still quiet. Then, when it was clear they weren’t too interested, he looked to Lisa to save himself the awkwardness and switched topics. “By the way, uhm, speaking of courses, I mean. I changed my mind.”
“About what?”
“I want to join Dueling.”
No. A dozen different options, always the same answer.
Her eyebrows shot up. “You do?”
“Me, too,” Ryan said, tone just as casual.
“Wow. Cool.” She seemed excited, but then she shrugged and it faded. “Well, you’re too late. It doesn’t exist anymore.”
Micah blinked.
Ryan asked before he could. “What?”
“The school took over its curriculum and expanded it. They said need something to bolster their programme now that we can’t go into the Tower anymore, and humanoid monsters are much more common now, so one of the main courses to replace practical Tower studies will be combat training, which, I assume, everyone will pick.”
Micah slowly exhaled, eyes wide. “Ohh … Awesome.”
Lisa grinned. “It is, isn’t it? It’s actually one of the more advanced courses, but they’re moving it forward—”
Their teacher cleared his throat in front of the class and she broke off, glancing back at him. Micah missed his chance to ask if they would be mixed, girls and boys. Would they have the same Tower studies groups, as well?
The room quieted and Mr. Sundberg stared expectantly until all shut up, arms behind his back.
Micah glanced at Anne and changed his mind. Dueling. It wasn’t like he would want to fight against her. It just would have been nice to share more courses, he guessed, because it looked like they were in completely different parts. Maybe he could switch some of them?
No. He shook his head. No, that would be stupid. Not for a— A, uhm … Well, he didn’t know what it was. He still didn't know a lot about her, but he wanted to know more.
He shut up and focused on Mr. Sundberg, hoping nobody could see him blushing. He was thankful that it was harder to notice with his skin. A quick glance to the left and Ryan looked to the front.
Mr. Sundberg walked to his lectern. His constant disapproving glare and rigid posture had eased into a mere frustrated glower. It seemed more appropriate for a casual setting than school, and it made him seem ten years younger. More like Maverick than … Micah’s father?
He wasn’t sure where he had been going with that comparison. He still wondered why his parents hadn’t asked him to leave school yet, when everyone else was doing it. Wasn’t now the perfect opportunity?
When the room was silent, he spoke, “Good morning, students. And welcome to the course that will only exist for one more week. Now would have been the time when I would I have given you a list of textbooks to buy, but seeing as how you might not be here in two weeks and those textbooks might be better suited for a history lesson soon … Well, you get my meaning. Delays. We will have to make do. Instead, we will be focusing on things we can discuss in the meantime.”
He picked up a piece of chalk and headed for the blackboard, writing down a date. January 15th. Half the classroom shifted as they wrote it down without knowing what it was for yet.
“As you all know, you will have the privilege of scouting out the new floors of the Tower in groups before the end of the calendar year—”
Micah frowned, had a thought, and raised his hand.
“—which will also serve as one of your major Tower Studies exams.” Mr. Sundberg saw him, but continued. “This”—he tapped the board—”will be the preliminary date for that exam, though it might yet change. It could be moved back or forth a week, depending on how the situation evolves and other dates change. It might be at the beginning of the week on a Tuesday or at the end. In which case, you might have to stay in the Tower over the weekend.”
He took a deep breath and rolled his eyes, exasperated, before pointing at Micah. “Yes, you?”
Micah hesitated. Did he … not know his name? But he had interviewed him and everything. He frowned again for another reason and spoke, “Uhm, you mentioned groups, sir. How large would those groups be?”
Below, Anne and Lisa glanced up at him. He hoped they were thinking what he was thinking, just … as their own idea? Like, he hoped they were on-board because they might have thought of it as well.
Forming groups. They had to do that.
“If you had paid attention, I would have gotten to that in a minute. We will be covering all the information we have about the exam today before moving on to different topics.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
Mr. Sundberg turned to the board and wrote. “The current plan is to have you form groups of four to six members, with key roles required. You will be allowed to form these groups yourself.”
Any sense of silence was disrupted with that statement as people looked around and checked with others.
“Keep in mind that your group composition as a whole and each individual member’s performance until then will determine how we treat you in light of your exam. If you slack off in class and don’t pay attention, or if your group consists of four people who barely have a dozen Skills between them, you might only be allowed to quest the first floor and nothing more. Of course, you might only be allowed to quest the first floor regardless, so don’t get your hopes up.”
Micah already had. They fell.
He had over a dozen Skills on his own. Fourteen, to be exact. And Ryan had … He frowned and nudged him in the side, whispering, “How many Skills do you have?” He tried to count them, but it was much harder to remember others’.
Ryan scowled at him for whispering in class, even if everyone else was doing it, but answered anyway. He glanced down and leaned over to write it in the corner of his notes. Fourteen.
Huh. Micah wanted to give him a high-five.
They had twenty-eight between the two of them. With Lisa, it was probably fifty. And they still needed a fourth member.
There were four people sitting here …?
When Lisa and Anne glanced up again, he smiled expectantly. Anne smiled back at him and said exactly what he wished to hear. He nodded vehemently even as she did. “Do you think we could form a group?”
“Yes.”
Please, he added in his mind.
“Great. Then with Sion and Navid we would be six.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
Ryan nudged him and gestured at the blackboard where Mr. Sundberg was writing a list.
Fire craft, Light source, Information gathering, Healing and/or First Aid, Combat Skills, Ranged support …
The roles required. It wasn’t so much roles as it was requirements across the board they would have to tick off like boxes on a list.
Again, Lisa, Ryan, and he covered most of what he had written yet, but he made a second list with additional requirements, one of them being, Redundancies. It was underlined twice as important.
They … didn’t cover as many redundancies. Ryan and Lisa both had fire. Micah and Lisa both covered ranged support, and he could easily shove a slingshot in Ryan’s hand. They all three had advanced information gathering abilities. Healing …
“Can you heal?” he asked Anne.
He had limited healing abilities, but he didn’t know if they would count because it was part of the preparations. And whether or not he could make healing potions inside the Tower depended on the resources he had.
She squinted and held a thumb and index finger close together. “A little bit?”
Micah gave her a thumbs-up, heart pounding as he exhaled. He hoped his voice wasn’t shaking when he said, “And you’re a front-line fighter like Ryan, right? You have defensive Skills?”
“Yes.”
Another redundancy.
“Then we really could make a team.”
She nodded and it seemed a little excited herself.
This was the best day of his life. If they made a team and went into the Tower together, maybe Micah could show off.
Maybe he could impress her?
He wished he could take off his cast right then and start training. He was twice as excited for it now.
A quick glance to the side and Ryan gave him a tight smile. He was on-board with it, it seemed. Thankfully, he wasn’t giving Micah a hard time about how obvious he had to be being, in his eyes.
Lisa, on the other hand …
“Right?” Micah asked her. To distract.
“Suuure.” She drew the word out, torturing him, and turned back to the front with a knowing smile.
Mr. Sundberg had already moved on with the topic and Micah rushed to copy down everything he wrote and said, frowning at some things. Why might stamina potions suddenly also be mandatory along with middle-grade healing ones? And [Mages] were supposed to keep enough mana to cast “one repertoire spell” at all times.
Luckily, someone else asked about that.
“Even if this means you have to forgo spellcasting during an even fight,” Mr. Sundberg stressed. “We can’t make emergency mana potions mandatory because of their cost, so you have to treat your own mana pool with emergencies in mind.”
There was his answer. Micah made a note.
“But how are we supposed to know how much mana we have left?” Stephanie asked, arm straight and hand up high.
“Practice. Cast spells until you feel that moment you hit nothing. Anyone here who has hit that point before knows what I’m speaking of. Learn to recognize the signs. Your spellcraft teachers will talk to you more about that and you can consult them, I’m told, but you will have to practice on your own. Sadly, we are not Northerners, nor can we give you items to help you remember, so you will have to make do without crutches.”
Alex raised his hand one row behind her.
Meanwhile, Micah was wondering about the Northerner comment. Did they have an easier time tracking … whatever it was they used for their magic? Essence, right? Did they ever even run out of magic? He wondered why they were considered weak.
“Yes?”
“On the topic of crutches,” Alex said, “can we not take mana rings with us to serve as emergency mana potions?”
“You can if you own one, but the school does not have enough in supply to equip every group with one anymore. We sacrificed most in an effort to help the students who had been trapped in the Tower. Hence, this rule. And I can see some of you scowling, but keep in mind that some of your fellow students might not be here today if it hadn’t been for that effort.”
He glanced at Micah as he said it and Micah nodded at the man, grateful. When he turned away, he leaned forward to tap Lisa on the shoulder and said, for the half-dozenth time, “Thank you. Again.”
“No need,” she insisted. She turned away, but then back as if remembering something. “Did I mentioned I leveled from it? So I got something out of that, too. Aside from you two idiots being alive, of course.”
Micah smiled. “What level are you? Oh, and how many Skills do you have? I’m making a list.”
He lifted his notes a little to show her Ryan’s number, but the other guy reached out to shove it back down, then scribbled all over, turning the corner of the page into an ink cloud.
“Hey,” he complained and reached over to pay him back, but he slapped his hand away.
“I don’t want to advertise it.”
“Oh.” He looked back to Lisa. “So, you?”
“I can’t tell you. Not yet. But soon. I’m working on something.”
“Oh. Mm … alright, then?”
She seemed to give Ryan a look before she turned back to the board. And Anne gave her one as well that she reciprocated—something unspoken being shared between the three of them.
Micah felt left-out, but he knew if he pressed they would only want to leave him out more. He forced himself to keep still. Sometimes, asking questions could annoy people. Maybe even until they hated you. He knew that.
But maybe he could ask something else? Because he had a ton of questions he wanted to ask about them teaming up for the exam. Oh, if they were doing this, they would have to have group meetings and practice together, right?
He kept the question in mind for later.
Below, Mr. Sundberg called on another person.
“I had a question about the group sizes? Since you keep on mentioning these things are subject to change. Why are we only allowed to have up to six people in one group? Could there be an exception made for seven?”
“Unlikely. The larger the group, the higher the possibility that you won’t be able to stick together when walking through the portal. Four is the minimum for safety reasons. With a blessing, there’s little to no chance that you will lose someone with six. But that chance increases with seven. That has been documented over and over again and we’ve seen no signs that indicate otherwise with the changes. You might end up with six people being in one group and one alone. Or five in one and two in the other. Four and three. Either way, the group splitting would always result in one side being below the minimum and we can’t risk that.”
“Oh. Thank you.”
Micah frowned. You could lose people even when holding hands?
“As an extension of that point, we might hire instructors to escort you during your exam, in which case group sizes might even be limited to five. One person can only look after so many others at once. In that case, you might have to pay a fee as you would have to during a class trip. Just as an aside.”
Micah’s eyes widened and he almost tapped Anne on the shoulder, but waited to catch her attention instead. He was a little upset that they might be forced to have an instructor with them and would then have to pay for that, but there was a more pressing concern.
The next time she glanced back, he asked, “Navid and Sion. How much do you want them to come along?”
“Oh, uhm. Well we kind of, sort of already talked about forming a group, so … I mean, I would want to be with them? But it wouldn’t be so bad, right? There’s always the second test.”
Right. Of course, she would want to stick with her friends.
“Uhm,” he stalled, thinking; but all he could come up with was, “Hopefully, they won’t make an instructor go with us, then. I mean, that would be stupid, right? The first few floors can’t be that dangerous. The dangerous ones are nine and ten.”
“Precisely,” Mr. Sundberg spoke and Micah glanced down in alarm. He’d heard him. “In the future, please share your insights with the class. Raise your hand to do so. But that brings us to the next topic.”
He walked to the board.
Anne looked at him guiltily and Micah didn’t know what to say, so he shrugged a little.
“Guardians.”
That caught both their attention.
“In all the reports you’ve read, you have surely noticed a common theme among them. Golden sheens of light sectioning off parts of the new Tower—”
Lisa looked at Anne, then nudged her when she didn’t notice. She hesitated before shaking her head.
“—and stronger than average monsters waiting somewhere behind them,” he went on. “Much stronger. Ask some of your classmates who have been in the Tower or any of the climbers who return late today or tomorrow. You have all probably read about the monsters of the tenth floor. No one has been able to enter the Tower on a floor above the ninth yet. We have found mention of and believe that is the fault of so-called ‘Guardians’; monsters that defend certain areas of the Tower. We will look at a few of the items recovered in a moment for more on that, but it’s important to know that these Guardians appear on all floors in various shapes and forms, not just the tenth.
During your exam, you will be required to seek out and defeat one of them.”
The class shifted again and people looked up from their notes, but nobody said anything for a moment. Micah looked around and found the expressions were all the same. Unlike the days before, there was no frustration, anger, or confusion. Not even fear. The people who might have been daunted had left.
All he saw were people who had found an opportunity, if not a challenge. Gladly, they would take it.