Kur called for their attention as they left the auditorium.

"We're up," he told them. "I just got the notification to head to the offices of Leadership. It's time to know what our dungeon is, and look into getting all the stuff we'll need."

"Those consumable things?" Tuk asked.

"Yes, those consumable things," Kur said. "Anyone want to come with me and give me a hand? Gad will be busy starting today."

"Sorry guys," she said.

"Why are you sorry?" Mul grunted. "I can't though. I have to go meet that fucking…"

"I'm also busy!" Tuk cut in, joining his hands in apology before Mul could get started on his instructor's hand to hand training. "Sorry, it's back to finger torture for me! I'm trying to get at least the first 5 moves of a Thousand Petals down properly."

"I'm busy too…" Rel said, looking slightly uncomfortable.

Must be meeting the priestess again, Nar thought, then sighed discreetly. We really need to have that talk as soon as possible.

"I'm out too, sorry," Cen said.

"Me too," Jul said, fidgeting with all four hands, regret oozing from her big, green-blue compound eyes. "The master's not letting me have any rest."

Viy raised her hand. "I'm the same! I got hit with extra training..."

"You did?" Kur asked, frowning. "Why?"

Viy glared at Nar, eliciting a wicked grin from him. He knew why.

"Because this shit-head here hasn't allowed me to beat him yet!" she said. "And the Master of Polearms punished me for it."

"I haven't beaten you yet, either!" Nar said, feigning ignorance.

"You're not supposed to, sword face! And yes, you have!"

Nar laughed at her. "Get better then!"

"Alright, alright!" Kur said, coming in between them as the party burst out laughing. "Everyone's busy and…"

"I'm free," Nar said.

Silence spread, like the shadow of an enormous beast spreading over them, and everyone turned to look at him with varying degrees of shock plastered across their expressions.

"What?" he asked.

"You are free?" Tuk asked. "What in the Pile happened to you? I mean, other than… You know, mind stuff…"

"Uh… I'm still kind of knackered?" Nar said, hesitatingly. "No? I can go train and…"

"No!" Jul, Kur, Viy, Rel, Tuk and Cen all shouted in unison.

"Whoa!" Nar said, stepping back from them.

"Just rest, Nar," Gad told him, chuckling. "Recovery is also important, especially after what just happened."

"But…"

"Just take the excuse to not to train and shut up," Mul said, in his strange blank voice. "So annoying… Making the rest of us look bad."

Nar sighed at that. "Okay, fine. Is that alright, Kur?"

"What do you mean is that alright? Of course it is!" Kur said. "Alright, we'll see you guys later with news. Nar, we're headed this way."

Nar waved at the others, collecting several waves in return, and they parted ways, as he and Kur headed back into the crowd that was still exiting the auditorium in order to take the opposite corridor.

"You know, you don't need to go to sickbay to take a rest day," Kur told him, as they cleared the crowd and joined a number of other pairs and trios that all seemed to be headed in the same way as they were. "Hasn't your master told you to chill out yet?"

"No?" Nar asked, frowning at Kur. "He just pushes harder…"

"Figures," Kur said, shaking his head. "Well, it's your hybrid path, man. Just make sure you don't burn out."

Nar shrugged, but didn't manage to come up with any counter to that.

"So, what's going to happen now?" he asked his party leader, as they waited for the lift.

"We're going to see my instructor and she's going to tell us what dungeon we're going into," Kur replied, watching the numbers on the lift's indicator. "She'll also give us a map of the place, our itinerary, our harvesting and gathering goals, and a breakdown of the beasts and monsters we'll fight and the bosses. From that, we get to make our own research and preparations using the Scimitar's databases."

"There'll be monsters?" Nar asked. "Already? I thought those were a lot stronger than beasts. And smarter…"

Kur shrugged. "Depends, like with everything, but yeah, I'm told that some dungeons will have monsters in them. It will be up to luck of the draw…"

"Damn."

"It will be alright. This time, we'll go into battle knowing exactly what we're facing, so there will be no surprises, and we can also gather a few things from the quartermaster to make our lives easier in the dungeon."

"What is that?"

"Don't know yet," Kur said, with a shrug. "Antidotes for poisons. Boosters. Healing potions. HP potions. Stamina potions. That sort of thing, I expect."

"Aren't HP and healing potions the same?" Nar asked, as they crowded into the lift with a bunch of other apprentices.

"I thought so, but no. The HP ones directly top up your HP, same with the stamina potion, but they don't heal you. On the other hand, the healing potion does fix up your body, but it doesn't restore your HP."

"I feel like they should just go together, no?" Nar asked him.

"They can, but those are a lot more expensive," Kur explained. "And I doubt they're going to give us any of those."

"So, one to keep us fighting, and one to keep us alive," Nar mused. "I guess we're going to need both of them."

"Yeah," Kur said. "Still no word on the healers, so we'll definitely be taking this delve on our own. But surely, after that they'll give us all healers… Makes no sense otherwise."

Nar grimaced.

"And what do you think about that?" he asked the taller party leader. "About staying on, I mean?"

They filtered out of the lift and followed after the other apprentices, who were clearly all on their way to learn about their dungeons as well.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"What about it?" Kur asked, confused.

"I mean, do you want to stay?"

"Yes?" Kur said, frowning. "Of course! Don't you?"

"Me? Yeah, of course I want to stay!" Nar said. "But… You know, with how things have been and all… I have my reasons, but you guys…"

"Yeah… The confluence was rough," Kur said, rubbing at his jaw. "But I've always wanted to be a party leader, and there isn't much use for one in the Nexus, is there? I might as well stay here and get the best training I can get before I decide on the rest of my life… Oh! Hey!"

"Yoh, Kur, how's it going?" a morsvar greeted them.

"Mir!" Kur said, clasping hands with her. "I see the bandages are gone!"

Mir smiled at him, lifting her healthy looking, brown scaly left arm for him to see. "All gone!"

Kur leaned into Nar. "Mir here got entangled with a raimel."

"Ouch!" Nar said, wincing.

"It was!" she said. "Is this Nar, yeah? Surprised to not see him training!"

"He's also recovering!" Kur said, patting Nar's back. "Besides, we have to stop him sometimes!"

"Ugh, tell me about it! You know…"

Nar smiled and nodded awkwardly as the two party leaders walked into pace besides each other, and he was left to walk beside a male alfin, who looked to be just as awkward as Nar was.

"Are they always like this?" he asked Nar.

"I don't know," Nar said, staring at his party leader as he laughed and bantered with the morsvar. "It's my first time seeing it."

"Me too," the guy said. "Our tank usually comes along for these things. Dol."

Nar took his stretched hand and shook it. "Nar. And our tank's the same. Are they also busy today?"

"You don't know?" Dol asked him, surprised.

"Uh… No. I've been pretty much training and sleeping this week, and then sickbay last night," Nar said, awkwardly.

What in the Pile did I miss? He thought. Had he really been so out of sorts that he had missed something of such significance that it apparently affected all the tanks onboard? Then again, the whole of the last few days felt more like a blur of a nightmare than reality…

Dol grimaced. "Take it easy, man. It'll be alright."

"Yeah," Nar said, not bothering to correct the guy. Best he thought that Nar was just too worried about the dungeon, and overworking himself as a result, which, to be fair, was most of the truth anyways.

"The tanks are doing their war games today and tomorrow," the guy explained, as they trailed behind the pair of chattering party leaders. "Our tank, Kem, didn't really know what they were going to be doing, but it was supposed to be something big. I mean, they're even sleeping in the Tanks Hall tonight." "Wow!" Nar breathed. "Sounds intense!"

"Hmm," the alfin said, nodding.

A few moments later, they arrived at the corridors taken up by the Leadership faculty, and split to each go to their respective Leadership instructor.

"Guess we're not the first," Kur said, as the two of them arrived at their destination and found the door closed. "Shouldn't take that long though."

Nar nodded and leaned against the wall.

Crystal. I am tired, he thought. His legs were like jell-o under him, and he kept getting awkward aches and sharp pains across his entire body, in particular, the area around his chest. He rubbed at it with a grimace, feeling as though the inside of his chest had been scrubbed clean with the acid the Undeadz used to clean their gun turrets.

"You alright?" Kur asked him.

"Yeah. Just tired," Nar said, dropping his hand before he worried Kur.

"Just rest for today, man," Kur told him. "Tomorrow's another day."

"... sure. I'll do that," Nar said, knowing that perhaps this time, he really did not have any other choice.

Can't always keep pushing, and injuries will just delay me, he told himself. And somewhat convinced he was doing the right thing by taking it easy, Nar looked around at the other gathered party members.

"So, what was that about?" he asked Kur. "And why did Mir know about me?"

Kur shrugged. "You and Gad wanted me to make friends, so I am."

"Using me?"

"Using everything," Kur said. "Why? Was it wrong?"

Nar snorted. "Use whatever you have to, Kur. Me included."

"Really?" Kur asked, staring at him with evident hunger.

"Of course," Nar said. "You support us, and you can… Use us too, to support yourself. Why?"

"I don't know… It sounds wrong when you put it like that," Kur said, rubbing his chin.

"Like those pimps Tuk mentioned?" Nar asked.

"Yeah," Kur said. "Where does he even hear all of that stuff?"

Nar shrugged. "You should come with us next time he takes us for a spin around the ship, and maybe it's for the best that at least one of us knows about this stuff. We'll be going back to the O-Nex at some point, and we need to know about everything that goes on back there, not just what they tell us in lectures. And this is definitely not the kind of stuff they'll tell us in lectures…"

"I guess not," Kur mused, then he chuckled. "Alright, I'll use you then. You're gonna regret it though."

"What? Why?"

The door at their side slid open and two apprentices stepped out, engrossed in heavy discussion.

"Next!" a voice called from inside.

"Let's go," Kur said, nudging Nar.

"Ah, Kur! Come on in!"

"Morning Cal," Kur greeted his instructor.

"And this… Must be Nar, the first ranged aura skill user in the melee batch!" she said, looking him up and down. "Congratulations!"

"That's him!" Kur said with a laugh, motioning for Nar to take a seat at his side, before Cal's desk.

Kur's instructor reminded Nar of the Master of Emotions and Hand Combat. Her skin was the same kind of pink and purple, and when she smiled, she flashed them with her sharp, long canines, and her hair too, was some sort of deep black with touches of purples.

"Good job, you! And you're way ahead of the usual first!" Cal said, beaming at Nar. "The Master of Blades must be super proud of you!"

"Eh… Thanks," Nar said, shifting in his seat. "I do my best for that."

She nodded effusively, her smile never diminishing.

"Alright, so, first dungeon!" she said, wiggling her purple eyebrows at them, and radiating excitement. "How we feeling about that?"

Kur laughed. "I can't wait to get in there!"

And when the two of them turned to Nar, who had been surreptitiously checking out the sterile, blank, metal gray office in which he now found himself, he couldn't help but feel disorientated at the sudden beams of excitement and energy being aimed straight at him.

"Uh… A little worried, I guess," he confessed. "The den and the confluence were…You know. And this is the third assessment…"

Cal nodded very seriously, her lilac eyes opening very wide. "That's understandable. They were both very chaotic encounters, and you are all still relatively in the dark here. But if you hang in there, you'll come to understand that there is so much more about delving than just combat, and the dungeon is going to help greatly with that!"

She leaned back in her chair and tapped not on her screen, but on some kind of light display that showed all the letters of the alphabet, punctuation symbols, numbers and a number of other symbols that Nar had no idea what they were or meant.

"Once you're in the dungeon, you'll see," she said, smiling enigmatically at Nar. "For now, let's see… Ah, SWAD10-OR-1R-673927. A swamp!"

She grinned at them with a bright smile. "You boys about to get dirty and throw down in the mud!"

"Uh… Is that a good thing?" Kur asked. "I thought swamps weren't… Well, nice."

She laughed. "The swamp is, I confess, not my first pick for a holiday, but there is beauty and marvel in every dungeon, even where you're going. You'll see."

And with that said, she resumed typing.

"So, plenty of water, mud and darkness aspects present," she said. "Chance of one new affinity unlocking standing at 72%? That's not bad… Not bad at all!"

"Really?" Nar asked.

"Yup, and the predictions are never too far off," she said, still reading from her screen. "Of course, I can't tell you who it is for. That could drastically reduce the chances of it happening, you know? Hmm. Mud goblins. Dusk crawlers… Night shrieks… Yeah, bog started stuff, if you allow me the pun!"

And she laughed at her own joke, to which Kur happily joined in, leaving Nar to struggle in keeping his face neutral at the flat joke.

"Nothing concerning in there," Cal said, looking away from the screen. "Everything will be in the list of the enemies you might encounter, so make sure you're prepared, and the Records databases will be open for you to browse from now on. You can look up and see whatever Tsurmirel knows about these beasts and monsters, which is significant, as we've been using this particular cluster of dungeons for thousands of years now, so there is no excuse for poor preparation! And you'll be spending the night in the swamp, so consider also about the flora, fauna and ecology of the place beyond just worrying about what you're fighting. Insects may just be zero level beats, but they can still carry diseases on them, and you don't want any leeches sucking you dry… And that's that! Unfortunately, I can't tell you much else. Appropriate, and extensive, preparation is part of your assignment after all."

"And once we go in, how do we get out?" Kur asked.

"Simple slaying across the board for every dungeon," she revealed. "But you'll find all the details in the brief."

"And once we go in, nobody else is?" Nar asked, wanting to make sure he had correctly understood Professor Thim.

"Yup. From the moment you teleport in, you're on your own," she said, with a serious expression for once. "Don't worry too much about it, though. Of course, you'll need to be careful, and stuff happens... But even random, every dungeon has been vetoed to appropriately match the level and capacity of each party. So just do your best, be smart, get gains, and everything should work out, okay?"

Nar nodded. "Got it."

"And I think that's all," Cal said, smiling.

Kur stood up, prompting Nar to do the same.

"Thanks, Cal!" he said. "See you tomorrow!"

"See you! And if you have any questions, Kur, bring them with you tomorrow. Which means, study today! Though, of course I can't guarantee I'll answer any of them!"

"Of course!" Kur said, returning the grin of his instructor.

Nar waved at the over enthusiastic Leadership instructor and they stepped out onto the corridor, letting the next pair of apprentices go in.

"Guess we're fighting monsters after all," Nar said. "Mud goblins, eh?"

"Yeah… Oh, damn!" Kur muttered, staring at his touch-pad.

"What?" Nar asked.

"This brief is fifty pages long! And the enemies' part is like two thirds of that! Ugh! Come on! Let's go back to the room and have a look through all of this stuff! I don't want any surprises in this damned dungeon!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.