"Welcome everyone to the facility."
Lillian looked around, specifically at the familiar-looking pods she had been inside just a week ago. She then brought her gaze toward a man in a lab coat who greeted them with a push of his glasses.
He was quite a smart-looking fellow, with a studious air as he held a clipboard.
He had slicked-back black hair and dark purple eyes. Without a doubt, handsome.
"Us teachers believed it would be wise to have your class train inside a virtual reality to further improve your skills," he said with a calculating smile as he ticked off the names of students who were present without calling them out.
"We will be having you run through a gauntlet of monsters, which will allow us to gauge your skills when it comes to fighting monsters... oh yes... Elements, Traits, Shards, and Items you have on you are allowed."
CLICK—! HISS...
The pods opened their latches, tempting the students to approach and reside in them.
"Do the best you can. It isn't a contest," he mentioned, gesturing for everyone to get into the pods.
Everyone began to make their way to an open pod. Fortunately, there were more than enough for their class.
Millis turned to Lillian and said with a happy-go-lucky smile, "I'm gonna head in my pod. Let's see if that guy was telling the truth about it not being a contest or not!" before turning around and catching sight of the Second Prince and skipping over to him.
Lillian watched as they conversed with a subtle smile, "A commoner casually talking to someone from a royal lineage. How funny."
She then turned to the side and saw that Marionette had not even moved an inch away from her side. In fact, she hadn't even let go of her hand. Instead, it seemed she was holding on to her even tighter.
"Eh... are you not going to go?"
Marionette silently stared at her. She then smiled slightly.
"I'll enter one... once I watch you go into one first."
Lillian tilted her head.
"... But why? And what's with the smile?" she chuckled.
Marionette rolled her eyes.
"Do you need to know the reason?" she asked, emphasizing a particular word.
Lillian furrowed her brows, "I guess... not. I'll just head into a pod first then."
She then stared down at the hand that was being held.
"Not mind letting go?"
"Hm? Ah... I suppose." Marionette nodded and watched as Lillian stumbled into her pod. She then watched as the lid closed over her.
As she stared at Lillian's still face, who had fallen unconscious due to the effects of the pod, her ears twitched at her name being called.
"Lady Roselle..."
She then tapped her right foot on the ground, conjuring darkness from under her feet. It then formed around her into a dome, hiding her from the prying eyes on the outside.
She then turned around and saw her "teacher" giving her a half-bow, with his right arm placed over his chest and his face tilted up at her.
The hand that was placed on his chest then snaked its way into his pocket, fetching a pure white envelope with a red candle-waxed seal of a rose.
"The Head wishes to send you a physical message."
Marionette took the envelope from his hand, inspecting it before storing it within her spatial storage.
"Thank you, Nicholas. But may I ask why he didn't inform me through our private messaging channel?"
Nicholas rose from his bow and straightened the creases in his coat. He then adjusted his glasses.
"The Head wishes to keep the reason a secret. But honestly, it's too humorous a reason to keep quiet about. In his own words, he said, 'Sending messages digitally has no class and is insecure. Let's send a physical message because it is much cooler.'"
He then smiled at her, "If he asks, do tell him I didn't say anything. I'd rather he didn't mount my head on a stand again." He shivered as he caressed a gruesome scar wrapped around his neck.
Marionette nodded, "Very well," before causing the dark dome to shrink back and disappear.
The man stared at the disappearing dome, his smile widening a bit, "I had them shut down the surveillance for this particular room. There wasn't any need to do that."
Marionette turned around and said without facing him, "It's a good reassurance. You should perhaps figure out a reason for why you did it, though."
Nicholas watched as the Roselle family's heir entered her pod before looking around and scratching the back of his head.
"She's right... what am I going to say? I didn't really give them a reason why..."
***
Lillian looked around, clutching the heavy black-scaled odachi in her hand.
She was lost in a maze with an open blue sky. The walls were infested with vibrant green moss. The air also had an earthy smell as well as being quite humid—a sort of advantage for her, she thinks.
She tightly clutched the hilt of the odachi and felt her muscles tighten. She had already assigned it as a Shard long ago, so she didn't need to have it take up storage in her spatial ring anymore.
She currently had it sheathed and was just swinging it around, trying to get used to its weight before getting into a fight.
However, it was easier said than done.
SWISH!
The sheathed odachi cut through the air, dragging Lillian along with it, causing her to stumble a bit.
She hadn't ever had to wield a weapon as heavy before. This really went to show how weak Lillian's body was currently in terms of strength.
Although her physical capabilities were slightly enhanced with her rank up, it seems something like this was still a bit much.
She sighed as she wandered through the maze, sticking to the right side of the wall.
She couldn't really use her "Gamer" knowledge to figure her way out of the maze.
"Well... I have an hour. Good time to try out this new weapon and maybe my Element, I guess."