Natalie jolted awake to pounding on her door.

  "You two better not be fug!" came a familiar muted growl. "I swear! Beio css is ohing, but our quest? Absolutely not!"

  Immediately, Natalie panicked.

  Late?

  They'd overslept? To their quest?

  Her attention so the clock, and sure enough, they'd either ignored or fotten to set their arm the night prior. With how exhausted they'd beeher possibility made sense.

  Jordan also jolted awake, head pivoti and right as she got her bearings. "Oh, shit," she said. "We're not even packed."

  "I know you hear me," Sofia called. "You two go one m without sl on each enitals. It's possible, I promise!"

  "We're ing," Natalie called—which was maybe not the ideal phrasing, sidering the accusations being leveled at them. "I mean, we woke up te. We'll be out soon!"

  For onatalie was also panicked by the idea of being te. As Sofia had said, beio css was, while a poor refle of them onto Te—and could result in disciplinary as if it happened frequently—ultimately not that big of a deal.

  Beio a quest, though? That reflected poorly o itself, which was a much bigger deal. Quests were Te's means of 'unity outreach' and improving the perception of delvers onto Valhaur's popuce as a whole.

  So missing the train and showing up te to a missiohey o be proteg an iown from a ret monster sce? Te would e down on them like a hammer. Which wasn't to mention Natalie's own shame at putting people in need further at risk.

  Both Natalie and Jordan nearly fell out of bed as they scrambled for the closet aroom, respectively. In a frenzy, Natalie started smming clothing and other ies into a suitcase. They should have taken care of it the night before, but yesterday's dungeon delve had gone off the rails in such a chaotic way.

  Sofia let herself in. She gaped at the two of them as they frantically packed and got ed up. "You overslept? I thought you were just being yourselves! This is even worse!"

  "You stand there and scold us, or you help," Jordan shot back.

  Shaking her head, Sofia joined in on the frenzy. It was only a two-to-three day quest at most, so if they missed a thing or two it wouldn't be a huge deal—but still.

  Adding to the chaos, something else signifit had reared its head.

  "Also," Natalie said. "I leveled up. Did you two?"

  "What?!" Sofia and Jordan excimed. "Already?"

  "Is that a no?"

  "What'd you get?" Jordan asked, peeking out of the restroom, speaking past a mouthful of toothbrush. Her bck hair was a wild mess. They would probably have to skip taking a shower this m, too, so Natalie thought: good luck to her.

  "Haven't looked," Natalie grunted. "Don't want to get distracted."

  "Keep it that way," Sofia said. "We figure it out orain ride."

  ***

  They made it to the train station on time. It was a good thing Sofia hadn't somehow slept in too; that would have been disastrous. As it was, they piled into the and had their tickets checked while panting from exertion, having run the whole way there. Navigating the station itself had been a headache too. Aradon, as the capital of Valhaur, was the tral nexus of the nation-spanning train system. The station was nothing like the smaller ones bae.

  As a team of Teudents heading out on a quest, they had a reserved to themselves. Liz and Ana were already posted up inside, leaning ba the soft 'U' shaped bench seats that encircled the miniature room. They'd likely been there for some time yet, having arrived early out of a justified paranoia. Again, Natalie would not have wao see what Te would've doo them, if they'd been idiotiough to miss the train's departure.

  Colpsing onto their bench seats without even stowing their luggage underh in their proper spots, the three of them sagged down in relief.

  "Something happen?" Liz asked curiously, perking up as they entered. "Cutting it close. Only four minutes left."

  "Don't lump me in with these two irresponsible women," Sofia grumbled. "I was ready perfectly on time."

  Natalie would normally snipe back at Sofia for that, but in this instance, she'd been their savior. So Natalie let it pass.

  "What happened?" Liz asked.

  "What do you think happened?" Sofia snorted. "It's these two we're talking about."

  Liz paused, then blushed. After a moment, Sofia realized the implication. Especially sihat had been her first assumption too, when she'd been pounding on their door.

  "We overslept," Natalie said, correg her. "Fot to set the arm, I guess." Or had just smmed it off without realizing. Though that was more of something Natalie would do, not Jordan.

  "Ah," Liz said, suggesting she didn't fully buy the excuse. Not that it was an excuse. For onatalie hadn't gotten too caught up in having her best friend in her bed—it had been a genuine mishap.

  "Anyway," Natalie said. "We made it. Doesn't matter. How's everyone feeling?"

  At the question, all five of them rolled their shoulders and stretched their sore muscles.

  "Better," Liz said tentatively. "Definitely better."

  "But still like I've been run over by a carriage," Sofia said in amusement.

  "It's unfortunate we won't be in top dition for the quest," Ana ented. "Though, I suppose it's rated for level twos. It shouldn't be overly difficult."

  "Especially with us outpag normal level twos," Liz said. "Holy, I think we o get down to the third floor our rip. Maybe even the fourth."

  Jordan raised her eyebrows at that suggestion, sihe fourth floor would definitely be pushing things. "Speaking of," she said. "Our tank here has an annou."

  Natalie coughed. For some reason, she found it an awkward topic t up. Maybe because she didn't think she fully deserved having leveled before everyone else. She'd been w her ass off, yes, but so had the rest of the team. To some extent, she'd just been blessed with a ridiculously strong css. It wasn't 'hard work' putting her on such a prodigious pace—at least not wholly.

  "Yeah," Natalie said. "I hit level three."

  "What?" Liz excimed, eyes shooting as wide as Sofia and Jordan's had. Food reason. It was a ridiculous pace, even sidering hoidly they'd been w through the dungeon. After a sed, Liz reined her rea in, then tilted her head. "Huh. I guess it's not that ued. Still, level three already? You're probably the first at Te."

  "Elida was, actually, acc to rumors," Ana interjected. "I heard it mentioned."

  "Really?"

  Ana shrugged. "It may just be a rumor."

  The possibility briefly spoiled Liz's excitement, since Elida was obviously her rival—everyone's rival, really, but especially Liz's. But the healer perked up again, fag Natalie.

  "So?" she asked. "What'd you get? If you want to share," she quickly corrected. "Just, is there anything that matters to us?"

  "Haven't even looked at them myself," Natalie said. "Woke up and had to rush here. Didn't want to get distracted."

  "Seriously? I don't think I could've helped myself."

  It'd been a bit of a struggle, admittedly. Of course she'd been dying to know what her skills were, especially when all she had to do was take a sneak peek inward. "I just know how crazy they get," Natalie said dryly. "So I figured it was best to wait." Otherwise she might have passed out on the way over, if it'd been something especially weird.

  "Well, you made it. So …?" Liz leaned forward, a rea that probably wasn't fully iional, as did Jordan and Sofia, showg their i.

  "Let's see," Natalie said.

  ***

  [Divine Invigoration] - ACTIVE. PROGRESSION 1. MAXED. Finish iarget to provide a week-long massive boost to their main stat. Target be ged daily.

  [Aura of Blessed Adva] - AURA. PROGRESSION 1. Select up to {4} party members to receive amplified experience gain.

  [Smite] - ACTIVE. PROGRESSION 1. el for up to {6} seds to deliver a signifit magical attack. Range and potency grows with time spent eling.

  ***