"Fuck!"

A loud rumble followed by the sound of wood splintering echoed within the Shining Congregation's headquarters. Standing atop the broken table was Dario, his eyes bloodshot and seething. He had never experienced such humiliation in his life. Not before Aiden--the one still sitting with a smile right in front of him--came along, at least.

"What are you doing?" Aidan asked, his eyes still transfixed on the book he was reading despite his outburst.

Thinking about it made him even angrier. The bastard always had that snobby look where nothing seemed to bother him. He used to be someone else. Someone who wasn't under anyone, especially this boy who wasn't even looking at him. He must be afraid, he thought to himself, even though the memory of him being beaten easily by the very same boy still echoed in his mind. It hurt. He wasn't supposed to lose that day nor will he back down from him now.

"Th-That guy is making me look like a chump!" Dario said, keeping his thoughts to himself. "Damn it! You know, that gray-haired kid that hangs out with that stupid bug girl! He--"

"Right now, you're doing that yourself," Aidan replied without even the slightest pause. "You better stop. You'll be the one who'll clean all of this up afterward, you know?"

"What did you say?!" Dario looked at Aidan, his eyes full of disbelief and righteous indignancy. "You're supposed to have my back on this!"

"Haven't I told you many times not to mess with Tissette and her friends? Now the consequences are coming back to bite you and you can't even control yourself," Aidan said with a cool, small grin, not even bothering to look up from his book and face the raging Dario. "You were the former leader of this faction, weren't you? Stop this. Your tantrums are making us look weak in front of the others."

Dario sneered. "What others? The Holy Conclave? The Ardent Congregation? Haven't we dealt with them already?"

"I dealt with them. I fixed your mess for you by offering them an arrangement that works in our favor," Aidan said, finally meeting Dario's gaze for the first time. The latter took a step back reflexively but stopped as he caught himself. He mustn't show weakness. Not to anyone, and especially not to him.

Stuck, Dario tried a different angle, "What are you going to do about this, then? One of your subordinates just got disrespected, and your second-in-command at that! You want the other factions to respect us, is that it? Surely you can't just let this happen!"

"I can and I am," Aidan said, his expression as still as a pond. "This is a personal matter between you and that boy. I am not going to allow you to rally any of our members against him and that's final. If you really need to do something about it, then do something about it yourself. Don't bring the group into it."

"I already told you I can't!" Dario gritted his teeth. The thought of Maritess tossing him aside and siding with Lucius made him physically ill. If only he could make other members of the Collective do his dirty work for him, however, her childhood sweetheart would have no way of knowing he was behind it. While he might not be able to completely avoid suspicion, he didn't care. Lucius, that bastard needed to suffer for making him look like a fool.

"Then that's your problem, not our faction's," Aidan replied with the usual smug head-tilt he was already used to seeing. What he would give to punch the fucker in the face right now. "Now, are you done with your little tantrum? I've got economics next class and I don't have the time to deal with this mess of yours. Clean it up yourself, and the table you broke just now too."

"You...are you seriously leaving me out to dry? Aren't you supposed to be the leader?" Dario shouted as Aidan made his exit. The blonde bastard didn't even look back. Not until he got to the door, at least.

"Oh, and Dario?"

"Yes?" Dario looked towards the door, hopeful that Aidan somehow changed his mind.

"If I ever catch you disobeying my order or taking your anger out to people who don't deserve it, then I won't hesitate to make an example out of you," Aidan said with a straight face before finally leaving him alone, shocked and dumbfounded.

Dario's fists shook as he watched the door slam shut. A surge of unbridled rage once again overcame him, and he threw what was left of the table to the wall, shattering it to pieces.

"Fuck you then! Fuck all of you!" Dario shouted. By the time he calmed down, the room was in an even worst state than before but he didn't care about it one bit. Working through his anger, he realized he had bigger fish to fry. Now that Aidan denied his request, he needed to find a way to get back at Lucius without Maritess knowing it was him some other way. Then, an idea suddenly hit him.

His vicious scowl then turned to a smile that stretched from ear to ear as he remembered that the day of the Labyrinth Dive was getting close, and seeing that only Primus Students could go with each other, it was the perfect time and place for the gray-haired son of a bitch and his friends to get their just desserts. All he needed to make sure of was that that there would be no witnesses, which would be relatively easy to do in the labyrinth.

But first, he needed to make sure that Lucius would dance to his tune in the first place. Something that could guarantee that he'd be where he wanted him to be when the day of the Labyrinth Dive comes. He then smiled. "How about someone? Hmm, I hope he 'values' his friends that much," he muttered as he remembered a certain person at the back of his mind.

Someone who he could use to manipulate Lucius to his whims. Friends, after all, are for weaklings. He'd be sure to remind the gray-haired bastard of that in his last moments.

"It's him first, then it's your turn for turning your back on me, leader," Dario grumbled through his gritted teeth as he looked at the door. His eyes were still red from anger, but the smile on his face remained as he fantasized about the day he would get back at the only two people that embarrassed him so--both filthy commoner bastards who don't even have a family or a clan name.

"Both of you will rue the day. Just wait and see..."

"Just wait and see. Once it comes this way, we'll burst out and pounce on it, okay? You know, like that one time in that movie we--"

"Alright, alright shhh, it's coming this way," Lucius said, tapping Tissette on the shoulder as he watched the small, slimy aberrant slither its way near them from behind the thickets. Slowly and carefully, he angled himself towards the creature and tensed his muscles before dashing towards it, leaving it no time to react.

His eyes glinted before thrusting his spear right at the weakness of the slime, a spherical core the size of a marble.

Curses! I'm off by several inches!"

He didn't know if it was his nervousness or his lack of familiarity with the weapon he was holding, but he missed, giving the slime plenty of time to slide off of the spear and attempt to run away. With

"Where do you think you're going, little one?" Tissette shouted before throwing two daggers--one into the slime and into the air, and in the blink of an eye, the monster he almost let get away was stopped in its tracks.

Lucius looked up and sighed. "Thanks for covering me, Tiz," he said before a bird-like aberrant about his size landed on the ground, Tissette's dagger completely embedded on its chest. Looking several degrees more terrifying than the slime, he immediately recognized it from one of the several aberrant compendiums he had read.

Two to four-meter wingspan. Crooked beak. Four claws on each foot. dull-colored feathers. A harpy. Ambush predators. Lucky Tiz was here, or else...

He gritted his teeth, disappointed in himself. As if missing his strike on the slime wasn't bad enough, he let his guard down and didn't mind his surroundings at that critical moment.

"Aw shucks, don't worry about it Lucy," Tissette said, hanging her tongue out on the side of her mouth playfully. "That's what I'm here for, isn't it?"

"Still, I should've seen it coming," Lucius replied as he started walking towards the slime, sighing. "Not only that, I completely blundered my ambush back there."

"Who says 'blundered' nowadays?" Tissette said, giggling to herself. "Anyways, don't beat yourself up too much. You're still just a beginner, after all, I don't think the harpy was after us at all. I just saw it flying by and I tagged it just to be sure, oh and hey, it's free exp ain't it?"

"Whatever you say," Lucius said, not entirely convinced by the girl's consolation. He moved closer and looked at the slime on the ground--Tissette's dagger stuck right at the edge of its half-shattered core. It made him feel bad that he even remotely considered using a spear against a semisolid aberrant like a slime as a handicap when Tissette nailed the core right where she wanted it. In a non-lethal enough spot that wouldn't kill it immediately whilst also keeping it restrained enough that he could kill it without much trouble. The same went for the harpy, who was slowly bleeding out but not quite on the verge of death.

"This marksmanship...and with a dagger too. Ridiculous," Lucius whispered. "Revelare."

Slime

Vita: 100%

Aberrant Rank: Nihil

•Unremarkable

Exp Given: 200

Items Dropped:

Common - 90%

Uncommon - 9%

Rare - 1%

Harpy

Vita: 100%

Aberrant Rank: Inferus

•Unremarkable

Exp Given: 500

Items Dropped:

Common - 80%

Uncommon -15%

Rare - 5%

Lucius shook his head as stabbed the slime's core before walking on over towards the harpy and stabbing it right through its heart, giving both a quick death. He stared at them for a while before their corpses dissipated and collecting the loot that they left in his bag. Despite both of them being his first kills, he was surprised to find that he wasn't all that bothered by it. The aberrants he killed being creatures that could resurrect aside, he just felt more disappointed than anything.

He looked at the spear in his hand with a slight scowl. He actually thought his meager training with a wooden stick would be enough? What a joke.

"What's the matter, Lucy? You doin' okay?" Tissette said, looking quite concerned as she looked at him. I know seeing blood and--"

"That's not it." Lucius sighed, collecting himself before looking at Tissette. "No more help, alright? That's what we agreed upon earlier."

"But, are you sure?" Tissette asked. "I mean, you'd earn EXP faster if I disable them and you just get the last hit."

"Please, Miss Tissette," said Lucius with a resolute gaze. What he wanted more than EXP and the growth of his stats wasn't something he could simply ignore. Captain Rek had it, Tissette obviously had it, and he was certain that most, if not all Primus students in the academy had it too. It was something he lacked and in great quantity, and the reason why Katherine sent him here in the first place.

The true essence of the growth and what forges heroes to become what they are destined to be. The ultimate result of putting the result of one's training against the perils of the battlefield and that which couldn't be obtained in any other way. What he needed more than anything was combat experience.

"W-Wow, you haven't called me that in a long while," Tissette said with a wry smile, visibly flustered. She paused for a while, looking at him with an upturned brow, before finally, "Alrighty then. But don't blame me if you get banged up after were done huntin', okay?"

Lucius smiled, a feeling of both relief and excitement washing over him as he tightened the grip on his spear. "You got it."