Kain managed to reach 1000 SP mere hours before arriving at Dark Moon City.
However, he did not push on to try and condense his second star with having to deboard so soon.
If he started on the train and then was disturbed by the staff before he could finish, it may result in a failed attempt.
Thankfully, a failed attempt at his level wouldn’t be too dangerous, but it would still not be something he could recover from before the entrance test.
There were still 2 full days before the test he could wait until he was settled into a hotel before attempting to advance to 2-stars.
Some more good news was that Bea had also finished her advancement in his star space this morning.
With them both advancing, his odds of passing were looking much higher.
“Good afternoon passengers. We have arrived at the wonderful Dark Moon City…” The familiar deboarding message began to play.
After ensuring he left nothing behind he stepped into the hallway to find Bridge waiting for him.
“Hey! I was scared to knock in case you were in the middle of advancing as well”
“No…I’ll wait until we check into the hotel to do that. I’m assuming by the wide grin on your face that you successfully condensed your second star”
“Yeah… but that’s not the reason I’m so happy. The egg you gave me hatched 2 days ago, and now I have a contract with the 2 most beautiful wolf pups in the empire. Let’s hurry to the hotel so I can show her to you!”
Bridge began to pull Kain by the wrist impatiently.
The second they exited the station, Kane felt as though he was transported to medieval England.
Majority of the buildings had Gothic architecture. It was a city of tall spires stabbing into the sky.
Additionally, unlike the colourful stained glass windows, and gold-hued buildings common in Starfire City. The colour scheme of Dark Moon City was much more…muted. Mostly composed of Black, grey and silver architecture.
Combined with the cloudy weather, it definitely had a more gloomy vibe when compared to Starfire City.
It was also beautiful, but in a more haunting way.
However, strangely Kain actually preferred Dark Moon City.
‘It reminds me of Harry Potter!’ The little novel nerd in Kain’s heart was greatly satisfied at seeing architecture that reminded him of one of his favourite series.
They had reserved a room at a hotel close to Dark Moon College almost immediately after confirming their intention to attend the test there.
Good thing too, as a majority of the hotels close to the college were fully booked right after the affinity ceremonies and students confirmed that they had an affinity ranked high enough to qualify.
Kain and Bridge were actually a little late in trying to book a room, with everywhere they tried already being filled.
They were about to try a hotel towards the edges of Dark Moon City when this one called them back about a cancellation. It seems like an overconfident high schooler, probably a legacy, had booked rooms for themself and their family prior to awakening. After the affinity ceremony though they were forced to cancel the reservation when they didn’t rate as highly as they anticipated.
Kain and Bridge took both neighbouring rooms available, anticipating that one or both of them may need to try and make a last-minute attempt at advancing and didn’t want to risk being disturbed by a roommate.
After putting his stuff away in his room, Kain went next door to Bridge’s. Although he wanted to try advancing right away, he was still curious about Bridge’s the Searing Wolf pup that he’d only seen in pictures. Also, he should probably fill his stomach before attempting an advancement.
The moment he entered Bridge’s room, it felt like it was the middle of winter instead of summer.
The source of the extreme chill was sitting on Bridge’s bed. A small wolf puppy with shining white fur and large sparkling blue eyes.
‘It really is adorable…’ Kain thought jealously. This is how he’d always imagined a contract to be! ‘Not like—’ he cut off the in-case Bea heard it. After all, although she didn’t meet his aesthetic tastes, she was still a trustworthy companion.
Kain kept a healthy distance from the Silver-quality pup. After all, he had read that just touching them could result in frostbite.
Bridge though, as a result of the resistance provided by the contract, had no such worries. Although he still found her extremely cold, holding her wouldn’t harm him.
He scooped her into his hands and held her up for Kain to see.
“This is Princess!” Kain was once again blown away by Bridge’s naming sense. “Doesn’t she look like a cold and beautiful, yet aloof princess? It fits her, right?”
“Uh… y-yeah”
“Thanks again for getting her for me Kain. She’s probably too young to be used during the entrance exam, but I can already tell that she’s talented. She has an A-level skill!”
“Really?!” Don’t let Bea’s possession of A-level skills fool you, having a single A-level skill for spiritual creatures below Gold quality is an indication that their combat talent is within the upper tiers of their species”
“Which one?”
“I think it’s called Absolute Zero, it makes her surroundings and all of her attacks extremely cold, even more so than the average Searing Wolf”
“A passive A-level skill. That’s incredible!”
After showing off, Bridge recalled Princess into his star space and they both went down to eat dinner.
Looking around at the room full of teenagers and their families they were both filled with anticipation. Their future competitors, but also their future classmates will be from among those here.
Normally, Kain would try to mingle with those here, but he left that to Bridge. He needed to advance as soon as possible.
So leaving Bridge to continue his conversation with what looked like a pair of siblings at a neighbouring table, Kain headed back upstairs.