The Principality of Vis. It, along with Libren and the Republic of Orvin, neighbored the area west of the Alliance's lands that was now referred to as 'The Blasted Lands'. Saberguard Fortress — which had previously deterred any attacks from the western continent through Sabreguard Pass for almost a century — fell eleven years ago. Before that, there had been four other provinces in the region west of the Principality of Vis. Those lands had quickly been overrun and laid to waste in under two years after Sabreguard's Fortress fall. Now it was nothing but a festering ground for the monsters that attacked the human settlements. The main job of the Summoned was to fight back against that threat and retake all the ruined land. While not much more land had been lost in the nine years since the Summoned arrived, they still hadn't been able to retake anything but the most southern parts of the Blasted Lands.

The Principality of Vis took on the brunt of the attacks from all the lower-level monsters that roamed the border to The Blasted Lands. Especially its villages and smaller towns had suffered the most because of this. And Lela was from one of these villages.

"It doesn't matter anymore," Lela said and turned her head downwards. "That was a long time ago."

Lane shook his head slightly. Five years wasn't that long ago.

However, she only stayed quiet for a moment before looking up again with a smile — as if her previous forlorn expression had been nothing but a lie. "But my life's pretty great now. I get to follow my mom around and she teaches me magic when she can. I can't cheat to learn things faster like you guys can, but I can already perform some basic spells. When I grow older I might even be stronger than you'll be. Archmage Lela Hailet, that's what I'll be called."

He stared at her for several seconds. From the sounds of it, she'd had it worse than him in many ways. But there were similarities. He'd also had that kind of ambition when he was younger. Of course, for him, that developed into the absurd and impossible dreams that nearly got him killed. He was just lucky that he got to where he was now.

But she didn't seem to have any wild dreams about becoming like a Summoned. Her goal — even though he wasn't certain if she was being serious or not — seemed to be to achieve her dreams even without gaining access to The Interface that the Summoned had. To be honest, there wasn't much realism in that prospect. The last Native archmage to have lived during the past century died when Sabreguard Fortress fell, and even during the days of the Old Empire had they been a rare existence as far as Lane knew. To reach that level without the aid of The Interface was about as unlikely of a dream as they come. But he admired her spirit.

Smiling, he said "I guess I'll have to make sure to say in your good graces then. I wouldn't mind knowing an archmage in the future."

"Keep buying our food and I'll think about it," Lela said, sticking her tongue out. But then she looked as if she remembered something.

"Hey," She said hesitantly. "If you're going to fight Marquess Quentrell...Do you think you could help me meet him?"

Arching his eyebrows, Lane eyed the now-blushing young girl in front of him. "Your mother is an instructor, isn't she? Couldn't you just ask her?"

She waved her hands in front of her fervently. "Gods no! She'd just throw a fireball at him if I asked her. She burns anything that irritates her."

"...She'd what?" Why did that sound familiar?

"My mom's super protective of me. Even letting me work here by myself was a stretch for her. If she thinks I like a guy, she wouldn't hesitate for even a second about turning them to cinders. She doesn't care who they are. They're lucky if they only lose their hair." She said.

Now he was sure he'd heard about something similar before. "Your mother...Her name wouldn't happen to be Yvette?" He recalled what Claire had called the woman with glasses that he'd met during his first night at the dormitory.

Lela nodded her head. "That's right. You probably saw her when the Colosseum opened."

So the woman who'd burned a man's hair off was Lela's mother? From what he heard about her from Claire she wasn't the reasonable kind of person. "You're asking me to help you with something that you yourself said would cause your mother to attack people with fireballs if she found out about it?"

Lela went quiet. After a while, she nodded again slowly. "...Yes."

"I'm sorry, but I like my hair where it is."

"But I wouldn't tell her!"

Shaking his head with a chortle, he grabbed his halberd leaning against the table and rose. "Sorry. I'm not taking that risk. Besides, I've only met him once, and he's a noble. It's not like I can ask him for favors."

Opening her mouth as if to speak, she paused and closed it. "Ugh, fine. But just know that, if you somehow do get me a meeting with, I'll make sure that you get to eat for free for a while."

Resting the halberd on his shoulder, Lane turned to look at Lela. "You can do that? I thought it's all automatic."

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Probably. I'll have to see."

"Well, I might consider it if you can. Right now I've got more training to do so I'll see you tomorrow." With that, he left the cafeteria.

Lela waved him off before gathering the empty plates of food and returning inside the building.

------------------

The following day passed by in a similar manner for Lane. He managed to wake up earlier the next morning and made it in time before the training session with Quentrell began but he mostly practiced by himself. Quentrell gave him some advice now and then but aside for that he left him to his own devices most of the time. At lunch, he visited Lela's cafeteria and talked with her again as he ate. The rest of the day was spent resting for a while before training even more. He did run into Chris once again, exchanging a few words with him before parting to continue his training.

The woman from the first day they entered the second test who had a crossbow also approached him at one point, together with the man she had been with. Tolstaya was her name and the man was named Aleksei, although she called him Alyosha. Their names did prompt a raising of the eyebrows from Lane as he'd never heard names like that before, but that changed into a slight frown when they started profusely thanking him. They seemed set on repaying him in some way. He couldn't think of something he needed from them right then, so he'd said that he'd contact them if he could come up with anything.

Their adamancy in repaying their debt didn't sit right with him. He kept running into Summoned who legitimately seemed to be decent people. But that didn't fit with what he knew of the Summoned. The vast majority of them were the exact opposite of that; power-hungry, untrustworthy bastards who didn't show the slightest care for the people they were supposed to protect. Was his view of the Summoned wrong? Was his town just unlucky in the Summoned who passed through it? But he'd rumors about the crooked conduct of the Summoned from other places too.

Was it just because the Summoned thought he was one of them? They didn't seem to Quentrell, but he was probably a special case. Lela did seem particularly defensive when he first asked her if she was a Summoned or not. Perhaps it was true that the Summoned discriminated against the Natives and only acted like decent people amongst themselves. If that were the case, then he had no qualms about how to treat them.

But he couldn't jump to conclusions. Lela's mom had adopted her despite being a Native, so even if the Summoned disliked the Natives there were exceptions. Claire Bright, for example, didn't seem like the kind of person to care about things like that.

But he'd keep his eyes open in the future.

When he'd woken up the last day before the duels began, the first thing he'd done was check his status window.

[Information]

Name: Lane Davenrish

Summoned: N/A

Age: 21 y/o

Height: 1.84 m

Weight: 70 kg

Gender: Male

Class: N/A

Affiliation: Barrage (Temporary)

Birthplace: Haeryn

Location: Testing area of the Gods (5,5 p)

Titles: None

------------------------------------

[Stats]

[Strength: 2.27]

[Stamina: 2.19]

[Speed: 2.33]

[Endurance: 2.13]

[Perception: 2.06]

[Mana: 1.04]

[Luck: 2.01]

------------------------------------

[Abilities]

[None]

He frowned. It wasn't his imagination. His mana stat was decreasing. But why? He couldn't tell if there was something wrong with him. He felt better than ever before; his body had never been this full of energy previously. What would cause a person's mana stat to decrease? Did it have something to with whatever it was that was happening with him and his memories? Or was there another reason behind it?

As always, there was an ever torrent of questions and he lacked any answers.

What if this did have something to do with those memories that weren't his? Or maybe it was because he was a Native. If so, asking someone else about it was risky. But otherwise, he might lose all of his mana. Gods know what happens then.

It was a concern for another time, however. He'd spent most of the time the last days getting used to his body and his new halberd. Now it was time to put it to use and get an idea of what level he was at.

Today he was going to spar with Barret Quentrell — The Divine Wind.