"All right, now you know me, let me to make things clearer. I will teach you everything you need to survive in the Abyssal World, so let's hurry and begin." Silas spoke in that annoyingly high-pitched tone as he looked at the students.
"Lesson One: What the Abyss is."
Silas fell silent for a moment to make sure everyone was paying attention.
"The Abyss is a mysterious world that invades and devours other worlds like mold — yes! As you heard, other worlds. We are not the only world. There are clear traces of the other worlds in abyss, and the Abyss has swallowed many worlds. When it finishes consuming one, it invades a new world." Silas spread his arms to capture the students' attention. Some of them reacted to his words, while the noble children didn't care — they already knew things like this.
"When the Abyss invaded our world sixty years ago, a mysterious force appeared known as the Shards. They allow humans to awaken and gain power to resist the corruption the Abyss spreads. But..." Silas paused for a moment as he considered his next words.
"But the Shards were a double-edged sword. Imagine the chaos that followed once humans gained power. They fought over it and killed each other just to obtain a Shard's power. Millions died because of the Abyss, but humans killed even more." Silas sighed at the end of his speech, expressing his disappointment in humanity.
'Hmm — give humans power and the first thing they do is use it as a weapon. The same thing happened with fire and iron ' I thought to myself, silently agreeing with Silas.
"Now let me ask you! if everyone can merge with a Shard, why are those present here only youths?"
Silas pointed at the students, waiting for someone to answer.
A tall student with short green hair and black eyes — probably about 187 cm tall — raised his hand.
"You're Jack, right? Go ahead, answer." Silas motioned to him.
"Yes, Professor. As for your question, the reason is that Shards are better suited to younger people. Shards cause specific changes to the human body to fit the power: the younger the person, the greater the changes; the older the person, the less so. But it's not good to choose children because of the Shard Collapse phenomenon." Jack stopped, waiting for Silas's reaction.
Clap! Clap!
Silas clapped as he praised Jack.
"Excellent answer, Jack. You may sit down. If you paid attention to your colleague's words, you'd have heard the term 'Shard Collapse.' Let me explain it to you." Silas turned to the blackboard and wrote "The Shard Collapse Phenomenon" in bold.
"The Shard Collapse phenomenon — let me tell you something: it's been proven that Shards possess a certain awareness, and just as you choose your Shard, your Shard also chooses you. The Shard must consent to you for you to be considered its legitimate master. How do you gain its consent? It's simple: you must evolve to the eighth stage, Bearer, within seven months.Which means you have to enter the gate of corruption. If you don't, the Shard will destroy the user's body and leave him to find a new master. Can you imagine how many people died because they didn't know this information at the beginning of the Abyss invasion? Oh right, while you're in the Gate of Corruption, the shard won't be destroyed. " Silas spoke in detail about the Shard Collapse phenomenon, highlighting its importance.
Now I understand why all the Awakened challenge the Gate of Corruption sooner or later — because they will die if they don't become Bearers. This information isn't known to the public; maybe it's a way to force the Awakened to register with the Alliance, or they won't get this information and will die automatically. What a cunning method, I smiled tensely while thinking about the Alliance's darkness.
"As everyone knows, to become a Bearer you must clear a Corruption Gate of Stage 9. Because of the short time frame, the academy term was made five months long. Two months remain before Shard Collapse — enough time to clear the ninth gate." Silas paused briefly, thinking over his words.
"Now let me explain what Abyssal Gates are. In short, they are the method by which the Abyss devours a world: it creates gates to spread corruption over the land. It's expected that the moment the world is completely corrupted is the moment the Abyss can fully swallowed the world. An Abyssal gate forms randomly then enters a Breaking phase. If the gate isn't challenged within a month it will break and release different types of corrupted creatures. When a gate is challenged, the breaking process is delayed for a long time — it can last a whole year. If a Corruption Gate breaks while you're inside it, you will be trapped in the Abyssal World and quietly await your death." Silas stopped as he wrote something new on the board.
[Levels of the Corruption Gate]
"There are generally nine stages. Challenging a Stage-9 gate will make you Awakened at Stage 8; challenging a Stage-8 gate will make you Awakened at Stage 7, and so on. But challenging a Stage-1 gate won't make you Awakened from Stage 0 — there is no such stage. However, there is a Stage-1 gate; we discovered this from record of other worlds in abyss world. Supposedly this gate appears when the Abyss's influence grows and it finishes swallowing the world — it becomes an unprecedented catastrophe. Currently, the highest recorded gate level is Level 5, which makes you Awakened at Stage 4. Unfortunately, we were unable to challenge that gate, which led to its breaking and the release of corrupted creatures into the world." Silas sighed sadly as he remembered the catastrophe that happened that day.
"Boys, after a gate breaks you must kill all the creatures that come out of it and then kill the boss that emerges at the end. That's how you purge the Abyss's corruption. But fifteen years ago, humanity failed to cleanse a Level-5 gate, which led to the complete destruction of North America . It's fortunate we managed to evacuate many people, but millions died then. It was truly a devastating blow to us." Silas spoke with unusual sorrow — it seemed that incident had affected him deeply.
"An Awakened can enter a Stage-9 gate, but a Bearer can not enter a Level-9 gate because it is Under their stage. So we wait for the gate to break and then purify it. An Awakened can enter a gate higher than their stage, but what awaits them is death even if he susces by some miracle, they finish the gate. He will die why? Because Rapid evolution of a Shard will destroy the human body and kill them, so never attempt to enter a gate above your level. Understood?" Silas spoke sternly, warning all the students about the dangers of the gates.
'Maybe I will die because my Shard abandons me, and that means losing my attributes. But what about entering a higher gate? The body would presumably be destroyed by the sudden increase in power, I mean, even if my body is destroyed, won't it survive? After all, I'm immortal. I pondered the question deeply, but to be honest, I might not have the ability to clear a gate from the start. What would happen if I got stuck in the Abyssal World? Would I remain there forever, unable to die even if I wanted to, or would the Abyss devour me like the other worlds? What if I get corrupted and become an immortal Abyss soldier? Just thinking about it sent chills through my body'
I must not attempt to challenge a gate, no matter the cost. Even if I succeed, how will the world deal with me when I'm the only one who can finish a higher-level gate? I definitely don't want that. So I shouldn't take the risk.
Silas spoke again.
"Now that I've finished presenting the boring information, let's go to the training yard and learn about Shards." Silas said with a smile as he headed for the exit.
I stood up and followed him with the other students. Elena walked beside me as if it were natural.
"What are you doing?" I stared at her, surprised by her actions.
"What do you mean? I'm coming with you," she replied as if I were asking something obvious.
"Why? We're not friends, so keep your distance, please." I said and quickened my steps to create a gap between us.
Elena caught up to me quickly.
"What do you mean 'we are not friends'? We know each other's names and sit together, and we both like history. What more do we need to be friends?" She held her head, looking at me.
"Girl, that's called getting to know a classmate, not friendship." I said irritably at her naive response.
'She's beautiful, but beautiful people are stupid, I sighed, feeling sorry for the wasted beauty'
A girl like her will die easily in the Abyssal World — what a pity.
'Why do I care? I'm not someone who cares about beauty or others. Why does this girl make me think about her so much? This is strange, Nox wondered at the odd thoughts — Nox knew himself well, so it was strange to feel this way about a girl he met moments ago'
'Wait, could this girl have a trait that affects my mind? As soon as he thought that, his face turned toward the girl with a frightening expression.
"Is something on my face? Is there something wrong?" she asked, puzzled by his odd reaction.
"Nothing." I turned my face forward and continued walking with the others.
I must watch this girl — it's clear she has a secret. Nox made his plan as he thought of ways to know what her attributes was.
"We've arrived." At the front Silas spoke, pointing to the training yard ahead.
The training yard was spacious, composed of several small platforms for combat. All kinds of training tools and strange devices were gathered there. At the far right was a room labeled 'Weapons Depot.'
'Now let everyone sit and meditation' Silas pointed to the ground as he waited for the students to do as he said.
'Really we're going to meditate on meditation, just something in novels that the author uses because he doesn't know any other way?' Even with his inner grumbling, Knox sat on the floor, imitating the others.
Elena sat beside him, also contemplating.
"Now we start you need to.....