The admitted students were divided by divisions, the combat, Engineering, Scholar and Stealth Divisions, each identifiable by the different color uniform they wore.
The scholars wore white, Engineers wore a darker blue and the stealth division wore midnight purple and finally, the combat division wore black, the same Nox and Devon currently had on.
The two walked through the corridor and towards their next class, the combat classes.
That was where they’d be trained to actually handle Eclipsed and use their Solar tech as actual weapons.
"Man, I’m so hyped right now," Devon said as they continued walking toward the combat room, practically bouncing with each step.
Nox, meanwhile, walked with his hands in his pockets and expression neutral....who was he kidding, even he was excited.
His dream of becoming a Solar Knight was coming through, and properly using a solar tech was one of the biggest steps.
Yes, the SE within any solar tech guided him on its use, but he still needed actual training, so of course he was also hyped.
But he wouldn’t let it show.... at least not too much.
""So," Devon turned to him with a grin that practically reached his ears, "what kinda Solar Tech you lookin’ forward to the most? Like—favorite weapon. Everybody’s got one."
Nox blinked.
That... was a good question.
They continued down the corridor, passing other combat division students in identical black uniforms, some chatting about gauntlets, others boasting about swords they hadn’t even touched yet.
Devon nudged him. "C’mon, don’t tell me you ain’t thought about it. You seriously gonna walk into combat class without even imaginin’ yourself swingin’ somethin’ cool?"
Nox hesitated, then sighed.
"...Maybe."
Devon groaned dramatically. "Bro. You gotta have something. Gauntlet? Sword? Rifle? Staff?Or maybe daggers?"
"No," Nox quickly said, "definitely not daggers."
The best a pair of daggers had done for him was almost getting him killed, yes it had all worked out in the end, but all that wouldn’t have happened if the damn things hadn’t got stuck in the first place.
Thinking about it made him involuntarily shiver.
"You good?" Devon asked, looking at his reaction.
"Yeah, " he nodded, "just a bad memory."
Devon looked at him for a second longer before sighing, "aight then, no daggers."
"A sword," Nox finally answered, "maybe even a staff, but definitely not daggers."
A sword, because it looked cool and a staff because it ensured the maximum possible distance between him and the Eclipsed.
Devon nodded slowly, then burst out laughing.
"A staff?" he snorted, "sounds boring, I prefer getting up close and smashing their Eclipsed faces in, with my meteor fist."
Nox stared at him for a while before asking, "...Meteor Fist?"
"Yeah!" Devon said, throwing a mock punch forward. "I’m gon’ be droppin’ star-powered haymakers on anything that even breathes wrong near me."
"I see," Nox nodded in understanding as the continued forward.
"But a sword is cool tho," Devon said after a while of walking, "but it just ain’t my type of weapon."
"Right," Nox nodded and the two continued forward until they came upon a large door in front of which other first year combat students stood.
"Aight," Devon said, "we’re here."
The combat training hall doors were open, and senior students in full combat gear walked out, some sweaty, some limping but they all had one thing in common, they looked completely beaten up.
"Oh it’s the first years," one of them commented as he looked at the group of first years about to walk into the combat room, "good luck."
Before the group could say anything, the seniors walked away, definitely heading to the medbay or directly back to their hostel for a long nap thanks to the monster in there.
The first years just shrugged and walked into the combat room.
Inside, the room was massive, far larger than the lecture halls, with reinforced walls, training platforms, drones, and multiple weapons racks hidden behind transparent wall of glass.
Behind the glass were Solar tech and Nox’s eyes immediately turned to stars as he looked at the endless amount of Solar Techs in the combat room.
"Is this heaven?" He muttered walking in a trance like state towards the glass cases.
Back in the slums, there was no way he would see Solar tech of this quality. All he had were from the scrap yards.
He was sure that selling a single Solar tech from beyond this glass could feed every single person in his old neighborhood for a month.
He pressed his hand against the glass like a starving man staring at a buffet.
The Solar tech went from gauntlets to swords to even rings that looked similar to the ones Astra used.
It was like some type of gold mine, unfortunately, he couldn’t hoard them, so he could just stare.
"Quite the opposite," a familiar voice snapped him out of his solar tech hoarding mode, causing him to turn around.
Most other candidates, especially those that were in the same room as him during the Craft test, were surprised at his actions.
It had already been established that he was crazy so this wasn’t out of the norm for an insane person.
Though some still looked at him with disgust, especially Flint, the red haired noble boy.
He still wondered why people like Nox made it into the academy, after all, there was nothing that seemed special about him.
Even his combat scores were unknown, so how had he made it into this division? He’d have to deal with it, but not now.
Nox’s eyes immediately widened as he faced the person that had replied to his question.
Standing on a platform that could comfortably fit two people were two familiar faces.
One was the bear like man, that had over seen the combat test, Radiant Garron Boar.
The man looked as intimidating as ever, but on his face, which always seemed like he held a frown, was an even darker frown.
The reason for the frown was standing right next to him with a smile on her face.
"Welcome to hell, my dear lab rat."