For the past month, Rhian could honestly say this was the best his life had ever been.
Back in the outskirts, life was simple, rough, and tiring. He missed Doctor Calista, the quiet moments at her clinic, and the small hunts in the forest for leaking monsters. It was home.
But he enjoyed it here, especially now that he had friends.
Despite all the hard training, exhaustion, and weirdness of being in a school full of future monster hunters… he liked it here.
It wasn't perfect.
Most of the students, especially those always in the same building as him, knew he was a Cursed now.
The stares were normal. The whispers came and went. Nobody really talked to him unless they had to, which was never.
Kye completely avoided him.
They hadn't spoken since that first day in the hallway.
At first, it pissed Rhian off.
But later… he got it.
They weren't really friends. They came from the same place, sure, but knowing someone existed and actually knowing them were two different things.
Kye cared about social circles. About future connections. About being seen with the right people. Rhian didn't blame him for that. Not everyone wanted to carry the weight of standing beside a Cursed.
And at least Kye didn't do anything else. He didn't bad-mouth him. He just avoided
That, Rhian could live with.
Same for the rest of the students.
Nobody dared to bully him, while many tried to start something and let them talk, but in his class none were brave enough, add to that he was friends with the strongest physical in their class, Nia.
But besides all that…
Rhian had been dealing with something else.
Weird dreams.
Every night without fail.
Some dreams left him cold, standing alone in that strange frozen landscape that felt both empty and alive.
Other nights, it was like being deep underwater again, the pressure, the weight, the darkness pressing down on him. And sometimes… it was worse.
He would find himself standing in some broken kingdom.
A place in ruins. Chains or threads shattered across the ground, walls cracked and covered in moss, like it was abandoned for centuries.
He didn't understand any of it.
But it stuck with him. Like pieces of a puzzle he didn't even know he was holding.
He hadn't told anyone.
Not because he was hiding it, but because he honestly didn't know what to say. How do you explain dreams that didn't feel like dreams?
But for now, they stayed in his head.
Instead, Rhian focused on what he could control.
He'd spent a lot of time in the library lately.
And classes helped too, but he learned a lot.
Rhian was able to correct his misconception about thing, Mysticals all had affinities, fire, water and so on, the book claimed that everyone had them, making Rhian wonder what his is.
Anyway, Mysticals had magic abilities based on their affinity, and the more they rank up the more they would have more creative with it.
And everyone had their limits on the abilities, but reading all of this Rhian moved to reading about monsters.
That's when he found out.
The monster that killed his parents…
It had a name.
Pale Mocker.
A terrifying monster species. Known for mimicking voices, specifically the voices of its prey. They lived deep within forests, usually far from civilization. Powerful, smart, and vicious.
That alone told Rhian how dangerous they were.
Which made Nia's words about accessing portals mean more to him.
See, to rank up your core, to grow stronger, you needed cores.
Cores left behind by monsters after death. They were pure energy, capable of advancing a person's divine core.
In the outside world, you could buy them if you had the money, especially if you weren't a fighter or hunter.
But in this school that wasn't the case for combat students.
If you wanted to grow stronger here, you earned it. The only way was through the portals.
That was the rule.
It didn't matter what ability you had.
Healers. Fighters. Mystics. Cursed.
If you wanted to be a hunter… you fought for your strength.
It seems the school had been using the past month to let students settle in. Meeting people. Building chemistry. Learning the basics.
It seems it was time to be put to test, and Rhian had been waiting to increase his strength.
Skill mattered. Knowledge mattered. But at the end of the day, power spoke the loudest. Especially in a world like this.
It was what separated survivors from victims.
He had grown a lot the last month. His body was sharper. His movements tighter. His mind was clearer. Training with Nia played a huge role in that.
She didn't go easy on him, besides holding back her strength to not crush him of course.
But somewhere along the way… she became more than just a sparring partner.
She was his friend.
At first, it honestly felt like she was forcing herself into his life. Showing up randomly.
Dragging him to train. Talking when he didn't even know how to hold a conversation properly.
Eventually, Rhian just… let her in.
And over time, he realized something else.
Nia wasn't just strong, she was a skilled fighter with real experience. Her technique, awareness, and control were far above most of the students he'd seen, including himself.
It made sense when she explained her background. Her parents were both physical-type carriers.
They had pushed their cores to the limit, and when they couldn't grow stronger, they opened a gym. They still traveled into portals, but most of their time was spent training others.
Nia grew up in that world. Fighting in gyms, learning from active hunters, and competing in small tournaments from a young age. She'd even entered a portal before enrolling here.
Everything about her fighting style made sense now. She was sharp, controlled, and knew how to handle pressure.
For Rhian, there wasn't a better partner he could have asked for.
She pushed him, taught him, and didn't go easy. She was strong, experienced... and undeniably beautiful. He thought that part more often than he wanted to admit.
Rhian caught himself smiling like an idiot as he sat on the bench, water bottle hanging from his hand, lost in thought.
'Yeah... she's crazy strong and still looks like that. How is that even fair?'
Nia, who was casually stretching near him, paused.
She turned her head slowly.
Eyes narrowed.
Rhian sitting there like some dumb kid staring at clouds while grinning to himself?
Suspicious.
Real suspicious.
"What are you smiling at like that?" she asked flatly.
Rhian blinked, snapping out of it.
"Huh? Oh… nothing."
She kept staring.
Uncomfortable.
"...You're weird," Nia said, shaking her head, but a tiny smirk crept onto her face before she turned away.
Rhian leaned back, still smiling to himself.
'Guess I am.'