The City of Acnei

The beast exploded ahead and, in a flash, was a step away from Alonso. Shooting forward one of its pincers, Alonso managed to evade then revealed his energy shield to block the second attack that came his way.

The second pincer strike forced him back across the sandy ground. The strike reminded him of the dune wereshark from its force, but it was slim in terms of its physique.

'Must be like an insect. High strength-to-weight ratio. If it can only hit that hard, though, this shouldn't be too hard.' Alonso thought, watching it rush forward.

The scorpion thrusted forward its pincer again, but Alonso slipped under the attack and used his heated dagger to slice through its torso. Lime green blood was revealed, and Alonso whipped his dagger into a reverse grip only to get hit by a strike from its sting.

It struck him in his chest, almost cracking his sternum. Waves of sand lifted off the ground as he slid back but he remained on his feet and sharply exhaled to take his mind off the pain.

The beast not only possessed power but due to it being quite light, it was speedy on its feet.

He was forced to use all his mech's speed to evade its attacks, and he could only do so just barely. The beast shot forward its long sting, but Alonso blocked by activating his glowing orange shield.

The force behind its sting was far greater than from its pincers. It made sense, since its tail looked to be larger than even its legs.

His deep wound from his heat slash was clearly bothering the beast but he struggled to find an opening since it was so explosive and powerful. He had to waste more time and effort blocking incoming attacks instead of throwing out attacks of his own.

The scorpion soared toward him once again, but he didn't fall to fear or reflex. He pointed his heat slash ahead and got hit with a strike right to the head.

"Mech Damage: Minor."

However, while it was in close proximity, he unleashed a wave of hot slashes on its torso before thrusting his dagger deep into its chest. He had taken various strikes while doing so but in the process, the beast had been defeated.

Harvesting its crystal, he was glad to find that its crystal went for more than 100 credits on the market. Following this, he moved on to new targets and harvested more and more crystals.

The desert was covered by the midnight black sky and Alonso stood atop a dune, covered in the blood of beasts. His hands were covered in the dark green mixture of blood, and he had system panels surrounding him.

His balance was now above 10,000 credits, and he wanted to get rid of that accumulated wealth as soon as possible.

His balance was logged in his bank account's files somewhere, but he wanted to make his actions as covert as possible. A recently mech-less student acquiring wealth of this magnitude was unheard of and alarming.

Searching through the MechMod Market, a certain module caught his attention.

[Turbo Booster System]

He looked upon the item's description with a smile, enticed by it.

[This module has engine thrusters appear on the body to accelerate the user forward to much higher speeds than usual. The power usage and heat emission of this module is quite high and should only be used in short bursts.]

It costs 7,400 credits and with nearly 3,000 credits left over, he bought the module right away.

As he did so, the item appeared in his palms seconds later. It manifested from nothing and immediately began to integrate into his mech.

It was black, just like his mech, but the thrusters that would be used resembled vehicle exhausts and were silver.

Attempting to activate the boosters, they grew across his two shoulder blades, and at his hips.

There was a central thruster located on his spine, and as he imagined its activation, they started to glow.

BRRR!!

Hot, blue flames along with blue energy were emitted from the thrusters and as he dashed forward, sand flew outward as he raced ahead.

He left a blue trail of energy as he rushed forward and laughed in his trajectory. It felt exhilarating to be moving as fast as he was, but he stopped to not exhaust his energy reserves.

Steam emitted off the thrusters, that were too hot to immediately fuse back into his mech. They even had faint red glows due to their temperatures.

"This basically makes me a speed type for a few seconds! Amazing!" Alonso whispered to himself.

However, it made him question how he could use this in battle. As he rushed forward, he felt little ability to change his direction in 3 dimensions. He could only thrust himself forward -which was still a perk- but would give this module a major drawback.

'To mitigate the issue of this module, the user can also utilise a servo module. Servos will grant greater control over angular momentum to allow the user to move more easily, even with the turbo booster system.'

The system helpfully butted in and gave him some valuable advice, but the only issue was that he had no clue what servos were.

'Servos are modules used for mechs to grant them greater control over 3-dimensional movement. They can be helpful when using modules that enhance speed in one direction, and also for fighting within terrain like jungles that require 3-dimensional movement.' The system explained.

Much to his delight, he entered the market to see that servos weren't very high value. From his deductions, they would be bought alongside other modules and weren't of very much use on their own. It was great to have greater control over 3-dimensional movement but mechs already had phenomenal movement in all directions.

It was only really when the user would have this 3-dimensional movement hampered in some way.

[Basic Servos]

This module costed only 1,750 credits and so, he bought just that. With that second module, he attached it to his mech and was given another ability.

He didn't immediately feel the effects, but he decided to activate his turbo boosters again to notice any changes.

Much to his surprise, he blasted forward then took a step to the side to easily do just that. His movements felt graceful and elegant at this speed, and he couldn't stop smiling as he raced around with this module.

"WOOOHOOO!!" He shouted out as he zoomed around.

He shot up waves of sand in his movements and constantly charged right through lifted clouds of dust in his dash.

"Power: 26%"

He could feel that his fat stores had been used a decent amount, so he decided to return to the military station and sneakily integrate himself into the crowd surrounding the elevators.

He still had his mech activated, since it was now -25 degrees Celsius. If he revealed his body under this cold, he would turn into a humanoid iceberg.

He arrived at the 30th floor, then the room he was allocated to, and crashed into his cosy white bed before he even had the chance to get a meal. It was already the early hours of the morning, and in mere minutes, he was fast asleep.

The following day, the students were given a break from the hunting mission and any crystals that they attained would have to be counted the following day.

However, they were woken up to an amazing breakfast buffet in the canteen. Many students devoured their meals with much more appetite than usual. Their mechs had eaten into their fat stores and they needed to puff themselves up back again to give their mechs a reserve power source.

Golden eggs, thick sausages, puffy loaves of bread with crisp, crunchy exteriors. The food at display here was a dream to Alonso. He'd never gone to a buffet, due to how expensive they were. He'd never left Sago before entering his first pocket realm as he hailed from a below average working-class family.

They only managed to get by due to the salary that his father got from being a mech combatant. However, after his entire career, he was still stuck at the private rank.

So, Alonso took advantage of the food he had been offered and really filled himself up to the very maximum.

Many people took this day as a time to recuperate, repower their mechs and buy any equipment that they felt they needed.

Alonso and his friends decided to venture into the neighbouring city of Acnei. They were surprised by how large it was, and it seemed endless when they were within its walls.

Many buildings were one or two floors and made of sandstone, but others towered into the sky. There was a mix of desert-like structures and modern structures that towered above the others. The place was given a golden gleam under the blistering sun, and looked enchanting.

It seemed to be drawing them in closer to see what Kernei's society was all about.