Throughout the Academy various skirmishes were ongoing. Some were solved through bribery, some negotiation, some with threats of violence, while others simply erupted into actual violence with the victor taking the spoils. All around the weak were quashed while the strong prevailed, although some of the self-ascribed strong found themselves taken down by a tide of those they considered to be their lesser.
Cyrus, on the other hand, was outright ignoring everything he passed until he made it out of the main building. Running towards the Academy dormitories at breakneck speed, he arrived at the gates of the housing complex in short order.
Sparing the towering building, full of rows and rows of doors each with their own number on the door, only a fleeting glance he began to walk up to the halfway opened gate. Giving a once over at the crowd, he saw only a dozen or so students who were waiting by the gate. Curiously, there was also a group of unconscious students in a pile where two students in particular were waiting. In both of their hands were a pile of directives, one holding 12 the other holding 8. Both of them were scanning the crowd in front of them, no doubt wary of more challengers. When one of the two saw Cyrus, recognition lit up in his eyes as he waved towards Cyrus.
"Hey Cyrus, over here!" yelled Imran while waving, completely unaware of Cyrus' somewhat celebrity status.
As expected, the 12 students turned towards Cyrus as they recognized the name from the banner shown off at the opening ceremony. Various thoughts flashed through their minds, especially when they noticed the covered treasure trove that was being carried on Cyrus' back. Not caring one whit about the rabble, he made his way towards his two allies. Splitting the group of students like the sea, the crowd broke into two as they made way under the pressure that was being emitted from the current ranked fifth in the entire year.
"While I would love to relieve these 12 of their directives, I sense more than a few people hiding around waiting for a conflict. Not to mention that someone well versed in stealth could simply steal some of my boons while I am occupied…" thought Cyrus as he approached the two.
Both were now wearing their mages robes, one a pale blue whilst the other a deep brown, as well as each had their weapon of choice by their side: a saber for Minerva and a glaive for Imran. Cyrus stopped in front of the two before asking,
"What are you guys waiting out here for, instead of going in? Eventually there will be too many for even us three to deal with, not to mention there is at least one other competent person out there that could give us trouble."
"Hah, we are waiting for you of course Mr. Ranked Five. We asked the dorm master who manages this area," said Imran while pointing towards a lanky man resting in a reclining chair on the porch of a small shack inside the gate. "The areas assigned to the top five are special when compared to the others and not just of a simple better design at that. So we decided to wait for you so that we could see inside of course! We headed straight here but as you took a while we ran into some trouble, as you can see, but that turned out into us just getting quite a few extra directives but…"
"It seems what held you up was quite the lucrative opportunity" interrupted Minerva as she eyed the large pile of directives, almost twice her own number.
"Ranked four was in my department, through a lucky opportunity we were able to successfully relieve our entire class of their directives" said Cyrus, speaking lightly of the event as he walked through the gate.
"The whole class?!" exclaimed Imran in shock whilst Minerva whistled with an eyebrow raised.
"There were only around 50 total in the class, I took down 10 on my own at once and Caliban took down around 20. The rest were felled by a quick trap we set up… and I am not sure how Caliban took down the 20 but it should not have been too difficult for him. The Mors domain is not something that produces powerful results from the get go so the fights came down to fighting techniques and experience more than anything" said Cyrus with a slight shrug.
The two merely kept their silence while in slight awe of the luck Cyrus had while following behind him. As the trio passed the apparently sleeping dorm master, he popped open an eye inspecting both Cyrus' and Minerva's face.
"Catch it, pin it." said the man in a tired voice as he flicked something at the two.
Catching it easily, they each looked at what was in their hand and saw that it was a badge that one could pin to an article of clothing. For Cyrus, it was about the size of a gold coin and was silver in color, perhaps in make too. It was in the shape of the numeral for five, V, with the words "Quintus" written underneath it. For Minerva, it was the same size but was bronze in color and make. The shape was of the numeral for 10, X, with the words "Decima" engraved underneath it.
Cyrus looked at the pin Minerva was putting on and then put his on while thinking,
"This will make us stand out even more than we already did, making sure that everyone knows who we are even when meeting for the first time with but a glance. Not only that, but it is yet another reason for those below to push onwards: Honor and Pride."
Pushing aside his thoughts, he continued onwards towards the towering building. He was not interested in whatever rooms may lie above ground, but those below. Full of curiosity, he made his way towards the foot of the building while scanning for access towards the lower levels.
Circling the building, he spotted a door that was on the side of the building with the label "Lower levels" written on it. The area the door was embedded in was quite unassuming, but the door itself was adorned with the mural of Glacies' symbol and instead of wood the entire door was made of a smooth metal.
Only glancing at the artistry for a moment, he opened the door and began to descend down the stone stairs. There was no light sources, but Cyrus cared little and continued onwards while the two behind him both pulled out a simple crystalline torch to light the path. Down they walked, for more than just a few moments, until they came to a large open area. As they entered a pressure plate on the floor was triggered, which lit up the entire cavern for all to see.
Walking to the center of the room, they each looked around and gazed upon five massive doors that were on the walls in front of them. Two on the left, two on the right, and one in front far superior in splendor to the others. The doors themselves were either of a gold or silver color, with a plaque above each with the numerals for 1 through 5 written above. Other than that, however, the underground space was empty of anything else aside from the lighting above.
"How fancy" murmured Imran as he was calculating how much it must have cost to build large doors larger than two of him stacked on top of each other, completely of one precious metal or another at that.
"It serves only to instill awe, it is not like we can pry it from its hinges and take it with us" chided Minerva.
Ignoring the background noise, Cyrus walked up towards the door with the numeral 'V' on it and looked for a way to open it. Not finding anything he then just tried to push it open, but stopped as when he came close enough to it his pin started to vibrate ever so slightly. A breathe later, the door too vibrated in response and began to open.
"They spent quite a bit on this, I am impressed" thought Cyrus, as he thought back to the numerous hideouts that he had spent his youth in, with clear emotion in his voice.
Not caring about the gaping mouths behind him, well, one gaping mouth and one with raised eyebrows, Cyrus walked into the room to see what exactly his privilege would afford him.