August Intruder [SOL Progression Fantasy]

The sunlight slipped in through the window at the dining section of the room. Apparently, they had forgotten to close the curtains.

Melmarc woke up with dried spittle at the corner of his mouth. For reasons he could not immediately understand, he was on the ground, lying right next to the slight bloodstain on the white rug in his room.

Groaning, he turned on his side, then pushed himself up to his feet. He half-expected to be hit by a bout of vertigo. He kept his feet stable beneath him as nothing came. Cleaning his eyes, he turned his attention to his bed and frowned.

Ark was kneeling on the ground with his torso on the bed. He had slept in an unacceptable position. Spitfire, however, was enjoying the spacious bed with Melmarc's shirt in its mouth.

Oh,

The events of last night came to Melmarc now. From Pelumi's visitation to Patience's final decision to not keep visiting those in the Grace Hall.

Then there was his scuttle with Ark and Spitfire over his shirt. By the life of him, Melmarc still couldn't understand Spitfire's obsession with his clothes. They were just clothes. At some point he had gone on the internet to find everything he could about pets and familiars and their obsession with things. He'd learnt that familiars weren't obsessed with clothes and pets weren't as obsessed as Spitfire was with clothes.

With a sigh and growing energy, Melmarc walked over to Ark and pushed him with his foot.

"It's morning," he grumbled, pushing Ark some more. "Get up."

Ark responded by crawling onto the bed. The action woke Spitfire up. The demon spared Ark a single glance before rolling its eyes and scooting over for him.

Melmarc groaned, walking around to the other side of the bed. Quick as a whip, he snatched his shirt from Spitfire. The demon snapped to attention immediately. It looked at him in a manner that Melmarc would expect from a dog about to growl.

He met its gaze, held it.

I dare you, he thought, meeting whatever challenge it was giving him. I fucking dare you.

In the end, it lowered its head back to the bed.

"I thought so," Melmarc muttered before returning to the other side of the bed to grab Ark by the heels.

With a firm grip, he pulled.

"Get." He pulled harder. "Your ass." Ark fought him groggily. "Out of." Melmarc tugged with all his strength. "My bed."

Ark came cascading to the ground with so much force that Melmarc paused.

"Ow?" Ark groaned, unmoving.

Melmarc tilted his head to look at him from the side. "You good?"

"Yeah." Ark waved him away with a casual gesture. "Just hit my nose, nothing too serious."

"Alright." Melmarc walked over to the reading table and took his phone from beside his laptop. "It's seven-thirty."

"We still have time," Ark drawled, not getting up.

Melmarc chose to disagree as he scraped the flakes of dried spittle from the side of his face. He could not remember the last time he had drooled in his sleep.

I must've been very tired.

That was something he could not disagree with. Yesterday had been hectic. He'd left home, flown in a plane, fought against an S-rank [Pyromancer], thought Ark was going to die, jumped off a plane, experienced the pain of dying—at least he thought he did—and that was all before getting to the airport.

Who wouldn't be tired?

"Did we turn on the water heater before going to bed?" he asked as he walked over to the bathroom.

Ark gave no answer.

Back home, they had a habit of turning on the water heater so that they didn't have to think about it in the morning. Ninra said it was stupid because it wasted electricity. The water would be boiled in less than thirty minutes then, at some point in the night, when it's no longer boiling hot, the heater would boil it again to keep it at the right temperature.

The larger reason it was stupid for her was because the heater they had at home had an enchanted function that simply boiled the water instantaneously and didn't cost any electricity.

Melmarc couldn't remember when or why it had started, but keeping the heater running overnight was just a bad tradition for him and Ark. It was as simple as that.

The water heater in his room functioned in the same way as theirs at home. It had the electrical function that boiled over time and the enchanted function for instantaneous boiling.

It was on.

He walked into the bathroom and basked in the size of it. He turned on the shower, allowed it to pour from the entire ceiling so that it bathed the entire bathroom instead of relegating it to a specific section.

The water was warm against his skin. He appreciated it as he walked over to the sink to brush his teeth. Before brushing, he breathed into his mouth, tested his morning breath. If there was one recent upgrade to his life, it was his lack of morning breath. For some reason, it had become impossible for him to have mouth odor. His breath always smelled nice. Even now, after drooling in his sleep.

Still, he squeezed out some paste he'd brought from home and brushed his teeth while warm water spilled over his body.

He wondered why the school had chosen to make the entire ceiling a shower head but hadn't made the walls all mirror as he took his shower.

Not wasting too much time in the shower, he made his way back to the room. He paused when he was back in the room.

"You're joking," he muttered, staring at Ark.

Ark looked at him. "What?"

He turned, arms held out to his sides. Then he turned again, looking down at the shirt he was wearing. It was neon pink with the words 'my mum got this for me' on the front.

"It's my size," he said, returning his attention to Melmarc. "A little big, but I like it."

Their mother had bought the shirt for Melmarc because she had a habit of buying at least one shirt that she liked personally when she bought clothes for them.

"Or do you think it's a bad color?" Ark asked. Now he was grinning because he knew that Melmarc would say it was a bad color.

Melmarc sighed, instead, his towel wrapped around his waist.

"At least have a bath," he said, shaking his head as he headed over to his bag. "It's the least you can do."

"I don't know why you still bother to do that every single day?" Ark said as Melmarc applied his deodorant. "These days you always smell nice." He walked up to Melmarc, leaned forward, and sniffed him. "Today you smell like… Lilac?"

Melmarc rolled his eyes as he returned his deodorant to the bag. "I have no idea what lilac smells like."

Dissonant.

"Mom's got lilac in her garden. There's no way you don't know what it smells like."

"Take a bath, Ark," Melmarc instructed as he picked out the clothes he was going to wear today.

First impression matters, he told himself as he slipped on a black, plain tee. Next, he went looking for the right jeans.

When he was done, Ark just stood there, staring at him.

Melmarc gave him a flat look. "What?"

"You do know that first impression matters, right?" Ark asked.

"I am very aware."

"And you've chosen to be the…" Ark gestured vaguely at him. "I mean, I don't mind if you're trying to be the emo kid, but I just want to be sure that's what you're going for."

Melmarc looked down at himself. He had a black shirt and black jeans on.

"What's wrong with black?"

Ark shrugged. "Kinda edgy, maybe."

"You're wearing bright pink," Melmarc pointed out.

Ark laughed. "That's because I look sexy in anything. You, on the other hand, can sometimes look droopy." He paused, scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe it won't be a problem. We'll all be taking the train so maybe Pelumi'll join us. You won't be able to look droopy even if you try."

That gave Melmarc pause. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten that. Everyone in Grace Hall would be leaving around the same time to go for the same tests.

They would all spend the trip with each other. Then they would spend the trip to the test hall together.

From the moment they step out of the door, they would all be intermingling.

Melmarc took a second glance at his clothes before looking at Ark. "So you think the black is too much?"

Ark was already taking off the pink shirt as he headed to the bathroom. Melmarc had hung his towel on the wardrobe door and Ark snatched it from its place.

"Wear a blue jean," he said when he got to the bathroom. "And wear nice shoes, something high-top."

Melmarc looked down at his feet as Ark vanished into the bathroom. He hadn't chosen a shoe yet.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

…

Ark opened the door with the confidence of a dictator. Melmarc had always been intrigued by it. Ark could probably walk into a gathering of evil spirits as if he was the devil himself if he had to. It was just a lot of confidence—it almost bordered on arrogance.

"Alright," Ark rubbed his hands together. "Let's go get them."

With that, he stepped out of the room, leaving Spitfire on the bed, and Melmarc followed.

The hallway was unsurprisingly littered with maybe a handful of people. Boys and girls of the same age but varying sizes filled the hallway. Some were—for some reason—already displaying their skills as they walked.

One boy was juggling ice balls. Four, to be precise.

Some of the students spared him and Ark glances but nothing else. Everyone seemed too focused, too quiet.

Melmarc couldn't blame them.

Although it didn't happen very often, you could fail the tests and have your admissions revoked. At least, Fallen High had the decency of giving you the options of other schools that would take you on their recommendation based on how you did on the tests.

Still, even though the rate of failures was low, it was not zero. You could still fail.

The stroll to the station was uneventful. Everyone minded their business, some using their skills in their own ways. Ark kept his attention on everyone, checking them out while looking for whatever he was looking for.

Melmarc tried to be discreet about looking for Patience and Pelumi. Up until he got to the train, he didn't see any of them.

On the train, Ark sat beside him with folded arms.

"I just realized that I'm not going to be in the same class as these guys," he muttered, "at least some of these guys."

It took Melmarc a moment to remember why. Ark was a late bloomer. And since late bloomers were rare, he was probably a class above everyone on the train with them.

"True," Melmarc agreed as the train moved into motion.

The train consisted of only two cabins and they had entered the second. They were seated somewhere in the center when a girl in front looked back at them and paused. A look of recognition crossed her eyes. Melmarc caught it and a slight tinge of panic crawled up his spine. He'd woken up this morning forgetting that they were supposed to be momentarily famous.

"I might've just been wasting my time checking everyone out," Ark said with a resigned sigh. "I'm not going to be in the same class as you people."

"You might not be the only late bloomer here," Melmarc pointed out.

"Well, I don't know if I should…" Ark's voice trailed off and he gave Melmarc a confused look. "Why are you sitting like that?"

Melmarc had slouched down in his chair until he could not see the girl that had looked back at them. If he could not see her, then she would not be able to see him, at least the chairs and people between them would make sure of it.

"The girl on the second row on the other aisle," he explained. "I think she recognizes one of us."

Ark looked at the girl just as she looked back at them again. Their eyes met and she looked away very quickly.

Ark shook his head. "Don't know her." He looked back at him. "Do you?"

Melmarc was quick to shake his head.

"So she doesn't know us."

Melmarc gave his brother a flat look. In a low voice, he said, "Have you forgotten all about yesterday already?"

"What about yesterday?" Ark said, then paused. A slow grin split his lips as understanding came to him. "Oh, that. How could I have forgotten that we're famous."

Melmarc groaned. "We're not famous."

"That girl would beg to differ," Ark chuckled.

It came as no surprise to Melmarc that Ark was enjoying their short lived fame. He still hadn't gotten around to figuring out what kind of thing could make Ark nervous.

The rest of the train ride, short as it was, was quiet. The boy seated next to the girl had looked back at some point. He hadn't been the only one. At the end of the ride, Melmarc had come to realize that they were looking more at Ark than him.

When they got down from the train, everyone continued to mind their business as they walked out to the reception hall where Ark and Melmarc had met Tyrese yesterday.

It seemed that their fame was not enough to make the others forget that in spite of the admission letters in their emails, failure was still an option.

This morning a different student stood behind the reception desk. He was as tall as Ark and build like a wrecking ball.

Melmarc would've concluded that the boy was probably a [Tank] class or a similar class if not for his own very existence.

You're an exception to the rule, though.

He could also be an exception.

"Is that everyone?" the boy asked in a deep baritone, looking over everyone to the back. When no answer came, he nodded and folded his arms. "If you go to your right," he gestured at the exit, "you will find a student waiting for you with a bus. That will take you to the test center."

Small murmurs filled the group after his words. Melmarc could pick out a few languages that were not English.

The boy looked at him, recognition crossed his eyes. He was another student who had seen the video of them on the plane.

Without wasting any time, the boy schooled his expression. Not introducing himself, he finished off his interaction with them.

"That is all," he said, then sat down.

True to his words, there was a small bus waiting for them outside as well as a student who was of average height. She looked tired, as if she had been dragged out of her bed to cater to a task that she was very much not interested in.

The bus ride was as uneventful as the train ride. The student was their driver and said nothing to them besides informing them to buckle their seatbelts. On the bus, Ark and Melmarc sat next to each other.

So far, it was turning out to be a very uneventful morning.

During the bus ride, Melmarc was welcome to the same splashes of black corrupting white. It wasn't rampant and all the buildings of the school were certainly not covered in the same design, but he saw it enough times to be reminded that the theme of Fallen High was very akin to the concept of corruption and fallen angels.

As the student drove them, following roads that wound their way around buildings, Melmarc wondered at what the tests would be like. From what he knew about all Delving schools, there was always at least one combat test, one written test, and one oral test which was the interview. It was always the one that came last.

The problem was that the contents of these tests tended to shift. The internet was full of different variations. He'd read once upon a time that one of the combat tests had been to fight against low level monsters that had eventually been revealed to the test takers to be summoned familiar. Another was a good old fashion battle royal where all the children were asked to fight it out with each other while they were under supervision.

There was a combat test that had actually been taken in a boxing ring.

Melmarc wasn't sure if he wanted to fight people or monsters.

He was still thinking when the bus pulled to a final stop and the doors opened. Their driver looked at them through her rearview mirror.

"You will all be taking your test in that building," she said in a bored tone. "When the tests end, you are all to either find your way back to the Grace Hall by yourselves or, in the event that you cannot, wait here by 7pm when the bus will come to pick you up."

Her disinterest in the entire thing was so loud that Melmarc suspected that she was either doing this as a punishment or it was a duty she had to carry out but did not want to carry out.

The building was the same with the school theme, white with tears of black.

"This is getting annoying," someone muttered beside Melmarc.

He turned to find a boy whose head stopped just at his jaw.

"It's even more annoying in person," the boy continued. "It was cool on the pictures and videos, but this," he gestured at the building in exasperation. "They are just doing too much."

Melmarc was glad to know that he wasn't the only one who found it to be too much.

While the boy was speaking, the others were already heading into the building. Melmarc kept his pace beside Ark, almost feeling like as if he was new in the school and following Ark who was an old student around.

The first thing Melmarc felt when they passed through the sliding double doors of the building was the cold. It was like opening the doors to a cold room. Then it was gone.

He turned on instinct and caught the boy who had commented on the school's theme before he hit the ground.

Ark turned at the same time to catch him, pausing when he realized what had happened.

Holding the boy in his arms, Melmarc felt the cold through the boy's body. At the back of the group, near the door, someone had also fallen.

Melmarc looked up at Ark and Ark shrugged. Together they turned their attention to the others and found everyone shivering to some degree, arms folded with their hands tucked into their armpits.

The boy in Melmarc's arms, moved slowly, grabbing him by the shirt and drawing himself closer into Melmarc's arms.

"So… cold," he stuttered through clattering teeth.

Melmarc hesitated. His first instinct was to release the boy, but the longer he held on the more he could feel the cold. It was almost as if it was slipping into him, but each time it came it disappeared.

Alone in an empty hall, the group was filled with students that struggled against a cold chill. A cold chill that Ark seemingly could not feel. A cold chill that refused to remain on Melmarc.

"Any idea what's happening?" Ark asked, looking down at him.

Boy still in his arms, Melmarc shrugged. "Did you get a notification?"

Ark shook his head.

Uncomfortable with squatting, Melmarc stood up, carrying the boy in his arms like an overgrown child. He doubted the boy was happy with it but the boy was too cold to complain.

[Mana poisoning detected.]

[Trait Pure Blooded is in effect]

…

[Trait Pure Blooded is in effect.]

[Effect: High resistance to natural mana poisoning.]

[Effect: High resistance to mana poisoning from Sentient beings]

[Effect: Middling resistance to mana poisoning from Sapient beings]

[Effect: +30% increase to mana regeneration speed]

Melmarc panned his gaze around, searching. There was nothing to see. Just an empty hall. It was odd to experience mana poisoning without being touched. The question was how Ark was handling it.

"Do you have something that helps with mana poisoning?" he asked in a low voice, while looking around.

Ark shook his head. "But I'm immune to certain levels of cold. Judging by the looks of everyone else, I think they are just cold."

That made sense.

"Do you think it might be someone doing it?" Melmarc asked, still keeping his voice low.

Ark gave it a thought. "How far can your detect skill reach?"

Melmarc looked around the room. [Knowledge is Power] could definitely cover the entire space, maybe a little more.

The skill had come a long way since what it had been capable of before he'd become an [August Intruder]. The [Pure blooded] trait had added an extra oomph to the range, too.

[You have used skill Knowledge is Power]

Melmarc felt the mana leave him. With it, the cold seeping into him from the boy disappeared and the boy shivered more.

That's interesting, he thought. The cold was actually damage being taken. That was no longer feeling it meant that it was merely a sensation and not actual pain.

"You think it will finish before whoever's doing this shows themselves?" Ark asked.

Melmarc couldn't say. He could control how far the skill could reach, allowing it to go to its farthest reach or stop it earlier. What he could not do was control how quickly it came back.

Everything has a downside, he thought. This was [Knowledge is Power]'s downside.

Ark turned, looking in another direction. "Do you think we're supposed to go there."

He pointed and Melmarc followed his finger. There was a door marked entrance above it in green.

"Maybe we're supposed to fight through whatever is happening to get there," Ark continued, uncertain.

Some of the students that had been standing and shivering had begun to squat, folding in on themselves to gather as much heat as they could.

Ark's idea was a possibility, but that would mean that most of the students present would not get there on time or at all.

When [Knowledge is power] concluded, Melmarc knew what the problem was. Indicators appeared in different places. Most of them were grey, none of them in the room with them. The bulk of the indicators were below them and above them. Ark was the only green.

But there was a single red—an item hidden in the wall.

Melmarc pointed at it with one arm while keeping the student cradled in the other.

"There," he told Ark.

Ark looked in the direction. "There's a wall," he said simply, then cracked his fingers. "So I take it that its behind the wall."

Melmarc nodded.

Without hesitation or even giving it a second thought, Ark blasted the wall with a large ball of fire.

Melmarc's jaw dropped. "Ark!"

"What?" Ark said, turning to him. "They have to be expecting something like this." He gestured at the students that were now beginning to go down one by one. "You hit first, someone's going to hit back."

Melmarc couldn't really argue with that logic.

When the explosion from the flames cleared, the wall was left unscathed. Melmarc did see a little shimmer of something that could've been a barrier, though.

"Well," Ark said, giving up immediately or perhaps losing interest. "I guess we should just head for the door."

"Hold on one moment," Melmarc told him, an idea forming in his head. "Hold on to this guy for me."

Ark gave the boy in Melmarc's arms a skeptical look before looking at him.

"You sure you can't just put him down?" he asked.

Melmarc rolled his eyes. "Just hold onto him."

Ark took the boy from Melmarc, grumbling. The moment the boy changed hands, he held on to Ark's shirt for dear life.

The look on Ark's face told Melmarc that he wasn't comfortable with it. "Can't I just put him down?"

"No," Melmarc answered without missing a beat.

While he would've argued that being in physical contact with someone else was likely reducing the effect of the mana poisoning on the boy, the truth was that he hadn't put the boy down simply because it hadn't crossed his mind.

Abandoning that subject, Melmarc took a step forward and fixed his attention on the red indicator hidden in the wall. It seemed living beings were not the only threats [Knowledge is Power] picked out now.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered shaking his arms out as he prepared himself to use a skill he hadn't used in a while because of how dangerous Uncle Dorthna said it was on human beings.

His hand moved slowly and he felt the weight of the skill around his wrist.

The test, it seemed, had already begun.

And Melmarc had no intentions of failing in any way.