“Well, I’m going to go hit the gym, treat myself to a crêpe, and try and think of some ideas on my own,” she said. “So I’ll catch you later?”

Max smiled. “Sure, sounds great!”

She turned to leave and it looked as if she was waiting for something to happen.

“You know—with how independent the next few weeks of training are—we might not necessarily be bumping into each other as frequently,” Casey said.

“That’s true,” said Max. “I can’t wait to see how your training pays off.”

“Yeah but maybe we’ll discover something that might help the both of us, so wouldn’t it be a good idea to stay in contact somehow...?”

“Oh,” said Max. “We should exchange mobile numbers. I have a new one as well. I’m glad I thought of this!”

Casey threw a large punch into his shoulder. “I thought of it, you moron! It’s just more normal for a boy to ask for a girl’s number, not the other way around! I don’t know how they do things in the outer-rim, but you can be pretty dim, Max!”

“Uhh...” Max was at a loss for words.

He handed her his phone and she inputted her number while still red in the face. She then sent a text to herself from his phone.

“There,” she said. “Now I’m going to go do some laps at the pool, enjoy my crêpe, and imagine that you had simply asked for my number straightaway.”

“Okay,” said Max. “Bye.”

Casey strutted off.

Max shrugged to himself. He really was no expert when it came to girls, but he was happy he now had Casey’s number. She was the first friend his age he had made here in the tower-zone.

Max put his phone back in his pocket and looked around the courtyard. The majority of students were still there.

He still needed to figure out how to train as efficiently as possible.

“It’s total bull crap,” said a voice nearby. “We’re only allowed to go one floor up. The energy from those copper monster cores barely improves my mana affinity at all.”

Max kept his distance, but listened closely to the group of students. It was a group of three guys.

“I heard there’s a place where we can fight higher ranked monsters,” said another one of the boys. “And get this: we can even get paid while doing it too.”

“What! No way!”

“Believe it. Follow me. I’ll take you to this ultimate secret training spot.”

Max was intrigued by what they were saying. A secret training spot where he could fight higher ranked monsters sounded like exactly what he needed.

The three boys nodded eagerly and headed through the courtyard, completely ignoring Max’s presence.

“I can’t wait to kick some monster butt and earn some cash!” said one of the boys.