“Can I help you?” the short woman asked, adjusting the large pair of spectacles on her face and glancing up at Damien.

“I’m just looking around,” Damien said, scratching the back of his head with a grin. “I’m a new student and–”

“Ah! Interested in what goodies you can win, eh?” the woman hopped out of her chair and gestured for Damien to follow her as she approached the door flanked by the two guards at the right of the room.

“No, actually. I wanted to look at the ques–”

“It’s quite alright. All the new ones always want to look at the rewards you can get,” the woman said. “You can call me Auntie. I run the pavilion. Before you ask, the gold door behind me holds the really good rewards. This door has the normal rewards that you’ll have a chance of earning within your first year.”

Damien got the feeling that arguing with the energetic woman would lead absolutely nowhere. He couldn’t deny that he was curious to see what the Treasure Pavilion had to offer, so he followed after her.

“You can stay for a bit, but don’t touch or take anything,” Auntie warned. “I’ll know, and you’ll regret it.”

Damien nodded meekly as she pushed the door open and gestured for him to step inside. Not wanting to offend her, Damien walked in and she pulled the door shut behind him. It shut with a gentle click.

He spun, slowly turning the handle until he heard the click again. Satisfied that he hadn’t been locked in, Damien glanced around the room.

The room was significantly larger than he’d expected. It was chock full of pedestals holding items in glass cases. Weapons and armor littered the ground and walls. It was like he’d walked into a hoarder’s nest.

“Wow,” Damien whispered, peering at a sword nearly twice his height. It shimmered with a dull yellow aura. A small paper tag hung from its hilt with the number five hundred written on it in curly handwriting.

Damien stepped through the room, moving carefully to avoid accidentally touching something on the ground. He doubted they’d actually have a problem if he nudged something by mistake, but he wasn’t about to find out.

As he carefully squeezed himself between two pillars, Damien froze. A dark haired girl was sitting in front of one of the pillars, one of her hands pressed against the glass. There was a greenish black dagger resting inside the case. A plaque inscribed on the pillar likely identified what the item was, but the girl was blocking it.

Is that Sylph?

Henry didn’t respond. Damien decided it was best not to bother him. He walked towards the girl, stepping over an oversized breastplate and past a spear lying on the ground. The closer he got, the more confident he was that the girl was Sylph.

“Sylph?”

She jumped up and spun, accidentally clipping the pedestal with her elbow. It started to tip and Damien leapt forward, reaching over Sylph’s shoulder and grabbing it before it could fall.

“That was close,” Damien said, letting out a relieved sigh. He glanced down and became aware that he was standing mere inches away from the girl, who was indeed Sylph.

He cleared his throat and stepped back, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” Damien said.

“I should have heard you coming. I was distracted,” Sylph said. Her eyes were red, but Damien didn’t comment on it. She glanced back at the pillar, hiding her expression from him. “Thank you for grabbing the pedestal. It would have been really bad if I knocked it over.”

“It was kind of my fault you almost knocked it over in the first place,” Damien said. “Did you find something interesting?”

“I guess,” Sylph said. “It’s expensive. I glanced at the quests on the board when I came in, and most of them only give between ten and a hundred points.”

She stepped to the side carefully, allowing Damien slip past her and peer at the plaque under the dagger. He almost choked. It was three thousand points. The plaque called it a cultivation focus, but it gave no further context.

“What’s a cultivation focus?” Damien asked. “And why is it so expensive?”

“It helps people with low talent cultivate better,” Sylph said, glancing away from him. “They’re effective for improving your base abilities if they’re low, but they aren’t very useful if you’ve already got high magical strength or energy.”

“Oh,” Damien said. “I’m sorry. I’ve intruded, haven’t I?”

Sylph shrugged. “It’s nothing that Delph didn’t say. He’s right. All the training in the world won’t make up for my ridiculously low magical strength and energy.”

“Your control is really high though, isn’t it?” Damien asked.

“It is,” Sylph said, rolling her eyes. “Please don’t give me a speech about how a little power applied in the right spot is just as effective as more power applied incorrectly. I already know it. But that can only get you so far. At some point, my tiny amount of power just isn’t going to cut it.”

“So you need this dagger?” Damien asked.

“Any cultivation focus would help, but there’s not even a guarantee it would help me,” Sylph said, shrugging. “It’s a chance, though. That’s better than nothing.”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to go on a lot of quests then,” Damien said, frowning. “We’re not going to get it in time for the ranking fights, though.”

“We?” Sylph asked, looking up at him.

“Well, yeah. Delph said we were going to be put on a team, and I don’t think you’re allowed to do quests alone,” Damien said. “Hence, we.”

“You’re only required to do five quests, if I’m not mistaken,” Sylph said. “They allow you to take on jobs on your own after those.”

Damien shrugged. “Are you saying you don’t want me to come? I suspect quests will be a great way to practice my magic, and that’s something I’ll need to do a lot of.”

Sylph watched Damien for a few moments. Then a hint of a smile flickered across her face and she gave him a slight nod.