Milo nearly gasped as he witnessed who was in first place. Eva, the same one that had sat next to him, had gone through a more harrowing nightmare then his... just what in the world was she? The fact that she managed to beat a Supreme Aspect wielder alone meant that her Aspect was Sacred, maybe even Divine.
Milo could not get his mind off of it. Was there a possibility she somehow knew of his Supreme aspect? Is that why she had chosen to sit next to him? His hand was unknowingly tirelessly scribbling into the synthetic paper he had been given to write down what he had learned in the class of the Biology of Nightmare Creatures.
Even as he walked to his classes for Runic Study, he was still stumped about the course of events that had transpired. Milo was a rare case, there was no doubt about that, however for someone to be above him? That was just downright scary.
His mind finally let it go when he reached combat class, right now was not the time to be overthinking. He had three months to learn as much as he could. So he was dedicated to doing just that.
Milo had also traded two of the seven soul shards he was given to order something. He was excited for it to arrive soon, his mornings were filled with anticipation as more and more Sleepers arrived before the Winter Solstice.
That wasn't the only thing that had changed, for better or worse, Eva seemed to slowly but surely make an acquaintance out of him. One week after she had sat down at his table, she asked him
"How was your day, Milo?"
"Uh... good, and yours?"
"It was good as well"
"That's nice"
That was where the conversation would end, she did not add anything more. Didn't attempt to make more conversation beyond that. This cycle repeated until Milo could swear he was slowly going insane.
It had been a month since he arrived, he was learning a lot, Wilderness Survival and Combat Instruction was going surprisingly well. Beyond the normal instruction Milo was receiving, he had also squeezed in some free time in order to master the form his prosthesis had taken in his First Nightmare. That being the bladed whip, and if Milo was being honest with himself. It was impractical, yet he couldn't help himself with indulging in childish fantasies. It had it's uses, every weapon did, the bladed whips did not exactly look like a fun weapon to go up against. Even though the prosthetic arm Milo currently had was made of plastic, it still left some nasty looking cuts upon the training dummy he had used.
Eva had also started more small talk. It lasted more than five sentences this time.
"Milo, what are you learning in your classes?"
Milo looked up, still chewing on the tasty chicken the cooks had made in the kitchen.
"A lot of things, I think my favorite is the biology of the Nightmare Creatures. It's actually really interesting, and you also get to learn their weaknesses. What about you Eva?"
"I'm taking archeology classes, it has to do with my Aspect. It's strange though, as much as I expected my Aspect to be related to combat, it is surprisingly not"
"Me too, especially after my First Nightmare"
Milo still slightly winced as he remembered the enraged haze he had entered, wanting to kill any living being close to him. It was something he had no intent of reenacting again.
"I suppose so"
That was where their conversation ended. After that, it was back to simple mundane questions. Milo wouldn't exactly call his First Nightmare a terrible thing, at least compared to what he heard from the other Sleepers there. However, he had been given more than a fair fighting chance, the hardest thing about it was stopping himself from killing every other being in there.
---
Another month had passed, Milo was starting to get sick of the amount of introduction ceremonies that were being held. There was also a peculiar pale skinned boy going around making a fool out of himself. Milo guessed it had something to do with his flaw, because no sane person would be willing to say the things he did. He seemed to be from the outskirts. There was also another arrival, a slender girl with silver hair... she was like an inverted Eva if Milo could compare her to anything.
"Hey, don't you think that girl looks similar to you, but with inverted colors?"
Eva looked up from where she was staring at the ground, glancing over at the direction of where Milo was pointing at.
"I kind of see it. Speaking of familiar, you and that foul mouthed pervert share a lot in common, you might even be friends" Eva said with a teasing grin
"Not in a million years, I don't see myself being in any way, shape, or form being friends with that guy"
Right... he and Eva had grown a lot closer, as it turned out, it just took the girl a bit to warm up to people. He had learned multiple things about her, the most interesting of all was her Aspect, was Divine. Even though Milo had his suspicions, it was still as much of a shock. No wonder she had beat him out of second place. Eva herself however, did not know much about her Aspect. Apparently half of the runes depicting it were censored, referring to a lot of -unknown- beings or concepts. The best she understood was it had to do with the creation of artificial life
"Think about it, you're both short, both are kind of cute, and both-"
Milo felt a slight heat raise in his cheeks
"Did you just call me cute?"
Eva froze, her crimson eyes slightly widened
"Yeah... b-but in the insulting kind of way. Like a harmless puppy"
"Right, of course. Now be quiet, the introduction ceremony is about to begin"
The introduction ceremony was like the many others that had happened before, and Milo once again tuned it out. Him and Eva were whispering amongst themselves.
"So, when is that new prosthetic coming in? You've been psyched about it all week"
"If all goes well, it should be here by the evening"
"I can't wait to see it"
"Me neither, the damn thing costed me two soul shards"
Milo had managed to turn in two of his soul shards to receive a much better prosthetic, while his current one was perfect a mundane life, Milo needed a suitable weapon in the Dream Realm, and a plastic sword wasn't exactly that good of a weapon. No matter how sharp Milo willed it to be
After the introduction ceremony was over, Milo got a message on his communicator. It had finally arrived. He wasted no time making his way to the central office.
---
It was dark out, two people sneakily made their way into the dojo where combat classes took place. One was a caramel skinned boy with an eager grin on his face, a rather large case tucked under his arm. Following behind him was a snow white girl, her crimson eyes scanning their surroundings with intent.
Milo lowered the case to the ground, the metal thudding softly against the dojo floor, and flicked the latches open. Nestled inside was an obsidian-black metal prosthesis, its surface drinking in the light rather than reflecting it. Thin, exposed wires traced along the arm like veins beneath skin, pulsing faintly as a low mechanical hum breathed from within. The outer shell was layered with overlapping metal plates, each one fitted with meticulous precision, and the fingers tapered into slightly sharpened tips that looked more like talons than anything else.
Eva let out a low, long whistle as she looked at the prosthesis. Milo couldn't help but snicker himself with childish joy
"This is so badass... why couldn't I have lost my arm earlier?"
Eva suddenly took on a look of concern, which Milo ignored as he snapped off his plastic prosthesis with a pop. Then he grabbed the metal prosthesis, and brought it to the socket on his shoulder. The prosthesis snapped on, metallic clicks and whirrs echoed throughout the dojo as the arm adjusted itself to Milo's will. The last thing Milo was expecting was for the Spell to suddenly speak
[One of your Attributes is ready to evolve]
Milo slightly jumped, he did not expect to hear the Spell since it had announced his consumption of the remainder of the soul shards he had received for revealing his flaw. He hurriedly pulled up his runes, and checked through his attributes
[Prosthesis] Attribute Description: "You wield a fluid prosthesis that changes according to your will"
[Prosthesis] is ready to evolve. Proceed?
Milo hesitated for a second, than thought
'Yes'
The runes describing the Prosthesis attribute changed, and now they read
[Prosthesis of Valor] Attribute Description "You wield a fluid prosthesis made by a blacksmith of Valor, it's durability and power is greatly increased"
Milo nearly tripped face first if Eva didn't catch him.
"What's wrong, why did you fall?"
"It says that the prosthetic was made by Valor, like clan Valor"
"What? Why?"
"I don't know, I thought it was made by some tech company"
Milo had no idea that the soul shards he had turned back into the government would have resulted in him receiving a prosthetic made by the great clan of Valor. Logically, it made sense, after all Milo was a sought after prodigy, so long as he survived in the Dream Realm of course. There was no reason to try and win his favor before hand. Let alone the mighty Valor.
Now there was only one thing left to do.
"Lets try it"
Walking over to the measuring machine, Milo recalled that he had only received a meager 12. Even after changing his prosthesis into a hammer, it was still just a plastic hammer. He was determined to prove the strength of his Supreme Aspect.
Bracing himself into a stance, Milo willed his prosthetic to deliver a punch as powerful as possible. The machinery within it whirred with effort, a small thruster at his elbow suddenly opened. Charging his punch, it shot forward with a tiny boom. The machine shook at the force of the impact.
The number that displayed was truly astonishing. It was twenty four
"Now we're talking"
Unfortunately, it seemed that the prosthetic had used much of it's power in delivering that blow. Steam and heat rose from the small gaps of metal in the prosthetic, the metal itself had an orange glow to it.
Eva gave a few sarcastic claps, which was fair. Due to her innate ability, her body had been made to be as tough and strong as stone. Which resulted in her achieving a twenty four as well, even if it resulted in her hand being mildly bruised for a weak.
"Good job, you have officially upgraded from a rubber hammer to a metal fist. Revolutionary even"
"Revolutionary indeed"
---
The next day, there was yet another commotion at the screen that displayed the Sleepers rankings. Milo walked over curious as to what had caused it this time. He noticed that the foul mouthed outskirt kid was placed just above the blind girl, which left a sour taste in Milo's mouth.
There was someone new behind Milo in ranking. His name was Caster, of course Eva was in front of Milo by one place, but she was no longer first. In first place stood the tall slender girl he had compared Eva to.
Name: Nephis
True Name: Changing Star