Shortly after I entered the building and showed them my card, I was guided through an extensive tour of the facilities. All of them were accessible by the sixty students that lived in the dorm every year. Twenty from each of the three years. We arrived at my door after about an hour of my arrival.
"This one is yours," the blonde reception lady waived her hand towards the door. "Your card should work to open the door, kind of like a hotel key."
"Cool," I replied as I walked up to the door to test the card. "Thanks for showing me around the facility."
The door gave off a beep after I tapped the card to the lock, and a green light lit up. The door then automatically swung open.
'Huh, fancy...'
The receptionist smiled, "no problem sir, I hope you enjoy your stay!"
She then gave me a slight bow and turned to swiftly return to her post at the front desk.
I entered through the door of what would be my new home for the next three years. My eyebrows shot up a little when I saw what the room looked like. I let out a high whistle.
"Woah, they really don't hold back huh..." I mumbled to myself.
The apartment was almost the size of the entire house that I was moving from. The living room was large and had top of the line furniture. I turned my head to the left, where I was greeted by a spiral staircase that let up to a loft type second floor. The kitchen had any and all appliances I could even think of.
'They seriously spent a ton of money on this place...'
To the right of the foyer was a series of large open windows that looked down upon the massive academy campus. Looking at the campus from up here, I'd actually say it was more the size of a small city rather than a small town. I could see a few students here and there, along with the staff of the establishments on campus. I also observed a very large building not too far into the distance.
'That's probably the entertainment centre,' I thought as I observed the campus from the window.
I then turned away from the windows, and decided to explore my new apartment a little. Eventually I came across my room, which had a large bed in the centre along the back wall. There was a T.V. mounted above a dresser on the other end of the room from the bed, allowing me to watch it while I laid down. Another large window took up the entire wall opposite from the door. I looked left once I entered and noticed a fully decked out master bathroom. Beside the master bathroom was a large walk-in closet.
I shook my head at the sheer size of the place I was living in, alone to boot. I then placed my duffle bag beside my bed and walked towards the window.
'I guess I could explore the campus a bit... I do have money on this card, and I'll probably need more clothes.'
I nodded my head and checked my pocket to make sure both cards were still present. Then, I made my way towards the apartment door and soon headed out of the apartment. The guard I met on the way in glanced my way and gave a firm nod.
"Hey, uh.. mr guard?" I started. "What't the fastest way to walk to the entertainment district?"
The guard turned his head in my direction and responded, "go left from here, and you should reach the main road of the campus. Then from there continue to follow it until you reach the area were the large mall looking building is located."
The guard promptly returned to his starting position.
"Thanks," I said as I began to walk towards the left.
The guard didn't respond and continued to do his job diligently. I soon came to a larger road that seemed to cut the campus down the middle.
'Alright... so now I just follow this main road until the entertainment centre I guess.'
I then began to walk down the sidewalk beside the road. There wasn't many cars on the road at the moment, if I had to guess it was because the school year hadn't started yet. Soon a large structure came into view in the distance, peeking through the other buildings around. A large sign that read 'Sophos Academy Entertainment District' sat at the entrance to an almost empty parking lot.
"I just keep getting surprised by the scale of this place," I muttered as I gazed at the massive structure.
The Entertainment District was quite frankly, massive. It was about four stories tall, and was around half the size of a small town from what I could see. The building had seven cylinder-type shapes that jutted up into the sky at different heights. They appeared to spiral around one large one in the middle, making what looked to be a circular staircase into the sky. These cylinder-like structures sat in the middle of a massive circle structure that was around two stories tall, and wrapped all the way around the massive spiral pillar in the center.
'This things gotta take up at least ten square kilometres on just the bottom floor...'
I made my way to the entrance and headed inside. I was greeted by the large pillars that jutted out the top of the mall in the center. I looked left and right, and found one of those mall navigation touch screens.
I tapped the screen and began to look at the layout of the Entertainment District.
'So, it seems like there's stores along the outside of the circle. Inside of those massive pillars in the center are different floors of recreational activities.'
I looked through the long list of activities the building sported.
'There's an amusement park, and a water park on the first floor. On the second there's an ice skating rink, and gyms. On the third there's... karaoke? And... restaurants...'
The list went on and on, making my brows inch slightly higher at each floor I read.
'This place is insane...'
I shook my head, and looked towards the area on the map that contained the stores. I then began to scan for a decent sounding clothing store. After locating one I began to make my way around the mall. Eventually, I made it to the store I picked out.
"Welcome, sir!" there was a lady behind the cash register that greeted me with a smile as I entered.
"Thanks," I gave a nod in their direction.
"Is there anything specific you're looking for?" she continued.
"Uh, yeah, I'm looking for a few more outfits," I replied, wearing a slight smile.
"What style are you looking for?"
"Hmm, I'd prefer dark clothes, and ones that are comfortable and easy to move around in."
"Right this way sir, I can help you select some items," she then began to walk further into the store.
I followed behind her, looking around the store as we went. She then helped me pick out some outfits I was satisfied with and we made our way to the front counter. A few other people had entered the store while I was picking my clothes.
'They look like first years too...'
I reached into my pocket to fish out my card. As I pulled my hand back out, my student card got caught on my hand and fell to the floor. The other students in the store turned their heads to see the commotion.
"Whoops, sorry about that," I said while reaching down to retrieve my card.
"No problem, sir," the lady replied in a courteous tone.
I heard the students begin to murmur among themselves quietly. I threw a casual backward glance towards them and they quickly turned away, as if they were talking about me...
'Well, whatever,' I shrugged and tapped the other card onto the machine to pay.
"Thank you for your patronage!" the lady flashed me one last smile before I headed out of the store.
I gave a wave as I left the store.
'Hm, maybe I should go get some food to eat,' I thought as I made my way towards the large pillar structure in the middle.
I casually walked towards one of the elevators that lead to the inner floors. I looked up, and admired the large cylinder.
'It's like there's another building... inside the building.'
My brows raised slightly, and I pressed the button to call the elevator.
'It seems like there's no way to get inside the centre without using one of the elevators along the outside.'
The door slid open with an accompanying ding. I glanced at a few students who were inside, seemingly talking about some thing while looking at a phone together.
"So, that's what the rank one f-" the students suddenly stopped talking when they noticed me walking into the elevator.
'Why are they acting so strange?'
They look like they've seen a ghost or some thing...
The one in the middle shook his head, seemingly knocking himself out of the seemingly random shock.
"Come on guys, we're holding up the elevator," the student stated.
I watched as he herded his friends out of the elevator and into the mall. I scratched my cheek and tilted my head a little.
'Well that was a bit strange...'
I continued on my mission of getting some grub, and pressed the third floor button on the elevator display. Soon I was walking into a nice looking Italian restaurant.
"Hello sir," I was greeted by a young man at the entrance.
"Hello, would you guys happen to have a table for one available?" I inquired.
The young man then seemed to realize... some thing. What that some thing was I had no idea, but his eyes widened a little. He then quickly went into a shallow bow.
"O-oh of course, sir, please follow me if you would," he swiftly grabbed a menu and led the way into the restaurant.
We passed through a door, and I realized I was in some sort of V.I.P private booth.
"Here you are sir, the server will be with you promptly," the young man gave a final shallow bow and took his leave.
'Uh... why is every one acting so strange,' I thought as I moved to sit down.
I then pulled out my new phone, that was given to me by Lewis. It had everything I needed for the academy installed on it. Including an academy social media app, for the students to connect or some thing like that. Curious, I opened it up.
'Huh, looks like the staff are on here too,' I noticed the lady from the clothing store as I scrolled past some names.
Then, to my shock, I saw a picture of... me? I was in the clothing store, picking up my student card that I had dropped.
The caption read: "Mysterious rank one first year, seen at the clothing store buying clothes!"
"What the hell..." I said aloud to myself, my brows furrowing slightly.
I scrolled some more, and found other similar posts that had been posted later.
"These guys pretty much tracked me all the way to the restaurant?!?" I exclaimed.
That must be why I got a V.I.P booth seemingly randomly. And why the students in the elevator looked so shocked.
'Thinking about it, they did say some thing about rank one.'
I let out a long sigh.
'Seriously, what is even mysterious about me going to a clothing store to buy clothes...'
I shook my head, and soon after the waiter entered the room.
"Hi there! What can I grab for you today?" the young lady asked with a smile.
After checking the app, I had forgotten I was out getting food for a second. I hadn't even looked at the menu yet.
"What would you recommend?" I asked, trying to keep a straight face.
"Hmmm, the jambalaya fettuccine is quite good in my opinion," the waitress replied without missing a beat.
"Sure, I'll have one of those," I nodded and handed her the menu.
"Anything to drink?" she smiled.
"Oh, right... I'll just have water for now," I responded.
"Great! I'll be back with that water, the food should be around twenty minutes," after taking few notes on her notepad she left the room.
I placed my head in my hands, thinking back to what I had seen on the app.
'I haven't even been here for twelve hours yet and there's already rumours about me spreading...'
I opened the app once more, to read some of the captions:
"Found the mysterious rank one first year wandering the mall!"
"Mysterious rank one first year about to enter the elevator...(*>ω<*)"
"Found the rank one first year, exiting on floor three!"
I once again let out a deep sigh.
'What about me was mysterious?!? I'm literally just walking around the entertainment district for crying out loud!' I internally screamed and pinched the bridge of my nose while furrowing my brows.
I decided to just shut off the app and ignore the whole situation. Not going to let some weird people on a random app ruin my day.
Soon after, the waitress entered the room once more with a glass of water.
"Here you are, is there anything else you need... sir?" she suddenly looked concerned.
"Is there some thing wrong?" I asked.
"Oh, you just looked a little stressed out," she replied.
"Don't know what you're talking about," I quickly stated, maybe a little too quickly.
"Uh... okay... I'll be back when the pasta is ready," she quickly reverted to a smile and exited the room.
'Did I really look stressed enough for her to be concerned about it?'
* * *
After I ate the pasta, I quickly began to head back to my apartment. It's been a long day, with the drive and exploring a little.
And 'that' incident...
I shook my head and picked up the pace a little. Looking up, the large dorm buildings were getting closer. Soon I turned and the same guard from before came into view. As I approached him he turned towards my direction.
"Welcome back sir... is there a reason you look so haggard?" he tilted his head inquisitively.
I gave a dead-pan stare back, and continued into the building without replying. The guard scratched his head, then shrugged and returned to his post.
I soon found myself entering my apartment. I flipped on the lights as it was now dark outside, and began to make my way to my room.
'I guess I should unpack as well,' I thought as I glanced at my duffle bag sitting beside my bed.
I grabbed it, and quickly put the clothes inside into the drawer along with the new clothing I bought. After doing this I realized I never explored the upstairs. I then exited my room and climbed the stairs. After reaching the top I was pleasantly surprised.
I was greeted by a large room that looked lightly reinforced. To the right along the wall was a rack, on the rack were an assortment of melee weapons.
'New Age Series weapons... so this is what they look like.'
I picked up the first one that caught my eye, a basic looking longsword. Running along the sword where what looked like grooves, they kind of reminded me of veins.
'What if I try using ichor on it?' I thought as I curiously observed the weapon.
I closed my eyes, and began to channel ichor towards my hand. Once the ichor reached my hand, it began to be sucked out and presumably into the weapon. I opened my eyes, and saw the grooves begin to light up in a faint golden colour.
'Interesting...'
I turned my head to the end of the room, and saw a pillar made of metal that sat near the back wall. Beside it attached to the wall was a screen of some kind. I walked over to the pillar and tilted my head slightly.
'What's this thingy?' I reached out and poked the pillar, which was about five inches thick.
After poking it, a small number was displayed on the screen beside it.
'Huh? Why does the screen say five after I poked it?'
I stood there in thought for a moment, then decided to try some thing out. I raised the sword, which was still faintly glowing, and swung it at the pillar. A loud clashing sound rang out, and a number appeared on the display once more.
The number read '562'.
'Huh, so it's some sort of force reader... thing?'
I decided to stop channeling my ichor into the sword, and hit the pillar again.
A new number popped up, '434'.
'So, without ichor the sword is... less sharp? Has less force somehow? I don't really know how the number is measured, or how the sword works, so I can't really make any guesses.'
I shrugged, and began to walk back towards the weapon rack. After placing the sword back, I made my way downstairs and back to my room.
'Well, I'm beat... normally I would train but I'm exhausted today.'
I rubbed my eyes and quickly changed into some sleepwear. Then climbed into the large bed for the first time. It was incredibly soft, like a cloud.
After my head hit the pillow, my eyes quickly became heavy. I then drifted off to a deep sleep.
-Chapter Seven End-