How To Survive A Calamity

"There you are, you little bastard." I stared at my cold reflection in a mirror and looked down. Sitting untop the sink, was a boyant silver blob of jiggly slime 'staring' back at me.

I finally called back Hamlet mere minutes to the start of the exercise. There was a skill shared by familiars and contractors that helped share experiences and senses to certain extent which i had, called [Link].

It was an Extra Skill i had only used a few times before to guage its capabilities, but frankly i still wasn't sure how wide it was.

In any case, it was handy in some cases like this.

Depending on where Hamlet, my familiar was, i could connect my perception and senses to him, and this also aloud me to communicate with it.

-Knock -knock -knock!

"Vic, are you still in there? Dude, how long are you gonna shit for, they've asked all first years to assemble at the Gate."

I heard a short series of knock from the door, and the teasing sound of Chelsea's familiar voice came through from the other side.

Find adventures on empire

At the moment, i was currently standing, locked inside a toilet. I glanced back at the door once before looking away and said with a roll of my eyes.

"A bit louder next time, Ms. Chelsea, i don't think everyone else in the building heard you."

I looked down at Hamlet and gestured at my open blazer.

"Quickly, get in and hide yourself." I whispered a short command, and watched Hamlet the silver slime crawl into my uniform and hid away inside of it.

After that, i turned the faucet of the sink, dabbed my hands a little in the running water, turned the tap off and, turned for the door.

Along the way, i pulled out a napkin to dry my wet hands as i made my exit out of the restroom.

-Cluck!

I shot the door behind me, and immediately, i met the sight of Chelsea waiting with a spear and a smile.

I looked down both my sides before giving a dubious look at her.

"This is the guy's toilet, right?"

Chelsea twirled her spear with a grin and gestured for me to following after her with her chin.

"You think too much, Vic."

I disposed the used napkin in a nearby bin and walked after Chelsea from behind as i glanced at the bracelet that was much different from the one i was initially giving when entering the academy at the begining.

The new bracelet was a gadget distributed to all the participating first years, which would be useful somehow, and served some kind of purpose in the criteria of the Practical Field Experience Exercise

"And the others?"

Chelsea turned only her head to face me.

"They're all waiting."

"All?"

She nodded with a smile.

"Yes, every single one of them."

Following Chelsea's lead, i arrived at a wide and dark expansive hallway gathered to the brim with first year cadets.

The hall was strange and unfamiliar. Throughout the weeks and months I'd spent in the academy, I'd never once been in such a place.

There were massive hulks of steel and metallic structures, like armour, moving around at the periphery.

I stared at them and my eyes widened, my steps nearly halting behind Chelsea.

"Are those...?"

Gundam?!

No, wait—

Chelsea turned around and traced my gaze. She lingered before responding kindly.

"Those are exo-skeleton suits. Mech suits so to say. What, you've never seen one of these before? Hey, Vic, I've been wondering, but are you really a noble...?"

I stopped listening at the point when i realised Chelsea was just about to pick a fight. My gaze lingered on the moving hunks of skeletal metal.

And indeed, there were people piloting the massive suits of armors from what i assumed was the cockpit.

This was the first time i was seeing one up close like this.

The massive mech suits moved around at the edges of the large and expansive hall, carrying around equally massive crates devices that were too large to be hauled around by ordinary means.

"The academy is in charge of a number of Gates and Dungeons, and this hall is just one of the terminals supervising some of them. There are various security measures and systems set in place, those mech are probably one of them." Chelsea kindly explained in passing as we pushed through forward.

As she said so, i began to notice a couple of heavily armed guards or Awakened taking alert and positions all over the place. Even some of the the mech suits were armed one way or another.

I looked around one more time and my gaze landed back on the figure of Chelsea in front of me.

"So you're saying there's the entrance to a Dungeon here then?"

I could feel a mild thump in my heart.

We really were about to go into a dungeon. This was probably the opportunity i needed to finally breakthrough.

But at the same time, i couldn't help but have a premonition about something.

"You're late."

A sharp voice hissed as Chelsea and i pushed through the crowd. I turned to see the familiar figure of Deandra glaring at us with her hands crossed. Flanking both her sides were the aloof figures of the annoying brats, Trise and Don.

Deandra's red eyes glanced between Chelsea and i and narrowed with her brows furrowing.

"Where have you been?"

I shrugged with my hands shoved in my pocket and truthfully admitted.

I said without thinking.

"Taking a dump."

"Watching him take a dump." Chelsea said in the same manner.

The expressions of Deandra, Trise and Kyle morphed for a quick moment, but i had already quickly moved on from them.

Instead, i stared ahead, beyond their figures, where a massive amount of transluscent blue glow poured out into this world. Right there, looming greatly in all of its overwhelming glory, was the massive entrance to a dungeon.

'So... that's how a dungeon entrance looks like.'

It was huge, much more different than the small almost insignificant Teleportation matrix i found in the Midnight Foxes Den a year ago.

There was a massive twirling phenomenon of blue energy swirling before my eyes. A wave of energy poured forth from it like a broken dam, the cosmic gate of of the dungeon entrance continued to release pulses into the hall.

Standing this close before it, i felt breathless.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The pressure...

It was overwhelming.