The first month of classes ended before they knew it. Without any major incidents, although that in itself was a bigger incident. It meant they had to get their act together. The reward money for being the first of the year to enter a dungeon and kill one of the bosses would cover them for this month and part of the next, actually. But that didn’t mean they should rest on their laurels. They could run dry before they knew it.

  Especially since they were no longer a team of two.

  Now they had three mouths to feed, so to speak.

  But none of them wanted to go back to the dungeon. They could consider themselves the best of the year all they wanted, but they had to prepare more, that was clear. That giant electric lizard had been a good wake-up call.

  Therefore, now...

  “Damn, there are so many options,” Tara muttered, the fluorescent glow of the screen shining full on her face. “You just don’t know what you’re getting into.”

  “If you don’t make up your minds soon, I will,” Ayame said.

  It was normal for her to be so forward. Being so powerful, having access to such a vast array of abilities, had she ever felt in danger? Had her heart ever trembled, thinking she would die? He supposed not, but she was right. It was high time they decided.

  Vincent took a deep breath, concentrating. He was looking at the list of Quests, just like Tara, and he wasn’t really any closer to reaching an answer. But something was always better than nothing.

  “This one,” Vincent said, pointing with his finger.

  “Are you sure? It doesn’t look like a big deal.”

  “That’s precisely why. It’s our first Quest, but we have nothing to prove. There’s no need to jump into the deep end of the pool right away. We have an advantage, due to the reward money. We must use it, not waste it.”

  “Any decision is fine by me,” Ayame said. “But make it quick, huh?”

  “I guess that’s two against one. Well, come on, let’s do it.”

  Tara and Vincent got up from their chairs. Ayame, from the bed. It was time to get going.

  ***

  “This way?” Vincent asked.

  “Yeah, I don’t think it’s too far,” Tara replied, holding the tablet, looking at the map.

  “You said that five minutes ago,” Ayame pointed out.

  “Okay, but this time I’m serious. Just a little more, then, okay?”

  It wasn’t like he was in a hurry either. This was a necessity, nothing more, nothing less. He wished they could stay in the room, exchanging bullshit among themselves or having fun, but for now, at Beehive Point, no, none of that. It was necessary to get ahead, instead of resting on their laurels, with the advantage they had over the other first-year students. This was what it meant: to make the most of that advantage. No resting; their schedule was different now.

  I’ll do what I have to do, Vincent thought. He hadn’t come this far to fail now. He would never accept that. That was the one thing he couldn’t allow.

  Once they pushed through the undergrowth, they reached their destination. Well, not exactly. It was a portal that would take them to the Quest area. Still, technically, on the academy grounds. They just had to activate it. It was a relatively safe Quest, in a more or less controlled environment. There were also Quests that required leaving the academy grounds. But well, step by step.

  “We’re ready,” Tara was saying. “Literally, we can’t be more prepared. We’ll do great.”

  “I know,” Ayame said.

  Vincent remained silent as Tara activated the portal, using the Quest registered to them and, undoubtedly, to other people, of course. But in any case, the signal showing they had that Quest marked activated the portal. All she had to do was pass the tablet. And, boom, portal. They weren’t easy to make, so they only stayed open for a few seconds. But of course, that was enough. And on top of that, energy was conserved; efficiency was the keyword everywhere.

  In any case, the three of them crossed the portal into the Quest zone. More forest and no danger yet. At least not visible to the naked eye. But it surely wouldn’t take long to find them if they didn’t find it first. Anyway, it was literally part of the job.

  “Well, here we go,” Vincent said, taking a deep breath.

  They had to collect three things and then return to the portal to get their reward. A pretty standard format for Quests, as everyone knew. In this case, it was about gathering three sword hilts, just without the sword. That is, without the blade. Why? Damned if he knew. But what they needed was money to keep their place in the academy. Not esoteric explanations. They would do what they had to do.

  Trouble, as usual, wasn't long in finding them.

  The three of them stopped abruptly, seeing there was only one way to follow the indicated path. A tree trunk served as a makeshift bridge. Vincent approached the edge, taking a look. At least he could see the bottom. The fall wasn't that bad. Well, enough to break a leg or at least twist an ankle. But the neck would be very unlikely. Something is something, he thought.

  “It looks very stable,” Ayame said. “There’s no way it’ll fall.”

  “Easy for you to say when you don’t have to cross it,” Tara said.

  Better to take things with humor.

  Vincent took a step forward.

  “I’ll go first.”

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  “Aha,” Tara said. “That’s my knight in shining armor.”

  “He’s not yours, he’s mine.”

  “I know. I was just saying… Well, never mind.”

  Finders keepers, Vincent thought, like a little girl.

  Well, it was clear it was a joke. Although apparently, though somewhat crude, by how red Tara was, she had taken it seriously. Ayame sometimes didn’t get anything. Tara was also very easily fooled. They were a peculiar duo.

  Shaking his head, Vincent got onto the tree trunk, extending his arms to the sides in an attempt to keep his balance. What he definitely didn’t do was look down again. He didn’t need to. Because heights made him a little nervous.

  Even if I fell, he thought, Ayame would catch me. That’s enough for me.

  Then, suddenly, the trunk creaked.

  Well, thank fuck. Thank fuck she'll catch me, he thought, losing his balance and struggling to regain it, though deep down he knew it wouldn’t be enough. That he had no chance.

  The trunk split in two.

  “Holy shit!”

  And Vincent fell.

  Vincent braced for impact and saw that it wasn’t the ground awaiting him, but a pair of jaws wide open. Ready to devour.

  The bear roared. Its roar seemed to pierce through him.

  Shit. Where the fuck did you come from? he thought.

  Vincent put his shield in the way as he landed hard. The bastard’s jaws clamped down hard. It shook its head. Drooling. Pulling. He managed to smash it against a wall. No, a very large rock. A bear. A fucking bear. Smashing him against the rock. Trying to tear him to pieces with everything it had.

  It wasn't nearly the most dangerous thing he had faced recently. Only… But still, his pulse quickened. It quickened in a different way. He supposed it was because it was more real.

  Since he was little, he had been warned about bears and wolves. There wasn’t a child in the village who hadn’t been scared stiff about encountering those wild animals if they fooled around, if they played too long in the forest and didn’t return home on time, at the right hour, before it got dark. Maybe none of the animals were that aggressive, but still, the old childhood fear was still there, in some corner of his consciousness. Maybe it never left.

  “I’m not food,” Vincent said.

  He planted his feet on the ground, steadying his stance, and pushed. For the past few weeks, he had trained hard with his companions, naturally. He had leveled up, gotten stronger. Still, the strength of a brown bear was no joke. He was winning the struggle, but not by much.

  So…

  Cunning Escape. The ability he used to fake Sword Storm.

  It was just a stupid animal. Besides, anyone's instinct would be to back away. He let them fall at great speed. And the bear did what he expected: react to the supposed danger. Then, Vincent took a step forward and stabbed his sword into its right eye.

  The animal howled in pain, throwing its head back, thrashing. In the process, blood splattered everywhere. Blood and, well, other fluids. Vincent tried to push the sword deeper into the socket, to reach its brain, to kill it. But then it hit him in the chest and he went flying, along with his sword. He hit the stone again, but bounced off and rolled onto the grass.

  All of this happened in a few seconds that panic had stretched out. Because just then, Ayame and Tara landed in front of him, ready to fight. Of course. They were a team. They weren't going to leave him unsupported. They weren't going to stand by and watch.

  “You don’t have very good luck,” Ayame said. “And even worse landing ability.”

  “I won’t argue with that,” Vincent replied, getting to his feet. At least he hadn’t looked like a weak idiot dropping his sword, but had managed to hold onto it and, moreover, inflict a considerable wound on the enemy. It had been a well-spent twelve seconds.

  Tara shot several arrows at the bear as it approached, but naturally, they all bounced off: some against its fur, others against the arms it had raised to protect itself. It might be just a stupid animal, but that was perfectly within the realm of possibilities for a stupid animal. It didn’t matter. This thing wasn’t even part of the Quest. The three of them would tear it to pieces, quickly. And then they could concentrate on what they had actually come here to do.

  Tara ran in circles around the bear, shooting. From time to time, she was forced to put a boot on a log and use it, let's say, as a springboard, greatly increasing distances in a tenth of a second. Ayame, as always, fearlessly launched herself at the enemy, a whirlwind of claws and fangs. She could do all sorts of things, abilities he didn't even know she had. That was for sure. But most of the time, she resorted to her hands. He supposed if she emerged victorious anyway, she didn't need to do more. Like when she had created a large blood spike to impale the giant lizard. There she had seen the need. Or when she tried to cover him in class. Though he didn't like to remember that. She could do it. But… Sword Storm, the real Sword Storm. And yet, she returned to her fists.

  Well, he thought. I guess since she’s not even carrying a weapon to copy.

  Whatever the case, Ayame did her thing, and he helped, blocking the bear's attacks with his shield and taking every opportunity to slash at the beast's fur. And so, the screech every time his sword clashed with the bear's claws was very annoying. It dug into his skull. As long as it was the only thing digging into his skull, great.

  We haven't even been together for a month, Vincent thought. But we're already a real team. This proves it, if I needed more proof.

  Ayame suddenly backed away, which surprised him. Even more so when she ran into the undergrowth for no apparent reason. But they were a team. Vincent simply trusted her, blindly. Keeping the bear busy so the vampiress would have time to do whatever she had to do.

  Which turned out to be…

  A whistle.

  “Come here. Come on.”

  The bear, in fact, turned around, roaring wildly, in time to see Ayame rip a tree from the ground. Again.

  Vincent was so impressed that he almost didn't remember he had seen her do that once before. Only once, true, but he had seen it in the initiation test, against the dragon.

  The bear took the bait. Changing targets, it broke into a run. Roaring, as if anticipating a very full belly today. However, it only managed to be whipped with what was left of the trunk, which exploded into a thousand pieces. The bear fell to the ground, collapsing.

  Vincent had been running behind the bear and arrived just in time to finish the job, stabbing its other eye, blinding it. Only that wasn't enough, of course. His blade had to reach the creature's brain if he pushed hard enough, if he managed it this time.

  It wasn't so. The damn beast also managed to shake him off. And it might be blind, but that didn't mean dead. It was angrier than ever, full of a lust for violence, as it thrashed about, blind.

  “Well, look at that,” Tara said. “It doesn’t know when to give up.”

  I'm risking my life with all this too, he thought.

  Tara soon felt the bear's willpower on her own flesh. By which he meant it sent her into and through a damn tree, hitting her head with a glancing blow.

  It's just a damn bear, he thought. Why are we having the slightest problem with this thing?

  They weren't losing, not by a long shot. It wasn't exactly a huge effort either, but the fact that they had to try felt a bit humiliating. After all the dangers they had overcome so far, together. Well, Ayame mostly. Maybe it didn't make much sense, but that's how it felt. Three against one. Besides, he had blinded the monster. The outcome of the fight couldn't be more obvious. It was just delaying the inevitable. Still, that it could do that felt like a kind of defeat. What a beast.

  Vincent almost didn't notice the bear charging in his direction. He was nearly run over in its rush. But at the last moment, Vincent came to his senses, dodging. Then, he jumped onto the bear's back. And while it tried to shake him off, bucking like one of those damn carnival rides, Vincent raised his sword above his head with both hands. Indeed, he had tossed his shield aside. He raised it and wham!, into the skull, right between the eyebrows.

  The monster's bellows ceased immediately and it bit the dust again. Only this time it wouldn't get back up.

  Vincent stepped away from the corpse, extracting his sword.

  “This should have been easier,” he said.

  “The important thing is that we did it,” Tara said, getting up, leaning one hand on the tree her body had shattered. Her other hand was a bit busy, placed behind her back.

  These were his stats right now:

  ? Strength: 16

  ? Dexterity: 10

  ? Constitution: 15

  ? Intelligence: 11

  ? Wisdom: 9

  ? Charisma: 8

  He hadn't had time to make any major changes, naturally.