Viviana grinned as she took off her mask and wiped sweat off her brow, landing on the island and tip-toeing around the puddles of acid. She checked the system messages that popped up when she killed the bird, pleasantly surprised by the line that acknowledged the fight as a difficult battle. Very nice. The system counting this as a difficult battle means a new skill is available on my level up.

  [Welcome, Viviana Adler-Stern.]

  [Soulbound Lightning]

  [Level 2]

  [Experience: 110/200]

  [Unallocated points: 2]

  [VIG=2; MIN=5; END=4; STR=2; DEX=4; WIL=2]

  [Equipped Skills]

  [Lightning Trap] [Dash]

  [Equipped Items]

  [Available Skills]

  She placed a point into MIN and into DEX. Turned out DEX didn’t increase her ability with the grapple pack directly, but it helped her acclimate to her movements and made her more agile in general, which indirectly benefitted her overall movement.

  Viviana felt some relief as her mind cleared up and she gained more of a spring in her step. Her joints and muscles felt looser yet more in control.

  Viviana put [Scareye] back on her face, having finished wiping away her sweat. She opted to inspect her handiwork, dancing around puddles of acid all the way. She swore she heard a cracking noise. The acid was breaking down the integrity of the floating island she was on. She’d have to work quickly.

  Viviana checked the academy app for anything about the sludge claw she slew. There wasn’t much she could find about it. Apparently they were rare monsters. From what she saw, no one had any of its materials on the academy market– only previous, long past transactions showed any evidence of the creature existing. It meant everything was valuable.

  She inwardly cursed. The island was cracking, much more audibly this time. Viviana slashed away at the bird, hacking away at anything that seemed valuable or was sold before. Eyes, talons, acid sacs, and gravity sacs were all extracted and stuffed into the comically large storage bag that Thomas bought for that one job.

  I’m very thankful for remembering to bring it. Good job, me.

  The bag only compressed items– it didn’t decrease weight at all. Thankfully, the gravity sacs were still full of antigravity. It meant that the bag had a couple of components that were lighter than air, making the other components feel less heavy. The bag was barely, but just, carriable.

  Viviana heaved the last couple items into the bag, accidentally sticking her hand in some acid. She sucked in her breath. This was a new one. She jumped around, holding her hand in pain, but trying not to splash the acid everywhere. That would be far worse.

  Why does this hurt so much? I’ve lost limbs time and time again, died over and over, and even was beheaded once! Why does this hurt the most?

  Viviana briefly contemplated her options before gritting her teeth and swinging her sword, cleaning severing the appendage. Her hand flopped onto the ground as the acid began eating through the stone below it.

  She sheathed her sword and picked it up gingerly with her good hand. Then her instincts screamed. She immediately drew her sword with her good hand, holding her severed hand in the same grip, angling it so the acid dripped onto the ground instead of her.

  Viviana’s eyes scanned as she readied her sword, walking to the edge of the platform. Something was coming, so she gave herself options. Fight or fall off the edge and try to leave.

  Something turned out to be someone. Multiple someones. They wore green armor– the standard color of Ophidian Pact. It wasn’t the normal armor that was given freely to clan members, nor was it the advanced black armor that was given to Selenne.

  They wore dark green breach armor. Armor equipped with all the latest tech for the soulbound. Grapples, jump packs, inertial dampeners, sword accelerators, the works. All in a tight knit, highly armored package made from non-earth materials. The strongest armor one could get, short of system-recognized artifacts.

  Wearing this armor meant you were an elite of elites. It was something even the guilds outside of the academy, in the ‘real world’, did not give out easily. It gave you the title of Breach Knight.

  Viviana could not run. Here, in this field with low gravity and many points to grapple from, the Breach Knights’ superior technology gave them an overwhelming mobility advantage. Whatever they wanted from her, she’d have to put up with.

  Viviana gritted her teeth. This was exactly the situation she was trying to avoid, and the worst possible one she could get herself in here on the third layer. It just had to be the Pact in this area. They haven’t forgotten what I did to their other base, either.

  A voice, distorted yet amplified by the hidden speakers on the helmet, called out. “Halt!”

  Viviana did not move as they approached her. A full squad of four. She was sure that more were waiting outside her perception, perhaps watching with scout skills. She didn’t say anything as one of them spoke, mechanical cameras analyzing her every movement.

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  “Viviana Adler-Stern. What are you doing here, just outside of the rift?”

  Viviana looked up, noticing that the giant hole in the sky, cutting through the purple haze like a break in the clouds, was right above her. On the other side was a shining blue sky and a massive fortress. The fortress was called the ‘eye’, for Ophidian Pact used it to watch everything below it and only allow guild members through. The hole in the sky was called the ‘rift’.

  Viviana shrugged. “I was killing the vomit bird,” she said, kicking its corpse for demonstration.

  No one said anything for a second, but then a taller enforcer snickered. A female voice, this time. “Duh. You should get your eyes checked, Adam.”

  For a second, the man who spoke first, namely Adam, didn’t say anything. Then he spoke, a calm voice barely containing his exasperation. “As a warning, Adler Stern,” he sighed. “The Landsknecht aren’t popular in these parts. This is Pact territory.”

  “So what? Here to arrest me, after what we did to your base in terrarium one?”

  Adam somehow got visibly angry despite having a helmet on. “... I would kill you right now, but someone in the Pact vouched for you, saying you were a neutral party that would be useful to us. Somehow they were convincing enough to sway the student guild council.”

  Viviana blinked. Someone vouched for them? It was odd, having someone in a guild help you out, especially if you had no idea who they were. “Tell them thanks.”

  “Get out of my sight, Adler-Stern. Just because someone vouched for you doesn’t mean I could make something up to kill you right now,” Adam said. His mana flared, and instantly the sky was filled with pressure. It was strong… even stronger than Mizuki’s. She had no choice but to admit she would be crushed if they fought head to head.

  Viviana had to take the threat seriously, even if being killed wasn’t permanent. Guilds were technically allowed to keep you killed for up to two months. Viviana could not afford a whole two months of not levelling. Yet maybe, if she played her cards right, she could get some information about the guilds. Maybe some info about what Selenne was mysteriously alluding to in all the cryptic warnings she gave.

  “You’re letting me go, despite me destroying one of your bases?”

  “Yes, Adler-Stern. I don’t care about you. We’re not here for you, anyways.”

  Viviana raised a brow, taking a gamble. She wasn’t supposed to know about this. “The war?”

  Viviana felt his gaze lock with hers, despite the fact he was wearing a helmet. She nearly shivered under his gaze as his mana emanation intensified even further.

  Adam chuckled. “The war? That’s the least of my concerns, now. Someone was murdered. A real death, the first ever in the academy.”

  Viviana made it back to Landsknecht base late in the afternoon, finding the rest of the members huddled around the couch, watching the TV. The front door was unlocked. “What did I tell you guys about locking the door–”

  “Yo, Viviana. Did you see the news?” Lucian said, not taking his eyes off the screen. Bena and Thomas were also enraptured. “Someone in Ferric Meridian is dead. Like, dead dead.”

  Viviana raised a brow as she lugged in her massive storage bag. She hadn’t sold any of the items. She trusted Thomas to sell them for a good price later. “I did hear the news, but only briefly. I didn’t know it was a Ferric Meridian guy.”

  Lucian explained. “It’s an executive seat heir. Apparently he was the son of someone pretty high up in FM.”

  “How are the guilds reacting?” Viviana asked, finally having dragged the bag into a decent position. It was a little in the way of the entrance, but she didn’t want to carry it anymore. It was heavy.

  “Nothing, for now. No guilds have claimed responsibility. Ferric Meridian has yet to release a statement.”

  “And what about the student guild war?”

  Lucian shrugged. “For all we know, it’s going to continue.”

  Odd. Doesn’t match up with what that Adam guy said.

  Viviana sat on the couch as well, picking a spot next to Bena, taking a quick glance at the TV, confirming what Lucian just said. The TV was just something they kept on for clients to watch should they choose to. The only channel available in the academy was the academy news network, which basically just broadcasted guild propaganda to anyone willing to watch. Yet now, there was something worth watching.

  Viviana lost herself in thought. Just what are the guilds up to? Just who could have done this?

  A voice snapped her out of her thoughts. “...this could get dangerous,” Thomas said.

  Bena nodded in agreement, oddly quiet. “I don’t like it, either. If no guilds are claiming it, and we’re the only organization outside of the guilds willing to do dirty work…”

  “Maybe we should step out of this,” Thomas said.

  Lucian and Bena were silent, but Viviana could tell the exact thought in their minds. She wouldn’t have it.

  Murder in the guilds. They’ll point fingers at each other, use accusations as excuses to investigate. But the guilds are greedy. The academy is too precious, as a nursery for future soldiers, for them to disrupt it. And even if they do... who cares?

  I haven’t forgotten my goal. If I am to take over this place and unseat my father, instability is exactly what I need. I could gain hostages. Threaten important children, important heirs, and gain a hand in the game outside the academy.

  We’re mercenaries. War is something to celebrate.

  “We should increase operations,” Viviana said. “The student war will start. The guilds will investigate. If they find someone, good. If they don’t, they’ll point fingers, but the academy is too precious for them to do anything for just one person.”

  It was a cynical take. But that was exactly what counted as logic in the academy. Exactly what was logical for the guilds. But Lucian, Bena, and Thomas didn’t know the guilds like she did. She was the heir candidate to the greatest guild in all of Central, after all. The guilds would use any excuse to seize power. The corporate offices and chairmen, bored out of their minds after hundreds of years of rule, would see the death as an opportunity and strike.

  “I still don’t like it, Viviana,” Lucian said.

  “What would you have us do? Disband and go our own ways? Join up with one of the guilds?”

  “...We don’t have to,” Thomas said, his voice barely a whisper. “We could rebrand, hide for a little bit, wait for the entire thing to blow over.”

  “And throw away everything we worked for?”

  They looked around the place. The TV that Lucian purchased. The console that Thomas plugged in, used just to goof off and play games. In two rooms above them lay a pile of office chairs, discarded now they could afford actual furniture.

  Bena shook her head. “...I think we continue.”

  Lucian nodded. “Same.”

  Thomas looked around the room, feeling that he had no supporters. He was still on the fence, but if everyone was in, then…

  Coincidentally it was all planned, this marks the first murder of the academy. This is the point where everything starts kicking up a notch. Stay tuned.

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