First Day (X) - Late-Night Chores

Bell had her books checked out and placed into what looked like a shoebox for books. She found her way to a lounge area, sitting in a comfortably cushioned couch and opening the volume of The Quiet Life of Noah Shpink.

Within minutes, Bell was engrossed in the contents of the novel, almost missing when Mona sat directly beside her and opened a book of her own.

"Hi, Mona." Bell greeted.

Mona smiled and replied, "Hello Bell!"

Bell almost returned to her book, but found Mona's books a bit more interesting. 

"What did you get?" Bell asked.

Mona raised two books, one was a technique booklet with a green background, and the other was a large, thick book.

"I have a staff technique booklet and The History of Modern Linguistics!" Mona said with a cheery tone. "What'd you get, Bell?"

Bell raised her two booklets and her novel.

"I got a longsword and dual wielding technique booklet, and The Quiet Life of Noah Sphink." Bell answered with a smile.

Mona nodded and replied, "Awesome!"

Bell then opened her novel and resumed reading as she waited for Wren and Magnus to tell the two that they were ready to head out. Once again, Bell was quickly engrossed by the book. After what felt like forever, she was able to read what happened to the protagonist after he fell off of a giant tower into an even more giant storm!

However, before Bell was able to read any further than the twentieth page, Wren and Magnus appeared. His voice drew Bell's attention from her book.

"Y'all ready to head out?"

Mona turned to face Magnus and nodded, saying "Yup!" Before standing up and grabbing the same type of book box to put her books in.

Bell stood up as well, placing her books in the box before following the other three out of the library. Under the canopy just outside of the library, the four opened their umbrellas and headed back to their dorms under the heavy rain of the evening.

Bell asked her pathfinder to tell the time as well as direct them back to the dormitories. The pathfinder read the time to Bell: [7:34] before it conjured a window with an arrow to direct them back. 

The walk back felt brisk, except for the stairs, and Bell stayed close to the guard rail that overlooked the rest of the Terrarium.

The sight was beautiful, and something that the Bellona Finley from a mere two months ago would have never imagined in a thousand years. But here Bell was, walking underneath the rain and looking out towards it.

The arena didn't seem too big, but was still quite tall, probably towering at a full layer high. It wasn't illuminated by any of the scarce lampposts that dotted the campus paths.

'They really have to put more of those around.' Bell lamented.

As the group continued forth, Bell noticed that the rainfall was being directed to a large gutter system between the sidewalk near the rails and the road proper. The collected rain periodically led into gutter systems that ran down the walls of the layers, and then down a bit further. 

Bell didn't know where the rain could have been going after being collected but decided that it wasn't worth the time or effort to wonder about. Instead, she thought about what type of adventure that Noah Sphink was going to go on in this novel.

After daydreaming for a short while, they all reached their dormitory areas.

"Good night, Magnus, I'll see you in Combat tomorrow." Bell said.

He turned to face the three and replied, "Good night, y'all, see you tomorrow."

Wren politely waved in response while Mona bid the boy good night.

Then, the three entered their dorm building and closed their umbrellas, soon after, they were bidding each other good night as they entered their dorms. Bell was utterly beat, but still had a bit of homework to do, some laundry, and her experiment.

"Hey, Mona." Bell said, making Mona turn to face her.

Mona then asked with a curious expression, "Yeah?"

"Pick a number between one and three." Bell stated.

After a moment of thought, Mona answered, "Two."

"Do you know where the laundromat is?" Bell asked in response. "I'm running out of clean clothes."

Mona headed towards her room while saying, "If you head down the hall, there's a door beside the staircase, the washing and drying machines are in there."

Bell headed towards her sub room and thanked Mona.

"No problem!" Mona said with a cheery smile on her face.

Bell closed the door to her sub room and headed towards her bed, carefully placing the book box on her desk before taking her shoes off and lying in bed for a few moments.

'What a first day, huh?' Bell thought.

Bell had woken up from her nightmare, as per usual, then went to breakfast, where she had eaten a light breakfast with a few friends. Afterward, she had gotten ready for the school day, drinking a cup of coffee before heading down to General Class with Teacher Brutus. Hunting Class was next with Teacher Sofia...

'Oh yeah, we have an exam tomorrow... I have no clue what I'm going to do about that.'

Bell was apparently going to be taught by a few other students on what to do, seeing as they were going to invade a Dire Wolf packs den. In any case, Bell wasn't entirely worried, it wasn't like she was going to lose a fight against a few wolves. 

'I've already had enough nightmares about those packs of little craps...'

Bell couldn't count on two hands the number of times she had a nightmare about entering a den of Dire Wolves, only to fight her way through most and die to the leader. It was those nightmares that inspired a growing hatred for wolves altogether inside of Bell's heart.

'Anyway...'

After Hunting Class, they had all went to lunch, where Bell had a hearty meal. She went to Forging with Michael, Pyralis, and Wren, where they had learned a bit about the process of forging.

Then... the Beatdown occurred. Bell's body ached at the thought of that final attack that Teacher Brutus launched. 

'I'm going to be that strong one day. No, I'll be stronger.'

They had returned to the dorm to change and eat some dinner, and after that, they went to the library and checked out some books. Now, Bell was in her room and was going to do some late-night chores before heading to sleep.

Bell sat up, then twisted her back and popped it repeatedly. A wave of relief spread from her spine to the surrounding area. Bell sighed before hopping off of her bed with a new vigor flowing through her blood.

"Phew! That hit the spot." Bell said, heading to one of her drawers. She pulled the top drawer out and grabbed a bit of detergent and softener before grabbing her hamper. Bell headed through her dorm and then out into the hallway, navigating to the laundry room where Mona had described.

Like clockwork, beside the staircase was a room that led into a mini laundromat. There were several washers, and several dryers lined against the wall, on the other end of the room was a long table with several sets of clothing. A simple paper on the table read: [Lost and Found / Forgotten Clothes]

Bell placed her clothes in an empty washer and began the wash cycle. After a moment, Bell decided to stick around, and faster than a person could say "mom's spaghetti," Bell was bored.

'I'm gonna go grab a book.'

So she did, Bell headed down the hallway once more to her dorm, entering it and heading to her sub room. She opened the book box and pulled out the longsword technique booklet. 

Before she left the room, a thought came to her.

'Can I use Ruination on Created things?'

So she ran a quick experiment, using Creation for a moment, using it to conjure a longsword, Bell engulfed it in the gray flames of Ruination. 

During combat, Bell used the gray flames to inflict a sort of weakness on enemy items, but what if her target was the sword itself?

She felt a qualitative change in the longsword after her intention shifted from one of engulfing the sword to targeting it. The shape and form of the gray flames changed as well, shifting from dancing flames to hungry ones. Bell found it hard to explain, but it felt as if the flames had become hungry, and that the sword was the only sustenance it could find.

However, Bell soon activated Ruination once more, and the sword was burned into nothingness. Bell had only the pommel left in her hand, and she simply re-enacted what she had just done to the blade of the sword, thus, the entirety of her longsword was no more.

With a look of crazed bewilderment on her face, Bell felt like she understood more about the gray flames than she would for a long while. Soon, her expression shifted back to neutrality as she placed the technique booklet back on the table and picked up her novel. 

Bell returned to the laundry room, bidding a quick farewell to Mona, who was sitting on the couch in the dorm. After a short bit, Bell found a nice place to sit and read her book.

The table almost thought about groaning under Bell's weight, but ultimately decided to not do so.

So, over the course of the next hour and a half, Bell read her book, taking a small break from it to place her wet clothes into the dryer. Then, the dryer cycle started and ended, with Bell pausing her read through of her novel so that she could fit all of her clean and dry clothes into her hamper.

Soon after, Bell was back in her room, greeting Mona, who was still sitting on the couch, before returning to her sub room. In her sub room, Bell folded her clothes methodically while thinking about The Quiet Life of Noah Sphink.

After she finished folding and organizing her clothes, Bell found her room to be just a bit too comfortable, and the temptation just a bit too much. So, she changed into a set of pajamas, placed her book back on the desk, flipped off the light, turned on her pathfinder's flashlight, and found her way into bed.

Bell made sure to power off the pathfinder's flashlight before ultimately falling into the comfortable embrace of sleep.