Increasing operations meant more work for Landsknecht. Bena and Thomas designed and created recruitment posters, posting them up in between their contracted missions. They even changed out their business cards to advertise that they were hiring.

  Lucian and Viviana were now doing jobs left and right. Monster exterminations, extra muscle for dungeon clears, and more. It was to the point that most of the unaffiliated knew who they were, and even some lower ranked guild members were hiring them for odd jobs. They had money and work. Despite the looming threat of war, and the news of the murder, it was like nothing even happened.

  No guilds stepped forward to claim responsibility for the murder. Multiple guilds have been spotted investigating the area where the murder happened. No one was saying it, but Ferric Meridian, who had one of their council members murdered, was getting dicey. Agitated. Yet not much changed.

  Eventually the student war started, to not much fanfare. A student guild war was common practice and occurred pretty much annually. War was the best way for guild-affiliated students to level up, fight each other, and show off their skills to the guilds of Central.

  Ferric Meridian dealt the Pact a master stroke, sieging their temporary base in terrarium four. The Pact pushed back hard, but they lost significant ground. Some of their top fighters were captured– two tier ones. Viviana and the Landsknecht made no moves; they weren’t hired for anything. All they could do was watch it unfold from their holoscreens.

  Vulx Arc Cooperative seized the opportunity and attacked the weakened Pact, but the Pact had used this to completely withdraw from terrarium two, leaving only a small garrison there. They used the extra forces to smash into VAC’s terrarium four forces on a different front. For every inch of territory they lost to Ferric Meridian, they gained an inch of VAC’s.

  Despite the fighting, no one had died.

  The murder was brushed off as a freak accident. Investigations stopped as the war continued, and the investigators were needed elsewhere. The sentiment was simple– everyone just wanted to fight. War was a way to get promoted, to get noticed by the real guilds outside the academy. Who cared about a one off murder?

  Viviana thought about the war as she killed a sludgefly, using her grapple gear to zip around it and deal multiple blows. An easy kill, but only as a testament to her skill in grappling now. The Viviana who killed the sludge claw would not have been able to kill an aerial target so easily.

  [You have slain a level 5 sludge fly.]

  [+4 exp]

  Viviana was now close to leveling up. She was excited, but she brushed her emotions aside as the client thanked her for clearing this part of the dungeon. They would take it from there, they said. Viviana watched as the other half of the agreed upon payment made its way into the guild account.

  [Collective Academy Funds Account]

  [$3052.24]

  Their clients walked deeper into the dungeon of terrarium two as Lucian nodded. “We’ve got a bit of money now, don’t we?”

  “Yep,” Viviana said. “We should buy some gear. Maybe get all of us grapple packs. Then we could operate in terrarium two.”

  Lucian scoffed. “With this much, we could only buy second hand ones.”

  Well, it’s the best thing we could get with the money.

  They got a new job, this time. The first official, war-related job since the war started. A chance to fight on the front.

  Viviana had discussed the meeting with the client, given that it was super important this time. Normally Thomas would handle the smaller jobs and clients solo, as the other members weren’t necessary for negotiation. But Viviana had insisted on negotiating this one.

  Negotiations were now shaping up, and contracts were being issued the verbal way, which was now the standard among the Landsknecht members.

  “I, Viviana Adler-Stern, leader of Landsknecht, propose a contract between two parties; Landsknecht, and Fortuna Fuerewache, leader of squad Gamma of Ferric Meridian. Landsknecht will accompany the members of squad Gamma to level two of terrarium two to steal back the ‘fire gem’, a system recognized artifact from Ophidian Pact’s tier eight squad, the lancers.

  “This service ends once Fortuna Fuerewache obtains the fire gem. Four hundred academy credits will be paid to the Landsknecht immediately, and an additional twelve hundred credits will be paid afterwards, with an addition of a hundred credits for each member of the lancers slain.

  “Are all parties in agreement?”

  Fortuna flared her mana as Viviana flared hers.

  “I agree,” Fortuna said. Viviana agreed as well. They shook hands, and it was done. Mana emanation from both parties immediately stopped as Lucian saved the conversation and the respective mana fluctuations to a database.

  Fortuna left without another word. She probably felt disrespected after Viviana didn’t recognize her name. Viviana poked the side of her face, wondering how negotiations went so strangely. Apparently, Viviana had cut off her friend’s arm, killed her and her entire squad, and tossed her at a giant centipede. Viviana should have remembered, but Landsknecht did so many crazy things it didn’t seem like something worth remembering.

  In any case, it was another job in the bank, with a large payout guaranteed and an even larger one if they did a good job. Not to mention it was the first job they would do for the war effort.

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  Even if technically Fortuna was here unofficially, the student guilds would be impacted, and Landsknecht would make a name for themselves as participants in the war. This meant one thing– they needed to perform their absolute best. If they could convince the student guilds that Landsknecht could provide some real impact, they’d be swimming in dough.

  Viviana called a meeting with the rest of Landsknecht. They needed all hands on deck.

  Soon enough, everyone gathered in the meeting room.

  “We’ve got a job from Fortuna. She’s guild affiliated, but she wants to do this job unofficially. We don’t care about that. We’re using this moment to advertise.”

  Bena yawned and nodded. “So we're dropping business cards?”

  “Of course. The whole nine yards.”

  “Where are we operating?” Lucian asked.

  “Terrarium two, lower level dungeon,” Viviana said.

  Thomas and Bena looked at each other. “We’re gonna need gear.”

  Viviana cleared her throat.

  “Speaking of gear, I’ve got you guys gifts, by the way,” Viviana said. She pulled out a couple items from the storage bag, placing them gently on the meeting table. They were expensive, after all. “Don’t worry about the group funds. I saved up for this.”

  Her teammates' eyes widened. Thomas picked up one of the metallic items. “Last gen VAC grapple hooks and boost cores. These aren’t available on the aftermarket. Just how did you afford this?”

  Viviana shrugged. “Some VAC members were willing to give those as payment after a job, so I got them for a good price.”

  “These aren’t VAC colors, though! White and gold, huh? Landsknecht colors!” Bena said, grabbing a grapple pack herself. She fumbled with it, trying to put it on. Thomas tried to help her, but Bena didn’t like his hands around her waist, causing her to hiss. Thomas stepped back.

  “Cool. How’d you get the custom paintjob?” Lucian asked, ignoring the shenanigans. He had helped her pick these out, but was surprised at how they looked.

  “I spray painted it.” Viviana said, shrugging. “Branding is important.”

  “And these little Landsknecht logos?”

  “...I did some arts and crafts, okay?”

  “Huh. I didn’t know you were good at this. Normally Bena does this sort of stuff.”

  A loud clicking noise echoed through the room. All eyes turned to Bena at that point.

  “Bena, take that off your belt,” Thomas said, approaching her slowly like he was herding a stray animal.

  “What?” Bena asked, placing her hand on the grapple hook. “It’s not like it’s gonna–”

  The hissing of pneumatic actuators filled the room as a metal projectile shot out of the grapple system and into a wall. Thomas panicked, trying to touch the button that released the grapple hook, but Bena’s movements caused his hand to bump into the retract trigger, causing Bena to fly into the wall.

  Lucian laughed as Bena struggled to free herself, a mess of grapple wires and cursing all the while.

  “Help! Lucian, stop laughing!”

  They spent a couple days training. Good thing they did, too, because Bena was somehow deathly allergic to grappling.

  “Bweh!”

  Viviana blinked as Bena made a sound oddly reminiscent of the vomit bird, hawking pure bile over the side of a floating island. Viviana wasn’t sure what to do, so she patted her on the back. Maybe a little too hard.

  “You done?” Viviana asked.

  “What’s… what’s with this devious training method?!” Bena said. “Why do you gotta bring a giant monster over, every time?!... Bweh!”

  The sound of grapples firing was heard as Thomas and Lucian circled a massive tanglestar. Viviana looked up at them, observing their grapple movements. Lucian was a natural. He moved with grace and precision, cutting down tanglestar arms and methodically approaching the monster’s core.

  Thomas was having a little more trouble. He was still shaky with his grapples– his core wasn’t clenched hard enough, giving him an unstable base to work with. Viviana could tell, but wasn’t going to give him the answer. Learning was best done in the threat of imminent death, after all.

  And then there was Bena. “Vivi… you can stop patting me on the back now…”

  Viviana tilted her head to the side. Back when she was small, and had an attendant that actually cared about her, being patted on the back felt nice. Good for throwing up. What was she doing wrong?

  Viviana pulled back her hand. “Okay, ready to grapple again?”

  “No.”

  Above them, the battle waged on. Viviana had a rough idea of what was going on. She was keeping an eye on them, mostly, to ensure that she and Bena wouldn’t take any collateral damage. Viviana watched as Thomas warmed up a skill. [Throw], it was called. He got it after tossing his sword at the ice bird back in terrarium one.

  Thomas’s sword flew out his hands and impaled the tanglestar’s face. The monster lurched back, but it wasn’t enough. Thomas panicked without a weapon, hesitating for a second that cost him dearly. One of the tanglestar’s arms slammed into him, bashing him into a floating island.

  Lucian rushed forward as the monster stumbled, capitalizing on its startled state. He yanked out Thomas’s sword, and with two hands, slammed both Thomas’s and his sword into the monster. Then it was done.

  Viviana felt oddly proud of Landsknecht. Thomas had gotten so strong, despite being used like a baseball at the end, and Lucian was a natural with his movements. She would have to learn some things from him later.

  Bena was great too, even if she wasn’t a grappler. “Bena, I just lost out on experience points because I was too busy caring for you instead of fighting. I am going to throw you off the island.”

  “What? No?!”

  It was too late for Bena. Viviana had already picked her up. “This is for your own good. You’ll learn better if you’re falling.”

  “I’m not a bird! Don’t just toss me out the nest!”

  Viviana scanned the horizon, Bena in her right hand like a mother cat picking up her kid. Viviana spotted a gravity bubble. It’s easier to grapple if you’re in those… maybe if I…

  Viviana whirled around, building up momentum. Bena made a strange sound. At the apex of the movement, Viviana let go, hurling Bena toward the closest gravity bubble.

  “Hey, Viviana,” Lucian said, landing next to her with Thomas in his arms. He frowned. “Where’s Bena?”

  Viviana pointed towards the horizon. A faint shimmer of light flashed all the way out there.

  Lucian dropped Thomas and activated his grapples, speeding off towards the falling star. Thomas curled over and threw up on Viviana’s shoes.