“Greetings, new students.” A man in a really high-tech chair came in. The chair appeared to be… Floating? “I am Professor Fender, and I will be your engineering teacher for this year.”

The students were lined up in front of white, mechanical workbenches in groups of four, as Clover had said. The rest of the room was filled with a wide variety of tools and benches that Nox couldn’t begin to describe.

[I really have to learn how to use all of these? Jeez, that’s annoying.]

“Don’t be intimidated by the presence of all of these machines. Personally, I find them quite comforting. But some students just hate them. Why, I know not. We’ll go through each area as we go along.”

“First things first. All Vamps make their own weapons.” The teacher produced a small gun from his pocket. It appeared to be a type of pistol. “The military used to hand out weapons to soldiers, but eventually they came up with the idea of letting the soldiers make their own. Sometimes, the results are passable, at best. But other times…”

Professor Fender pointed his gun at the practice target - a big slab of metal - behind him. The pistol seemed to charge up before releasing a blue flash of light. Afterwards, the target was reduced to smouldering ashes. “The results are terrific. For the owner, of course.”

“Let me introduce you to Essence batteries. Most of the time, weapons can be powered by the Essence from you soul. But weapons that use larger amounts of essence need devices that can store that energy.”

He went on to talk a bit more before introducing them to their task. "Your first task will be to create a basic firearm. Now, this may sound like a colossal task, but with the TechFrame to help you, and hopefully your friends, this will be easier." A few of the students whispered incessantly.

He turned his head quickly. “Oh - And don’t bother trying to fire anything you create. Unless you like getting shocked by thirteen hundred volts of electricity. Our infirmary here can easily handle such petty injuries.” The whispers immediately stopped.

The class was already split up into groups of friends. A few of the outcasts were clumped up together, with little chance of teamwork.

[I could've been one of them, if Clover didn't invite me to his circle. Thank god.]

As their workstations began to power up, their Mr. Fender spoke again. "I don't expect you to succeed. I hope your prove me wrong. I doubt you will." He waved his hand, and the locks on the screens disappeared. "You may begin."

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The TechFrame was a curious piece of work. It allowed its users to create holographic replicas of the items they wanted to create. Such platforms had been created in the past, but none of them were able to detect potential flaws or problems the design had. Whenever one was detected, a notification would appear, its colour depending on the severity.

Right now, the screen Clover and Nox were staring at was almost entirely full of red ones.

"..."

"..."

"...Well, any ideas?"

"Wait. I'm thinking."

"Well, you better finish thinking by the time Ayesha and Lex finish setting up the Constructor."

"Hm." Nox looked at the puzzled duo. "In that case, I have all the time in the world."

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Clover sighed. "It appears you do."

Nox scrapped their latest design. His eyes went to the digital clock on the wall. "We've got a little under an hour left. Constructing the damn thing takes, what, ten minutes?"

"Depending on our design. Perhaps we should try making a simpler gun? Like a pistol?"

"It was your idea to make a essence laser. That would have taken at least half an hour to construct."

"Yeah, yeah. It would have knocked out the dummies in five seconds flat."

"It would be useless if it exploded before it finished charging up."

"Why does it say they will all explode?"

"Hm. Something to do with the concentrator, I think."

"If it's to do with the concentrator, then why don't we remove it?"

Nox threw his hands up into the air. "The concentrator makes the projectile that the gun shoots! The only way we would be able to skip using it would be if we didn't make... Wait. Did your laser use a concentrator?"

"No, it used an accelerator! Weren't you-"

"If we swapped out the concentrator for an accelerator, it would use the essence stored in the post-battery way to quickly. Not to mention the time it would take for it to recharge. With the quality of batteries given to us, it would take a minute after each shot to reload." Nox paced around their workbench, returning a few of Ariel's glares. "Which means we have to take out the dummies in one shot."

"One shot? To destroy five dummies? Are you crazy? They're not even lined up!"

"...One moment."

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Nox walked over to the Mr. Fender. "Excuse me, but can I ask you something?

"Why, anything, of course!"

"Do the dummies have souls in them?"

Mr. Fender tried to do something along the lines of stroking his beard, but there wasn't enough hair on his chin to actually call it 'stroking'. "Hmph. What makes you ask that?"

"Just a feeling. One of our other teachers extracted a soul from a demon, and when I was near the soul... There was a strange feeling."

"Killing a live demon? In front of freshman? Must be Mr. Adderall. Not to mention it is your first lesson." He chuckled. "And I thought this task would be interesting. Yes, the dummies do have souls implanted in them."

"Why?"

"Well, to make the test as realistic as possible, of course! One of the most efficient methods of completing this exercise requires them having..." He coughed. "I think it is best you figure out the rest yourself." He turned his attention back to another group of students. "What are you doing? Making a bomb? How ridiculous!"

Nox rushed back to Clover.

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After a bit of discussion, they came to a conclusion.

"Have your ever heard of soul-seeking particles? When mixed with essence, it makes the essence track towards the nearest soul."

"What? Wouldn't that mean it would try to hit us?"

"There are slight differences between human and demonic essence. Likewise, there are two types of soul-seeking particles, one for each type." He began typing rapidly into the TechFrame's control panel. Bit by bit, the prototype of their new gun was taking shape. "If we infuse the shots that the accelerator makes with the particles, and the particle count is high enough, then there's a chance the shot will bounce from one target to another!"

Clover looked up thoughtfully. "A bouncing bullet? I'm gonna admit, it sounds pretty cool. But how do you know the bullet will have enough energy to rebound between all five?"

Nox didn't look up from his work. "We're going to shove as many essence batteries as possible into it without compromising its balance. Also, technically it's a beam, not a bullet. Only the beam will be so short it'll look like a bullet."

"Mr. Fender can tell."

"Of course he can tell. The thing is, will he care?"

Ayesha and Lexend marched over to them. "We finally got the stupid thing working! It only took a few hundred dead ends and a lot more trial-and-error than I would like to admit, but it's working." Ayesha turned to the two of them. "Did you finish the design?"

"Almost. Just adding a few finishing touches..."

Lex peered over Nox's shoulder. "Finishing touches? It looks terrible!"

"That doesn't matter! As long as it works, it's fine! Besides, I'll add a bit more lightweight plating to cover up the wires."

Clover tapped the floor. "Well, I hate to rush you, but you'd better hurry up. There's only-"

"Done." With a single button, Nox sent the virtual blueprint to the constructor.