The trek out of the Crypt was considerably easier than the one in. Several other monsters attacked them on the way out, but none posed any significant threat to the duo. They didn’t encounter any students the entire way.

Damien had initially been unsure as to how they were supposed to escape since the exit was blocked, but the maze had solved that problem for them. The pathway to the portal room had shifted, and after about two hours of plodding, they found themselves standing before Vinna.

The healer gave them a wide grin as they approached her. “All done?”

“We’ve had our fill and then some,” Sylph said wearily.

“The Crypt is a bad place to hold an exam,” Damien said, watching her expression closely. “It almost gives me the feeling that the mage colleges care more about artifacts than the safety of their students.”

Vinna’s lips thinned slightly. “What ever gave you the impression they cared about the students at all? There’s a reason I work independently instead of for one of the colleges.”

“I would have thought you wouldn’t speak bad about them,” Damien said, raising an eyebrow. “Aren’t they funding you?”

“Bah,” Vinna laughed, ignoring the stares the other healers sent at her. “I’ve got more money than I know what to do with. No, I do this for fun. The colleges look out for themselves, and you aren’t really one of the in-crowd until you’re a professor.”

“You sure you should be telling us that?” Damien asked.

“It’s not like you didn’t know,” Vinna said with a scoff.

“True enough,” Damien admitted. “Although I do think a few teachers do genuinely care – even if they disguise it.”

“Care might be a strong word to use for Delph,” Sylph said.

“I was thinking Dredd, actually,” Damien said with a laugh. “But I suppose Delph counts as well. We do make him a lot of money, after all.”

“Delph bets on you?” Vinna asked with a disapproving frown.

“That’s the least of our problems with him,” Damien replied. “But his methods work. He’s a good teacher.”

“He’s a battle crazed lunatic that got kicked off the frontlines for being too dangerous to his own allies,” Vinna said. “Perhaps he found his calling teaching kids. I treated him a few times, and he was always impatient to get back to the fight.”

“Did you treat a lot of people on the frontlines?” Damien asked.

“A fair number,” Vinna said, leading them over to a bench and sitting down. “Someone in particular you’re asking after?”

“Derrod Vale,” Damien said. “He’s on the frontlines a lot.”

“I know of him,” Vinna said. “Never had the pleasure of taking care of him, though. I don’t recall him ever coming back from a mission injured. He works directly for the Queen, though. How do you know him?”

“He’s my dad,” Damien replied. “I haven’t heard from him in a while, though. Is he okay?”

“Don’t see why he wouldn’t be,” Vinna said. “I met him about two months ago. He’d just killed a dragon that was getting too close to some of the cities near the frontlines. Nice guy. Pass my good wishes on to him when you see him next.”

“I’ll be sure to do that,” Damien said. Sylph gave him a curious glance, but he shrugged it away.

They waited out the rest of the competition in the portal room. A few other students came through it to press deeper into the Crypt, but none of them spent more than a minute there before dashing out.

When the second half of the tournament finally ended, Vinna herded them and all the other waiting students through a portal and into Kingsfront’s arena. A huge crowd filled the stands and excited cheering rang out so loud that it threatened to overwhelm the silencing wards.

The dean of Kingsfront stood on a large, raised platform before them, pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back. When the students arrived, he turned towards them with a massive grin.

“And so the competitors have returned!” Gerald boomed. “I hope your endeavors within the Crypt were fruitful. We are all very excited to see what artifacts you were able to retrieve!”

Damien scanned the students around him while the loud dean spoke. As far as he could tell, most if not all of the other people that had gone into the Crypt had returned. The only missing students were Drew and Bartholomew. An image of Elania’s face flickered through his mind, but he dismissed it. There hadn’t been any explicit rules against fighting other students.

Several teachers wearing Kingsfront colors emerged, walking around the students and collecting the artifacts they’d retrieved. They wore runed gloves and clothing. By placing the artifacts within bags, they avoided any excess contact with them.

Damien wasn’t particularly excited to give the necklace away after all the work he’d gone through to find it, but he reluctantly handed it over when a woman stopped before him.

“What about you?” the woman asked, turning to Sylph.

“We worked together to get that one,” Sylph said, nodding at it.

“You’ll share your ranking, then,” the teacher said. She headed back to the stage to deposit the artifact beside Gerald.

It took a few minutes for everyone’s findings to be gathered. Whisp and several other people that Damien suspected to be the deans of the other schools descended on the stage, avidly discussing over the artifacts and their worth.

That took nearly another hour. When they finally dispersed again, Damien let out a sigh of relief. His legs had long since started to ache. He spotted Mark laid out on the ground, his hands behind his head.

“He’s relaxed,” Sylph observed. “You think he got something good?”

“I don’t think he cared about this portion of the tournament in the slightest,” Damien said. “If I had to bet, he probably just went around looking for strong monsters and didn’t even bother picking up any artifacts unless he found a sword.”

“There’s a bet I wouldn’t take you up on,” Sylph said with a chuckle.

“Students,” Gerald called out. “The judging has been completed. I thank you all for your patience and hard work traversing the Crypt. You’ve done what the mighty professors you see before you could not. Truly, your generation will be a great blessing upon the world. We have done a fantastic job in preparing you.”

“If he rubs his own back any harder, he’ll set it on fire,” Sylph murmured.

Damien pressed his lips together as tightly as possible to avoid bursting into laughter in the middle of the pompous man’s speech.

“I will now announce the top five students or teams,” Gerald said. “All artifacts found during this half of the tournament will remain with the schools of the students that found them, so don’t worry if you didn’t get to the top five. This was some of the toughest competition we’ve ever seen, so you should all be proud.”

Sylph rolled her eyes and Damien spotted Nolan doing the same.

“Starting with fifth place, please give Damien and Sylph from Blackmist a round of applause! They took first and second place in the first half of the tournament, and they were able to secure their place in the second with just a single artifact! It took a lot out of them though, as both returned to the portal room and waited for the tournament to end for several hours.”

The crowd cheered loudly.

“Only fifth place?” Sylph whispered. “Not that I care much about the ranking, but shouldn’t Whisp’s artifact be more important than that? She seemed pretty insistent on getting it.”

“They might be trying to hide how important it is,” Damien replied, waving at the crowd with a grin. “Or maybe Whisp didn’t tell them. Who knows, but I’m just happy to have technically won both halves of the tournament.”

“They should be giving me some credit here,” Henry complained. “I did all the work to get that thing anyways.”

I’ll get you some books when we get back.

“You should have led with that.”

Damien pushed Henry back as Gerald raised his hand for silence.

“In fourth place, let’s have a round of applause for yet another student from Blackmist – Mark!”

Mark, who was still laying down on the ground, reached up and picked his nose.

“Mark was able to locate three artifacts on his own,” Gerald continued. “Truly an impressive showing.”

The crowd seemed slightly less enthused about Mark, so it took Gerald less time to get them back under control.

“In third place…” a small frown pulled at Gerald’s lips. “Blackmist. Again. Nolan Gray brought back six artifacts. While many of them were minor, he was still able to secure some important pieces.”

Damien caught Nolan’s eye and gave him a slight nod. Nolan returned it with a half-hearted grin, but his mind seemed to be elsewhere.

“Coming in second place, and the first team that isn’t from Blackmist, is the Goldsilk team! They worked together to bring back a collective twenty one artifacts. Please give them a cheer!”

“Twenty one?” Damien asked, whistling. “How did they get so many? That’s ridiculous.”

“Maybe they knew the locations of some, like we knew about the door,” Sylph suggested. “Or they just got a lot on lower levels. It’s not like everyone had to deal with those overpowered monsters at the beginning.”

The crowd continued cheering for several seconds, ignoring Gerald’s attempts to silence them until the sound wards finally muted them out.

“And finally, we get to first place,” Gerald said. “Again, I’d like to repeat that we had some of the most impressive students I’ve ever seen this year. Everyone should be very proud, and it was only through great deliberation that the other deans and I were able to choose first place. However, we are all confident in our choice. First place goes to Kingsfront’s team composed of Yui and Gaves. Together, they were able to bring back ten artifacts. While this is fewer than the second place team, their artifacts were all from the fourth floor.”

The crowd’s thunderous cheers shattered the sound ward like a flimsy plane of glass and washed over the arena. Gerald tried to control it, but it seemed as if the sound wards had actually been broken.

He waved his hands around impatiently and several mages ran up, raising their hands and closing their eyes in concentration. The sound from the crowd muted slightly, but it was still almost deafening.

“That concludes this year’s intramurals!” Gerald screamed over the din. “All rewards will be distributed to the deans of the colleges so they can deliver them to you at a later date. A huge congratulations to my own students at Kingsfront for winning the second half of the tournament and Sylph from Blackmist for winning the first. I will watch all of your careers with great interest!”

Portals snapped open around them and teachers headed out, gathering their students. The air beside Damien twisted and he stepped back as Delph appeared from a tiny gray dot. The professor was riddled with cuts and had heavy bags under his eyes.

“Good job in the tournament,” Delph said. A trickle of blood ran down the side of his face and he wiped it away with an annoyed frown.

“You’re injured,” Sylph observed. “Is everything okay?”

“You’re very observant today,” Delph said dryly. “Perhaps you should consider becoming a detective. They have great need for minds as sharp as yours.”

Mark and Nolan made their way over to join them.

“You got the shit beat out of you,” Mark said, laughing. “Who did that? I wanted to be first in line.”

“Don’t get too eager,” Delph growled. “I’m not above smacking you around here and now if you keep that up. I could sweep the floor with any of you even if I only had one arm to work with. We can work out our sparring arrangements once we get to Blackmist. Whisp is waiting by the portal.”

He nodded over to a portal close behind them.

“Looking forward to it,” Nolan said, heading over to it.

Mark made to follow him, but he paused as Elania and the other girls from Goldsilk stopped beside them. Damien tensed and Sylph cocked her head, putting on a poker face.

“You both did really well,” Viv said to Damien and Sylph. “Actually, everyone from Blackmist did. I’m seriously impressed. The other colleges are going to have to start taking you a lot more seriously if they want to have a chance of winning any of the future competitions.”

“Thanks,” Damien said with a wry grin. “You’re the ones that got twenty one artifacts, though. How did you even manage that?”

Elania flushed and nodded at Mark. “Him.”

“What?” Sylph asked, blinking. “Mark?”

“I made a bet with them,” Mark said with a sigh. “I lost, so I gave them all the artifacts I had.”

“And you owe me a sparring match,” Elania added. “Don’t forget that.”

“What did you bet?” Damien asked. “And how many artifacts did you give them? Those seem like some pretty high stakes.”

Mark grimaced. “I thought I could kill a monster in three hits.”

“It took four,” Viv added helpfully. “It was quite funny. We offered to let him renege since it felt like cheating to get nine artifacts for doing nothing, but he refused.”

“That was stupid,” Delph said, shaking his head. “But that’s also Mark. I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s why he got sent to the stables.”

Mark rolled his eyes. “Make sure you’ve gotten stronger before you show up at Blackmist, Elania. I expect at least a little bit of a challenge.”

He swept off, following Nolan through the portal. Viv glanced at Delph, then walked up to Damien and reached out to shake his hand. When he took hers, she pulled him in and whispered into his ear. “Elania told me what she saw. I won’t tell anyone, don’t worry. You did us all a favor.”

She leaned back and headed into the crowd. The other Goldsilk students fell in behind her.

“What did she say?” Sylph asked.

“Just that we had nothing to worry about,” Damien said. Sylph gave him a small nod.

“Enough dawdling,” Delph said. “Come along. We have a lot to discuss, and not all of it is good.”

“You can say that again,” Damien said, his lips pressing together as he recalled Moon and Second’s fight. “I bet our story is more world-threatening than yours.”

“I’d take anyone else up on that,” Delph said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “But not you two.”