Noah took down several more monsters over the course of the next few hours, trying to push Natural Disaster to its absolute limits. His efforts rewarded him with a small increase to the Rune’s overall strength, but an incredible increase to his confidence in his abilities.

It was exactly what he’d pictured the Rune to be when he’d first made it. Unlike its previous form, Natural Disaster was now completely responsive, as if it were an extension of his body rather than a badly forged tool.

And, even with all the elements to call on, he found himself heavily leaning on vibration and lightning. It had been some time since he’d really had a chance to use Vibration offensively, but it was just as devastating as he remembered it being.

By the time it came to return to the others, he couldn’t have been more pleased. He landed his flying sword beside the group while they were all sitting in a small circle, likely trying to work on their patterns.

“Welcome back,” Moxie said with a small nod. She was the only one that wasn’t sitting; keeping watch over the others to make sure a monster didn’t get the jump on them while they were distracted. “How’d it go with Natural Disaster?”

“Perfectly,” Noah replied with a huge smile. He rubbed his shoulder and let out a wistful sigh. “I wish I’d managed this earlier. It’s not exactly that new, but it feels like everything finally clicked. I can use vibration again as well, which is great. I’m going to need to re-make my Imbuements again, but they should be much better now that I can combine vibration with air and earth more effectively.”

Moxie let out a slow whistle. “So this completely confirms it then, right? We’ve genuinely cracked the secret to making a perfect Rune.”

“Certainly seems like it,” Noah agreed with a nod. “You’re next, by the way. How far away are you from Rank 4?”

“I’ll be actively pushing for it when we’ve got free time. I need to get some new Runes to replace the ones I’ve lost and fill everything up, but Lee and I will just go hunting together. I think we should be able to make it without too much time with the speed we kill monsters at. I’ll value it, because this will likely be the last time we can brute force our way through getting enough energy to rank up.”

“Yeah, I can imagine. I barely got anything in my Rank 4 Rune from the hunting I did today, and I’m pretty sure that it would have given me a hefty chunk if I’d been trying to fill up a Rank 3. I don’t even want to think about how much power we’d need to reach Rank 5.”

“It’ll be more than we can get hunting monsters near Arbitage. Not if we want to make it anywhere anytime soon. There’s a reason so few people make it past Rank 3, much less 4 or above. That’s a problem for later, though.” Moxie brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and looked down at everyone seated near her. “Your class is going well, though.”

“Not that I’m even teaching it right now,” Noah said with a chuckle. “You and Lee took over. I thought I’d come back to everyone stretching.”

“Lee decided to do more pattern practice after she finished up with all the stretching and physical workouts. I don’t think anyone was complaining, though. We’re all pretty excited about this. I’m just a little concerned about how everyone will practice.”

“As long as they don’t do anything when I’m not there, it’ll be fine. Don’t forget that I’m Rank 4 now. As long as they’re in my domain, they can basically practice without any trouble at all. The magic won’t be able to take form.”

Moxie slapped her forehead and let out a burst of laughter. “How did I not remember that? I’m an idiot. Especially with your domain, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem at all to keep their magic repressed. What about when they actually start doing the Formations in real, though?”

“That’s a different scenario. I haven’t fully figured it out yet, but I think the most important part will be getting used to Formations. Once they’ve really understood their patterns and everything else down, only then can they add in real magic. It’ll be safer for them than it has been for literally anyone else that has learned Formations.”

“You’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

“A lot.” Noah nodded. “And I still fear it might not be enough, but there’s no point staying paralyzed by fear. To advance is to risk. I don’t want anyone to get themselves killed for no reason, but danger is part of the process. I’ll do everything I can to guide them, but in the end, it’ll be in their hands.”

“You know, it’s hard to believe you’re the same person that encouraged fighting without a Shield.”

“Look, it was effective. Mages rely too much on Shields. Being able to fight without knowing that you’ll be protected from most forms of magical attacks and a good amount of physical ones is important. Shields build bad habits.”

“I’m not arguing with you. Your methods definitely have merit. You’ve just come a long way.” Moxie raised her hands in surrender. She glanced at the others to make sure everyone still had their eyes closed, then leaned in and gave Noah a quick kiss on the corner of his lips. “It’s cute.”The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“I try,” Noah said with a smile, touching the side of his face. “It helps to have someone to care about. When it was just me… well, never mind. It doesn’t matter anymore. It isn’t just me, and I don’t even want to think about the possibility of something like that ever again.”

They stood together, watching over Lee and the students for the next few hours. Eventually, their transport cannon allotted time ran out and Isabel vanished in a beam of blue light. The others followed soon after her, disappearing one by one until none remained.

After returning to Arbitage, the students broke off to get food and Lee zipped off in pursuit of some poor small animal that caught her eye. Noah joined Moxie in heading back to the T building. When Moxie opened the door to her room, a slip of paper on the ground caught Noah’s eye.

“What’s this?” Noah asked, kneeling to pick it up. It was an envelope, trimmed with the faintest lines of gold. There was no sender or addressee listed on its face.

“Oh! I was wondering when that would arrive,” Moxie said, holding a hand out. Noah handed it to her and Moxie ran a fingernail along the top of the letter, ripping it open and pulling out two slips of glossy paper from within. The first was a plain white, while the one behind it had golden lettering all across both of its sides. Moxie started by reading the first one. “It’s the schedule for the year. I imagine you got one as well, but it was probably delivered to your actual room.”

“Eh. I’ve got yours. What’s it say?” Noah asked. “Do we know what the exams will be and when they’ll take place?”

Moxie scanned through the letter, then nodded. It took her a moment before she started to speak. “Yeah, it does. The first exam is in about three weeks. It’s a Retrieval Exam, and the purpose will be to hunt down a specific monster and bring it back. I think it’s meant to mostly test how far everyone has come and show off to their respective houses.”

“Lovely,” Noah said. “I don’t think any of the kids are going to have trouble with that considering they’re Rank 2s. That’s well above the expectation, right?”

“Yes. None of the exams should pose even the slightest amount of difficulty now that they’re Rank 2. As long as everyone uses their heads, it’ll be a shoo in,” Moxie said with a grin. “The second exam should be interesting. It’s a tournament between all students in Arbitage. They can choose a bracket to compete in and will be assigned rewards based on their performance from the noble families that sponsor the event.”

“What about the third?”

Moxie shook her head. “No information on it, for some reason. They’re keeping it secret to build anticipation. It’s probably some new noble they hired that cares more about making a spectacle for the nobles with money to throw at the school than they do about any of the things Arbitage is meant to stand for.”

“What is Arbitage meant to stand for in the first place? As far as I can tell, the only things it actually cares about are money and Rune research.”

“Okay, fair point.” Moxie rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, then thumbed over to the second piece of paper. She read over it, her brows knitting further with every word.

“What is it?” Noah asked. “That’s not a good look you’re wearing.”

“I’m… not sure what to think, actually. Look. Read it for yourself.” Moxie held the paper out and Noah took it, flipping it around to see the front. There, written in flowing gold, was what amounted to an invitation.

Moxie Torrin, we have found the performance of your student(s) during the previous exam to be exemplary and would like to invite you and them to participate in the advanced curriculum this year. Students in the advanced curriculum will be given access to unique opportunities and will be graded against their peers, with rewards going to the most deserving. Should you wish to accept the invitation, please drop this note off in the Office or with the Enforcers before the dawn of the following week.

“The hell is this?” Noah asked. “There’s an advanced track?”

“I didn’t know it existed either,” Moxie said. “Do you think it’s real?”

“It certainly seems official, and it’s not like they’re asking for anything,” Noah said, chewing his lower lip. He turned the paper over, but he wasn’t even sure what he was searching for. It seemed perfectly legitimate. “And the kids did do pretty damn good.”

“What do you think?”

“Maybe I should see if I got one as well,” Noah said. “One second. I’ll be right back.”

He stepped out of Moxie’s room, heading back to his own. No more than a minute later, Noah returned with a pair of papers in his hands. One was the white paper that talked about the exams they had that year, and the second was the gold-trimmed one with the exact same message that had been on Moxie’s.

“They actually invited Isabel and Todd? Even though they aren’t nobles?” Moxie’s eyebrows rose. “That’s… surprising, actually. Maybe it doesn’t speak well for me that my first thought was that Arbitage would never do something good for people without money.”

“Trust me, you weren’t the only one to wonder,” Noah muttered. He glanced between the papers again, then folded them back up and slipped both into the envelope they’d come in. “I think this is something we’ll need to speak with the kids about. I don’t want to make the decision for them one way or the other. I don’t know what kind of opportunities the advanced track has, but I’m far from an expert on this stuff. I’ve just worked a few things out. If we could get any other forms of advantages, we should try to take them.”

“I agree. Next class, then,” Moxie said with a nod. “Do you have plans for the rest of today?”

“None in particular other than messing with Natural Disaster a bit more and continuing to work on Formations.”

“In that case, do you think you could play your violin for me?” Moxie reddened and glanced to the side. “It helps me concentrate, and I want to try to work on figuring out my pattern for Formations.”

“For you? Always.” Noah’s violin materialized in his hands. “It’ll be a good opportunity to get some more Formation practice in anyway. I want to work on swapping styles and songs on the fly. Just let me know when you want me to stop or I might just keep at it.”

“I can think of worse fates.”

Noah laughed, then let the bow flow across the strings of his violin as he started to play. There was something else he wanted to test with Formations now that Natural Disaster had reached Rank 4, but it wasn’t quite the time. For now, he was more than content just to play.

The testing could come after everyone else was asleep.