Hopefully, Grey, who has been using his focus time ability to watch every move I make, will have seen the exact instant my glee turned into horror when I pushed that button. From what I had been told, knockback is an effect that essentially adds a lot of kinetic energy to whatever is activating the effect. My plan had been to activate the effect and then drop the disk in the resulting maelstrom. That is not what happened. What happened was that the instant I pushed the button, I, Grey, and everything in the room were launched into the walls of the room with enough force to knock Grey out and outright kill me. Yep. Origin activated and I woke up in the vault with magic items strewn everywhere and Grey unconscious in the corner. The disk that had been in my hand was now nowhere to be found, and the immovable rod was still sitting in mid-air in the middle of the room. Naturally, I took it. I then treated Grey and carried him out of the vault. Making sure he at least had his sword and scarf and anything the vault would let him leave with, which was only the sword and scarf so I assume that’s all he brought. Naturally I searched him while treating him. If the disk had gotten trapped in his clothes it’d be a disaster. Once out, I knew my mission was a success. I and Grey had all of our magic items and I had a new rod. Ah. That’s suspicious isn’t it? I better go sell that identity plate somewhere later. All’s well that ends well I say. I hummed to myself as I carried Grey back to the dorms. I was a bit leery of losing my spare life but it should be fine. I chucked our resident hero on his bed and prepared to go to sleep myself when I saw a letter on the pillow. It said from Luan. Hmmm, it’s been read. The wax seal wasn’t broken but there were some small bits of paper attached to the seal, which means someone popped it off then reheated it. Well hopefully he didn’t say anything incriminating.

Jin:

You are an assassin. You know this but I thought I’d add some drama since I’m pretty sure it’s Academy policy to read anything our guild sends. Anyway, I heard you managed to get the magic novice skill and even did pretty well in the trials. I mean you weren’t even top three but you tried and that’s what counts. Don’t worry about heading back just yet. We have a job for you that just happened to be nearby, and hopefully you like those army grunts you were escorted by because they’ll be escorting you again. The next country over, the one you’re right on the border of, is Grimax, there’s a man there we need dead. I’ll send you details the usual way. Also hey, Academy folks, you know that mark you wanted handled in exchange for Jin’s tuition? We’ve assessed him and are confident Jin can eliminate him. Pass along the information to him.

Boss

That was incredibly incriminating. Alright well I’ve got some jobs to do I guess. Also it looks like I’m leaving the academy. I should say bye to Piercil. While folding that letter and burning it I noticed another sheet underneath the envelope. This sheet held nothing but a name, a location, a request and a picture. Marshal Hendrick, the butcher. A serial murderer/kidnapper whose been terrorizing the Academy but is somehow being supported by some foreign dignitaries. Death request is by ‘accident’. I’d heard about him in town. How nice of the boss to give me an indisputable ‘bad guy’ for my first hit. Well, it can wait till morning. I stretched my mouth in a yawn and hopped into bed. Sliding my identity plate under the mattress just in case Grey was unreasonably angry in the morning.