Later that day, Mark sat before his laptop, scrolling steadily through the web in search of a few specific things.
First, he looked into recent dungeon activity, though as things currently stood, most active sites were already crawling with guild agents and professional raiders. Fortunate for most people, perhaps, but not for him, since he couldn’t exactly walk into a dungeon already under their close watch without drawing unwanted attention.
Officials claimed to have the overall dungeon crisis well under control, having mapped and dominated the majority of known sites, yet Mark understood better than most that plenty of hidden, unregistered dungeons still lingered beneath the radar, quietly forming among the sheer volume of new appearances.
He knew firsthand their claim of tracking every single dungeon simply wasn’t accurate, since he had once stumbled into an entirely unforeseen one himself, completely unnoticed, right around the hospital of all places.
Still, his goal here went beyond simply hunting dungeon cores to grow stronger, something he genuinely needed if he hoped to outpace his fellow students heading into the upcoming competition. He was also quietly searching for any lingering trace of the Elixir of Life, that impossibly rare variant of healing potion.
He had briefly considered asking Hermione for help tracking it down, since her Phoenix summon might carry the kind of healing specialty that could contribute meaningfully toward crafting it.
Her family’s considerable status likely opened doors most people never even got close to. Still, he hesitated, reluctant to ask her to stretch that influence recklessly on his behalf, not after everything she had already done for him.
He didn’t want to become some constant burden weighing on her generosity, always on the receiving end while offering nothing meaningful back in return, their friendship tilting lopsided in her favor.
The thought alone left him uncomfortable, a quiet knot of guilt settling in his chest whenever he considered just how much guidance and support she had already freely given him.
Today happened to be a free day, meaning she wouldn’t be anywhere on campus. She was probably back at her private apartment somewhere beyond the school compound, though he genuinely had no idea where exactly that was.
She hadn’t texted him at all today, and strangely enough, her silence bothered him more than he expected. He had already grown so used to having her around that her absence left a small, noticeable gap in his day. Somewhere along the way, without quite realizing when, she had become someone genuinely important to him.
He found himself thinking of her face, unbidden, her clear ruby red eyes, the soft curve of her cheeks, the small, teasing tilt of her nose, her glossy, well shaped lips.
He had even attempted sketching her a few times on scattered sheets of paper, though capturing the version of her fixed so clearly in his mind proved far harder than he expected, every attempt falling frustratingly short of the real thing.
He caught himself hoping, quietly, that they might take a proper picture together sometime soon.
Shaking the thought loose for now, filing it away for whenever it felt right to revisit, he turned his attention back toward researching the known properties tied to the Elixir of Life, fully aware the information available online remained incomplete at best.
Its exact composition stayed a closely guarded mystery, owing largely to how vanishingly rare and deeply magical the ingredients involved truly were.
And even if someone out there did possess deeper knowledge of its makeup, there was little chance they would ever share it freely with the wider public. Information like that translated directly into enormous, thriving business empires, and people rarely handed out that kind of advantage as simple charity.
Today, he wanted to make real progress untangling the growing knot of questions crowding his mind, starting specifically with everything surrounding the Amazon Order. Thanks to Cassandra, he had already learned that wherever his answers ultimately waited, they were tied to a temple hall somewhere on the Amazons’ central island.
Beyond that, though, she had offered nothing further, insisting his current rank within the order’s hierarchy remained far too low to warrant deeper authority or knowledge.
He always found that particular explanation quietly irritating, almost insulting in its own way, though if anything, it only sharpened his resolve to climb higher, determined to eventually earn the right to properly understand his summon and everything tied to her origins.
His thoughts on unlocking a second summon felt a little clearer now, at least enough to start forming a working theory around what the Amazon Order actually represented. He suspected he had somehow forged a genuine link connecting him to the sealed doors of other related summons waiting somewhere within his soul space.
Did that mean even more lay beyond the second, an entire lineage waiting to be unlocked over time? Did it mean the rumors were true, that he really was some kind of genuine anomaly, exactly as so many people already whispered behind his back?
He knew there was only so much he could piece together without pushing further along this particular path of discovery himself.
After spending a considerable stretch of time combing through the web without turning up anything genuinely useful on the Elixir of Life, he set the search aside for now, shifting his focus back toward dungeons and their most likely remaining locations.
If he truly wanted to build a better life for his family, he needed to keep excelling here, proving his worth through consistent competence and real, demonstrable growth.
That meant throwing himself into as many opportunities as possible, even ones that pulled him beyond the boundaries of the school compound entirely.
The competition itself sat only a few hours from a day, its earlier teaser activities designed purely to gauge and reveal each student’s raw potential ahead of time.
All of it amounted to little more than a gentle, welcoming preview compared to the real challenges still waiting, the genuine, high stakes competition between students all chasing their own personal, hard earned goals. The real thing, when it finally arrived, promised to be brutal, unforgiving, and genuinely rough around the edges.
And strangely enough, that was exactly the kind of challenge he had grown to love, ever since joining the ranks of summoners as one of its newest, most determined members.
His thoughts drifted, unprompted, toward his sister, and everything she had quietly sacrificed through her demanding work within the healthcare department of the region’s most prestigious medical center, serving not just Wland itself but the surrounding territories as well.
She rarely had any real time left over for herself, let alone for her own family, spending nearly all of it instead tending to patients who would likely go on to enjoy full, comfortable lives once properly treated, only to discard her instantly the moment she failed to deliver fast enough results.
He knew, deep down, that she wasn’t living anything close to a genuinely healthy life under that arrangement, no matter how often she insisted otherwise whenever he asked.
Still, openly criticizing the very people responsible for their mother’s ongoing care felt like something he couldn’t really afford to do, not without risking consequences neither of them could easily absorb.
The compounding stress from her job, managing their mother’s ongoing medication schedule, constantly reassuring her younger brother about school, and simply enduring the relentless demands of her career had all piled together into something genuinely crushing.
It only made things worse knowing she had been born with a rare, specialized support class summon, one uniquely capable of improving life expectancy and overall health outcomes.
Rather than being given the freedom to properly explore and develop that gift on her own terms, she had instead been quietly converted into a public resource, treated as little more than another piece of hospital equipment.
None of it was her fault, and realistically, she’d never really had another viable choice in the matter. By rights, this should have been her opportunity to grow, to deepen her understanding of her own summon’s full range of skills and hidden talents.
Instead, its abilities had been harnessed purely as a tool, indistinguishable in practice from any other piece of clinical machinery, all so the institution could squeeze even more value out of its already dominant position in the field.
Selfish, greedy people, all of them, in Mark’s eyes, the kind he doubted he would ever truly forgive. And yet, bitterly enough, they remained the only realistic channel through which his family’s mounting medical expenses could actually be handled in this world.
Even with everything Mark had already managed to accomplish, things still weren’t easy for either of them, though they had both fought hard and pushed forward regardless, year after year. That, more than anything else, was exactly why he kept pouring so much of himself into becoming stronger here, at school and beyond it.
He was going to make things right for his family. He meant that with everything he had.
***
Within the headmaster’s office, Williams sat behind his polished desk, fingers laced together in quiet deliberation before finally leaning back with a heavy sigh.
He glanced briefly toward Carlo, who stood perfectly still just to his left, positioned almost like some quiet, watchful secretary, studying the student seated before them with an unreadable, casual gaze. Mary stood opposite him on the other side of the room.
Directly across from the headmaster’s desk sat Lionel, wearing an unsettlingly calm expression, the kind that suggested he was actively restraining something far more volatile simmering just beneath the surface. His breathing came slow, sharp, and deliberately controlled.
Williams had handled plenty of disciplinary cases involving ordinary students over the years, more than enough to grow fully accustomed to the process by now.
But whenever a case involved someone from the school’s higher social ranks, particularly those with real potential to eventually join the student council alongside the King himself, the entire situation carried considerably more weight and difficulty.
The formal report detailing the fight had landed on his desk early that same morning, and he already understood the full extent of the damage caused to school property in its wake. Repairs of that scale would prove costly, an expense he genuinely dreaded arranging again, especially so soon after the previous incident tied to Mark’s own awakening trial.
He hadn’t overlooked noting this latest incident carefully within Mark’s personal record either.
Even accepting that the boy had technically followed school law throughout the confrontation, some measure of formal accountability still felt necessary. Mark’s decision to return later than originally scheduled after receiving his leave permission also sat unresolved, another matter quietly earning its own future consequence.
"Just calm down, and listen carefully..." Williams’s words were cut short as Lionel snapped sharply, cutting him off entirely.
"No, I can’t do that, not when you’re trying to send me back home! You clearly don’t understand, I hold real standing back there too, and no one gets to simply order me around!" Lionel rose halfway out of his seat, both palms pressed flat against the surface of the desk, eyes locked directly onto the headmaster’s.
"This isn’t something I’m choosing arbitrarily, and your mother herself agrees it’s for your own good. You need proper rest, away from your usual circle for at least a few weeks. Consider it something of a recreational opportunity instead, a chance to explore more of the world and work on better mastering your own self control," Williams said evenly, peering over the rim of his spectacles.
For a moment, Lionel fell completely silent. His gaze darted uncertainly toward the man standing quietly beside the headmaster, whose expression remained strangely, almost unnervingly calm throughout the entire exchange.
"What exactly is all this? And why is this old man even sitting in on this meeting? I’ve seen you wandering the school grounds in half a dozen different roles by now, and it’s still apparently not enough to justify whatever they’re paying you. Pathetic, honestly."
Williams exhaled slowly, while Mary did her best to maintain a composed, professional expression despite the tension filling the room.
Lionel’s eyes flickered with sudden unease the moment he caught the strange, hollow gleam surfacing behind Carlo’s dark gaze, something almost void like in its depth, sending an involuntary shiver crawling down his spine.
There was something about the man that felt fundamentally wrong, something he couldn’t quite name, yet found himself unable to simply dismiss.
A faint, knowing smile crossed Carlo’s lips.
"Listen here, kid. You’d best head on home to Mommy now. Try not to let those little instincts of yours get too intrusive along the way, or she’s not going to be very happy with you at all."
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