Liliya Volkov was beginning to seriously dislike Levi Ironwood.

  She already hadn’t been fond of him from the start, of course, but that had been more of a professional aversion. She was ranked first in their year, so far ahead of the curriculum that her schedule was mostly post-graduate level courses. It was only natural that she didn’t have the highest opinion of Levi Ironwood. He was the dead last of their year, had been held back twice already, and more recently, he’d attempted to cheat the Ascension Trials.

  Most adventurers, both Institute and non-Institute trained, held the Ascension Trials in high regard. Not many people took them. It was considered a far more difficult and arduous path than simply taking the graduation exams. Adventurers, as a general rule of thumb, respected those with grit and moxie, and passing the Ascension Trials proved plenty of both.

  Conversely, attempting to cheat the Ascension Trials? That was an unforgivable act. A trespass upon hallowed grounds, a disfigurement of time-honored traditions.

  Levi Ironwood had made a big mistake doing what he did. In the past week, rumors had already spread far and wide, spilling out beyond even Institute walls and into the greater adventurer community itself. Liliya was fairly certain even the professors had reached out to their contacts and former students to put a black mark on Levi's record.

  Even if he did manage to graduate as an adventurer, he would find himself blacklisted from all the most prestigious parties and guilds. Though, it wasn’t like they would’ve taken him anyway; the concern had always been that Levi would join a non-Institute-related group and mess things up there.

  Even Winthrop had finally made a move because of it. She, like everyone else in the Institute, had heard about Winthrop’s fight against Levi, and the subsequent rumors that followed the result.

  Personally, she believed that Winthrop just didn’t have the heart to follow through. He might have an arrogant, pompous exterior, but… He had been one of the few people to try to reach out to her, asking her out to the winter ball as friends despite the threat of pissing off her fiance-to-be, Theodore Montague. Winthrop was rough around the edges, but he had a good heart. Liliya wouldn’t be surprised if he had taken pity on Levi halfway through the fight.

  Personally, Liliya didn’t care too much about the cheating scandal. Mostly because she had more important things to worry about than the petty drama of some incompetent nobody. As far as she was concerned, Levi should’ve just been expelled. End of story.

  Instead, due to politics, Liliya was forced to pair up with him and carry him to victory.

  How immensely irritating.

  But honestly, she was fine with it. Or rather, she was used to it. It was not the first time her family had taken control of her fate, nor would it be the last. Her father, Marquis Ivan Volkov, had wanted Marquis Archibald Ironwood to owe him a favor, and so Liliya had to pair up with Levi.

  Never mind the amount of blood, sweat, and tears Liliya had poured into preparing for her solo run. Never mind how her success would’ve gone down in the Institute’s history. Such minor trivialities had been irrelevant to her father.

  They always were.

  Ah well. There was no point in complaining. She instead focused her energy on succeeding here. She had to make a name for herself as soon as possible, establish her reputation and strength as an adventurer, and create a legacy for herself before she was forced to…

  She quickly shut down that line of thought. She didn’t want to think about that right now.

  The point was, Liliya was fine with having to carry Levi Ironwood on the Ascension Trials. In fact, the greater adventuring community would probably consider it a more difficult feat.

  What she wasn’t fine with, however, was…

  Him.

  Like, as a person.

  They had spent the day traveling on horseback. Liliya had navigated using the maps she’d brought – she definitely did not trust him with the directions. Their journey had been peaceful at first, but as they moved further away from Luxanne, things became more dangerous.

  Adventurers were regularly sent out to clear the immediate wilderness surrounding the roads and paths, and the routes themselves had been meticulously designed to avoid magical leylines and hotspots where monsters tended to congregate and dungeons spawned. Even so, the paths weren’t a hundred percent safe. There was a reason why one of the most common jobs for an adventurer was the classic escorting quest.

  Around noon, they’d run into their first set of enemies: a band of goblins who’d ambushed them in between two hills.

  Liliya immediately sprung into action, her sword a silver blur as she cut them down without hesitation. They were relatively low-leveled, maybe around level 20 or so, and she eliminated them with ease. The main issue was their sheer numbers; goblins bred faster than rabbits and always attacked in swarms. For every five she cut down, six would take their place.

  From the looks of it, there were a little over a hundred of them. It wouldn’t be a difficult fight, but it would be a tedious one.

  Thankfully she had her Class’s passive ability, [Dance of the Sword Saint]: the longer she stayed in continuous motion with her sword, the more her strength and agility would incrementally increase. She became a veritable storm of death as she carved a bloody path through the endless swarm of goblins, the lethal flow of her blade uninterrupted.

  By the time she finished, she was sweating slightly under the beating sun, though her breath still remained even. She wiped her forehead with a handkerchief, sliced her sword in a downward diagonal arc to clear the blood, then turned back around to see Levi Ironwood sitting on a rock, serenely sipping at a cup of tea.

  Liliya stared, not comprehending what she was seeing.

  Did he… Did he not take part in the battle at all? Liliya scrutinized his appearance. No dust, no blood, not a bead of sweat to be seen. His clothes weren’t even the slightest bit ruffled.

  “Did you even fight?” she asked in disbelief.

  Levi blinked. “Of course not,” he said, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. “It seemed like you had things under control. I didn’t want to interfere.”

  Liliya’s left eye twitched. “So you just decided to sit things out?” How hadn’t he drawn even a single goblin’s aggro?

  Levi nodded. “Your performance was quite impressive. Thank you for your hard work.”

  She couldn’t even tell if he was being serious or not. He spoke in the same tone he always did – that polite, vaguely bland tone that never revealed anything.

  In his defense, she supposed she had told him back in the library to stay out of her way and let her take care of things. She couldn’t exactly blame him for listening to her commands.

  But still, couldn’t he have at least tried to help?

  And for that matter, where did he even get the boiling water for the tea?

  They continued on the path after letting their horses take a brief rest. Liliya had collected the goblins’ dropped items with a simple [Loot] skill, automatically displacing everything into her inventory. She had no personal use for the parts, but she could sell them off to the Adventurer’s Guild easily enough. Goblin teeth were a common potion ingredient, their weapons could be melted down for scrap metal, and one of them had even been carrying some pieces of jewelry, no doubt stolen from some unfortunate soul.

  As they rode, Levi began asking her questions. Ordinarily, Liliya would’ve been thankful for the distraction from the mindnumbing trip. However, Levi’s questions were so basic, they were downright aggravating.

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  Why didn’t the goblins use a special formation? Younger tribes lacked the collective brainpower.

  How did the goblins get their weapons? From pillaging old ruins and battlefields.

  What skills did she use against them? She used–

  Liliya paused, unsure if she had heard him correctly. “Come again?” she asked, giving him a way out. He didn’t take it.

  “What skills did you use against them?” he repeated without a hint of shame. “You’re a Sword Saint, right?”

  Liliya stared at him for several moments, amazed by his sheer brazenness. Then, she narrowed her eyes and pulled on the reins, her horse coming to a stop. Levi stopped as well, looking puzzled by her reaction, as though he didn’t know why she was mad. Liliya almost couldn’t believe his sheer nerve.

  “Okay, let’s get something straight here,” she said, stabbing a finger into his chest. “Just because we’re partners for the Ascension Trials doesn’t mean we’re actually friends. Don’t misunderstand our situation.”

  Levi frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “You asked me about my skills.”

  “Yeah,” Levi said. “And?”

  The pure uncertainty in his tone made her pause. She studied his expression. His confusion seemed to be genuine.

  Could he actually be this oblivious?

  “You are aware that it’s considered to be incredibly rude to ask someone for their stats,” she said slowly, a vague sense of dread building up inside her. “Right?”

  Levi stared at her blankly. “What?”

  Oh gods and Goddess above. Education truly had failed him. No, not just that. This monumental level of ignorance… Society itself had failed him.

  “A person’s Level, Skills, and Attributes are considered to be extremely personal information,” she explained. “It’s not something you tell others unless you trust them implicitly. People tend to only share them with an intimate party of friends or comrades.”

  “Ah.” Levi finally looked slightly awkward as he realized the implications of his question. “What about [Institute Registry]? That skill shows your level, doesn’t it?”

  “Only for students within the Institute, and only because it’s necessary for security and safety reasons,” Liliya said. “And the Institute only has access to your System Level; everything else is hidden. Aside from your Class, Guild, and Concept, of course, but those are more public information. Once a person graduates and becomes a proper adventurer, their level becomes hidden once more.”

  “I see. I… was not aware. My apologies.”

  Liliya sighed. “It’s alright. I shouldn’t have snapped. I didn’t expect you to be this…” She searched for a polite word to use and failed to find it. “Well, anyway. It happens.”

  “Indeed…”

  An awkward silence descended over them as they resumed their journey. Liliya’s mind raced as she recalibrated her impression of Levi Ironwood. Did he have some sort of intellectual impairment? Perhaps he was dropped on his head one too many times as a child?

  Maybe she had been a little too harsh on him.

  Then again, maybe not, as ten minutes later, they were attacked by a pack of dire wolves. These wolves were more powerful, perhaps around level 29. Liliya was an elegant whirlwind of steel and death, her blade moving so fast it wasn’t visible to the naked eye.

  Blood splattered the ground with every slice as the wolves let out yelps of pain. Liliya felt a heady power course through her as she unleashed a combination attack of [Blade Tempest] and [Rending Slash], ghostly silvery-violet trails left behind in the air by the magic enhancing her blade.

  She ended the fight with one last flourish of her sword, only to turn around and see the single remaining dire wolf rolled on its back, Levi kneeling next to it and giving it belly rubs. “Who’s a good boy?” he said. “Who’s a good boy?”

  Liliya stared at them incredulously. What the fuck?

  Dire wolves were notoriously difficult to tame, even by high-tier beast tamers. The scene in front of her didn’t make any sense.

  Oddly, she noticed that the dire wolf was unnaturally stiff under Levi’s hands. Looking more closely, she could detect a slight, nearly imperceptible tremble running through its body.

  Perhaps it was just injured, or suffering from some sort of neurodegenerative illness. Yes, that must be it. The runt of the pack. It probably didn’t have much time left to begin with. Taking pity, she decided to spare the wolf, ordering Levi to let it go.

  Her theory faltered slightly as the wolf immediately sprinted away so fast it was like it’d teleported. She stared after its hastily retreating figure for several long moments, unsure of what to think.

  “Well, that was a pleasant distraction,” Levi said, standing up and dusting the fur off his hands. “Shall we continue?”

  Pleasant?

  Pleasant?

  Liliya’s left eye twitched again.

  Fortunately, nothing else had attacked them for the rest of the day. The territory they were in wasn’t exactly safe, because anywhere outside the fortified city walls couldn’t be categorized as ‘safe’, but they were at least in a territory where random monster attacks occurred less frequently. It was the northern and southern regions of Luminarche that were truly dangerous.

  Of course, their route itself played a heavy factor as well. Had they directly traveled to the Grove of Embers in a straight line, they would’ve undoubtedly already perished. Even now, they were taking the long way around a small forest instead of cutting directly through.

  The monsters within the forest were known to be well above level 90, and it would require a full party of gold-tier adventurers and perhaps a platinum-tier adventurer or two to even think about surviving in it.

  Perhaps she would come back later when she was a higher level to use the forest as a grinding spot, but for now, she dutifully followed the carefully marked route on the map. These routes were constantly updated and modified by the Adventurer’s Guild as dungeons rose and fell. Luminarche’s ecosystem was a complex, ever-evolving one, with countless monster species all perpetually competing for space and dominance, and magical leylines shifting every now and then as well.

  Adventurers did what they could to cull the monster population, but the truth was, humanity really was outnumbered and, in many cases, outclassed. If the monsters ever gathered under a centralized command, Liliya shuddered to think what would happen.

  Millennia ago, it had taken the Age of Heroes to make humans go from living huddled in tiny mud huts to constructing awe-inspiring cities and establishing entire countries. That age had long since passed; they were now firmly in the Age of Adventurers. All it would take was a theoretical ‘Age of Monsters’ to plunge humanity back to square one…

  Liliya shook her head, clearing away those thoughts. She had written an essay on it for her History of the Ancients 535 class last week, so the topic was still fresh on her mind, but beyond an academic thought exercise, there really was no point in dwelling on it. It was all hypothetical anyway; monsters tended to be either too mindless or selfish to cooperate for long.

  Around nighttime, Liliya decided to finally call for a rest. They had finally looped around the full circumference of the forest and reached a prairie. Their horses were tired, and Liliya herself was starting to feel drowsy. Not a good sign, since monster activity increased dramatically during the dark. Only amateurs would continue pushing themselves here. A well-rested adventurer was an alive adventurer.

  “Let’s set up camp here for now,” Liliya said, coming to a stop and hopping off her horse. She had chosen an open grassy field for their camp location so they could see monsters approaching from all sides. A large oak tree stood in the middle, which she tied the two horses to. “We can continue in the morning.”

  She began setting up the camp, pulling out supplies from her inventory. An enchanted self-assembling tent, a jar of everlasting flames for a light source, a sleeping bag, meal rations, and so on.

  Liliya paused when she noticed Levi not doing anything. Instead, he was just sitting on the grass, leaning back on his hands and staring up at the night sky.

  “Aren’t you going to take them out?” she asked.

  Levi looked at her. “Take what out?”

  She gestured at her items. “Your supplies–” She stopped as a sudden disturbing thought occurred to her. “Levi?” she asked slowly. “Exactly what supplies did you bring on this quest?”

  Levi tilted his head. He reached into his trouser pocket and withdrew several small vials. “I brought some potions my little sister made for me,” he said, offering them to her. His little sister… Heiress Ayla Ironwood. Liliya knew the name.

  Liliya took one and used [Inspect] on it. She hummed in satisfaction at the information that filtered into her mind a second later:

  *****

  Potion of Mana Restoration: Restores [830] mana over [5] seconds.

  *****

  830 mana over 5 seconds was a commendable throughput, especially for a potion brewed by someone so young. It was definitely better than the average mana restoration potion found in apothecaries. Liliya herself carried an emergency mana potion as well, though it had been brewed by a famed Alchemist and could restore 3400 mana over 1.5 seconds. But anyhow.

  Liliya [Inspected] the other two potions as well, revealing them to be a general antidote and a stamina potion. They were of similar quality to the first.

  “These are well-made,” she said, handing the potions back to Levi. “Please pass my compliments to your sister. What else did you bring?”

  “Just some tea.”

  “... what?”

  “I brought tea,” Levi said. He reached into his other trouser pocket and took out a small cloth pouch full of loose tea leaves.

  “... why?”

  “For the caffeine.”

  Liliya stared at him. “Did you, by any chance, bring anything else? Armor, magical items, food rations, maybe oh I don’t know, a weapon or two?”

  “Nah,” Levi said easily. “Why would I?”

  Liliya drew in a deep breath. Counted to ten. Breathed out.

  “So you’re telling me,” Liliya said, already feeling the beginnings of a migraine forming, “that you embarked on the Ascension Trials, notorious for its high mortality rate, having prepared absolutely nothing in advance?”

  “Hmm. When you put it that way...” Levi's gaze grew solemn, appearing to be deep in thought. Then he beamed at her. “It just means I had a lot of faith in you?”

  Liliya resisted the urge to scream.

  Yeah. It was official.

  Liliya Volkov seriously disliked Levi Ironwood.

  I have three advance chapters ready so far, with plans to expand that to twelve and potentially even more over time. I wish I could offer more right now, but daily chapters are kinda brutal on the backlog haha. After the new year begins, I'll probably settle on a M-W-F update schedule, which should make extending the backlog a lot easier. If you do choose to support me, thank you so much!