Ivy Graceful sat in the centre of a dark room, with a lantern light hovering over her head. The lantern flames caused the shadows of the room to dance around, making it harder for her to focus on a distinct figure.

  "Focus, dark child. You've done this before."

  Morigann stood on the sidelines as always, guiding Ivy through her training. It had been but a few weeks since Ivy had been kept within the Hawkings household, and yet she had learned so much. Not just about herself, but about the family too.

  As she sat there, she focused on the shadows around, trying her best to reach out to them. Eventually, she felt something strange. Like an invisible piece of string flowing from her chest towards her own shadow, begging to be tugged on. So she did, with her mind.

  The shadow rose from the ground, trying to become something physical. It was clear that it resembled Ivy’s one-armed form, though none of her facial features was evident through the darkness. The shadow mirrored her every movement, currently sitting on the ground, still as she was. But then, when Ivy moved, the darkness did not follow at once. When she stood, the shadow stood a moment later. When she turned her head, its outline dragged through the air before catching up moments later. Every motion she made left a second version of herself hanging in the space she had just left.

  As she stepped forward, another shadow Ivy remained sitting in the shadow. When she moved again, that one began to rise, but awkwardly and at a different speed than she did.

  One after another, the afterimages followed the path she had already taken, fading only when she stood still for a long enough time for them to catch up to her.

  Ivy let out a great sigh, feeling a toll being taken on her body. Then, she checked her Overview.

  [Awakening Overview]

  [Ivy Graceful]

  [Awakening Stage: First Stage]

  [Awakening Stage Progress To Next Stage 36%]

  [Classes:]

  Dark Mage

  Illusionist

  Necromancer

  [Class Skills:]

  Blind (Dark Mage Skill )

  Shadow Afterimage (Illusionist Spell)

  Whispering Dead (Necromancer Skill)

  [Rank up for increased Overview complexity...]

  "The illusionist class, correct?" Morrigan guessed from the sidelines, hands resting in the pockets of her robe.

  Ivy nodded her head, still trying her best to gather her breath. Finally, after daily training, she had awakened another new class. She felt satisfied despite the circumstances.

  Morigann smiled beneath her hood and turned back towards the exit.

  "Good. Soon you'll be ready for what's to come. Soon, you will meet them."

  And with that, she left.

  Ivy sat in the shadows once again. Ever since arriving there, she had only been permitted to leave the room under heavy supervision. That supervision was done not by humans, but rather corpses that had been raised from the dead, all with different identities that she did not recognise. They allowed her to leave the building and get fresh air in the estate gardens, which seemed to be located somewhere on the outskirts of the Undying City.

  What the Hawkings family didn't know was that Ivy had already awakened the Necromancer Class. She had done it by trying her best to form a connection between the dead insects and rodents that crawled around in the room. She had awakened a strange ability, allowing her to hear the thoughts of the dead and project her own thoughts to them at a very basic level. It was how she had managed to have a letter delivered to Leox... It was how she had managed to discover what she believed was the Hawkings' ultimate goal.

  Even now, she heard the quiet inhumane growls coming from beneath the floorboards. She had suspicions, but had no certain idea as to what the Hawkings' plans were.

  All she could do was try her best to find out.

  A week passed by, taking the students of class one to the day of their second assignment: to kill a third-grade demon, also known as a Death Beast.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Leox sat in a carriage with Laughter and Marybetha, whilst Astra, Samson, and Trinity sat in a carriage of their own. The carriage was being pulled by horses led by four Holy Knights of the Forever Empire. As the carriages rolled along the paved paths through the country heading east, Leox glanced out of the window and watched the streets pass by.

  "Quiet." Marybetha said beneath her breath as she did the same. Over time, the team had become closer, but were still far from being classed as "friends".

  Laughter nodded his head. "Yes, very quiet. No signs of demons at all."

  Leox remained quiet. He and everyone else had heard the rumours spreading throughout the city. For some reason, Varadna had seen an incredibly low amount of grade-one demons in comparison to the other four countries, yet the amount of grade-two demons remained the same. Churches were still attacked frequently, which meant that the apocalypse was well underway, but this usually meant that the first-grade demons would be appearing in abundance.

  The Hawkings. Is it something to do with them?

  Ivy sent me her letter, speaking of the sounds she was hearing in the estate. Demons, she guessed.

  If she's right, then it's clear that they have something to do with it. But to what end?

  Leox's thoughts wandered as the carriage rolled on. His eyes turned to a carriage further off in the distance. One that was much larger than the others, with a giant sack carried on the back. Sitting at the front of this carriage were two figures dressed in black robes.

  "Would you do the same?" Laughter asked suddenly, drawing Leox out of his trance.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Would you allow your corpse to be used for a sacrifice to demons?"

  As Gutaru had said, that carriage was being pulled by two members of the Hawkings' family, who were supposed to help draw the attention of the Death Beasts by piling corpses in the centre of a forest. It was what made Leox feel uneasy.

  "No chance." He responded, making Laughter chuckle.

  "Neither would I." He responded, before turning to look at Marybetha. "What about you?"

  The green-haired knight shrugged. "I don't care what is done with my corpse after death. My soul will already be in heaven."

  ---

  After their carriages had arrived at the edge of their designated forest, which was called the Grey Mist Treeland, Leox and his team stepped out onto the soft grass. As the Fourth World neared winter, the sun stopped shining in the daytime, which gave the skies a grey colour and left the grass damp.

  Leox eyed the holy knights. They remained by their carriages, not making their way into the thicket of the dense trees. The Hawkings carriage was also by the outskirts, but was now empty, with no one on the horses. The white sack carrying the corpses had been pulled into the forest, leaving a trail of blood behind it.

  Samson sniffed as he checked that his Greatsword was safely attached to his back. "So what, we just follow them inside and wait for death to arrive?"

  Despite the circumstances, Astra kept a kind smile on his face as he spoke. No weapons were sheathed at his back, but his eyes frequently glanced up towards the stars above.

  "Death will arrive, but not for us," Astra replied. "Come on, let's go."

  The others nodded their head.

  Leox followed the pack into the forest. Over the past week, he had somewhat taken on a role of leadership, guiding their training sessions when necessary. The reason that he wasn't currently walking at the head of the pack, and instead lingered behind, letting Astra stay upfront, was that he had to keep an eye on a member of their team. Trinity.

  Over the past week, whilst everyone else had attended every single training session, Trinity only arrived at two. In those two sessions, she performed poorly with the sword, and not much better with the bow, which was her main class. This left the rest of them feeling sceptical.

  Trinity turned her head and looked at Leox, noticing that the boy was eyeing her keenly.

  "What? Is there something on my back?" She asked, taking her bow from her back and dusting herself off consciously.

  Leox tried his best not to palm his face.

  "No. I was just—"

  His words were cut off as he noticed Astra stop up ahead. Leox pushed his way to the front of the pack to see what had stopped the boy in his tracks. They had reached a clearing in the forest. A large area where the trees didn't grow, with a small lake at the centre.

  Resting by the side of the lake was the white sack, stained red in multiple areas. It emitted a thick stench of death that stung the noses of Leox and the others. But that wasn't what bothered Leox most. It was something else that he noticed. Something peculiar, and it seemed Astra had noticed the same thing.

  "Leox, the water. It's red." The Astrologer pointed out dubiously.

  All six students of the academy suddenly went tense. Their bodies shifted as their hands naturally drifted towards their weapons.

  Despite the sack being a few meters from the lake, it was clear that the water had somehow been tainted by blood. More importantly, there were no signs of the Hawkings anywhere.

  Leox immediately sensed that something was wrong. "We should head back. Something about this doesn't seem right."

  "And turn back on our mission?" Samson said with a raised brow, drawing his greatsword from his back. "This is what we've trained for."

  "..."

  Under normal circumstances, Samson might be right. However, Leox's bad feelings were soon confirmed, as a great rumbling noise came from somewhere inside the lake. At this point, everyone's weapons were drawn. They knew that whatever was here, there would be no running from it.

  Leox took in deep breaths, trying to control himself as the rumbling grew louder and louder. The ground visibly shook, and the currents of the water became disturbed.

  Then, the monster appeared from the water, creating a giant wave. The monster was unlike anything any of the six students had seen in their lives.

  At first, Leox thought it was some sort of octopus, as he saw many slimy tentacles emerging from the creature's body. Moments later, he discovered that the tentacle creature was only the monster's face, as the rest of its torso emerged, revealing two ginormous, muscular arms, both the size of trees. The beast lingered in the body of water, with the grey upper body of a giant, muscular man, and a head with numerous tentacles emerging from it.

  [Leviathan]

  [Awakening Stage: Fourth Stage]

  [Classes:]

  Unknown

  [Class Skills:]

  Unknown

  "N-no..." Trinity stuttered from the side, before the beast outstretched its arms and let out a fierce roar that made its long tentacles slither and squirm.

  Before anybody else could react, the beast swung it's clenched fist, bringing with it a great gust of wind, coming crashing towards the six students with force that could destroy them all.