Most people quickly dispersed after that, though Nar, feeling strangely awake, allowed himself to languish where he was, making small conversation with Kur while he continued to regrow the missing bit of flesh from under his left bicep.

As he chatted away with his party leader, recounting the battle to Kur, Nar wondered if he should bring up the weird feeling he had sensed regarding Leon. However, the more he thought about it, the more he wondered if he had imagined that strange mix of familiarity and… What? Foreboding wasn't a word he ever made use of, but it seemed to fit the feeling like a glove, as their O-Nexian healer was want to say.

"And no gains even after all that?" Kur asked, when Nar finished. "Damn. Sej's participation may have saved us all tonight, but the penalty is wild. Those were six herds of uncommon for Crystal's sake!"

He shook his head. "No wonder only the rich can afford boosting…"

"Hmm," Nar said, nodding to his words.

Expressions such as nepo kids, boosting and so many others were part of their growing vocabulary and knowledge base, as Kur, true to his word, continue to filter information down from his many lectures and into the party as appropriate, while the rest of them focused squarely on developing their paths in order to better perform their roles in delving.

"Anyways, I don't think we even killed that many, considering the numbers present," Nar told the party leader. "Like Sej said, there were just sadistic cowards who hated when pain was inflicted on them. That top alpha, and probably the individual herds' alphas were the exceptions, and we were lucky for that. Those things were tough, Kur. Really tough."

"Even for you, you mean?" Kur asked, with the ghost of a smile.

Nar grimaced, hesitating, but then nodded.

"This was a lesson…" Kur said. "We're not ready yet to face uncommon herds. While our lower levels might not mean much in green, yellow or even orange, a red dungeon that is close to purple has beasts with incredibly attribute dense levels. We need to level up first. You guys were six levels under those cacklers, and that makes a huge difference here!"

"Yeah…" Nar said.

Just then Nar caught the sound of the shower area curtain raising, and he turned to find that Eum had washed himself. His hair-fur mane stuck at wild angles, and when he saw Nar staring at him, the tygaris strode in their direction.

Bare chested again, Nar realized. And no shoes. Crystal, this is one crazy guy.

"How's your water-purifiers?" Eum asked.

Kur's grimace was all the answer that the tygaris needed, and Nar grimaced alongside his party leader. Two nights in, and they were already down two of them. Fortunately, both party leaders had been paranoid about losing their single source of fresh, clean water, so they had insisted on taking up valuable capacity within their storage backpacks to carry several spares to ensure they were ready for any eventuality.

And they were right, though I doubt any of them anticipated a paladin's oath, of all things, to be what broke them, Nar thought.

"Ah, damn it!" Eum mumbled, regret evident in his glimmering green eyes. "Are you… Going to be okay?"

Kur smiled and waved away the tygaris' concerns. "We've brought plenty of spares. Don't worry."

"Ah, that's good to hear! And we'll repay you guys for them," Eum promised. "And Calli already gave out to Leon for that! He should've checked first!"

"It's all good," Kur said. "We should've remembered to turn them off… It's going to be a learning experience for all of us."

"That it is," Eum said. He dropped on the floor besides Nar and Kur, and a comb appeared in his hand, with which he proceeded to comb his wild, damp mane of gray hair and fur. "But speaking of, you self-heal, don't you Nar?"

Nar glanced at Kur, hesitant on whether to share the information, but Kur gave him a discreet nod. They were about to become a single party anyways, so there wouldn't be any secrets between them.

"I'm still learning it, so I don't have a skill yet," Nar revealed.

Eum's finger froze mid-combing.

"You're learning it?" he asked. "Wait, what level are you? And how old?"

"Uh, I just made it to level 40, and I'm nineteen…"

"Should be twenty in a few months, actually," Kur said, frowning at himself. "Crystal, I'd forgotten about that…"

"What?" Eum almost shouted. "But then… We're the same age and level, how are you…"

"Eum!" Leon snapped as he walked from behind the curtain. "Stop sticking your nose where it doesn't belong!"

"But… But…"

"No buts! Enough!" Leon said, his golden, pink and rainbow glimmering eyes sparking with fury.

Nar couldn't help chuckling at the tygaris' regretful expression. He had a feeling that the enthusiastic, striped and half-naked man was a good guy, but all in all, he should confirm it before he started divulging any secrets, especially where it was concerned to his Ascendant teacher.

Her warnings about being careful with whether to reveal or hide his status were still fresh within his mind, and while there was no way to hide the bright glow of his aura or very flesh regrowing, he should keep his lips sealed until the revelation was necessary.

Or beneficial to us… Nar thought. Still, I don't blame him for wanting to know about it. And now we have an idea of their ages and levels.

Of course, being in the Brightnight's Jungle Tops, an area with a level range of 40 to 50 was already a good enough indicator of it, but it didn't hurt to confirm it.

"Sorry about your water purifiers," Leon said, as he took a seat beside Kur. "I was a bit… Overzealous, in my desire to show you all that we were trustworthy."

"I can understand that," Kur said. "And before you ask, we have plenty of spares, don't worry."

The paladin heaved a sigh in relief. "Azzin, that's good to hear! And I vow that we will repay their cost!"

Both Nar and Kur glanced up, above Leon's head, and the man glanced up with a frown of confusion.

Eum burst up laughing. "It doesn't always happen!"

"What doesn't… Oh! That?" Leon said, grinning. "No, that's an actual skill, [A Paladin's Promise]."

"That's a skill?" Nar asked, his turn to be shocked.

"Wow, there really are skills for everything," Kur mused.

"More than you can begin to imagine," Leon said, then he grimaced. "I mean, you all are just fresh out of the Gates, right? You shouldn't know much yet… Even with elite training."

"It feels like a really long time, but it's been what, four months since we exited?" Kur asked, eyeing Nar who gave him a nod. "About four months. So yes, we don't know much about anything yet."

Stolen story; please report.

"And since you're about to be twenty," Leon mused, casually revealing that he had at least a bit of [Hearing] to him, though Nar suspected the man to have quite the high sense attributes, given his massive [Awareness]. "That means you spent five or six months in the Climb?"

"That's about right," Kur arching an eyebrow at him. "And surprisingly accurate. It was just over six months."

"The Ceremony is a big… Deal for the Nexus," Eum said, hesitant. "So that much is known at least."

Nar snorted. "You can say that again."

"Yes," Leon said, his expression darkening, but then, it lit up again. "That means you've been fighting for only nine months! Gods, you B-Nexers are insanely strong!"

"More like the Climb demands it," Kur said, making a face.

The weak and the unlucky don't make it, Nar thought, remembering the extensive conversations they used to have around their Climb and all of its unknowns, as well as what awaited them on the surface.

"Right," Leon said, clasping his hands over his lap.

"On a different note," Kur said, pulling the conversation away into a different topic. "You're all from an elite academy, right? That means you're Nexus side, correct?"

Oh? So not an elite apprentice-ship? Nar wondered.

"That's right. We do our learning Nexus side, and then we travel into the Labyrinth for assignments," Leon explained. "When that's done, we return home, get evaluated, train some more, and then are sent back out again."

"Isn't that a waste of time, though?" Nar asked. "To do all that travelling…"

"And we need to pay for it, so it's mostly public transportation too," Eum said, groaning. "And there's never any direct transport to where we need to go!"

Leon nodded. "Yeah… But, well, apprentice-ships are meant to train delvers fast, so that they can be put to work as soon as possible."

Nar glanced at Kur.

"It's true," Kur said. "Apprenticeships are considered fast-track programs to turn people into professional delvers quickly. Most of them do it in one year, to get people delving-ready and then get them started off in easy dungeons."

"Oh, wow… One year?" Nar asked. "And I thought our two years were already short enough."

"Elite apprenticeships fast track elite delvers… But that usually comes at a cost of higher casualty rates," Leon said, squirming in his chair.

"And we have," Kur said, remembering the 3 dead apprentices and the junior storm glider that had been killed during their confluence. "And we were warned that there will be more."

"Given where you are, and with only four months of training…" Eum said.

"But you all look very capable! Plus, as a three-party domain party, it should be great!" Leon said quickly, glaring at Eum.

Kur chuckled. "Ah, don't worry about that. We know what we signed up for, and why. More importantly, you had to pay your own way here?"

"From the very first taxi we took outside the academy," Leon said, sighing. "And that was the only private transportation that Calli allowed us. She keeps a very tight hold over our common fund… Uh, Calli's my sister."

"And the real party leader," Eum said, grinning.

"Can't argue with that… You'll see," Leon told the confused Nar and Kur.

"And… How long have you been at that academy?" Nar asked, curious since they had been surprised by their short combat experience.

"Us? Me and Eum enrolled together, so that's what? Almost twelve years now?" Leon said.

"Twelve years?" Nar gaped.

"Calli, Medis and Era are older, so they've been there for even longer," Eum said.

"Well, that's definitely not fast-tracked," Kur mumbled. "You must have a lot of training then!"

"Plenty," Leon said, grimacing. "I promise, you won't regret partnering up with us!"

"I can see that…" Kur said.

"So you level up slower, then?" Nar asked, still shocked by the revelation. He remembered that Tys had told them that the Navy apprentices had been training for years, but somehow, he hadn't fully taken in what that implied. He had still expected aethermancers to begin fighting at about the same time and age as he did!

"For the first few years, yes," Leon explained. "At about fifteen years old, though, we start delving more and more. And as we reach twenty, that increases dramatically. We're expected to undertake one long delve, a medium one, and three smaller ones per year now."

"A very different method, then," Kur said. "After this delve, I'm told we have a month of training and then we'll be thrown into another long delve."

"Really?" Nar asked him. "Is the whole two years just delve after delve?"

"That's the way it goes for apprenticeships," Leon said, as Kur nodded. "Ourselves won't be graduating for at least another five years… And many others stay in the academy for longer, though they take on greater challenges and even work placements."

"Wow," Nar said. "Damn."

To think they were taking the accelerated option… He knew they were driven fast, but still, he hadn't really had anything to measure his apprenticeship against.

"Everything has its pros and cons, though," Leon added. "And elite apprenticeship apprentices are very, very well regarded, given what you're put through."

"And we're just getting started," Kur said, shaking his head.

"Oh, we're being summoned," Leon suddenly said. "Time to move the wounded to one of the tents. Apologies again for the disruption, Kur."

"No worries at all. Is there anything we can do to help, other than stop any aura usage?" Kur asked Leon as the paladin rose to his feet.

"No, that is plenty, thank you so much!"

"Alright then, we'll see you in the morning," Kur said.

Nar and Eum exchanged a nod, and the tygaris mouthed the word "spar" behind Leon's back.

"I swear to Azzin, man! If I hear the word "spar" out of your damned…"

"They're a good sort, I think," Nar said, in their private party chat.

"I hope so. We're stuck together now," Kur said, sighing.

But they left it at that, not waiting to wake up the others, and not wanting to pull out a tablet to have an obviously typed out conversation.

Soon, Eum and Leon carried the still unconscious party leaders to one of the tents, and Era aided a limping woman to make it there as well.

That must be Cali, then, Leon's sister, Nar thought. More than the similar features, it was her glimmering eyes that gave her away. While less intense than Leon's, hers were still glowing with golden, pink and rainbow, just like her brothers.

"Right, let's turn off everything," Kur said, getting Row, Sej and Tun's attention.

A few moments later, Era poked her head out of the tent, just as they were turning off the last few lights.

Nar had no idea what her race was, but other than the dark gray skin and the cloudy white eyes, she looked pretty much like an alfin. Era's white, shoulder-length hair was tied up in a half-braid, revealing silvery, elegant markings on her skin that climbed up her neck, and ended just below her ear. On her forehead, there were more markings as well, with three soft lines coming down towards her nose, and three dots of silver of diminishing sizes adorning each of her eyebrows.

Maybe she's a type of alfin? Just like Sej is a human that is blue skinned? Nar wondered.

"Thank you," she said, as the final lights turned off. "I'm going to set up my healing skill for the night. Is that okay?"

"Work away," Kur told her. "Have a good night."

"I'll make sure of that," Era said, giving him a sleepy smile.

Elements of sleep and night, Nar thought to himself. Is that why she sounds like that? Or is she just tired?

And again, he thought about Tuk, and how his extra enthusiasm lately might be linked to his unlocked affinity to the joy of life.

"Everyone be careful. Aether AOE going up around their tent," Kur whispered to the party chat, to those who might still be awake.

"This thing is really invasive…" Jaz muttered.

That got them a few chuckles, and glances were aimed at the toilet.

"Oh, my bonded, keeper of the holy night and the restful sleep. I beseech you now to bless this abode, so that these Children of the Radiants can at long last enjoy a peaceful sleep, and recover from their trials," Nar heard Era intoning from within their tent. "Please, benevolent one, grace us with beautiful and soothing dreams, and may the night leave us restored and ready to face the day ahead. [Embrace of the Night]!"

A soft, deep and dark blue light suddenly filtered from within the tent, and Nar's eyebrows rose as motes of aether floated in the air through the fabric.

Well, that's something, he thought, eying the gently pulsing aether. But does she need to pray to her patron in order to use her skills? That sounds a bit much…

But from what he remembered, the Master of Aura had mentioned that the aethermancer bonded spirits demanded sacrifices and worship in exchange for their aether, so maybe she really needed to pray for her skills… Or some of them at least.

Good thing I have you instead, eh? He thought, smiling at the little ball of aura inside him, which wasn't so little anymore. That aura was his, and he didn't need to pray nor beg for his power, nor did he have to worry about offending some spirit and being stripped of all of his hard work either.

Still, the aethermancers had aethertech, and their skills were a lot easier to master. At least according to the Master of Aura, and he had no reasons to doubt her.

Pros and cons, he told himself, repeating the maxim of the master, and which Leon had also used in regards to their fast-track learning program. It's always like that. Even my own path, which is getting more and more about self-tanking than protecting others.

He sighed. He was not ready to accept that reality yet… Not fully at least, and not without trying to find a way around him, but a growing part of himself knew that his master and Tys were correct in their assessment. Soon, Gad would be the only proper tank in their party, and they would have to adapt to it.

Given how Kur has been using me more offensively lately, though, he's already preparing for that, Nar thought, eyeing the white and black outline of his party leader in the darkness.

Still, this rain is something, isn't it? Nar thought, glancing up at the tent's ceiling. And in this darkness, it kind of reminds me of the Pressure…

And that reminded him of something else. Someone else.

Wish you here to see all of this, dad, he thought.

Thankfully, in the white and black of their [Dark Vision], no one was able to notice the brief flicker of pure, raw grief that slipped through his defenses, but soon, he had pushed it back down again, locked tightly at the back of his mind, from where it continued to weep for the loss of his dad, and his broken promise.

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