Micah wasn’t sure if he should laugh at the green-faced Ryan crouched on the couch next to him, trying to ward off a simple Tea-cup Salamander with a towel, or at himself because his first instinct had been to do the same. Well, either that or grab something to bash the Salamander’s head in with.

He frowned at the second thought.

“Sam!” Lisa yelled, but she didn’t sound angry. Rather, she sounded kind of proud. “You can’t come in here.”

She was already headed towards it with her arms stretched out as if to herd the Salamander out of the room. It looked like it was about to turn around and leave, too.

“It’s alright,” Micah found himself saying.

The Salamander stopped.

Lisa spun on him, but he was too busy trying to still the agitation in his chest to give her too much notice. She had named it “Sam?” Oh. Cool. So it had a name, now. That was just … great.

He stared at it. It seemed a little different than other Salamanders Micah had seen. It was slightly glowing as if it were made of essences, and it warped the air around it in heat essence like Ryan used to do. Nowadays, the other boy barely did it anymore. Micah must not have noticed before because its floor in the Tower was so warm already.

So was Lisa a [Summoner] now?

Micah asked her that and she nodded.

Oh, cool …

“Really?” Ryan asked. He sounded mostly surprised, but also a little accusatory. Micah thought he knew why. [Summoners] could summon other monsters, too, after all. Why had she given this one a name already?

“Yeah, I got it on Monday,” Lisa said. “I’m level one.”

“Oh.” Ryan slowly sat back down, but he still held his towel ready and looked wary. “Okay, then?”

He glanced at Micah.

It’s alright, Micah told himself and almost laughed. And if not, you can just make it alright. It is literally not a threat to you. He had killed dozens of the things already after all. What was one more?

“If we’re going to be climbing together, it’s going to be around a lot anyway, right?” he asked, gesturing at it. “So it’s fine. Really.”

That still didn’t stop him from feeling nervous, though. Micah wasn’t sure—because it was a summoned monster and everything—but he thought the Salamander might have been glaring at Ryan and him. Was it protective of Lisa?

He glanced at Ryan. He knew someone else who was like that.

“Come here,” Micah called, leaning down a little and holding out his hand to … Sam. He glanced at Lisa, belatedly remembering that he was supposed to check in with her first. “Is it friendly?” he asked as if this were a dog in the park.

She had been staring at her Salamander as it walked up to him but seemed to snap out of it when Sam got close. “Uhm … what? Oh, yeah. I mean, it should be. Sam, don’t bite.”

“Yeah, don’t bite,” Micah echoed her.

It walked up to his fingers and Micah couldn’t help but feel like his chest was pushing up into his throat.

After a moment of considering, the Salamander licked his hand. It was warm and a little wet, and kind of tickly, but not rough, like a cat’s tongue. More solid than a dog’s, too. There was no poison essence that Micah could see.

It’s not trying to bite my hand off, Micah thought and felt like he might start laughing after all. For whatever reason.

“I felt bad,” he said to no-one in particular as he scratched Sam’s head. It was warm but not immediately hot, like the walls of the Salamander’s Den. He kind of liked the texture of its scales. It felt rough, reminding him of the short hair at the back of his head. “When I killed my first unmade.”

He still remembered that bit perfectly.

“Roll over,” he told Sam.

Sam rolled over. It was surprisingly obedient. Because it was a summoned monster?

“I remember thinking that I wanted to scratch its tummy when it was lying prone on its back,” he said and did just that. Sam didn’t seem to mind. “But of course, that was my chance so I stabbed it instead.”

Sam let its tongue hang out a little and looked up at him. It made a sound like a water drop falling. Micah had never heard a Salamander make that sound before. It was weird. How could a sound like that come out of any animal’s body?

“I stabbed it instead ...”

He remembered the Kobold after he had helped it stand up, how angry it had looked after it saw the Salamander corpse between them. Could monsters even feel anger? And if so, could they feel anything else?

Of course, they probably would have tried to kill him either way. In the Tower, there was only violence and wonder. But out here …?

Sam seemed happy.

When Micah looked up, both Ryan and Lisa were staring at him like he was a different species.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Lisa quickly said. She failed at trying to hide her smile.

Ryan didn’t say anything.

“Go back to your owner,” Micah said to Sam, nudging it a little.

“Yeah, Sam. Come here,” Lisa called it.

Sam wiggled around a bit before it managed to roll itself over. Then it sped to Lisa. She picked it up and sat down on the opposite couch from them, looking a little relieved with it on her lap.

Micah was glad to switch topics.

“Uh, so the answers to this first question …?” he asked, picking up the folder a little. He didn’t think he knew any of the answers. Maybe [Gardeners] for Hadica and formerly [Priest] for Trest, but that was it. What about the other Towers?

Lisa waved to brush him off. “It’s not important now. You can consult the answer sheet later. We have more urgent things to discuss.”

“She’s right,” Ryan agreed with a nod, so Micah conceded.

He still picked up the folder and started flipping through it, looking for the answers while they talked.

“First things first,” Lisa said. “You both need someone to recommend you if you want to apply.”

“I have Gardener,” Ryan said. “But we will need someone for Micah.”

“I might be able to ask a friend,” Lisa said. “I could try to ask a retired [Hoplite] for him and then my magic theory teacher for myself. She gave me a twenty on my report card, so I know she likes me.”

Micah frowned. “I just thought I’d ask Garen.”

“He’s already endorsing Anne. It’s one per person,” Lisa said, brushing him off again.

“Do we necessarily need one?” Ryan asked. “Is it a rule?”

“No, but it’s much better if—”

“I can ask Garen,” Micah interrupted them before this went on for too long. “We met Ms. Denner. She told him he can endorse me if he wants to.”

“Really?” Ryan asked.

Lisa looked she was realizing something. “So that’s what he was mumbling about.”

“Yeah,” Micah said to Ryan. “She said she would make an exception for me.”

“You actually met Ameryth?” Lisa asked.

Micah nodded.

“No wonder why you want to go to her school …” Ryan mumbled. “But what made her say you’re an exception?”

Now Micah blushed, a little bit left over from interrupting them, more at being an exception to anything. He scooted back on the couch and pulled up Lisa’s binder to hide behind it a little.

“Uhm, she read my report of my first trip into the Tower …” Micah mumbled. “And I pointed out that her eyes are red.”

Ryan scrunched up his face. “Red?”

“When she uses magic. It’s a Skill of hers,” Lisa explained.

Micah shook his head. “She wasn’t using magic.”

“Huh. Right. Well, that settles that. Now we just need you to pass the application. Do you have a Proof Of paper so I know what I’m dealing with? Both of you?”

Ryan and Micah glanced at each other.

“Uhm, no?” they asked.

“Do you?” Ryan added.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m getting in,” she said with a little more pride than usual.

“Well, that’s unfair,” Micah mumbled. “You have a year advantage even over regular applicants.”

“The world’s unfair,” Lisa said with a grin. “Deal with it.”

Ryan sighed and scratched the back of his head. “Do you have something to write on? I could write mine down for you. And Micah’s.”

“Sure,” she said, getting up. She put Sam on the couch and it stared after her while she left.

Meanwhile, Micah mumbled, “You don’t know my Skills.”

Ryan only seemed to realize that was true after a moment. “Oh, right,” he said and moved down to scratch the back of his neck. “I don’t anymore. Which one did you get from your [Fighter] Class?”

“[Lesser Agility],” Micah said proudly.

“I hate you,” Ryan countered.

Lisa dropped a few pages of paper and various pens down in front of him and said, “Knock yourself out.”

The older boy wrote down his callings first and Micah was surprised to see [Lesser Charisma] on his list of [Fighter] Skills. He didn’t seem very charismatic, though. Or well, he did, but it wasn’t necessarily a good quality half of the time.

When Micah thought of him interacting with the other alleyball kids and how he used to interact with their female classmates, though, he thought the opposite might apply to most of them. The people who knew Ryan less.

Heh. Maybe it would help his chances with Camille someday? Micah was still going to have to try and get the two to talk again sometime soon, before Ryan graduated. His last attempt at doing that had failed all those weeks ago. Ryan was too shy to do it himself, apparently. Micah would never have expected that from Mr. Prodigy himself, but it had to be true. Why else wouldn’t have tried talking to her before?

Next, Ryan wrote down Micah’s Skills for him and even added an arrow to show how [Basic Alchemy] had upgraded to [Personalized Alchemy]. His handwriting was weirdly grown-up, like he’d grown into his own style already.

Still, Micah had to correct him when he wrote down his level in [Alchemist]. He was level eight, not seven, and he had a new Skill because of it. Also, Ryan had written down his Path as just [Warrior Path]. Rude.

“I leveled up,” Micah said. “I actually wanted to ask you about that. I got [Knife Proficiency I]. Does that apply to daggers?”

Ryan smiled at the news, seeming surprised, but quickly shook his head when Micah got to his question.

“No. Well, yes, but not in the way you’re thinking. The numbered proficiency Skills describe motions, not broad Skills or tools. One is often called the ‘cooking’ knife proficiency because it describes slicing and cutting motions that you would mostly do on a cutting board. Surgeons get it sometimes, too.”

“Oh.”

Micah had hoped it would help in combat. Well, maybe it would? He could slice and cut monsters, too, after all. All he had to do was get close enough for their bodies to be like cutting … boards ...

He glanced at Sam and thought, Sorry.

But Micah did often straddle and wrestle with monsters, so he would definitely get close enough for that sometimes. The only question was whether or not it would be effective. The shallow cuts he’d inflicted on the unmade Prowler last week hadn’t done much. He had to go for the weak spots if he wanted them to burst, like the throat.

Ryan must have seen something on his face because he quickly said, “But it also describes how to handle a knife, which is important.”

He did it with fake commitment as if he were trying to cheer Micah up.

Micah smiled to show he appreciated that thought even if it was unnecessary. He got the Skill from his [Alchemist] Class, he hadn’t been expecting too much.

“Actually,” Lisa threw in. “There’s a lot of overlap between the four knife proficiency Skills. There’s a saying that if you have two of them, you have all of them … with a lot of practice, of course.”

“I’ve heard of that,” Ryan mused. Now Micah didn’t know if he actually had or was still trying to cheer Micah up.

“What are the others?” he asked.

“Two is ‘crafting’ with sawing and whittling motions,“ Ryan explained. “Its motions are good for cutting wood and rope, that sort of stuff. Three is for ‘fighting’ with stabbing and slashing motions like you would do with a dagger. And four is ‘performance’ with juggling and throwing motions, although it’s eerily useful in a fight. Of course, like all Skills, they change a bit depending on who uses them. [Butchers] are known to get any of the first three, because they all help with cutting different types of meat. Some [Cooks] get two instead of one for the same reason.”

“By the way, you’ll have to know this for the entrance exam,” Lisa added.

“Really?” Micah asked and immediately started repeating Ryan’s words over again in his head.

“Yeah, and the proficiencies for lots of different weapons, too,” Lisa went on. “A lot of them have fewer than four, though, so it won’t be quite as much to learn. Bows and shields only have two.”

“Bashing and blocking,” Ryan immediately said, “and bows and longbows? Or more like artillery versus hunting. It’s about the arc, I think. I’m not an [Archer], so I can only repeat what I read.”

“You’re about right,” Lisa said and then made grabbing motions for the papers Ryan had made, saying. “Now, lemme’ see those.”

Ryan handed them over.

Micah was beginning to realize just how much catching up he had to do. Not just in math, history, grammar, and the natural sciences. He also had to learn things about Skills and the Tower he had never even heard of in Westhill. He began looking for the answer to that first question again while Lisa read their papers.

The shortlist was at the beginning of the answer sheets—[Travelers] of Ostfeld, [Gravediggers] of Trest at the Rock, [Fishers] of Lighthouse, [Gardeners] of Hadica.

That was all. It listed the eight names without any structure. Could Micah answer it like that on a test, too? Some of the other answers were also like that, but not all of them. Micah would have to ask Ryan to explain the details to him later.

“Mm,” Lisa mused. “So Micah really is a level-gigolo.”

“Hey!” Micah said.

She laughed. “I’m just joking.”

Micah smiled a little.

“You do know what that word means, right?” Ryan whispered to him.

“Yes,” Micah said and changed tunes to a sickly-sweet voice. “Thank you, Lisa.”

“You’re welcome.”

Ryan looked confused. Probably because Micah been complimented instead of him. Micah was too busy reading about the [Fishers] of Lighthouse for question 1.2 to pay him much notice, though. It listed their ability to taunt monsters into attacking them or their bait as one of their greatest strengths. That was interesting. Could it apply to people, too?

“These are actually pretty great,” Lisa went on. She sounded genuinely impressed. That wasn’t a tone Micah had ever heard from her. “But I’m just not sure they’ll be great enough, if … uhm … you’ll be applying for scholarships?”

She said that last bit with an awkward tone for some reason.

“Huh?” Micah asked, looking up, and then added, “Oh, right. I will.”

Because there was always the chance his parents wouldn’t pay the tuition in order to keep him from going to the school. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be too upset if he made it in. If he got a scholarship, Micah hoped that would lessen their disappointment a little and show them that he really had potential.

Because it was a scholarship. What better way to show your parents you were good at something?

“Micah, your levels are actually prodigious,” Lisa said. “Did you get nine levels in one year or what?”

“What?” Micah asked. “No, no, no. I’ve had the Class for two and a half years now.” He didn’t want even Lisa to think of him like that.

“Really?”

Micah nodded vehemently. Ryan even added a curt nod in solidarity.

“Hm. You’re still way above average for an Early Bird. Either way, you need to get a second Skill from either of your Paths. Ameryth likes potential, but having only one Skill in both Paths reads as you being stuck.”

For some reason, it sounded like she said “Stuck” instead of “stuck.”

“I think we should focus more on getting him through the written entrance exam,” Ryan said.

Lisa waved as if to brush aside his concerns. She was doing that a lot today. The gesture kind of irked Micah.

“And Ryan, your [Salamander Path] is awesome,” Lisa said. “And Stats look great on applications—you basically have five of them, one of which I would count as intermediate—but you really need a proper Skill from your [Fighter] class. Also, you need to mimic a second type of monster.”

Ryan frowned then, too.

“I want to see your Proof Of paper,” Micah demanded, pouting.

“Yeah, me, too,” Ryan added.

Lisa just smiled. “You know I’m right.”

“But I don’t want to meditate on the Essence Path,” Micah said, rubbing his arm a little. Trying to understand things he encountered was fine, like spells and crystals, but actually meditating on them? Micah remembered the way he could feel the grass poking his knees when he thought of [Savagery]. There was no way Micah was doing that. “And I don’t even know how you get Skills from combat Paths.”

“Reflection and repetition,” Ryan answered before he voiced his own complaints. “Why do I need a proper Skill from my Class? And I don’t want to copy another monster, either. There’s no good options yet.”

“You need a proper Skill from your Class because you don’t have a combat Path,” Lisa explained. “And what do you mean you don’t have any good options? You have a whole Tower full of options.”

“Three floors full, you mean.”

“Same thing.”

Micah saw a chance there, to both distract from his Paths and get answers about the Tower.

“Which other monsters are there?” he asked innocently.

“How about the Honey Ants?” Lisa tried, gesturing at his recipe book.

Drat. Micah had been hoping for a list. He still had his Beginner’s Guide, but it didn’t list nearly all of the monsters there were. Admittedly, Micah had spent his fair share of time daydreaming about what Ryan could mimic from the Beginner’s Guide. Ideally, he would have loved for Ryan to copy Golems. They came in all shapes and sizes—rocks, metal, wax, earth, crystal, wood—and could do all sorts of things, like control lightning or create magical barriers.

[Golem Path] would have been extremely versatile.

Ryan, however, had shot him down immediately when Micah brought it up. Apparently, they counted as “spirits” and not “beasts.” Or at least, they did to him. That sucked.

Beast-wise … there were a lot less good options in his opinion. Most of them were just monstrous animals. Micah had a hard time imagining what type of Skills Ryan would get from them. And those that he could easily imagine all had to do with fire.

It really would be nice if he could get a second monster Path beside Salamanders … Maybe something that would work well with Micah’s alchemy? Honey Ants didn’t seem so bad. They were used for healing and strength potions.

“You want me to copy ants?” Ryan asked. “They’re weird ... and I don’t even know how my Path works. What if I waste a Skill opportunity getting something like ‘[Mindless Work]’ or [Basic Digging]?”

Oh. No, that sounded less good.

Lisa frowned and opened her mouth, then closed it again. She seemed to be battling with her herself over something. Eventually, she said, “I think I might know something about your Path.”

“You do?” Ryan asked.

She did?

“Or at least, about [Mimic Beast].”

“Tell me!”

“I’m not sure I should,” Lisa said. “You know how Paths work. Self-earned knowledge is much more valuable than given knowledge. It has a much higher chance of getting you a Skill.”

Micah took in a sudden breath in understanding. That explained so much about Lisa’s teaching methods. Her half-answers, and riddles, and always wanting him to try to answer questions himself before she told him anything. But even so, she had basically handed Micah a lot of information already. Could any of that have led to a Skill for him?

He tried to think back, but he didn’t think there was anything. Maybe [Condense Water]? Micah didn’t even know how spells worked. He doubted he would have gotten it from a demonstration.

“Yeah, but …I’m pretty sure I’m stuck, Lisa,” Ryan said with a little shame in his voice.

Micah got the sense that it was a shameful revelation. He immediately felt bad about not wanting to further his own Path when Ryan was trying so hard to further his. So often when they hung out the other kid would just meditate … or sleep. It was hard to tell sometimes, especially with Ryan’s busy schedule. But Micah didn’t even want to do it at all.

Leveling up was easier. It felt better, too.

“Just a hint?” Ryan pleaded. “It would help a lot.”

Lisa sighed and said, “Alright … But it won’t be just a hint, okay?”

Ryan nodded eagerly.

“There’s a recent theory in academia that [Enhanced] Skills use mana to permanently create spells inside your body,” Lisa started. “It’s because of the almost-magical effects that they are known to have. So if that’s true … You got [Enhanced Senses] and [Enhanced Traction] from [Mimic Beast], Ryan. There’s a pretty good chance you’re using mana to copy monster Skills. You shape the flow of mana somewhere inside of you, like a continuously-cast spell, which describes the quality you seek to mimic. I don’t know much beyond that without either appraising you or cutting you open, though.”

Ryan frowned. “Wouldn’t that be like an enchantment then?”

Micah joined him. Would it?

Lisa smiled for some reason and shook her head a little, but she did seem to consider it.

“... Maybe? It depends on whether or not the mana is still freely flowing. If it’s moving, it would technically be a spell and you could learn to siphon some of it off for other uses. Although, that mana would then be tainted and overall less flexible. If it’s something more permanent, it would be a proper enchantment. But at that point, it’s just semantics really. They both have almost the same result.

Because it’s mana, I’m leaning towards the former, but that would put an enormous strain on your mana regeneration, unless there’s something I’m missing ...”

Ryan nodded a little in what Micah hoped was understanding, because he was hopelessly lost himself.

Enchantment? Taint? Mana? Those words already meant little to him on their own, they meant nothing in the same context.

“So, I can only copy so many Skills from monsters because each time I do …?” Ryan asked.

Lisa finished the sentence for him, “Either way, if this is true, it would reduce your effective mana [Capacity].”

“Then I should be trying to get a mage Class, right?” Ryan asked. “In the hopes of getting [Lesser Capacity]?”

Lisa shook her head.

“The chances are low. It’s a rare Skill in the early levels so it might not be worth the effort. And if this is true and you became a [Mage], you would have little to no mana to spend on spells outside of your [Mimic Beast] Skills—assuming you continue to use it. Or the spells you can cast would have to be similar to their mana … “ She glanced at Micah. “Leveling the Class would be extremely hard for you.”

Ryan frowned deeply and looked introspective. His green face took a little bit away from the seriousness of the gesture, though.

Micah was still working through the rest of the information himself.

“How do spells use mana?” he asked eventually. It was the most important question to ask, he decided, if he wanted to understand this conversation.

Lisa needed a moment before she answered.

“By modifying and moving it. It’s … complicated. You remember how enough water essence drawn together can condense water out of the air?”

Micah nodded but he remembered her saying that it was more complicated than that, too.

“Well, mana flowing in certain ways can affect the world, too. It’s easier at manipulating energy, though. That means things like temperature, force, electricity, light, and so on. First you have to modify the mana by describing the effect you want and then you have to move it in order to create that effect. Two steps. Two flows. You want fire? Roll two figurative wheels of mana against each other to create friction. That both taints the mana with heat qualities and can create a literal spark at the same time. You want water? Create a spiraling cone to collect it from the air, or shape clouds, or a river … whatever helps you describe the effect the easiest. Everyone has a different way of casting spells—ideally, with their own benefits. Unless you're a Class-[Mage] ... Flows that both modify and move mana at the same time are more efficient in my experience, but you can’t always do that. Lightning, for example, has two completely different flows.”

Wow. Micah actually understood that … a little. He had a feeling Lisa was simplifying it by a lot. But that just raised more questions, ones Micah could ask now that he was a [Fighter]. For a brief second, he paused and cheerfully thought, I’m a [Fighter]! Then he asked, “What is mana?”

Alongside their Skills and Towers, mana was what made their people unique from other nations. And yet, Micah didn’t even know what it was. Some kind of magical energy source that everyone apparently produced. That was all. But there had to be more to it than that.

Lisa grinned at him. She seemed unusually expressive today. Because Ryan was here? Around Garen, she was much more of a gossip, Micah knew, but that might have been a coincidence. He didn’t know Lisa well enough.

“I thought you would never ask. Can you guess?”

“Essence,” Micah immediately answered, because that made sense. If it could manipulate the world in the same way as essence could, it had to be related somehow. And the way Lisa describe you needing to “modify” it first, that sounded a lot like manipulating essences with your thoughts.

“Yes, but what kinds?” Lisa added.

Micah frowned.

“Essence of … humans?”

She scowled and shook her head in obvious frustration. Frustration directed at him. Ups. Completely wrong answer, then.

“How much do I have now?” Ryan asked, interrupting them. “Available, I mean.”

Lisa’s eyes darted between them a bit before she shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. I’m a [Mage], not a [Spellcaster]. I don’t quantify mana.”

Micah hadn’t even known you could do that.

“How much in relative terms?” Ryan asked and spread his arms out a little as if giving Lisa free reign. “You can check if you have to … uhm, if you can?” He looked a little bashful then and Micah understood the sentiment. It was like being naked, right? Letting someone appraise you to see your insides.

Lisa just looked at him, nodded a little, and took a deep breath. Her body stilled as she stared at Ryan. That was more like the Lisa Micah knew.

Ryan briefly rubbed his chest after a moment. Had he felt something? Did you feel something during appraisal?

Eventually, Lisa leaned back in a gesture of understanding.

“I’d say … enough for one sloppy [Fireball] or two good ones. Using predominantly mana, of course. You have a lot of it, Ryan. At least, for someone without any magical training. Unless your Path counts as magical training … “ She shook her head and mumbled, “You have as much as Myra and she’s level 6.”

“Who’s Myra?” Ryan asked.

“Her rival,” Micah whispered and Lisa glared at him.

“If you knocked me out, put me into Winter for twenty years, and woke me up again, I would still be insulted by that statement, Micah.”

Micah chuckled a little.

“But that still doesn’t help you translate to Skill demand, does it?” he asked. “Can you see how much mana his Skills are taking up compared to how much he currently has?”

That might give them a frame of reference. If Micah were a mage, he thought, he would like some way to measure his spells’ properties. But that was probably only because he was looking from the outside in. He didn’t feel the need to measure everything perfectly with alchemy, after all. Most of it was just his gut feeling with a little bit of help from [Essence Sight] and [Personalized Alchemy]. If he became a [Mage], would he feel the same way about spells, too?

Ryan nodded eagerly at the suggestion, but Lisa just shook her head.

“No. I don’t have the necessary reference to examine the difference between something I don’t even understand and traditional [Fireballs]. And honestly, I don’t even know where your Skills are located. I can glimpse some things here and there, indirectly, but if you want more information, Ryan, you should get yourself appraised. Ideally by a high-leveled Heswaren. Maybe even by a Northerner. They know more about patterns than you do.If that’s what your Skills are forming.”

Ryan looked a little disturbed by that. Understandably. Nobody wanted to be associated with Northerners, after all, even if some of them traveled through their cities from time to time. Diplomats, traders, favored individuals, some researchers and the such. Either way, they were all hated here.

Even to Micah, they sounded sort of alien. Completely white, animalistic, or glowing tattoos … well, that last one sounded pretty cool, actually, and the second reminded him of Ryan a bit, but the first … then it was only one, was there? And they were supposed to be the rarest of the three.

Somehow, when Micah thought about it like that they suddenly became much less alien to him. Magic was magic, right? And people were people.

But these particular people had tried to conquer two of their Towers twice in the past and had spent the last half-century attempting to raid them for whatever they could get their hands on. That was reason enough to hate them.

Micah did frown and clear his throat at the last thing Lisa had said, though. There was someone else here who knew a lot about patterns.

“You’re cute, Micah,” Lisa told him. “But you’ve barely grazed the water on this one.”

Micah’s frown only deepened. He had?

“Right!” Ryan suddenly said, turning to him. “Micah, can you see anything?” He pushed out his neck a little as if that would somehow make any patterns he had more pronounced.

“Nope,” Micah immediately answered without checking. Well, he did glance at his throat for a bit. “I see patterns and essences of nature, not people.”

Ryan scowled. “People are of nature.”

“Yeah, they kind of are,” Lisa added.

“Well, I disagree,” Micah insisted.

All three of them seemed unhappy by the end of that exchange. They sat in silence. The sound of rain hitting tiles was softer now. Slower. It was letting up a little. Micah glanced at the two of them and wondered how quickly that cactus salve of Lisa’s would work. Could Ryan come to school tomorrow?

He didn’t ask.

When it was clear that the silence would hold on for a while, Micah glanced down at his answer sheet and kept on reading about the representative Classes.

Fisher: The Fishers of Lighthouse are best-known for their ability to taunt monsters and fight in aquatic terrains, including walking on and swimming underwater. They combine Strength, Accuracy, and Agility in a manner similar to [Rangers] and can use strings, nets, and fishing rods to manipulate their enemies’ movement. Despite this, they often prefer to wait patiently until just the right moment to strike. They have a low aptitude for wind, water, and lightning spells and can learn the [Sparks] cantrips. They sometimes prefer to work with traps.

Gravedigger: In the absence of combat Priests, Gravediggers and their cousins have taken over as the best-suited Classes for dealing with the undead. Their strengths come directly from their ability to adapt to the task. As such, they combine the endurance of a defensive fighter with the versatility and magical aptitude of a [Spellsword]. They have a rare low aptitude for earth spells as well as light and fire.

Gardener: The Gardeners strengths come from the variety of rules and consequences found in the Gardens of Hadica. Their adaptability is their greatest strength, with great Reflex, Agility, and Dexterity. They are comparable to [Explorers] who specialize in thriving in a variety of rough floral biomes inside their Tower. They also have the Skills to deal with lesser pests, similar to the [Janitors] of Anevos, and an unwise aptitude for fire magic.

Unwise? Micah thought. Why that? Unfortunately, this “answer sheet” was turning out to be more of a “reminder sheet.” Micah would still have to learn all of this from an actual book on the subject. Hopefully, he could borrow those from Lisa. He didn’t have any such book in Westhill.

Traveler: The Travelers of Ostfeld are resistant to almost all forms of climate, including the extreme ones found inside their Tower. They have Strength and Agility that exceeds most known Classes and often get [Greater Strength] at a comparatively low level to traditional combat Classes. They boast a preference for fighting while airborne and with enchanted items, receiving Skills like [Double Jump] and [Bind Item].

Airborne? So they fought in the air? That sounded kind of stupid to Micah, but then again, he didn’t know what kind of monsters they faced. Still, they seemed strong. All of them did. He wondered if he should strive to become one of them someday. You couldn’t stay just a [Fighter] forever, after all. Eventually, you wouldn’t level anymore.

He repeated the words to himself a few times in his head as if he were learning a new word in the classroom. And yet, Micah itched to move on to the next answer. He had to know all of this folder in seven weeks. And he still had to study for his classroom exams that were next week. And he had to learn the basics of the next two years worth of classroom material. Now was not the time to sit here doing nothing.

“So exams,” Ryan suddenly said.

“Exams,” Lisa agreed.

Micah had almost forgotten they were there.

“Written?” Ryan asked.

“I’ve got books I can … lend him. And potions,” she answered.

Ryan grunted in what Micah thought was distaste.

“Physical?” he asked.

“Training regimen. That’s on you. As well as his classroom tests.”

“Mysterious third?”

“I don’t know yet. Maybe an observed duration in the Tower?”

“Hrn. Alright then.”

Micah glanced at the two of them. They hadn’t even looked at each other as they said that.

“Uhm, what just happened?”

Ryan began writing something down on another piece of paper.

“What happened is that you’re going running with me,” he said. “Either in the mornings before class or the evenings. And then you’re going to do these”—he gestured at the list he was making—”every day.”

“Some only every other day,” Lisa threw in.

“I do them every day.”

“And your joints will thank you. Still, how are you going to fare in the entrance exams, Rye?”

“Fine, I think. Why?” he asked scratching his nose with the pencil. He noticed he was scratching the cactus salve and stopped. Must be hard, having an itch with a sunburn and a salve-covered face.

“I don’t know.” Lisa shrugged. “I don’t know much about your grades.”

“I think he has a perfect report card,” Micah mumbled.

Ryan blushed at the compliment. “Kinda’. Yeah.”

“Really?” Lisa asked. “How?”

“What do you mean ‘how’? I study.”

“And you train?” Micah asked, dubious. Where did he find the time for all that? Then again, Ryan didn’t do any Chores either. The more important question was, where did he find the self-discipline for all that?

“When I’m not hanging out with you or Lang, Micah,” Ryan explained. “I’m probably studying or training.”

Now Micah looked up and Lisa and him both stared at Ryan with expressions similar to the ones those two had given Micah earlier.

“What?” Ryan asked, echoing him.

Did he not have any other hobbies? Micah wondered. Then again, neither did he. He had his alchemy and fighting. Maybe he should pick up an instrument someday …

“If you picked up an instrument and another language,” Micah mused. “Your parents would be the proudest in all of Hadica.”

For some reason, Ryan scowled at that.

“Because you’re one to talk, Micah,” Lisa said.

Huh?

“No, I didn’t mean—”

“Nevermind. That just leaves your scholarship,” Lisa interrupted him and Micah didn’t have the chance to explain. “If you really don’t want to further your Paths, we have to get your levels up. Really push that as your selling point, you know?”

She leaned far over to Micah’s side of the table, almost pushing Sam off her lap, and snatched up his recipe book.

The Salamander made a gurgling sound in protest.

“Honey Ant legs?”

She glanced at him.

“For Strength Potions,” Micah explained.

He had been right all those weeks ago; Strength Potions really did need milk as an ingredient. As well as a bunch of other “healthy” stuff. Although, raw eggs were also among the list and those were supposed to make you sick. Micah wondered how all those weird ingredients would make the potion taste.

Horrible, probably.

Lisa nodded.

“We’re doing it. Next week. Third floor Ant Hive. Are you in?” she asked Ryan.

“Are you kidding me?” he asked back because of course, he was in.

Lisa grinned in response.

Micah blushed as he smiled along. These two believed in this, he realized then, in applying to this school and in each other … and in him as he did in them.

This is going to work, he thought.