After Sylvester’s successful failure of an attempt to liven up Rossa’s mood, the four continued with their picnic as the afternoon continued to go by, however, another question popped up in their heads. “So uh guys.” Estelle suddenly blurted out. “How exactly are we going to get stronger at a slightly quicker pace?” She suddenly asked, receiving only silence as an answer. Now that Rossa seemed to have recovered her old spirit, Estelle found it proper to ask this question that was surely floating in each of their heads.

“Huh, good question.” Sylvester chimed in, just as equally clueless on what to do. “I guess we can take more missions? But I kind of don’t want to at the moment.” Sylvester followed up. While part of the reason for his unwillingness was because he was still technically “recovering”, he was also quite afraid of the entity he calls Masked Entropy. Its words echoing in Sylvester’s mind, almost sending a shiver down his spine. He doesn’t know if it will set another stage for him so he needs to be prepared for an inevitable encounter. 

As Sylvester quietly mused in his head, the conversation about gaining strength continued as it was now Rossa who gave her two cents. “How about we just go read up in the library?” She suggested much to Artian’s disdain. 

“What? Why? What are books going to do for us?” He asked in opposition. “We need something more practical and immediate than reading some tutorial on how to summon a demon or whatever.” He rudely blurted out. 

“Ahh, still a dullard I see.” Rossa countered. “Books contain knowledge, a lot of knowledge. Inanis Orbis has a large backlog of learning materials most likely dating back to the olden times of your world. There are surely books or even scrolls that give us enlightenment if we study.” Rossa explained in her old high and mighty tone. 

“Whatever. Books will not give you any practical value. They are all theoretical at best, if you want to get stronger you need get in there and put in some work!” Artian explained his side of the argument. “Sure you can find a book about swordsmanship but that shit ain’t gonna turn you into a master overnight!” Artian continued.

“Of course that’s not gonna happen Artian!” Estelle now interjected. “But there is value in learning from the instructions laid out in a book. It will set your foundations and then you go and practice it yourself!” It seems that Estelle is taking Rossa’s side of the table, in the book camp. 

“We are dealing with magic here! Knowledge is literally half the battle!” Estelle raised her voice, even waving her arms upward. 

“No! What we need is practical experience and we can only do that if we spar or heck, find a teacher willing to train us in fighting or whatever. We need a more personal mentor that can show us a path and be strict with us.” As expected, Artian didn’t relent and stood his ground firmly even against Estelle. 

“Ugh, this is getting nowhere!” Rossa scoffed as she glanced at the absent minded Sylvester who was still lost in his own thoughts. “Hey, dear leader.” Rossa called out to him, jolting him out of his trance. “Yeah? What do you need?” Sylvester absentmindedly replied, making it obvious that he wasn’t keeping up. 

“Dude, were you even listening?” Artian remarked as Sylvester scratched his head. “Ah nevermind, fine. Let’s just do it this way. Me and Sylvester are going to do some training or find a teacher, while you two go find some ancient fuckin book that will give you hoolabaloo magic spell or whatever.” Artian suggested. 

“Wait, what?” Sylvster blurted out, but Rossa’s response to the provocation drowned out his confused words. 

“I see, a contest then? Fine, have it your way.” Rossa said with a smile. “I see it has come to this.” Estelle said in an over dramatic fashion. “But you leave me no choice! It seems we shall be opposite sides this time around Artian!” She declared. 

“Whoa guys calm down! Why are you doing this?” Sylvester finally cut in, voicing his own concerns. “Can’t we just do a combination of your suggestions? Best of both worlds, we’re not gonna lose anything anyway. A joint and focused effort is sure to yield better results.” He declared, trying to be the middleman between the two sides, however Estelle was having none of it.

“And now you’re acting like the voice of reason? Don’t you dare try to be the sensible person now of all times you crazy lunatic! You just had your face beaten to a bloody pulp because you thought it was a good idea!” Estelle loudly opposed Sylvester. “This is also a good time to teach this rude man a lesson. Books are essential and I will demonstrate it for you!” Rossa proudly declared.

“Heh, you’re on ladies! In the end I will prove that I am right.” Artian fired back causing Sylvetster to let out a sigh.

“I don’t have a say in this don’t I? Aren’t I supposed to be the leader.” He weakly complained. 

“It’s three to one, that makes it a democratic vote. The leader is only worth two votes.” Artian fired back while making a very arbitrary rule. 

“What do you mean I'm worth two votes? Fine okay. Sounds fun now that I think about it.” Sylvester said with a smile. “After all, competition brings about the best results! It is how evolution works anyway, so why not? No matter who wins, we all will inevitably grow. The stage is set, let this friendly competition between man and woman commence!” Sylvester declared in a boisterous tone. 

While this setting was completely juvenile and stupid, it will still yileld great results and at the end of the day it was all that mattered. After all, what’s a little bit of play fighting between friends? With all that said and done, the afternoon descended into dusk and soon the four had to pick up their things and head back to the dorms. 

---

As the darkness of the night descended the two women can be seen fussing over what they should do, even though this was just a friendly competition, Rossa didn’t want to lose and so did Estelle. “Okay, so what do we plan to do?” Estelle asked Rossa as the pair sat on the floor. Rossa had a piece of paper placed in front of her while Estelle hugged a rather large stuffed toy. 

“I think we should try to map out our approach and research.” Rossa explained as she took out a black pen and placed it in front of the paper. “We need to put down the fields we are currently kind of sufficient at, and then write down the ones we want to have a bit of grasp on.” She said as she started writing. “This way we won’t have to go searching blindly into the sea of knowledge and we can have a targeted search.” 

“Oh I see.” Estelle remarked in acknowledgement. “I think I am currently good at elemental based spells and a bit of alchemy.” She began to give her thoughts. “If there is one thing I want to get good at I think it would be the elemental spells, more precisely if there is a way for me to cast a few of them at the same time.” Estelle declared as she took the pen from Rossa and started writing down as well. 

“If a situation where I am forced to not use any sort of transformation, I would need to have some sort of advantage and not rely on my eyes.” She pointed out while adjusting her goggles as if to give emphasis to them. 

“I see that makes sense. Don’t you want to get better at Alchemy too? I mean you do rely on those potions to change forms right?” Rossa asked. “Well yes, but it’s much more complicated than that. The potion is just half of it and frankly I don’t really like relying on it.” Estelle meekly replied as the expression on her face soured.

“Oh I-I see.” Rossa stammered her words as she realized that she might have gone somewhere she shouldn’t.

“I’m sorry Estelle. It seems you’re not very comfortable with this topic so let’s just move on?” Rossa offered. 

“Okay. Thanks.” Estelle replied with a smile.

“But-” Rossa suddenly interjected once more. “Promise me you will talk to me about these kinds of things, but only when you are ready okay? I do not like seeing you all so gloomy when it comes to your own abilities.” Rossa said in a rather bossy but concerned tone. “Okay, I promise. But in turn, you have to tell me your story too. I know you went through some things as well.” Estelle fired back causing Rossa to smile.

“Sure. Okay,. We are straying too far now. Okay. Multiple spell casts huh?” Rossa steered back the conversation. “I think our teacher will get to this topic sooner or later but I do want to study in advance.”

“Yeah sure, but given how Sylvester was kind of stumped back then when it came to chain casting back then wouldn’t this be a bit difficult as well?” Estelle asked. 

“Oh, that makes sense.” Rossa said as she put her hand underneath her chin. “How about we ask the headmaster for a bit of reference guidance. I’m sure he’d be okay with it.” Rossa suggested.

“But why the headmaster?” Estelle voiced her confusion. After all, this petty squabble with their friends seemed very trivial for someone like Leonardo Da Vinci. “Well, we did manage to complete a very tricky mission by ourselves. I think he would be more than happy to give us a few privileges don’t you think?” Rossa explained. “Ah I see what you mean.” Estelle agreed.

As the two women continued on their strategy meeting the two boys however were taking this challenge a little too lax.

“So, what do we plan to do?” Artian asked. 

"Why are you asking me?" Sylvester jokingly replied. "You're the one who got ourselves in this game so you come up with a plan." He continued as he lazily lied on his bed.

“Meh, let’s just go ask the headmaster. He owes us a big favor anyway.” Artian declared after giving it the minimum amount of thought.