The music started and the two girls started dancing.

Aditya was really impressed. The two of them are really good dancers, but one of them in particular really attracted his attention.

Even though the body movements of both dancers are really good and the way they moved is impressive, the expressions of this girl overshadowed the other one.

He couldn’t take his eyes off of her face. She is around five feet six inches, nearly white complexion. The Black hair is extremely complementary to her looks.

Aditya is really attracted to her. Throughout the battle, he just stared at her without even blinking and only after the music stopped and the claps and cheers of the other students resounded did he come out of his daze.

He turned to Venkat and asked.

“Who is that girl in white?”

“That girl? She is Nandini, Civil Engineering, the other one is Kavya, she is from Electronics.”

Aditya just nodded and looked at Nandini until she disappeared into the crowd. She is really good looking and a great dancer, but he didn’t stare at her for long nor did he follow her. She might be attractive, but he is not interested enough to go and talk to her.

He went back to the dorm with his roommates.

When they arrived, they were all surprised by the strong smell.

“My sanitizer spilled, so I cleaned the room a bit.”

They didn’t think much into it as they just opened some snacks and started chatting about the performances.

“I heard the Freshmen welcome party is on next Wednesday. I am really excited about it.” Venkat suddenly said.

“I heard about that too. I am also looking forward to it.” And the conversation drifted to all the possible things that they might see on that day.

“I heard there would be ragging and my dear Venkat, you better be careful and don’t look forward to it too much.”

Aditya suddenly chimed in and poured cold water all over it.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Ragging? Where did you hear that?” All three of them became curious.

“What? you guys didn’t know? A senior told me about it. She particularly told me to be careful.”

“She? Who is She?” Suraj was completely off the point once again and held on to what he is more interested in.

The rest of the night just went like that until they all fell asleep.

But for some reason, Aditya couldn’t sleep well.

He kept on waking up as he thought of what the next round would be like. He already scouted the whole campus and knew what he would find in different areas. No matter what creature he imagined he had to face, he couldn’t help but feel a bit scared.

Just because of this paranoia, he used up all three Physical AIPs. In the middle of the night, he couldn’t sit still anymore and went to the common washroom.

“Ram, I need some advice.”

[You are finally speaking. I almost thought you were ignoring me. You were so busy the whole day.]

“It is hard to talk to you while I am in the middle of so many people. They would think I am crazy and might even call police or hospital or something. Just wait till I get some private place or at least some Bluetooth headset. Then we can talk all you want.

Anyway, coming to the point, I have forty-nine points and I want to use them for the AIPs.”

[All of them? Now?]

“Yes, I can get one Physical AIP and another single attribute AIP, with still nine points left. Do you think it is a good idea?”

[Are you sure, you want to do that? Your body wouldn’t be able to take it. You used three Physical AIPs in two days. You need to rest a bit. If you are really that afraid, then take an endurance AIP. That is one thing that you could recover quickly from.]

“Really? What is it?”

[It teaches you to endure. All you have to do is walk or run based on the circumstances presented inside.]

“Aren’t you a little too informative today?”

[Its all in the chat group, you can go and see there.]

Aditya didn’t bother to check and just stayed there. He took a deep breath before he decided to go for the Endurance AIP.

What Ram said is right. His body is so sore for now, he is sure that he wouldn’t be able to feel at hundred percent, he would be too sore, which would be a hindrance in the battle.

So, he decided to take the Endurance AIP. He bought one in the shop and activated immediately.

He arrived in the middle of what looked like a plain desert. He didn’t see any weapons anywhere. It is just plain ground. But all of a sudden, he sensed some tremors. He looked around to see a large scorpion walking towards him like crazy.

It is as large as a manhole cover.

As it came towards him, Aditya instinctually turned around and started running and from the past experiences, he started looking for some kind of cover that could help him beat it which slowed his speed a bit.

[Don’t think of useless things, all you have to do is run. You cannot attack it in this level. You will be out of this place as soon as you don’t have any energy left.

And also conserve your energy properly. You would die faster if you exert so much strength in the beginning.]

Ram’s voice cane into his ears and made Aditya re-think.

The scorpion is fierce, but it is not exactly that fast. He could easily out run it.

But that wouldn’t help as he cannot kill it. Now he has to match the pace of the scorpion to stay there for longer.

It is no problem for Aditya though. He knew that he has gotten better and he knew that he can run it so that the scorpion wouldn’t get too close or wouldn’t go too far.