Chapter 70: Departure II

Leon put an earbud in after the bus turned onto the main road. The academy buildings had disappeared behind them, replaced by shops, junctions and people going about their morning.

For a moment he watched a delivery driver trying to squeeze through the small space between a badly parked car and the vehicles passing beside it before looking down at his phone.

The bus had barely passed the next traffic light when someone behind Leon started talking about the dungeon. Another person joined the conversation, followed by a third, causing Leon to increase the volume of the video he was watchinga bit more.

Most of the students were travelling with people they already knew. Some had turned around in their seats to talk, while others were reading through the information they had received during the briefing.

Lex sat several rows ahead beside the professional summoner travelling with them. The rest of the professionals were following another bus.

The man beside Lex said something Leon couldn’t hear properly. Lex shook his head and answered before both of them returned their attention to the road as the bus took another turn.

Leon continued watching his video.

They were still passing shops when it ended. He selected another one, pushed his bag farther beneath the seat and leaned back.

...

The road became wider as they left the busier parts of the city. The commercial buildings slowly gave way to storage yards, smaller houses and service stations built beside the larger junctions.

Leon looked up when the bus slowed behind a line of trucks.

Several seats ahead of him, Seth had turned towards two younger students. Leon recognized both of them from the second-year group, though he hadn’t spoken to either of them before or remember their full names.

"Evan, that strap is going to catch on something." Seth said while pointing towards the bag between the boy’s feet.

"Which one?" Evan asked as he looked down.

"The one hanging off the side."

Evan gathered up the loose strap and tried to tuck it beneath another one, but it slipped free as soon as he moved the bag.

"Here. Pass it through this first." Seth said as he leaned over.

He threaded the strap back through the buckle, pulled it tight and tucked away the loose end. Evan lifted the bag slightly to check if it would remain in place.

"Thanks."

"No prob. You’ll appreciate it more when you aren’t stopping every few minutes to untangle yourself."

Tessa, who was sitting just the other side looked down at her own bag.

"Yours is fine." Seth said after glancing towards it.

Leon watched Seth settle back into his seat. He couldn’t tell what the conversation was about, but he noticed Seth seemed quite comfortable having both of them listening to him.

"First Yellow dungeon?" Seth asked.

Perhaps it was a little urge to eavesdrop, Leon took off his pod and paused his video.

"For me." Evan replied.

"We’ve entered Green ones during practicals." Tessa added with a nod.

"Then some of it will be familiar. You just need to pay more attention to what’s in front of you."

"Right? We were already planning to." She said.

"I know. People get distracted. They see a monster they haven’t fought before and start thinking about what their summon should do, then they forget there’s a rock under their own foot."

"Did that happen to you?" Evan asked as he glanced down at the bag.

"Of course not, but I’ve seen it happen."

Seth adjusted himself in the seat and rested one arm across the back.

"Once you’ve been through enough of these things, you start watching out for it. Half the trouble is getting everyone where they’re supposed to be."

’It definitely happened to him.’ Leon thought to himself.

"Did you have to lead a group?" Evan asked.

"I helped keep people moving." Seth replied. "The instructors handle the bigger decisions, obviously, but they can’t fix every little problem for you, you know?"

"Would you keep the first-aid kit here?" Tessa asked as she looked down at the side pocket of her bag.

Seth leaned forward to see it.

"Can you reach it without taking everything else out?"

"Yes."

"Then that’s a good place. Don’t put it beneath your spare clothes. If someone asks you for it, you don’t want to empty your entire bag onto the floor. Though, you’ll probably be asked to keep the extra things outside before we enter the dungeon."

Tessa moved a small packet out of the way before checking the pocket again.

Some of the advice was sensible.

Seth clearly enjoyed being the one explaining everything, and Leon suspected the story would sound a little different if someone else described how much responsibility he had actually been given.

"You’re in the fourth year, aren’t you?" Evan asked.

"Yes."

"I thought most fourth years were away."

"They are. Practical placements keep most of them away from the academy for several years."

"I heard it was like half a year?" Tessa asked as she looked up. "I knew it was a while, but I didn’t know it was that long."

Seth nodded.

"You stop seeing much of them once they leave. That’s why the third years seem to be running everything at the academy."

"Do they still have ordinary classes?"

"Not many while they’re deployed. Most of what they do is field practice. No more training, its implementing all that training now."

Seth answered easily before looking at Evan’s bag again.

"Keep your water somewhere you can reach it too. You won’t always get a long break just because you’re thirsty."

Evan reached down and moved one of his bottles into an outer pocket.

’Fourth year.’ Leon thought as he looked at Seth.

He had known that the older students spent long periods away from the academy, though he hadn’t given it much thought before. It explained why the same third-year names kept coming up whenever anyone discussed the strongest students on campus.

Seth was older than most of the students on the bus, but he was still taking part in the kind of supervised expedition that many people from his year had already moved beyond.

It also put his participation in the tournament into perspective.

’His Grade 3 Fire Monkey wasn’t a bad summon.’ Leon could still remember the creature from their match, but having a capable summon hadn’t placed Seth at the same level as the other students who should have been progressing beside him.

Seth happened to look down the aisle at that moment. Their eyes met, and Leon gave him a small nod. Seth returned it before turning back towards Evan, who was asking whether a larger bag would become a problem inside narrow passages.

Leon put his earbud back in. ’I wonder why he stagnated.’