Head-General Paul nodded.
"Good," he replied. "The students can use the next three days to train with their teams to get ready for the Portal Outing on Monday."
The First-Year Sergeants all nodded.
Head-General Paul then overlooked the whole table.
"Alright," he replied. "With that, I call this meeting to a close. You're all free to leave."
As soon as Paul said those words, the sound of scraping chairs were heard, as everyone got out of their seats.
They all made their way to the door.
***
At the same time, the trio of Tsukuru, Galina, and Starrk made their way back towards the Student Dormitory.
Tsukuru's eyes narrowed, as his gaze darted up at the countdown in the upper-right corner of his vision.
It currently read "119:59:59".
'Just five days left,' he thought.
Tsukuru's heart filled with dread every time he saw that clock. It felt like it was a countdown to disaster.
***
Night came and went over the Military Base, and soon, it was Friday Morning.
Just like every morning, the sound of the trumpeting alarm could be heard blaring through every room of the Student Dormitory as soon as the clock struck seven.
In Dorm Room 23, Quinn, Vorden, Peter, and Tsukuru all let out a collective groan, as they woke up.
As Quinn and Tsukuru woke up, the first thing they saw was a System message popping up in front of them.
[Daily Quest 2 complete. 5 Exp received. Exp: 170/200]
[Daily Quest 3 complete. 5 XP received. XP: 340/9400.]
Tsukuru subconsciously swiped the System screen away, and rubbed his eyes.
A moment later, he heard the door to the doom shut.
Glancing over, Tsukuru saw that Peter's bed was once again empty.
He let out a sigh, and dragged himself out of bed.
The two remaining boys in the room watched as Tsukuru stumbled his way to the bathroom with his normal "morning grace".
AKA, none at all.
As Vorden looked around the room, he saw Starrk once againleaning against the wall on Tsukuru's corner of the room.
However, as Vorden saw Galina standing next to him in her Human form, Vorden had to do a double take.
"Uh, Quinn?" he asked, turning to the boy, and pointing in Galina's direction. "Why is there a kid in our room?"
Quinn raised an eyebrow in confusion, and looked at where Vorden was pointing.
"Oh," he replied in realization, as he saw her. "That's uh…that's Tsukuru's…blob thing."
Galina's face one again twisted into a look of anger, and she stretched her arms above her head, her hands clenched into fists.
"Galina's not a blob!" she shouted.
She then felt a sudden weight on the top of her head.
Looking over, she saw that Starrk had put his hand on the top of her head.
He had a gentle, calming smile on his face.
Over the course of the night, Starrk had developed a certain attachment to the Infant Metal Slime.
After all, she was around the same size as Lilynette.
***
Back in the bathroom, Tsukuru stepped out of the shower.
After drying off and taking care of his hygiene concerns for the morning, Tsukuru began getting dressed.
Once he was standing there in his polycarthimine military pants, Tsukuru brought up his System's Inventory to choose a new shirt.
As he looked at the grid, he saw a specific shirt whose image made him let out a snort.
He jabbed the square with his finger, and the square lit up, followed by an electronic "beep" being heard by Tsukuru.
A System messagepopped up in front of him.
[Would you like to equip Shirt?
[Yes] [No] ]
Tsukuru thought "yes", and pixels began to envelop his torso. The pixels clustered together into the shape of a short-sleeved shirt.
A moment later, the glowing light of the pixels faded, revealing the shirt.
It was yet another black shirt with a square image in the center.
It showed a large dragon with red scales that appeared as if it had just been sleeping, with its body laying down on the "ground". In the image's side-profile, the Dragon's visible eye was giving the viewer an annoyed look, and he was clutching a dragon-sized, gold chalice with steamwafting up from the top.
Like with most of Tsukuru's shirts, there was text on the image, with the text for this shirt being cut into two halves, with one above the dragon, and the other beneath it.
Above the Dragon, there was a single line of blocky, red text, which read "My Four Moods:". Underneath, there were two lines of text, written in a smaller font, which read "1. I Need Coffee", and "2. I Need Sleep", respectively.
And underneath the Dragon, there were two more lines of text, which read "3. I Need a Vacation", and "4. I Need Duct Tape, Rope, and a Shovel", respectively.
Another System message appeared.
[Shirt equipped.]
Tsukuru then retrieved his Polycarthimine Military Blazer from his System's Inventory, causing it to appear on his body.
Tsukuru looked at himself in the mirror for a moment, before then walking over to the door and opening it.
***
Back in the room, Quinn and Vorden both turned their heads, as they heard the sound of the bathroom door opening.
As Tsukuru walked out, Vorden fought not to pinch his nose, seeing another one of Tsukuru's strange shirts.
Once again, the day followed its normal routine.
Once all three boys had showered and changed, the three of them headed out of the Student Dormitory, and made their way towards the main school building.
As the group walked, everyone turned to stare at them as they walked by.
Or, to be more specific, at Galina.
Rather than being carried in her special bag, she was walking next to Tsukuru, her arms out at her sides, a smile on her face as she hummed.
Seeing the attention she was gathering, Quinn turned to Tsukuru.
"So how long are you going to let her stay like that?" he asked.
Tsukuru turned to her.
"I'll make her turn back once classes begin," he replied.
Eventually, the group all made it to the canteen.
As they walked through the doors, Galina's eyes locked in on Sergeant Faye, standing to the right of Shizuka, over where the two Sergeants were posted as guards overlooking the canteen.
Immediately, her cheerful look scrunched up into a pout, and she let out a "humph!", quite literally turning up her nose at the Sergeant.
***
Back over with the two Sergeants, Shizuka was trying to suppress a laugh.
"Did I just get snubbed by a Beast?" she asked in disbelief.
At her words, Shizuka could no longer suppress her laughter, and burst out laughing.
"Yes," she replied. "Yes, you did."
***
Back with Tsukuru and the others, they quickly made their way to their regular table.
Like usual, Quinn sat at the far back of the table, with Vorden sitting directly to his left. Starrk sat to Vorden's left, and Tsukuru sat to Starrk's left, at the front of the table.
This left the two remaining seats of the table, the ones of the left side, completely empty.
Tsukuru then turned to Galina.
"Alright, Galina," he replied. "Time to turn back into your regular form."
Hearing Tsukuru's words, Galina's eyes widened.
"WHAT?!" she yelled. "But Galina wants to eat, too!"
Tsukuru gave her a sympathetic look.
"Do you even need to eat?" he asked.
Galina responded by crossing her arms, and putting out a pouting face.
She dropped to the ground, falling down on her "butt", causing a loud bangto be heard, and a slight tremor to be felt in the immediate area.
Vorden winced as he heard the noise.
Quinn, on the other hand, clamped his hands over his ears.
Due to his enhanced hearing from being a Vampire, the loud sound was even worse for HIM.
Immediately, all those around them all turned and looked at Galina, who now looked like a pouting child sitting on the floor.
Tsukuru let out a sigh, and pitched the bridge of his nose.
"Great," he muttered, causing Quinn and Vorden to turn to him. "She's going through her 'Terrible Twos'."
***
Over at the wall where the two Sergeants were posted, Faye and Shizuka had winced as well.
"Holy shit," Shizuka muttered, genuine surprise in her voice. "Did you hear that?"
Sergeant Faye was equally as shocked.
"Yeah," she replied. "It sounded like a metal safe being dropped on the ground."
***
Back at their table, Tsukuru let out a sigh, and pointed his arm out towards the two empty chairs.
"Summon," he replied.
The sound of electronic interference could be heard, and pixels began to appear in the space above the empty chairs.
The pixels clustered together into humanoid shapes.
There were two sequential flashes of light, and both Kujaku and Slyvia appeared.
Tsukuru let out a sharp exhale.
"Alright," he muttered. "Let's just eat already."
He placed his hand out in front of him, and activated his Ability.