Chapter 210

Natalie jolted awake to pounding on her door.

“You two better not be fucking!” came a familiar muted growl. “I swear! Being late to class is one thing, but our quest? Absolutely not!”

Immediately, Natalie panicked.

Late?

They’d overslept? To their quest?

Her attention snapped to the clock, and sure enough, they’d either ignored or forgotten to set their alarm the night prior. With how exhausted they’d been, either possibility made sense.

Jordan also jolted awake, head pivoting left and right as she got her bearings. “Oh, shit,” she said. “We’re not even packed.”

“I know you can hear me,” Sofia called. “You two can go one morning without slobbering on each other’s genitals. It’s possible, I promise!”

“We’re coming,” Natalie called—which was maybe not the ideal phrasing, considering the accusations being leveled at them. “I mean, we woke up late. We’ll be out soon!”

For once, Natalie was also panicked by the idea of being late. As Sofia had said, being late to class was, while a poor reflection of them onto Tenet—and could result in disciplinary actions if it happened frequently—ultimately not that big of a deal.

Being late to a quest, though? That reflected poorly on Tenet itself, which was a much bigger deal. Quests were Tenet’s means of ‘community outreach’ and improving the perception of delvers onto Valhaur’s populace as a whole.

So missing the train and showing up late to a mission where they needed to be protecting an innocent town from a recent monster scourge? Tenet would come down on them like a hammer. Which wasn’t to mention Natalie’s own shame at putting people in need further at risk.

Both Natalie and Jordan nearly fell out of bed as they scrambled for the closet and restroom, respectively. In a frenzy, Natalie started slamming clothing and other necessities into a suitcase. They should have taken care of it the night before, but yesterday’s dungeon delve had gone off the rails in such a chaotic way.

Sofia let herself in. She gaped at the two of them as they frantically packed and got cleaned up. “You overslept? I thought you were just being yourselves! This is even worse!”

“You can stand there and scold us, or you can help,” Jordan shot back.

Shaking her head, Sofia joined in on the frenzy. It was only a two-to-three day quest at most, so if they missed a thing or two it wouldn’t be a huge deal—but still.

Adding to the chaos, something else significant had reared its head.

“Also,” Natalie said. “I leveled up. Did you two?”

“What?!” Sofia and Jordan exclaimed. “Already?”

“Is that a no?”

“What’d you get?” Jordan asked, peeking out of the restroom, speaking past a mouthful of toothbrush. Her black hair was a wild mess. They would probably have to skip taking a shower this morning, too, so Natalie thought: good luck to her.

“Haven’t looked,” Natalie grunted. “Don’t want to get distracted.”

“Keep it that way,” Sofia said. “We can figure it out on the train ride.”

They made it to the train station on time. It was a good thing Sofia hadn’t somehow slept in too; that would have been disastrous. As it was, they piled into the cabin and had their tickets checked while panting from exertion, having run the whole way there. Navigating the station itself had been a headache too. Aradon, as the capital of Valhaur, was the central nexus of the nation-spanning train system. The station was nothing like the smaller ones back home.

As a team of Tenet students heading out on a quest, they had a cabin reserved to themselves. Liz and Ana were already posted up inside, leaning back on the soft ‘U’ shaped bench seats that encircled the miniature room. They’d likely been there for some time yet, having arrived early out of a justified paranoia. Again, Natalie would not have wanted to see what Tenet would’ve done to them, if they’d been idiotic enough to miss the train’s departure.

Collapsing onto their bench seats without even stowing their luggage underneath in their proper spots, the three of them sagged down in relief.

“Something happen?” Liz asked curiously, perking up as they entered. “Cutting it close. Only four minutes left.”