The Hunter Expedition Club headquarters felt different from every other club building on campus.
Not elegant. Not clean in the way the academic clubs were clean. The large room had the specific character of a place that had been used hard for a long time — scarred wooden tables, weapon racks that had been replenished and emptied and replenished again, maps covering most of the wall space. The students gathered here moved differently too. Less performance. More attention.
Taro looked around with the focused interest he gave to things he actually liked. "This place feels real."
Lysander didn't answer. He was already reading the room — the second-year students positioned near the back who were clearly here as supervisors, the maps on the walls marking territory outside academy grounds, the mission board with its ranked assignments.
A man entered from the side door and the room went quiet immediately.
Heavy build, heavy armor, a scar running across one cheek from something that had gotten close enough to matter. He moved like someone who had learned to be careful in spaces where being careless had consequences. He stopped at the front of the room and looked across the students with the specific patience of someone who wasn't in a hurry because hurrying was for people who hadn't figured out what actually mattered yet.
"I'm Instructor Garrick. I oversee Hunter Expedition operations."
He set a metal dagger point-first into the map table in front of him. Not for drama — just somewhere to put it.
"This club is not for practice duels and ranking points. If you join missions you will face real monsters in real terrain with real consequences." He let that sit for a moment. "If that's not what you're here for, the door is behind you."
Nobody moved.
Garrick nodded once. "Good. Then listen."
He outlined the first mission — a scouting contract in Blackroot Forest, two hours outside the academy's eastern boundary. Mild monster activity, mostly low-rank beasts, survey and report. He pointed to the map section as he spoke, indicating the route, the estimated territory, the return time.
"First-years form teams of four. Second-years will supervise one team each. Your job is to scout monster activity and get back before sunset. That's the whole mission."
He paused.
"Do not engage anything above your rank. Do not split from your team. Do not decide the mission parameters are suggestions."
Students began forming teams. Taro immediately pulled Lysander into a group with two others who had drifted nearby — a quiet elf girl with a short recurve bow who introduced herself as Lyra, and a heavyset human student named Bran who carried a tower shield and looked like he'd been built specifically to stand between things and the people behind him.
Four students. One team.
Lysander looked at them briefly. Lyra had the stillness of someone comfortable in forests — light on her feet, eyes that moved naturally to the exits and the distances. Bran had the settled quality of someone who knew exactly what their role was and was comfortable with it.
They'd do.
The system appeared quietly in his vision.
ABYSSAL SYSTEM — ALERT
Future event detected.
Location: Blackroot Forest.
Predicted outcome: Alpha beast ambush.
Fatality probability: 74%
Primary casualty: Taro Stormfang.
He read it once. Then closed it.
He already knew about the Blackroot mission from what he'd read of the novel. A monster that wasn't supposed to be there. A supervisor who got taken out of the fight early. Students scattering. Someone dying protecting the group.
The someone was standing next to him, currently telling Lyra about the best way to eat before a mission.
Across the room Garrick was finishing his briefing. "Expedition leaves at sunrise tomorrow. Be ready."
Students began filtering out — excited, nervous, the particular combination of both that came from having signed up for something real and now having to actually prepare for it.
Taro stretched his arms above his head. "First mission already." His tail moved with genuine enthusiasm. "This is why I came to this academy."
Lysander looked at him for a moment. Then looked back toward the mission map on the wall.
Tomorrow he would have to make sure it stayed that way.