T/W: Blood, Gore, Foul Language
Penn stood in front of a green and yellow gate that circulated partially through the floor of a separate dorm complex behind the association—a heavily armed and reinforced one. He had been near gates before, but never this close. The army was usually assigned to set up perimeters around newly formed gates, evacuate civilians, and provide backup to the association—not that human weapons did much to monsters to begin with.
But standing this close was a first for Penn. He felt static electricity lick across his skin, and his hair stood on end. It was unnerving to see a gate that appeared flat like a painting on a wall - yet somehow it was a doorway an awakened could walk through and disappear. How brave was that first Hunter, who didn't even know what this was or if they would survive going through it? They didn't even know what an awakened was or what monsters lay on the other side waiting for them.
"Have you been to a gate yet?" Nathan asked, walking up behind him after talking with the gate management team. Penn shook his head.
"Never this close," he replied, not taking his eyes off the eerie entrance. Nathan leaned down next to his ear.
"How does it feel?" he whispered. Penn glanced up at Nathan's dark eyes, unsettled by the wildness that was openly displayed in them.
"Any new situation, no matter how prepared one is for it, can be quite the nerve-wracking experience," Penn replied slowly, his eyes shifting back to the gate, then down to his weapon holster. He had the Hunter combat knife and crossbow he had used during the training session earlier.
"If you have the option during your leveling test, I suggest you pick up a force or mana manifestation skill. You'll be able to operate a more extensive selection of esper-operator weapons. For example, there's an upgrade for that crossbow that you'll never need to carry ammo," Nathan suggested. Penn looked down at the crossbow in admiration.
"That's useful," he nodded. "What do you use?"
"I'm a striker class. Though it's a highly physical-based skill, force is what powers it. The best way to compare it is to those space lasers in sci-fi movies or even the mystical arts in martial arts films, where they put their force into weapons and fly with them," Nathan explained, flipping his sword around in his hand.
"Which do you think would suit me best?" Penn asked.
"For your close-combat subskills and the type of weapons you use, Force," Nathan smiled. Penn nodded, taking the suggestion into account as he stroked the knife attached to his hip. Nathan snaked his arm around Penn's pack and rested it on his hip. "You'll be able to move far more effectively and support yourself, as well as the people you are guiding."
"Well," Penn looked down at the hand resting on his with apprehension. "Do you need guiding right now?""Just a top-up, if you could," Nathan whispered, his rumbling voice vibrating against Penn's shoulder. Penn nodded, twisted to step back from Nathan's arm, and took his hand instead. He focused on receiving and redirecting the energy through his body without allowing it to overtake him.
If he focused too much on it, a part of him feared losing himself in that void again. So, instead, he directed the mana through him like guiding a long thread through a needle. The smaller amount he took in to purify, the safer it would be for him. But fighting against the massive power of a rank S that screamed to be cleansed was like running from a pack of wolves up a mountain for miles without stopping.
Doing it that way slowed the guiding process down considerably, which made it frustrating for both parties and not the pleasant experience it can be when there's a high compatibility between the esper and the Guide. Still, Nathan had only asked for a top-up, not a full guiding. The moment Penn felt the process start to slow without his interference, he stopped the guiding and let go of Nathan's hand.
"Is that enough?" Penn asked with a calm smile, drawing a line. He already had one clingy Hunter attached to his hip on a daily basis. He didn't need another one he'd have to spend long expeditions with. Having a super strong, territorial, jealous, possessive monster colleague chasing you didn't exactly make for a healthy work environment - especially when trusting your back to someone you're fighting alongside.
"It'll do," Nathan gave a knowing smirk as he rubbed his fingers together on the hand Penn had just held. "Thank you."
"Is there anything that we need to prepare before we enter?" Penn asked, looking back at the gate. Nathan shook his head.
"You're geared up; that's enough. It's just a training gate, so the monsters inside are incredibly easy. We won't be in there longer than a couple of hours, so provisions won't be needed either. We will do our first test run of a fake dungeon expedition in this gate at some point so that you get a feel for the procedures and how things tend to unfold."
"I'm glad you're taking my training with such sincerity," Penn smiled, and Nathan looked over with a raised brow.
"Have I not been sincere this entire time with you?" he questioned Penn, jokingly.
"It seems your reputation is different from what I've experienced," Penn shrugged, glee filling his eyes. Nathan shook his head, feigning a hurt expression.
"I can't help what I was born as. I told you, the higher rank we are, the more territorial and possessive we are."
"Born as?" Penn paused, turning to look at Nathan, who flinched and didn't reply.
"Let's enter the gate," Nathan pushed forward, his customer service smile returning to his face as he stepped behind Penn, placed his hands on his shoulders, and gently pushed him toward the gate. Picking up that Nathan didn't wish to discuss it further, Penn chose not to push it, not resisting the force as they made their way in a single-file line to the gate.
"You may feel nauseous the first few times you enter a gate. It's called Gate Sickness. Some newly awakened, though rare, individuals can even experience something called Gate Shock — which is exactly like its name: you go into a state of shock. Degrees of seriousness vary. As someone who's bombproof, you should be fine."
"Did you just use horse terminology to describe me?" Penn joked as they stopped only three feet from the gate. Nathan rolled his eyes behind him.
"War-tested, then? I don't know your tour record," he replied sarcastically. Without saying anything else, he gave Penn a push—who stumbled forward in surprise through the gate with a gasp.
As he passed that wall of blackness, he felt the air get ripped from his lungs. His body felt like someone kept zapping him with electricity every millisecond while gravity tugged him in every direction. He couldn't tell up from down, nor could he feel the ground as he stepped forward.
That hellish moment in that void of nothingness was the same feeling he remembered from his dream. It was only a single step forward but that time between, before his foot touched the ground, felt like he no longer existed for a single moment. But then, he finally felt something solid below his feet, and the darkness dissipated like fog lifting. He took a deep breath in, stepped forward a bit more, and then fell to his knees to empty the contents of his stomach.
"Gate sickness it is," Nathan replied, stepping out of the gate behind him, his eyes lacking any empathy as he walked around Penn to look at the landscape. "I haven't been inside the training gate since I was in my teens—how refreshing."
"What?" Penn managed to mumble out, taking steady breaths to right himself. He looked up and saw a large, endless valley of purple grass surrounded by red and orange mountains. Beyond that was a wall of fog. "... How surreal..."
"Isn't it? Looks like Earth, but through a filter," Nathan laughed. Then he pointed down into the valley. "There are only five types of low-level monsters in this dungeon. The further from the gate and closer to the mountains, the stronger the monsters."
Penn looked toward where Nathan pointed, squinting his eyes as he stood back up on his feet. At first, he couldn't see anything besides the long grass moving like waves in the breeze. Eventually, he noticed the grass shifting in odd directions and spotted spots of gray and silver popping up with every hop.
"Rabbits?" Penn questioned, confused.
"Advena Unicornis Lepus is its official name, but Hunters just call them Unniebit's," Nathan stared into the distance.
"Adverna… that's stranger or alien in Latin, right?"
"Something like that. It's the official pronoun for all monsters in dungeons. And the rest is straightforward: unicorn rabbit. It's a carnivorous rabbit with a horn on its forehead. Its silver fur is as strong as steel. They even act like porcupines when threatened."
"So why the Unniebit?" Penn questioned. Nathan chuckled.
"Unicorn bunny bitches. They're biters. They go for your ankles," Nathan explained. Penn was flabbergasted. He knew the army liked to come up with dirty nicknames for things, but this just lacked creativity.
"How plain…" Penn replied, pulling his knife from his holster.
"Would you like to file a complaint against who named them?" Nathan asked, stepping beside him. Penn nodded, which caused Nathan to laugh loudly, drawing the attention of the unniebits. "You'll need a time machine if you want to complain to thirteen-year-old me."