The train slowly came to a stop and Noah watched everyone get up from their seats. After everyone had left the train Noah stood up and walked to the door. He left the train and looked around to find the exit sign. Following the exit signs Noah walked out of the station into the bustling city of the NSQ. As far as Noah could tell this place was way livelier than his home city in antarctica. The streets were packed with people.
As Noah was Walking through the street he thought of something that he should have done before leaving Antarctica "maybe I should buy a memory or two from a shop nearby".
He didn't really need a good one since he would turn it into a piece for his aspect ability; he could probably afford one or two if he tapped into his life savings. He reasoned that his life savings would just go back to the government if he died so might as well spend it now to prevent his own death.
Noah looked for the right store, finally finding one. It had a sign above the moderately sized shop that read " Kim & Larries memories shop" Noah thought that it had a quaint name so he entered. As he entered he heard the bell on the Door ring, he was instantly greeted by a lady that spoke in a happy tone " welcome to our humble little shop, I'm Kim what can I get you sir"
Naoh looked at her and respondent" could I get something for my fist it's the only thing I know how to do" Noah paused thinking about his weapons then spoke again" and do you have any recommendation of what weapon to pick up I need something with more reach than a dagger."
The lady smiled, "Sure, let's get you your fist weapons first, then we can talk about other things."
Noah agreed and followed her to the back of the shop which had many memories summoned on the walls. From swords to spears they had it all. Remembering the size of the shop outside Noah found it very impressive that they had such a large assortment of items here. As they arrived at the end of the wall Noah saw a wide variety of gauntlet and wraps
The lady looked at him " so will you be going with gauntlets or fist wraps"
Noah looked at the wall like a kid in a candy store asked " which one do you think is better?"
The layd responded " gauntlets are heavy and bulky so they are slower and pack a bigger punch while wraps are light and thin so they don't really affect your punches but for wraps they mainly affect your speed due to enchantment."
Noah knew that speed was his thing. He also thought that he didn't need the striking power of gauntlets due to his already strong striking power thanks to his two attributes of [ umbral blood ] and [ counter ] so he naturally chose wraps.
The lady went along with Noah's assessment and presented him with 3 different fist wrappings. She pointed at each one of them and explained them in delta. Noah ended up just buying the one that enhanced his speed. They were made of a raggedy dirty white cloth that had seemed to have been in many battles. They were called the [ war torn wrapping] they were nothing special, just decreased air resistance for my fists, enhancing their speed and had a small shock absorption effect so it would not hurt as much when landing a hit on the bone.
Then the lady reminded Noah about this second request" so what type of weapon do you want"
Noah shrugged" don't know something longer than a dagger so I could attack out of my regular brawling range"
She responded with a questioning look" so like a spear?"
Noah respondent with a shrug of his shoulders " yeah a spear could work"
She instantly took him over to the spear section of the memory wall and asked " any preferences?"
"Yeah Uhh which is the cheapest"
She looked at him with a * ya serious * look on her face, then see that he was, pointed to a black spear which looked to be in the beginning stages of rusting .
The spear was about 8 feet long and made of a rustic black metal, but this spear head was elongated to reach half way down the spear. On the spearhead was cursed rotted wood which aged to the same color as the metal spear. The cursed wood had hardened to the same strength as the spear's head , and was arranged in a double helix descending down the ¾ of the spear passing the crossguard. The crossguard was located at the midway point of the weapon and the grip span the the rest of the spear. It looked unique and as the store clerk stated, it was cheap.
Noah decided to buy the weapon on the merit that he could use it as a long range weapon or just throw it like a javelin at enemies. Noah went to the front with his weapons of choice in hand and bought them. The man at the register stook out his hand after Noah was done buying it. Noah shook his hand and felt sparks fly between his and the man hand then the spell spoke
[ you have received a memory]
[ you have received a memory ]
As he walked out of the store he got a good look at the runes of the weapons that he just purchased. He already knew what the fist did but was excited to see what his new spear could do.
Memory : Arstor's Spear
Rank : dormant
Tier: III
Type : weapon
Memory description
( A unique weapon built to pierce the defences of any armor. This weapon was lost in a fight with a vial monster, which rusted and corrupted it over the ages. The weapon still has a strong piercing blow but also carries a, vial sting)
Memory enchantment : (Vial sting) ( pierce )
Enchantment description : (vial sting )
( The weapon has festered in curses and poisons. Gives enemies pierced, poison)
Enchantment description : ( pierce)
( this weapon has extraordinary piercing capability)
It's a simple weapon overall but since the weapon is of a low rank the poison should not be that potent and the piercing ability won't be either but it was something. He then sacrificed both weapons to his aspect ability. He looked at the slots in his aspect ability and felt proud that he was able to fill three slots of weapons and the one slot of armor. After this short 1 hour detour Noah embarks on his quest to find the awakened academy.
He walked throughout the city looking for a map somewhere. He had just spent most of his money so he did not have much spending money left. He tried to look for a public map of some sort, but was unable to find one in this labyrinth of a city. Noah after many hours of searching relented and asked a random person that was walking past him.
The random person gave him a few street names, then showed him her phone and traced out the route to the academy. Noah repeated the street names to himself a few times trying to remember it. Once he had a good recollection of the route he thanked the kind lady and went on his way.
After a few minutes of walking he had arrived at the academy. Its front gates were red, standing tall and proud like a monument to humanities achievements. As Noah was admiring the grandeur of the gate a russell came from the doors and it slowly opened. The doors locked with a click and Noah took that as his que, and walked through the gate.
As he entered the building he was met by a person in uniform. Noah assumed that the person was a staff member of the academy. So naturally Noah followed the staff member towards a chamber filled with people. As the doors opened to the chamber he Immediately felt out of place in the room. He had a hoodie and some sweatpants on, while everyone else was wearing nice designer clothes that aligned with the current trends of the "younger" generation. Also Noah could not help but notice that he was the only adult of the student. Which was natural since basically everyone had attracted the nightmare spell around the ages of 16-18. He was a whole 6 years older then most of the people here.
The only though Noah had before he took his first steps into the chamber was a sarcastic
" Great "
Immediately upon entering the chamber he took a sharp right, straight to one of the tables .He sat down and immediately crossed his arm on the table and buried his head in them trying to give off the impression that he did not want to talk to anybody. This tactic kind of worked but after a while a group of 3 kids walked up to him and tried to start up a conversion. They poked his arm and greeted him, Noah knowing that his peace was limited, answered with a greeting of his own. The kid then asked about his nightmare. Noah proceeds to give a short summarized version of his nightmare leaving out the killing of a cursed being and the umbral lamp.
To this the kids asked " then what's your aspect rank"
Noah wanted to get a feel on what their ranks were so he shot back. " I've answered your question, why don't you answer mine. What are your ranks ?"
The kids without even thinking just told them their aspect rank which were pretty impressive: an ascendant rank and two awakens. Noah, not wanting to stand out, answered their previous question" Oh my Rank is awakened, I think it pretty good" the kids responded with the desired outcome of not being impressed but also not being disappointed.
They then left Noah to go find the next person to interact with. Throughout the day people were being ushered into the chamber. Noah ended up talking with a few people but for the most part he just took short naps throughout the day. Eventually the lights slightly dimmed and a person walked up onto the stage located in the front half of the room. The person had introduced himself as awakened rock. Then he started his speech about the dream realm.
Noah brought his head up and listened intently to what awakened rock had to say. Awaken rock made it apparent that the winter solstice was not like a nightmare. Nightmare as Noah knew, had a storyline. His was the destruction of a cult. Instead, the winter solstice is more of an escape situation. Your job in the winter solstice is to make it to the nearest human controlled gate and escape the dream realm.
He also made it clear that the winter solstice could inherently be unfair. The unfairness comes from the fact that you could encounter nightmare creatures that are frankly unkillable to sleeper. Noah could only slightly laugh at this because his nightmare only ended after killing a cursed demon and the last time he checked sleepers could not kill cursed nightmare creatures.
And finally he made the point that every cadet could choose their own curriculum. So every person can have a training tailor suited for them, which in Noah's opinion was a great thing. As the speech came to a close Noah and everyone else were rounded up and guided to their rooms.
Noah entered his room not happy that he had to stay in a small room again. It also eerily looked similar to the one in his nightmare. Noah sat on his bed and looked around his room. He then decided to summon his weapons. In 10 seconds his dagger was willed into existence, Then another 10 second his fist wrapping, then in another 10 second his spear, finally after another 10 second his armor.
"Crap" was all Noah could think. There was a drawback to his aspect ability.
The weapons linked to his aspect ability took a good while to summon. He also could not summon them all at once which meant he had to choose which equipment piece he wanted first. He then did a few tests and found that luckily he did not have to buy a sheath for each weapon, they just kind of just attached to his back by an invisible force. He also found out that his weapons resummon almost instantly. So if his weapons are already summoned then he could almost instantly resummon them back onto his back or into his hands. This also means that he doesn't have to grab the weapon from his back; they sort of just disappear off his back and reappear in his hands. Also the weight of the weapon is lessened when on his back and when they touch his hands they return to their normal weight.
There were things he could not test, like how far he could recall his weapons from or what happens when they break but those are things he could check another day. Noah then summoned his weapons which just like they had when he summoned them took ten seconds each to disappear.
"this could be annoying"
Noah then laid down on his bed staring up at the ceiling for a bit, reminded of his first night in his nightmare. He then closed his eyes and covered himself with a blanket and drifted off into blissful sleep.
A/N: if you are having a hard time picturing the weapons and armor just search up the names I am giving them they will show up.