Quiet before the Storm

The door on the roof led to a series of stairs. I was confused since the building was only two stories tall. How could there be flights of stairs? I turned to Arlo.

"Could this be an illusion?"

"Most likely," He shrugged. "Be careful, even one's imagination can hurt," He warned me.

"I take that you don't have a way to counter this," I sighed.

He only looked at me with a smile and gave me a thumbs-up. This guy was useless. I rubbed my chin while trying to not stare at the seamless bottomless pit of stairs. 

If this was an illusion, then magic had to be in use. The question was if there was a caster or not. There were no guards on the roof, so that meant two things. The Board of Education either never expected people to break in from the roof, or they already had a plan for that.

Given how many guards were outside, I doubted that the first option was realistic. That meant that this illusion was casted when we stepped inside. 

"Arlo, let's step outside again," I walked out the door.

My equilibrium still felt off, but everything else returned back to normal.

"Woah… freaky," Arlo commented.

I opened the door again, but this time, I stayed outside. Upon closer examination, I saw that there was a second door frame right in front of the entrance. It was so close and thin that I wasn't surprised that we didn't see it the first time. I pulled a wooden sword from my inventory and knocked the frame out of place.

"It should be safe to go inside now," I told Arlo.

"Neat! I always wanted to sneak into a government facility!" Arlo was a bit too excited.

"This isn't a government facility. And keep your voice down," I sighed.

We walked back inside but nothing happened this time. It was just a normal flight of stairs that led to the second floor. We walked down the stairs and cracked the door open slightly. I didn't see anyone so I motioned Arlo to follow.

"What are we looking for again?" He whispered.

"The head of the Board of Education's office. I'm sure it would be on this floor."

Arlo nodded his head. "Let me take the lead. I have heightened senses, so I can detect people more easily," He stepped in front of me.

I wanted to protest, but I felt like at this point I could trust him to some degree. I wasn't able to see passive skills with Odin's Eye, and I never heard of a Dragoon having heightened senses before. I sighed.

"Suit yourself."

I followed Arlo's lead as he led me down an endless amount of halls. He was actually very dependable as he guided me past guards who monitored the hall.

"How would you know when we come across the Headmaster's room?" I questioned Arlo.

"In my home country, important rooms are decorated with gold. Since this academy has a mixture of cultures, I won't be surprised if this building has a similar setup," He whispered.

"And how do you know where to go?"

He looked over his shoulder and smiled. "Let's call it Dragon Sense."

Surely enough, he soon led me to a double door that had a golden exterior. It just screamed rich. There was a golden tiger design lying on the top of the door frame.

"Yup, looks like I was right!" Arlo laughed in victory. "Here we go… oof!

I pulled him back. Something felt off, so I closed my eyes and tried to use meditation. I was able to faintly sense magic around the door, but I still wasn't skilled enough to make out any details.

"Arlo, something is off. There might be a trap on the door," I looked at him.

"Of course, there's a trap... How do we disarm it?" He sighed.

I thought for a moment. I knew I couldn't disarm it… at least not on my own. I looked around the hall and saw that there were a few displays of full-body armor. It was super cliche, but I was sure my plan would work.

"Arlo, let's hide behind those armor displays and purposely set off the alarm. Someone would definitely come to check it out," I explained my plan to him.

"That sounds lame, but sure," He shrugged.

We hid behind the displays, and I began to chant a water ball. I had it drip from just above the door. After a few moments, an alarm went off. A loud ringing filled the halls, and even though I covered my ears, I could still clearly hear it.

"What the hell!?" A man yelled as he ran down the hall.

It was the same man who informed me that I won my tournament by default! Why was he here? Either way, I watched closely as he disarmed the system. He tapped on the left doorknob twice before he opened the right door. It was simple… too simple. I was expecting a complicated code or something.

The man went into the room, and after a few minutes, he came back out. He noticed that there was water on the ground, so he looked up.

"Damned pipes! Causing the alarm to go off just because those plumbers are too cheap to do a decent job," He mumbled as he walked away. We waited until we couldn't hear him anymore before coming out of our hiding places.

"You learned how to disarm it or not?" Arlo yawned.

"Yeah… Wait, are you bored?" I raised an eyebrow.

"A little. I thought this was gonna be a bit more fun," He complained.

"You are a child," I scoffed.

I walked up to the door and repeated the actions that I saw the man do. It opened without setting off the alarms. I smiled as I walked into the office.

It looked like a normal office. It had a trophy collection on one side of the room, and a china collection and bookshelf on the other side. There were two sofas as well as a tea table in the center of the room. I walked to the far end of the office to the desk. I sat in the chair and began to look through the drawers. Arlo looked at the bookshelf.

I found a lot of documents, but nothing worth mentioning. There was one drawer that had a lock.

"Hey Smarus, did you find anything," Arlo asked.

"Not yet. Can I borrow a hairpin?" I asked him.

"Did you just assume that I had hairpins on me?" Arlo tossed one to me.

"You have two wives. I can safely assume you have something they might need with you," I pulled out a small gutting knife.

"I think you are just too observant," Arlo sighed.

I used my knife and bobby pin to pick the lock. Considering that this was my first time, it took me a while before I managed to open it.

"Oh! Look! I found a book about forbidden spells!" Arlo pulled it out.

"Put it in my inventory," I opened it for him.

"What do you say?" He teasingly said.

"You expect me to say please? Get over yourself," I pulled the documents from the drawer and looked through them.

"You're a dooche sometimes," He put the book in my inventory. He took the cover off of the book. "Do you have a book that's a similar width and height?"

"I might," I looked in my inventory for a similar book. I pulled out a Chinese dictionary. "Here," I tossed it to him.

"And our tracks are covered!" He chuckled.

I continued to look through the documents until I reached the last one. My eyes widened as I saw what it was. It wasn't about the tournament, but it was about a person. I looked at the picture that was paperclipped to the page. It was an Asian girl, but she looked drained and her hair was unkempt. It began to lock into locs. I gulped as I recognized this woman.

"Yang Li…" I muttered under my breath.

She was a woman who was captured by the Granadore and was experimented on. She was meant to be a weapon of war whose only mission was to destroy everyone and everything in sight. Not much more was known about her. From the rumors I saw on the internet and easter eggs from the devs, it was safe to assume that she was an orphan that had a high affinity with every element… But there was one problem. She was the main villain in the second DLC! I shouldn't see her for another 10 years, so why was she at the academy!? I looked closer at the document.

"Once a tournament is over, have her fight the victor. She will be a good demonstration of what true strength should look like."

This was handwritten at the end of the page. I felt beads of sweat run down my face. I shoved the documents back in the drawer.

"Smarus, do you know that girl?" Arlo was concerned.

"No, well yes, it's complicated. We have to go back," My breath was getting heavier.

"Smarus, you're pale. What's going on?" Arlo pulled on my shoulder.

"I can't explain it all at this very moment. However, there definitely a hidden agenda in this tournament. This adventure stays a secret, got it?" I stared at him.

Arlo frowned. He thought to himself before he spoke up.

"How bad is it?"

"Not even the hero, Ace could stop it… I'll take care of it though… I have to," I brushed off his hand.

"And what about the girls? Even I could tell that this is serious."

I stopped for a moment. I thought about everyone. Despite my cold attitude towards them, I didn't want them to get caught up in this upcoming disaster. I forced myself to take a deep breath and calmed down. I was slowly regaining my composure.

"I'll leave them with you and Donkor."