Sharp at eight in the morning—the third day of the Swarm infestation—Zora waved at Titus’ friends as they closed the northern foyer gate behind him, shooting wary glances at Emilia as they did.

  All in total, there were four of them heading out on the expedition to retrieve class 2-D: Zora, Cecilia, Marcus, and Emilia. Cecilia had fought to make Marcus stay behind and watch over the kids, given his right arm was still broken and sitting in a makeshift sling, but the big man had said they’d need a frontliner in case something went wrong—and something was going to go wrong, no doubt about it. Where they were headed, there was certainly going to be giant bugs the likes of which they’d never seen before, so having a brute who could carry them out of danger even without spells and magic would be of great help.

  With that said, Zora took a peek at his status interface. All of them had earned a hefty amount of points eating the giant moth carcass in the foyer, but they simply couldn’t finish even twenty-five percent of the few dozen giant bug legs they’d hauled back to the dorm from the fitness building. They literally couldn’t stuff that much bug meat down their throats. It was all the more reason to look for Julius, who most certainly had medicine that could aid with digestion, but until then… Zora had earned a hundred and twenty-five points.

  Cecilia a hundred and one.

  Marcus a hundred and seventy-six.

  “... We unlock ‘Basic Tympana’ as planned, and then we go from there?” Zora said, looking at his status interface while glancing over his shoulder at Cecilia and Marcus. The two of them nodded firmly, so Zora willed the point allocation, eyes immediately darting over to the new status interface pop-up.

  [T2 Mutation Unlocked: Basic Tympana Lvl. 1]

  [Brief Description: You have developed thin and membranous tympana inside your earlobes. Your sense of hearing specifically is now twice times that of your perception level. Subsequent levels in this mutation will improve your sense of hearing. At max level, it will be five times that of your perception level]

  [Aura: 649 → 699]

  [Points: 125 → 75]

  As he read the brief description over, he placed a hand to his ear and tried to see if he could feel anything growing. Naturally, he didn’t—the description said as much that the tympana was grown inside his earlobes—but he did notice sounds became clearer around him. The morning wind ruffled half-broken curtains and window flaps around the cafeteria. Pebbles cracked and fell from the shaky ceiling. He could hear much, much more than he used to, which, in his eyes, made this tier two mutation greatly worth the fifty points he spent on it.

  If he could increase his perception level just a bit further, he wouldn’t be snuck upon by any bugs like the katydid and the ermine moth ever again.

  “But now we don’t have enough points to upgrade our ‘Basic Abdovoid’ to level five for the branch mutation, huh?” he mumbled. “It’s fine, I guess. Let’s just scatter our remaining points across our other attributes however we want?”

  “I’ll put a few levels in perception so we don't get caught off-guard by any more ambushes,” Cecilia offered.

  “Eh. I’ll just do more strength and toughness,” Marcus grunted.

  And for Zora’s part, he looked his status interface over once more before coming to a decision: he wanted a bit more speed and dexterity so he could dodge better and sling his spells with greater accuracy, and then he’ll increase his ‘Basic Tympana’ as much as possible.

  He wanted to unlock at least one branch mutation by the end of the day.

  [Speed: 3 → 4]

  [Dexterity: 3 → 4]

  [Basic Tympana Lvl. 1 → Basic Tympana Lvl. 3]

  [Aura: 669 → 771]

  [Points: 75 → 3]

  [Grade: D-Rank Giant-Class → C-Rank Giant-Class]

  [Name: Zora Fabre]

  [Grade: C-Rank Giant-Class]

  [Class: Magicicada]

  [Swarmblood Art: God Tongue]

  [Aura: 771]

  [Points: 3]

  [Strength: 4, Speed: 4, Toughness: 3, Dexterity: 4, Perception: 3]

  [// MUTATION TREE]

  [T1 Mutation | Resilin Tymbal Lvl. 3]

  [T2 Mutations | Basic Tympana Lvl. 3 | Basic Abdovoid Lvl. 3]

  [T3 Mutations | Basic Chitin | Basic Wings | Basic Setae] 150P

  And Cecilia and Marcus made it very clear, as they allocated their remaining points, that the tier three mutations sounded very appealing to unlock. Chitin had to mean armour, wings probably meant they’d be allowed to fly, while setae… Zora tilted his head back and searched his memory, but he was no biologist. He didn’t know what that word meant. If he wanted to know the functionality of ‘Basic Setae’, there was no better person to ask than the academy’s one and only physician, who also roleplayed as a biological science teacher sometimes.

  … Only when Julius felt like showing up to his own classes on time, of course. While Zora had been sure he’d find Marcus in the fitness building, there was a non-insignificant chance Julius wouldn’t be in the botanical garden where they were headed.

  Regardless, the four of them had to check.

  “Ready?” he asked, waving his status interface away and glancing at the other three. Marcus was tightening the straps on his arm sling, Cecilia was readjusting the instruments she was wearing on her back and stuffing new dolls into her satchel, while Emilia was looking nervously back at the gate as though she could pierce it with her moth senses.

  She still wasn’t very good at hiding her emotions, though, so he rubbed her head before holding out his hand.

  “You’ll get to apologise to Titus tonight,” he whispered, and Emilia chewed her lips as she took his hand gingerly. Cecilia and Marcus stiffened as they pretended like they couldn’t overhear their conversation. “He’s still feeling a bit dizzy. A bit of blood loss can do that, so give him a bit more time, okay? I’m sure he’ll listen to what you have to say.”

  Emilia’s head shot up to look at him directly, though both her milky human eye and red moth eye were still faintly bleary as she nodded. He knew it must be agonising to have to wait to apologise, but the reality was, class 2-A needed time to recover from the shock of last night, and there was no way he was going to let Emilia stay back during this expedition.

  The invisible clock was still ticking down. She only had two or so days left as a human, and with each day that passed by, the more uncontrollable her bug tendencies would become—so he’d have her stick with him every hour of every day from now on.

  If I want an antidote to at least halt her mutations from taking over even more than they already have, I’ll still need to figure out what moth she ate, and I need that genius physician here with me to make me said antidote.

  Figuring out what moth she is aside, I need that physician here now.

  So after all was said and done, the four of them set off from the dorm and began treading up the steep, zigzaggy stairs to the northern research building.

  Unlike the rest of the buildings to the west, east, southwest, and southeast of the star-shaped academy—all connected to the dorm in the centre by relatively level bridges—the northern building was a towering structure larger than the rest of the academy buildings combined and multiplied by two. It was the castle of the castle; the dorm and the school buildings Zora and Cecilia and Marcus taught in were but tiny annexes built around the northern building, and so it was a hundred metres tall, spiralling spires piercing the sky and the iron-tipped roofs glistening faintly in the sunlight. The walls were dark and massive blocks of stone, gargantuan gargoyles sat perched on every corner, and a series of steep, arching bridges connected the various towers and spires splitting off from the main structure.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Zora looked out the windows every time they passed one by, narrowing his eyes at the northern building. He wasn’t one to visit it very regularly, but based on what little he’d heard from his colleagues and the cleaning faculty, it was a research building where the old mages built all sorts of complicated machinery in an attempt to develop the medicines required to make someone fit for inheriting the classes.

  Evidently, the fact that Marcus had survived the system integration meant they had figured out how to bolster the academy orphans’ immune systems enough to create a new generation of Magicicada Mages, but they mustn’t have been very sure if the rest of the teachers would be able to survive the integration, or if it was just Marcus’ strangely healthy body pulling most of the weight; it wasn’t until three nights ago, when the dome was shattered, that the old mage took a huge risk by forcing Zora to inherit his Magicicada Class.

  If the old mages had known the orphans they’d raised into adults were all capable of inheriting the Magicicada Class, he was sure he, Cecilia, Marcus, and the rest of their colleagues would all have been turned into mages years ago—but now there were only three of them orphan-turned-adults remaining, and even if Zora were to find a mages’ corpse before ripping the system out of their neck, he was quite sure none of the kids in 2-A or 2-B would have immune systems strong enough to survive the integration.

  Give or take a few more years, the mages would’ve definitely felt confident enough to bring forth an entirely new generation of mages.

  If only the Swarm hadn’t attacked.

  After the success that was Marcus, the mages must’ve been preparing to let more of us teachers inherit their systems.

  Whatever the case, the four of them weren’t exactly heading ‘straight’ to the northern research building. Since the northern building was so large and the front gate was thirty metres above the dorm, the old mages couldn’t exactly build one steep bridge connecting the dorm to the front gate. It’d be too dangerous for the kids. Instead, they’d built a zigzaggy series of stairs that’d slowly bring them thirty metres up, and at the end of the stairs, there’d be an indoor garden everyone would have to go through before entering the northern building.

  The four of them wouldn’t be going inside the northern building. Julius and his botanical garden was right outside the northern front gate, so Zora prayed to the Great Makers he and class 2-D were stuck in the garden, and not somewhere inside the gargantuan northern building instead.

  “... These stairs… are going to be… the end of me,” he grumbled, huffing and puffing as Emilia skipped a little bit ahead of him. It was just her and Marcus who were treading steadily up the stairs. He and Cecilia were lagging behind a little, and at least Cecilia had the excuse of carrying several instruments on her back. He still needed more points in toughness for additional stamina. “Couldn’t the mages… with all their power… construct a zipline elevator or something of the sort to ferry people back and forth from the northern building?”

  Marcus snorted and cast “strengthen” on the two of them, allowing Zora to instantly stand up straight. “You’re attending my classes after this. Both of you. Seriously, you guys are so synthetic—”

  “You mean ‘pathetic’. And shut up,” Zora mumbled. “Monster teacher.”

  “Monster muscleman,” Cecilia added. “Also, we have systems now. We can just eat bug meat and increase our attributes level to infinity. Exercise is kinda—”

  “You’re both attending. Now shut it,” Marcus said, shaking his head in dismay. “What’s up with this lame tier two mutation, anyways? I hear other classes have really wicked early-tier mutations, but all we get is the ability to speak a little louder and hear a little better?”

  “Wicked early-tier mutations?” Cecilia shrugged to relieve the tension in her shoulders, grimacing as she did. “Like what? And what do you know about other classes, anyways? I thought you didn’t pay attention to any outside news like me.”

  “I do sometimes,” Marcus grumbled back, glancing out the windows on their left as they turned another corner. It’d just be a few more minutes until they reached the top of the stairs, so for the time being, there was nothing for them to look at but the vast and splendid view of the snow-capped mountains outside the academy, stretching as far as their eyes could see. “Actually, wasn’t it just last year that news of that battle over those mountains reached us? The academy’s pretty close to the site—like, a two week’s walk away—so do any of you know what happened in the aftermath?”

  Cecilia frowned. “What battle?”

  “The Attini Empire sent a Forward Army into those mountains to get rid of an infestation, but the Swarm and the entire army was decimated by some kid with a strange class,” Marcus said. “Word is, the kid didn’t even unlock up to his tier four mutations before he managed to demolish the entire army of three thousand Ant Class soldiers, so if ‘better hearing’ is what we get for our tier two mutation, that’s kinda sad.”

  Zora whistled, smiling mischievously at Marcus. “I am genuinely surprised you caught wind of that. I’d pegged you for a frog in a well like Cecilia.”

  Marcus harrumphed, sneering back at him. “And I am a teacher. Gotta look for stories to motivate my kids to work harder and not slack off in class.”

  Cecilia was looking between the two of them, scowling mightily, so Zora chuckled and turned to her.

  “It was a pretty big deal last year,” he explained. “A fourteen-year-old child soldier defected from the army after obtaining a ‘Worm Class’, and then he wiped out both the Swarm and the army for some reason. Last any news of him reached the academy, he was moving south towards the Attini Empire, and the empire has since labelled him some sort of warlord trying to incite a civil war—the 'Worm Mage' has since been labelled an enemy of the empire, basically. It’s quite the wild story, but it is one without an ending, so I’m still following it closely.”

  Cecilia opened her mouth to pepper them with more questions—most likely, she was going to say ‘a worm isn’t an insect’ like his many colleagues had said after he told them the same story—but it was Emilia who spoke first, looking up at the three of them as they walked in a triangle around her.

  “You guys… um, always talk about ‘Fronts’ and ‘Swarm’ and… stuff,” she said, hesitating for a moment before looking back at Zora. “How big… is the world… out there?”

  Zora answered with an uncertain smile. “It’s big. Not as big as it used to be for humans, though—our world is called ‘Brightburrow’, and while there used to be five giant continents where humanity was spread out across, we’ve since been pushed back to this last continent in the centre of the world. The Swarm—the invading giant bugs we’ve been fighting for the past sixty-one years—have completely taken over the rest of the continents.”

  Emilia squeezed his hand tighter, looking slightly crestfallen. “Are we… losing?”

  “... Well, the sea-facing borders of this continent are all defended by the Six Swarmsteel Fronts—the fiercest battlefields between humanity and the bulk of the Swarm—and only a small fraction of the Swarm are able to slip past the borders to attack the cities and towns inside the continent,” he said, choosing his words carefully. There was no point making a child worry about something she couldn’t control. “When giant bugs do manage to slip past the borders and enter the continent, we call it an ‘infestation’, like what’s happening to Amadeus Academy right now. The horde of bugs attacking us are just a tiny, miniscule force compared to what the Six Swarmsteel Fronts face on a daily basis; there are quintillions of Giant-Class bugs battering against those six borders every single day, but we’re still alive, aren’t we?”

  The slightest of smiles curled Emilia’s lips. “The humans in those Six… Swarm-Steel Fronts must be strong, then!”

  “Certainly. In the far south, there’s the Attini Empire Front, and they mainly have Ant Class soldiers fighting armies of giant ants.” He returned a small smile, patting her head softly. “In the southwest, there’s the Deepwater Legion Front, where they mainly fight aquatic bugs with Crustacean Classes. In the northwest, there’s also the Plagueplain Front, where they fight venomous bugs with venom-type classes, and then… the northern Hellfire Caldera Front, where light-based bugs are fought with fire-type classes. In the northeastern Rampaging Hinterland Front, the humans pilot giant armoured suits made out of giant beetle parts to fight colossal winter bugs, and then in the southeastern Mori Masif Front, it’s all flight-based classes. Amadeus Academy is located in an independent region somewhere between those last two fronts.” Then he paused, his smile widening as he started tickling her scalp. “This will be on the next test, so make sure you remember all their names, okay?”

  As Emilia gasped and started counting her fingers, muttering under her breath, Zora smirked at Cecilia and Marcus stealing glances back at him.

  The two of them whirled away to continue looking forward, but he’d already caught them looking; there was no going back.

  “Neither of you two knew anything about what I just said as well, huh?” he teased, turning his head to chuckle at them with his hand covering his mouth. “A disgrace to all teachers. If you are blind to your limits on knowledge, how could you ever hope to overcome them? Are you both only teachers of your chosen subjects? You’re attending my classes after this. Both of you. Seriously, you guys are so—”

  The rest of the trip up to the top of the stairs, Emilia led the way while the three of them beat each other up over petty squabbles and schoolyard insults. They didn’t have much to worry about making a ruckus—unlike their trip to the eastern fitness buildings, they didn’t come across a single giant bug, nor did they spot any flying bugs outside the windows—but once they actually reached the top of the stairs and were faced with a giant set of double doors, they had to be quiet.

  As usual, the giant steel doors were bolted shut, and this time, they didn’t even bother knocking on them.

  “... Behind me, Emilia,” Zora whispered, taking out his wand.

  “If Julius is inside, he’d be at his observatory lab thingy,” Marcus said, rotating his left arm.

  “And since the garden’s massive, there’s definitely a few giant bugs running around the woods,” Cecilia muttered. “The moment we bust the doors open, we have to get ready to fight. If there’s nothing waiting for us, we sneak our way to the greenhouse. If there are weak bugs, we wipe the floor with them. If we can’t beat the bugs that are waiting for us, we bolt for the greenhouse.”

  Zora and Marcus nodded their agreement, and with Emilia standing behind all three of them, they “struck” the doors at once and tore the heavy steel slabs down with a deafening thud. Marcus’ punch probably contributed the most in that attack, but nevertheless, the three of them stepped into the garden at the exact same time, wands and fists poised to strike.

  …

  Sparrows chirped.

  Water trickled gently down river streams.

  Early morning sunlight refracted through the giant glass walls and ceilings.

  And the gargantuan botanical garden was as lively as ever, as though they’d stepped foot into a different world altogether.

  … Alright.

  What are we dealing with this time?

  Sound Bug Facts #23: Some marine bristle worms can make subtle popping or clicking sounds when moving or interacting with their surroundings. While these noises are pretty faint, they can be quite noticeable in quiet environments, especially when there are many worms active at once!

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