Rex looked at her from the side, and she turned her gaze to the classroom door, appearing like soone who had said sothing that had slipped away from her.
He wrote down the desire levels for both of them: forty-four and fifty-two, respectively. This helped him feel like the operational tiline was starting to take shape.
He also saw that Kaelira’s usual seat in Apollo’s formation was empty, and he let himself feel a little satisfaction about how things had turned out that way before putting it away and turning his attention back to the room.
Elizabeth Von Starlight walked in exactly when she always did, three minutes before class was supposed to start. She had a folder in her hand that she put on the lectern in a certain way so she could find it again later.
She looked around the room, quickly counted the people who were there, and got started.
"Before I get into this morning’s lesson, I have an announcent about your assessnt schedule for the next week," she said.
The room beca quiet and focused, the kind of attention that cos from people who aren’t sure yet if what is coming is good or bad and are waiting to see what happens.
"The next three days will be your field assessnt period." She said, "The assessnt is based on small groups working on their own on certain research islands in the Sable Archipelago."
Rex’s focus got sharper. ’What...?’
"The Sable Archipelago was the chain of islands approximately forty kiloters off the Aethelgard coast, in the stretch of sea that the cartographers called the Interdiate Waters."
"Most of the chain’s islands were either too small to be habitable or too well-mapped to be interesting."
"The research designation applied to the outer islands, the ones that had been charted at the periter level but not surveyed internally, which ant they had known coastlines and unknown interiors."
Elizabeth opened the folder and said, "Each group will be given a specific island."
"The islands were chosen based on their resource profiles: each one has confird undeveloped natural resources of significant value, and each one has an unmapped internal dungeon system of unknown depth and population."
"The assessnt criteria are as follows." She looked up from the folder to make the list direct rather than read it. "Resources gathered and brought back, dungeon surveyed or cleared depending on group capability, and condition of the group at the end of the three days."
"The group with the highest combined assessnt score receives an exemption from the following month’s standard assessnt schedule, which I’m told by the students who have done this before is not a trivial reward."
The atmosphere in the room was nearly electric, filled with a sense of excitent that was just shy of being fully realized.
"You will be split into groups of four." Elizabeth said, "One group will have three mbers because Kaelira still hasn’t fully recovered yet."
"I’m writing this down for the record because it’s not sothing this class can control."
She looked at the list in the folder and began reading nas.
Rex listened as the nas for the first group were announced. It was Apollo’s primary formation, minus Kaelira. In total, four nas were announced, and they were predictably clustered together because this group had been working together the longest.
The second group also consisted of mbers from Apollo’s harem. So complained about not being in Apollo’s group, while others were unhappy with the split.
"Third group," Elizabeth said. "Rex Rexilion, Talyra Skydancer, and Aisella Moonbloom."
Rex let the room’s reaction pass around him without reacting to it himself. ’It seems like my luck from the archery challenge is still by my side...’
Talyra made a sound beside him that was sowhere between pleased and vindicated, the specific sound of soone who had been hoping for a particular outco and was thrilled to have it confird. Aisella, beside her, gave one slow blink that was her version of the sa response.
"As the group of three," Elizabeth said, "your assessnt criteria are weighted to account for the reduced personnel."
"Your effective score will be multiplied by one point three to normalize for the difference in available labor and combat capacity."
Rex did the math without thinking about it. On top of what the three of them could make in three days on an island with no resources and no map of the dungeon, a thirty percent weight bonus was added.
Talyra’s archery, Aisella’s healing and diagnostic skills, and his telekinesis rendered them as capable as groups of four. If they encountered dangerous monsters in the dungeon, they could leverage these abilities to their advantage, using Talyra’s precision, Aisella’s support, and his telekinesis to outmaneuver and defeat their opponents.
They were at an advantage.
And three days while being alone on an island. It already made Rex the happiest person alive in the classroom because he knows what he’s about to do to them.
He considered the desire numbers of forty-four and fifty-two, along with the five thousand energy points and the specific conditions that three days in an isolated research environnt with two carefully chosen companions would inevitably create.
Elizabeth said, "The ship leaves from the eastern docks of the city at six in the morning."
"Each group will get a transit vessel and a standard field kit."
"You are responsible for your own gear."
"Today we will talk about what gear you should bring."
She closed the folder and looked around the room with the look she always had when she was about to switch from administrative information to content. It was the look that said the announcent was over and the real work was about to start.
Talyra leaned about four inches to the side toward Rex and said in a voice that wouldn’t reach Elizabeth’s ears, "Doesn’t it sound fun, Rex?!"
"Three days! Just us on an island! We’re going to have many fun tis together while adventuring and discovering!"
"That’s what she said," Rex agreed.
Talyra said, "That’s either very good or very bad," and the way she said it made it sound like she thought she knew which one it was but wanted to see if he would agree.
Aisella turned a page in her book without raising her gaze.
She said, "It will be whatever we make it," in a clear, strong voice that made it clear that she had decided that the conversation wasn’t quiet enough to be private and that she had strong opinions about what was being said.
He looked at her. She looked back at him over the edge of the book with the look she always had when she knew what she was doing.
He looked at Talyra.
Aisella looked at Talyra.
Aisella closed the book and sighed.
"I suggest we plan the resource survey for the first day and approach the dungeon on the second," she said, as if the previous exchange had not happened and they were now simply doing the reasonable thing, which was preparing. "Day three is contingency."
"Or recovery," Talyra said.
"Or recovery," Aisella said, and the agreent’s aning was slightly different than it seed.
Rex looked out the window at the morning light coming in and the island he hadn’t seen yet. He would be leaving for it in about eighteen hours.
He contemplated all the current events and upcoming changes, including the specific shape that five thousand energy points would form in the plan he was creating.
He thought, "Three days are a long ti if you know how to use them."
Elizabeth’s voice stayed at the front of the room, organized and clear.
She talked about gear lists, supply protocols, and the unique operational issues that co up when doing research on an independent island. Rex listened to everything with the sa level of attention he gave to everything useful.
The sea was visible through the classroom window at the end of the long avenue that ran from the east side of the Academy to the city’s harbor district. It was a deep blue stripe on the horizon that was exactly forty kiloters away from where Rex was sitting.
He would be on it in the morning.
He leaned back in his chair and let his mind wander to all the things that would happen next. The smile that crossed his face was short and private enough that the only person who might have seen it was the woman sitting to his left with a closed book on her desk and the kind of healer who notices things that other people miss.
If Aisella noticed, she said nothing.
With the focused efficiency of soone who had already decided they were going to win the island assessnt, she picked up her pen and began jotting down Elizabeth’s gear suggestions.
Rex got his own pen.
Tomorrow couldn’t co fast enough.
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