"Hehehe." Mari started chuckling, which devolved into full manic laughter. "HAHAHAHAHAHAH! WE DID IT! HAHAHAHA! IT'S DEAD! WE FINALLY KILLED IT!" Only to be stopped when Alex lightly tapped on her slowly healing arm, causing her to wince from the pain.

  "I know you're excited, but we need to regroup with the others," Alex said while unwrapping his arms from Mari's shoulders and stepping onto his now healed legs.

  "Oh, yeah, you have a point." She managed to say before stumbling forward when she tried to follow him. Fortunately, Alex was quick enough to catch her before she fell into the sand. "Ugh, why do I feel so weak all of a sudden?"

  "It's the buffs placed on you. As they gradually wear off, your body will need some time to adjust to the sudden loss of strength." Wrapping Mari's left arm over his shoulder, Alex helped her walk towards the dead Boss's head, where the other students and the adult helper had gathered. Once there, Alex gave Mari a Health potion and drank one himself, checking on the others. Some, like Jack, stood as they attended to their wounds, while others lay on the sand or leaned against the Boss's corpse. The adult helper stood nearby, watching over them.

  "So," Wendy spoke up, breaking the silence. "It looks like we have some time before the exit appears. So we might as well use this time to decide how we all want to split this thing." She announced, pointing behind her with her thumb at the corpse.

  "Hey Mari," Alex softly said. "You want anything from the Boss?" Mari thought over the question for a moment.

  "Not really. Hmm, maybe a fang."

  "Does it matter which one?"

  "Eh, not really."

  "Do you want them with or without the venom sac?"

  "Nah." Alex nodded, raising his free arm, catching the other student's attention.

  "1000 Credits to each of you as soon as we get back to the hotel, if my team can have the Boss core as well as the two fangs." He offered.

  "1000 Credits?!/That's a lot./ Really?!" Alex waited while the others talked among themselves. "I don't care for either the core or the fangs, so I say we take the deal./What's the standard rate for those things?/Definitely less than 1000 Credits!"

  "I only really need some bone to fix my sword and hopefully reinforce it," Jack said, staring at his broken sword. "How about you two?"

  "O-oh, uh, I'm fine with them taking what they want. The only thing I would like to get is the venom sacs." Sera softly answered, "And the 1000 Credits would be nice."

  "At most, the core would sell for 600 Credits. As for the fangs, we would be lucky to get 100 for an intact one, significantly less for a broken one." Crystal added. "I say we take the offer." After a few minutes of discussion, the other students all agreed to take Alex's offer.

  "Great, then I'll be taking my team's portion of the loot, and the rest of you can discuss among each other how you all want to split the rest of the body. Mari, do you have the strength to stand by yourself?"

  "Do you even need to ask?" He raised a brow, causing her to sag a little. "Yeah, I can." He nodded before removing her arm from his shoulder. Walking over to the Boss's head, Alex took out a carving knife and stabbed it into the monster's forehead. Cutting it open, Alex shoved his arm into the head and rummaged around in it. Feeling something solid, he grabbed it and pulled it out, revealing a fist-sized Boss core covered in brain matter. Storing it away, Alex then turned towards Jack, who was watching the whole thing happen.

  "Mind helping me get the fangs?" Alex asked him.

  "Heh, sure you're already paying me so much for them. The least I could do is help you gather them." He agreed, catching the short one-bladed sword Alex tossed him. Taking the fangs from Jack, Alex handed them to Mari, who stored them away in her ring and sat down next to her.

  "What are you going to use the Boss core for?" Mari asked while leaning back to lie on the sand.

  "I'm going to eat it," He replied before gulping down a Mana potion.

  "Hahaha! Man, the massive balls of steel you must have. Hey, when you do it, can I watch? I only saw someone eat a Boss core once, and it was kinda anticlimactic. The only thing that changed was that their eyes would sometimes glow in a pinkish light."

  "Sure, though I advised not to get your hopes up. Most likely, not much would change after I eat the core." He replied while slowly sipping on another Mana potion. "Do you know what Boss core they consumed?"

  "Hmm?"

  "The person you saw eat a Boss core, do you know which one it was?"

  "Oh, uh, I think they said it came from a humanoid dream demon of some kind. One that can hypnotize people and put them to sleep."

  "Were they given the core or retrieved it themselves?"

  "Killed the Boss with her husband. Also, I overheard my mom say that they're looking for another copy of the core so the husband could eat it."

  "How strong would you say they are?"

  "Three-fourths as strong as my dad. So maybe at our instructor's level?"

  "Then the most likely case was that the core they consumed came from a succubus Boss of some kind. Meaning that the Trait they must have gotten was Emotion Sight. This grants them the ability to see other people's emotions as coloured auras." Mari nodded along as she listened to Alex's talk, ignoring the occasional weird ways he explained things. "Though if that is the case, unless they're fine with having a wife instead of a husband, I suggest they look for a core from an incubus boss instead."

  "What? Why?"

  "Because consuming a core from a Demonic-type Boss always corrupts the person in the form of a set Trait, along with the typical random one they are given. For example, if a woman consumes a Boss core from a succubus variant, they would slowly change into their ideal but sexualized body. But if a male consumes it, they would instead transform into a female version of themselves. And vice-versa for incubus variants of Bosses."

  "Huh," was all Mari could say while she processed what she just learned. "Then what happens to you when you eat cores from other Demonic-type Bosses?"

  "Well, it depends on the type of demon the Boss is. Hmm, maybe it would be best to start with the bottom-tier Bosses like imps." The duo continued talking to each other while they waited for the other students to finish harvesting what they could salvage from the Boss and dividing up the loot among themselves. By the time the Rift leading out of the arena appeared, all that was left of the Soul Glare King Cobra was a pile of organs, broken bones and chunks of meat with bits of scales of them.

  "What'cha doing?" Jack asked Sera, who was shovelling sand with her hands into glass jars.

  "Oh, uhm, gathering sand?" He blinked a few times in confusion before looking at all the sand around them.

  "Should I be doing that as well?"

  "Unless you have a use for it, then I don't think you need to." Answered Crystal, who was storing away her portion of the loot. "Black sand doesn't sell for much, and unless you have a use for it, it isn't worth the effort of gathering. I'm guessing black sand is an ingredient for a potion?"

  "N-no, I'm gathering some to be made into tinted bottles. Some potions are very light sensitive and need to be stored in special bottles lest they quickly lose their effectiveness."

  "Everyone ready to leave?!" Interrupted Wendy, causing Sera to quickly finish shovelling the sand into the jars and store them away.

  "Not yet, there is one more thing we need to get," Alex answered, getting up from his resting spot with Mari.

  "We do?" Mari said out loud.

  "Yeah, but it shouldn't take long." He headed towards the quicksand that the Boss originally rested on, while weaving a spell as he walked. "Hey, can you help me with this?"

  "Sure?" Crystal followed him, stopping just short of stepping on the quicksand. "What do you need me to do?"

  "Give me a sec." Activating the spell, a ball of water formed above the quicksand, which quickly burst, drenching the top layer in water. "Freeze the entire area of quick sand, and please make sure the ice is thick enough for two people to stand on it." She nodded before closing her eyes and starting to concentrate on constructing the spell. Opening her eyes, Crystal crouched down and placed a hand on the wet quicksand.

  "Freeze." In the blink of an eye, the entire thing was frozen over.

  "Thank you. I can do the rest from here." 'Silk Boost, please.' Hearing the scittering sound of confirmation, Alex stepped onto the sand and walked towards the rough center of the quicksand. Quickly weaving two spells together, Alex activated it on his right arm, encasing it in a spiked gauntlet of ice. Bringing his right arm back, Alex smashed it down, shattering the ice under him and the frozen gauntlet covering his arm. Shaking his bloodied and frost-bitten arm, Alex looked at the rough hole he had made.

  The others just watched as Alex crouched down and plunged his right arm into the hole. After a solid minute of feeling around, Alex finally felt something solid. Maneuvering himself around the hole, he eventually found what he was looking for. Grabbing tightly onto it, Alex poured all his strength into his arm and back and pulled the object up.

  "Is that a fucking chest?!" Mari couldn't help but shout as she watched Alex pull a whole wooden chest out of the sand and onto the ice he was crouching on.

  "Ugh," Alex groaned as he stood up, took out a Mana potion and downed it while dragging the chest over towards the other students with a speechless Crystal following close behind. "So, how do you all want to do this? You guys want to split this here, in the field or at the hotel?" The students just stared at him in silence as he nursed his sore right arm.

  "How did you know that was there?" It was the adult helper who broke the silence.

  'It was in the game book, as a bonus for players who fell into the quick sand and managed to get out,' Alex thought to himself. "Sorry, but I'm under an NDA. So I legally can't answer that question." The helper raised a brow at his reply.

  "But it's ok for you to show us this?" The helper asked while motioning to the chest with her hand. Alex waved her concern away.

  "This is going to be public information in a few months anyway, and the chances of any of you finding this specific Rift again before then are slim to none." The helper narrowed her eyes at him.

  "Who do you work for again?"

  "Can't say, again, I'm under an NDA not to say anything." They stared at each other for a solid thirty seconds, with the helper backing off first.

  "Very well. This shit is above my pay grade," She muttered to herself. "Then I suggest you all split the loot before leaving the Rift so we don't have to drag a chest through the field." The helper advised the students. Agreeing, the students excitedly crowded around the chest and opened it. Revealing beautiful silk fabric of various colours, ranging from vibrant gold, royal purple, sky blue and blood red. Digging deeper, the students also found a few bugs made out of precious metals, some gemstones, unknown artifacts and various miscellaneous items. Dividing the chest contents, it was unanimously agreed that each team would receive at least three sheets of silk fabrics, along with their choice of either two gemstones or a metal bug.

  "How about because Alex was the one who found the chest, he and his team should have first pick on what's left," Wendy asked, a suggestion that none of the students had a problem with. Alex turned to his teammate, who was busy rubbing her face with the soft fabric.

  "Do you want anything specific from the pile?" Alex asked, startling Mari out of her daze.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  "Oh," She quickly stored away the fabric in her ring and looked over the pile of leftover items.

  "Do you just want more of the silk fabric?" Alex asked her when he noticed her gaze kept gravitating towards the stack of leftover fabrics.

  "Yeah," she replied after looking over the other items one last time.

  "Ok, then we'll take four of the nine leftover fabrics along with these two items." He lifted a centipede made of black metal with silver legs and small ruby eyes coiled into a bracelet in one hand. And a platinum tiara adorned with royal blue sapphires in his other hand.

  "I didn't know you were into jewelry, Captain." Mari teased with a cheeky grin.

  "Do you want the fabrics or not? Because you're free to choose what you want, like I am." He replied with a flat look. She looked at the jewelry in his hands, then at the stack of fabrics on the sand.

  "Fair enough, I'll take some more of the fabrics." She said back, grabbing and storing away four more sheets of fabric.

  "Well, we got what we wanted; you guys can split the rest however you like," Alex yawned. While he waited, Alex examined the two items he had chosen. Mari, on the other hand, decided to take out a baby blue sheet of fabric and began rubbing it against her face. It took the other students about ten minutes to divide the remaining items among themselves.

  "Ok, with that done and over, is everyone ready to leave?" Wendy asked, while looking towards Alex along with the others. Noticing everyone's gaze on him, Alex merely nodded. One by one, the students entered the Rift, and in a flash, they found themselves back in the wheat field. Looking around, Alex noted the sun slowly dipping under the horizon and the darkening cloud above.

  "Ah, you guys finally made it." Greeted McGaron, leaning against a wooden fence. While everyone was focused on him, Alex subtly lifted his tracker, took off and palmed an iron disk covered in carvings that was attached to the underside of it.

  "YES! We're the first group out!" Cheered Mari when she noticed that they were the only students there.

  "No, in fact, you're the last ones to arrive. The others should already be resting at the hotel by now."

  "FUCK! LAST AGAIN!"

  "So we'd better get going if we want to make it in time for dinner." He continued, ignoring Mari's wailing. With the slowly darkening skies above them, they quickly made their way through the wheat field and, within thirty minutes of walking, arrived at the hotel they would be staying at. "You're all dismissed," McGaron told the students. "But I expect you all to be in the dining hall by six. Oh, I almost forgot. Before you head inside, please hand over your trackers to him."

  "Ok/ sure/ fine/ -nod-/ ..." Lining up, the students handed their trackers to him before dispersing to their respective rooms. For students who didn't want to or couldn't afford to pay for a room, they would have to share an Academy-paid one with several other students. As for Alex, he was happy to spend several hundred Credits if that meant he didn't have to share a room.

  After a quick shower and change of clothes, Alex sat down on his king-sized bed and took out the metallic centipede and platinum tiara from his Storage pouch. Setting down the tiara onto the bed next to him, Alex then bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood and smeared it on the centipede's head. "Chocolate?" He muttered, licking up the leftover blood off his healed thumb while he waited for the mental connection to form between centiped and himself. "Does that mean I'm craving chocolate right now? Huh, now that I think about it, I could take advantage of my Delicious Trait to find out someone's preferred food at that moment. No, wait, when would I ever need to do that?" He shook away his idle thoughts and focused on the centipede in his hands. He watched the centipede uncoil itself before starting to crawl. Once the centipede wrapped around his hand, it raised its upper body, its unblinking ruby eyes staring right at him.

  -Scrit?-

  " It's not a real centipede. It's a golem, an artificial imitation of the real thing."

  -Scitter?-

  "Hmm, probably not and even if they did know what the bugs were, I doubt they would bond with it instead of selling it."

  -Sceech?-

  "Watch." Alex focused on the golem and watched it crawl all over his arm before wrapping around his wrist in the shape of a bracelet. "How was the Mana usage?"

  -Sce-

  "Good, looks like I'll be able to use this without needing to drink any Mana potions."

  -SCREE?!-

  Alex rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, I'll still make sure to drink enough to satisfy you. Sheesh, you're such a glutten sometimes." He picked up the tiara. "Now what should I do with this?" Besides the centipede golem, none of the artifacts interested him; instead, Alex decided to pick up a piece of jewelry he could potentially enchant himself. Of the various pieces of jewelry he could have chosen, Alex took the only one made out of platinum. Of course, he didn't choose it because it was worth the most; he had chosen it because platinum is better for enchanting compared to copper, silver or gold. He was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of knocking.

  "Hey! Captain, are you in here?"

  "Mari? What are you doing here? No, more importantly, how did you know where my room is?"

  "I was at the dining hall when I noticed you were missing and that it was almost six. I figured I might as well get you so you."

  "You didn't answer my second question; how did you know this was my room?"

  "Oh, I just asked the instructor and he told me." Alex furrowed his brows. He knew that McGaron and the other adults had been told each student's room number in case of emergencies, but he doubted this situation counted as one.

  "-Sigh- give me a moment, I'll be out in a sec." Alex stored away the tiara.

  "It's been a second!" He rolled his eyes.

  "You know that's not what I meant." Leaving his room and closing the door behind him, the duo made their way towards the dining hall.

  "Looks like someone is enjoying their spoils." Mari chuckled.

  "Hmm?" Alex followed her gaze towards the golem still wrapped around his wrist. "Ah, forgot I was still wearing this." Tugging on the mental connection, Alex had the centipede uncoil itself from his wrist, crawl up his arm and down his body towards the only Storage pouch he had on him before disappearing when it was close enough to the pouch.

  "They could do that?" Glancing over, he saw Mari's look of surprised awe directed at him. "If I took one of those bugs, would I be able to control them like that?"

  "First of all, their golems. You know what a golem is?" She rolled her eyes at him.

  "I'm not stupid, I know what a golem is. Wait, they were golems? They look nothing like a golem."

  "A golem, by definition, is an animated object that mimics life. Like how mine mimics a centipede. The ones you're thinking of are probably stone basic golems made for heavy labour." She nodded at his explanation. "Secondly, maybe? It's hard to tell if you would be able to or not, as with any other skill, the ability to form a bond and control golems differs from person to person."

  "In that case, I'm sure I'll be able to do it." She slightly dropped. "Damn, I should have gotten one of them then."

  "Is there a reason you're so interested in this?"

  "Because it would be cool! Imagine someone is attacking you, and then—BAM! Out of nowhere, a critter joins the fight and helps you take down your opponent."

  "Why don't you tame a pet?"

  "Tried that before, but never managed to form a bond."

  'Interesting, maybe her locked Animalistic Soul Trait is interfering with the bonding process? Or maybe she just doesn't have the talent for taming? Or maybe it's something else? Can't say for sure right now.' Alex thought to himself. "Well, if you want it for that reason, then I think it would be best to test your ability to bond with and control a golem using a cheap one first. You should be able to buy one relatively easily for roughly twentyish Credits at the Academy stores. Then, if you still want to continue, I suggest investing in a golem made for combat so that it won't break after one solid hit, like how mine would."

  "Really? Awesome! Wait, maybe I won't need to wait until we get back, they're might be a store that sells cheap golems near here."

  "You'll need to at least wait until tomorrow. Remember the curfew? No students are allowed to leave the hotel after seven, and we have to be in our rooms by nine."

  "Ugh, fine, I guess I can wait until tomorrow." Suddenly, a thought popped into Mari's head. "Do you want to join me in looking around tomorrow?"

  "Sorry, I'm planning to take advantage of our day off to hike through the nearby mountain."

  "Oh! Can I- no wait- Ugh!" She groaned while clutching her head. 'Hiking in a new area would be so much fun! But the thought of controlling a golem in combat is so cool!' Mari mentally debated with herself. After a few minutes, she let out a deep sigh.

  "Did you finally decide what you wanted to do tomorrow?"

  "Sorry, I would have loved to hike with you, but I really don't want to wait to get my hands on a golem of my own."

  "It's fine, we could always hike together another time." She perked up at his reassurance.

  "You're right!" Arriving at the dining hall, the duo grabbed their food from the buffet table and sat down at an empty table near the center of the room. They were quickly joined by Jack, Sera and Crystal, who saw them from the entrance of the dining hall. While the students happily socialized with each other, McGaron sat at a table by himself near the back of the room, enjoying his meal.

  "Good evening, Mr.McGaron." Called out a woman with long black hair wearing a plain shirt and pants. She placed down a plate filled with sushi and a stack of papers before taking a seat in front of him.

  "How's it going, Ms. Doaka, and a good evening to you as well," he greeted with a mouthful of steak.

  "Besides being a bit tired, I'm doing well." She slid over the stack of papers. "Here is the analysis of the students." Seeing him grab the stack, Doaka figured she might as well start eating while she waited for him to finish reading them over.

  "Ah, here it is," McGaron spoke up as Doaka finished her third plate of sushi.

  "What is it? Is something wrong with the data?" She grabbed the piece of paper he slid over to her.

  "Alex Alveron?" She read out loud. "Am I missing something? I don't see anything wrong."

  "Look at his health status throughout the test."

  "Hmm, his health fluctuated a lot throughout the test, though it says here he can regenerate, so that shouldn't be much of a surprise. Doesn't look like his health ever dipped low enough to trigger the tracker's shield."

  "Mmmhmp." He nodded. "Yeah, it looks like that at first glance, but take a closer look." Doaka did just that.

  "Huh, that's strange—the graph stays completely flat at the valleys," she said, frowning as she thought about what it meant. "Is that even possible? For this to happen, his body would have to be in a constant state of damage with no change. But that can't be true because a dying body doesn't just stop deteriorating suddenly. We also need to consider other factors, like his regeneration ability, the monsters he's fighting, or recent potion use. The only way I see for that to happen is if his body halted all biological activity." McGaron nodded and slid something over. "A broken basic enchantment rune?" she asked, examining the object closely.

  "Correct, he likes to use these in combat classes. The one you have there is the one he used during his combat class. Alex said he wanted to rely on his regeneration instead of having the arena's enchantments sap his stamina."

  "Where does the rune come into play?"

  "He described it as having the rune work as a facet for the arena's enchanments. He used the rune to stop the portion of the enchantments that prevent minor injuries from affecting him while leaving the other portions alone."

  "That seems pretty difficult for a first-year student to accomplish, especially using only a basic enchantment rune."

  "I thought that as well, so I handed it along with the data from the arena over to Natasha to see if she could find anything to be concerned about."

  "Did she?" Doaka asked while sliding the rune back to him.

  "No, in fact, she was actually amazed by how simple the enchantments were. She's even planning to see if he's open to meeting up to talk about enchanments with each other."

  "Is it possible he had it prepared ahead of time?" He shook his head.

  "Thought about that too, but Natasha estimates that the enchantment was carved into the rune at most a few minutes before his battle."

  "Maybe he memorized the enchantment circuit beforehand?"

  "If that's an issue, then we would have to kick out a majority of our Enchanter students." Looking down at the piece of paper once more, it dawned on Doaka what he was trying to imply.

  "You think he did the same thing during the test?"

  "I'm sure he did, and Natasha all but confirmed it once she looked over Alex's tracker. She found similar interference to the tracker's enchantments that you might see when using this rune." He stated, tapping on the rune with his pointer finger. "My guess is he brought along a more advanced rune than the one he uses in combat class and used it on his tracker."

  "But why? The enchanments are there to keep the students safe. Why would he intentionally put himself in more danger than he needs to?" He shrugged.

  "It could be for countless different reasons. But if you asked me, I think it's just how he likes to fight." A frown appeared on Doaka's confused face.

  "What do you mean by that?"

  "I mean what I said. I think that putting himself in danger is how Alex Alveron likes to fight. If I had to describe his fighting style in one word, it would be reckless. The only reason I believe he isn't six feet under right now is because of his regeneration and his ability to cast healing spells on himself. Even then, I sometimes see him downing several Mana potions to keep the spells going, and sometimes even that's not enough, forcing him to use Health potions as well. "

  "That sounds extremely dangerous." He nodded.

  "I agree, and that's why I'm keeping a close eye on him to make sure he doesn't take it too far. I'm also trying to see if I could get him to adopt a less suicidal fighting style. But so far, I haven't made much progress on that, and it doesn't help that Mari fully supports his fight style."

  "Mari?

  "Ah, right. Her full name is Marigold Rosalina, but she likes to go by Mari."

  "Rosalina? Wait, she's Atlas and Aurelia's daughter?"

  "Yeah, and she's the spitting image of Atlas, too. Thankfully, she at least inherited her sociability from her mother." Doaka nodded in agreement. Looking down, she read over the notes again.

  "Notable combative skills include enchanting, spell casting and spell weaving. Notable classes include Combat, Magic Studies, Enchanting 101, and Art of Weaving. He's a Spell slinger?" McGaron raised a brow at her question.

  "Yeah? Something wrong with that?" She shook her head.

  "No, it's just from how you described him and from the data, I expected him to be a brawler of some kind, kinda like Atlas." He burst out laughing.

  "Hahaha! -Sigh-, Ms.Doaka, don't get me wrong, Alex is decent enough as a brawler, but that alone isn't gonna win him any fights. Like any other Spell slinger, Alex heavily relies on his spells in battle, be it enhancing his attacks to do more damage, boosting his body to keep up with the other students, or keeping himself alive with healing spells. The only thing he and Atlas have in common is their preference to get down and dirty in a fight." He paused for a moment. "A preference that now that I think about it, might be the reason Mari likes to spar with him so much."

  "Let me guess, she doesn't have much respect for people who fight from afar?"

  "Even worse!" He said with a laugh. "Well, she used to be, but she mellowed out a lot over the months. Though if you ask me, I think that's mostly due to Alex showing her a more interesting fight style than punching someone until they stay down."

  "I see." Doaka placed the paper on the table and slid it over. "This is all fascinating and all, but I gotta ask, why are you showing me all this?"

  "He's going to get himself killed one of these days." That was all he said as he picked up the piece of paper and placed it with the rest.

  "Pardon?" She asked when it was clear he wasn't going to elaborate.

  "You see, Alex isn't stupid. He knows that the way he fights is reckless to the point where he needs to trick our artifacts so they don't trigger, because if he doesn't, he would be at the bottom of his class due to all the points deductions he would have gotten. He's also confident, confident in his regeneration, in the potions he downs like water, in the spells he used to keep himself alive, too confident, if you ask me. And if we don't do something about that before it's too late, that confidence is going to get him killed. That's where you come in."

  "Are you sure about this?" Doaka slowly said after a long moment of silence.

  "Absolutely."

  "I see, hmm." Doaka let out a deep sigh before nodding. "Very well, you can count on me."

  "Thanks, I owe you one." He replied with a smile. "Well, I should probably get going, don't want to take up too much of your time." With one arm holding the stack of papers and the other holding his plate, McGaron got up from the table. "Have a good rest of your evening."

  "You too." Doaka softly said back, her gaze locked on McGaron's retreating figure.