Attack on Titan Alternative:Shingeki Adventurers

'I'm so screwed,' Armin thought with a nervous smile smacked on his face, sitting in a corner with his group for the second event.

His group consisted of Reiner, Floch and a young man who looked to be in his early to mids 20s with blazing, unkempt red matted hair in a mohawk with dirt brown coloured stubble on his chin, tan skin, a wiry build wearing a torn yellow coloured sleeveless vest, tattered baggy tan pants and black boots.

Armin was a bit shocked after hearing those two arguing again. Eren and Krista tend to argue quite a bit here and there but to that level...

"What the fuck was that all about?" Clyde said, irritated. "Kids should not be doing this stupid test if they're going to scream like damn banshees."

"Watch it," Reiner warned. His small golden eyes glaring at Clyde's brown ones.

"Or what? You know I'm telling the truth. The last thing I need is pointless fucking drama that should be in a high school, not an exam."

"It's because of him, "Reiner moved his glare to Eren. "She's always stressed out when he's around. Now, he broke her limit."

Floch sighed. "I mean, is he wrong? What has Krista done for you or anyone else for that matter throughout those 3 years?"

"What does she do in return even matter?"

"It shows that she's…you know an actual friend," Armin explained.

Reiner slouched a bit before Clyde started to laugh. 

"Wait a minute. Don't fucking tell me you are fawning over a rich bitch like her?! How fucking pathetic!" Clyde said.

"What did I say?!" Reiner stood up to a sitting Clyde. The tan-skinned man stood up as well but he looked up to Reiner.

"What?" Clyde chuckled. "What are you going to do? Listen, here you wanna-be Prince Charming, just because you got the build doesn't mean you got the fight. Trust me, pal, I'm probably one of the last people that you would want to fuck with. Ever lived in the Undercity?"

Armin's face drained when he heard that name. Undercity, although he has never been in the subterranean district, he knows that dangerous people live there and crime is more common there than seeing food at a grocery store.

"You mean the Vice District?"

"That's the other name of it, glasses," Clyde said. "Have you ever been there?"

Armin shook his head.

"Now, tell me, big boy, have you been there?"

Reiner hissed his teeth and walked away, leading to Clyde growing a confident smirk before sitting back down.

Armin sighed at the dismay of his team.

"This sucks…"Floch complained. "I haven't fully recovered yet, I have to deal with a pissed-off Reiner and this jerk..."

'Don't forget a useless geek who can't fight,' Armin thought.

"We can only hope that we get an easy monster," Armin said. "They can't have any monster for us higher than Tier 7."

The Adventurer's Association categorised into 10 tiers based on danger level and overall strength level. If he could remember properly from Sasha, it goes from Tier 10 to 0. Armin remembered when Sasha told him a story where her father had encountered a tier 4 monster that completely wiped out a continent and the civilization that lived on it completely off the map. Armin shivered at that thought.

'That's crazy! Monsters that can destroy whole continents?! How's that even possible?!'

"Speaking of monsters, what happened in the simulation?"Floch asked.

"Huh?"

"You guys were late so the simulation must have been challenging. What happened in there?"

Armin remembered the simulation of fighting the Rajang.

Back in the simulation

Sasha, Mikasa, Eren and Armin were heading to the source of the sound that spread throughout the virtual forest, running throughout the area, stepping and snapping little branches in the process. Sasha then suddenly put a hand up, signalling us to stop immediately seeing that the monster was within our eyesight.

"Okay, from what we know, the Rajang is very violent and aggressive. It can shoot lightning out of his no mouth and it's very agile despite being top-heavy," Sasha reminded.

"So how the hell do we beat it?" Mikasa asked.

Sasha took the bow off her back and pulled out one of the arrows in her quiver. "The quickest way to do it is to take out its eyes but it's quick so it's not gonna be easy."

"What about cutting off its legs?" Mikasa said, pulling the katana out of its sheath.

"Them legs look beefy, though," Eren said, looking at the beast's muscular legs. "Think you cut through all that muscle and bone?"

"I'll ensure it."

Armin's hands began to shake even though the monster in front of him wasn't real.' They're not even stuttering with their words, how can they act like this? I don't get it.'

"Armin!Armin!" Eren snapped his fingers, grounding Armin back in reality.

"Huh?"

"We need you to distract the monster, "Sasha tossed Armin an arrow.

Armin caught the arrow looking at the napping beast before swallowing his spit. He sighed and gripped the shaft of the arrow as he concentrated on slowing down his breathing, focusing on his invisibility before sneaking towards the sleeping beast.

Armin paid attention to his steps making sure he didn't step on any branches, stepping over them or going around them, being now two feet away from the Rajang's left eye. He turned back to his friends only to see them gesturing to stab his eye. Armin gripped the shaft tightly before jabbing its eye causing the Rajang to wake up and frail around in pain as blood gushed from its eye. Armin tried to retreat but the Rajang inadvertently swung at him, hitting him and smashing against a row of trees, toppling them over with Armin slumped on top.

His friends jumped out of the bushes ready to attack the nearly blinded beast with Mikasa dodging before unsheathing her blade and cutting off one of its legs, crippling the beast before Eren threw a heavy uppercut, launching it into the air and allowing Sasha to shower its body in the arrows.

"Eren!"Mikasa shouted, giving him the signal to run to her.

Mikasa immediately sheathed her sword and opened up the palm of her left hand, giving Eren a launching pad before he jumped on her hand and Mikasa threw him upwards. Eren punched off one of the Rajang's horns before grabbing it and stabbing it through its skull seconds before they both hit the ground.

"Simulation complete," the voice said before slowly returning the room to its empty blank state.

Eren and Sasha jumped around in excitement, celebrating their victory while Mikasa extended her arm to help Armin up.

"Ow…" Armin winced as he began to take off the pain receptors.

"Well done, Armin," Mikasa complimented. "Thanks to you, we managed to defeat it so quickly."

"I didn't do much. You guys did most of the work."Armin refuted. "Thank god that the thing wasn't real."

"Good job, guys! We beat a low-tier Rajang!"Sasha exclaimed.

Armin stiffened. "Low tier?"

"Yup, look at the screen, "Sasha pointed at the screen."The simulated Rajang we fought was barely 7 metres tall even though in real life, the smallest one ever recorded was 7.3 metres. But that doesn't mean we should minimize the win, we still managed to defeat it."

"Hell yeah, we did!" Eren said, wrapping a friendly arm on Armin's shoulders.

"Guys… it's 12:32…" Mikasa informed them, looking at the clock.

"Oh shit, let's go! We're supposed to be at the main area at 12:30!"Eren said, running towards the exit with Armin and the rest following suit.

"Damn, that Rajang wasn't even average-sized," Floch said. "But when I fully heal, I'll try the simulation myself."

"Hope that you don't randomise it," Armin commented.

"Why are you telling me this? Who randomised it? Let me guess, Sasha?"

"Sasha."

"Not surprised.Not surprised at all." 

Armin looked at the other formed teams that were around. Mikasa was with Jean, Sasha and Connie.

'Sasha is incredibly knowledgeable on monsters so she will most likely be the key to their success, Connie is fast and agile and combining those things with Jean's defence and Mikasa's athleticism and her copy ability is an already good combination to win.'

Armin then looked at Eren's team consisting of Krista, Annie and a blonde stranger wielding a metal pole staff.

'As for this team, Krista is very strategic but she doesn't have the knowledge on monsters like Sasha, although she's more versatile in combat. Annie is pretty much similar to Mikasa except she puts a lot more emphasis on hand-to-hand combat and then Eren's fighting style is completely offence although he lacks proper control of his flame ability, becoming more reliant on his athleticism.'

"As for my team…"Armin muttered looking at the instigating Clyde, the injured Floch and the now furious Reiner.

"Team 1, your test will start in 5 minutes!" An automated female voice announced through the ceiling intercom.

"Hey Floch, what team number are we?"

"Eleventh."

"Okay, that's not bad,"

"At least we have time to see how some others do before we go, "Floch replied. "But then again, the monsters are randomized so we're basically getting nothing but entertainment for this."

"I don't think watching people possibly die is entertainment…"

"Stop being a pussy," Clyde commented out of the blue. "How do you think people used to entertain themselves centuries ago? Depending on which type of Adventurer you want to be, you will see blood on a daily basis, so get used to it now or get the fuck out."

"Why the hell are you here then? To see some mangled bodies with a better view?"Floch questioned the redhead.

Clyde sat up."Simple. I wanna get out of here. My life here is fucking shit. Living in a studio apartment with a dead-end job as a cashier, going nowhere in life. I decided to do this to get out of here. Wasted over 5 years doing nothing and I'm not wasting anymore."

 "Is it okay if I sit?"A familiar voice asked.

Armin turned to see Mikasa with her katana on her left hip and he nodded before Mikasa decided to sit between him and Floch.

"How's your team?"Armin asked.

Mikasa sighed. "Not bad. Sasha's father was an Adventurer himself so she's smart about monsters and Connie is amusing so it won't get too awkward but Jean…"

"Oh yeah, you're with Jean. Sucks to be you," Floch commented.

"Your situation is not any better. You two are with Reiner, and Eren is with Krista so everyone got some bad luck."

"Yeah… we all got a short end, huh?" Floch grumbled.

"At least we know most of our teammates so it isn't all bad," Armin said, slightly hopeful. "Since most of us are all familiar with each other, it should be easier for us to plan something out."

"Hmm… That's true," Mikasa agreed. "I'm lucky to have Sasha on my team. Her knowledge will be useful for my team."

"Lucky you…" Floch slouched in his chair.

Armin sighed as he went to get a pack of pretzels but Reiner was there, eating a granola bar a few feet away from the bowl. He tried to avert the brawny teen's presence while quickly getting a snack but there was no point since Reiner asked him a question.

"Do you have any plans in mind?"He asked.

Armin's heart started to beat faster as he continued to focus his gaze on the pretzel bowl. "N-no, it's hard to figure out what to do if we don't know what monster we're facing."

"That's true," Reiner said. "What do you think of our teammate?"

"You mean Clyde?…well I don't know much about him…but he seems okay…"

"Hmph. He has a pair of loose lips," Reiner said, bitterly. "He should tighten them before they end up bloodied."

Armin wanted to sigh. 'Krista again…?'

"Reiner…why do you want to become an Adventurer?"

"Why are you asking me that?"

"I-I d-didn't mean to offend you! It's just that you've been talking a lot about Krista and I know that… you know… like her and all it's just that you've been doing nothing but protecting her making it seem… that you're only here for her…"Armin explained.

Reiner hummed. "I get what you're saying but I'm not just here for Krista, I have my reasons as well but I figured that I could kill two birds with one stone."

"O-oh… sorry for assuming."

"It's fine and I get why you see it that way," Reiner said, finishing his granola bar. "But trust me, Armin, when you're like someone a lot. You would do anything to protect them."

Armin looked at the peripheral vision to see Reiner walking away making his heart rate lower back to normal.

"What happened here?"A voice suddenly questioned, making Armin flinch only to see Eren with two water bottles in his left hand while holding two granola bars and a jelly bean bag with his right.

"Oh…it's you Eren."

"My bad that I scared you. So, you're with Reiner, huh? That sucks."

"I think your situation is worse than mine seeing how you barely lasted two minutes with Krista before you two were already at each other's throats."

Eren nodded. "Yeah…it's bad, but Krista's very goal-oriented so I understand her anger, but sometimes I think it's a little too much, you know? Like to the point where it's like 'Fuck fun, let's just go! Go! Go! Get it done! Get it done!'"

Armin remembered some of her words, like how she basically worked herself to the bone for years to do this. What could've happened between her and her parents that's forcing her to do this? Armin thought that maybe her father was going bankrupt or something so she was making a quick buck before going back but he wasn't going to waste time thinking about her motives because he had other things to think about.

"Do you like your team?"Armin asked.

Eren nodded. "I like my team. Blake's pretty chill and Annie's a good friend so I don't mind. What about yours?"

Armin made a long pause before answering. "Well…I have Floch but he hasn't fully recovered, Reiner is strong but we don't get along very well and Clyde…well I know nothing about him. I don't even know what his power is."

Eren opened and bit one of the granola bars. "That sounds shitty. But hey, I know you will make it through, just be confident in what you have and you will pass, trust me."

"Thanks, Eren."

"Team 1! It's time to commence your test! Please follow Petra to the testing area," The intercom said.

"Hey look. They're putting up a force field," Eren pointed out.

Armin looked to see a near-transparent light blue dome-shaped force field surrounding the immediate area.

'Let's see how the teams before me do before I really worry about my situation.'