The First Game, The Second Day (4)

After breaking past the blockade of students, Cyrus had an easy time of heading back to his room with his task finally completed.

"I imagine there will be plenty more chances for the lower ranked students to come into conflict with the higher ones. Both in order to keep the ones on top on their toes, to make sure they never dull and continue to sharpen themselves while also simultaneously giving more chances to the ones at the bottom to rise up. While those at the top do indeed have the advantage of more resources per month, they also have bear the constant torrent of challengers from the bottom" analyzed Cyrus as he entered the basement and began climbing down the steps to his new home.

Arriving at the impressive stone door once more, his badge vibrated causing the same resonance as before which caused the door to slide open. Walking into the entrance, he was greeted by the sight of a resting Minerva laying on one of the couches. Rather than the comical sight of a wrapped up Minerva, it was instead a picturesque of a cool beauty resting with her sword. Quite literally, as her sabre was something that never left her side especially when she slept not to mention the slightly too large cloth and leather travelling outfit she was wearing. The moment Cyrus stepped into the room, his travelling boot barely making a sound, Minerva' murky black eyes fluttered open as she sat up and placed a hand on her sabre in one fluid motion. She looked at Cyrus with vigilance and caution, before easing up slightly upon recognizing who it was.

Cyrus taking note of her reactions, while trying his best to not display his curiosity too obviously as he knew he tended to, he carried his chest towards the lounge and set it down next to a seat before sitting down on it. He returned his eyes towards Minerva, whom was tying her hair into a simple ponytail rather than let it flow forth.

"Where is Imran?" asked Cyrus, noticing an absent slumbering fellow.

"I carried him to his room so he could have a better rest" responded Minerva.

This brought a slight furrow to Cyrus' brows,

"Did you forget that you nearly died last night? From what little I do know, the seriously injured should not be walking about let alone carrying others."

A twinkle of amusement lit up in Minerva's eyes as she said playfully,

"Oh? Worrying about me now are we. Guilt? You were the one to nearly do me in after all."

"Not guilt, but interest. Also just because I was holding the sword does not make it my fault if you run yourself through with it" replied Cyrus, using an analogy as it seemed Minerva was not quite understanding what went down the other night.

"A series of unfortunate events?" jested Minerva, dodging the topic.

"Insanity more like, but do not worry I will find out all you have hidden in due time such as…" began Cyrus, as he stood up and lightly kicked off the ground towards Minerva.

Noticing her grip on her sabre tighten, but also not caring enough to bother with it, he simply reached out and placed his hand on her forehead once more completely ignoring the drawn sabre that was poking at his side.

Activating his Vita domain, he began using the basic sensory spells he taught himself and then supplemented with Adara's notes. First he was somewhat surprised, which slowly turned into veiled shock as he suppressed it as fast as it had come. He then once again adopted his posture of bending down to reach eye level with a sitting Minerva, still ignoring the sabre digging into his clothes at this point.

"One of the unintentional benefits of getting wounded and then healed by a Vita mage is that the area that is healed is strengthened, both in natural healing speed and durability. Of course, no one would purposely damage themselves as the risk is too high and the gains too little. Yet… it is still obvious to see the effects of constant healing when one is looking for it. Have you a clue at what I am getting at?" asked Cyrus.

Minerva looked away from Cyrus, even dropping her weapon, while she shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"I wonder, does Imran know?" asked Cyrus, in evident amusement.

Getting no answer Cyrus laughed to himself as he stood back up. He headed towards Imran's room while saying,

"It seems I have acquired another piece to this puzzle, what a fun game indeed. Though, try not to make it too easy."

Inwardly though he was still somewhat surprised at his findings, "I had not noticed before since I was only looking for damage and not signs of healing, but damn that is crazy. Even I would not put myself through the amount of trouble to gain that healing ability of hers. Almost every bone, muscle, and organ had clear signs of repeated damage and healing. The question is then, did she do it herself or was it done by outside forces?"

While considering the various possibilities in service of both his amusement and curiosity, he went to wake Imran so that the trio could discuss the upcoming task with both his allies at once. A prod with a sheathed sword, a quick cast of Cyrus' Neversleep spell, and a slight verbal spar with an annoyed Imran later the two came out of the room and took their seats with Minerva.

Imran was rubbing his head, not out of being tired as Cyrus had solved that, but out of the slight shock and pain of being poked with a sword then subjected to an invasive spell with little to no warning.

"No delicacy at all Cyrus, who would have guessed such behavior coming from you…also now that I think about it, how come you did not just use that spell earlier?" grumbled Imran, ending with a question that came to mind.

"It works on a principle similar to when you get a normal wound healed: The spell does not take the place of normal sleep, it just delays it. Eventually you will still die from lack of sleep, after about a week or two" explained Cyrus offhandedly as he pulled out the notice that he found tacked onto the exit of his room.

Handing it to Imran he said,

"Now let us get down to business. Minerva is fit enough for combat but still has most of her magic sealed for now while you are running on the fumes of my spell, yet, we have a task to complete today. It seems the memo on group formation is being dispersed faster than I had initially guessed as today I saw a few forming already along with one massive one. The groupings were of weaklings though, so I am in favor of the idea that it is just naturally useless individuals coming together in order to survive the chaos that the Academy unleashed yesterday, but that does not detract from the fact that they exist. By knowing that Glacies will be encouraging this behavior even further, it only means the difficulty of maintaining and eventually succeeding our current positions will increase as we face pressure from both above and below."

Imran nodded in understanding while reading the memo, reading it aloud for Minerva:

"Greetings Quintus,

Today marks the second day of our week of opportunities. Yesterday we distributed everyone's starting Fidem as courtesy and by the grace of Glacies. We have noticed, however, that the distribution did not go out as evenly as we had planned for one reason or another. Thus, today and tomorrow we will be opening up the labyrinth for all to explore in order to further their starting point here at Glacies. If you wish to participate, arrive at the mess hall before 10 as the overseer for the labyrinth will arrive then to take all those who are interested down into it for the next two days.

Sincerely,

Glacies Academy"

"So, any ideas as to what could be within this labyrinth? We already have a decent stockpile of Fidem, and if we head out to this 'opportunity' we will be putting what we have at risk. I already had to give up most of the gains I earned today in order to defeat a large grouping of just 30 students, who knows if such a situation will come again" said Cyrus, fishing for information.

Imran was silent as he tried to think if he had ever heard anything about it, but Minerva spoke up in his stead.

"Off duty members of the military are often asked by the Academy to come and enter this labyrinth once a year without fail. All I know for sure is that it is a testing ground that has always been used by the Academy even before they started to change things, so the risk should not be too high."

"Even if that is the case, I would expect that the difficulty of whatever is planned will be higher than before. If perhaps, in the past these military personnel were asked to teach and guide the students now they would instead likely be ordered to trash them until they are close to death. While I do regard myself as competent, I will not lie to myself and say I have reached enough strength to fight veterans of the previous generation" said Cyrus, which caused both of them to look at him strangely.

Cyrus just shrugged, reaching into his inner shirt while thinking that showing is easier than telling at times. That which he revealed caused one party little to no reaction, while the other let slip an audible gasp of surprise.

Annoyed at not understanding what Cyrus just revealed, Imran could not help but ask

"What, what's so special about it? It seems to be a composite of several metals, not even pure gold.."

In response Minerva just looked at him as if he were an idiot, well, in this case he actually was.

"That is a token given by fully fledged Legionaries to those they deem as friends. Anyone within the military circles would easily recognize it…Demigods, are what some call them. Masters of combat that can easily do inhuman feats, where the phrase "Strength of a mountain" is actually within the realm of possibility" said Minerva, awe contained within her voice.

"I know about them, I have my connections. Heck, even the common citizen can recognize them more and more these days ever since they started hiring civilian blacksmiths to work for them as well as directly contracting with several large merchant groups and federations" said Imran in defense of himself.

"The one who gave me this token showed me the true depth of power, not to mention even he mentioned that within the military are stars who shine as bright as even some of the Legionaries. Within the Academy we may be better than most but if we expand that to the broader Empire…we are nothing" said Cyrus.

Imran merely scoffed, having not much interest in combat to begin with, but Minerva had no such reaction. Instead she had a somewhat strange look on her face as she looked upon Cyrus, specifically her gaze lingered on the token that he was hiding away once more.

"It seems that was the correct move…" thought Cyrus as he easily picked up on Minerva's interest, "Perhaps I can use it as a bargaining tool to obtain more information…"

Outwardly, however, he said

"Now, you will keep this token of mine a secret." Although his tone was more of a command than a request, the two nodded seeing no need to smash the alliance over such a small thing. Seeing the two agreeing Cyrus continued,

"So, knowing all that we know. Will we participate or not?" asked Cyrus, as if he did not already know the answer.

As expected, both of them opted to participate without a second of hesitation. One for benefits, and one out of stubbornness perhaps.

"Then, let us go to the mess hall...after I and Minerva change of course" said Cyrus as he pulled out three robes for Minerva and two for himself.

He tossed the two to Minerva, who was only slightly surprised at the apparent act of kindness.

"Oh, and Imran you will be carrying the chest from now on."

Imran groaned as he imagined the difficulty of such physical labor. Inwardly griping that he was showing favor to one but disfavor to the other. He looked towards Minerva for back up, alas, he was disappointed as she merely looked the other way…perhaps silenced by the extra robe Cyrus had gotten her.