Chapter 107: Core Collectors

Up until the next day, Leon still hadn’t worked out where Mira had put her feet when she threw him. He’d tried turning the way she had, but every time he did it, he ended up in a position where he couldn’t have lifted anyone. He was sure, if they got paired again, he’d ask her.

The class before practicals was only twenty minutes that day, as it was most days, practicals were the main thing.

Much to his surprise, possibly to many also, Mira was there, already seated among the students. The instructor called her name to stand and introduced her before the class.

"This is Mirabel Laurent. She’ll be joining your class from today."

"Mira is fine," she said, turning a little sideways with a nod, her voice even. She sat back down when the instructor finished.

They spent the rest of the class going over the Green dungeon rotation. The academy had been taking groups in for a few weeks, and it was Leon’s turn that day, at least the group he was assigned. They were to report to the transport area after practicals.

At the practice grounds, the instructor paired Leon with Mira again. They only had time for a few rounds. Leon lasted longer on his feet in the first one by keeping his elbows in and stepping back whenever she reached for him. It worked until he ran out of mat space and options, clearly, she wasn’t going all out too. He tried to turn past her, and she swept his foot as he put it down.

It was the second round he kept thinking about afterwards. He’d managed to get an arm between them on the ground and push himself up onto one knee. He put a hand down to steady himself, and by the time he lifted it again, Mira was behind him with both legs around his waist. He tapped as soon as her arm came under his chin.

They went several more rounds without the instructor calling for a break, but of course, the results were the same.

"How did you get behind me that quickly?" he asked when they were done.

"You looked down at the hand you were putting on the mat. I went around the other side."

He remembered where her shoulder had been when he started getting up. The next time he looked for it, she was already behind him. It was even more impressive that she was able to explain every decision so clearly each time too.

"Would you teach me some of that? Even just how to get up without giving you my back."

"Sure," Mira said. "We can go through it next time we have the mats."

"Thanks." He said, a bit surprised she agreed without friction.

He was impressed enough that it hadn’t occurred to him to actually think about why he was so invested and what he’d use any of it for. No monster he had ever met and will ever meet was going to tackle him and try to pin him into submission. He was still thinking about how she’d gone around him when the instructor called for the students on the rotation to get their bags.

With that, they hurried to the Bus that took them to the Green Gate that had been prepared.

...

They split into groups of four at the Gate site. It was a small Green dungeon with one main route and Grade 1 monsters. The staff had already told them what lived inside and what to expect, and each group would have a junior instructor following at a distance.

Leon found his name next to two others. He hadn’t expected Mira to be the fourth.

"I got my bag this time," one of them said, holding it up by the drawstring.

"Well that’s a miracle, isn’t it?"

"Give me a break will you?"

They went in together. The passage was wide enough to walk two abreast, and they spread out when they reached the first area with a bit more space. Two low, tusked monsters came out from behind a shelf of rock, and Leon called out his Great Swordsman.

One of the boys had just raised a hand to summon his beast, when the Swordsman stepped past the first monster’s charge and cut it down in a single strike. The second turned towards Leon, but Mira was already coming in from its other side.

Her arms and legs grew a little longer as she went into Unification. She took a longer step than Leon expected, slipped past the tusks and hit the monster on the side of its head, dropping it before the boy could process his thoughts.

"I brought a bag," he said, lowering his hand.

"Good thing one of us came prepared," the other replied, taking out his core knife.

They didn’t take time there, and in just under a minute, they harvested the cores and kept on moving forward. The boy was still wiping his knife when they caught up at the next bend where they found three more monsters waiting, immediately turning to attack once they spotted them.

"I’ll take the one on the right," the boy with the knife said with a smirk.

Once again, the Swordsman got to them first, cutting down two while Mira handled the third.

"You can still take the one on the right," the first boy said. "It’s right where you left it."

The second looked at him for a moment before going to collect the core.

By the third encounter, neither of them was calling out which monster he wanted.

"Could you two keep them closer together?" one of them said, once he caught up them since they had gone ahead to scout. "We’re doing a lot of walking back here."

"I can leave the next one in the middle," Mira said, glancing at the bodies on opposite sides of the chamber.

’What do you know... they killed more!!!’ Oh the stream of tears, oh the stream of tears.

"Thank you. That’s all I ask." He said with a fixed smile, thumbs up.

The other boy walked next to him, a similar expression on his face. "How sweet it is to be a collector these fine times my friend?"

"Please shut-up... this tear must not come down..."

After one more encounter, they reached the boss. It was a larger one of the same creatures, with tusks that reached past the front of its head. It stood at the back of the last section of the dungeon, a chamber, scraping a foot against the stone.

The first boy set the bag down and finally brought out his summon, drawing a stance.

"Right. We can at least help with this one." He said, his face getting more serious.

The boss charged the Great Swordsman. Mira came in from the side and struck its front leg just as it planted its foot to turn. The leg buckled, and the Swordsman stepped in behind the tusks and thrust its blade down across the back of its neck, instantly pinning it to the ground.

The first boy’s summon could only stand where it was beside him with both hands raised.

"Brother—"

"Shut up before you become my practice run."

The exit portal opened at the far end of the chamber a moment after the boss fell. They collected the last core, and with the gate cleared, all four stepped through together.