Authors Notes:
Welcome everyone to my latest project, Summer Break. Unlike my other books I have no intention of putting authors notes like this at the beginning of every chapter, you will only hear from me when I have something to say. Right now I just want to get some things off my chest before I let this story begin.

First I'd like to thank the people on TurtleMe's discord server for encouraging me. Even though I have successfully written fanfic before, branching off into a new fandom made me nervous as I am "established" in my other fandom, where as here with this book I feel that I may be writing to a whole new crowd.

This book is based off of the story, "The Beginning After the End" by TurtleMe, and takes place after the end of book four, with a few minor changes. Now I'm sure there are plenty of you who are reading this and have never even heard of that story. Well you'll need to go to the app Tapas for that, and trust me it is well worth the time earning "ink" to read it, or you can do like me and buy the digital books from amazon. Now I highly recommend that you read the books, at least till the end of book four just so that you understand what's going on here and aren't completely lost.

Now without further ado, I present to you Summer Break, chapter 1. Enjoy.

"And even though the guards are here, keep an eye open for students stealing, especially the ones graduating. Director Goodsky told me nearly fifty gold worth of property was stolen last year, and nearly all of it by students who graduated," Claire Bladeheart informed the group.

It had been nearly six months since the attack on the Xryus Academy and a lot has changed. Immediately following the attack, Director Goodsky extended the week long break that was coming as to formulate a plan and put it into effect. The students returned to the school to find three dozen knights, one dozen from each of the three races, assigned to ensure the safety of the students and ensure that an attack on the academy never happened again. In addition to the knights, a different Lance was also stationed at the academy every week. It was said that they were there to protect Xyrus as a whole, however most of the lances were never seen outside of the school, proving that the attack was more than what everyone thought. The only Lance not seen within the school was Barion, Lucas' brother. The truth of the matter was not made public, but Director Goodsky had refused to allow him on the campus, for fear that he would take revenge against Arthur, despite the protection order placed on him and his family by the council. Instead on the weeks he was assigned to Xyrus, Elder Virion, Tess's grandfather, was seen around the campus, along with several other silver core mages.

However the Director wasn't the only one to enact changes. Both Tess and Claire agreed that the student council and disciplinary committee needed to work more closely in case something ever happened like the attack again. Even though this was supposed to be an equal partnership, the disciplinary committee was the one that really benefited. With Kai being captured for betraying them, Doradrea killed, and Theodore left severally wounded to the point that he still hadn't returned to school yet, the disciplinary committee was left severely weakened, and there weren't a lot of people willing to accept their offer to join. In fact only one student agreed to join, Elijah. After he was able to break open the barrier the attackers were hiding behind, he was being noticed as someone truly powerful, despite passing out shortly after opening the barrier. The only one seen as more powerful was Arthur, who arrived just in time to save Elijah from being kidnapped by the leader of the attack. Who he then encased in ice so he could be kept as a prisoner, before he humiliatingly defeated Lucas after he also saved Tess.

As a result of this merger, Director Goodsky decided to have the disciplinary committee move into the same building as the student council. Although many suspected she had already planned on this as the building originally didn't have enough room for the additional students before the break, and had an additional floor added by the time they returned.

Currently the students were having a meeting in a large space on the first floor of the building. They were all seated at a long table off to the side surrounded by comfortable chairs. The purpose of the rest of the space was unknown, but it was used as a sparing ground for after the meetings for them to hone their skills. This usually was consisting of the disciplinary committee members going up against the remaining three student council members.

Like the disciplinary committee, the student council also suffered a loss. Jarrod Redner, the student council treasurer died during the attack, mauled by a corrupt mana beast while trying to help a wounded dwarf that was injured fighting the beast. Unlike the disciplinary committee, the student council decided to not try and fill his position for the remainder of the year as a way of remembering him, even having a chair at the table with his name on it. While the the disciplinary committee had a plaque with a picture of Doradrea with the words 'Fallen Hero' engraved in gold along the top of the plaque.

"So does anyone else have any other official business?" Claire asked as she finished. Everyone looked at one another to see if anyone else had anything, to see no one did. "In that case, I conclude our official meeting," Claire said and everyone started to get up.

"And now it time for unofficial business," Tess said as she gestured for everyone to sit back down. "Now we are one month out till summer break, and Claire and I have been talking. Now I understand that some of you may already have plans for the break, or might just want to go home to your families. But how does the idea of all of us traveling together as adventurers for the summer sound?"

Everyone's ears perked at the sound of this idea. A few weeks ago Tess and Claire were discussing topics to be brought up during the next morning meeting when Tess changed to topic to summer break, hoping to come up with an idea of something she could do with Arthur. Claire had told Tess her plan of becoming an adventurer, and even why.

During the attack on the school Claire became frozen with fear when it had come down to facing the people responsible. She felt ashamed of herself as she couldn't even muster the strength to even take one step forward.

Then when Arthur arrived just as the teachers charged the opening that Elijah had made in the barrier the atmosphere of the battle changed. Yes him having Sylvie there in her dragon form caught everyone's attention and struck some fear into everyone, but it was Arthur that kept everything from breaking into chaos. Despite only being twelve at the time, when he arrived he carried himself with the confidence of a king, as he gave off a palpable killing intent expected of veteran warriors. At first anyone would have thought his confidence came from having Sylvie walking with him, but once he quickly subdued Draneeve, the man who left Theodore on deaths door step, and then brutally crushed Lucas, it was clear his confidence and resolve came from himself.

Claire envied Arthur, and wished to have the kind of strength to charge into battle without fear. From then on Claire had doubled her efforts, and increased her training to become stronger, feeling that if she could reach his level of strength she could also battle without fear. This resulted in her breaking into the light orange stage, but when she learned Arthur was in the light yellow stage, she knew more drastic measures would be needed.

Tess didn't just invite herself or immediately come up with the idea of them all traveling together. As a matter of fact it was Claire's idea. She had only one concern about becoming an adventurer by herself, that when she joined a party the more experienced adventures would push her to the back and not even give her the chance to prove herself. So when Tess appeared to show some interest in her plan she began to formulate this idea, knowing that even if Arthur did come she would still have the opportunity to push herself to become stronger.

"Just imagine, the student council and disciplinary committee working together to clear dungeons, take on quests, fighting off mana beast, and what ever else the beast glades throw at us. Our team work has been pretty well together, but if we all were to do this, I think we could become even better," Claire said trying to sell the idea to the group. "I've already spoken to my uncle, and he said he could fast track all of our applications and put us right into the assessments so we don't have to wait long in line even. If we went in first thing in the morning we could literally be on our way to our first dungeon by lunch."

Everyone was looking around at one another trying to gauge how they all felt about the idea. Everyone did seem to like the idea of becoming adventurers for the summer, but several of them looked to be hesitant.

"As much as I would love to go, I just don't see my parents letting Kathyln and I traveling without guards," Curtis replied with a disheartened tone as his sister nodded in agreement with her head down.

"I thought that might be a possible problem. So what if we were to have two A class adventurers traveling with us?" Tess replied with a smile.

"It would still require some convincing, but seeing as A class adventurers are supposed to be pretty tough, I'm confident we could talk them into it," Curtis replied sounding optimistic.

"However it would be best if they were adventurers our father was familiar with, and have also earned a good reputation, since he likes to keep in touch with the guild to hear stories about their best adventurers," Kathyln added calmly.

A confident smirk formed on Tess's face. "Tell me, has you father heard about the adventurers that survived the Dire Tombs before the school year started?"

"Of course! It was amazing how an A class adventure was able to defeat an S class mana beast single handedly," Curtis replied with excitement.

Meanwhile Elijah looked over at Arthur to see how he was responding to this news, only to see him shaking his head with a smile on his face. Arthur had told Tess all about his time as an adventurer before he attended Xyrus academy, but he never expected her to try and use it like this. Although he was happy she wasn't telling everyone it was him yet, it seemed she was going to make it his decision to reveal himself.

"Well the two adventurers I have in mind were in that party, and one of them was that very adventurer. Do you think your father would approve of this plan if they were with us?" Tess asked.

"Most definitely," Curtis replied with even more excitement.

"In that case, if the two of you are willing to help, please stand up," Tess said confidently.

Everyone once again looked at one another as to see who was going to stand up. Even Claire was curious, as Tess wouldn't say who the adventurers were. This part was Tess's idea to help put parents at ease with them all doing this, although she knew it did have a chance to backfire, if Arthur wasn't able to come.

Elijah was the first to stand up. "I'm up for it. Since by dwarf standards I'm considered an adult and capable of making my own decisions I don't need to ask permission."

"Well unlike Elijah I wasn't raised by dwarves, so I'm going to have to try and convince my parents," Arthur said as he also stood up.

Tess' eyes twinkled as she saw her crush stand up and reveal his adventurer past, showing she was going to have a chance to live that little dream of traveling with him.

"Why am I even surprised at this point?" Clive commented in frustration as he gestured to Arthur.

"I'm sorry but Arthur, are telling us the truth that you were there? I'm pretty sure that I'm remembering the names of the five adventurers that made it out of there, and I don't remember yours," Curtis questioned sounding a little skeptical that it was actually him. Not that he didn't believe he was capable, but just that the odds were pretty low that he was also the very same adventurer.

"That's because I didn't use my real name. I didn't want people to know it was me so I could let loose a little bit. Tell me, you know the name of the adventurer that killed that mana beast, do you also know his description?" Arthur replied.

"Of course. He was kind of short with..." Curtis started before freezing at the sight of Arthur pulling a mask out of his dimensional ring and putting it on.

"With a mask covering his face?" Arthur asked as the mask altered his voice to make it significantly deeper making him sound more like an adult.

"Oh shit," Curtis laughed as he leaned back in his chair. "My dads going to lose his mind when he hears about this." Kathyln and everyone else except for Elijah and Tess just looked up him with astonished expressions.

"Well," Tess said as she clapped her hands together. "I'd say that wraps up all business. Please let us know as soon as possible whether you'll be able to join us or not."

With that the group dispersed to do whatever they needed to before classes started. As Tess began to stand up from the table Clive grabbed her by the arm. "Can I have a word with you outside?"

"Fine," Tess replied with an eye roll. She hated that Clive was the student council Vice President. He was rude and arrogant towards most of the students, always walking with an aura of superiority. But what made it worse was the fact he had a crush on her, and didn't know how to take no for an answer. They walked outside of the building and far enough away from the door that no one could hear them. "Ok what is it?" Tess asked, the annoyance in her voice clear.

"I think this is a bad idea, inviting Arthur on this summer plan of yours. We could easily find another A class adventurer, maybe even an S class one to travel with us," Clive stated.

"I'm leaving," Tess said as she tried to walk away, but Clive grabbed her by the arm again. "Let go of me!" Tess demanded.

"No! Listen to me, I get you feel attached to Arthur because of him saving you twice this year, but that's just a temporary mental condition that will go away if you keep away from him," Clive said in a demanding tone.

"Hahaha," Tess laughed as she pulled her arm away from him. "Those incidents have nothing to do with how I feel towards Arthur. My feelings for him started well before you and I ever met and have only grown stronger."

Clive's eyes widened as his mouth opened slightly in shock. "It doesn't matter. You need to forget those feelings. He is a monster, and definitely not worthy of you, or anyone else in this school," Clive said as he recovered.

"So that's where your issue with him comes from. You're born from a noble family, while he's isn't," Tess deduced, anger starting to show in her voice.

"The noble families were established because of our superior skills with mana. A peasant born in the dirt like that has no business here, let alone have that much power. He should be put into a cage like any mana beast and only released to fight for the council," Clive said with a combination of pride and anger.

SLAP

Tess slapped Clive hard with her right hand, which was infused strongly with mana. "How dare you speak of Arthur like that. He saved me, you, and everyone else in this school. And if nobility was decided based on the merit of a person, it would be you in the dirt. Despite Arthur's unbelievable strength at his age he remains humble and kind. He even hid his power just to help him fit in with the rest of us," Tess spat. She then took a moment to take a deep breath and recompose herself. "Clive you are now uninvited to join us this summer," Tess said calmly.

"What?!" Clive replied in shock.

"To be honest I didn't want to invite you in the first place, with the whole you having a crush on me and professing you're love for me three times already. I had honestly thought you finally gave up on that and was moving on, but clearly you've just decided that you need to drive a wedge between Arthur and myself, and I don't want to deal with that all summer. So stay away from me other than for official business," Tess then turned around to walk way.

Clive reached to grab her arm once more, but was stopped by a vine shooting from the ground and stopping right at the tip of his nose with what looked like a sharpened point at the tip.

"I honestly hope for your sake you can move on and leave my personal life alone," Tess said as she walked away, the vine disintegrating once she was a few steps away.