Seeing the new individual, the boy looked at Tsukuru with a desperate look.
"Please!" he cried, clutching the pouch. "You got to take this thing off my hands! At this point, I'd be willing to give it away!"
Tsukuru raised an eyebrow in confusion, as he looked at the strange pouch in the boy's hand.
As he did, the HUD of his System locked on to the object, showing him an up-close image of it, and showing its information.
[Advanced-Tier Mud Pouch
Beast Equipment
A piece of Advanced-Tier Beast Equipment forged by a Beast Tailor using Glathrium and the Beast Crystals of the Advanced-Tier Mud Golem.
Passive Skill: Lightened Mud
Mud stored in the pouch becomes weightless.
Carrying Capacity: 50 lbs.]
Seeing the description, Tsukuru's eyes glanced down at the boy's wristwatch.
When he saw the "4" being displayed there, he raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Why…Why do you even have this?" Tsukuru asked.
Hearing Tsukuru's question, the boy looked like he was about to cry.
"Don't look at me like that!" he cried. "I bought this back when I first learned the Ability! But now, the thing's practically worthless to me since it can only store mud! Even worse, I just know that everyone is looking down on me when they see me wearing it! Please, just take this off of my hands!"
Tsukuru put his hand under his lip as he began to think.
'Seems kinda like a waste of a piece of Advanced-Tier equipment,' he thought. 'It's only useful for Level 1 Earth Ability Users.'
Tsukuru then glanced back at Peter.
The boy was sulking, looking as though he just wanted to die in a hole.
Tsukuru's eyes narrowed.
He reached his arm out and grabbed the pouch, leaving the boy stunned.
Then, Tsukuru activated his Ability.
The sound of electronic interference could be heard, and pixels began to appear in his hand.
Seeing the pixels, the other student began to stagger back, looking as though he had just seen a ghost.
"I-It's you!" he gasped. "The boy with the…"
Everyone in the hall was in a state of stunned silence, as they saw Tsukuru's Ability in action.
They had all heard the rumors of his strange Ability, but none of them had ever seen it in action.
Soon, the pixels in Tsukuru's hands had clustered into the shape of a small golf ball.
There was a bright flash of light.
When it faded, Tsukuru was holding a small ball made out of black metal.
He looked at it for a second, before then tossing it to the boy.
"Here," he replied.
The boy scrambled to catch it.
Once he did, he looked up at Tsukuru in confusion.
"Take that to the Higher-Ups in the school," he replied. "They'll reimburse you. Should be enough to give you at least a few thousand Credits."
At Tsukuru's words, he began to hear those around them beginning to whisper and murmur amongst themselves.
"Did…Did he just say 'thousands'?" one asked.
"For that little thing?" another replied. "Yeah, sure."
The student's lip began to quiver.
"Th-Thank you!" he replied.
He held the metal ball close to his chest, and he made a mad dash down the hall.
Tsukuru stared at the smoke trail left behind by the student for a moment, before he turned back to the others.
"Here, Peter," Tsukuru replied, as he threw the pouch at the boy.
However, due to Peter's pitiful reflexes, and even worse hand-eye-coordination, the pouch hit him in the face, knocking him to the floor.
"Ow…" Peter whimpered in pain.
The others all looked down at him.
"...That's just pathetic…" Layla replied.
Slowly, Peter got back up on his feet.
Vorden turned to Tsukuru.
"So, what's with the pouch?" he asked.
Tsukuru glanced over at him.
"It's a special item for Low-Level Earth Ability Users," he replied. "Apparently, it can hold fifty pounds of mud, and make it feel weightless."
Peter's eyes widened as he heard Tsukuru's words, and he looked down at the pouch in awe.
Vorden's eyes widened in shock.
"Wait, you're helping him?!" he asked in utter disbelief. "After everything he did?!"
Tsukuru let out a sigh.
"Vorden, do you know what the most dangerous type of person is?" he asked.
Vorden's eyes narrowed.
"What?" he asked in a sharp tone.
Tsukuru looked at him with a dark expression.
"The type that has nothing to lose," he replied in a low tone. "If you keep acting like he can't be redeemed, he's liable to do something stupid and dangerous out of desperation."
Vorden's face tightened.
"Then we'll deal with that when the time comes," he replied.
Tsukuru let out a sharp exhale.
"So you'll just kill someone in cold blood?" he asked.
"He almost got Quinn killed!" he shouted, his voice booming through the hall.
"I was there!" Tsukuru shouted back, equally as loud.
Vorden jerked back suddenly, shocked that Tsukuru could yell so loudly.
Tsukuru let out a deep sigh, his body appearing to deflate like a balloon, him trying to calm down before this escalated from a shouting match into an actual match.
He pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Let's…not air our dirty laundry in the middle of a hallway, alright?" he asked.
He brought his hand down from his face, and looked at Vorden with a dark expression.
"Besides, you heard what Del said," he replied. "The teams can't be changed. Like it or not, we're stuck with him. So we might as well make sure that he can pull his own weight."
Vorden glanced back at Peter, who was staring at the pouch like it was some sort of treasure.
He let out an irritated snort.
***
The group continued moving, and they eventually made it to the Assembly Hall.
Standing in front of the door, Quinn could smell that strange smell again, and Tsukuru saw a purple dot inside the room.
They both exchanged looks, signalling to the other that this could only mean one thing.
The "Overseer" that Head-General Paul had assigned to them was Sergeant Faye.
Vorden looked up at the closed door.
'This place…' he thought, his eyes narrowing. 'This place brings back nothing but bad memories.'
Every single time he had walked through those doors, it had resulted in him getting jumped by Second-Years.
Looking back, Tsukuru saw the look on Vorden's face.
Layla saw the look, too.
She rolled her eyes.
"If you're too scared to go in, then I'll go in first." she replied.
She began to take a step forward, but Vorden lashed his arm out, blocking her path.
Vorden looked down at her with a glare.
"I'm fine," he replied sharply.
The group watched as Vorden opened the doorway, and walked through.
'Hell will freeze over before I let you get one up on me!' he thought.
Tsukuru pinched the bridge of his nose again.
'I feel like I'm stuck with a bunch of two-year-olds,' he thought.
Seeing the interaction, Quinn tilted his head in confusion.
"What was that about?" he asked.
Tsukuru felt like smashing his head into a wall.
'I will never complain about the clueless, dense-as-solid rock protagonists in anime ever again,' he thought.
As the group all walked in, they looked around them.
Unlike the last time they had been in here, the place was completely empty.
The only other person in the room with them was Sergeant Faye leaning against the right wall.
Her eyes zeroed in on Quinn, with the look of a prison guard tasked with monitoring a single inmate.
Quinn gulped and his heart jumped when he saw the intense look in her eyes.
The group kept walking until they stood in the center of the room.
Tsukuru held his hand straight out in front of him.
"Summon," he replied.
Immediately, the sound of electronic interference echoed through the hall, and six groups of pixels began to form in front of Tsukuru.
Each group of pixels clustered together into a Humanoid shape, although the final shape on the right side was significantly larger than the others.
There were six consecutive flashes of light.
Once all of them had faded, all of Tsukuru's Summons who were not currently standing to his side had appeared in front of him.
They each all bowed in their own specific ways.
Artoria knelt on her right knee, her left knee on the ground, as her right hand rested on her right kneecap. Her sword was stabbed into the ground with her left hand wrapped around the handle.
Kujaku stood there, knelt in her usual "curtsey" pose, using her wings in place of the dress.
Sylvia had almost the same pose as Artoria. The only difference being that her right arm was reaching across her chest, her bow in hand.
Gobkiko and Rakshara knelt in the same pose, kneeling on their right knee and their left knee on the ground. They were both punching the ground with their left arm, while their right arm was resting on their right knees.
Finally, Demona knelt on her right knee while her left knee was on the ground. Her right hand was laying flat on her right knee while her left hand was pressed on the ground.
Her tail wrapped around her waist like a belt, and her two bat wings folded in on themselves, the "knuckles" of her wings essentially holding hands as they clasped together in front of the center of her sternum, looking like a makeshift cape.