“I didn’t get isekai’d to study,” Calisco whined as the group headed toward one of the training rooms. After Det had said he was going to practice with his Wordless equipment, the others had decided to tag along, and they’d stopped at their suite to pick up their gear after class.

  A class that involved far too much vocabulary and memorization for a course they didn’t need to ‘pass’, as far as Det was concerned. Then again, maybe that was just him? Like Caustic had said, his brain kept trying to default to what he knew from Earth—what he’d learned in his engineering classes—and it really seemed to make the alchemy textbook read like witchcraft. Witchcraft written in an entirely different language, backwards, and by somebody with a screw or two loose.

  His best chance—according to Majordomo, who’d been doing rounds—was rote memorization. For people like Det, the only way to ‘get it’ was to stop trying to ‘understand it’ and just follow the steps. Kind of like how Yumi had told him to stop trying to learn how to cook.

  All he had to do was follow her recipe, and he couldn’t screw things up. Hah, joke was on her. He still messed it up.

  Det let himself dwell on the happy memory of the look on his wife’s face when she’d walked into the kitchen, only for flour to practically explode across her. It was like something out of a sitcom. Especially as she’d chased him around the room, swinging the open bag of flour to try and get him back. She’d half-succeeded, and made an absolute disaster of the kitchen. That had been… fun to explain to Nat when she got home from school. Not to mention why they were only half dressed at that point…

  “… he’s not listening,” Sage’s voice cut through the memory.

  “And that grin is kind of creepy,” Calisco said, fully dismissing the moment of peace.

  “Just planning my future revenge,” Det said, not interested in talking about his family at the moment.

  “On the alchemy class?” Sage asked.

  Det looked at Calisco before answering. “Something like that.”

  “Count me in on your revenge,” Eriba said. “Alchemy is evil.”

  “Don’t be like that, you two,” Sage said, ever-cheery. “It’s not so bad.”

  “Says the guy who understands it,” Det said.

  Sage slipped himself in between Det and Eriba who had been walking next to each other, and put one arm over each of their shoulders.

  “I could help you study,” the man suggested.

  “I'd rather you help me plan how to stab alchemy,” Eriba said quietly.

  “Don’t you mean stab one of the instructors? Weiss, asked, no judgment in his voice. He was weirdly on the cusp of understanding and not understanding. His medical training back from Earth should’ve put him in the same boat as Det was, as far as Det was concerned, but it didn’t seem to limit the Medic in the same way.

  If anything, it was giving Weiss an easier time to look past the parts of alchemy that didn’t bloody make any sense. Why would adding a pepper to a fire make the fire cold? Seriously?! Either way, Weiss had basically noped-out of answering questions on the test. Instead of doing what Det did—trying to figure something out—Weiss had quickly assessed the test and accepted he didn’t know enough to even try answering.

  Instead of trying to force the alchemy process to conform to what he knew, he admitted he would need to start the learning from scratch. Luckily, he sounded like he enjoyed studying, unlike Det, Calisco, and Eriba.

  “No, they seem like nice people,” Eriba said, bringing Det back to the present. “I’m not angry at them.”

  “So, you’re saying,” Tena started. “You want to stab the subject alchemy?”

  “Yes, repeatedly,” Eriba replied.

  “It doesn’t make sense, and stabbing it won’t help it make sense,” Det said.

  “That’s true,” Eriba replied with a nod of her head, though her face was—as always—hidden behind her bangs. Seemingly having a thought, she looked in Calisco’s direction. “Or maybe we can explode it?”

  “I like how you think,” Calisco said. “Sign me up for exploding just about anything. Heck, we can do the textbooks right now, if you’d like.

  “We left those in the suite,” Det pointed out. “Though, we could go back for them if it involves exploding them.”

  “Whoa, something must be wrong,” Tena said. “Cali and Det are agreeing on something?”

  “I knew he’d come around,” Calisco said.

  “How are you sure it’s not you agreeing with me?” Det asked.

  “Cause I’m the smarter one?” Calisco said. “And any exploding would be done by me, so obs, I thought of it first.”

  At the words, Eriba actually paused, which in turn forced Sage, with his arm over her shoulder, and Det—who was under Sage’s other arm—to also pause.

  “Can we really explode the books?” she asked.

  “No, we have other things to do right now,” Sage said, gently pulling Eriba along again. “We can explode textbooks later. Preferably after we finish using them.”

  “I don’t want to use it,” Eriba pouted.

  “We’ll figure it out,” Det said, though he was about as optimistic inside as Eriba portrayed. “Even if it’s just memorizing the recipes, which—as much as I hate to admit it—I was able to do.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Eriba whined. “It’s only when I try to think about why the recipe works that it all falls apart.”

  “What does that even matter?” Tena asked. “Don’t you still just remember it?”

  Tena was kind of like Weiss, almost getting it. If she was going to fall on either side of the fence, Det would put money on her being compatible with alchemy. She wouldn’t be some kind of brew-master, but she’d be able to make basic or moderate potions. A good skill for the group’s Bulwark, really.

  “No, that’s the worst part,” Det explained. “Until I think about the recipe, I can see it in my head like I’m looking at the page. But as soon as I think about how the ingredients are going to interact with each other, it’s like somebody comes along, rips the page up, and throws the pieces to scatter around inside my head.”

  “They’re rattling around with the rocks in there, huh?” Calisco said.

  Det gave her his best glare, but since she wasn’t looking in his direction, it didn’t have much effect. Not that it would if she’d been paying attention to him either, anyway.

  “Once the list is torn up in my head, I can’t put it back together,” Det said instead. “It’s just ruined. Unless I look at the page where the recipe is and memorize it all over again.”

  “That’s more than a little strange,” Tena said.

  “Same for me,” Eriba added. “All torn up and blowing in the wind.”

  “As Caustic suggested,” Weiss said. “It probably has something to do with your backgrounds. Det, you told us you were an engineer?”

  “No,” Det corrected. “Mechanic. I had an engineering degree and took some chemistry classes. Apparently, a mistake. I mean, I thought it was a mistake at the time, but now it’s a mistake for an entirely different reason.”

  “Did you take the class for a cute girl?” Sage asked.

  “No comment,” Det replied.

  “What about you, Eriba?” Sage said, squeezing the woman’s shoulder a little closer. “I know they call you Tinker now, but did that have something to do with your past life?”

  “I also had an engineering degree,” she said. “Robotics.”

  “Oh wow,” Sage said. “That’s impressive. Pretty helpful too, with—you know—the artificers’ gadgets.”

  Considering they were out in public, Sage couldn’t mention the Wordless, but everybody present got it.

  Like Det’s hobby for painting seemed to have something to do with his ink-wash style magic, it sounded like Eriba’s past career as a robotics engineer had something to do with her current magic. Looking at the others, Det realized he didn’t know quite enough about them to be able to pinpoint if there was another connection, but that would be a discussion for later.

  How have we never really talked about it before?

  One look at Calisco reminded him of the answer. Not everybody wants to talk about their past. Something had clearly happened to Calisco on Earth, and being there on Elestar—as a ReSouled—was a chance for her to start over. Weiss had his regrets about the man he’d killed, and Tena’s drive to be famous had to come from somewhere.

  Hell, now that he thought about it, Weiss and Tena had never even talked about their first encounter with Wordless. He’d have to ask them about that at some point, though it wouldn’t be now, with the training building appearing in front of them as they rounded a corner.

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  “And here we are,” Sage said, finally taking his arms off Det and Eriba’s shoulders. “Did Beauty tell us which room was ours?”

  Det shook his head. “Didn’t even see him after the morning class. We’re just trusting that he reserved a room for us.”

  “That seems risky,” Tena said.

  “Nah,” Calisco said. “Because we asked Beauty, not Beast.”

  Tena couldn’t argue with that logic.

  “Why don’t we just go to the front desk?” Weiss said. “I’m sure they’ll have our name somewhere.”

  “Well, Det’s name,” Sage said.

  Since it was as good a plan as anybody had, that was exactly what they did, the six of them marching up to the front desk that had two people sitting behind it.

  “I think I have a reservation this evening,” Det said, when the woman behind the desk looked up at him.

  Like most other folks in the Mistguard, she wore a uniform similar to Det’s, but not quite the same. She wasn’t ReSouled like he was, so her uniform had a little less red.

  “Name?” she said.

  “Det,” he answered.

  “One moment, please,” the woman said. A blue window appeared in front of her like a computer screen, and her fingers tapped out something on a keyboard that looked more illusion than real. A second later, she nodded. “Reservation was made by Instructor Beauty, correct?”

  “That should be the one,” Det said. “For today, right?.”

  “Yes, and it mentions you may bring friends with you.” She looked up at the others with him. “I see that has turned out to be true.”

  “Yeah, is that okay?” Det said.

  “Yes. We have assigned you one of the larger rooms.”

  “Oh, perfect,” Det said.

  “Where can we get some target dummies?” Calisco asked, leaning over Det’s shoulder. “Dummies other than this guy, I mean.”

  Det didn’t need to turn to know she was pointing at him.

  Instead of immediately answering, the woman behind the desk looked at her screen for a moment. “According to our records, this isn’t your first visit to our training hall. Were you not given an orientation the first time you came?”

  “Orientation?” Det repeated the word.

  “I’ll take that as a no,” she replied. “Which functions within the training room did you use last time you were here?”

  Det blinked at her for a moment.

  “There are functions to the training room, other than it being an empty space,” she said. “Please follow me”

  With that, she stood up from her chair, nodded at the man who’d been sitting there as if to tell him she’d be right back, then exited from behind the desk and started down the hall without looking over her shoulder or pausing. She clearly expected them to follow, and follow they did.

  Generally speaking, from their last visit, the training hall was set up kind of like a gymnasium with lots of small squash courts or something along the sides. The last time they’d been in a room, it was similar in size to a junior high school gym.

  What they got led to this time was of similar size, down near the back of the hallway, but still on the first floor. From outside, the training hall looked to be at least five or six floors tall, though it could be a little deceptive since each of the training rooms had high ceilings.

  Once all seven of them were in the room, the desk clerk closed the door and then lifted her hand nearby. A gray rectangular area that didn’t match the wall color in the rest of the room became another illusory panel as soon as her hand approached it.

  “This panel will control the various functions the room offers. As for the earlier question of training dummies…” She tapped a button and then pointed at the far end of the room.

  Turning, Det and the others found six constructs that looked like solid light. Unmoving, forged of blue light, and completely featureless other than being humanoid with two arms, two legs, and a head.

  “You can control which Rank the training dummies will simulate,” the desk clerk said. “Up to and including low-A rank. Using any more power beyond that will not only destroy the dummies, but damage the training room. I would ask you not to do that, as the cost of repairs will come out of your salary.”

  Everybody other than the clerk looked at Calisco. If anybody was going to be damaging anything, it would probably be her. Explosions and all that.

  “What are you all worried about?” Calisco said as she noticed everybody looking at her. “I can explode D-Rank things, but no way I’m at A-Rank yet. It’s fine.”

  “It worries me when she says it’s fine,” Sage said.

  “You’re learning,” Det said in reply.

  “By controlling the durability of the constructs,” the clerk went on, “you can use it as a gauge to determine how powerful your own abilities are. Please keep in mind that there is a plus/minus variance to how strong they are compared to things you may meet in the field.” She tapped a few more buttons on the illusory panel, and the constructs each dropped into a basic fighting pose. “You can use them as more than just target dummies. They can also act as limited training and sparring partners. There are several combat styles and fighting routines you can ask them to use. I am not going to go through all of them, but I would encourage you to experiment.”

  “That’s great,” Det said, looking over at Weiss. The man had thrown his first punches against the birokks and then been, frankly, a bit of a terror against them. However, the party had yet to see if he would continue the path of violence, or go back to being a pacifist. If they could get him sparring with hard-light constructs, that would go a long way in getting him to continue to fight when they needed him to.

  “What else can the room do?” Tena asked.

  “A larger training room like this can also construct obstacle courses out of the same hard light as the training dummies, as well as things like basic weights or exercise equipment,” the clerk said. “Those are the functions that most will use it for. There are, of course, also options to add background music or the equivalent of what I am told you call podcasts—I don’t really know what those are—with various academic lectures recorded that can be accessed.”

  “Any about alchemy?” Sage asked, a slightly evil grin on his face.

  “Please no,” Det said.

  “What?” Sage asked. “I thought you might need a little more motivation for hitting those dummies a bit harder.”

  “Believe me, I’ve got plenty of motivation,” Det said.

  “Well, if you change your mind…” Sage trailed off and looked at the clerk.

  “Yes, there are alchemy lessons available as well.”

  “See? There you go,” Sage said.

  “Can we just get to hitting the dummies?” Det asked.

  Eriba nodded vigorously. Clearly the more times Sage said the word “alchemy”, the more the woman wanted to partake in some violent therapy.

  “Anything else we should know?” Det asked the clerk.

  “Just that you have the room reserved until midnight. After that, we’d ask you to leave and, of course, clean up after yourselves.”

  “No problem,” Det said. “You won’t even know we were here.”

  “Unless Calisco figures out how to explode A-Rank things,” Weiss said.

  “Stop worrying,” Calisco said. “I’ll get to A-Rank, but probably not today. Probably.”

  “Then I shall leave you to it,” the clerk said. “Unless you have any other questions?”

  “No, we’re good,” Det said. “Thank you very much for your help. And the orientation.”

  The desk clerk nodded, turned, and left, shutting the door behind herself.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Sage said.

  Det tapped the white hilt of the katana at his hip and then the scroll on his shoulder. “I’m here to figure out how to get the most out of these.”

  “I definitely claim the training dummies”, Calisco said, the white gauntlets already on her hands, and her earmuffs on her head. “I may not be A-Rank, but I’m gonna try to explode them as much as I can.

  “Got my duel tomorrow to get ready for, after all.”

  Her duel? Oh yeah, totally forgot about that.

  “And, though I’m sure I’m going to regret this,” Tena said. “I’d like to test my reinforced shield against your explosions.” Tena held up her own hands inside their white gauntlets. One would make her shield stronger, while the other would improve her spear. Make it stabbier, as she described it.

  “Sounds like I know where my place is going to be this evening,” Weiss said. On one shoulder, the epaulette there glowed fiercely, giving him a supplementary energy source for his magic. He also had his healing whip coiled in one hand, and Det couldn’t wait to see how that worked.

  He also couldn’t wait to hear the various commentary from the rest of the group the first time Weiss used it.

  Eriba had her toolbelt around her waist, and the Wordless pack across her back. Inside that would be the pistol she’d built in the last dungeon, and from the way she was eying the target dummies, she didn’t need to say anything for Det to know what she’d be doing. Then again, maybe he was wrong?

  When had she pulled that paper and pen out? And… what was she writing on it?

  As Det recognized the word drawn inside a bullseye, he could only chuckle.

  Alchemy.

  She was going to work on her accuracy at the same time she vented.

  Sage must’ve noticed the same thing, from the soft laugh coming from his direction. When Det looked over at the other man, he couldn’t stop the belly-laugh that roared out of his chest. Sage had put on his Wordless helmet… looking a lot like he was wearing a white football on his head.

  At the laughter bellowing out of Det, the others couldn’t help but look, and they all had the same reaction. Even the usually stoic Weiss had to put a hand to his mouth to hide his laughter, while Eriba’s bangs still obscured her face, but bounced like she was laughing her ass off.

  “Why…” Det started, but had to fight for breath even with his ReSouled body. “Why… why are you even wearing that? You don’t have anything to control.”

  “An issue I am here to correct,” a new voice said from the entrance to the training room. Beauty’s voice. “I have been given special permission to allow you to use this while under my direct supervision and outside of prying eyes.” At the words, he held up what looked a lot like a suitcase.

  Not that there was any mystery as to what was inside. It was the same case he brough to class for Sage to practice with. He’d brought a small—dead—Wordless for Sage to practice with.

  “You’re going to stay here and spend your evening with us?” Calisco asked. “You missed us that much when you didn’t see us since this morning?”

  “As has been explained to you in the past,” Beauty said at the same time Sage jogged over to take the case off the instructor’s hands. As soon as he had both hands free, he turned to the panel on the wall, and his fingers blurred as he entered a new command. All around them, the walls seemed to take on a darker tint, while there was a distinct locking sound.

  “You earn the opportunities you get,” Beauty continued, with the task of isolating the room completed. “This is one of those benefits.”

  “You must have other stuff you could be doing, though,” Det said, thinking back to Caustic’s rather blunt admission she had better things to do than coddle some new cadets.

  “Yes and no,” Beauty said. “Were I not here at the academy, I would be on the front lines, providing support for the rest of my party. Since many of them are here serving a function similar to myself, that other duty is currently irrelevant.”

  “Well, I for one appreciate you being here,” Sage said, holding up the case.

  “You’re welcome, Cadet Sage,” Beauty said. “As for the rest of you, since I will be here ensuring nothing goes wrong with that, I will also be available to help all of you with getting more familiar with your equipment.

  “If you have questions, or need advice, please ask.”

  “Wow, thanks, Beauty,” Det said. He’d figured he’d be muddling through it on his own, but having somebody like Beauty around could certainly help. Still, he had to ask. “How did we get lucky enough to get you instead of, say, somebody like Beast or Captain Simmons.”

  “If Beast were to attend in my place, it would not be a reward for you,” Beauty said plainly. “Please keep that in mind if you don’t live up to our future expectations.”

  Det winced at the veiled threat. Being forced to endure Beast’s ‘advice’ for a full evening without Beauty there to temper her sounded like a horrible way to spend his time. Beast, likewise, would hate it, making her even meaner. It would be like a self-perpetuating cycle of torture.

  Hard pass.

  “We’ll definitely do our best,” Weiss said, clearly catching on to the same thing.

  “As for Captain Simmons,” Beauty said. “While he was interested, he had other duties pulling him away from Mount Avalon.”

  “Everything okay?” Det asked.

  “Nothing unusual,” Beauty said, and looked at the Wordless sitting in the open case in front of Sage. “A regular cleaning.”

  Ah, the Bladestorm was needed to clear a dungeon. An A-Rank one, most likely.

  “Something you will all be working toward in a few short days,” Beauty reminded them about their next week, which would be back out practicing in a Wordless dungeon.

  “Meaning we should stop talking, and get to training,” Sage said.

  “Exactly,” Beauty said, crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall as each of the cadets began to experiment—for the first time, seriously—with their new Wordless gear. If they were going to attempt clearing a second dungeon soon, being familiar with what the equipment did was a necessity.

  And a path to getting stronger. The whole reason Det was there.

  At least, unlike alchemy, he wasn’t going to fail using the sword like he had that test.