“How do you even get [Lesser Poise] from a Path?” Micah asked. A soft breeze made the paper in his hand twitch and he waved it off. “Alex had it, too.”

The weather outside was nice enough that they were in the courtyard. Well, that and all the tables in the foyer had been taken.

Lea answered before looking up, “Oh, that’s easy. Just keep perfect posture always for a few years on end.”

She looked at him. Micah stared back from where he sat on the wall above her, legs dangling over the side. Slowly, he stopped slouching and sat upright.

She smiled politely and began to count, “One, two, three, four …”

“Why are you counting?”

“Nothing. Just a hundred million more seconds to go.”

His eyes went wide and he let himself deflate with a heavy sigh, then chuckled to brush it off, “Who even needs poise?”

She frowned. “It doesn’t just help with posture—”

“No, no, I know that,” he rushed to say. “I was just joking.”

“Ah.” She chuckled nervously herself and looked back down, apparently done with the conversation.

The others would have known he was joking.

They had broken up their ‘team meeting’ this morning to get to class, but they hadn’t been in a mood to get anything done anyway. Now, after simmering down all day, all that was left was a general sense of awkwardness and unease.

Lea had brought a duffel with her equipment and paper for them to look through, but none of them really seemed interested. Kyle wasn’t even here. Maybe they should have done this tomorrow but … they needed to do something, if only chuckle and get used to each other.

He sighed and handed the paper over to Jason, who sat with his legs crossed on the grass over the other end of the bench.

Ryan was crouched below them and ruffled through the duffel just to check what was there, but he looked like he was forcing himself to be here.

Lisa, at least, had offered to take a look at the summoning crystal and wand, despite seeming somewhat disinterested in equipment in general and slightly at odds with the other girl.

They knew each other from mutual friends and events apparently, and while they might not dislike each other, they certainly hadn’t been friends.

That, at least, made it fun to watch Lisa force herself to seem disinterested about the equipment. Because it was better than hers.

The wand’s influence unfurled like a revived desert plant and was just as clinging. Its lines groped and grasped until they attached themselves to her own influence and surged in any direction she pointed.

“Let me guess!” Micah called and raised a hand to get her attention. “It extends spell range?”

She spun around and smiled. “Almost.” She waved a hand and a fire lizard jumped out of thin air to skitter across the courtyard.

Micah needed a moment to find the blurry shape as it raced around, but he did see the lines of influence react the moment they slapped the construct. The nearby ones surged and all sought it out at once. Lines brushed over and almost caressed it.

They reminded him a little of Tower essence when they did that, except these came from the wand.

It was hard to focus on those anyway as Lisa’s pure lines dwarfed them: a giant spiral unfurled from her chest and crushed everything underfoot as it spun. It got worse whenever she cast a cantrip, like she was using a house to hammer in a nail.

The way it behaved almost reminded him of something, besides. Her chest as the center, the lines as something massive coiled around it, thrashing, spiraling, and twisting as they broke the trees—

She flicked her hand and a [Firebolt] shot out of the wand. It curved and followed the lines in the air down to strike the lizard with a streak of smoke.

“It tracks things?” Micah called out, previous thought forgotten.

“Wow,” Jason breathed.

Lea winced. “Can you not cast fire spells with it, please? It’s not good with fire and pretty brittle besides.”

Lisa rolled her eyes but said, “Sorry.”

Micah still stared at the place where the lizard had been, then tried to get a look at the wand as Lisa moved it around.

Magical woods were an entire field of study but he knew wands that could do that, no matter how brittle they might be, were valuable.

He got his hopes up when Lisa held up the green summoning crystal next. It was from the Gardens. What would it do?

She fiddled for a moment, frowned, and placed it on the ground before taking a few steps back in … caution?

He sat up in excitement and actually got to see the summoning process. The outline of the construct drafted itself in the air and filled out with green and grey octagonal patterns of stone affinities.

The legs formed first—the crystal rose off the ground—and then all at once, a tiny hedgehog popped into existence. It looked so rocky on the outside that it almost seemed like a stone golem. It waddled around in a circle until it spotted her and plopped down.

Waiting for instructions?

It was cute as fuck, but Micah was having a little trouble seeing how it was supposed to be useful … or even dangerous?

Lisa did something. A cluster of emerald spikes ripped out from its back in a flash, pointed in all directions. Cute hedgehog to meter-long pin cushion in a second.

She inched closer, tapped one of the spikes on the tip, and nodded in begrudging respect.

Hedgehog shield, Micah thought as he stared at the beast waddling around, but didn’t say anything. He remembered the way the others had reacted to his slime shield idea.

… although, now that he had seen Saga …

No, no, no. It sounded fun, but he had too much on his plate already. It was good to know Lea came prepared.

She had their Proof Of papers in a stack, minus Kyle’s, so it wouldn’t be just them poking and prodding her. She’d seemed surprised by his level—all of their levels in general—and hadn’t commented about him being an [Alchemist], so that was a plus in his books.

He had seen her around before. He knew how friendly she could be and also knew her through mutual friends. Micah just hoped they hadn’t screwed up their first impression …

Which brought him back to Ryan and how he had ruined his day first thing in the morning with his stupid pest repellant. He knew how much scents mattered to him; they could make or break his first impression of someone, and yet …

No point in beating himself up over it.

He had already stolen the bottle back, he would make him a proper breeze potion for tomorrow, and wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

“Ryan?” Jason asked, holding the paper out. He was done already. It was just a handful of Skills and spells.

Ryan looked up and reluctantly took the paper. Rather than snatching it away like he might have this morning, he was almost gentle about it.

Micah had the weirdest urge to buy him a beer. He’d never even bought one himself but that was what you did, right? When someone had a bad day? At least, Brent would say so.

“Uh, I mean,” Jason went on and raised his voice to speak to all of them, “I know none of you might want to hear this, but … shouldn’t one of us go looking for Kyle?”

Ryan read the paper and ignored him. Lisa glanced over and away. It was just Lea and him then, and since she was the new girl …

“It might be best to give him a day to vent …?” Micah tried. He folded a leg up to hold his ankle. “Like, he was in class, I think. He’s around. We’ll see him tonight at the latest so maybe—”

“Dinner?” Jason tried.

Any other suggestion at all was great. Micah quickly nodded in agreement, but Lisa spoke up.

“No need.”

They looked at her and she pointed them away. Kyle was headed down the steps from the cafeteria toward them. He had something cold in hand. A towel?

Oh.

He tossed it at Ryan when he got close enough, who thrust the paper aside to catch it.

From the essences alone, Micah knew it was a cold pack. Had he gotten it from the staff or asked someone else to freeze one?

“You’re about six hours too late,” Lisa said, walking back to them. “And Micah already made him one.”

Not that he used it for long.

Ryan wordlessly threw it back.

“Is that your version of an apology …?” Micah asked with the same awkward smile. It was a little friendlier than the one he had shown Lea. Almost hopeful.

Kyle made a face and scoffed, “No? Why would I apologize to him when he started it?”

And the smile was gone. Of course, not. He didn’t know what he had been expecting.

“If anything, he should apologize to me.”

Now, he was pushing it.

“I will apologize to her, though,” he said and nodded at Lea, “and accept her into the team with open arms and whatnot. Under one condition.”

“Dude,” Jason said and tried to nudge him.

He stepped away.

Since he didn’t seem to be sharing, Micah opened his mouth to ask, but Lisa got there first, “Condition?”

He nodded. “I want to be team captain.”

They all blinked and stared at him, at a loss for words for one reason or another.

Kyle didn’t bat an eye.

Was he … was he serious? Micah wanted to say something but didn’t know what. Was he supposed to laugh?

Lea of all people was the first to crack up. She bent over a little and laughed, and they watched her until she looked up and asked him, “What is the matter with you?”

That broke the ice. A few of them smiled. Kyle scowled and said, “I’m not joking. I want to be team captain.”

Lisa shook her head. “You have no leverage whatsoever to ask that.”

“Should we even have a team captain?” Jason said.

“No.”

“Yes. Me.”

Micah smiled and glanced at Ryan, a little hesitant. His opinion was most important here.

The guy just shook his head and said, “I wouldn’t vote for you.”

“Who said this is up to a vote?”

Ryan didn't respond.

… Good enough.

He smiled and sat up. The sun poked out from behind a cloud and blinded him for a moment so he raised an arm like a shield to block it, put a foot against the wall, and pushed off—

Micah blocked the centipede’s charge on the wall and cut into its segmented carapace. A meter long, foot wide, dark chitin: one of the lesser metal ones. Its bites hurt like hell, but it wasn’t dangerously venomous.

Good to remember.

He immediately took a deep breath and, heeding Lisa’s comment, clenched his throat.

The smell was bad enough on its own; musty, foul, pungent, with hints of all sorts of unpleasant things—and some pleasant ones, which made it even worse. But if he breathed it in, it suffocated. The monsters’ essences felt like viscous fluids and cutting metal dust inside him.

No, thanks.

He had Skills against that, plural, but he didn’t actually have to breathe essences in to break them away.

The gaseous light hissed and rushed at him like a wraith, and in a flash, the wound tore and bored in all directions.

The beast jerked on the cavern side and charged at him. A feeler slapped across his face, bringing up hints of all kinds of bad memories, but Micah just grimaced and bashed it back with another thrust.

A wrench, he tore his sword up along the wound, and lopped its head off. It thumped against the ground behind him and burst. The rest of the body tipped over on the wall and soon followed.

He covered his mouth with the back of his hand, wavering as the weight of his sword dragged it down, and focused on breathing in the breeze potion around him.

Sweet blood orange. He had never even tasted one until a few months ago but along with a few others, it was his perfume of the week. It was good, but could probably be even better.

And guessing by the expressions on Ryan’s face when he thought he wasn’t looking, the guy thought the same. That was great.

Besides, he was here.

The excitement surging through his chest was enough to get him to slip a hand in his pouch and pop a sickly yellow ball in his mouth. Micah took a swig of water as he headed for a large stone at the side of the tunnel—what he had come for—and put the bottle back.

Hesitation welled up as well, both because of the hints of taste on his tongue as he fit the ball between his teeth and the certain knowledge of what was under there, but he kicked the rock over anyway.

It tumbled.

Creepy-crawlies of all shapes and sizes burst forth from the damp underside. Normal sizes. The instant he heard the thrum of insect wings, he bit down and breathed a noxious yellow cloud at them.

Waves of fog passed over the critters flying just inches up to his face. He stepped back and watched them fall limply to the ground.

Micah coughed and covered his mouth again as he stumbled back. He spat the shell out with thwump, backed off to wash his mouth out a few times, and cleared his throat with a groan.

The swarm lay twitching on the ground. The hints of glue kept down the more resilient ones down until they succumbed as well.

“Ugh,” Kyle grunted as he shoved past him. He began to crush them one by one with his heel.

“Oi! No, no, stop, stop!” Micah grabbed him.

“What?”

“They’re ingredients.”

The guy stared at him with a frozen expression for a moment—horror, disgust, anger or whatever else—then said, “We don’t have all d—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. All day.” He pushed him along. “Go check out the next tunnels for us, will you?”

He shoved and quickly slipped his pack around to get his jar and a dagger out, then started humming to himself while he inspected the turnout.

Kyle glanced back after every other step.

The butt of his dagger crunched down on wings as he hummed, “The sinking ones get crushed, and the real ones get flicked—right into my jar of nasties. The sinking ones get crushed, ‘sinking ones get crushed, the sinking … Why do so many of these have to be unmade?”

He found another one without the tell-tale ring of sinking essences around it and flicked it into his jar, right onto a dazed scorpion.

Three in a row, he inched forward and sang, “The sinking ones get crushed, crushed, crushed—”

“You’re so weird,” Kyle mumbled on his way back.

He waved a smoking insect skewer at him. “Fuck you, I’m an [Alchemist] on a budget.”

The guy just rolled his eyes.

He hurried to finish up, collected his things, and rushed after him. Rules and whatnot. On the way back, he inspected the jar and shook it a little to get a better look at some of the nasties. All in all, he’d only gotten three ‘real’ insects and one marble from the rock. So probably … not worth the poison shot, water, and time he had needed to sort through them all.

It had been the same for the last rock. It was good to collect ingredients, but maybe not worth doing this early into the exam.

He sighed. At least, now I know. Next time, he’d let one of the others kill them with fire.

If only he could routinely come here …

“Tunnels ahead are clear,” Kyle said to the group. “Are we just going to stand around or can we get a move on?”

They met the others back at the intersection two bends in. Micah got his notepad out to mark off the monsters they had fought.

Common first encounters within the first five bends of the fourth-floor Salamander’s Den.

He saw the others making notes on similar pads. The school had told them not to take samples of every common thing they found anymore, so that cut down on survey time and equipment. They still had to collect information to get those ten-out-of-ten points on the evaluation sheet though.

Jason had still brought his pickaxe, because of course he wouldn’t let them live that down.

“Give me a minute,” the guy mumbled, eyes closed.

“You’ve had ten.”

“Do you want to put ten minutes’ thought into where we will head for the next three days?”

Kyle grunted.

Jason opened his eyes and groaned, “Okay. So I can sense three immediate bodies of water and a vague forth one in the distance.”

He pointed for each and finished on the left. “But I sense something … faint and long in that direction, and I think—pretty sure—it might be a river.”

“River,” Ryan said. “Doesn’t mean surface, but it’s definitely more interesting than the alternative.”

Micah nodded in agreement and put his pad away for a moment to wipe his brow and take another swig of water.

Ten minutes in and they were already soaked. It felt like they were halfway in a sauna with the door open, except that the door was closed and they had to move if they wanted to find an exit.

Not that they wanted to.

Micah had almost forgotten how hot it was. He could still remember the way Brent had longed to go back after the exam, to escape the cold. Which was weird because they didn’t have that flash difference this time. This morning had been chilly, but not enough to warrant this.

Which probably meant it was a few degrees even hotter. Two floors up, it only made sense. The patches of red and faint crystal veins in the rock almost seemed to announce it.

Here, you will suffer.

Just maybe not as much as they should have. Every time he moved, a cool breeze passed over him with the faint scent of perfume. It made this much more bearable.

Lisa shrugged and also said, “River.” He could see a breeze around her, and all the others.

“Any idea on what the other options might be?” Lea asked.

“Doesn’t matter,” Kyle said. “I’d rather get a move on and I’m also voting for the river, so we’re going. My vote counts double since I’m team leader.”

Someone groaned, and Micah realized it was him himself. “For the last time, you’re not team leader,” he said. “If anything, Ryan— and Lisa are!” He caught himself at the last moment.

Lisa made a face. “I don’t want to lead. What do I know about bossing others around? It sounds like work.”

He glared. Traitor.

Kyle gave him a look. “And why should Ryan be leader? He doesn’t have any special qualifications—”

“Yeah, he does! He’s awesome. And he has an aura Skill.”

“You’re biased.”

“Of course, I’m biased. ‘Doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”

“I actually agree with Kyle,” Ryan said, “in that we should move. If the majority is for the river, we can talk on the way.” He nudged his head to the side and headed down the path they had cleared.

That made more sense. Micah almost had a heart attack after hearing Ryan agree with Kyle but filed down the tunnel after him.

They only had so much time to achieve something. They were better prepared this time around, but it still wasn’t much. The evaluation was slightly different, too. Fewer points were being allocated to general information—not many since it was still a test and they were supposed to train life skills—and more were allocated to good showings and answering open questions.

Maps in a large-scale sense were one of those, but only fill out the gaps in the ones they had already found, the ones the school had painted on its walls. They wanted statistics and they wanted to know how it all related.

That was where Kyle and his stupid question about where the Kobolds got their stuff from came in, because who knew where monsters got their stuff from? Who knew where any of this came from?

Some questions just couldn’t be answered, was the motto … which Micah hated, so he was here with them on his team.

“Did everyone finish up their notes before we leave?” he asked and tapped his pad on their way past the remnants of his poison cloud. He manipulated it a little to keep it off the others where he could.

Lisa did the same.

There was nods all around. Lisa threw some marbles out and half a dozen fire lizards scampered down the tunnels around them to scout out the area.

They took a right on Kyle’s suggestion.

“They’re probably lakes,” Jason was saying. “I’m not sure about the fourth one; it’s too far away or too small. I’m not that good with my Skill.”

“It’s still impressive,” Lea told him.

That was true.

"Thanks," he said.

They rounded a corner and Ryan threw his spear without breaking stride. Something in the distance burst into smoke.

“One of my lizards just died,” Lisa said, taking out her own notepad to make a map while they walked. It would look like squiggly lines for now, but they could clean it up when they took a rest later. “Left here, then furthest down your right. Someone want to go check it out?”

“I’ll go,” Kyle said and jogged off. Lea waved and headed after him to retain a line of sight while Ryan checked the corners ahead, listening.

Lisa already made a new lizard and sent it off.

Micah stared at her in open wonder. He loved Alex and Brent, and would have loved to have them on his team again, but he’d missed her.

But she knew that without saying, so he jogged up to Jason instead and said, “You have no idea how screwed we would have been without you on our team last time.”

The guy frowned down at him. “I know.”

“We’re lucky—” to have you on our team, he had wanted to say. The response caught him off-guard. “Wait, what?”

“Huh?”

“You know?”

“Yeah.”

“But you don’t act like you do?”

“How … am I supposed to act?”

Micah had no idea. More confident, maybe? Not that he wasn’t confident, but maybe … more boisterous? Mm, he wasn’t sure if that would fit his personalty. He shrugged. “I don’t know. More active?”

Then Ryan might not have to be.

The guy shrugged. Micah was just glad to have a compass, especially if it pointed them toward water.

He gave the guy a nod and finished the jog ahead to help out Ryan, in case there were any unexpected magical threats like the camouflage toads.

The two of them scouted ahead while Jason backed them up from the center and protected Lisa, who was busy with the map, and Kyle and Lea were sent off on errands as needed.

Everyone had a role, flexible though they may be, and everyone had a duty to uphold during this exam. That at least, they could agree on.

They kept a quick pace and it wasn’t long until they found the familiar railroad running through the cavern tunnel. The minecart was one branch away, with a swarm of lithe Teacup Salamanders hiding inside.

They killed them, Micah got out another pouch full of marbles and put one in the slot to get the cart moving.

Bought and brought before the exam, in case they didn’t find any treasure chests or pests before they found the first of these.

“So this is what you meant?” Lisa asked as she ran her hand along the rims of stone. She passed through the twining, silver nervous system and didn’t seem to notice.

Micah couldn’t see any hands, though, so he lay down and twisted his head to get a look underneath.

A herd of silver feet blinked at him. The moment the essence was transferred to them, they started patting the ground in a groping fumble with their toes and heels, found a grip, and pushed the cart along.

Cool, he mouthed just before they disappeared. He jumped up and told her, “Yep.” Then he got another marble out and held it against the slot on the backside.

Ryan fit a giant tarp with ropes looped through it like a net snare inside the cart. He guided the end of the ropes back to where someone might stand behind it. Just grab the ropes, pull, and—

Disaster avoided, Micah thought. It was a handy little solution. Worst-case scenario, four of them had strength potions to catch up or handle the weight.

Kyle and Lea came back from checking out the next branch and shook their heads. Nothing of value within the first few bends.

That was fine. They didn’t want to overcommit this early into the floor as things were bound to be less valuable.

“Everyone remembers the plan?” Micah asked while they shifted their belongings around him.

Jason put his sack with the pickaxe and spare change of clothes in the cart, Lea her bedroll, Lisa her staff.

“Don’t stray too far,” he reiterated. “We rely on Lisa and line of sight for our maps. Straight Vine is good enough. Only go for the first bends, herd any large numbers back to us so we can take them down with superior numbers. Especially swarms. None of the venoms here are life-threatening and I’ve got salves against the welts, so don’t panic. Ignore what can’t keep up and—”

Kyle slapped his hand against the cart, pushing the marble he held there inside, and looked him in the eye. “We remember.”

The cart rumbled and sped up; the feet no doubt patting along quicker now.

Micah met the look with a nod and turned to see resounding agreement on the others’ faces.

“If anything,” Lea joked, “you’re acting like you’re team leader, Micah.”

He chuckled along with her. As did Jason. Privately, though, he thought, Someone has to. If Ryan wouldn’t, or couldn’t, then he would just have to pick up the slack for him. It gave him more freedom to be awesome.

The guy met his eye and nudged his head to the side. Hurry up?

He clenched his jaw. Alright, then.

Micah fitted two more marbles and inside the slot. One by one, the cart began to rumble until slowly, they needed to jog to keep up.

Final exam. Let’s do this.