The courtyards were nestled at the very back of the Institute’s sprawling campus, a small clearing ringed by ancient oak trees whose gnarled branches formed a natural canopy overhead. Two saddled horses were waiting tied to a tree, their glossy coats and powerful builds marking their pedigree.

  Liliya had been sitting on the grass in a meditative pose, her eyes closed and her breathing steady. Her purple-silver hair fell over her shoulders in waves, and she was dressed in the same sleeveless black top from the other day, presumably to allow for greater ease of motion with her sword. The moment Levi had crossed into the clearing, though, her bluish-purple eyes snapped open and she rose to her feet in one fluid motion.

  “You’re late.”

  “Sorry I’m late,” Levi said. “I had a spider problem to take care of.”

  Liliya paused. “A… spider problem?”

  Levi nodded seriously. “Several of them.”

  “You got held up by spiders.” Liliya’s voice was flat.

  “Tricky little buggers, they were.” He had knocked out his attackers easily enough. The hard part had been carefully modulating his magic to make sure he didn’t accidentally kill them. He'd thought about punishing them, but he had already been running behind on time. It was fine. He knew their faces.

  “I’m sure,” Liliya said. She looked like she wanted to call him out on the lie, but seemingly thought better of it. “Let’s go. We’re already behind schedule. I took the liberty of securing a mount from the Institute for you.”

  Without another word, she turned and began untying her horse, running her hand along its neck. The horse let out a contented whinny and Liliya’s gaze softened just a fraction. She mounted the horse in one fluid motion, kicking off the ground in a graceful arc and settling in the saddle with barely a sound.

  Levi, for his part, was staring at his horse with a slightly daunted expression. The horse stared back, its beady black eyes locked onto his own. “We’re riding horses there?” he asked warily.

  Liliya looked down at him as she expertly pulled the reins. “What, you thought I brought them along for fun?”

  “No, it’s just…”

  Levi hesitated.

  Ever since he’d become Death’s servant, animals did not like him. At all. They had an almost instinctive aversion to him, their senses far more attuned than a human’s. Even after he'd been released from Death's service, they could still sense his lingering connection to Death, no matter how faint. And the link terrified them.

  Phoenixes were the worst offenders. You’d think that for a creature based in the cycle of death and rebirth, they’d be a little more accepting of the scent of death, but no. Levi had gone near one of the mythical creatures once, and it’d nearly had a heart attack.

  Unfortunately, it appeared this trait had carried over with him to his new life, because as Levi stepped forward, the horse stepped back, letting out a low, nervous neigh as it pawed the ground anxiously.

  “I believe it might be best if we secured another mode of transportation,” Levi said. “Surely there must be trains in Luxanne?”

  Liliya snorted. “Trains? We’re headed to the eastern wildlands here, not a major city.”

  “... Warpgates, perhaps?”

  Liliya stared at him. “Are you an adventurer or not? It’s just a horse. Go on, he won’t bite.”

  When Levi made no signs of moving, she rolled her eyes, leaned over, and gave him a push. Not expecting it at all, Levi stumbled forward right into the horse’s direction.

  The horse’s eyes immediately filled with alarm, the majestic beast letting out a panicked “NEIGHHH?!” as it reared back on its hind legs and–

  “I apologize.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “No, truly, I’m sorry. I… I didn’t expect the horse to react like that. Institute horses are the best of the best, each having undergone extensive training from a master Beast Tamer. I’ve never seen one behave in such a way before.”

  “It’s okay.”

  Levi and Liliya were riding their steeds through the city side by side. Neither of them looked at each other as they talked; both of them were resolutely staring straight ahead.

  “I mean, I didn’t even know horses could pull off a drop kick like that.”

  Levi closed his eyes. Breathed in deeply. Opened them again to reveal an expression that could’ve been carved from stone.

  It had been his fault. His instincts hadn’t registered Liliya’s push as an actual threat, so he hadn’t evaded it in time. An amateur mistake. Three years in retirement really had rusted him, and as punishment he’d received a double hoofed kick to the gut.

  That, at least, had finally triggered his instincts, his magic automatically wrapping around his torso in a defensive shield. As such, he’d received no physical damage from the blow.

  The damage to his pride, on the other hand?

  That had been beyond economical repair.

  Levi. The archmage servant of Death itself. Knocked backward on his ass by a single horse.

  If this ever got out, he’d never live it down

  In the end, Liliya had managed to coax (read: bribe) the horse with ample amounts of sugar cubes and apples. Still, Levi could feel the horse’s tense muscles underneath, ready to buck him off at a moment’s notice.

  Just in case, he stealthily adhered himself to the saddle with a light touch of magic. Not a second time today, buddy.

  The two fell into a silence as they rode through the bustling markets of Luxanne. Street vendors on either side hawked their wares, savory aromas drifted through the air, and pedestrians jostled past them on either side. Levi saw several children pointing at them excitedly, their eyes wide with admiration. One young boy even saluted, a wooden sword by his side.

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  It appeared adventurers, and adventurers-to-be, were well-respected and revered in Luxanne. It made sense; adventurers patrolled and defended the city from encroaching monsters. Because of them, the citizens of Luxanne could live safe and prosperous lives.

  Such was the theory, at least. However, Levi’s sense for negative sentiments was honed enough that he detected a couple of dark looks cast their way. They were few in number but unmistakable nonetheless; the slight tightening of jaws, the subtle scoffs, the stifled pain in people’s eyes. Had they lost loved ones who’d been adventurers? Or was there another reason?

  Not for the first time, Levi wondered what the social dynamics were like in Luxanne. The textbooks had talked about it, of course, but he knew better than to trust ink on paper. No, for something like this, a trip to the taverns was far better suited – the seedier, the better. Levi mentally made a note to hit up one of them as soon as he returned.

  Andevar had been a commoner, hadn’t he? And he had been treated like less than dirt by the others at the Institute. Never mind the fact that he had been ranked third in their year – if anything, that fact had seemed to only infuriate the others even more.

  As far as Levi could tell, everyone had the same access to the System. It was just that most of an adventurer’s growth occurred after they began actually adventuring – and adventuring was both an extremely dangerous and costly expenditure.

  Gear cost money, potions cost money, training cost money. Mortality rates for beginner adventurers were exceptionally high; there was a reason why the Institute typically required seven years of education before students were allowed to graduate as an adventurer.

  Consequently, the odds of a commoner becoming, and surviving, as an adventurer weren’t the greatest. Most adventurers seemed to come from noble, military, merchant, or other adventurer lines.

  He could be wrong, though. The Institute of Ascension did skew toward the members of upper society, considering its status as the most prestigious adventuring institution. Luxanne, and Luminarche as a whole, had many other adventuring schools as well. Perhaps their student demographics were different, and they had more students with commoner backgrounds in their ranks.

  As they rode toward the outer districts, Levi noticed an increase in traders, travellers, and other adventurers on the road. More than a couple adventurers inclined their heads in respect at Liliya. It seemed Liliya’s reputation extended beyond the walls of the Institute.

  Levi received his fair share of looks as well, though his was considerably less friendly.

  Seriously, just how bad had Levi Ironwood’s reputation been? Levi didn’t know whether or not he should be impressed.

  Finally, he and Liliya reached the massive walls surrounding the city. Up this close, they were truly gigantic, stretching up to the sky – though they didn’t quite pierce the clouds like the Institute of Ascension’s central tower did. The walls were constructed of stone and reinforced with narrow beams of silver at even intervals. Levi didn’t sense any active magical enchantments, but silver was a good conductor of magic, hinting toward dormant defenses ready to come to life at a moment’s notice.

  The walls surrounding the city had four gates total along its length, one facing each cardinal direction. He and Liliya were at the eastern gates, a grand archway nearly thirty meters high. Travellers and trading caravans escorted by hired adventurers flowed in and out, while guards at the gates checked papers, inspected cargo, and collected tolls and taxes.

  Levi and Liliya passed through gate inspection easily, their assigned gate guard performing a perfunctory check on their Institute papers before waving them through with a wish of luck and a respectful salute.

  And then they were out.

  Levi looked around, taking a second to appreciate the view. This was the first time he had seen beyond the walls of Luxanne. Uneven fields of grass stretched out as far as the eye could see, bunches of shrubbery and meadows of flowers dotting the landscape here and there. Off in the distance, he saw rolling hills and tall forests. A well-beaten dirt path winded through the grasslands.

  “It should take us approximately three days of travel to arrive at the Grove of Embers,” said Liliya. “We’ll meet our proctoring professor there. On our way, we may meet monsters, bandits, and outlaws. I suggest you stay on your guard at all times; while I will try my best to keep you safe, even I can’t be everywhere.”

  Levi nodded. “No worries, we all have our flaws.”

  Liliya’s eyes flashed. “Excuse me?”

  “Sorry, nothing,” Levi coughed. Oops. That had accidentally slipped out.

  Liliya pinned him with a hard stare, but dropped it. “Whatever. Just… don’t wander off, don’t get separated, and by the Goddess, don’t jinx this mission.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  And then they were off.

  After leaving the walls of Luxanne, the first thing Levi noticed was just how less potent the ambient magic felt. It was still stronger than in his old world, but it was no longer screaming directly in his face like it had been while he was still within the bounds of the city.

  Initially, he had wondered if there was a magical barrier surrounding Luxanne that sealed in the ambient magic, but he quickly dismissed that idea; he would have definitely sensed if such a barrier existed. Not to mention the sheer fucking logistics that would’ve been required to create a sustained barrier of that size and potency; it would probably take an entire team of archmages to even begin attempting such an act.

  After some mulling, Levi had realized the reason for the increased ambient magic within Luxanne.

  It all came back to the Institute of Ascension. Levi hadn’t thought about it before, but the tower must’ve required a tremendous source of magical energy to maintain its incredibly powerful and vast magical enchantments. Extending his senses deep into the ground, he confirmed his theory.

  Magical leylines.

  The energy that powered the Institute of Ascension came from the world’s magical leylines themselves, swirling metaphysical streams of magic that ran below the earth’s surface. The entire city must’ve been constructed atop one of these leylines, with the Institute itself located on top of a leyline node, a point where the magic was especially concentrated.

  Levi didn’t know whether the city or the tower had come first, but he had a feeling it was the latter. The city had likely been later constructed around the Institute, converging around the safety a concentration of adventurers generated.

  However, the further they traveled from the city, the further they strayed from the leylines, thus the decrease in ambient magic.

  Come to think of it, that was also how dungeons worked in this world.

  Monsters were naturally drawn to magical leylines and hotspots. They fed on magic, absorbed it, in some cases they even fused with it. Once enough monsters had congregated in an area, surveyors dispatched by the Adventurer’s Guild would classify that location as a ‘dungeon,’ though several pedantic academics had protested the term, arguing that ‘dungeon’ implied an underground location when really even a grassy field could qualify to be a dungeon if the conditions were met.

  Those academics had been summarily ignored for the pedants that they were. Tradition was tradition, semantics be damned.

  The Adventurer’s Guild employed a vast number of surveyors whose jobs were to go out and investigate potential dungeons, categorizing them based on ambient magic levels and preliminary inspections. These surveyors were typically of the Scout class, allowing them to quickly escape if things ever went south.

  Entire ecosystems could form inside a dungeon as competition between different species drove natural selection, or worse, interbreeding. The longer a dungeon was left alone, the stronger the monsters within would become. That was why whenever a dungeon spawned nearby a village or town, adventurers tended to be dispatched as soon as possible to prevent the dungeon from increasing in tier.

  At least it wasn’t Levi’s problem. Well okay, it technically was, since he and Liliya were supposed to clear a silver-tier dungeon to pass the Ascension Trials.

  However, back in the library, Liliya had told him to stay out of the way and let her handle things. Levi fully intended to listen to her. He still felt a little bad about the circumstances, after all.

  After learning from Andevar about how hard she’d worked to prepare, he didn’t want to take any credit from her; he wanted there to be no doubt that she alone had conquered the Ascension Trials from start to finish. As such, he planned to just sit back and let her take care of everything.

  It was the least he could do, really.