Chapter 76: Back to Class
The weekend passed in a blur of bureaucratic fallout, and by Monday morning, the dust in Lornfell’s commercial district had officially settled.
Arthur sat at his usual corner table in the academy’s grand cafeteria, sipping a cup of black coffee. He pulled out his phone from his uniform pocket. The glass surface chimed softly, displaying a direct encrypted text from Sylvia.
Red Boar assets are completely frozen. The market gap is wide open. I secured three new mining contracts this morning, and Tolan is already mass-producing stamina drafts to undercut the southern potion merchants. I’ll handle the floor operations from here.
Arthur read the message, a faint smile touching his lips. He typed a quick, pragmatic reply.
Don’t loose the market.
He pocketed the phone. The Obsidian Hand was officially secured as a self-sustaining, passive income engine. He didn’t need to play street-level politics anymore.
"I heard the City Guard dragged Darius Holt out of the Guild Association in heavy irons," Emily said, dropping her breakfast tray onto the table and sliding into the seat across from him. She grinned, leaning forward. "Tell me you got to punch him."
"Sylvia handled the physical labor," Arthur replied, taking a sip of his coffee. "I just handled the paperwork."
"Boring," Emily sighed, resting her chin on her hand. "I’ve been stuck doing form-katas in the martial arts pavilion all weekend. If I don’t get to hit something real soon, I’m going to lose my mind."
Felix groaned, walking heavily on Emily’s other side.
"Don’t wish for trouble, Emily," Felix muttered, pulling out a small notebook. "I just walked past the faculty lounge. The professors are locking in the rubrics for the Mid-Term Dungeon Evaluation. Do you know how expensive mid-term supplies are? We need whetstones, armor wax, and at least twenty high-grade potions."
Chloe hurried her steps to keep pace, walking quietly next to Arthur. She reached into her bag and pulled out a neatly organized, handwritten checklist.
"I made a list of the medical supplies we’re missing," Chloe said quietly, sliding the parchment toward Felix. "We’re low on mana vials and clean bandages. If the mid-terms have environmental hazards like the simulations did, we need to buy antidotes too."
Arthur glanced down at the meticulously detailed parchment.
"Look at you," Arthur teased smoothly, keeping his voice low enough for only his squad to hear. "Organizing logistics, doing the tactical reading, and being genuinely useful without trembling like a leaf. I might have to raise your allowance, Chloe."
Chloe’s breath hitched. A brilliant shade of pink immediately crawled up her neck and settled on her cheeks. She ducked her head, staring intensely at the stone floor, thoroughly flustered by the casual praise.
Before Emily could poke fun at the blushing healer, Leon Braveheart seamlessly merged into their path from an intersecting corridor, looking as bright and heroic as ever. Alicia, Elara, and Cedric walked just a step behind him.
"Morning, Vance," Leon smiled. "I read the city bulletin this morning. The Red Boar guild got completely dismantled by the Inspectors over the weekend. You guys seemed awfully busy in the commercial district on Friday."
"Just a coincidence," Arthur replied effortlessly, not breaking his stride. "The city is a dangerous place for tax evaders."
Alicia crossed her arms, her green eyes narrowing slightly as she looked at him. She didn’t buy the coincidence act, but the hostility in her gaze had distinctly softened since their first week.
"I still don’t like your shady activities, Vance," Alicia admitted, her tone laced with a reluctant respect. "But... I suppose the lower sector is significantly safer without Darius Holt extorting the craftsmen."
Arthur smirked, glancing at her. "Careful, Valentine. That almost sounded like a compliment."
Alicia’s jaw tightened. "Don’t push it."
Leon laughed, shaking his head. The combined group turned the corner and walked into their morning homeroom hall.
The large, tiered classroom was incredibly loud, packed with first-years gossiping about the upcoming exams. Arthur and his squad took their seats near the back.
A moment later, the heavy wooden doors swung open. Instructor Morwenna marched into the room. She didn’t yell over the noise. She simply walked to the front podium and violently slammed her heavy wooden training cane against the desk.
Crack.
The room fell instantly, deathly silent.
"Listen up, first-years," Morwenna’s voice projected easily across the hall. "The grace period is over. Starting next week, your Mid-Term Dungeon Evaluations begin."
A nervous murmur rippled through the front rows. A boy in the second row hesitantly raised his hand. "Instructor... is the evaluation going to be theoretical?"
Morwenna stared at the boy with absolute deadpan disgust.
"Look around, cadet," Morwenna mocked flawlessly. "Are we in the research department? Are you holding a beaker? No. The evaluation is practical."
She began pacing at the front of the room. "You will be dropping into a highly controlled, multi-zone dungeon environment. You will be graded on survival efficiency, resource collection, target elimination, and emergency judgment under pressure. Some of you will shine. Most of you will cry."
Instead of terrifying them, the announcement sparked a wave of adrenaline through the room. The first-years were tired of studying; they wanted action. Emily grinned, cracking her metallic knuckles under her desk. Felix let out a suffering sigh. Chloe gripped her mahogany staff, looking nervous but noticeably steady.
"Check the digital boards in the hallway after class for your squad block assignments," Morwenna finished, picking up her cane. "Professor Moon has the floor for theory."
Morwenna marched out of the room. A second later, Professor Elena Moon stepped up to the podium, her expression a mask of cold, academic authority.
"Turn to page eighty-four," Elena commanded, picking up a piece of chalk. "Today, we are discussing mana weave density and kinetic conversion rates."
She began writing complex runic equations on the board.
Arthur pulled out his notebook and focused entirely on the lecture. As the class progressed into its second hour, he systematically broke down the intricate runic formulas, actively applying the theory to his own understanding of mana structures.
A familiar blue prompt flickered in the corner of his vision.
[System: Academic Comprehension Achieved.]
[Intelligence +0.1]
Arthur smirked slightly, clearing the notification.
As the class neared its end, Elena instructed the students to map out a theoretical kinetic loop on their own parchments. To ensure no one was slacking, she stepped out from behind the podium and began walking slowly up the tiered aisles, inspecting their work.
The classroom was entirely silent, save for the scratching of a hundred quills.
Elena walked up the stairs, checking the notes of the students in the middle rows before finally moving past the back desks where Arthur sat.
As she stopped in the aisle right next to his desk to supposedly inspect the work of a cadet in the adjacent row, Arthur casually dropped his left hand.
Under the visual cover of the wooden desks, he slipped his hand beneath the heavy, pristine white fabric of her academic robes.
His fingers bypassed the smooth silk of her stockings entirely, finding the bare skin of her thigh just above the garter. The sensory contrast was immediate—the cold, drafty air of the classroom giving way to the intense, radiating heat of her skin.
"—so the kinetic... conversion rate must remain stable," Elena recited, lecturing the room at large.
Her voice broke on a fraction of a syllable, a tiny, almost imperceptible catch in her throat. She didn’t stop speaking, and she forced her face to remain an absolute mask of cold, untouchable High Elf authority, but Arthur felt the immediate, violent shiver run through her legs.
His hand grew increasingly dishonest. Since he had already broken the physical barrier in her office for his permission slip, he didn’t hesitate to escalate. Arthur slid his fingers higher along the sensitive, bare flesh of her inner thigh, his palm gently cupping and tracing the lower curve of her ass.
Elena had to subtly grip the edge of the adjacent student’s desk to steady her balance. Her legs trembled weakly under the heavy cover of her robes as she continued explaining the spell’s principles, experiencing the absolute, overwhelming thrill of a student actively violating her space in front of a class full of oblivious cadets.
Sitting directly to Arthur’s left, Chloe had been reaching for her inkwell when she noticed Arthur shift in his seat.
She glanced sideways, her eyes widening slightly. His left arm was completely out of sight, disappearing entirely beneath the heavy folds of the Archmage’s pristine robes.
Chloe slowly lowered her hand, her quill hovering uselessly over her notes. She looked up and caught the slight, betraying tremor in Elena’s posture, the faint flush hidden beneath the High Elf’s cold mask.
A hot, sudden flush of jealousy flared in Chloe’s chest, immediately tangled with a dark, voyeuristic thrill. She bit her lower lip, pressing her knees tightly together under her desk. Her mind raced. Arthur wasn’t just commanding their squad—he was physically breaking down the most dignified professor in the academy while a hundred students blindly took notes.
When the bell finally rang, the students quickly packed their bags.
As Arthur walked past the front podium, Elena held out a thick, sealed parchment folder. Her expression was completely bored and dismissive, though her breathing was still a fraction shallower than normal.
"Cadet Vance," Elena said coldly. "Some remedial reading on mana echo mapping. Do try to keep up with the syllabus."
"I’ll do my best to study hard, Professor," Arthur replied smoothly, taking the folder. He knew it wasn’t remedial reading; it was highly advanced tactical mapping. It was her submissive reward, masked as a teacher’s scolding.
Arthur slipped the folder into his satchel and walked out into the busy corridor.
The digital assignment boards mounted on the stone walls were glowing with blue text, displaying the Mid-Term Evaluation blocks. A crowd of first-years was gathered around it.
Arthur walked up to the board, finding Emily and Felix already there.
Alicia Valentine was standing right next to them, rubbing her temples.
"Of course," Alicia muttered, letting out a long, heavy sigh.
Arthur looked at the glowing blue panel. Squad 7 and Squad 1 were assigned to the exact same location: Composite Block C.
For the entire duration of the Mid-Term Evaluation, Arthur’s highly-tuned industrial squad and Leon’s flashy heroic party would be dropping into the exact same dungeon.