Emily finishes her lesson and then wastes the day, resetting twenty-four hours later to gain more free practice brewing and to check for a first-try quest. Upon realising there is no quest, she spends a few resets trying different methods of injecting mana and machina to stir the mixture and remove impurities. Machina has no effect on the process at all, and the moment she tries to disperse her mana within the mixture, it contaminates the process and ruins the careful balance she has formed. However, she does realise that she can create an independent strand of mana with each core to help.

A few weeks later, she finds herself returning to Oscar’s training room once again, this time set up as a plain grey and white hall, reminiscent of the B-grade training room's default setup. Today is one of her few free days, without any of her new intermediate classes, and Oscar has gathered the expedition group to practise their coordination. Standing to the side as they wait for the last few members to show up, Emily and Ivor have a silent conversation alone.

“Weren’t you meant to have hand-to-hand combat classes right now?” Ivor signs worriedly.

“Not anymore, A passed a few of us last week so I’m moving up to intermediate classes now. They’re in the morning instead, but she told me to wait a week before joining since today was a bad lesson to start on apparently.”

Ivor nods before glancing uncomfortably at Oscar, who has kept a close eye on both him and Emily since they entered.

“Are you sure about this? He’s been acting weird for a while. Is this safe?”

“Yes,” Emily answers with a grin. “He’s currently slightly scared of me since I showed him these.”

She moves a hand to her chest and lightly taps one of the grenades hanging from a bandolier. Ivor shivers slightly and nods in understanding, remembering Emily telling him about the contents of the dangerous weapons she carries so casually.

“That’s reasonable then. As long as he won’t attack us, it’s fine.”

Their silent conversation stops as the three final group members walk into the training room. Looking around at the group, Emily notices how all of them but her, Oscar, and four of the bronze-crested vassals are still only wearing their standard robes.

Oscar has a silken purple robe with golden stitching. As he moves to the centre of the room it flaps open slightly, and she sees an intricate weaving of runes concealed within. The four vassals, two boys and two girls, are both without robes. Instead, they are just wearing simple trousers and shirts while carrying large, oversized bags on their backs.

As for Emily herself, while at first glance she doesn’t look much different, underneath her robes are several pieces of newly finished battle gear. Her shoes are an E-rank pair of black, knee-high leather boots that grant her an extra four strength and two agility. The soles are an aggressive-looking black metal, with a few small gears visible on the sides. With a slight burst of mana or machina into the magic array held within, a stream of steam can be released to activate the internal mechanisms to adjust the treads on the bottom. When activated, small sets of metal spikes extend out of the sole to give more traction or deal increased damage with sweeping kicks.

The feature that caused her the most grief to include, though, is the small earth crystal integrated into the side of the heels, which powers a spell for increasing the weight of the shoes at will. With a single thought, she can plant her feet for more stability, or deliver a kick with devastating force. The black metal spreads in thin plates up her shins, providing a little added protection without much weight.

Her trousers remain unchanged, still a simple durable leather pair. However, strapped to her right thigh is a custom-made six-shot revolver. While being a failure in Emily’s eyes, since it only met F-rank, the gun is a delicately machined mass of black metal that comfortably sits in her hand, so she can’t really complain.

Around her waist is a belt with several pouches and a few glass bottles attached. Most of the pouches are filled with ammunition for her pistol, a few of them being unique by-products of her research, and a few being standard. The others contain a couple of magic crystals for powering spells or arrays in a pinch. The bottles contain a few basic healing potions, brought along as an extra precaution.

Her torso is wrapped in sleek E-rank body-armour, which sadly didn’t count towards her progression requirements, but provides her with an extra five vitality. The base of it is a shirt made from the elastic plant fibres she tested for Auntie Annie, dyed in black and given as a gift for helping test the fabric. There are several form-fitting sheets of thin titanium placed over her vital areas, and several runic engravings trace her body’s curves, forming the two passive enchantments of the armour. The runes all flow to meet four small magic crystals sitting at the base of her neck. Two are wind element, solely dedicated to reducing the armour’s weight to a barely noticeable burden. The other two are earth and metal element, the latter being a rare find Emily spotted on the contribution market, working in tandem to reinforce the metal plates against physical and magical attacks.

Finally, lying across her chest armour, barely visible through the opening in her robes, is her bandolier of assorted grenades. Some simple mana grenades, and some a new design containing a mix of black powder and powdered light crystals, with eight thin channels carved down their sides.

As he comes to a halt in the centre of the room, Oscar claps his hands to grab everyone’s attention and calls for them to group up.

“Right, everybody, we leave for The Glade in three weeks, so until then, we will meet up like this once a week to practise formations and combat together to make sure everything goes smoothly. To start with, let’s introduce ourselves and our specialities so we all understand what everyone is capable of. I’ll go first,” he says with a confident smile as he looks around the group. “I’m Oscar, second circle, and I’m a wind mage. I specialise in barriers and long-range attack spells.”

Emily can’t help the small grin that creeps onto her face at his introduction.

No wonder my implicit threat worked so well; I proved that I could kill him through his speciality!

Oscar turns his head to a short boy with a stern frown standing to his left, gesturing for him to introduce himself next.

“Enzo Dianthus, second circle, earth mage, control spells.”

The moment he finishes his brisk introduction, the tall boy with a beaming smile and fiery red hair standing with his arm around Enzo’s shoulder jumps in.

“Dante Hibiscus, second circle, fire mage specialised in area of attack spells.”

“Cormac Anemone, second circle, darkness mage specialised in debuffs,” the final silver-crested boy states calmly, his gaunt face and sizeable eye bags making Emily question if he has ever seen light in the first place.

“Nora Anemone, second circle, light mage specialised in healing,” a short, expressionless girl next to Cormac continues.

“Mia Poinsettia, second circle, water mage specialised in barriers and control,” the other silver-crested girl introduces herself before directing a cold gaze towards Emily and Ivor.

The group all turn their focus on them next, with only Oscar and Dante not displaying clear displeasure at their presence.

“Emily Coldstone of house Mandrago, second circle, I use several elements but mostly focus on fire and lightning. I specialise in close-quarters combat and area destruction I guess,” she says calmly while glancing down at her grenade belt. “This is Ivor Juric of house Madonna, second circle, he’s an earth mage specialised in single target attacks.”

Ivor nods silently in agreement, causing the group’s displeasure to visibly increase. Unconcerned by his group’s reactions, Oscar turns to the gathered vassals and gestures for them to begin introducing themselves at last.

“Bianca Ianni of house Hibiscus, second circle, I’m a wind mage specialised in long-range attacks.”

“Matteo Caprio of house Poinsettia, second circle, fire mage also specialised in long-range attacks.”

“Erin Moore of house Anemone, second circle, water mage specialised in short-range attacks.”

“Bella Angelico of house Dianthus, second circle, water mage specialised in barriers.”

“Fionn McCarthy of house Salvia, second circle, another light mage healer.”

“Callum Gavin of house Salvia, first circle, I’m a space mage but I specialise in close-quarters combat.”

The six vassals in robes speak first, following the example of their family members and giving a short explanation of their combat type. The last of them catches Emily’s attention: she recognises him from hand-to-hand combat classes but is surprised by his element.

I never knew he was a space mage. I’ll have to keep an eye on him. Maybe I’ll get some ideas on how to cast switch.

She furrows her brow slightly at the thought of the space spell she collected but still cannot cast properly. As Emily focuses on Callum, the four mages carrying bags introduce themselves.

“Maeve Boyle of house Salvia, first circle, fire mage with no specialisation.”

“Cian Gavin of house Salvia, first circle, earth mage with no specialisation.”

“Ricardo Milos of house Dianthus, first circle, wind mage with no specialisation.”

“Linda Doria of house Ulex, first circle, earth mage with no specialisation.”

Emily glances between Callum and Cian, unable to spot any family resemblance between the two boys.

Are they actually related?

“Great! I hope you all have good memories so this doesn’t become a weekly occurrence,” Oscar says after they all finish, holding a light, joking tone that elicits a few polite laughs from his silver-crested friends. “First, we shall cover our basic travelling formation. After we get dropped off at the edge of The Glade, our entire expedition will be on foot with danger lurking around every corner, so we have to be alert and prepared for battle at all times. Maeve, Cian, Ricardo, and Linda will be carrying most of our supplies so I would like them to stand at the centre of the formation. Nora and Fionn, you will go with them as well.”

The four robeless mages listen to his instructions and move to stand together in the middle of the group, surrounding Nora and Fionn without instruction, everyone easily understanding the importance of protecting their healers.

“We then need people designated for defence on each side. For this, I want Mia to the left of the carriers’ group and Bella to the right. Although you can’t use barriers, Enzo, your area control will help prevent us from getting surprised from behind, so I want you there. I will take the front.”

As the four defensive mages move to stand in place, Oscar looks at the rest of the group thoughtfully.

“The rest will be more flexible and if anyone else has suggestions on their positions go ahead and speak up, if not I’ll split our forces evenly,” he says while looking around calmly.

Seeing a lack of response from the waiting mages, he nods with a small smile and keeps going.

“Fine then, I want Bianca and Matteo at the back with Enzo. You should be able to support the front still with your range if we run into trouble. Ivor and Cormac will join the left flank, and Erin and Callum will join the right.”

As everyone moves to stand in their designated place, Emily and Dante are left standing alone out of formation.

“And that just leaves you two to join me at the front, with both of your firepower we should easily be able to clear our path,” Oscar says with a grin while clearly focusing on Emily.

Emily nods calmly while asking a question.

“What about detecting enemies? It seems a bit odd to just put large-scale power in the front without the ability to work out what we’re walking into.”

“Good point! Does anybody here have any strong detection spells?” Oscar suddenly turns and asks the group, having overlooked this point in his preparations.

Nobody says anything and Oscar quickly grows disappointed. However, after a few seconds of silence, Ivor raises his hand.

“How does your spell work?” Oscar asks him immediately.

Ivor looks past him to Emily and quickly signs a message.

“He said it detects vibrations in the ground. It works better when he’s stationary but can still be used as an early warning system,” Emily translates before adding input of her own. “Oh, I also have that spell, but I’m not great at using it so I’m going to work on something better before the expedition.”

“That should be fine then, let me know when you finish. For now, we’ll keep this basic formation and ask Ivor to use his detection periodically as we move. Is that okay?”

Ivor nods his head in agreement.

“Sorted! Thanks for thinking ahead, Emily,” Oscar flashes her a grateful smile.

“No problem. It makes my job easier if I know what’s coming to attack me.”

“Haha, fair point. Let’s put our formation to the test then shall we,” he calls out excitedly, looking over the group as his smile stretches into a grin. “Training room, change setting to The Glade test one!”

The moment the words leave his mouth, the entire room starts to shake slightly, surprising everyone as they start looking around. Emily sees the distant plain white walls start to fade, being replaced by a horizon and skyline that she knows can’t actually exist in the underground space.

The ground beneath their feet shifts, turning from smooth grey stone to soft, damp earth, before grass and bushes begin to grow from nothing. As the shrubs reach their chests, suddenly tall trees begin rocketing out of the ground, shooting to tower dozens of metres above them and partially blocking the artificial lights above.

Emily even tastes the air gaining a hint of humidity and a natural earthy smell as a low fog rolls in to surround them. As the shaking subsides, Emily looks around in wonder at the drastic changes and hears the faint sound of branches snapping and leaves rustling, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

“This is a training mode set up by past members of the Salvia household who have been into The Glade. Both the environment and the enemies have been modelled to give as realistic a training exercise as possible,” Oscar says quietly, only just loud enough to be heard by everyone.

“Enemies?!” Maeve cries out in shock from the middle of the formation.

The moment she does, a long, fast-moving object shoots out of the trees ahead of them.

Core two, assistive processing.

With a single command, Emily’s perception slows to a standstill, and she gazes at the long dark red object stretching past her towards Maeve. With a small grin, she reaches and grabs the object, stopping its advance before giving it a violent yank.

A large dark green frog flies out of the trees towards her against its will, pulled by its tongue, and Emily quickly stabs her free arm towards its head. With a small spark of machina, her Claw shoots out and impales the creature, stopping it dead in its tracks, its large dark eyes glazing over within moments.

Assistive processing off.

“Yes, enemies,” Emily says quietly, dropping the beast's disintegrating corpse to the ground and turning to look at the horrified expressions of her teammates.