Artificers in the respective sacreds design a gear for each student. The gear is equipped with three crystals: red, gold and green.
The red crystal automatically calculates the credit scores of each student; the gold crystal calculates the damage inflicted on each student and triggers the green crystal to teleport the student to a safe zone once they exceed the limit of damages. Once teleported, scores would be automatically deducted from the student.
The morning was calm; Lisa, Storm, and Ajax headed to the West Sacred guild to await their gears and meet their mates.
Upon their arrival, most of the students swarmed around Ajax, eager to ask him questions about his father. Storm took the opportunity to make new friends, but Lisa was left in a standstill, her gaze set on someone among the crowd.
A face she hadn't seen in years—her childhood best friend, Skylar. In a moment of joy, Lisa rushed over to her and wrapped her in a hug. They immediately began catching up on everything that had happened in their lives.
The representatives finally arrived with the gears. After handing them out, an announcement on the possible dungeons available was made, and the student leading their sacred was announced.
Right after the announcement, Lisa introduced Skylar to Ajax and Storm.
"Hi, I'm Skylar Mansfield," Skylar said.
Storm and Ajax introduced themselves as well.
Skylar Mansfield, once a first-class noble, is a second-class noble. Skylar's family fell out of grace, but her parents worked their way up to become heroes, and Lisa's family were commoners who worked their way through to third-class nobles. Their friendship started when they were kids because they had a common goal—becoming heroes.
After the introduction, Skylar suggested they check out the dungeons their representatives gave out.
On their way to the dungeon, Skylar closed in on Ajax, who had slowed his pace to walk alone. "Can I ask you a question, Ajax?" She asked.
Ajax scratched his head. "That was unexpected," he thought.
"Yeah, go on," Ajax replied.
"Do you have an ultimate skill?" Skylar asked.
Ajax raised his eyebrow and gave her a confusing look with his head slightly tilted.
Skylar held up her hands slightly. "I'm sorry if that came out wrong." She apologized, "I have an ultimate skill called borrow—it allows me to borrow a few ultimate skills for a brief moment."
She continued, "Because of borrow, I can sense the mana of the others except for those stronger than me, but I can't sense yours, which means you are strong."
Ajax smiled awkwardly, "Is that so?" He said, "I don't know about being strong, though. I mean, I barely managed to get here."
[The strong presence in the dungeon is still around, Ajax,] Lucius said.
Ajax pointed at the dungeon and asked, "Why isn't that dungeon explored?"
Skylar replied calmly, "I've been here for a week now, and I still haven't seen anyone explore it." She asked, "Are you interested in exploring?"
"Yeah, if I get the chance to," Ajax replied.
Skylar grinned. "Then count me in," she said. "I want to learn from you."
All the dungeons available for exploring were taken by the North and East Sacred. Immediately they saw Ajax and his companions close in; they approached them, trying to pick a fight, fortunately, the West Sacred representatives were close by, and stepped in.
The representatives asked them to follow their lead to the guild and wait on the authorities for available dungeons.
As they strode back, Ajax asked one of the representatives about the dungeon with a strong presence.
"Oh… that?" He asked.
"It's a very dangerous dungeon, Shadow Crys, and there are a lot of dungeons alike around," he said. "Those dungeons are reserved for heroes and adventurers because students often lose scores once they enter."
He continued, "To avoid such dangerous dungeons, we wait on the authorities to give us lists of less dangerous dungeons."
Ajax nodded and asked, "Are the student bodies prohibited from exploring?"
He replied, "No, but no students want to explore them—It's a suicide mission."
[I want us to explore it, but let's work on the weaker ones for now,] Lucius said.
Before they could get to the guild, there was a commotion between North Sacred and East Sacred students.
At the bitter end, everything had to be settled in a duel. Ajax asked Storm to watch the duel with him, and Skylar, and Lisa followed.
The arena was massive, a transparent protective barrier set around the field preventing the audience from being involved in a duel.
All duels were suspended in the meantime. The North Sacred's leading student against the East Sacred's leading student. The duel was set to start in thirty minutes; all spectators took their seats, mostly North and East Sacreds.
Stunner Xavian, the North Sacred leading student, and Cid Austin, the East Sacred leading student, the winner of the duel gets half of the other's credit scores.
Before long, the duel began. The reason behind the duel was unclear, but it was very intense with each student holding their own.
The duel took a dangerous turn. Stunner nearly killed Cid. Clenching his teeth, he summoned a powerful sun phoenix—an ultimate skill—and commanded it to attack.
It seemed inevitable; the field was filled with smoke. But when the smoke cleared, the principal was suddenly seen standing by Cid with a barrier around them, shielding both from the sun phoenix. Everything happened so quickly; the principal was only after the smoke cleared.
As it turned out, the principal was heading to the arena to spectate the duel and stumbled upon the danger ahead.
Without hesitation, the principal expelled Stunner.
"Do you know who I am? I'm from the Xavian family; you will regret this!" He yelled furiously.
Without a word to Stunner, the principal asked Cid to head to the infirmary for treatment.
The scene was shocking, but Ajax remained calm.
"Interesting," he thought.
[How exactly did the principal stop that?] Lucius asked.
"You mean you didn't see?" Ajax thought.
[No, I didn't. Did you?]
"How do you expect me to see, if you didn't?" Ajax replied.
Skylar spoke with her eyes lit, "That entrance was so cool."
"Lucius, I think she saw it, but you didn't," Ajax thought. "You are lacking, man."
[Tch…] Annoyed.