As it turned out, our suspension only lasted until the end of lunch on Friday. We had a special class that took place off-campus. Mr. Ramsey felt that it was important for the two of us to begin questing in Adventuring 101 as soon as possible.

This class met at the local guild office. Kalliphae brought out the phoenix even though it wasn’t really necessary as we only had one mile to travel. The guild rented space in a glass building called the Cal-Trans building that looked like a glass box on top of a building block. Kalli gave me a puzzled look. What is Cal-Trans?

Oh. They maintain the state’s roads. Well, the big ones in any case. It’s actually a pretty big job.

At first, I thought that our new pet dragon was going to fly alongside us but his tiny wings were insufficient to get him airborne. Fortunately, like Byakko, he had a tattoo mode. He flew inside of Kalli’s dress and vanished. It took both of us to figure out what happened but we quickly found Seiryu in the form of two tattooed wings on her shoulder blades. One was blue and the other was green.

We touched down on the roof of the building since the ground floor was flooded with people. It only took the two of us a minute to find the service stairwell and make our way inside.

The guild occupied floor 10. Being only three floors from the roof, we didn’t have far to descend. I was in awe when we left the stairwell and took in the guild plaza. The raised ceiling gave the impression that there were no floors above even though we had seen them on the way down. Glass panels 30 feet overhead let in sunlight giving the whole place an outdoor feeling.

A familiar voice behind us made me jump, “It’s an illusion. They magicked the crap out of this place to make it bigger and more important.”

Kalliphae squeezed my hand and I could feel her heart skip a beat when Kiki wrapped her arms around our shoulders. I gave her what I hoped was a placating smile and said, “Hey, Ki. I was looking for you.”

She craned her head to look me in the eyes, “Were you now?”

Nodding vigorously, I asked, “Would you like to join a group with us?”

It was true that it had been my intention to invite the girl to the group ever since we formed it. Technically, this was saving us time. She let go and stood still for a moment, appraising the two of us before answering, “Hmm. I suppose that could be interesting. I’m still not sure this one is good enough for you, baby bro. She was fraternizing with those losers after all.”

Kalli stamped her food on the ground in outrage, tiny flames sprouting on her forearms, “I was not fraternizing…”

She turned to me nervously. What is fraternizing?

I chuckled. Kiki would use that word.

It means making friends with someone who you aren’t supposed to.

The redhead glared at Kiki, who refused to back down and yelled, “It’s up to me who I make friends with. However, in this case, you’re right. I didn’t know they were jerks. I thought they just needed to warm up to Melvin. He takes some getting used to after all.”

I gave her a wounded look.

Hey.

Kalliphae stuck her tongue out at me. Come on. It’s true and you know it.

Ki’s mouth hung open for a moment before conceding, “Well, you got me there. He is an acquired taste. I’ll give you that. Okay. That settles it. I approve of you. I’ll join your group to go questing.”

I took a reflexive step back, “Hey, wait a minute. That’s wasn’t an invitation to go questing.”

Kiki gave me a smile that was definitely not sisterly. It was downright sinister. She closed in on me, causing me to stumble backward, losing my grip on Kalli’s hand, “Are you saying that you’re too good to go questing with your big sis?”

Kalliphae was quick. She stepped in front of Ki, holding the girl back from me, “Are you really his sister? He didn’t even know you two days ago.”

Ki shrugged and laughed, “We might as well be. We share the same bloodline. Besides, he doesn’t have a sister and I don’t have a brother. We’re a match made in heaven.”

Several emotions were doing battle inside of Kalli. I could feel them. Her face reddened and she balled her fists at her side. Kiki’s smirk was only serving to make the girl madder. I placed my hand over hers and she relaxed enough for me to entwine our fingers.

Seemingly satisfied enough to stop teasing the girl, Kiki turned to me, “So, how about that group invite?”

Ignoring her for a moment, I searched Kalliphae’s eyes for a sign that she was okay. She squeezed my hand and smiled. It’s okay. I was just a little surprised by how forward she is.

Yes, she is. She gave me a noogie the last time we were alone.

She raised an eyebrow. What is a noogie? Should I be jealous?

Trust me. They aren’t fun.

KIKI MORIN HAS JOINED THE GROUP

Ki didn’t wait to be introduced. She announced herself to the group. Hi there fellas. It’s time to go questing. Everyone report in so I know who I’m working with.

The explosion of thoughts made me want to cover my ears, not that it would help. Rave came through first and loud. More girls? How is Melvin pulling this off?

Joe chastised him next. Give is a rest, Rave. You don’t want to get kicked out, do you?

Wendy’s voice was quiet compared to the boys. We’re here. Stefanie and me. We will be there soon.

Run was confused when he spoke. Be where? Are we teaming up with them?

Kiki cleared her throat to stop the banter. Okay, everyone be quiet. Who’s here to team up? I thought this was a class group, not a social group.

Is there a difference?

She turned to me and spoke out loud, “We can only have four people in a group. Since there are eight of us, we will have to split into two groups.”

It was obvious that she was speaking out loud because she didn’t want to share something with the group. I replied, “I’ve been on quests with more than four people. You don’t think they will make an exception?”

Ki shook her head, “Nope. Each adventuring 101 quest group gets four students and an instructor. They will assign someone to us once we register.”

Kalli had calmed down somewhat when she replied, “I’m in Melvin’s group.”

The negotiator looked down at our clasped hands, “Of course, you are. I am as well. I suggest we get one of the boys for the fourth. It would look a bit odd if Melvin was in a group with nothing but girls. Do either of you have a preference out of the guys?”

I watched Kalliphae as she debated our options before suggesting, “What about Joe? He seems like the more mature of the bunch?”

Ki started walking toward the reception desk, “What class is he?”

Unsure if Kalli knew all of their classes, I replied, “He’s a technomancer. He makes tech things come to life.”

She laughed as we got in line, “I know what a technomancer is. Are any of them melee-based? With you two as mages more or less, we need some physical fighters.”

I nodded, “Run is a martial artist. That sounds physical.”

Kiki agreed, “Great. We will get him on our team. I can punch stuff too, so we should be set.”

Unsure of whether the girl meant that she could punch monsters or anybody who annoyed her, I agreed to the grouping. The next step was to inform the others.

Okay, we sorta formed groups already. Run will join us and Wendy, Stefanie, Joe, and Rave will form the other group.

Joe’s voice was the first to reply. Sounds good to me. You kept it at two boys and two girls per group. Interesting.

Kiki answered from beside me in the line. That was intentional.

When we go to the counter, Ki pulled out her guild card and turned to us, “Do the two of you need to get your guild cards?”

I nodded, “We both recently leveled up and need new ones.”

She smiled in response and said, “Oh, you already had one. That’s great. It will save time.

Melvin Murphy

Summoner: Level 16

Status: Academy Student

Guild Rank: D

Restrictions: None

Guild Fame: 1062

Kalliphae Hellquist

Pyromancer: Level 12

Status: Academy Student

Guild Rank: D

Restrictions: Magical Contract (2)

Guild Fame: 845

Kiki Jo Morin

Negotiator: Level 43

Status: Academy Teacher’s Aid

Guild Rank: B

Restrictions: Magical Contract (113)

Guild Fame: 7,651

Kalliphae and I both marveled at Kiki’s guild card. The pyromancer beat me to it when she asked the obvious question, “How are you under so many magical contracts?”

Ki grinned at us and explained, “I’m a negotiator. Haven’t you heard about me? If I talk you into anything, I can make it into a binding magical contract. I could force Melvin here to be my brother but if I make that into a contract, it might cheapen it.”

Kalli laughed nervously, “I’d give anything to be free of my contract.”

The negotiator scowled at Kalli’s revelation about her arranged marriage contract, “I wish I could see the fine print in that contact. I’ll just bet there are some fancy loopholes to exploit. From what I’ve heard, your family is trying to take advantage of you.”

Kalli matched the scowl, “They are no family of mine. If I could get out of it and forget the whole thing ever happened, then I’d do it.”

Kiki’s eyes gleamed as she gave the girl a conspiratorial smirk and suggested, “If I get you out of that, would you agree to devote yourself to my baby brother here?”

The red-haired girl folded her arms across her chest and said in a low voice, “I think I’ll make up my own mind about how I commit myself to any boy, thank you very much. It’s bad enough that I’m as committed as I am to the Hellquists.”

Kalliphae was getting agitated and I wanted to calm her down, so I promised, “We will get you out of that contract. All we need is that 1000 gold.”

Ki pat me on the head gently, a stark contrast to the noogie she delivered in the closet, “I hope it’s that easy, bro.”

Once we finished with the guild registrar, we made our way over to one of the bigger lounges where The Academy students were all milling about.

Our team split into two full groups, so we were assigned two student instructors, Fina Schall and Gideon Wyse. Kiki was biased. She ran over to Fina and wrapped the startled woman up in a hug, “I didn’t know you were chaperoning today.”

Mrs. Schall beamed at the girl and said, “I guess we’re a team.”

Once the teams were all paired with instructors, a wisened old lady made her way over to the group and spoke, “Greeting adventurers. I won’t keep you long. We have a couple of new students joining us today. If you see either of them in the field, be sure to make them feel welcome. Our record for the year is still 25 completed quests in a weekend. Let’s try to break it this week. Finally and most importantly, be safe out there.”

My first instinct was to inspect the woman.

Name

Cecile Ramsey

Class

Brawler

Level

???

Affection Level

Friendly

I tossed a sidelong glance at Ki and asked a question that I thought I already knew the answer to.

Who’s that?

Kiki, who had been listening to the speech, turned to me to reply. That’s the headmaster’s wife. She is level 160. She might not look it, but she’s quite a scrapper.

Nodding appreciatively as I watched Mrs. Ramsey walk away, I asked another question.

So what next?

Kiki grinned and hopped to her feet. Now, it’s time to choose our own adventure!