The four young Guides walked past the Open District and made their way through smooth, square covered caverns. Before them lay three separate openings, though Lulac determined that they should enter through the middle if they wished to be on track to get to their assignment.
"And why should we listen to you? Do you have a specific skill that allows you to know?" Spoke Wanxi, dubious of the boy's capabilities. The kid shrugged, before a waxen wing expanded from his right shoulder, and small globs of the wax fell onto the ground.
"I saw it on the way here. Look, and you'll see proof?"
"He's right." Bie's eyes were shining, his pupils turned into white crosses. He could make out a faint lilac trail of blood, as well as splattered wax from far in the tunnel. He then looked at the other tunnels, peering down the passages, but saw no hints that Lulac had even been there. So he simply nodded and made his way past the middle opening, Gyuho shadowing him and the other two quickly catching up.
"Hey, since when could you do that?" Wanxi clung close to Bie, asking him anything and everything she could think of while he ignored most of it. When he heard this question though, he brought his face near hers and peered into her eyes, mirroring what she had done when they first met. Wanxi backed up, her face reddening, while Bie snickered to himself and kept walking, seemingly content after having messed with her a bit.
"You didn't answer." Were the words emitted by a disgruntled Gyuho, who was actually rather interested as well. Lulac didn't bother asking him anything, still slightly ashamed of how easily Bie had beaten him earlier. He figured he would have to find a way to get along with his fellow Guide, though he was still sore in the ears from the big lecture his mentor had given him.
Just thinking about it gave him the shivers, and he slightly trembled as they walked. Bie had withdrawn the Cassius Eyes, thinking of reserving the store of energy within his Sconce until it actually had to be used. Though, that was not before he caught the sight of a Crystal Ball running towards them!
"Incoming, guys," he said, running to the side as two Crystal Balls emerged from the sides of the walls, the other evading his notice by leaving from a wall much further away. The two had no heads, their figures were humanoid, and they wore business attire and clutched a broken suitcase.
"Conmen." Gyuho withdrew his bat from his shadow, rushing forward to the one nearest him as he brought the metallic pipe down hard. Wanxi's eyes lit up and crackled, and she began to spread her arms out wide before tilting her head back, then bringing her hands together.
"Ram Road!" A slightly crackling, milky heap of lightning spanned either side of the passage, before straightening out into a road. The remaining energy coalesced into miniscule cars, rushing along the road and hitting both enemies. Gyuho remained unharmed, as he had deftly stood in his own shadow.
"Not good, huh? Why would you use an AOE when allies are on the field?" Lulac remarked, taking to the air with his waxen wing and releasing a laser beam from his metallic hilt, impaling one of the stunned Conmen as heat fizzled from the newly opened hole. Bie agreed, simply happy that the Conmen were wearing something that constituted "thread", and so he was able to use Stitching to pull the fabric down.
Gyuho dispatched the other, his bat caving in the Crystal Ball's chest. Wanxi's spell faded, and she had a small blush on her face as she rubbed her arm while looking apologetic.
"Sorry guys...I got carried away..." She looked at Bie with a sad expression, the thought on her mind that she had failed to impress him. From within her robes, even her doll Perdi gave her a disapproving glance. Though Bie's face held no obvious emotion, instead focused on something else.
"What are your ranks? These two will have Glimpses, and I think it's important on how we decide who gets them." He said, dijon yellow strands moving from behind the black part of his hair as he pondered something.
"I'm peak Slumbering, Rung 10," said Lulac, taking his place upon the ground as the remainder of the wax on his back fell down. He also withdrew the beam back into his hilt, not interested in the spoils the four had gained in the slightest.
"Ah, Slumbering Rung 9. I'm close!" Wanxi brightened up, thinking that Bie had chosen to gloss over her failure. She pumped her arms after answering, vowing that she wouldn't easily disappoint next time.
"...Slumbering Rung 7." Gyuho slowly said, his hands already clutching an extracted Glimpse before it shone and dissolved, and in its place were ten multicolored coins.
"Then, you'll be getting most of the loot as long as you can use it. As for the second matter, I..."
"Well, how strong are you?" Lulac cut him off, his boldness emphasized by his meek features. Bie glanced at him and sent him a small smile, which sent shivers up his spine, though the Gem of the Dead chose to answer him.
"I've just begun Wondering, so I don't know what Rung that would be?" Wanxi's jaw dropped, before she scrambled over and began her flurry once more.
"So does that mean you're already at Realm E? How'd you do it? How was it?" Her eyes shone and small wisps of clouds left from the sides of her rapidly opening and closing mouth, and Bie waved her away gently before shrugging, speaking up again from where he left off.
"I won't take anything if I don't need it, though since we're entering a Path, won't it be hard for us to raise our stats anyways? Or rather, not very likely?"
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. It's a reward Path, so things will be a bit different. If we receive something we can Graft to our Torches within it, we can raise our stats that way."
"'Kay. Next up is our teamwork. That thing we just did there," He pointed one of his digits at the smoking walls, his black fingernail shining as the red light from the ceiling hit it. "Was not very well coordinated."
"Right." Gyuho nodded, shooting sidelong glances at Wanxi as he angled his head towards Bie. Bie didn't automatically continue however, his eyes revealing a playful glint as he clasped his hands together under his chin.
"We're just going to have to familiarize ourselves with each other and figure it out!" He began humming, a skip in his step as he continued down the passage whilst leaving the dumbstruck expressions of the expectant crowd.
Lulac gave a wry grin, admitting that if nothing else Bie was at least right, even if he didn't give any concrete solutions. Wanxi was just thankful that he didn't point out anything in particular, instead calling the whole thing bad, and Gyuho followed after him without much introspection.
What use was arguing something correct, anyways? People often called him simple, but he didn't really care. To Gyuho, anything was fine as long as it got the job done and didn't interfere with his own beliefs.