Rin and Eve were one of the first teams to depart.

"Are you two ready?" Maria asked as she was the one who would be tagging along with them.

"Yep," Rin nodded as did Eve.

"Alright then, let's get going."

Before the two of them departed from the Academy's grounds, Rin turned to see some of the other teams that had formed. In the end, Elisa had been approached by Dylan, and it looked like she accepted the offer. Sara was approached by Lisa, and the raven-haired girl nodded with an emotionless face. Alea went up to Seth and all but proclaimed she was on his team, and the man didn't argue. John and Carla were, of course, on their own team, and that left only Varyn without a team of his own.

"Varyn, come with me," Cara told him. "I'll act as your partner for this."

"Sure," Varyn replied. If he seemed disappointed at the fact that no one chose him, he didn't show it.

As Rin watched everyone get prepared to leave, she couldn't help but smile. Seeing all of her classmates together like this, for just a moment the Academy felt like an actual school. It was a weird, but welcome, feeling for someone who never got the chance to go to any college.

Suddenly though, she heard her name be spoken.

"Rin?"

"H-Huh?" She asked, turning toward Maria and Eve, who were waiting ahead. Her teacher smiled and said:

"We're heading out. Are you coming?"

"Right, right. Sorry," Rin giggled awkwardly.

And, with that, the three of them departed the city. Eve couldn't contain her excitement, and, honestly, Rin almost shared that sentiment. Sure, with every mission that came the usual nervousness would dance in her heart but, with Eve by her side, this time was different.

"What are we gonna do!?" Eve asked, full of energy as they exited through the northern gates. The brightness of the sky, as the sun shone down on them without a single cloud to interrupt its brilliance, seemed to reflect her attitude. "Are we gonna hunt trolls? Or drakes? OR A LICH-KING!?"

"Nope," Maria quickly answered. Rin just chuckled as Eve pouted. "It might be a little early for that."

"We won't know if we won't learn," Eve argued, though Rin sensed she wasn't being too serious.

"Hm. You're right. I'll get to work finding a lich-king just for you!"

"Hell yeah!"

"Heh, but, no," Maria continued. "We won't be fighting any lich-kings or vampire gods or ancient thralls."

"Aw," Eve lamented as Maria walked ahead of them. "I'm so disappointed."

"You will be fighting undead, however," Maria clarified. "So, if hunting extremely dangerous dead-but-not-dead monsters is something you want to aspire to do, then today should serve as a good learning opportunity."

Rin's curiosity was piqued.

"Really?" She asked.

"Mhm," Maria nodded.

"Oh," Eve said, flying beside their teacher. "So, what are we gonna do?"

"Well~" Maria began, "let me tell you."

Rin's ears perked up. Eve awaited the information with stars in her eyes. Maria smiled at the apparent eagerness.

"Today," she finally began to say, "you two will be clearing out a ruin."

Rin's eyes widened. Eve's excitement only seemed to rise at the news.

"Really!?" Eve asked dramatically.

"Mhm," Maria nodded. "A ruin filled with low-rank undead, to be specific. You're going to be going in, eliminating all of the monsters you see, and then you walk back out, and that's that."

"Ohh, I'm feeling butterflies right now!" Eve declared as Rin had a slightly different reaction.

When she heard that, her mind was immediately taken back to that strange metallic land that she had discovered with Xhez. She could still remember the difficulty she and the sprite went through in trying to defeat the evil that kept the place in its clutches. She'd improved since then, of course. She wasn't self-conscious enough to deny that. However, she wondered what the degree of the difference would be. Would this be easy now, or would this be just slightly less difficult?

She supposed she'd find out soon.

"So, how about a little quiz? Just to make sure you've both been paying attention in your classes and all," Maria told them. "What are the weaknesses of undead enemies?"

Eve quickly replied:

"Fire!"

"Of course," Maria nodded. "Can you list some types of undead enemies for me?"

"Zombies, vampires, skeletons, ghosts," Eve stated several kinds of enemies in a rapid-fire way.

"Rin," Maria then cut Eve off. "Can you go through the ranks of skeletons?"

"Um, in a fight?" Rin asked. "I-I think so."

"Heh, I don't doubt that, but that's not what I meant. I meant list off the different kinds of skeletons."

"OH," Rin laughed awkwardly. "Uh, yeah, sorry. So, uhm, there's basic skeletons, then there are skeleton revenants, and the last ones are skeleton champions?"

As with the other types of undead enemies, the difference between each skeleton was simply how close to their original strength they were, with basic skeletons being shadows of their former selves while skeleton champions had all but retained their strength from when they were alive.

"Hm... Good," Maria nodded, though it seemed like she was holding back. "Well, at these ruins you're going to be fighting skeletons, ghosts and zombies. Eve, can you tell me what a ghost's biggest strength is?"

"Physical weapons don't work on them. They pass right through their bodies," the fairy replied.

"Precisely. You understand what that means, right?" Maria stopped to look at her. "Rin is going to be relying on you to take out any ghosts you two come across. Can she rely on you to do that?" Maria asked.

Rin glanced over at the fairy. As Eve heard that, her eyes moved toward Rin briefly before nodding and putting forth a bright smile.

"Yeah! I'll handle them!"

"Good," Maria returned the expression.

As Maria continued to guide them toward the ruin, Eve flew over to where Rin was following, a few steps behind.

"Ahh! I haven't really gotten to show off too much. I'm so excited!"

"What do you mean? We've trained a bit together," Rin replied.

"This is different. I'm a mage, Rin! Now, you're actually going to see me at my best! Just try not to pass out when you see how amazing I am~"

"That would be pretty bad, wouldn't it? Try not to be too incredible," Rin replied with some giggles.

Finally, they arrived at what almost seemed like a random door that had been painted onto the side of a hill. Rin could believe that many people had probably passed this place by and completely missed this opening. She felt like she would have missed it herself if they hadn't specifically been looking for a random ruin in the middle of nowhere.

"We're here," Maria announced, turning toward them and putting her hands behind her back. "I've already scouted out the ruin out in its entirety. Do you know what that means?"

For the first time, neither Eve nor Rin offered an answer. When Maria saw that, she gave them a warm smile and said:

"It means there's nothing in there that I believe you can't beat. Please, remind yourselves of that should you struggle."

"W-Wait," Rin said, "you aren't going to be going in with us?"

Maria looked like she anticipated that question as she quickly shook her head.

"No, I am not," she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, tilting her head down. "You're going to be taking real missions in a little under two months. So, we think it's best to help you prepare for this by, well, taking the training wheels off, you could say."

She opened her eyes again and her gaze fell squarely on Rin.

"Yes, you will both be there on your own, however, again, I would like you to understand that there is nothing in these ruins that I believe can defeat you. Internalize that knowledge, and when you're ready, go ahead and enter."

Even Eve seemed a little more nervous than before, though she quickly turned toward Rin.

"Are you ready?" She asked quietly.

Rin looked up at Maria.

"Can I use my Spirit Flame?" She asked.

"Your spirit what now?" Eve asked Rin. Maria, ahead, nodded.

"Yes. Do not hesitate. Treat this like a real mission."

Hearing that, Rin took a sharp breath and nodded back at her.

"Alright. Then, yeah. I guess I'm ready."

"Good luck, you two," Maria said as they moved past her. "Stay alert, remember what you've learned in class, and be confident."

With those words resonating within Rin, the adventurer pushed the ruin's stone doors open. Dust slid off the top and fell to the ground as the sunlight poured inside, blocked only by Rin's own body.

Eve joined her, hovering beside her. The fairy placed a hand on Rin's shoulder and the raven-haired woman turned toward her.

"Let's do this," Eve said with a determined expression and Rin allowed herself to soak up a bit of that confidence.

"Yeah... Let's do this," she said as well, and with that, the two entered the ruin.

Maria closed the door closed behind them. Putting her hands on her hips, Rin sighed and said:

"Uhm, well, we're here, And... it's really, really dark."

Eve chuckled and quickly cast a spell that created a glowing blue orb over her head that illuminated their surroundings.

"Ta-da, what would you do without me~?" Eve teased as the space around them was made clear.

Rin took it all in for a moment. There were glass and wooden box-like objects broken down around them, some of them in pieces. The dust that had lifted up in the air as they walked in made Rin sneeze.

"It's so stuffy in here," Rin noted.

"Well, we are in a ruin that's probably at least a thousand years old or something. An incredibly well-maintained thousand-year-old ruin, but still."

"Noted," Rin replied. "You're right though, some of this stuff is still standing after so long."

"Essence, I'm pretty sure," Eve clarified as she flew ahead just a short distance. "Same thing that keeps the undead alive is keeping the area intact. Some mages argue that it has to do with the last memories of whatever entity is keeping the place cursed. Though, it's argued that Essence itself is what does that, so if you buy into that theory then that stuff about the memories goes out the window."

"What do you think?" Rin asked her.

"I... I think I have a bit more studying to do before I can offer up anything of note," she said with a shy smile. "So, anyway, let's find these skeletons, eh?"

Rin looked around, doing just that.

"I don't really see any, though," she noted as she searched behind what looked like an old desk. There were many old items. Chairs, things that seemed like weird sheets of paper strewn about with unreadable scribbles on them. However, there was nothing she could consider an actual body or even pieces of one.

"Hm... They'll pop up on their own if we end up going near any, but, like Maria said, there's nothing in here that can beat us. Maybe she meant that there weren't enough skeletons inside for us to really have to worry?"

"Well, we're still in the first room. Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Rin said.

"Yeah, you're right. Come on, let's start looking."

As they did just that, searching through dark, cramped hallways and long-abandoned rooms, Rin felt like this place really did resemble the place she and Xhez had found themselves in during their journey together. Everything seemed strangely metallic and lifeless, in such a way that Rin couldn't imagine this being a pleasant place to be in even during its prime.

[Even now, after all that training, these sorts of places still give me the creeps. Does that feeling ever go away?] She wondered as she continued to search for enemies.

The longer she went without finding any, the more nervous she got. Eventually, as the two of them entered what looked like an old lobby of some sort, Rin asked:

"See anything?"

Eve scanned the room, turning in the air.

Then, she stopped.

Rin noticed and moved up to her, before lowering her eyes to where Eve was looking. Three bodies covered in weird armor were there, with baton-like objects next to them. As soon as Rin saw them, it was like that triggered them to come to life. Their bones clanked against each other as they stood up.

"Um, found some!" Eve declared, not noticing that Rin was literally right next to her.

"I see them," Rin replied. Taking a deep breath, she balled her hands up into fists and took a deep breath.

[Okay. Let's get started.]