“Wake Up Claire!” Mel said as she budged Claire repeatedly.

“W-what’s going on.” Claire said sleepily.

“We have to get going for school, you really need to get an alarm clock by the way.”

“Ugh I feel like crap.” Claire said as she rubbed her eyes.

“Yeah, the first time of doing Delectae will do that to you. Did you like the overall experience?” Mel asked with a big grin.

“Yeah, I can’t complain, It was amazing. Except for this hangover.” Claire shook her head to try to wake up more.

“The hangover can be pretty bad at first, but you get used to it.” Mel said as she handed Claire a fresh school uniform. “Get changed quickly. You don’t have time to take a bath, but we can still grab breakfast.”

Once Claire ditched her dirty school uniform for a clean one she headed downstairs for breakfast. Again, it was an amazing spread. Mel was telling Claire to hurry, so Claire didn’t have time to savor it fully and only managed to grab a few things.

On the way to school Claire and Mel talked about the drug trip. They both enjoyed the experience immensely.

When they reached Mel’s school they hugged and said goodbye for the day.

“See you at dinner tonight!” Mel said.

“See ya!” Claire replied.

Claire made it to Everton University without incident. She asked a student in the courtyard where the armory was, and when the student pointed it out Claire made her way there.

The armory looked like a black giant cube. It was guarded by two royal guards standing at the entrance, these were the first guards Claire had seen on the campus. The guards didn’t pay any mind to Claire and she entered the building. Once she entered, she was surrounded by rows of weapons and equipment, up to the ceiling. It was organized well with similar items placed together. Most of the class was already there stocking up. The teacher was distributing bows, arrows, and other equipment. She was documenting everything the students were borrowing.

Claire searched the crowd of students for a place to go and saw Doug. Claire approached him to ask about the procedure and what she would need.

“You’re gonna need a quiver, a bow, arrows, and a dagger. That’s the usual get up for Rangers. We want to be quick so we don’t tend to bring much with us. Speed is of the utmost importance.” Doug said.

The teacher walked towards Claire and Doug.

“Alright you two, follow me so we can get your items for the day.”

They followed the teacher around the warehouse. The teacher suggested items that they could use and handed Claire a brown bow.

“What do you think?” the teacher asked with a grin.

Claire grabbed the bow and intently concentrated on it.

A notification popped up:

Name: Magic Bow

Rarity: Uncommon

Gives the user 1500% more power on their shot. Informs the user how far an arrow shot from it travels.

“Seems cool, but how does it tell you how far the arrow goes?” Claire asked.

“It gives you a sixth sense notification once the arrow hits something” Mrs. Condor said.

Claire liked the color of the bow. Nothing too fancy. “Alright, I guess I’ll take it.” Claire said.

Claire gathered some arrows, a quiver, and a dagger as well. The dagger came with a belt and a sheath so Claire put the belt around her waist. Once the teacher had documented the equipment Claire and Doug used, she moved on to help other students.

While Claire and Doug were waiting for the teacher to help the rest of the students, Claire struck up a conversation with him.

“So Doug, how much would one of these bows cost at the market?” Claire asked as she examined the bow.

“A bow like that?” Doug thought for a second. “Probably 3 gold pieces.”

“Mmhm. How many silver pieces make up a gold piece?” Claire asked.

“Ah, I keep forgetting that you don’t know much about this world yet. 1 gold piece equals 100 silver pieces.” Doug replied.

Before Claire could ask more questions Gibby and his cronies came in through the front entrance. Gibby noticed Claire was talking to Doug and became extremely red in the face. He quickly marched towards them.

“Claire, enough is enough. Everything was great before you got amnesiaed. And now? Now you are talking to a scholarship kid. I’m a god damn duke. I’m tired of this, let’s get back together. Now.”

“God damn duke or not, you’re kind of a dick.” Claire responded.

One of the cronies laughed, but Gibby punched him hard in the stomach to make him stop.

“Whatever. I can do better than you anyways. You aren’t even that hot. I could get a girl like you in an instant.” Gibby said almost foaming at the mouth.

“Okay, good, then leave.” Claire responded calmly.

Gibby did not leave. “You are such a little bitch, seriously do you know who I am, so many girls crave me.”

“Anyways…” Claire said as she turned her attention back to Doug.

Gibby was about to go nuclear on Claire but Mrs. Condor made an announcement for all of the students to meet at the entrance. Claire walked over to the entrance with Doug. Gibby’s face remained a deep scarlet

Mrs. Condor gathered the class around her in a semi-circle. She was holding a map in her hand. “Alright class, we are about to go into the wilderness. Please stick together. The Morning Map Makers have found the Crimson Castle only 3 miles east of the city today. So it should be a light trip. Thankfully we won’t need to use horses. According to the map, the way there is straightforward. First there are a bunch of fields and then a few hills before we come up to Castle.” Mrs. Condor paused for a bit to fold up the map she was looking at and then continued. “We will be practicing some archery in the fields for awhile and then we will make our way to the Crimson Castle. Please do not lose any of the equipment that you are loaning from the school currently. That equipment is very expensive. Now follow me!”

The class followed her outside. Claire decided to keep close to Doug and to try to avoid Gibby as much as possible. Doug and Claire made small talk all the way to the gate to the wilderness.

“Mrs. Condor mentioned the Morning Map Makers? What is that exactly?” Claire asked Doug.

“Those are the people that go out into the wilderness right after it resets to map it out. They use horses and magic bows to map the location surrounding Dal. Each map is obviously only good for one day. They are hired by the newspaper company, The Daly Times, who prints a preliminary map out at 6 am, the morning edition of the paper. The newspaper also prints out a more detailed map at noon.”

“Here let me show you the map, that I picked up this morning.” Doug said as he pulled out the map and spread it down on the floor.

“As you can see, this is Dal in the middle of the map. Here is the Crimson Castle. These large X symbols mean dungeons and these M symbols means mobs. There are other symbols as well. Like for example, this DC means deserted city. Pretty cool right? I actually like to collect these maps. Not, that I go out to the wilderness much.”

“Ha, thanks Doug for answering my questions. I know it probably is annoying.”

“Oh don’t worry about. I like answering questions.” Doug said.

“Also, is it alright if I tag along with you today? I feel like if I’m alone Gibby might try to do something.” Claire asked.

“Yeah that’s fine. We never really talked before you were amnesiaed. I’m glad I’m getting that opportunity now. You always seemed enigmatic to me.”

“Oh? What do you mean?”

“Ha, nothing, just forget about it.”

Their group slowly approached the east gate of the city. This was the first time Claire had seen the outer wall of the city. The wall was made of dark rain stained black stone. It was probably 15 feet tall. There were guards on patrol on the top of the wall to stop people from illegally exiting or entering. Everyone legally had to go through the 4 gates of Dal.

Claire was excited to finally go into the wilderness after hearing so much about it. She was curious about the Crimson Castle. It seemed to form the basis of the dominant religion here. Plus she liked to wear the charm she had around her neck that displayed it.

The line here was much longer than any line she had been in so far. The Royal guards were taking note of all of the items people took in to the wilderness and comparing it to what they brought in from the wilderness for tax purposes. Claire overheard one shortish man arguing with one of the guards.

“You are going to tax me 25 silver for my four baskets of fruit that I collected from the wilderness! That’s insane! I’ll be lucky to sell the fruits for much more than that!” The little man said furiously.

“Sorry, taxes have recently gone up. Nothing I can do, I’m just the messenger.” Replied the guard in a professional manner.

The little man put 25 silver on the table and said “Messenger my ass, you are the one collecting the silver!”

The royal guard sarcastically said “Thank you, have a great day!” as he collected the silver from the table. The little man spit at the ground and stormed off.

Claire felt bad for the little man, but she could hardly do anything. When Claire’s Ranger group got to the front of the line the guards waved them through. It seemed students from Everton College were exempt from taxes.