"Please follow me; I'll summon my daughter right away." Jyovic Bone, the one addressed by the Bone family members as Old man Bone said, pressing a button on a remote concealed in his clothes. The double doors leading to the room opened with a creak as Henrietta appeared.
Dressed in loose white clothes that only revealed the region above her neck, Henrietta walked in. She wore thin shoes that were seemingly made from cloth while her hands were wrapped in gauge. The trace amounts of her skin that peeked out showed signs of blisters; some popped open while she walked, leaking out faint black pus. Her face was charred black, traces of white shaded under her nose and eyelids, painting a contrasting image.
There was a slight wobble in her feet while her facial expression was rigid like a doll. Her eyes concealed a maniacal glow that sent a shiver into the hearts of the Administrators. Being the veterans they were, and having faced scarier Frenzy Beasts, they quickly controlled themselves. On seeing her, a thought appeared in their minds, making their expression one of a frown.
'Does this Unranked Skill have the quality of affecting the emotions of a person? If yes, then that is a cause for concern. We couldn't figure it during our investigation.'
"Henrietta, I told you to be ready. What is up with this appearance?" Jyovic Bone shouted, pointing his finger at Henrietta, a trace amount of his aura leaking out, making the entire skyscraper vibrate, and alarming all the residents.
"Old bastard," The maniacal gaze in her eyes disappeared, "I was training outside the walls. I rushed back as soon as I obtained a notification. If anyone is to be blamed, it is your ineptitude."
Henrietta placed her right hand over her forehead, pinching the area next to her hairline. With a tug, the charred skin was peeled off, revealing her wheatish coloured skin. Her skin looked pristine, lacking any blemishes, looking perfectly like a normal human. She also peeled off the skin on her arms, removing the blisters, and revealing her flawless skin beneath. After she was done, Henrietta looked like a normal lady; she bowed towards the Administrators, as respect to their strength and position.
"Esteemed Administrators, if you are okay with it, let us proceed beyond the walls. I will fully display the abilities of our family's Unranked Skill, Bone Devour." Henrietta said.
"Sure, please," Wunris Marble said, waving his hand, motioning for Henrietta to lead them. He then faced Jyovic Bone, "About the name of the Unranked Skill, are you sure with it being Bone Devour? Before it is established in our official records, you can still hope to change it."
"I would like to keep the name as it is," Jyovic Bone said, his gaze filled with nostalgia. "It started with my grandfather. He and his comrades came together and established the Bone Family. They used their life's savings to research, encountering numerous failures. This was the name they gave it during the initial days. Even though the skill had deviated from the meaning of the name, I would still like to have it addressed in such a manner, so as to honour our predecessors and our staunch efforts in research and development."
"I see," Wunris Marble nodded with approval, "A commendable trait."
The group of five administrators were led by Henrietta and Jyovic as they descended to the underground floor through a private lift, meant for the exclusive use of Jyovic Bone. They reached the underground metro and patiently waited a minute, boarding the metro train that halted at the station.
The train was mostly crowded, filled with soldiers heading to the outer walls. They donned leather armour that looked tougher than steel plates, having an elasticity that could support wide body frames. Clutching in their hands were various weapons, ranging from spears to knuckles, each glistening with a variety of colours, leaking out a stifling aura.
The surroundings felt like the depth of an ocean due to the emanating auras, making it difficult to move around, suffocating both the body and the mind. The five Administrators entered a sparsely crowded compartment, standing at a corner. Jyovic Bone followed suit, shielding Henrietta from the aura that struck them like a raging tsunami.
Most of the soldiers seated in the compartment were either Shifters or Ground Controllers, making it difficult for Henrietta, a newly advanced Shifter to breathe. She stood near Jyovic, using him as an umbrella to resist the storm. The underground train started to move, picking up speed in a matter of seconds as it blazed through the tracks.
The tunnel was dark for the most part, except for the sparse platforms that were poorly illuminated. The train passed through most platforms without stopping, silently marching like a steel monster, heading towards the outer sections of the city.
The compartment was silent, except for the occasional jokes made by the veteran soldiers. Their nerves were stretched taut; anticipation, excitement, caution, and fear brimming through them. One of the soldiers turned his head to gaze at Antira, planning to admire the mature lady from the corner of his vision when his superior placed his hand on his shoulder, murmuring something in his ears, also forming a small barrier around them to isolate the sounds.
The eyes of the soldier widened with shock, rapidly converging into fear. His forehead was filled with sweat while his body began to shiver ever so lightly. If not for the fact that he was a Shifter, he wouldn't have been able to control his body. Time passed as Henrietta watched the faces of each soldier, not caring for their privacy.
Soaking in the atmosphere, she felt like she had returned to the battlefield, fighting against the Frenzy Beasts, pitching her life against them, in a race to find who could kill faster. The loser ended up as either the meal or the trophy of the winner, lost in history, with no one to care about them amidst the chaos.
An hour and a half passed in travel as the underground train finally halted at a massive platform. The platform was wide, with one end lined with buildings that were so tall they touched the ceiling. Before the massive buildings, the behemoth of steel looked like a tiny worm. Alongside the soldiers, the team of Administrators and the two Bone family members alighted.
They patiently waited in line as tens of lifts, each being spacious enough to accommodate a hundred people at once operated, sending batches of soldiers to the surface with each trip. It was their turn as they boarded a lift, alighting above ground after some time had passed, finding themselves inside a massive hall that could facilitate the movement of ten thousand people at once.
Jyovic Bone and Wunris Marble walked towards a counter where soldiers dressed in battle garments sat, presenting them a set of documents to state their reason and to record the details in the official register. Anyone who wanted to go outside the walls had to provide a document and go through a series of checks and procedures. These procedures could be skipped if they arrived under military orders but, since it wasn't so, they could only patiently wait and complete them one by one.
10th Ring, Sector 12; the team of Administrators and the two Bone family members walked on a footpath alongside a road that was 200 metres wide. It was a road that stretched from one wall to the other, from the outer wall of the 10th Ring to the outer wall of the 9th Ring. They walked for a kilometre in silence—watching huge trucks carrying soldiers or returning vehicles filled with the carcasses of Frenzy Beasts—before standing in front of a huge arch.
The arch was 200 metres wide and 100 metres tall. The gates were made from monster bones, each being as thick as a human, looking robust while emitting an aura that could crush a normal person. The gates were opened inwards, allowing passage of traffic outside the walls. Beyond the gates was another wall, situated 200 metres away, and spanning 200 metres wide.
It was shaped in the structure of an inverted 'U', with its two ends joining with the outer walls of the 10th Ring. There were two similarly shaped arches build into the sides of the inverted 'U' wall, allowing the actual passage into the wild. This was installed as a stopgap measure to protect the gates that lead into the 10th Ring. The team walked out of the arch on the right, stepping foot into the wilds. From here out, it was the territory of the frenzy Beasts.
…
Students numbering in the hundreds sat within an auditorium, watching the middle-aged lady who stood on the dais in silence, scrutinising her watch.
3:00 PM, the middle-aged lady waved her hands, abruptly closing all the 6 entrances leading into the auditorium shut. She looked at the students seated before her, performing a headcount. Tallying the total, she nodded in approval.
"Good, all 846 Cadets from April Batch are present." After getting used to her character during the past three days, all the students arrived on time. They knew that except for advocating a punctual behaviour, the middle-aged was quite kind in all the other aspects. She readily encouraged the students to step forward and take charge of many matters.
"Today, we will be focusing on the layout of our city. Sectors and Rings, why do you think our city is divided into such?" She paused, looking for volunteers to answer. She immediately spotted Ravis Macht to be the first one to raise his hands.
"Ma'am," Ravis held the mike, speaking in a confident tone, "Each Ring is our gradual encroachment into the territory of the Frenzy Beasts. Once we have cleared an area, we would immediately begin the process of building a wall. But, building a wall successfully around our wide city is an impossible endeavour under the attacks of the Frenzy Beasts. They wouldn't give us the opportunity to do so."
On seeing that the middle-aged lady hadn't refuted his statement, Ravis regained a bit more confidence as he continued, "Hence, we build the walls around an area first. The circular walls are divided into even, enclosed segments which are later labelled as Sectors, with their numbers ranging from 1 to 12."
"Good," The middle-aged lady made him sit, awarding him some merit points as a reward. "The basic structure of our city when viewed from the top will look like a series of concentric circles. The radius of the innermost circle, the one we call as Circle Zero, Central Command, etc is about 10 kilometres. The outer radius of the 1st Ring is 20 kilometres, the 2nd Ring being 30 kilometres, and so on."
Pausing for a second to catch her breath, the middle-aged lady made an image appear on the screen behind her, forming a layout of the entire city. "The 10th Ring, the outermost Ring that has yet to be completed has a radius of 110 kilometres. It has 6 Sectors completed as of date, all falling under the control of the military. Until we develop the 11th Ring, the 10th Ring will not be available for civilian settlement."