After handling the matters in Glenwood, Wolf rushed back to Silver City’s Mage Academy. He’d arrived three days later, an hour after sunset.

The giant gate leading into the exquisitely gardened compound was closed shut due to the evening curfew.

Finding himself locked out for the first time in his life felt strange. Wolf didn’t really care about whether he sat and meditated inside his room, or out in the open, but being forced into something was weird. Wolf tried not to mind it. He’d spent a couple of years living as a street urchin, so staying the night in the streets was a matter of course.

The youth passed the night in meditation, sitting in the middle of the driveway, his back against the gate. The guards were obviously uncomfortable, but after checking their manual they found nothing prohibiting Wolf’s behavior. Apparently, nobody had expected Mages squatting in front of the main entrance.

With the first rays of light the gate opened and Wolf ran inside. The guards watched him leave while shaking their heads. This kid didn’t display the slightest bit of dignity Mages should possess.

Wolf didn’t give a damn about the dignity of Mages, and instead rushed towards the Mission Hall. Halfway there however, he realized they started working at eight and it was barely five in the morning now.

Since there was nothing he could do right now, Wolf went to his and Wayde’s dorm room.

Wayde was nowhere in sight. Wolf guessed the man was asleep. With nobody to talk to, the youth walked into his bedroom, leaving the dorm room’s door wide open. He softly closed and locked the bedroom door for good measure before seating himself comfortably on the thick carpet.

The youth finally had the time and presence of mind to do something he’d been putting off for a couple of days now.

He was in a safe place where he wouldn’t be disturbed, and it was the perfect time to absorb the energy from that haunted Ninth Order Monster Core.

A tiny bone orb, roughly the size of a grape, appeared in Wolf’s hand. Wolf looked it over and noticed some differences compared with the one from the draconic bear he’d consumed years ago.

The Monster Core was a bit bigger, but it gave off a vastly different feel. However, other than the fact that it was whole, Wolf didn’t know what the difference was. Shrugging his shoulders, Wolf popped the bone grape into his mouth and closed his eyes.

Sucking on the Monster Core Wolf felt a tingling chill on his tongue. The energy started seeping into his body. However, it was followed by an odd sensation as something cold and slimy crawled its way towards the middle of Wolf’s brows, heading straight for the core part of his brain.

Wolf didn’t understand what was going on. The Monster Beast didn’t have a specific type, meaning he shouldn’t feel any cold from the haunted Monster Core.

It’s likely a remnant spirit trying to possess me. Dumb thing. Wolf thought and entered his Mind Hall. As expected a spectral creature was forming inside his Mind Hall, slowly exerting pressure. However, compared to Wolf’s Mental Aspect this large thing was very weak.

As time passed the stream of coldness weakened and the ghostly creature became clearer.

The amalgamation of Soul Force took the shape of a four meter tall bird. The creature looked like a very ferocious cross between an ostrich and an eagle.

The creature’s remnant observed Wolf with a small amount of interest and an overwhelming rage. Apparently it recalled that manlings had ended its life. It even knew that Wolf had consumed its Monster Core, which made its fury soar.

The only thing preventing it from charging and tearing Wolf apart was the fact that it hadn’t fully materialized yet.

As the bird seethed with rage, Wolf observed it with interest. The Monster Beast was a member of the Terror Bird family, known as the Blood-Talon Iron-Beak. Its main weapon was its sturdy beak. The creature was capable of limited flight, and if it managed to pounce its prey it would use its razor-sharp claws to rake it apart.

After several moments of staring contest the bird fully materialized. It shrieked and flapped its stubby wings as it mindlessly charged towards Wolf.

The young man was ready for this. He started materializing his sword and was about to dodge, when a large silver projectile shot past him and cannonballed itself into the bird.

“Snack! Snack!” Silver exclaimed as she-he slammed into the bird’s stomach, sending out a shower of feathers.

Silver rammed the terror bird into the half finished sixth column, before they toppled to the ground together.

As soon as she-he had struck the Monster Beast, Silver dug all six of her-his claws into it. As the two of them rolled on the ground Silver tore at the remnant’s spectral body, chewing and crunching with urgency.

Finally, with a slash of his sword, Wolf looped off the Iron-Beak’s head. The remnant will turned into a puff of silvery-purple mist.

Most of the Soul Force was absorbed by Silver, while Wolf got about a quarter.

“Nice snack. Thanks, thanks. Sleep now. Mmmm… Snack, snack.” With those words Silver used one of his-her limbs to rub the part of her-his shell where, Wolf presumed, Silver’s belly was. Then the six-legged egg went back up to the step she-he considered home and plopped down on the ground. Silver started snoring lightly the moment she-he hit the ground.

Wolf watched the whole scene, not believing how easygoing the little fellow was.

“I could’ve… There was no need… You could’ve left more for me?” the Mental Aspect said in confusion.

Eventually he just shook his head and went to check on how his second Mind Hall was doing. After consuming the remnant spirit the fourth column had manifested behind the door.

Hours passed and when Wolf opened his eyes he’d found that his Sword-Sage Order had most likely improved. He noted that as soon as he got the chance to practice he should try executing a Seventh Order maneuver and officially step into the world of high Order Sword-Sages.

Not that this particular advancement would change anything in his life…

Wolf spat out the dregs of the Monster Core and left his room. It was mid afternoon and Wayde was nowhere in sight, probably out for lunch or attending classes or something.

Seeing he was all alone Wolf decided to try a movement art. By tapping his feet against the floor twice Wolf executed Quicksilver Glide, a Seventh Order maneuver. He disappeared, then immediately reappeared on the other end of the room, barely managing to stop himself before he’d slammed into the wall.

The move left Wolf a bit woozy. It wasn’t the speed, but the energy consumption which was absurd. The youth quickly downed half a dozen Least Energy Recovery potions, refilling his reserve of Internal Energy.

I won’t be able to use this properly until I’m at least at the Ninth Order and I should switch to Lesser potions from now on. Chugging Least Energy Recovery potions like this can’t be good for my stomach. With those thoughts Wolf headed towards the Mission Hall’s warehouse.

He showed his student card to the guards, who moved to block his way, then went into the warehouse. Despite the hall’s undoubtedly huge size, the area for admission of students was just a single spacious room.

Inside was a desk stained with caked blood and a bored clerk sitting behind the gory desk.

The man was very different from the clerks Wolf had seen so far. This man was no pretty face ornament like the rest, but rather a grizzled veteran missing a leg.

The clerk remained silent, shooting the swaggering youth a ‘Let’s just get this over with’ look.

“Good day. I’ve completed my mission,” Wolf explained.

All he got in return was silence and a ‘No shit’ look the man had honed to perfection.

Seeing that the tiny youth wasn’t getting the hint, the man sighed and spoke in a raspy voice. “Just show me your student card and whatever you were supposed to bring back.”

Wolf handed over his id and unceremoniously dropped eight heads onto the desk, forgetting that up until recently he’d planned on hiding the fact that he owned a Ring of Holding. “Here they are.”

The man scanned the mission details first and then raised an eyebrow. “The wanted poster says that there were seven of them? Who’s the eight head?”

It wasn’t all that uncommon for students to miss someone irrelevant to the mission and come with a few heads short, but bringing in an extra head was fairly rare and usually came with an interesting story.

Wolf paused for a moment.

Deciding who was guilty of what in Glenwood was difficult. The whole town was in on it. But he couldn’t slaughter several thousand commoners living there. He considered killing the old mayor, but the man was also the victim of changing times. In the end, Wolf chose to execute only the militiaman who tried to send him into what the man believed to be certain death. As for the rest, they got to live.

“The bandits had a spy in the local militia. His guilt was already proven to the city’s mayor, so he was summarily executed. I took his head and decided to bring it back,” Wolf explained truthfully, while trying to act heroic. He expected he’d get some sort of bonus or commendation for finding that this matter had deeper roots.

“Oh,” the old man said disappointedly. Apparently he’d expected something more interesting. He opened the ledger and started writing into it.

After a while he pressed a couple of buttons on the device used to read information from Wolf’s student card before handing it back to Wolf.

“Here you go, fifty Academic Credits. Don’t blow them all in one place,” the gruff man said while yawning. “Next!”

Wolf felt stunned as he left. He thought he’d performed a heroic deed. Well, a relatively noble one at least, but the reaction he got was a yawn, which the veteran didn’t even bother to stifle. And the way the man called for the next student... He acted as if there was a line outside, when in fact the entire Mission Hall complex was practically empty.

Feeling frustrated, Wolf went back to his room, not even bothering to check the available missions. That clerk had told him missions were handed out every day towards the start of the semester, so to get a decent mission you had to come in as early as the nobles let you. Right now what was left were only dregs nobody else was interested in.

Wolf returned to his dorm, grumbling inwardly. As soon as he’d opened the door he saw Wayde lying on the living room couch, munching on some treats.

“Wolf! Are you hurt? Why did you come back so soon?” Wayde shouted as soon as he gulped down the piece of pastry which he hadn’t gotten to chew properly.

“I’m fine. I already finished the mission and submitted the report. How have you been? I haven’t seen you all week. How are classes? Is Anna doing well?” Wolf asked, happy to see his friend again.

“Classes are fine,” Wayde said awkwardly. “Professors seem relieved that you’ve decided to go out on a mission.”

“Bastards,” Wolf muttered, still annoyed by the disabled clerk’s indifference. Wayde on the other hand laughed hearing his roomate curse. Foul language clashed with Wolf’s outward appearance.

“Anna is doing well. She told me to tell you to go and visit her as soon as you’re back,” Wayde said and after a bit of hesitation continued. “Man, it’s nice to have a girl like that who loves you and misses you.”

“We-We’re just friends,” Wolf stuttered, flailing his arms, dismissing what Wayde had said.

“Well… I guess I’m off to see her!” Wolf flashed a grin so wide the top of his head could’ve fallen off.

Then he ran out of the men’s dormitory and straight towards the girls’ lodgings.

“Lucky bastard. Maybe I should go to mom’s place?” Wayde muttered as he moved to close the door Wolf had left open, but dismissed the thought for now.

For the sake of his plans and ambition he had to act with modesty and propriety. Not to mention he had to study and even indulging in a set of fine pastries was a waste of his time.

Unlike his friend, Wolf had no complex thoughts, or pros and cons to weigh. Anna wanted to see him and he beelined towards the women’s dormitory. He climbed the stairs to the first floor and headed straight for Anna’s room.

Without a care in the world, and completely forgetting about being snubbed by the grumpy clerk Wolf reached the door. He was in high spirits, without even realizing it. The youth was so elated he didn’t bother knocking and barged in into the room.

He found himself face to face with Anna and her roommate. Anna wore her house getup, but the young woman in front of her was bare-chested, showing Anna something on her back. She was completely topless and only wore a thin pair of semi-translucent silk underwear.

“… zit–” the girl’s hushed sentence died midway.

For a moment it seemed like the world had frozen. Wolf held the doorknob, one foot into the room. His mouth hung open in an attempt to say hi, but he couldn’t quite make the proper sounds.

Anna stared at him with wide eyes, processing what just happened. As for the roommate, she had the look of a startled animal.

“Eeeeeeee!”

After a moment of silence Anna’s roommate was the first to react.

The young woman screamed at the top of her lungs while covering her budding chest with one hand and the darker area between her legs with the other.

Not knowing what else to do, Wolf slammed the door shut. He considered running away and minimizing the damage, but Anna and her roommate had already seen him and they most definitely knew who he was.

Besides, it was too late. The hallway’s monitor and the minder were running towards him. Wolf knew that he’d screwed up big time, but all he did was open a freaking door!

Before the elderly chaperone even reached Wolf, Anna stormed out of the dorm room and slapped Wolf with all her might.

This is something ladies did in situations like this, but the result was quite different from what she’d expected. Wolf didn’t budge one bit. He just stood there dumbly. Anna didn’t even know whether he’d felt anything.

As for her, she felt like she had just smacked a stone wall. Her palm hurt so bad she wanted to cry out, but managed to stop herself.

“Pervert!” she hissed and raised her hand to slap Wolf once more, but decided against it.

A single tear ran down Anna’s cheek, but Wolf didn’t know whether it was because of the situation or because her hand hurt.

“What’s going on here?” a chaperone and a hallway monitor were already looking down at Wolf with unmasked hostility.

A boy just ran into a girls’ room without waiting for a chaperone and a scream was heard. Gods knew what the two were thinking as they looked at the pair in the hallway.

“He’s… a friend of mine,” Anna said weakly. “I invited him to pay me a visit. But he barged into the room without knocking and startled me and my roommate. So I came out and slapped him.”

Anna gave a very accurate and truthful description of what happened, while avoiding the main issue behind her rage and her roommate’s humiliation.

The hallway monitor and the chaperone were stumped for a moment. Technically the boy did make a minor infraction, but if he was invited all he did was enter the room a bit before the chaperone had arrived. This was almost always ignored, unless the tenants wanted to press the matter.

“Um…” the hallway monitor started. “So, do you want me to report him to the Disciplinary Commission?”

“Of course not! I just want a club to bludgeon him to death,” Anna said frankly and angrily as she stared daggers at Wolf.

“Um… All right,” the hallway monitor said as she turned around to leave.

This was definitely outside of her job description. She knew how these things worked and it was best to simply stay away from lover’s quarrels like this one.

“Ah, youth,” the elderly woman who acted as a chaperone said with a sigh.

Unlike the hallway monitor, she was already numb to situations like this.

“Shall we go in?” the chaperone continued in a more formal tone.

“There’s no need. We’ll go and grab some food together before he helps me find something hard enough to crack his skull open.” Anna was still angry, but Wolf couldn’t understand why.

It’s not like he’d caught her naked. Well, as a matter of fact he did. And now he was glad he’d never confessed his crime. If she was this angry because he’s accidentally seen her roommate, she would have probably erupted like a volcano if she knew he had accidentally peeped on her while she was taking a bath.