Hyro and Nail were more tired than Hyro thought they should have been, sure it has not been long since they returned from their outing, but they had nearly a full day of rest. Hyro thought of what went into that day however and that many ability increases as well as trying out their new, powerful ability, it made sense that they would be exhausted. The next morning Hyro was able to wake on his own as he had in the past, Hyro started about his day going to classes like everything was normal, Nail closely following everywhere Hyro went. Hyro’s classes were still the same as far as he was aware, most being on his own study and research at this point. Hyro started his day with some meditation, Hyro decided that he should go into his sanctuary to check in with his subconscious thoughts.

  His sanctuary initially looked like his normal safe space, his fireplace and a few logs around it, the area fading to black mostly outside of that. There were a couple notable differences however, first there was now a small grouping of large trees within the range of his sanctuary. The other major change that Hyro noticed right away is there was more than just himself and two other versions of himself, sure they were all there, but Nail was there too as well as one other Nail who was as small as Nail was when they first met. Nail seemed to be in a bit of a shocked state as well, this being the first time he had entered a Sanctuary, the bigger Nail spoke up once he observed his surroundings, “Hyro, what is going on?” Hyro looked over, shocked to hear Nail actually speak and not use their telepathic link. His voice was rougher than Hyro thought it would be. “You can speak?!” Hyro responded in shock. The two other Hyro’s that were here this time, one was covered in various animal furs and the other was the Hermit dressed with his brown cloak draped over his shoulders, similar to the first time Hyro entered the sanctuary. The hermit Hyro is the one who spoke up in response, “In here he can speak, as everyone here would hear the thoughts anyway.” The way he spoke was as if that was an obvious statement, the Hermit Hyro continued, “I do always enjoy when we grow our sanctuary to include nature.” The Hermit went over to sit under one of the trees as opposed to the logs around the fire.

  Hyro was confused about that statement, “I thought you were only formed from my thoughts, actions and my magic and the ambient magic from the area, how can you remember seeing different Sanctuary’s or seeing changes like this before?” The Hermit chuckled, “Yea, that is how we are formed but we are still echoes of real people that exist or have existed, usually from other timelines or other worlds. Occasionally if events align the same way they did for us some of the memories leak through with the magic. Now I can’t tell you much of the details, just the feeling of peace I get by nature, I built a similar path.” The Hyro dressed in the animal furs spoke, “I did as well, I imagine that is why we both showed up this time, we both have a love for nature so with this nature based change, we were brought here, that version of Nail is actually my companion.” He motioned to the smaller Nail as he spoke. The sanctuary confused Hyro more and more each time that he entered it. The Hyro in animal furs continued speaking, “You just bonded with Nail right? He will probably be quiet for a few days, dealing with his changes. Mine did not change much physically, but did change mentally, it took him a long while before he would say a full sentence to me, now he won’t shut up half of the time.” He chuckled as he finished speaking, petting his Nail who glared at him and gave his own response, “I only do not shut up when you are making dumb choices. So yes, I guess I talk a lot.” Despite their size difference, this Nail sounded almost identical to the bigger Nail.

  The three Hyro’s and two Nail’s spoke for a while about strategy for both in and out of combat, noting the Hyro had Nail and some new abilities. They were all in agreement that the Full Merge would be best used only in dire situations, with the restrictions on how often it can be used. Hyro did not know he was feeling uneasy with all of the changes he had undergone recently, but entering Sanctuary and speaking with everyone helped him notice the changes in himself and he felt better. Hyro spent almost three hours talking and thinking and just taking a moment to be himself. As Hyro left his Sanctuary, slightly over a half an hour passed in the outside world. Nail and himself were the only ones in the meditation room when he entered, now a few more were here, Dreeva was actually in the front meditating, Cynthia and Acadeles were in the room in a meditative state. Gribby was there as well but he seemed to just be staring around, swaying back and forth. He saw Hyro get up and start to leave and Gribby got up and followed after.

  “Hey, how come this is so easy for you? What is the trick?” Gribby asked as soon as the soundproof door to the meditation room closed. I am surprised he had enough courtesy to wait to talk until the door closed. Hyro chuckled to himself, thinking loud enough for Nail to hear, who let out a weird chirping squeal in response. Gribby looked annoyed but Hyro spoke up quickly, “There is no trick Gribby, I have done a little meditation before, and it is easy for me to clear my thoughts.” Gribby did not seem to accept that answer. “That is what everyone has been saying but everyone else seems to know where to at least start, and no one told me how!” Hyro could see Gribby getting upset, he was not sure what to do. ‘Tell him to try and hum a song in his head.’ Nail thought to Hyro, who then suggested that to Gribby. “Ah so is that the trick! I can do that.” Gribby seemed full of excitement once again, eager to try what Hyro recommended, he left, entering the meditation room once more. “Well that was weird.” Hyro said to Nail after the door closed. The pair then headed for the cafeteria to get a snack while they waited for Valda to be available for welcome to the system class. Everyone in the class was level five or very close at this point, so no classes met formally, but it is expected that each student still continues their physical and academic advancement each day, and the teachers of each class are usually available during the time class would usually be. Some classes, like Hyro’s What is utility? Still meet regularly, even if some people are out from time to time. Hyro had a question for Valda about the System and quests.

  After waiting around for a while it was finally time that Hyro should be able to meet with Valda. Hyro headed to the classroom to find Valda reading a book at the front of the room, no one else nearby. Valda looked up when he heard Hyro and Nail enter the room, “Ah Hyro, I have been wondering when I would get to meet your new companion.” Valda said, turning his attention to Nail, “I heard mean old Buck did not provide you with a proper snack, don’t you worry Valda always has some snacks.” The kind words and intentions sounded weird with Valda’s sly tone, but as soon as he pulled out some animal jerky he won over Nail in an instant who rushed forward and accepted the treat. Valda returned his attention to Hyro, “What brings you by? I heard you have had some interesting experiences on your outing.” Before Hyro could respond, Nail thought to Hyro, ‘We can trust this one, you can always trust those with good snacks.’ Hyro could not help but let out a small laugh before replying to Valda, “I had some questions about quests and monster lairs.”

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  Hyro told Valda a portion of the quest that he was on, mostly the part after Hurly left, when they went to go see where Enris’s father had been. Hyro made it sound like all of the events that took place were accidental, they did not go looking for trouble, trouble found them. With Hyro’s high luck ability it was believable that anything could happen. Hyro had two main questions he wanted to ask Valda about the System, about Quests and how one came up as they started to get near the Lair. Hyro knew his quest was from SID but left that part out, he wanted to know if it was normal for the system to add quests based on proximity to certain events. The other question was about the Lair. Hyro knew they were caused by an uprising of magic in an area, and that the types of creatures and amount of creatures that usually came out were dependent on the amount of magic and the environment. What he was unsure on was why adventurers were needed to stop them, sure they could use the system to see how many creatures were out for the Lair but as far as Hyro knew there was not anything special that adventurers did.

  “Ah, for the quests, they can show up at any time, usually once the user is aware of an event or something going on. The System likes to avoid spoilers.” Valda was more direct than usual, but continued with his answers, “As far as the Lair, that answer gets a bit more… complicated. The basic answer is some of the creatures, especially Elites, can become very powerful, and the enhancements from the System make it possible for most to be able to defeat them. Without the system it is also nearly impossible for someone to know how many enemies there are or if the Lair is connected to another Lair.” I guess that makes sense, Hyro thought to himself, but there has to be more to it. “Thank you Valda, I appreciate it.” Hyro said as he got up to leave, Nail following behind. Hyro was distracted while they walked, he was thinking to himself as he walked through the halls, heading to the arena. I need to know more if I am going to be adventuring more regularly. I know I have some power now, but it was never my style to just rush in without some sort of plan. Nail interrupted his thoughts, ‘We have power now, we can afford to rush in sometimes if we need to, what’s the worst that can happen?’ Hyro looked down to Nail, and instead of thinking he spoke out loud as he did not notice anyone nearby, “We could die if we aren't careful Nail, I was close the other day.” Hyro’s voice and attitude became more distraught as the pair continued to their destination.

  Once reaching the arena Hyro and Nail had a small practice session. They did not want to use the Full Merge in case something unexpected happened during the day, but they practiced strategy, using a dummy to practice flanking and battle plans. They stayed at the arena for about an hour, Hyro only had one more class that he needed to ask questions about, but that was not until the end of the day with Hurly in his What is Utility class. For now, Hyro gained some useful experience training with Nail and deepening their bond. After they were finished practicing it was time to get a real meal as they headed to the cafeteria to meet up with Enris and Cynthia. Enris, Cynthia and Hyro had been messaging back and forth most of the day. Most of the conversation was nothing important, but they did figure out how to have a message with all three of them, making conversations easier to have, that is how Hyro knew they would be headed to the cafeteria soon.

  The group sat and enjoyed each other's company while they ate lunch. They all spoke about any news they heard about the no independent studies but no one had any information, that is until Nail thought something to Hyro. ‘You didn’t hear? When we were walking to Valda earlier there were a few people talking about an all school meeting tomorrow to talk about independent studies.’ Nail’s tone inside of Hyro’s head was so nonchalant that Hyro guessed he really did not care about the topic. Hyro relayed the information to everyone else, it was not much to go on, but hopefully they would have some concrete answers by tomorrow. The rest of lunch was uneventful, mostly it was Enris, Cynthia and Hyro. Dreeva did drop in for a short while, though she just grabbed food, ate fast and then left. Hyro was curious where people like her were going. Normally people would be rushing to finish preparing to go out on another independent study, but with those being on hold, Hyro assumed they would see more people just wandering around. That was not the case, there were more bodies moving around campus but quite a few still moved with urgency.

  After they finished their long long, Hyro went to see if Hurly was free to talk, as they had him for both Adventuring 101 and What is Utility back to back. Hyro reached the classroom to find Hurly standing, writing on one of the boards around the room, he seemed to be sketching a battle strategy of sorts. “Ahem,” Hyro cleared his throat upon entering to get Hurly’s attention. Hurly looked over at the sound and greeted Hyro. “Ah Lad! What brings ye by today?” Hyro wasted no time and just right into it, “What is a DUAD class?” Hurly looked perplexed for a moment, his answer was not as straightforward as Hyro hoped, “Not all classes are widely known lad, though most are tied to a more known one in some way. DUAD I am afraid I have not heard of, the name seems to imply two things acting as one. Was that one of yer class options?” Hyro nodded and looked down to Nail, “I had some… help, being persuaded to pick that option as well.” Hurly stroked his beard while mulling over the name of the class, “DUAD, duad… hmmmm DUAD.” Hurly was just repeating the name over and over before finally asking Hyro a follow-up question, “Did the system give you a longer description? Either before or after your selected it?” Hyro blurted out the answer as it was what he was just thinking of himself, “Dynamic and Unique Administrator Duo, that is apparently what DUAD stands for.” Hurly stopped all movement and his expression turned to the most serious that Hyro has ever seen on the dwarf. “Did ye say Administrator?”

  “Y-yes.” Hyro was hesitant to answer with the change in atmosphere but forced out the word anyway. Hyro has seen and done a lot over the past few weeks, he had truly grown a great deal. All of that did not prepare him for what Hurly said next however, “Lad, the word Administrator is not seen in classes very often, usually if it is, it is at Epic rarity or higher. I have never known someone with an administrator class that did not go on to do amazing things. Most of the high council of adventures leaders have had such a class, as do a few headmasters and leading adventurers. They are rare, but they exist.” While talking Hurly was rummaging through a few books around the desk in the room, after he finished his current thought he seemed to find what he was looking for as he opened a big brown book and pushed it towards Hyro, “I can not believe this…” Hyro glanced over to the book that Hurly was referencing, as he read his jaw dropped:

  Excerpt from ‘Adventurer’s throughout time’: