Det left baby-face sputtering behind him as he stalked away. The challenge for the duel had been set and approved by Beast, the far-too-pretty-but-far-too-rude-to-be-real instructor. Tomorrow after classes wasn’t so far away, and Det’s heart beat a little faster at the upcoming challenge. Would he be ready for it, or had he just set himself up for embarrassment?

  Thinking about his fellow Mistguard cadet, baby-face—his opponent who could seemingly control sand—and then comparing him to the Wordless marionettes from the dungeon on Radiant, Det scoffed at himself. He and his group had just saved Det’s home pillar from a possible dungeon burst by charging into the E-Rank dungeon and defeating both a Boss and a Rare Spawn.

  Those Wordless he’d fought in there—the Mistguard’s greatest enemy and secret both—had done everything they could to cut him to ribbons with their claws. Yet, despite their numbers in that wave-type dungeon, or the giant stage-Boss that had tried to eat him, Det had been the one to walk out of there with new rewards. Well, him and his party, two of which were beside him now as he headed for the archetype building where he’d be taking classes as part of the Mount Avalon academy for the day.

  “The look on his face was definitely worth doing that,” Sage said, his easygoing laugh and surfer-boy looks practically radiating calm. An Arsenal—one of the Mistguard’s six classes—like Det, as well as both a roommate and teammate, Sage had become a quick friend since Det had moved to Mount Avalon a bare few weeks before. With the power to control Wordless, he was one of the two reasons Det’s party had been sent out to dungeons in the first place.

  Eriba, the second reason they’d done that, walked on Det’s other side, her quiet voice coming out from behind the long bangs that hid her face. “You’ve got this, Det.” A small bob of her head reinforced her encouragement, before she shrunk in on herself as the trio passed a small group watching them as Det walked past.

  “That duel challenge is going to be the talk of the academy this morning,” Sage said. “Good job becoming the center of attention on our first day back. First, we mysteriously vanish, then, as soon as we reappear, you throw down the gauntlet. It’s like the plot of a movie.”

  Sage was also the resident movie aficionado of the group. Yes, even after getting isekai’d to a new world—Elestar—in a superhuman body with magic powers as a ReSouled, Det had to deal with movie otakus. At least Sage had good taste, though, having introduced Det and the rest of their roommates to several absolutely fantastic movies. On the less positive side of things, he often kept them up too late, or all night, watching one of those films. For being not-Earth, Elestar had a thriving movie industry built on a versatile blend of magic and technology.

  “Can I be in the movie too?” Eriba asked quietly, the three of them inside the building where they’d take their classes.

  “Oh?” Sage said, an eyebrow up. “Are you looking to be the leading lady? Perhaps trying to steal our hero’s heart away from the memory of what he’d left behind?”

  Eriba shook her head immediately, before her bangs turned in Det’s direction. Gauging his reaction?

  “There’s no stealing me away from Yumi and Nat,” Det said, referring to his wife and daughter. The ones he’d been taken from when he’d been pulled to Elestar without his consent. The two he’d get back to, no matter what it took, or how long.

  Already, he’d been on Elestar for twenty years, each of them spent trying everything he could to return. None of it had worked, of course, which was why he was with the world’s magic army. Or whatever they were. They were an army that could use magic, and fought against threats like the Wordless. They were also Det’s means to get stronger. To rise through the Ranks of power, from E to S, so that his unique ink-wash magic would be able to get him home. If that didn’t work, then there was bound to be somebody else within the Mistguard who could help him, or point him in the right direction.

  “I wasn’t trying to steal him,” Eriba said quietly. Det’s family—and his desire to get back to them—wasn’t a secret from any of his party.

  That need to return to and protect his wife and daughter was his drive, after all. And, like every other ReSouled, his drive wouldn’t bow to things like reason or logic. True to its name, it would push him beyond sensible limits to achieve his goal. There was no real controlling or influencing with it. He would either achieve it or die trying.

  “I know, Eriba,” Det said. “Sage is just teasing you.”

  “Not about being the leading lady,” Sage said. “If you don’t want to be part of a complicated love triangle, what about a capable partner? Or, are you thinking villainess, Eriba?”

  “Oooh,” she said quietly. “The bad guy?”

  “Between you and Sage,” Det said. “I could see you being able to pull it off far better.”

  Sage’s hand went to his chest in faux-pain. “Det, you wound me. I would be an excellent antagonist.”

  “In some kind of beach-volleyball movie where the final act takes places on the sand,” Det said. “How do you even have a tan?”

  “How do you not?” Sage said.

  “Because I lived the last twenty years on a pillar beneath the mistline and only saw the suns—either of them—for the first time a few weeks ago?” Det said flatly.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Sage only winced a little at the brutal truth of that.

  Of all the pillars on Elestar, only a few of them sat completely beneath the level of the Mistsea. Det’s home pillar, Radiant, was one of them. He’d spent the majority of his second life in an endless, thick fog. One that infected normal people with a terrible Taint if they came or went from the mist. Normal people either lived above the mist or within it. There was no going back and forth—unless one was ReSouled, like Det—so very few people risked visiting Radiant. That had left it as basically one of the poorest pillars in the entire Nivelhime Kingdom.

  Sage, on the other hand, had come from one of the sixth strata pillars. One of the tallest and richest. There wasn’t much comparing their younger years. Not to mention the fact Sage’s pillar produced at least one ReSouled every cycle—every twenty years—making him a kind of legacy Mistguard.

  “Sorry,” Sage said, his usual smile gone. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “You shouldn’t,” Eriba said quietly.

  “It’s fine,” Det said, then added far more quietly, just for the two of them. “Is what it is. And, when it really mattered—when Radiant was in trouble—you were there for it. And me.”

  “That’s what parties and friends are for,” Sage said, happily moving on from the foot he’d planted in his own mouth.

  “We know you’d do the same for us,” Eriba added in her soft voice.

  “Eh, assuming it lines up with my drive,” Det joked as he entered the classroom. The clock on the wall stood a few minutes before eight, meaning the three of them had even been early. For once.

  Not that Det or the others would get a chance to settle comfortably behind their prepared desks, with three excited cadets rushing in their direction as soon as they entered the room. Since everybody was ReSouled—meaning they were at least twenty years old on Elestar, plus however many years they’d lived on Earth—it almost made Det laugh out loud to see three very high-school expressions on the faces coming his way.

  “Is it true?” the first cadet, Aria said. “Did you really challenge Aarak to a duel?” For Aria, who sat right in front of Det during class and was a bit excitable, this kind of behaviour wasn’t unexpected.

  Trium, though, who spoke at the same time tended to be a bit more practical and reserved. “Where were you guys? Are you okay?” As soon as the questions left her mouth, her head snapped around toward where Beast normally sat at the front of the room. The two of them were a bit at odds when it came to questions in the classroom, but the instructor was conveniently absent for the moment.

  That just left the third and final cadet—the only guy of the trio—who’d come over with the two women, who also spoke at the same time. “Did you bring us back any souvenirs?” Crazy Legs asked.

  “Whoa now,” Sage said. “One at a time.”

  “Me first,” Crazy Legs said.

  “What happened to ladies first?” Aria said.

  “If they answer my question first, I can go sit down while they answer your questions,” Crazy Legs said.

  “Oh, don’t be like that,” Trium said, punching Crazy Legs in the shoulder. “You know you want to hear the answers as much as we do.”

  Instead of correcting the other cadet, Crazy Legs actually considered the statement, then shrugged and nodded. “I guess I do. I also want souvenirs.”

  “Sorry,” Det said. “Weren’t any shops where we were.”

  “And where was that?” Trium said, standing a little closer to Crazy Legs than she had been before she punched him.

  Huh, those two are becoming quick friends. Or, is it something more? Not that it’s any of my business.

  Putting the thoughts out of his head, Det answered Trium’s question. “Beauty took us out for some field training. Somewhere Sage and Eriba could play with the artificer’s toys to work on their magic. More space, you know?”

  Since Eriba and Sage could only use their magic on Wordless—something most of the population of Elestar didn’t know about, including first-year cadets—the cover had been they were using items crafted by artificers. The things were, in fact, broken Wordless, but it wasn’t as easy for Sage or Eriba to train with outside of the dungeons.

  Dungeons provided their own power to the Wordless within. Outside, it was Eriba and Sage who had to fuel their own magic, and that was a lot to ask of the lowest, E-Rank cadets. Bigger Wordless devices, like mistships, ran on mist, but there had to be a reason why the equipment brought for the two Arsenals didn’t.

  “Location is an artificer secret,” Sage said, putting a finger in front of his lips and shhhhh’ing.

  “But you three are special enough to know about it?” Aria joked.

  “No,” Det said. “Our whole suite went. The six of us.”

  “Why was that even needed?” Trium said. “It’s only those two who need the artificers’ help, isn’t it?”

  Det nodded at the last part. They weren’t allowed to talk about Radiant or the dungeon burst they’d stopped to save the pillar. Instead, they had to weave a believable tale about why they’d been pulled away. And, the best lies contained bits of truth.

  “The others came,” he said. “Hell, I went, because it was a good opportunity for us to get some practice together.” He leaned forward, like he was going to let them in on a secret. “Keep it between us, but I think they set up the roommate situation like they did on purpose. They want us to be groups with our roommates once we finish the academy. As in small, elite military units.”

  “According to what my uncle let slip, Det’s right,” Sage said, catching on quickly. “I bet each of your suites has a Bulwark and a Medic in them, don’t they?” As the cliché tank and healer from games, the Bulwarks and Medics were the two individuals that had to be in every group.

  “Huh,” Aria said. “Mine does.”

  “Mine too,” Crazy Legs said. “Trium?”

  “Yeah,” the third cadet said. “I’m the only Arsenal, though.”

  “A lot of rooms won’t have any Arsenals,” Eriba said, then crouched in on herself when the other three looked at her. “Not enough of us for all the groups,” she finished, voice even more quiet than usual.

  “There’s something wrong with that theory,” Crazy Legs said a few seconds later, saving Eriba from everybody staring at her. “We have two hundred cadets—well, one-ninety-nine after that one guy pissed off the headmaster—and that number doesn’t divide by six. Unless some groups are going to get half-a-Bulwark and share with another room?”

  “Have any of you been to Zedic’s sandwich shop?” Det asked them, and all three nodded.

  “We were there last night,” Trium said. “Best grilled cheese I’ve ever had.”

  “All his food is like that,” Det said. “But, anyway, my point is… he’s ReSouled too. My guess is there are cadets who won’t end up on the front lines. They won’t need units to work with, but will be supporting the rest of us from the background. Probably a few people from this very class.”

  “Oh, like CheezBurga,” Crazy Legs said. “He has magic kind of like Zedic’s. Makes food on the BBQ, and it gives anybody who eats it, buffs. His burgers are something else. I’d stay away from the fish. He’s still working on that.”

  Everybody sort of looked at Crazy Legs, nodded at the part about the food buffs—while ignoring the fish comment—and turned back to Det.

  “And you’re sure you’ll be on the front lines?” Trium asked.

  “If it’ll make me stronger, I’ll be wherever I need to be,” Det said at the same time Beauty walked into the classroom. “Which, for the moment, is right here.”