an arrangement

As the next day was a Monday I needed to go to school. There I was greeted by a crowd of my classmates, they all wanted to know how I got so strong and where I learned to fight like that, it was quite bothersome. classes were boring as always and I almost nodded off. because I couldn't sleep well last night, I had nightmares about the deaths of Jacob and Carlos. I still wasn't fully over it.

When classes were over and I wanted to go home Emily came to me and said she wanted to talk to me in private. so we went to the roof.

"So, what is it you want to talk about?" I asked her.

"ehhm. I don't know how to start. You know I don't want to be a diver. So will you please go diving with me?" she suddenly asked me and I was totally confused by it. So, I just asked her, " If you don't want to be a diver, why would you want to go diving with me?"

"I need money if I don't get a skill that allowed me to take another occupation, I will have no other choice but to become a diver," she told me straight away.

"and because you have no other skill, your only way is to either borrow money or to go diving," I said to her.

"yes, " she answered with reliving in her voice.

"Then why didn't you ask Nadine, as far as I know, you two are pretty close and she is one of the stronger ones in the class," I asked her.

"Nadine has a job and so can't go diving with me most of the time. " She explained to me.

"so why me?" was my next question. " you are the only one in our class that wants to be a professional diver. So I thought that you were the best choice." she said.

Thinking to myself, "Emily is top of the class in almost every subject if she was born in the time before portals she could have been anything, but now she is limited by her skills. Maybe I could get her to teach me, then my results would be better than the last term, that I barely passed."

taking a deep breath I told her, " Ok but here are my conditions we will only dive for an hour each day. we won't go deeper than the fifth floor. After each dive, you will help me study for an hour so that I may pass my exams. So, what do you say?"

she thought about it for a minute then she said, "Ok, but you can't tell anyone about this deal or that I go diving do you understand?" confused I asked, "why"

she mumbled something I couldn't hear. I asked for clarification and she answered in a small voice, " It's embarrassing."

"So when do you want to start?" I asked her. "If possible right now," she told me.

"ok do you have equipment?" I asked her. she just shook her head.

"Then we need to buy some for you too. Just follow me ok"

as we left the school together I could hear some people whisper to each other but couldn't understand what they were saying. we went to the weapon store first and I bought a quiver three new tridents and a shield. as Emily had no weapon skill she wasn't allowed to buy any weapon. next, we went for armor.

"so what type of armor do you need?" I asked her and she told me, " I don't need any. I better save my money so I don't need to dive that long." After she said that I went over to the leather jackets and took one in her size and a leather helmet and passed it to her and said, " Try them on, I will pay for them." "what no, why would you?" she asked me perplexed and blushed a bit. "Because it doesn't hurt to be prepared. " she looked at me and then tried them on, they didn't fit her, so she exchanged them for ones in the right size and then passed them to me. I went and paid for them then put them into my backpack. we then went to the dungeon compound. registered and entered the dungeon. Emily only went as far as the third floor, so we stayed there and farmed mobs for around an hour. Emily was extremely efficient on this floor she managed to take down 7 bunnies before she needed to rest. as we left I asked her, " Do you really need me to help you while you farm bunnies?"

"Yes, if I was alone I would be way too scared to even attack. I'm not brave enough for this." she answered my question I just thoughtlessly answered, " I think you are strong enough, even stronger than some of the other divers." When we sold the loot we got very little money. only around 50 $ it didn't even cover the 200 I spent on equipment. next we to a cafe outside the compound and studied there for an hour then I went home. later that evening I got a strange massage from Hank, " Dude you are awesome. please bless me with a bit of your expertise." I just ignored it and started to train my skills I tried to once more activate the skill correction to train but sadly I failed. Then I went to bed.