With his current plans in motion, Soral was already feeling pretty heroic. But his ego deflated quickly once he arrived at his little meeting the next day at sunrise. Zinela was already there, waiting.

“Hi,” Soral offered, a little awkwardly. He noticed a little late that she also did not have a collar.

“Good morning,” she replied, “I’m surprised you even came. I had thought the rumors would have put you off… but you didn’t do any research at all, did you?”

Soral was visibly confused, causing her to change her words midway. She was right. Not only had he done no research, he hadn’t told anyone that they had even met.

“What kind of rumors?” he asked.

“You are quite bold to ask me directly,” she pointed out, “But the majority of the rumors describe my previous students as barely making it out alive in various ways.”

“Oh, is that all?” Soral asked dismissively. She was probably just a little harsh and things got blown out of proportion. Soral didn’t really trust rumors, negative or positive.

Zinela watched his ease and confidence with some disbelief. “Aren’t you the least bit concerned about what I might do to you?”

“Nope. You don’t have any black on your band, so Oasis trusts you a bit. I mean, I am red too,” Soral said, “And you don’t have a collar so you might be someone important like Nicholas.”

“You’ve met Nicholas?” Zinela asked with interest.

“Yeah, after I left yesterday,” Soral replied, “So how are you going to teach me?”

Zinela gave up on trying to discourage him and took him to the training room. “First of all, I need to know your physical abilities,” she told him, then began to run him through a wide variety of exercises and maneuvers. Magic boosting of any sort was not allowed.

Luckily, Soral was in good shape. He was fast, decently strong, and had a slightly higher than average endurance. What he lacked mainly was in terms of any techniques, timing, or battle sense.

And so, Zinela decided to teach him in the best way she saw fit after witnessing his skillset. “First, we will focus on reading your opponents and dodging.”

Before Soral even had a chance to ask what that meant she began to attack him. Her attacks were careful and balanced just so that even if they landed he wouldn’t be hurt too badly. She also made sure they were easier for a beginner to read and understand.

Training ended when the others in the building began to awaken. Zinela left, and Soral laid there on the floor panting for a bit. He was exhausted and bruised, but he definitely felt like he had learned something. He fell asleep right there and did not even dream.

Lala woke him a few hours later when she wandered into the room and asked him what he was doing. He managed to sneak out before she involved her in any of her fun exercises and decided to chat with Ruena.

“So you just asked someone to train you and she just happened to have a history of training others?” Ruena checked.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Yeah,” Soral admitted. It did sound a bit odd.

“Your luck is unbelievable,” Ruena told him, “But I guess that is part of who you are.”

Soral smiled. “I guess it is. I will definitely take advantage of it.”

“Don’t count on it too much. Your luck didn’t save you from getting trapped in that tower.”

He winced at the reminder. “I’ll be careful,” he promised.

The days after followed in a similar fashion. Early mornings were spent training until the others woke, then he would chat with Ruena, and see if Nicholas was in the library. Before he knew it, the festival was nearly there.

His conversations with Nicholas always started with the festival, but they would end up discussing other things as well. First of all, Nicholas was a terrible liar. He kept slipping up here and there so Soral figured out he was from another world.

After some nudging here and there, Soral found out some things about this other world. There was no magic there, and technology was more common. There were all sorts of cool things as well. Nicholas described a magical collection of knowledge that anyone could access from anywhere once they were hooked up. Something about going into a net.

Soral decided to try to figure out how to connect to the net thing later. For now, his priority was making his little finale for the festival as spectacular as possible.

On the day of, he told Zinela he intended to skip training just to make sure he had all the energy he needed. What he hadn’t expected was Lala bursting into his room and dragging him out to join her and her friends in the festival.

“I already promised to check things out with Howler,” Soral lied quickly.

“That’s okay. He can come too,” Lala replied with a beaming smile.

He should have known that wouldn’t work, but he had to be alone at the end of the night for his plan to work. His past experience proved Lala to be a bit clingy. He also didn’t want to find out what would happen if he bluntly told the cute little assassin no.

So he and Howler joined Lala, Sloth, and Scythe as they looked around the festival. The girl with the cat ears turned out to be a Cat. Apparently it was a magical species of cats that could take human form. Howler was oddly uncomfortable around her, so she didn’t join the group.

This festival honestly reminded Soral of the Magic Festival in Sycamore, but this was in a desert and all the stalls closely circled the lake. The items also had their own unique quality, each made by someone here in The Oasis. Since he was already out with everyone, Soral decided to make the most of this and enjoy himself.

Lala got one of every kind of potion she could get her hands on and ended up spending at least half the day floating. Howler was more interested in the food, most especially, the meat. Scythe liked the games the most, and Sloth split off by the lake and found a nice spot to take a nap.

As things got closer to night, Soral began to get anxious. He hadn’t found a chance to naturally break off yet, and he needed to be at the center of the lake without anyone noticing. His window when everyone released the lights was very small. Since separating wasn’t working, he decided to let them in on it instead.

“Hey guys, there is something I need to do during the Melody of Lights,” he told them.

“What is it?” Lala asked.

Scythe and Howler seemed interested too, so Soral explained his plan of mass collar destruction. Unlike the assassin trio, Howler still had his collar and fully supported this plan.

“I can distract everyone,” Scythe offered, “There is a game I haven’t tried yet that I know I can beat.”

“And I can join the fashion show!” Lala added, “I would look so cute in those dresses!”

They turned to look at Howler. “I’ll be the lookout then,” he decided, “My senses tend to be better than most.”

Once everyone decided on their positions they split up. Howler followed Soral towards the lake. “How are you going to get to the center?” he asked.

Soral paused. “Am I not allowed to swim?” he asked.

Howler sighed. “So you were planning to swim,” he sighed, “There are gators in that lake.”

“I know,” Soral replied. Nicholas had informed him when they discussed things before, but he figured since Nicholas hadn’t warned him against swimming it should be fine.

As they approached the planned entry point of the lake, he found out why. Nicholas was waiting there with a canoe.

“Is he coming too?” Nicholas asked as he saw them approach.

“I’ll stay here,” Howler assured, “I’m just here to make sure no one bothers us.”

Nicholas nodded and got in the canoe. “I’ll take you out.”

Once Soral was inside the canoe, Nicholas carefully paddled them out. The sun was mostly set and everyone was preparing for the Melody of Lights. They made it out to the center just in time. The first lights just began to release.

Soral took in a deep breath. It was finally time. Hopefully his plan worked as well in practice as it had in theory. He extended his magic around him, letting the flow of the lake carry it to the shore on all sides. It was slow starting, but the buildup seemed to be enhanced as more people released lights into the sky.

The moment Soral felt it work, he opened his eyes. Tiny lights flew about everywhere around the lake, obscuring his vision, but he could hear the sounds of shock and surprise.

“My collar!”

“It’s gone?”

“It came off!”

And as they all looked to see the source, the lights faded just enough for them to see Soral, still illuminated by the aftereffects of his own magic, in the middle of the lake.