Chapter 3 Part 2 of 3 (Patreon)

Crap. “Uhh, I have this honorary Blue Lotus emblem too, not sure if that helps, oh and I’ve got an expert alchemist emblem. My teacher is a Master level alchemist from the Alchemist Association but I’m not part of the association myself.”

The man’s eyebrows pinched together as he looked through the different emblems. He opened his mouth.

Erik cringe inwardly and held up his hand. “Wait. Wait, I have an invitation too, it came with the hero emblems. Uhh, what was that Elf’s name? Eli’keen gave it to me.” Erik searched through his storage rings.

The man raised a disdainful eyebrow.

“Where are you?” Erik fished around some more. Just as the man made to speak, he found the letter. “There it is.”

The man stared at Erik as he took the letter. He looked at it lazily and paled upon seeing the imprinted seal.

Erik winced again, expecting an angry outburst. He looked away as the man opened and read the letter.

“Eli’keen. The Eli’keen? Deputy Head Eli’keen?” The man’s voice was a bare whisper. He raised his head, patting away the sweat. “I-I, uhh, I am sorry. Yes, that is all quite all right.” His sound transmission device went off with a burst of light. “Sorry about that.” He cut it off, but it went off again. His eyes darted to his device then to Erik. “I, uhh…”

“Take it if you want to,” Erik said. The team and this guy know of Eli’keen? Maybe Zen Hei wasn’t overexaggerating. Just who is he? Deputy head of what?

The man talked on his sound transmission device, smiling and turning away as he got more irate. He turned his mouth into the microphone part of the device, before putting it away and patting his brow.

“Don’t worry yours and your friend’s identities have been verified, would you like to pick a student in the top one thousand to compete with?” the man said, indicating to a formation that showed different names and numbers.

“Uhh, who is the lowest ranked student in the school?” He didn’t know what the standard of the students was, but with only ten thousand students who had to have passed the eighth realm. They weren’t going to be weak.

“Rank ten thousand?” The man looked perplexed before schooling his features. “Are you sure? Once you’re admitted, you can only fight ten people per week and they have to be within fifty ranks of your own position. The higher your ranking, the greater the access to higher grade resources.”

“Will I get less time with teachers or in the library?”

“No, but you could miss out on star grade level pills and concoctions,” the man pressed.

Erik needed training, resources he could go to Alva for. He didn’t know much about the school internally, and didn’t want to gain interest from others from day one.

“I’ll fight number ten thousand then please.”

The man frowned and went back to turning formations on his booth’s console. “Very well, your opponent will be notified. Please take teleportation formation five.”

“Thank you.”

Erik met with Rugrat as they walked through the statues and towards the doors beyond that had teleportation formations with numbers above them.

“Your registration person give you a hard time?” Rugrat asked

“Not really, that letter seemed to do the trick though.”

“Ah, yeah, mine was thinking I was an imposter or something, muttering about how there was no way. Then called someone, and they went white as a sheet and processed everything. I’m fighting number nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine.”

“I hope they’re not as strong as the people we met at Kushan.”

“Well, if we lose, we just need to wait a couple of months before we can challenge the registration again. If we get in though, we can finally learn about what makes officers tick with their higher education.”

“We’re going to learn how to beat people up. I don’t know how much higher education will be involved.” Erik snorted.

“You got a point there, don’t think many places of higher education would let me in with my grades,” Rugrat said.

“See you in there.” Erik bumped fists with Rugrat and waved him off, heading to his own teleportation formation.

Erik stepped onto his pad it activated and he appeared in a simple corridor, doors lined both sides, a demi-human read from his clipboard infront of the teleportation formation.

The demi-human looked to have a Fu Manchu that dropped to his chest, but they were tentacles, and his eyes were indigo with star-like pupils. “Your challenger has accepted the fight. They will arrive in three hours to fight you. Head down the corridor to waiting room three. There’s some equipment , on the left if you want to prepare for the fight. Once the Red light goes on, be ready to head up to the arena. Green light and the door will open. Got it?” He looked up.

“Yeah.”

The Demi human nodded and looked back at the clipboard.

Erik read the numbers on the doors, passing the Demi human, his skin shimmered like scales in the dim light.

The corridor was utilitarian. Sand covered the ground, and there were signs of where blades or fists had hit the walls. Promptly repaired, but the lighter colored materials remained.

The door to room three was open. Inside there was a meditation chamber, an open area for stretching, as well as a cultivation room, a couch, and a bed.

There was even a small garden in the corner with a water feature.

“Best damn waiting room I’ve been in. Still, hurry up and wait though.” Erik moved to the open area and started stretching to burn through the time.

***

Erik finished his last stretch as the room was bathed in red light. The door opposite the one he had entered through pulsed.

A section of the wall opened and a metal formation as big as a side plate pushed out.

“Please don the protective formation. It will measure your current defenses and protect you against lethal attacks from your opponent. All attacks are permitted within the arena, please hold out your weapons and armor to be checked.”

Erik pulled out his helmet and put it on his head. His vision expanded, dulling the bright light and piercing through shadows.

He pulled out his rail rifle, tapping the toe of his boot against the ground.

“Have you selected your weapons and armor for the fight? Additional weapons and items will not be permitted into the arena.”

“I have the gear I want to use.”

“Very well.”

He felt his skin prickle as a scan ran over him.

“Please apply the formation. You can adhere it to your chest or back.”

“New toys.” Erik grabbed the formation and put it on his back.

He stored his rifle away. I’ll pull it out as a last resort. He wanted to test out just how strong the bottom ranker of Avegaaren was.

The light around the room turned green and the door slid into the wall, revealing a ramp upwards.