48 Office Hours

Walking out of the barrier, the upperclassmen nodded to John and said, "You're done, the results will be sent to you via email."

"Thanks... and sorry about your shoes." John said as he realized the originally shiny black shoes of the upperclassmen were stained with blood and remnants of intestines.

The upperclassmen's face turned red as he glared at John and he took off. "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything?" He asked himself as he ran around the building and back into class. There he picked up his bag and jogged back out. He hadn't eaten breakfast and was starving but decided to treat Snakey first since she was sulking about being forced to enter the formation.

"Sorry, we'll stop by the club and see croc. There you can eat as much level 3 monster meat as you want!" John told her, running his hands down her side carefully. Snakey hissed in agreement but still radiated malcontent to him through their bond.

Sighing, John walked into the Club and dropper her off with croc. "Still don't understand while Dundee won't work as a name..." He muttered to himself as he walked back out and made his way to the cafeteria for a quick lunch.

"Where's your snake?" Mike asked as he sat down next to John with a tray covered in all things chocolate.

"Visiting my croc." John said glancing up from his salad, "What is that?" He asked, pointing at what looked like a waffle covered in chocolate ice cream and chocolate syrup.

"I call this death by diabetes. You gotta try it sometime!" Mike garbled through a massive bite of chocolate.

"Blargh... Don't talk and chew at the same time." John said trying to keep a look of disgust on his face even as he chuckled under his breath at how big a fool Mike was making of himself.

Swallowing, Mike drank some of his chocolate milk shake to wash it all down. "Ahh, that's good." Mike said, sitting back and beginning to eat more sedately. "So, how'd the test go?"

"I passed, but I also pissed off the upperclassmen proctoring my test." John told Mike all about the sheep intestines.

"HAHAHA. That's a good one!" Mike guffawed, slapping his thigh under the table a couple times.

A couple minutes later John waved goodbye and left the cafeteria with a smile on his face and headed for the Order of Defenders. Ever since the duel with Tian Ji he'd been trying to learn how to speak using his doppelganger. If he could just figure it out, John figured he would find it much easier to manipulate people into attacking his doppelganger and ignoring his true body.

All teachers have to maintain office hours where they make themselves available for questions at least twice a week, Dame Eleanor was different in that she was always available but you had to pass her test in order to find her.

Normally it is a treat to explore the Defender's Club. John would arrive early every Saturday for Advanced Illusions and hang out with Casper, studying the massive castle and learning about the various Knightly Orders that still existed. John had always known that the 4 guilds weren't the only option, but he was surprised to learn that some of the smaller groups were even more powerful in some ways. He was particularly intrigued by the Protectors, a group of mostly Beast Cultivator's that spread throughout the world searching for and protecting newborn beasts.

This time Casper was on a mission so John walked into the usual classroom for Advanced Illusions and found himself wading through illusion after illusion. This was how class always started these days, and John reacted instantly to remove them. Dame Eleanor used a special technique to attach illusions to items in the room, setting them up to reapply the illusions at intervals anywhere from every 10 seconds to every 5 minutes. In order to get past this part of the test John would have to figure out which items had been set up as triggers for the illusions and deactivate them one by one.

The world tilted slightly, a side effect of being hit by several illusions at the same time and John snapped out of them, pulling out his pistols and firing a rubber bullet at a strobing light swinging back and forth on a long chain above his head. He had prepared the rubber bullets before entering the classroom, not wanting to risk using real bullets in a classroom that may or may not have students in it.

The light smashed an instant later and another illusion slammed into him, John found himself standing in front of Dame Eleanor as she watered a garden. "So you completed the trial, what is your question?" She stood up in her usual flowing robe and grinned wickedly at John.

Before she could say anything else, John broke the illusion and dove to the ground as a dull blade swung through the air where his neck was just an instant earlier. The illusion had forced him to take a step forwards and activated a trap. If he hadn't dodged it in time a barrier would've protected him from the hit and he would've been forced out of the room and lose his qualification to talk to Dame Eleanor for the week.

Rolling to the side, he felt something tear at his mind and quickly shot a soul bullet to his left hitting a wraith that'd just emerged from the wall. Wraith's feed off the emotions of the living like parasites that leave their victims unfeeling for weeks if they aren't dealt with. Dame Eleanor liked to capture them and use them as non-lethal punishments for those unable to escape her illusions in time.

Standing quickly, John kicked a desk and shot another rubber bullet at an eyeball that'd appeared underneath it before dodging to the side as poison tipped darts flew from the wall at him. Hearing the twang of a crossbow he dropped the ground just in time to see several bolts tear through the space where he'd just been standing. Turning he fired another bullet, this time breaking the reloading mechanism on the automated crossbows.

This was the 8th time John was attempting the test. He'd failed the first two times before succeeding the third time, that was when Dame Eleanor advised him to buy the Illusory Swap technique.

Every time he succeeded the test, Dame Eleanor would make it more difficult for him. Most of the great treasures found in Danger Zones are protected by traps, illusions, and formations and her tests are designed to help her students survive. At least, that was the explanation she gave out when people asked her why she made it so difficult for students to find her during office hours. John got the distinct feeling that she just enjoyed toying with her students and the school let her get away with it so long as she didn't go overboard...

Shooting a final rubber bullet, John suddenly felt a cracking sensation in his mind and found himself standing at the entrance of the room. Dame Eleanor had appeared at some point and she was smiling at John wickedly. "Well, I'll be!" She said with a smile on her face.