Amy’s leg twitched, and Iona bolted upright. She tore straight through her bedsheet, but her paramour of the prior night just grumbled and rolled over, nestling deeper in the wyvern’s nest that was Iona’s bed.

Curse it all. Iona mentally swore to herself as she carefully extricated herself from her bed without waking up her friend. I was hoping to go at least a week without ruining something.

She eyed the blanket. The rip wasn’t too bad this time, but there were only so many times Iona could stitch it back together before it was more repairs than original. At a point, she’d just need to throw it out and buy a new one.

The curse of being as heavy and as strong as she was, without any skills for keeping linens intact. [Celestial Armaments] extended to her clothing, which was a relief, but not bedsheets.

Towels worked better, because Iona was awake enough to control her strength. The valkyrie looked out the window, mentally working out roughly what time it was.

Early. Reinhard might still be awake, or might’ve gotten up early - Iona still didn’t know which it was - but everyone else would be asleep.

Selene! Lunaris!

Good morning! First day of classes in this quarter! Wish me luck - I need it with math!

Iona heard a tinkling laugh at her request.

Wrong goddesses to get help with math! Lunaris replied.

Yeah, you’re doomed. Selene chimed in.

Good luck! They wished her in unison.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Paladin of the Moons] has leveled up! 54 -> 55! +70 Strength, +70 Dexterity, +112 Vitality, +70 Speed, +60 Mana, +60 Mana Regeneration, +140 Magic Power, +140 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being human! +1 Vitality, +1 Mana from your Element!]

She got a fresh notebook - new quarter, new notebook - and sat down at her desk, spinning in the chair to face her bed.

Iona held out her hand and focused on [Telekinesis]. A pencil snapped into her palm, and Iona bent over and got to work.

Drawing with [Telekinesis] was an exercise in frustration and ruined pictures. Some things were just better to do manually.

The paladin stuck out her tongue and her hand with one thumb out, measuring and getting rough ratios of Amy’s face. Satisfied, she started drawing, art coming to life as her pencil danced over the paper.

Time flew by, and Fenrir poked his head into Iona’s room.

“Breakfast?” He growled at her.

A toothy monster sticking his head into Iona’s room and growling was enough to wake Amy, and she screamed.

“Monster!” She yelled, and chaos ensued.

The dust settled, Iona having gotten the drawing she’d made of Amy to the woman as she fled in a panic, but not her clothes.

Ah well. More fabric for repairs. Iona mused to herself.

She stretched and got up, heading over to the bathroom.

“Morning.” Iona yawned at Elaine as she passed her. The short healer’s eyes ran quickly up and down Iona’s body, and the valkyrie suppressed a grin. Being able to make nearly any elvenoid stop and stare was nearly a point of pride, but more importantly, it was fun.

Elaine was diligent as always, already fully dressed in her purple witch’s robes, books tucked under one arm and a bag slung over a shoulder. Auri was perched on her shoulder, and trilled a greeting at Iona.

“Morning! Ready for classes again?” Elaine cheerfully asked, keeping her eyes locked on Iona’s.

Iona gave an overly dramatic sigh, internally chuckling as Elaine’s eyes wavered at her heaving chest, but stayed politely on Iona’s face.

“Alas! The fun part of School’s over, and I need to get back to classes.” She said.

“What!” Elaine squeaked. “This is the fun part!”

Iona raised a doubtful eyebrow at Elaine.

“Didn’t you just spend two weeks with your nose in a book?” Iona was glad that Elaine had spent two weeks doing something she liked. Most of the books had been fun reading, although she’d seen a few advanced wizardry titles in the mix. It wasn’t the endless parade of work that had caused her to become a burnt-out husk though, which was nice.

“I did eat.” Elaine defended herself.

“With a book in your hands.” Iona retorted.

Elaine’s eyes flickered, like she’d gotten a notification.

“Crap, I gotta run. Bye!” The short witch dashed past Iona, out of the suite and off to whatever class she had first.

Iona replayed the conversation in her head as she showered, and laughed in sudden realization. Elaine had only said she’d ate. Nothing about sleeping. Iona would bet, emeralds to rubies, that Elaine had fallen asleep while reading, the book falling on her face as she passed out.

Iona cursed herself for forgetting to arrange math lessons with Elaine. She needed to figure out the magic behind numbers. Reinhard had also expressed a willingness to help Iona, and Skye muttered something about ‘good practice just in case’ in her native tongue when Iona had arranged lessons with her.

The paladin didn’t want to impose too much on any one person. She couldn’t commandeer their time like that, not for free, and not without giving anything in return. She’d showered them in drawings, but there was only so much she could reasonably ask.

“Breakfast!” Fenrir butted into the shower, the cool water turning into a spray of unending ice onto Iona as he flexed his powers. Iona yelped at the unexpected assault.

“Ok! Ok! I’m coming!” She cried out.

“Good.” He growled to himself.

This is saving me hours. Iona reminded herself as she walked up the stairs. Three minutes here is like… an hour of normal training. Three and three make six, and then I need to add the 0. Thirty times as effective!

The floors doubled in potency every time Iona went up a level. She paused at the level that was 128 times normal gravity, and hesitated.

Onwards and upwards. She thought as she went up another flight.

The gym was a chore, but a necessary one. There was no other way to stay as strong as Iona needed to be, not without investing hours after hours daily outside of the gym.

Should’ve asked the biomancer for muscles that never degraded. Iona grumbled to herself, not for the first time. Not for the last. Too much damn vitality now for anyone to make changes.

That was if she could even afford them.

Pick heavy things up. Put them down again.

Beat fighting monsters though.

“Painting! Oh, I am EVER so glad that you all could make it here!” The frilly faun at the front of the room proclaimed. “Now, I’d like to make it clear. This is the mundane painting class. No magic here! This is simply for those who wish to pursue the artistic subject.”

The professor paused, and half of the already tiny class packed up and left. Iona was one of four remaining students in the class, which didn’t deter the professor in the slightest.

She eyed them up. Two of the three remaining students were cute, and might be a fun fling.

“Great! The first thing we’ll learn how to do is grind ink!”

Iona schooled her face.

“Paint?” Fenrir asked from his spot by her feet.

“I want to say soon, but I’m not sure we’ll get to it today…” Iona raised an eyebrow as jars of live beetles were brought out.

“Vegetables.” Iona barked out a laugh at Fenrir’s idea of a curse.

Iona stared at the math problem in front of her, the numbers swimming.

She remembered what she needed to do. Find 0. Put it on the chart. Then chart the rest of the numbers. There was a process, a routine. She knew how to follow the instructions. She’d been told why following those instructions solved the problem.

She just couldn’t understand why following those instructions solved the problem.

One point at a time, she calculated each position, and put them on the graph. 0. 1. 2. 3.

A ninja appeared next to her with a tiny dramatic poof.

“Your 3 is wrong! It’s 25!” He jabbed a quill at Iona’s chart, neatly making a mark in the appropriate place.

“Wait-” Iona started to ask for clarification, but a smoke bomb went off, the ninja vanishing.

Just another typical day at the School.

Iona put her head in her hands. She believed him.

But what had she done wrong? It was a shame Skye or Elaine weren’t around. They’d be able to easily explain this in a way that made her feel smart.

“We’ve realized a potential problem.” One of the [Researchers] told Iona.

“What’s that?” Iona was fairly relaxed about the whole thing. Sigrun had made sure that Iona’s scholarship was secured for six years, no matter what happened. The biggest problem Iona could imagine was they liked her too much, and increased the amount they scheduled her for.

“Well, there’s a bit of a schism in old Rewheb. Some of us think silence means silence, and some of us think silence means contempt.” He said.

That seemed easy enough for Iona.

“I mean, it means silence, right? That’s what you have me for?” She scrunched up her forehead, unsure of what the problem was. This seemed blindingly obvious to her. Her blessing let her translate, the [Researchers] gave her words, she translated, easy peasy. No problems.

The researchers traded significant looks, and a second one stepped up and cleared his throat.

“Some of us think contempt means silence, and some of us think contempt means contempt.”

“That one means contempt - ah.” Iona paused, the implications sinking in. “Don’t tell me. You think the word means contempt, and you think the word means silence.” She pointed to the two researchers respectively.

The silence was all the answer she needed. Iona thought the answer was obvious, although she wasn’t a [Linguist] like the researchers were.

“Isn’t it possible that there’s shades of meaning to the words that don’t translate well into Altaic? A contemptuous silence, as opposed to a contemplative silence or something?” She asked. “I’m getting shades of both with the word.”

The researchers frowned and poured over their notes.

“Well, yes. But which one is it more of?”

Iona wanted to hit her head against the desk. There was being passionate about a subject, and there was whatever this obsession with the tiny details was.

It made her think of Elaine, and while passionate about learning, wasn’t a pedantic twit like the researchers were.

The time to money ratio was unbeatable though.

The training salle was next on Iona’s list, a chance to learn from the best [Fencers] and [Duelists] the School could offer. Dueling wasn’t high on Iona’s list of activities, but learning to be a better fighter?

The worst case she could imagine was bringing the lessons back to the Valkyries, and teaching a new generation of squires the various tips and tricks she’d learned. Even if it didn’t help her, maybe she could teach a squire who’d found a particular affinity with the foil some tricks.

She entered the training salle, a number of other students wearing durable practice clothing with significantly fewer bits of spare cloth than the witch’s robes they all had to wear kneeling on the ground. Iona quickly changed and joined them, ending up in the second row. She grabbed one of the wooden practice swords, disappointed by the lack of axes or glaives. Seven rows of students ended up kneeling and ready, before the instructor burst in.

The kitsune was lithe and intense, radiating a sharp air about him. He strode into the room, three swords strapped to his hip, barking the whole way.

“Attention! I am Yagyu Mitsukata! In this training hall there are no kings! No emperors! No gods. There is only me, and my word is absolute! Do-”

Iona had already stood up, the instructor’s words intolerable to the [Paladin].

You go girl! Selene cheered in her ears.

He’s just barely not worth smiting. Lunaris complained.

“No.” Iona declared, ready to face the consequences of her action.

They were swift.

“[Out!]” The instructor declared, and Iona was blasted out of the training salle.

She twisted in the air, landing gracefully to the shocked looks of the students who’d been passing by.

Well, that class is a bust. She thought to herself. More time to practice with Fenrir.

Iona tightened the last strap of Fenrir’s harness around him, stepping back and frowning. The wyvern shot Iona his best set of pitiful eyes… which only made him look more malevolent than usual. ‘Wyvern’s eyes’ did not mix with ‘cute puppy dog eyes’.

“Why?” He asked, pawing at the harness with his wing, stretching his neck one way then the other to try and get it into a more comfortable position.

“Because one day it’ll be armor. It’ll let us fight together, as one.”

“Hunt. Pounce. Bite. Blast. Was good.” Fenrir said. Iona understood what he was saying - when they’d been leaving Modu together, when he was a baby. They’d worked together as a pair, hunting and fighting together.

Iona carefully thought about how to respond. Fenrir wasn’t wrong on several levels, but he was also missing the point. On how large and dangerous the world was. On what a suit of armor could do, and Iona and him working together in tandem.

She’d never force him to carry her, no. That was all manner of wrong.

“Well, for one, this training harness sucks.” Iona agreed. “But it’ll help you get a skill. Do you like me carrying you around?”

Fenrir nodded, his head bobbling sinuously on the end of his neck.

“Do you want to carry me one day? Blasting Ice while I fight from your back, as one team?”

Fenrir looked thoughtful, and Iona was struck by inspiration. She dropped her bag, and rooted through it for her notebook and pencil. She flipped open to a new, clean page, and started sketching.

An adult Fenrir came to life under her pencil, Iona riding on his back. The two wore armor, and some clever tricks made it look like light was gleaming off of it. A storm raged in the background, a few dramatic bolts of lightning against dark clouds, and Iona drew Fenrir raining devastation below him with his beams of Ice, while Iona slew some bird with a glaive from his back.

She wasn’t quite sure how to draw Fenrir controlling the Lightning. Something to work on, given his new element.

Prominently drawn, with great attention to detail, was a saddle keeping Iona firmly attached to the frost wyvern.

“Like this!”

Fenrir studied the image, and growled his approval.

“Alright.”

Iona had an open slot in her [Traveling Archer] class, and she hadn’t gotten a good chance to practice her class or improve it. She didn’t have her old springwood bow anymore, and the basic training bows the School had couldn’t handle a fraction of her full strength. Firing the bows at the max strength they could handle before breaking was terrible experience, and threatened to ingrain poor habits.

The archer had seen the value in being able to conjure up arrows during the fall of the Valkyries. She’d privately sworn to herself - in a non magically binding way - to take a skill to get arrows, so she’d never be without ammunition again.

Being without a bow was equally a problem, although Iona was in the best place in the world to get a skill to mitigate that issue.

Finding the right person who could teach Iona how to get a bow-summoning skill was a challenge, but the island the School was founded on was an Oddity. Each Oddity interacted with the System in some strange and unusual way, and the School was founded on the island for many reasons, including its influence.

It was significantly easier to learn skills while on the island.

[*ding!* You have unlocked the Class Skill [Frost Wyvern’s Bow]. Would you like to take this skill?]

Iona marveled at the conjured bow in her hands. Made out of horn and sinew, the skill description had made it clear that this weapon would grow and evolve with her.

Never again would she be unarmed.

Iona took a deep meditative sip of tea, letting the warmth briefly flow through her. The steady click-clack of needles in the background just added to the atmosphere, but the fire was a bit much.

“Well. If you ask me - and you have - I think you keep people too far from you.”

Iona sputtered a protest. Linnet just gave her a look over her glasses.

“Yes, I’m well aware of what you do. But tell me this true. Did you really need to let your friend scare Amy off?”

Iona thought about it for a moment.

“No.” She freely admitted. “No, two words would’ve calmed her right down, and cleared everything up. Pardon, three, given the language involved.” Iona automatically self-corrected as she made the right connections.

[*ding!* [Magnetic Charm] has leveled up! 261 -> 262]

“Now, I know this is sensitive, but do you have any idea why that might be? Why you didn’t work to keep her close?”

Iona opened and closed her mouth a dozen times, each time with a different excuse on the tip of her tongue.

The beautiful thing about her [Vow] though - she couldn’t lie. Not even to herself. A fantastic tool for self-introspection. For digging up painful truths, and forcing herself to confront them.

Iona dredged the ugly truth to the forefront of her mind, and she was able to speak without fear of her [Vow] getting displeased.

“My friends die.” Iona’s tone was blunt and brutal. “Lux died. I joined the Valkyries to be a protector. The shield of the weak. I spent years with them, every hour of every day. We were the best of friends, with an unshakable bond forged in training. Nobody who isn’t a Valkyrie can understand that sort of comradery. Then in the span of three days, I got to watch nearly every single one of them die. My friends were hacked apart in front of my eyes. Ripped limb from limb. Infected with a slow poison. Bodies were thrown at us until we were so exhausted we just fell on their spears. And we were left there to die.”

Iona spat the last part out with venom, her face twisting in anger and hate.

“For the love of money and power.” She got a grip on herself, and slouched back into the chair, letting the emotions run rampant through her.

“Then I made some new friends. They all left, got squirreled away, one tripped in front of a wagon, another betrayed my trust in a small way, it just doesn’t end. Why bother?”

Iona slumped again.

Linnet sipped her tea.

“I don’t have the answer to all of life’s mysteries. I can answer the last question though.” She put her tea down with a soft clink.

“Everything that truly means something in life is alive. Plants. Pets. Children. Siblings. Friends. Parents. Family. Either your natural family, or your found family. Life, alone, is miserable. Don’t do it. You’re social, friendly, and young. Try, try, and try again. Let people in. Yes, you’ll get hurt. Yes, it’ll be painful. And I promise you, I promise you, yes, it’ll be worth it. Do not cheapen your worth, or the potential wealth in relationships you can gather, by cutting out everything that gives it meaning.”

The two sat for the remainder of the time in contemplative silence.

Iona stared at the maw of the great beast, dread filling her body.

This wasn’t a beast she could fight.

This wasn’t a monster she could slay.

This wasn’t a problem she could punch. She couldn’t rip its throat out.

No, Iona was all out of options. There was only one thing she could do.

She stepped forth, through the door to math class.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Comprehensive Education] leveled up! 300 -> 301]

[Name: Iona]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 22]

[Mana: 156950/156950]

[Mana Regen: 114,482]

Stats

[Free Stats: 145]

[Strength: 35,767 +(450,664)]

[Dexterity: 35,766 +(450,652)]

[Vitality: 65,693 +(170,802)]

[Speed: 39,565 +(498,519)]

[Mana: 15,695]

[Mana Regeneration: 42,102]

[Magic Power: 14,494]

[Magic Control: 14,494]

[Class 1: [The Dusk Valkyrie - Celestial: Lv 520]]

[Celestial Affinity: 520]

[New Moon's Dance: 488]

[Weapon Mastery: 475]

[Strength from the Stars: 520]

[Celestial Armaments: 520]

[Strike of the Twin Moons: 30]

[Stellar Body: 520]

[Gaze of the Galaxy: 420]

[Class 2: [Traveling Archer - Ice: Lv 400]]

[Ice Authority: 400]

[Shortbow Skills: 365]

[Blizzard Shot: 360]

[Chilled Mind: 370]

[Trick Shot: 357]

[Ice Arrow Conjuration: 358]

[Glacial Slow: 370]

[Frost Wyvern's Bow: 2]

[Class 3: Paladin of the Moons - Gravity: Lv 55]]

[Gravity Affinity: 55]

[Telekinesis: 55]

[Lunaris's Gaze: 55]

[Lunar Mass: 55]

[Flight of the Valkyries: 55]

[Eclipse Strike: 31]

[Selene's Grace: 6]

[Harmony of the Spheres: 55]

General Skills

[Drawing: 199]

[Valkyries Valor: 520]

[Adaptable: 385]

[Tracking: 265]

[Vow of Iona to Lux: 420]

[Magnetic Charm: 262]

[Comprehensive Education: 301]

[Companion Bond Between Iona and Fenrir: 128]

Other

Blessing of Selene and Lunaris