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2.22 - Small Talk

"The three main factors are the quantity and quality of monster cores," Sofia said, "which floors you're delving, and finally, the number of weekly outings."

The third surprised Natalie. "How

often

you're delving?" It didn't line up with Tenet's modus operandi—always reward merit, not effort.

"Tenet wants to encourage hard work in

some

way, I suppose. Have rewards to those pushing the hardest, even if they're not the most adept." She shrugged. "If I had to guess, it's not the biggest factor. But Instructor Lauer mentioned it, so."

"And how do they track all that?"

"Without people cheating?"

"Seems like they could buy cores and lie about it."

"Tenet's able to detect how recently a core's been gathered."

"How?"

"Devices." Another shrug.

"And why can't someone pay a higher rank to collect them? Then pass it off, so it's recent?"

"You slept through the whole class, didn't you?"

"Jay doesn't let me sleep," Natalie said sourly. "She forces me to suffer." But she

did

zone out, regardless of her friend's efforts to keep her conscious. Even when she wasn't zoned out, the information went in one ear and out the other.

"Well, like I said, in modern days, they use various tech to handle most of it," Sofia said. "Before, to my knowledge, they kept profiles of students and compared expected results. Aberrant cases, those who deviated too far, were inspected, and most incidents of cheating were unearthed through ... whatever methods they used. And when cheaters

were

caught, they leveled sufficiently devastating consequences to persuade most opportunists to not even try. Tenet's been playing this game for a long time. They know their way around keeping students in line."

A long time. Yeah. Millennia. Sometimes it was hard to contextualize just how old this institution was. Sure, back in those days, Tenet didn't look anything like this—that is, modern—but the academy had been formed shortly after Aradon's first settlers. The world had always needed delvers dragging up valuables from the dungeon.

"Tech," Natalie repeated. "What kind? How does it work?"

"We'll be getting them next week, right before the dungeon opens. Devices that fix under your delver's badge and track your movement, and the quantity of essence expelled near you. Along with Tenet's original measures, cheating's become, I assume, close to impossible." She shrugged. "Though only close. I'm sure appropriately enterprising individuals can—and do—manage it. The question is why, really. High risk, high effort, low reward. Because even in the best case, you have to keep your results reasonable to your performance in class."

So if you weren't much of a delver, and that was clear in daily life, then you couldn't cheat much, either. The only situation she imagined the effort being worth it was someone incompetent cheating to scrape by a 'passing' grade for the prestige that came with being a Tenet graduate.

"Huh," Natalie said thoughtfully. She'd known there would by systems in place, but hearing the details was interesting.

"Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering."

Ahead, the fight was wrapping up. Natalie, and likewise Sofia, had been keeping a passive eye on the combatants. Not just because knowing her classmates' skill sets was useful, but because there was plenty to learn from each of them. One of the most crucial skills needed to be a successful delver was adaptability, because no two encounters were the same. Similar to how classes and skills had few to no limits in how they might manifest, the monsters, traps, and layouts of the dungeon resulted in similarly infinite variance.

So, breaking down how elements interacted: how two of her classmates applied or took advantage of their skills, their teammates', and their enemies', was a close approximation of how a person might analyze a dungeon encounter. Natalie found her brain churning passively, even while talking with Sofia. She might not be able to pay attention in class, but combat? Breaking down fighting styles? She could do that all day.

"You pick your extracurricular, yet?" Natalie asked.

Sofia turned to her, raising an eyebrow. "Small talk? With me?"

Natalie paused, realizing the world

had

ended. She grimaced. "It's dark times we live in."

Sofia laughed. Natalie thought it outrageously unfair how cute the noise was. She also pointedly ignored that she'd had the thought.

"We should spar after class," Sofia said. "We need to get a handle on how our styles have changed. Jordan, too. If we want to be a team, we're going to have to know each other, inside and out."

Was it Natalie, or were accidental innuendos coming more frequently, these days?

Also.

That thought, combined with Sofia. 'Knowing her inside and out'.

Uh.

Her mind went briefly white.

From horror.

Not ...

Definitely horror.

"Sure," Natalie said, her brain failing, briefly, to structure more reasonable thoughts, and saying whatever came to mind. In this case, agreeing to Sofia's offer for spars. "What time?"

Sofia seemed surprised she'd agreed so easily. "Whenever. We'll ask Jordan when she's done."

They watched the fight wrap up, and she caught Sofia eying her. It was ... a fair reaction. That exchange of theirs had been surprisingly easygoing. Very unlike them.

Natalie wasn't sure why it had been so. Sofia's presence was still distinctly inflaming, but not as

much

as back home. She guessed with so many other things going on, Sofia just wasn't ... well, the biggest thing in Natalie's world, recently.

She meant that in a bad way. The biggest

roadblock

. Her rival. Sofia wasn't—

Anyway, she hadn't been sitting in Natalie's thoughts, aggravating her. And they weren't each other's rivals in the way they'd been back home. The two big fish in a tiny pond, desperately struggling to pull ahead of each other.

But in these new circumstances, Sofia as a teammate, with everyone

else

their rivals. It was far from ideal. Natalie would never like the irritating woman, but maybe she could grow on her. Some sort of horrible lichen, but ultimately tolerable.

Even that, though. Sofia growing on her. What had the world come to?

2.23 - Prep Talks

Lunch rolled around, and Natalie found herself seated with Jordan and Sofia.

Liz didn't join them. Despite having made quick friends with them, and hanging around during spars and class, that was because, well, she made friends with everyone. She did the same for other groups. She was a social butterfly to an astounding degree. Likely, Natalie figured, that girl could make friends with a dungeon monster.

So, just the three of them. Weird how that sounded normal. 'The three of them'. Sofia did

not

belong in the group. The seamlessness she was integrating was unnatural.

"So. You met Ana at the party, right?" Jordan asked Sofia.

While Natalie's adventures the night prior had been of a much less productive sort—or productive in an atypical way, considering her class—Sofia had attended the semester-opening party with Liz, hoping to get to know some of her classmates, and more importantly, find potential delving partners.

"I did," Sofia said.

"And?"

"She's ..." Sofia paused. "Well. She's hard to read."

"Meaning?"

"She's cold," Natalie said, cutting in. She'd met Ana, briefly, with Liz, when they'd first broached the idea of teaming up. "Her face is made of stone. She doesn't inflect her voice. It's creepy." Natalie chewed her lip, not liking how she'd put it. "Well, that's a little too harsh. She's just ..."

"Odd," Sofia said, agreeing. "Non-emotive. But," she said, emphasizing the word, "apparently competent."

"Then that's all that matters, right?" Jordan asked.

Sofia shrugged in a way that said she

mostly

agreed, but not wholeheartedly.

Natalie had mixed feelings on it, too. It was looking more and more that their first delving team had been organized. The three of them, plus Liz and Ana. Liz, Natalie had no problems with, besides

maybe

the way Natalie would inadvertently be aligning herself to the Beaumon house.

Ana, though, Natalie wasn't sold on. Again, she'd only briefly met the girl, but Sofia had agreed with her assessment, having spent more time together—and in an ostensibly casual setting, the party. If the girl remained stone-faced even hanging around in an easygoing environment, drinking and chatting, then Natalie found herself dubious it was a matter of 'warming up'. That might just be Ana.

But Jordan's viewpoint was a hard one to argue. If she was a competent mage, who cared? Natalie wasn't marrying the girl. In fact, a detached, perfectly composed demeanor—even to the point of being unnaturally so—was likely a good thing in the dungeon.

Just, she'd always imagined her adventuring party would be ... friends? With her?

Way too sentimental of a view. Natalie frowned at herself for even formalizing the thought. Professionals. That was what her delving team should prioritize being, first and foremost. Maybe even if it was a

bad

thing she and Jordan were such close friends. Would it affect her decision making, down in the dungeon? Would Natalie, the team's tank, guard Jordan more than appropriate?

It could be a problem. Jordan was Natalie's highest priority, bar none. She hadn't even considered the issues that might cause.

"Hello? Nat?" A hand waved in front of Natalie's face, and she blinked her thoughts clear. An amused Jordan was peering at her. "Lost in thought, much?"

"Little bit. What's up?"

"Sofia asked if we wanted to join her to the Exchange, after spars." Jordan gave Natalie a scathingly potent look, one which made it clear she didn't have a choice in the matter. "Want to?"

Surprisingly, the idea didn't appall Natalie like it should. Spending time with Sofia after class? In a casual, non-necessary setting? It should have her stomach turning.

For now, she simply forced herself to believe she felt that. She frowned, making it clear it

did

bother her (why didn't it? Why was Natalie fine hanging out with

the devil

?), and said, "Fine. What for?"

Jordan seemed satisfied Natalie hadn't made too big a deal of it. "We should get a feel for the place. We're gonna be spending a lot of time there, aren't we?"

"I guess."

"Plus, aren't you interested?" Sofia asked. "The Exchange. Run by the automatons. Half the world linked into a magical, cosmopolitan marketplace."

It

was

interesting, she guessed, but Natalie wasn't sure why Sofia made it sound so grand. It was the Exchange. It'd been around forever. And so had the dungeon, she supposed, so that argument didn't hold, but

compared

to the dungeon, it wasn't much.

"Sure," Natalie said. More relevantly, the topic broached, she asked, "How're we handling equipment, anyway?" Second week—and the opening of the dungeon—was going to be on them before they knew what was happening.

"What part?" Jordan asked. "Selling? Splitting loot?"

"Nah, I mean, gearing up for our first."

"Whatever starting gear we get, I'd assume." Jordan looked at her curiously, as if not understanding the question.

"Tenet's giving us that?"

Sofia snorted, making it clear Natalie had asked something stupid. Natalie narrowed her eyes in return.

Jordan, on her part, seemed exasperated. "Nat. You really need to pay attention."

"Why? I have you."

She rolled her eyes. Though, at the same time, fought away a smile. Natalie knew Jordan liked when she pointed out her reliance on her. Everyone had small things that stroked their ego, and Natalie referencing Jordan's smarts was one of them. And when it came to Jordan, Natalie was happy to stroke.

Er.

"But they do, then," Natalie said. "Give us armor."

"They'll be giving us starting funds," Jordan said. "Over the weekend, we'll have a chance to buy starter equipment from the Exchange."

Ah. So it

was

practical to be checking out the marketplace ahead of time. They ought to know their way around. "How much?"

"Money? Ten first-tier cores."

Natalie choked. "Each?" She'd known delvers made serious money, even the lower tier ones, but still. That was a

starting

stipend?

"It'll barely buy us a set, each," Jordan said amusedly. "Delving equipment isn't cheap."

Natalie also knew that, but again, being faced with the numbers had caught her off guard. Ten first-tier cores was somewhere around a hundred helixes—which was a lot of money. At least by the standards of her and Jordan. To most Tenet students? Probably not.

She shook her head, incredulous. "But after that, we're stuck trading in the Tenet branch?"

"Using tokens," Jordan confirmed. "And requisitioning from the main Exchange will come with markups."

"Outrageous ones," Sofia added. "Certainly not worth it."

Tenet had its own mini-economy. Natalie wasn't sure why they encouraged that. Maybe to cut down on cheating, by being able to track who was buying and selling what? Though she couldn't fully see how. Tons of what Tenet did wasn't clear to her. Systems designed over decades and centuries. And some of them were probably pointless or outdated. Not every machine was perfectly built.

"We should hurry," Jordan said. "The bell's about to ring."

Natalie glanced at the clock, blinking. Sure enough. The time had flown by. She picked up her fork and returned to her meal.

2.24 - Jordan I

Jordan knew two things for certain. First, that her friendship with Natalie was the most important thing in her life, and that she would never do anything to jeopardize it, and second, that she was catastrophically, terribly in love with her.

The latter was a recent discovery for Jordan, but, she'd realized, not a recent

development

. It was an old, long-standing, incident. After more than a decade spent as the fiery red-hair girl's best friend, their relationship had settled in a way concrete would. Their friendship had been defined so firmly that—even coming to terms with their compatible sexuality in their teen years—it'd never crossed their mind to be together in that way. Because that wasn't what they were, and what they

were

was perfect, and so neither of them had wanted, or even thought, to risk it.

It had taken a monumental event to prove how flimsy those 'concrete roles' were, but when it'd happened, it'd cracked open like an egg, revealing the horrible mess inside.

Unfortunately, Natalie was a gargantuan idiot.

Jordan already knew this. Natalie's relationship with Sofia had made it clear ages ago. When it came to romance of a casual sort, Natalie was more than fluent. Over the years, Jordan had seen her best friend work her way through plenty of girls, basically every eligible woman—who swung that way—in the local sparring scene. Even a few straight ones, if she had to guess.

But the moment Natalie took interest in someone her conscious brain hadn't slotted as 'a potential girlfriend', she was hopeless. Sofia, obviously, had been the first culprit. Having grown up together, and always eking out wins against her, Sofia had slotted into Natalie's brain as 'her rival'. That Natalie had romantic inclinations—though the extent Jordan wasn't fully certain on—toward the girl was plain as day. But she'd been defined in Natalie's head, and it would take something close to the world ending for her to realize it.

Likewise, Jordan had a role. 'Best friend'. Thusly sorted, breaking away would, like Sofia, be close to impossible.

And that was fine. As Jordan had already decided, her friendship with Natalie came first. She wouldn't do anything to jeopardize it, and that truth held much firmer than her newest realization: how horribly in love she was. Her gargantuan crush took second, third, fourth priority to their lifelong friendship. Especially when her crush might not even be returned.

Not that Jordan

thought

it wasn't returned, that her affection for Natalie in a romantic way was one-sided. She wasn't quite as oblivious as her best friend. Though, at the same time, it was well known that love blinded, and so Jordan could easily be under, over, or misreading things entirely. That was the problem. She was too close to the matter. She'd never see it clearly.

So, while Jordan thought it

was

returned—the hints were there—unfortunately, she could never be positive, even if she

felt

she was positive. Which she didn't in the first place. So, she had zero intentions of risking anything by pushing for a change in the status quo.

Doubly to the point, as Natalie's best friend, Jordan knew the girl well. If Jordan

did

want their relationship to change to something more, while also minimizing the chance of disaster, then Natalie had to be the one to realize and act on her feelings,

not

Jordan.

Those realizations in place, it was important that Jordan kept her feelings hidden away, which wasn't the easiest task for someone who could read her so well. And at the same time, she had to nudge Natalie along with hints. Subtly.

Well. Natalie-subtly. Which mean bashing her over the head with her intent, but not stating things outright. For all Jordan loved the girl, she was a humongous idiot when it came to certain things. To be fair, almost everyone was.

All those thoughts organized, she had a plan. A practical one, even, that had just enough reasonable motive that Natalie shouldn't be suspicious. Though she really

ought

to be.

Which led them to this moment.

"So," Jordan said. "You never told me how your date with Sammy went."

"I didn't?" Natalie asked idly. "It was, um. Nice."

She was distracted. Jordan didn't wholly blame her, but really. They were just boobs. It was the third time Natalie had gotten to grope them. "And don't forget to cover more ground," Jordan said, rolling her eyes and gently guiding Natalie's hands down her body, then behind, so her best friend was grabbing her ass. "Yesterday, we tested one target, so now, we're going for coverage. See if there's more energy."

"Right," Natalie said.

Natalie's obvious appreciation of her body didn't mean much. Natalie was, Jordan knew, a bit of a pervert. She'd never ogled Jordan, not even in locker rooms when they were changing, but that was for aforementioned reasons—their strictly defined relationship, and the way Natalie's brain worked.

Now that all this had started, Natalie—and Jordan, for that matter—had been forced to confront just how attracted, physically, they were to each other. Natalie had handled that surprisingly well. She'd accepted that their intimate sessions meant physical attraction, but not something more.

Jordan ... thought. Again, she couldn't know for sure. It was something they were pointedly not talking about. And Jordan genuinely believed that was for the best. Natalie needed time to digest and confront ...

whatever

was going on with her. For that matter, Jordan did too. While she had worked some things out in her head, she definitely hadn't worked

all

of it out.

With Natalie's hands now on her ass, groping her, Natalie wasn't as distracted. Natalie liked to watch when she was playing with Jordan's boobs, but she couldn't do that with her ass. At least, not facing each other, and Jordan didn't intend to turn around and let Natalie go at it without distraction. In fact, this compromised, half-distracted state was ideal for the upcoming conversation. Jordan had been planning it.

Locking eyes with Natalie's intense blue ones, she said, "Don't have too much fun, though. We need to talk."

2.25 - Jordan II

"Talk," Natalie said. "About what?"

"Sammy."

Natalie tilted her head. Her thoughts had visibly cleared up, focusing on Jordan's face, now, instead of her boobs, but still, she wasn't wholly zoned in, with her hands groping away at Jordan's butt. For that matter, Jordan was the slightest bit distracted herself. It was hard to be groped by her best-friend, her recently-realized crush, and take it wholly in stride. She liked to think she was good at controlling herself, both outwardly and inwardly, but she wasn't made of stone.