"Bro, who’s she?" Max asked, moving closer to the duo with a playful smile.

"She is Chloe," Vlad answered. "My family."

"Bro!! You are even cooler than I thought," Max gasped, appearing completely impressed by Vlad.

Vlad didn’t understand what he had done to impress Max this time, but he gave him the benefit of the doubt. He carried Chloe in a princess carry and gently placed her beneath the shade of a tree. He tried to remove the card from her hand, but even in sleep she held it with a tight grip. The last time she had held something this tightly in her sleep was a box of chocolates because Vlad had wanted a piece from it. He could have taken the card with a little force, but he decided to let her keep it. He didn’t want to disturb her sleep.

"Whoah! You are already a man," Max said, giving him a thumbs up.

"What’s the update on the uniform?" Vlad asked, ignoring the comment.

Max turned his focus to the controller again. Two of the green dots on the radar were larger than the others. Max began snickering at the display before breaking into loud laughter.

"Hahahaha, the bots have found my uniform as well," Max revealed. "Now only your uniform remains."

"How many locations are left to check?" Vlad asked, his voice serious.

"Out of one hundred and ninety-eight marked locations, ninety still remain."

"Alright, tell the bots that found yours and Chloe’s uniform to come here, and redirect the rest to look for mine." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"But that will reduce the workforce."

"Securing the uniforms is more important. We can’t take the risk."

"Understood."

---

A few hours passed. The long shadows vanished as the sun reached the top of the sky. However, it was still cozy in the Grimveil forest, where the sunrays barely reached the ground.

More freshers arrived at the forest and were also sent off to search for Vlad’s uniform, drawn in by the undeniable offer. The bot carrying Chloe’s and Max’s uniforms had returned as well. Max let one bot carry both uniforms so the others could still search for Vlad’s.

The bot was more fascinating than Vlad had imagined. It was flat, barely ankle-length, with small wheels hidden beneath its body. On its rectangular frame, a small head peeked out from the centre, fitted with two lenses that looked like eyes. When the bot moved, this head swivelled around just like a real one, as if curiously taking in its surroundings. At its back was a small enclosed vault connected to an interdimensional space. Chloe’s and Max’s uniforms were kept safely inside.

"I heard you need a Core to use artifacts with interdimensional space," Vlad said, curiosity lacing his voice. "Have you already formed one?"

"Of course. I formed it on my Awakening Ceremony day," Max replied, pulling the uniforms out of the vault.

"Eh? But how? Isn’t the method taught at the academy?"

"Yeah, they do teach it here, but every house has its own secret technique for forming the Core. Barely anyone depends on the academy for that," Max revealed. "Didn’t you notice how far the seniors hid the treasures across the campus? It’s impossible for regular humans to cover that kind of distance and find them all within twelve hours."

Beep... beep... beep...

The controller in Max’s hand began vibrating. He clicked through the buttons in rapid succession, silencing it.

"The bots have checked every marked location," Max said, his voice turning grim. "Unfortunately, they couldn’t find your uniform."

So except for commoners like me and Chloe, everyone forms their Core before entering the academy, Vlad muttered inwardly as the weight of that realisation settled over him. He would need to train five, if not ten times harder just to keep pace with his peers.

"Bro, you there?" Max asked as Vlad seemed lost in his thoughts.

"Oh, yeah. I heard you," Vlad answered. "It means someone has already found my uniform. Whoever they are, they’ll reveal themselves soon enough."

Another hour passed and all the bots returned to the forest. Chloe, of course, was still fast asleep.

By now, many freshers who had already found their own uniforms but failed to locate Vlad’s had gathered around the mound of books, asking for another way to receive their syllabi. After hours of searching, they too had come to accept that someone had already taken it.

Vlad and Max asked them to wait a few more minutes so more students could gather. They didn’t want to repeat the announcement over and over.

"How many uniforms did we gather?" Vlad asked Max, keeping his voice low so the others wouldn’t hear.

"Seventy-four," Max replied in the same low tone.

"Hehe, more than enough. I can already smell it."

"Is it what I think it is?" Max asked, his tangerine eyes glowing with excitement.

"Yeah," Vlad answered with a snicker. "The smell of money."

They waited another hour. More than fifty students had gathered in the forest by then.

"Ahem. Good evening, folks," Vlad announced, stepping before the mound of books with Max at his side. "As you all know, every one of these books belongs to us. All I asked in return for your syllabi was one simple thing: my uniform. And yet, to my disappointment, its whereabouts remain unknown."

"We’ve already looked for your uniform everywhere," a boy from the crowd called out.

"I even gave up searching for the hidden treasures just to look for yours, and still came up empty," a girl added. "I’m sure he has already found it. He’s just wasting our time."

"I have the same suspicion. And besides, there’s only one uniform. What about everyone who couldn’t find it?"

The freshers grew louder, their frustration plain after hours of fruitless running across the campus.

"I understand your anger, my batchmates," Vlad said, shaking his head with an expression of genuine sympathy. "Which is why I’ve come up with an alternative."

His eyes slowly narrowed, and a wide, shameless smirk crept across his face as he declared, "Five credits per book."