After a quick shower to try to wake up, Serenity tossed his remaining boss cores, nuts, and berries in his bag. He looked at the nearly ripe shimmering black fruit and added it on top. Maybe it’d ripen during the day.

When he arrived in the break room, Sillon did a doubletake. “You look beat.”

“Thanks for not saying half dead. That’s a joke I got tired of a long time ago.” It was one the being who became the Final Reaper hadn’t heard in millenia - but it still stuck with him enough to surface in Serenity’s mind.

Sillon gave a puzzled “Huh?” before Serenity waved it off.

“Nevermind. Bad joke anyway. Not really awake. No sleep last night.” Serenity filled his plate with food before sitting at the table across from Sillon.

“What kept you up?” Sillon finished his food and went to get another cup of zeht, his preferred morning stimulant.

“Thinking. Didn’t expect it to take all night.” Serenity thought over what he should say, and decided he could say a little more. “Used a quest reward - the other one. That took some time.”

“The one you didn’t show off? Was it a selection? What did you get?”

“I’m not sure, exactly. Have you ever heard of a True Grade?” Serenity didn’t. It sounded good, but it wasn’t one he was familiar with - and it seemed like he would be.

Sillon put his cup down. “No … are you sure it’s a Grade? I’m pretty sure Grades stop at Excellent. Other than Unique, of course.”

Serenity reviewed the messages. “Hmm. No, I’m not sure it is, it never called it a Grade. If it isn’t, then … I don’t know what grade it is. It’s calling True a Feature, though, whatever that means.”

Sillon nodded. “A unique item as a quest reward - congratulations. Didn’t know the Trial could give those.”

Serenity shrugged. “Maybe because I cleared the quest first run?” While there was a separate hidden reward listed, Serenity wouldn’t put it past Order’s Voice to upgrade everything.

Sillon nodded. “Probably also because it was the first successful completion of the quest for the entire tutorial series. Order’s Voice does that sometimes. I bet it was also because you did it without knowing there was a good quest reward.”

Serenity knew the value of Unique equipment. It stood outside the Grade system, could have abilities other equipment simply didn’t have, and sometimes even grew with the person it belonged to. It wasn’t always powerful, but there was always something special about it. Some unique equipment could be given away or sold, but usually the person the Voice created it for was the only person who could use its unique features.

His Core wasn’t just equipment, it was a part of him. If it was Unique - he didn’t know what that would mean. He suspected it might make upgrading it easier, but he doubted that was the real advantage.

As a disadvantage, it looked like he wouldn’t be able to use subsidiary cores - not that he knew how to do that anyway.

Well, at least I never have to make the choice if to replace it or not!

“Yo! Earth to Serenity! Wakey-wakey!”

“Eurgh.” Serenity blearily opened his eyes to see the busy dining hall.

Echo stood in front of him, waving her hand in front of his face.

Serenity looked at the table. Echo must have been the one to get his lunch for him, she was the one who always got a sandwich. Everyone else was already done and they were waiting on him. He picked up the sandwich, only to find himself hurried out of the dining hall, around the corner, and into the instructors’ hall.

They must still have permissions from the last time I brought everyone in. That makes sense. I don’t remember removing the permissions.

“Wait - Trials …” Serenity protested.

“We will take care of them while YOU get some sleep. You’d do this for us and don’t say you wouldn’t!” Echo looked indignant. “Take care of yourself! We don’t need you getting yourself hurt because you’re asleep in a dungeon. You know better than that.”

Serenity looked at Echo, then looked at his bed. It would be a lot less effort to agree with Echo. “Fine … you win. This time.”

Echo was the only one who’d actually made it into his room, so when she left he looked at the sandwich, shrugged, and ate it whole.

Sometimes it was nice to eat alone.

Serenity laid down on his bed - still in his clothes, armor, and weapons - and passed out.