Hearing Instructor Kira's voice, he silently transmitted to Wing one last time.
"Hey… will it detect my secrets?"
Of course, Wing didn't know the answer.
[Wing doesn't know about that. Good luck.]
The reply irritated him, but he took a slow breath and stepped forward for the procedure.
He extended his palm. Kira's nail dug into his skin, breaking it open. His face remained calm on the outside, every trace of worry buried beneath it.
He was calmer than he was in the dream realm, she noted.
Data soon appeared on the screen.
"Moon Butterfly… a strong bloodline. First grade."
The result was clean. Almost too clean.
If only I had an advanced bloodline-checking crystal, she sighed internally.
----
Soon classes came to an end.
Drayen parted ways with Fedric on the road. Fedric was practically glowing with excitement, even though he clearly had no idea how any of this actually worked.
He kept rambling nonstop—how the Beastkin Lion bloodline "sounded badass," how he wondered what "lion stuff" he might be able to do, and how he couldn't wait to "try something… somehow…"
And honestly, Drayen understood him. He'd been the same after learning what little Wing had told him—excited, restless, unable to sit still. Even without knowing how to use powers, the idea of bloodlines, Nightmare Realms, and everything that happened today felt unreal.
A new life… a dangerous one, but still exciting.
He shook off those thoughts.
He had something important to do.
He took out his mobile phone and searched for a familiar contact—his sister. After realizing Mysterious Science was connected to the Nightmare Realm, he immediately felt the urge to call her. She had graduated from the same field—and suddenly, he was worried for her too.
With a few rings, a familiar voice came from the other side.
"Hey, lil' Drae. You actually remembered you have a sister today." Her teasing tone made Drayen smile faintly.
"I have something to tell you," he began.
"What? Got a new girlfriend?" she teased him.
"No," Drayen said, his tone suddenly serious. "I transferred to the Mysterious Science School."
There was brief silence.
When she finally spoke, the teasing was gone. "…Drayen. When did you have your nightmare awakening?"
"Two days ago."
He paused, thinking about that day—getting his memories back as Rael—and it made him emotional. He was happy now… he had a family who loved him.
His sister's voice hardened. "You should've told me when you called two days ago."
"I didn't know the Mysterious Science Department was connected to the Nightmare Realm," he replied.
She went silent again. After nearly a minute, she spoke.
"Listen," she said, her tone dropping further, "I'm telling you this as your sister—don't go there. Quit."
Drayen blinked. "…Huh?"
"I'm serious, Drae." Her voice turned firm, almost strict.
"That department isn't a school. The Nightmare Realm is dangerous—and the world is a mess right now because of the merging."
"You're my little brother," she said. "I'm telling you—don't join. Back out."
She kept dodging his questions… but in her panic, she let a few things slip—enough for Drayen to understand the situation.
He tried to calm her down, but she wouldn't stay calm for even a second. When he tried ending the call, she just called back immediately.
Finally, Drayen couldn't think of any other way. "I'll tell Mom about you," he threatened.
She yelled angrily, "Now you're threatening me, huh?!"
"Listen, sis—calm down. I'm not threatening you. I understand the dangers. I just… want to give it a go."
She took a deep breath before answering. "Okay. Just don't do anything dangerous. And be careful. Call me if you want to quit."
Drayen stared at the screen.
He had opened his mouth, ready to say the one thing he never said out loud—
"Be safe… sis."
—but the call had already ended.
Drayen was still worried about her as he let out a long sigh, but he decided to ask about her after she calmed down.
Her reaction—and the small things she accidentally revealed—told him enough.
"As expected…" he muttered with a long sigh. "The loot distribution and the other agreement conditions are worse."
But he shrugged his shoulders as he made his decision to join the Mysterious Science School.
This was, as Mr. Dordo said, the future. And another fact his sister mentioned was that this university's agreement was actually less intense than hers.
According to her, all universities were almost the same in this aspect.
As he walked home, his thoughts drifted.
Greedy?
Hah.
The ones in power always monopolized whatever they could.
Complaining that the institutions took a share of the loot and controlled the portals didn't make sense.
Because if you think about it, the government did the same thing—
just hid it behind prettier words like patriotism, tax, and service.
He knew taxes were necessary—a country couldn't run without them—but if they didn't improve the country, could anyone really refuse to pay?
No.
You paid anyway. That was the rule of the world.
It was the same with the portals. Saying you wouldn't enter just to avoid paying a share was as stupid as saying you'd stop working to avoid income tax.
In the end, you still had to go in—because that was how the world worked.
----
Next day in the class.
Drayen was the first to arrive, taking the front seat. He had dragged Fedric along, who ended up arriving second. Fedric was slightly surprised—Drayen hated the front seat more than anything. Since when did he change like this?
Fedric snickered, "Bro, did you get a crush on the teach or what?"
He was only teasing, not seriously suspicious. But the moment Kira was mentioned, a faint reddish tint appeared on Drayen's cheeks—something Fedric completely missed. To Fedric, it just seemed like Drayen was suddenly interested because Mysterious Science was different and exciting.
The triplets came in chaotically, making Drayen and Fedric wonder how they could possibly have this much energy early in the morning.
Kira entered shortly after—calm, composed, and this time empty-handed.
The classroom instantly fell silent. After the morning greeting, she began her lesson. She exhaled softly. "Now that all of you know your bloodline, it's time to understand how to progress as a Nightborne."
"You've only awakened your bloodlines. Right now, you're just awakeners."
Her tone stayed flat as she lifted her hand. Her fingernails extended three to four inches, each sharpening like a blade.
"To use powers like I do…" she wiped her sharp nails with her other hand, "you need to defeat a Tainted and absorb its core. Only then do you become a Nightborne."
She wasn't the best at explaining, her tone too straightforward and blunt—
but it was obvious she understood every concept far better than her words suggested.
She was very bad at explaining things. And to her misfortune, she had Fedric as a student. He raised his hand almost every minute, asking question after question.
The triplets were no better—they wore the same confused expressions from start to finish, not understanding a single thing.
Even when Instructor Kira actually explained something correctly, they still failed to make sense of it. Only when she demonstrated skills—like the claw-like nails extending from her fingers—did their eyes finally light up in interest.
Kira's eye twitched more with every interruption from Fedric.
Basically, she had explained up to "Tainted"—at least as far as Drayen understood it. Tainted were corrupted living beings, mostly beasts and monsters. By killing them, you obtained a core. If the core matched your bloodline type and you were lucky—especially with higher-grade bloodlines—you could gain an ability from it.
She continued, "There are eight ranks in Nightbornes. Each time you progress, there's a certain number of cores you need to absorb."
She paused again, trying to find her words. "There are… similarly Tainted ranks."
Then she skipped straight past the details of how to ascend. "To become a Rank One Nightborne, you must absorb one core."
Fedric raised his hand again, confused. "So there are ranks for Tainted too? And do we need to absorb specific Tainted cores for leveling?"
"Yes, there are eight ranks in Tainted as well," she nodded.
"The standard rule is simple: to break through, you absorb a core of the same rank as yourself. If you're Rank One, you absorb a Rank One core. Awakeners also absorb Rank One cores to achieve their first breakthrough."
Fedric raised his hand again. "So we can absorb other ranks too?"
She gave a small sigh. "Yes, you can go one rank above or one rank below. But if you absorb a rank below, it's inefficient. And you can forget about getting your hands on a core that's one rank above. Each rank has a massive strength gap."
This Mysterious Science School was more like a training facility than a university. Since Kira was their assigned trainer, she had to handle everything—teaching, demonstrating, and explaining every concept on her own.
The next topic she covered was portals and resonance. Soon came the topic of continents and isolation.
Drayen's ears were up; he had been researching more about this, but he still had doubts about continental isolation. This world, Tellus, had four continents—Northern, Southern, Western, and Eastern—named by their positions. But what bothered him was that in his previous life as Rael, the continents were never isolated.
Back then, everything worked normally—flights, ships, calls, messages.
Nothing had been cut off.
The isolation only began eighteen years ago—in Drayen's present time.
Which meant Rael had died before it happened.
Now?
The continents were completely separated.
No travel. No calls. Not even signals passed through.
The questions in his mind were why, how, and many other things. He even considered whether the System was a lie or a scam, that the rebirth never happened, but his soul hinted that he was Rael. It felt like both were always one.
The difference made Drayen more curious than anyone else. As Rael, he lived in an unisolated world, and after rebirth, this had happened.
Kira continued, "I don't know the exact reason. But the Nightmare Realm also has four continents, and the situation there is the same."
She exhaled, then added, "It's estimated that once both worlds finish stabilizing and merging in the coming years, the connections will return."
Although it only knew the data embedded into it—and even that was incomplete—it was good at analyzing things, and it could record everything, which was helpful for Drayen.