Elgan searched for a long, long time.

People came and went, arrived, and left. Conversations, hours, minutes, it all replayed fast in Elgan's mind. And yet, his gaze remained affixed to the search bar, his fingers sweating ever so slightly as they moved through the holographic keyboard. Completely unbothered by the silent and foreign environment, the lust for intelligence had taken over.

...

At least, that had been the case up until a few moments ago.

For the first time in half a day, Elgan lifted his gaze off the screen bluish screen. The chair on his left was empty, just like the round grey table he sat on. The lavender-eyed guy had decided to go somewhere else, his attention span was too short for long sessions in the library, and decided to go elsewhere. That happened almost an hour ago.

| Swipe |

Pushed by the mild headache caused by the long session of hologram use, he closed all tabs and turned off the Holo-Wrist, standing up from his chair. A slightly satisfied expression appeared on his visage, content. Elgan had made an investment of time, a worthy one at that. Information was the key to everything, knowledge was the key if he desired to choose of his own free will. Without sparing a glance at the few dozen students absent-mindedly sitting in the hall, Elgan left the library.

The doors closed behind him.

'Just to make sure...'

As he expected, the Winternet app returned to being locked the moment he stepped out of the room. It seemed he would have to return whenever he required to check information.

"Bothersome."

Chuckling, Elgan walked through the corridors. Compared to the first time in the morning, the clean white expanses of tunnels did look livelier. Students dressed in the same grey outfits walked past him, talking and joking with each other, though the moment their eyes landed on him, their interactions grew into a vast silence. For one reason or another, they all tended to stare at him for uncomfortable amounts of time. Only after they turned a corner did they start muttering again for themselves.

People talking behind his back, Elgan hated that.

|Tssk|

'I guess my face does stand out far too much.'

His hand moved towards the bulging mass of flesh and veins covering the right side of his face. More or less the same thing going on in his knee, chest, and right arm. As bothersome as it was, there was very little Elgan could do about his appearance.

"Whatever."

...

Shaking off the subject, Elgan decided on what to do next.

The map signaled two other locations of interest, Summit, and Marketplace, both at the same overall distance from Library.

Having gathered some information about both in his compulsive searching session he had a rough idea of what to expect. Marketplace for instance was supposed to be an automated shop service, its purpose was to quote "Facilitate diverse common tools for students to improve their training and overall performance."

Enticing, right?

As for Summit?

It was the closest thing to a Training Facility Elgan had found. Recalling the words from the tab: "A unique installation mixing necessary contact with nature, with various automatized testers and trainers, aimed to challenge the students by improving their technique and capabilities."

The choice may have seemed a tough one for some, but for Elgan, it was as clear as day.

'I need fresh air.'

Following the intermittent holo-thread, the youth arrived in less than a couple of minutes. Ominous and imposing steel doors, the so-called gates extended several dozen yards both height and width. A sign hung from the ceiling.

SUMMIT

Stepping ahead, the light of the scanner shone in blue, and a beeping followed. What lay inside the titanic sphere, it was time to unveil.

| Clank |

An intense brilliance assaulted him, clean white light filtered from the depths of the immense spherical dome. Placing his working hand before his eyes to retain what little remained of his vision as he walked inside the space, his slow-moving feet following a wide silver path. Birds chirping under the sun, grass dancing along the wind, water flowing from the heights. The encompassed flood of sounds started sinking in his ears.

'The sky?!'

As the brilliance dimmed down, his eyes traveled through the curved walls which opened to an enormous transparent dome. The blue hanged several hundred meters above, a glistening window to the arid landscape of the outside. Few mountains of hard sandstone are visible on the horizon.

A tranquil breeze of air swiped past his face, brushing the fields of colorless grass blades that covered the periphery of the interior. Swiping through the whitish trees, growing near the hills, before finally meeting with an unmoving wall of stone.

"That is the Summit."

The slumbering mountain occupied the center of the hall, perhaps it was the content of the dome all along. Vertical cliffs, brutal irregularities, and steep slopes all mixed into a single scenery, all tied up together with a silver ribbon.

Elgan followed the pearly trail extending to the distance, its inclination picking on as it found its way through the verticality of the surrounding hills.

| Clank! |

Elgan's gaze darted to the origin of the sound. In a broad arena just a couple of dozen yards away from him, a young man repelled the unrestrained fury of a shadowy and inhuman figure. His sword blurred and moved in fast, deadly swipes in an attempt to scare the creature away. Yet despite all his efforts, the tall arachnoid remained unfazed deflecting each of the attacks with its appendages.

The only reason Elgan had not moved to help the boy was that he hadn't been the only one expecting the encounter. A couple of other guys stood just outside the battle's perimeter analyzing their comrade's movements.

The little tension in Elgan's body dissipated the moment the battle ended. In a matter of seconds, the man's feet had stepped outside the arena, and a red outline shone signaling the boy's defeat. The creature halted its attacks and staggered away, the rage in its pitch-black eyes nowhere to be seen.

'Those things must be part of the tests. I wonder...'

This was supposed to be both an area prepared for rest and for battle and training, Elgan could guess the plates scattered through the mountain had something to do with them.

Not paying any further attention to the group Elgan continued walking along the path which now began coiling around the mountain itself. One, Two, Three, Four, Five... The number of courts kept increasing both in number and size as Elgan climbed his way to the top. Some of them are free of any contestants, most occupied by single if not various human participants. Armored with lances, whips, swords or any other weapon imaginable.

And as varied as the contestant's inventory was, the shadow guardians weren't left behind in the slightest. From floating armored jellyfish to larvae equipped with deadly fangs, the enemy adopted any shape.

Even that of humans.

It was in the crest of the mountain that Elgan saw the clash. A bunch of students surrounded an arena bigger in size than any he had seen so far, all of their eyes glimmered with interest and curiousness as they gazed at the single figure standing atop the platform.

'Nieve.'

Her pale blue hair danced in the air along the wind, her serious expression nowhere to be seen as she faced in the opposite direction. Her slim body, adopted a fighting style, both of her hands embracing the handle of the longsword sitting at her waist.

Ready to face the shadow.

"Five whole levels above her... Do you think she can manage, Luke?"

A voice within one of the expectation groups reached his ears.

With that simple question, the small crowd reached its limit, submitting to the silence, an emissary of the impending battle. Both the shadow minion and Nieve tensed up.

[3]

[2]

[1]

"...Probably."

Someone answered.

[0]

Then the battle began.

The shadow leaped forwards toward the unmoving girl, fast enough to see, far too fast to react. At least, that would have been his case. By the time the shadow reached her position, her long sword was long ready to clear the attack.

| Clang! |

The perfectly executed spinning kick was met with the cheek of the double-edged blade, successfully drawing it away from the girl's body. Still, despite Nieve's almost perfect parry, the shadow's leap had gathered plenty of inertia which instantly transmitted to her body.

|Tap|

The girl softly landed on the floor after dashing back, preventing her from falling to the ground. Her teeth gritted and her hands moved as fast as she could, her sword was slightly late to meet the shadow's uppercut directed towards her gut.

" Gahj! "

A fragile breeze caused by the attack reached Elgan whose unmoving eye had yet to blink. The same case as the rest of the people there.

Instead of flying upwards into the air from the sheer force of impact, the girl improvised a roll with the massive weight of her sword, transforming the momentum into torque. Her hair span in a cyan whirlwind, her sword ready to strike a deathly blow.

| ClaNng!|

A metallic echo resonated through the mountain. In a last-second attempt at saving itself, the shadow had tried blocking the blade with his arms. The shadow's left arm fell to the floor forming a puddle of black substance.

The steel longsword had reached the shadow's neck, but the guardian's last move had prevented a clean cut from happening. Its feet moved, preparing to draw distance between the two.

'You lost.'

A slight hint of panic showed in the shadow's blank expression as Nieve's wrists rotated swiftly leading the blade downwards.

[End of combat.]

The field shone in a blue outline. As the shadow became nothing more than a puddle of pitch black goo.

"No way... she actually did it."

Someone in the crowd said, both eyes and mouth wide open.

"That's impressive, even for someone like her."

The silence disappeared under the weight of the student's need to share their impressions. Mouths hanged agape, impressed, genuinely impressed at what they had seen. Display strength, reflexes, agility, and intelligence. All in less than a single minute.

Somehow, Elgan's expression hadn't changed throughout the whole showdown, his eye was still stuck on that sorry puddle of shadows. Perhaps that was the reason he was one of the few who saw the hologram display on Nieve's wrist.

5000␥ Added to your account.

After letting the girl rest for a while, some people congratulated Nieve on her new personal record, but most simply went their separate ways, without taking care, perhaps fighting to be the one to spread the news among the rest of the students.

Somehow, Elgan belonged to neither of the groups...

He didn't move, didn't talk, his mind lost deep in thought.

...

The sound of footsteps made Elgan snap back to reality.

"Who..."

An unknown voice nearing, interrupted.

"The new student. His name... Elgan."

A girl replied blatantly, her short grey hair dancing in the wind, her sharp eyes showed no trace of doubt, instead, they showed she was particularly confident in her guess.

"You should let people introduce themselves."

A boy answered in an artificial voice reprimanding the girl, his crimsom eyes devoid of noticeable emotions whatsoever, a green metal mask covering the lower half of his face.

"Oh, so that's why..."

The tallest of them spoke, his voice firm and gentle. He continued.

"Name's Luke... Just Luke, nice to meet you."

His hand extended forwards in a friendly gesture, waiting for Elgan to do the same.

...

Elgan kept staring at his hand like a retard for a couple of seconds before hesitantly deciding to shake it.

"I don't think it's necessary to introduce myself anymore... Nice to meet you."