While he was waiting for his next free cast of Touch Heal to become available, Tom kept an eagle eye out for any monsters; however, none turned up. Midway through, he had felt the skill stress lesson enough to allow an extra cast of Power Strike, so that after that he hadn’t felt as exposed. It was still a relief when the full six minutes ticked over and he was able to get Kang on his feet. With all of his free spell counters reset and the reducing skill stress, they were almost back to full fighting fitness.

  He grinned slightly at how gingerly the other boy was moving. His healing had not been as comprehensive as either of them would have liked. “I know the leg’s a bit stiff, but you should be able to move.”

  “A bit stiff. Is any of it not scar tissue?”

  “I’m skilled, but there’s only so far I can stretch twenty mana.”

  “That little?” Kang asked seriously. “I thought you had, like, forty to spare.”

  “Usually I do, but not now. I’m at my limit. I can’t generate precognition affinity mana, or, at least, I’m resisting the temptation, as I don’t want to lose access to my offensive abilities.”

  “That’s probably a good call. We definitely have to get out of here.”

  “That we do.”

  They fell into their normal positions, with Kang at the rear and Tom leading them. Three minor battles came later, but none of them were against more than two opponents. Eventually, they escaped back to safety without taking any further injuries.

  Kang exhaled heavily. “Thank the lord we’re back.”

  The girls looked at him suspiciously. The sigh had expressed a bit too much relief.

  “What does that mean?” Eloise demanded.

  “An old Earthly saying.” Kang temporised. “Just a way to express relief at being in familiar surroundings.”

  “We only came back this early because we agree to be very cautious.” Tom said, taking pity on. They had an unspoken pact not to alarm the other two. “The run went well.”

  “Yes, exactly.” Kang cleared his throat. “That was a simple fun excursion with a bit of excitement mixed in… um… it was good, wasn’t it? A couple of minor injuries and little danger. I have to say, great job, girls. You now know what a real battle feels like, and you’ve listened super well the entire time. I think we can count that as the normal group training session. So, why don’t you two go and play in the secret room?”

  “The no-reincarnator club?” Eloise said brightly.

  “Yes, that one,” Kang agreed.

  Giggling, the two of them linked arms and turned to leave. Tom watched and listened as they did so.

  “I don’t think I’m going to be a fighter,” Eloise told Briana as they left.

  “Yeah, me neither; it was smelly.”

  “It’s not that. It’s just that it hurt so much when they bit me. I don’t know how the other two did it.”

  The door shut to their private play area, which Adam had modelled on the play equipment in the main gymnasium. Basically, it was a series of safe spaces, tight tunnels, slides and ladders. It was the girl’s idea to ban the boys from entering - an outcome that both Tom and Kang had been happy with, as it had given them free time to train harder.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  When the door clicked shut with a finality that confirmed that they were finally alone, Kang let out an explosive breath. “We’re screwed. The next two floors will kill us.”

  “It wasn’t that bad,” Tom said, disputing the characterisation. His personal view was that, while the floor had presented challenges, provided they showed it respect, they weren’t and wouldn’t be at any risk.

  “We almost died, Tom.”

  “We did not. We had one dangerous moment when you got hurt. Apart from that one fight where the mind spike disabled you, I thought we did pretty well. We can’t judge everything through a pessimistic lens.”

  “That attitude’s flawed, Tom. You need to realise it. Views like that are why humans have struggled so much. Dimitri and I talked about this. Adventurers should go fifty years without coming close to dying even once.”

  “Fifty years?” Tom scoffed. “That’s not even close to being realistic.”

  “It is!” Kang shouted at him. “It’s what natives and other races do. It’s why they’re successful, and why humans are losing. Too many of us died taking stupid risks.”

  “I thought that failure was because of reliance on fate and running into a swarm that negated that advantage.”

  “That was a symptom of the problem, not the underlying issue. As a competition cohort, we were all too reckless and arrogant.”

  “Well, your fears don’t apply here. We didn’t almost die. I had a few tricks up my sleeve that we, thankfully, didn’t have to use.” He was mainly thinking of the knife, but he wasn’t going to tell Kang about that. Using it would be a gamble, and the longer he left it, the more likely it was that the odds would pay out in his favour.

  “But what if we did? If another mob had come when I was injured, do you really think you could have won?”

  “I have trump cards,” Tom reiterated. “But you’re right, that was an own goal. A completely unnecessary mistake.”

  “I shouldn’t have insisted on you healing Eloise first. I can see that now.”

  Tom grimaced. He appreciated the maturity Kang was showing by saying that, but he has had time for self-reflection as well:

  “No, that was my blunder. You were the one with significant blood loss, you weren’t in a position to make the call. I saw the puddles and your skin tone. I knew the state you were in, and didn’t act on that knowledge. I don’t want to use excuses, but I’m just not used to fighting with people, and I hadn’t considered the ‘what if more enemies come’ use case.”

  Kang shrugged. “Me neither. When I play out desperate situations in my head, I always assume that, when it comes down to either me or one of them, I would always choose to sacrifice myself. But that’s wrong, isn’t it? A lot of the time, if either one of us dies, then all of us do. It’s not a simple equation. I’m starting to think that generally we’re going to have to prioritise ourselves, even if it means one of them dies, if only to keep the other alive.”

  “This is a shitshow.” Tom agreed. “Not that we should be surprised: we knew how it was going to be when we decided to accept the blackmail and enter.”

  “We’re like fish in a barrel.”

  “No, we’re not. I keep telling you that I have stuff in reserve.”

  “I don’t know how you can possibly possess a trump card that I’m unaware of, given how open you’ve been about the intricacies of your build.”

  “You can say so, if you want, but I do.”

  “Then what is it?”

  Tom said nothing.

  “I’m going to assume it’s a GEAs that’s stopping you from talking, but, whatever secret you have aside, I still think we’re screwed.” Kang repeated. “You saw what we were fighting today. That wasn’t a random match-up. It was tailored for us to beat. It was super favourable, and we still almost died. The next two waves of enemies are just going to be harder and harder. These guys were supposed to be nothing. The easiest of stepping stones to ease us into the real thing. Instead, we were almost butchered.”

  “We’ll be stronger when we face the next floor.” Tom promised. “I’ve almost got Lightning Javelin already, so I’ll have that available at a minimum, and hopefully Remote Power Strike as well. Once I have that combination, it’ll massively increase my deadliness.”

  “And I’ll have dark missiles, but I’m not sure that’s enough.”

  “Talking ourselves into a tizzy won’t help anything. We make it all, we don’t... All we can do is prepare as best we can.”

  “That’s gloomy.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Tom, don’t change the strategy. Let’s keep this from the girls, right?”

  “I’m not an idiot. I won’t let anything slip. Telling them has no upside.” He looked up at the ceiling. “Adam, can you tell me how much of the floor we've cleared?”

  Excluding the boss, 40%. 10% will regenerate overnight, which will leave you with 70 % to clear tomorrow.

  Next to him, Kang nodded at those numbers appreciatively. “Two smaller sessions tomorrow. If we clear twenty to thirty percent per day, we can have this finished within a week.”

  “Agreed. We went half an hour too long today.”