This girl submitted her assignment by stabbing it with the tip of her sword and poking it through the slot that way! She is on chapter three now, skimming more than perusing.

That's creative. Props to Sword Girl. Maybe she's artificing-track? The one Sword Guy he spoke to was nice enough; he should say hello. In Mandarin, of course. "Hello!" 

"Hello," she says, dog-earing a page of the textbook and putting it in her bag. "I'm Yushi Huang."

His full name is a mouthful but it's not that hard to say the abbreviation in Mandarin, so..."Alex. I'm asking around about trades - spells, language tutoring, homework, that sort of thing. Anything interest you?" 

"I am doing maintenance for Tianjin enclave and am likely to need homework at some times. My spells will be in Mandarin and Jin, Korean to follow."

"Oh, maintenance! I've been looking to outsource my maintenance shift, but it's probably worth more than an equivalent amount of homework time because of the danger." 

"I have eight now and believe it is possible to take on ten and pass classes."

"I am happy to trade homework help." He had planned to offer memory potions since maintenance-track folks need them more than most, but that plan is garbage now. "Or...do you think the maintenance group would be open to trading for a dedicated guard during some work shifts? As I get more personal spells and the mana to fuel them, I'll be a good lookout, my affinity is myself." He still needs a more mana-efficient way of killing mals, but stabbing works fine for the small ones. 

"Possibly for larger shifts where many maintenance students are all together, such as cleaning the cafeteria, but I do not think it would work out for smaller assignments."

"Reasonable. What are you specifically in the market for?"

Block GH (Th) Intro to Lab
Block CD (W) Intro to Shop
Block CD (MF) Korean History Overview
Block GH (T) History of Hanzi and Related Systems
Block L History of Japanese Theater & Storytelling
Block I Language Lab
Block AB (M) Intro to Economics
Block K Applied Mathematics
Block EF A Close Reading of the Romance of Three Kingdoms
Block J Intro incantations

His is memorized. "Nope, no other overlap. But I can do Econ just fine, and maybe if we end up with similar shop or lab assignments we could trade those? I can do alchemicals in batches" after he does a bunch of tests, "and shop's not my thing." 

"I would be happy to do more shop and less lab, though I don't know that we will have similar enough lab assignments."

"Noted. Are you artificing?" 

"I'm maintenance," she says. "And my affinity does not point to artifice, it's weather magic. But I like shop and have less lab background."

Right, maintenance is not really conducive to focusing on any classwork track. He should have remembered that. "We can decide later in the year. For now, I would be interested in meeting the other Mandarin-speaking maintenance kids to pitch the lookout offer, maybe notes for your first missed Econ class in exchange?" 

"That would be good. I have met the Shanghai enclave's maintenance junior and the Kunming freshman so far."

It's a start. "Maybe let me know the first or second time everybody gets together for shift talk, if that happens?" If it doesn't happen then it probably should. 

"New assignments are issued Friday after dinner and people tend to collect them as early as possible to get the most desirable."

Well, that's good to know. Makes sense. "I can head there after dinner, you can introduce me?" He should probably do his own maintenance for a few weeks to get a feel for the options, if he plans on trading guard duty. Ugh, it's going to involve casting spells on stuff at some point, isn't it. 

"Certainly."

"Wonderful! I don't have many Mandarin spells, but there's a good one to staunch bleeding and oxygenate what's left, and one for slightly faster thinking that might already be fairly well-known. Also a minor strength boost that's a bit long-winded." 

"All of those sound useful, but unfortunately I do not know many spells yet. I can sharpen my sword, and I have a room ward that turns the lights on if a mal enters, and some weather spells that will not work in here well at all."

"...I could swap you the anti-bleeding one now in exchange for help with a shop assignment?" Stayin' alive, stayin' alive... "I ended up in Friday shop. Not ideal for materials." 

"I have Wednesday. I can make two knives."

Alexius feels relieved, then feels silly for feeling relieved. It's just Baby's First Knife, for pity's sake. And yet. "Okay, deal." He writes out the blood spell. 

Huang bows when she takes it. "Thank you very much."

It's a sign of a good deal when both parties think they got the better end. "And thank you, Huang." 

"You're welcome. I will bring you the knife at lunch on Wednesday. I have history now, I must go." Another bow and she's off.