"I'll survive," yeah right.
Nox barely dodged a claw the size of a shovel as it slammed into the ground where he had been a second ago.
The attack kicked up a cloud of dust and debris, luckily, thanks to the boots, he had moved far enough to avoid being turned to paste.
The dust cloud cleared revealing his attacker. It was a seven foot tall Eclipsed that was also 'supposedly' tier one which he was having a hard time believing right now.
According to his knowledge, tier ones never grew past the size of a house cat, so what the hell was this?
The creature was walking on its four lanky but long limbs, each equipped with massive claws.
Like the one Astra fought, this one also had no eyes, but it could somehow tell exactly where Nox was.
The creature let out a roar, which sounded more like a screech instead, revealing an endless row of dagger sized teeth, before lunging at him again, causing him to narrowly dodge... again.
'This can't go on,' he thought, adrenaline being the only thing that was letting him keep up with the creature's speed....or so he thought, 'If I just keep dodging, someone else will steal my points again.'
He looked down at his gauntleted hands before looking back at the Eclipsed who, at this point was tired of this pest's incessant dodging, it was now strutting, looking for an opening and it soon found it, the prey was distracted.
So it lunged again ready to turn him into Eclipsed snack.
Nox, still distracted by the gauntlets, muttered, "please work."
He finally raised his head, only to be faced with a wide open maw aimed directly at his head.
◆ ◆ ◆ TWO DAYS EARLIER ◆ ◆ ◆
Luna led Astra and Nox out of the administration building and towards a separate one, a bit far from it.
One that students wearing the same gray uniform as Nox were walking into. In Luna's hand was a circular object, similar to the one Astra had ordered his uniform on.
"What happens if I fail?" Nox asked as he continued walking forward with Astra, ignoring the stares.
Though, this time, they were directed at Astra instead of him.
"For normal students, the temporary core within them will be removed and they'll be kicked out...if they survive anyway," Astra answered before turning to him and giving a smile, "but for you, failing would just give me enough excuse to keep you permanently chained up in a lab and find out how you can absorb SE without a core."
Her words caused him to swallow, they didn't sound like she was joking, not in the least bit.
In silence, they finally reached the glass structure. It wasn't as impressive as the administration building, but it was a whole lot better than any building he had seen in the slums....taller too.
The three continued forward, through the door and towards the reception...or that's what it seemed like.
At the desk was a man wearing the same uniform as Luna approached him. He gave a small smile as he watched her approach, his blue eyes behind a pair of transparent glasses lit up.
"What's the purpose of visiting me, my little elf?" He spoke the moment they were close enough, causing a visible blush to appear on her face, all the way to her elf like ears.
"Erm," Luna cleared her throat, trying to regain her composure before handing the papers and the circular object to him. "T-The Headmistress requested a new student be registered for the admission test, and also asked that he be assigned a room in the temporary hostel."
The man accepted the documents and the orb with a flourish that was, frankly, unnecessary. He scanned through them quickly before setting them down.
"I see… Headmistress priority." He whistled low. "That explains why she is here."
His eyes moved to Astra who just looked at him with a bored expression, before he wisely chose to look away.
"And this must be the student?" he said, finally acknowledging Nox.
Nox nodded in response.
The man raised a brow as he assessed, "Zone 9 background, no core implanted, hmm."
His tone was polite enough, but Nox could practically hear the judgment in it.
The man tapped on the orb causing it to open, revealing a black rectangular card.
With the card in hand, he started typing something into the glass terminal, and a holographic display came to life before him.
A new ID profile forming line by line:
[ Name: Nox
Status: Temporary Initiate
SE Compatibility: N/A
Lodging: Temporary Hostel – Room 312]
With that, he handed the card back to Luna with a smile on his face, as he said, "his room is on the tenth floor, the elevator should take him there."
"Thank you," Luna politely said, taking the card before turning to Nox and passing the card to him.
"This will act as both your room card and Assessment ID," she explained. "It will track your performance, survival… and corpse location if needed."
Well, the last part didn't sound terrifying at all....
But before he could ask anything, Astra interrupted, "alright then kid, try not to die. I just got you. After all, it would be extremely inconvenient if you dropped dead before I get to poke around in your insides."
"...Thanks for the encouragement," Nox muttered flatly.
"Anytime," she said with a proud nod, as if she had truly given him a motivational speech.
Luna gave Nox a sympathetic look and leaned a bit closer to whisper, "If it helps… the fatality rate dropped from sixteen percent to… fourteen last year."
"…That doesn't help."
"Oh. Well… good luck!"
With that, the two walked out of the building, leaving Nox just standing there at the reception, turning around, he faced the man who was still looking at him.
"The elevator is that way," the man simply pointed to the left before sitting back down and continuing whatever he was doing.