hapter Thirty-Eight

  The after-dinner bath required bubbles. Harmony blew some into the air and used [Cold Touch] to freeze them without popping them. The skill exercise took a good amount of trol. A distra from the frustration she was holding in.

  “I 't believe they were iwenties.” Harmony moaned, uo keep it tained.

  “Mmm hmmm,” Ambrosia responded from across the room.

  The tone of that respoched her skill, grantioo much awareness. “You knew?!”

  “Lord Tyler’s levels were hat much of a secret. His idea of a challenge was usually around the size of his lund not the risks of a dungeon. When Max joined as an auxiliary to the staff we evaluated him fully. The others made sense.”

  “I'm such a dunce.” Harmony waited for her friend to protest this and assure her this was not the case.

  After a suitable amount of silence where that didn't happen, Ambrosia spoke up. “It's not like that would have ged any of the decisions you've made.”

  It would have added perspective. That first fight with Max in the dungeon club. Their coess as they watched her solo the first floor. The sheer absurd fidence when what should have been a standard run showed hints of being weird rather than reasonable caution.

  “Fine. I still be annoyed.”

  “Lady White be any spectrum of emotion she wishes to be.”

  Harmony gathered up a ball of bubbles in her hand. Froze them and hurled them in Ambrosia’s dire. Lag mass they didn't go far a spt on the floor.

  Both girls started busting up ughing. “Okay, maybe I have been a bit prissy.”

  “Lady White is prissy. Harm is a bundle of nerves who 't calm down. After you evolve. After you win the Asdant Games we o get you a nice long vacation.”

  “I have no i in winning the Asdant Games. “

  “Like you'll let any of those snots show you up. Max is not that bad most days, but he's still a snot.”

  In some ways, the Asdant Games were no different thaaff like Jessica challenged her with a grimy task at the manor. You stood tall aheir expectations. Not that Bates would ever let her sck. Aween hand spiders, gnomes, or some cursed item in Tyler’s colle it's not like being a servant didn’t have some deadly risk. Even those who thought she'd fail most warmed up.

  “Fine. I will win it in your honor. Only if I level quickly enough to qualify.”

  “There's my Harm.”

  A goal. Ambrosia certainly knew her well enough that soling her over the fact she'd missed realizing what levels her former teammates were wouldn't work. At least when they finally ehe games they'd all be equals.

  "Go get some sleep, Ambs. If Max isn't turning up tonight it will be in the m."

  Dressed for bed and two-thirds of the way into a duactics 101 the knock she expected ho pulled Harmony away from the words. [Keen Iigative Awareness] was giving her new insights into the text. Often on things left unsaid by the author but implied

  “e in Max.”

  The knight came in looking more drained aed than he had when old bones nearly wiped their party out. His pink hair was almost pale White, the glow it had adopted barely there. “I have news of the Asdant Games, My dy.”

  “How bad is the news if you look like that?”

  “Oh, no. You don’t uand. Hemlonounced group dynamics will be fluid, some tries are sure to have teams and alliances. Not that there were any real details. After dihorne made us do hours of trust exercises. And we're supposed to be baorrow. “

  In weighing her options Harmony decided to be grateful rather than offended She wasn't invited. “I'm sure it was dreadful.”

  “She had Leate us over the group and…”

  “I’m sure you tell me all about it after you tell me any important information you learned.”

  With a twitch Max pulled out his notebook filled with notes so densely packed it was clear a scribe had written them.

  “Guild master Hemlock isn’t pying horne really hates him, you should hear some of the curse words she said under her breath. Hemlock is going to trickle out information, as part of his agreement with Ha’zel Ri. She muttered about how it robably something he requested. This afternoo the notification that all of us were selected to represent our kingdom, bypassing more petent adventurers she’d already had lined up.”

  "No wonder she issed. Having to deal with irate adventurers who missed out on this ce or the families of those who died trying to level up in time."

  “First are the restris. No oath sworn servants, or ing bonds, so if you take Adric then Bowe ’t go with you. We are limited to four total bonds out of these categories, pair bonds, primal bonds, summon bonds, fate bonds, theocratids, astral bonds, polyamorous bonds, quantum bonds, Jamesian bonds, and protopsmids. I don't even know what more than half of these are. When I asked about polyamorous Bonds because that sounded iing, Thorne smacked my hand like I was a child and said, no.”

  Would Night t As a paired bond? Everyone knew about Adric. “I have at least one of those. What is Thorne saying about the bonds? And what about familiars.”

  “I'm getting to that. You know Len was all over that. They don't t against your total. A plete cheat. Thorne will go over bonding options for us ter. We're only to have three filled until we evolve because that choice could grant us one, ooo many and you're disqualified. Most petitors will max their bonds.”

  “How am I going to fill mi?”

  “That's all the information for now. Don't worry you've got a man on the inside. I'll keep my eyes and ears open for you.”

  When did trying to win bee so important? Frustration rising, she dismissed him to rest up for tomorrow's trials and training. Something she should do too. Duactics 101 sat beside her bed, lying open mid-chapter. That o be finished and what's a few more chapters?