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Its a shame, but yeah. A quick clean break's.better than draggong it out. Peace dude.


This…well, it wasn’t treasure or a dungeon, but she knew at least one person that was interested in this. How many other Arena-goers had known about this? Probably not too much. The value of information was greatly increased by how fresh that information was. By tomorrow, more specialized guilds would have looked into this anomaly, and if there was hidden information here, they’d be able to capitalize on it first.

And Cecilia certainly couldn’t have that happen at all, hm?

Kneeling down, she examined the chamber carefully, noting how the dust had managed to accumulate so thickly, how the floor itself was completely dry despite the heavy storm that had just passed and the contents of the room itself. It was like a study, perhaps, or the site of a magical ritual, except it had somehow…been wholly emptied of any papers or reagents, leaving only curious rings of metal and stone behind. Was there an attack here? Or had someone, in the past, ransacked this place, taking everything except the furniture? Her map was checked next; the area remained blackened, blotted out, even after she had entered it.

So maybe she didn’t truly enter the area.

The arch at the entrance probably had something to do with it. Maybe a password that had to be spoken before entering, with the answer conveniently being those indecipherable texts inscribed in the stone. Or maybe the developers had been too busy designing the death-game portion of Talrae that they simply forgot to develop this area. Fucking chumps. Cecilia rolled her eyes, before snuffing out her torch.

The night sky was pleasant when her eyes adjusted to it, alien galaxies streaming overhead. It was quiet here, more so that the forests of Genesis at night. That was magic too, wasn’t it? She’ll go bug Willow about it in the morning. For now though…

This is Tonitrus, reporting in.

I’ve uncovered a curious black box within the third floor of the Arena. Enclosed within this message are screenshots of the area I’m currently in, as well as the Talraean script that was inscribed above the entrance of this room. To add in extra details: the dust within has accumulated for years, and the opening you see above does not appear to actually be an opening, as neither rain nor wind has entered this room. Sound here is muffled, and my map does not update this area despite myself being inside.

I advise tomorrow that we split up to investigate before leaving town. I presume no one has engaged with Valrene Vestrine yet about the Poison Gland request?

Regards,

Tonitrus

There was a ping as she sent the message, before Cecilia exited the curious room, heading back to the inn. Her more inquisitive side wondered what would happen if she had camped in that silent chamber for the night, but on the other hand, River already paid for the room, and she’d be remiss to refuse his generosity.

Well, she felt as if they were even though. After all, she was the one that located his subclass trainer for him.
KiwiTime, Nomadic, KiwiTime. Literally on the same page too, oof.
Gotcha. Drink lotsa water dude.
Ey, how's the progress looking now?


The entrance exam was difficult. That was the conclusion Rokkaku came to as he rode the bus to UA for the first day of lessons.
The objective was to save a hostage from a host of robots while minimizing collateral damage and also ensuring the safety of the citizens scattered around the area. Though it wasn’t anything wholly out of hand, the problem laid in the time limit. Thirty minutes was hardly any time at all, especially when students hadn’t been provided any information at all about the layout of the area and the location of the hostage. Rokkaku felt sorry for those who were less physically able; this exam required endurance and speed, as well as cool judgment and precision. The world of heroic education was cutthroat, wasn’t it?

Thankfully, he had it easier than most.

First, establish a safe zone. The robots were plentiful, but like all machines, were simple. As it was their programming, rather than their nature, that made them oppose him, Rokkaku didn’t lay a hand on them, instead simply leading them on, sometimes outrunning them, other times distracting them. Quick observations had marked them as machines that were programmed to roam the area they were assigned to. By having them give chase, he was able to create pockets of space within the urban center that were devoid of nearby robots.

Second, use the safe zone. In an area with plenty of vertical obstacles, Rokkaku’s ability to jump was easy to leverage, bypassing stairwells to reach citizens in apartment suites. Perhaps it was a bit rough, but his mobility allowed him to quickly shuttle them into the empty pockets of space where robots no longer roamed. To evacuate them all would require superhuman strength, and as dummies, there was no way for him to actually lead them without having to physically carry them, so the simplest method had been to keep them all in a place where he’d know they’re safe. Thus the safe zone. Completion of this task took most of his time, but being able to view things from a bird’s eye view made it easy to avoid the robots’ detection.

Third, rescue the hostage. The density of the robot guards around the hostage, while intimidating, wasn’t a large problem in retrospect. What was a greater problem was the grenade launchers that some of them wielded; robots didn’t care about friendly fire and any injury upon the hostage was a failure. Speed then, was the priority. It was unfortunate, in some aspects, that the area, despite being full of buildings, had no utilities or ornamentation inside those buildings. An improvised smoke bomb would be useful, or even just a large blanket. Maybe there was a better way to do it. A way that didn’t involve combat, that could settle things with zero damage done to the robots.

But time was running out. Thirty minutes was hardly enough time to get anything done. And as the pressure mounted, the impulse kicked in.

He got up onto an adjacent building, dropped down, and landed onto the robot closest to the hostage. It wasn't Meteoric; the machine remained unfazed as it reached out towards Rokkaku. But grabbing onto the hostage took a split-second, and the youth’s legs, powerful as they were, escaped the clutches and the rain of bullets an instant later, shooting upwards into freedom.

It was a success. It was clean. But any normal hostage would have suffered whiplash from the sudden movement.

So it was still a failure.

There had been, after all, the option of waiting for backup in order to extract the hostage without harming them at all. In retrospect, if the time limit had not made him anxious to act, Rokkaku would have decided on that course of events instead. He lacked discipline still, his self-control insufficient. A hero who escalated a conflict was a liability. A hero who harmed those they sought to rescue was worse.

He gazed darkly at his palm, callused and marked with plentiful cuts, before marching grimly towards the avant-garde buildings of UA.

There had been a better way, and it was loathsome, that he was unable to see it.
Keeping an eye on this for now.
I don't like the idea of a quirk-remover myself, especially if the PCs would then inexplicably be shielded from such removal due to plot armor and shit. If they have no more conviction than trying to make humanity as a whole quirkless again, I feel like it'd make most sense to go after the younger generation rather than established badasses, especially if the targets have to be subdued for a long time.

Which is sorta horrible and gross too.
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