*Crackle, crackle*

I woke up to the light of a fire burning around inside my room.

“What?”-I hurriedly stood up. “What’s happening?”

Looking around, I could see my small room burning, every desk, table, cloth, everything, was on fire. And I didn’t know why, or how. Looking through the wooden door I could see that there was more fire outside of my room, so I quickly went to the door and kick it open.

The corridor was also burning, some of the paintings that decorated the walls were on the floor, while others were still hanging, albeit covered in fire. I turned towards my cousin’s room’s door right in front of my own, it was burning, so I went and kick it down.

“Rick! Sam!”-I called my cousin and his son, who both lived in the same house along with more members of my mother’s family, and my own family.

“W-what!?”-I was stupefied by what I found. My cousin and his son were both dead, his son was on the floor, being consumed in the fire, while my cousin was beside him, reclining on the wall, with a lot of blood flowing out from what seemed to be bullets’ injuries. “*gasp*”-I could only cover my mouth while taking a deep breath. “What’s… What’s happening…”

I ran out immediately from the room and went a little further in the corridor, towards my godmother/cousin’s room.

“Maria!”-I pushed the door down, and there she was… Hugging her three children between a sea of fire, with bullets all around her… “No… No!”-I shouted, once again running out of there, this time towards the balcony of the first floor, where the stairs to go up or down were. There I found my mother’s sister, my aunt, dead on the floor of the balcony.

I was in shock, and fearing for the worst, I ran down the stairs, towards where my mother lived in the house.

Opening the burning door that leads to the living room, what I first saw was my step-father’s body. The place was burning everywhere, at this point, I noticed that every part of the house was probably the same. Burning like hell.

“Jhon!”-I ran towards him, but as with everyone, it was already too late, with two shots in the head. I looked through the living room and the kitchen that was a little further from it, but there was no one else.

“No…”-The fear was slowly creeping up my spine. Filling my eyes with tears that slowly started running down my cheeks. I stood up and ran towards my mother’s bedroom door and kick it down.

“Drago!!”-I ran towards my dog, who was in front of the fallen door, he was a bloody mess, as if someone shot him multiple times for him to die. “No!!”- I grabbed him and embraced him. The tears now were running like a waterfall. “Who did this!!?? Fuck!!”-I shouted, still embracing my friend, praying for it to be a lie.

It was then that I looked around the room, and found them. “No… Please… No…”-I said, while slowly putting my best friend down on the floor, before standing up.

I walked staggering towards my mother’s corpse. She was hugging my sister on her chest as if protecting her.

“No… No… Please… No…”-I slowly staggered there and fell on my knees right beside them. Embracing them. “Mom!!! AAAAHHHHH”-A cry escaped my mouth without me even noticing. I just stayed there, crying, louder and louder each time while hugging the corpses of both my mother and sister.

[You didn’t make it.]-A deep voice resonated inside the room. [We lost them because of you.]

“…”-I didn’t answer, I just kept crying.

[You weren’t there for them. You didn’t protect them. You had the power. But what was it for? You still couldn’t protect what mattered the most.]-The deep voice kept talking.

“SHUT UP!!!!!”-I shouted at him and every flame in the room rose to the ceiling and turned into a jet-black fire.

[Yes… It was that rage… It was that rage that turned you into what we are! If you used that rage from the start, nothing of this would have happened! LOOK AT WHAT YOU CAUSED!!!]

“I SAID SHUT UP!!!!”-I sat up on my bed.

“Huff… Huff… Huff… Huff…”-Panting and sweating, I looked around the room.

“*Sigh…* It was just a dream…”-I murmured to myself, looking at my room inside the dorms of Cube. "Fuck... This is the second time while staying in this world... What the fuck is wrong with me..."

I then reached to grab the smartwatch that I always leave beside the bed.

{4:50 AM… Shit… It’s too early…}-I thought to myself. {I won’t be able to sleep again for the moments…}-I thought to myself while standing up and going to the bathroom to take a shower, putting on some music to distract me from my thoughts.

After it, I just wore some training clothes and went outside of the dorms to run around Cube.

***

I was dozing off while standing on the testing grounds for our next combat exam, which would include, fighting a monster by ourselves, that's also the reason why no spectator would be allowed inside this time.

“Hey, what happened to you?”-Kim Hajin asks me while whispering. “You seem like you’re dead tired.”

“Woke up really early… And haven’t slept at all since then…”-I answered him also in a whisper.

This morning, after waking up from that nightmare, I went running around Cube just to take the thoughts out of my mind, and after that I went back to the room and trained, as usual, controlling my magic power, Natural Energy, and Draconic Energy all at once.

“Oh, okay.”-He said before listening to Kim Soohyuk, trying to ignore the glares Chae Nayun was giving him. Meanwhile, a few cadets from the class were looking at me weirdly. Some were scared, some were confused but mostly were curious. Also, Shin Jonghak wasn’t even looking at me, while his lackeys were trying their best to ignore me, though it's not like I care about them.

Our instructor was talking about how dangerous this test was, as while summoned monsters, the ones they’ll use to train us, would still hear some commands from their summoner, they were simple commands, things like ‘Test’s a cadet’s power without killing him’ wasn’t among those instructions.

I didn’t listen to him, as it was basically useless info for me. So, I just stayed there, trying not to fall asleep while standing.

“Magicians in charge of the exam will give the rest of the explanation. Give them a warm welcome.”-Finally said Kim Soohyuk, while clapping in welcoming towards the incoming magicians that entered the place.

“Nice to meet you all. I am the Chief Magician, Jin Joohwa.”-Said the magician walking in front of the group. “Today, you will fight monsters we will summon. But be careful, summoned monsters are no different from real monsters. Even if we reverse summon them, they won’t disappear immediately like in games. So, if things look dangerous, surrender immediately.”-So he said, but I was more concerned with not falling asleep.

After that, he basically went on explaining for a really, reaaally long time, which all of us waited while sitting on the ground.

A resume of the explanation. We will go into the testing grounds in groups of four. Each cadet being tested individually with a different monster. It doesn’t matter if we win, lose or tie the match, as they will grade our general performance, from how we act in front of the monster, to our decision making, how we act in accordance with our role and ability, and so on. We all had 15 minutes to fight the monster, after which, the monster would be called back, cadets would exit the testing grounds and another group would go in.

“Now, we will begin the exam. Group 1 members should stand up.”-Finally said Jin Joohwa.

The first group consisted of Kim Hajin’s teammate Hazuki, and a few other guys who I don’t know, Kim Junho, Yoo Jungjin, and someone with a weird-ass name, Spenner.

“I’ll do my best!”-Said Hazuki to her friend’s encouragement while going inside the testing ground with the other three cadets following staff members.

“Everyone else, please stand aside.”-Said Jin Joohwa.

Once everyone stood up and went aside towards the wall, he clapped, and ten big circular tables with ten chairs each rose from the floor.

“Take a seat, everyone. You will be writing a report for this exam as well.”-He said while pointing towards the tables. “Sit wherever you want.”

You could hear a lot of cadets groaning. After all, not a lot of people liked writing exams or reports at all.

“Come on…”-I said to Hajin while walking towards one of the tables, as far away from the Chief Magician as possible.

“Sure.”-He followed me.

Once we seat, I noticed that Olivia and Rachel also followed us and seat there. I was trying hard not to fall on the table.

“What happened to you?”-Olivia asked, while Rachel was just looking at me with curious eyes.

“Didn’t sleep too well and woke up early. Now I just want to sleep… *yawn*”-I answered to her.

“*Kuhum*… Could please the remaining cadets take a seat?”-I suddenly heard Jin Joohwa’s voice.

And to my surprise, or maybe not, there were two cadets that were still standing. The reason? The only table available was the one where I was sitting in, and they were giving me weird looks as if I was some lunatic that would beat them up if they sit here.

“We’re waiting for you…”-Once again said the Chief Magician, and the two cadets walked fearfully towards our table.

“Man… You scared them too much…”-Kim Hajin whispered to me.

“I don’t know what you mean. I didn’t do anything.”-I simply said.

“You were laughing like a total lunatic while beating Shin Jonghak’s ass during yesterday match, without mentioning that you made fun of him, and basically trash-talked him all the fight.”-Olivia, who was hearing, intervened.

“It wasn’t THAT bad…”-I defended myself. “Right, Rachel?”-Before looking at the only person with common sense in this table.

“…”-But she just averted her eyes while looking at her nails.

“…”-I stared at her. “Well, whatever. Doesn’t matter either way.”

“H-h-hello…”-Said a female cadet while sitting slowly on the table.

“‘Supp?”-I answered her. But that makes her flinch.

{Now that I think about it… She’s the one that spoiled my plans of getting out of the fight with Rachel and Olivia during that anti-personnel training class.}-I thought while frowning at her unconsciously.

“HIII!!!”-She just flinched even more while trying to drag her chair as far from me as possible.

“You’re scaring her.”-Olivia nudged at me.

“Mm? Oh, sorry. Just remembered something.”-I said while looking around towards the other cadet that sat on the table. He looked away, evading my eyes.

“*Kuhum*Battle analysis will be part of this exam.”-The chief magician said after everyone sat down. “It’s simple. You will carefully analyze cadets who are battling monsters and write a report.”-He then started explaining what the combat exams would consist of.

Meanwhile from our tables, monitors started appearing. Each table had one monitor per chair, which means, a hundred monitors for a hundred cadets on the Veritas Class.

“You have to write three reports in total, but only the best report will be reflected in your grade. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can only write one report. If you do, you will be penalized.”-Said Jin Joohwa after clapping, while the rest of the magicians started giving us papers to write our reports. This report would represent only 5% of our grade for this exam, and we could even keep our anonymity by checking one box on the paper.

{I’ll just grade randomly. Though thinking it carefully, I’ll keep one paper for each Olivia and Rachel.}-I thought to myself while looking at the papers, not listening to the rest of the explanation the Chief Magician was giving.

“It seems we are ready. Group 1’s exam will now begin.”-Finally said Jin Joohwa. From the monitors, we could see four screens, each one for each cadet of group one that already started their fight. I just faked staring at them, not really caring about their fights.

…

Once fifteen minutes passed, the summoned monsters disappeared from the training grounds.

“Draw, Hazuki and Yoo Jungjin. Victory, Spenner. Defeat, Kim Junho. Next is group 2. Chae Nayun, Hojun, Jutryn, Carlos.”-The Chief Magician said next.

Everyone from the recently mentioned group two stood up and went towards the testing ground, while group one quietly exited the place and looked for the remaining places to sit that weren’t taken, which, basically where the four sits on my table.

They looked at the table. And looked at us. At me. They just stood there. Not knowing what to do.

“*Kuhum* I don’t know what the problem is… But… Could you please go and sit down? We’re waiting for you so we can start the exam for group two. Also, remember to grab the reports’ paper on your way there. Come on, go.”-Urged the Chief Magician.

Everyone started walking towards our table. Hazuki ran towards Hajin’s side, seeing as he’s one of her teammates. While the other three just tried as hard as they could to stay away from me.

“Well, then. I guess we can now begin.”-Said Jin Joohwa. And through the monitors, I could see the exam for group two begin.

Beside me, I noticed that Hajin was writing something.

{Oh, right, I remember he graded Chae Nayun’s exam for one of his reports.}-I thought. Looking around the table, just to see the new guys trying to evade my eyes. Rachel was grading someone, while Olivia was also writing something on her first paper.

***

Time went by, and group nine was already inside doing their test. For the record, Olivia went with the seventh group. She fought some kind of ghoul with long claws, that attacked slightly fast. It went well, she could manage her distance, and nicely manage her throwing knives so she didn’t stay without ammunition. Resorting to her daggers only when necessary to take distance. She ended up winning her fight.

“Wow~ I wonder if I got some sort of insight. Who knew I could win against a Thousand-Mile Horse so easily?”-Said Chae Nayun from a few tables beside us.

“Really, what happened, Nayun?”-Intervened Yoo Yeonha.

“I learned from failure, something like that, hahaha.”-She said.

{As if… Freaking toxic optimism dude…}-I thought to myself while thinking about the fact that Kim Suho should have consoled her, telling her how she can improve with her bow, not even looking at the bigger picture.

“Group 10. Rachel, Kim Hajin, Lee Wei, Cristopher.”-Jin Joohwa shouted once group nine went out of the training ground.

{Mm? I’m pretty sure there was something else in their group…}-I thought while looking at both Rachel and Kim Hajin, who also looked between them and me. I just shrugged while standing up.

We all then went towards the testing ground, following a staff. We went towards a waiting room with a giant door, and further inside it, a long corridor that led to four doors, two on each side.

We were positioned in a door each. Rachel and Hajin on one side, and Lee Wei and I on the other side.

“Good luck on your exams.”-Hajin said to both Rachel and me.

“Sure, you too man.”-I answered, while Rachel only nodded to us.

“You have one minute to confirm the terrain and your monster.”-Said the staff.

Looking inside my room, I got a somewhat rocky place, with big rocks here and there, while the ground got different heights here and there, it was like a compressed hilly zone.

Over it, I could see a big iguana with a spiky body and really big claws. Not like normal iguana claws, but more like a dragon’s one. His tail was really long and resembled a whip. It was over one of the bigger rocks, far away from the door, as if waiting from the cadet to enter.

“30 seconds.”-Said the staff member.

{Freakish lizard. I’m gonna fry you.}-I thought to myself while looking at my opponent. Hoping to end the fight fast. {At least now I don’t have to worry at all about showing more of my power, Hajin’s already inside Boss’ eyes. So, he should be her first priority. I just have to hide any kind of anti-magic power or something similar.}

“A minute has passed. Please enter.”-Said the staff member.

Everyone from group 10 entered their door, I included.

Once inside the rocky place. The iguana moved fast towards me.

“For something so big, you sure move fast.”-I said while taking out my sword.

The blurring figure of the running iguana shot its tongue to me when it saw my sword out of the scabbard. Aiming to hit it and take it from my hand. I didn’t let it happen, I just evaded the tongue while cutting it in one swift move.

The iguana made a weird sound as if trying to sneeze while crying, before moving its head, I guess it was trying to calm the pain of losing its tongue.

I started to run towards it. When it noticed me, it tried to use its tail as a whip, turning its body quickly to sweep at me. I just jumped over it while making a little air roll and cutting the tail before stepping again on the ground and running towards it.

Again, the iguana made a weird sound while moving its tail everywhere in pain.

“I’m sorry, dude. This is ending fast.”-I said, finally getting to it.

It tried to jump at me with its spiky body, but I just had to duck and thrust my sword towards its stomach. It had hard scales, nothing my mana infused long-sword couldn’t solve.

The same propelling force of its jump made it possible for me to make a long and deep wound on its belly. Which caused it to lay dead on the floor.

“Well, that’s done.”-I said while looking at the dead iguana.

*BOOM!*

A sudden explosion erupted outside of the place and the lights went out.

“Mm? It’s starting already?”-I murmured to myself while thinking about the next event.

[A problem has occurred. All monsters will be reverse summoned. Cadets are to leave the examination ground immedi…Tzzzk.]-A message came through the speakers on the test side, but it was cut down by some kind of interference.

I started to look at the iguana, but it already disappeared. Or so I thought when I started hearing the sound of multiple whips hitting the floor and walls.

“Hohoo… More friends came to play.”-I thought to myself while looking at the three new iguanas that were in the room. I gave them a glance before looking towards the other room with Observation and Reading. Rachel was fighting against some person, while Hajin was fighting against a few bronze-colored wolves. The other guy, Lee Wei, was fighting against a group of what I would describe as goblins.

While I was looking towards the other rooms, two tongues came flying to me. I grabbed one while I evaded and cut the other one.

“You know. This is a pain in the ass.”-I said before electrocuting the one whose tongue I was grabbing, stunning it, before pulling it towards me and cutting its head.

“Now… Let’s end you next.”-I said while infusing mana on my legs and rushing towards the other two iguanas.

Right now, apart from the Djinns that are making this happen, no one should be seeing me. So, it doesn’t matter at all what I do. If those Djinns want to come at me. I’ll gladly welcome them, that way I could win more names to my Devildex.

I thought while thrusting my sword on the first iguana’s forehead and burning it inside-out. Next, I jumped evading the last iguana’s tail while sending a concentrated fire-slash towards it. Making it evade, only for me to rush towards it before cutting the head in a swift swing.

“Well, I guess that’s everything.”-I said. I looked once again inside Lee Wei’s room, but he was on the ground, while the monsters disappeared. {If I remember correctly, he should be well, only fainted. He’ll be found by Cube’s staff.}

Hajin, on the other side, already finished his fight and was blowing down the wall to go towards Rachel, who was in a hard fight against the Djinn assassin.

“I should also go there. Maybe I’ll be able to kill that asshole and gain another name.”-I said while running towards the door, kicking it down and going towards Hajin’s door right in front of mine. I also kicked it down and went through the flatland where Hajin fought, right towards the hole he made to go towards Rachel’s room.

“Man, wait!”-I shouted at him before he killed the Djinn with one last shot.

“Mm? What?”-He asks without looking at me, being careful of the Djinn on the floor, stuck to the wall.

“I’ll do it.”-I said while getting beside him. I lighted my sword up in flames and pierced the Djinn’s heart, burning him inside-out like with the iguana. It then turned into ashes.

“*gasp*”-Rachel was surprised, it seems.

“Well, that should be all…”-I said to Hajin, before turning towards Rachel. “Mm?”

She was a bloody mess, so I went towards her.

“Are you okay? Any serious wound?”-I ask her.

“…”-She just nods at me. “How… can you make your sword light on fire?”-She asked.

“Mm? That’s what you care for right now? Well… To answer your question, it’s just Natural Energy. Not mana. Though you can use both of them. But that’s for later.”-I then turned towards Hajin. “Have anything to treat wounds?”

“Sure.”-He said while taking out a few gauzes, potions, and bandages. “Here.”

“Great.”-I said while crouching down close to Rachel. “Now, let’s first clean the blood. Are you okay with that?”

I started cleaning the wounds with the gauzes once she nodded in agreement. Thankfully most of the cuts were light, so there wasn’t too much risk.

“Here, you should drink a little bit of this.”-Hajin said while giving her a flask with red liquid, a potion.

Rachel took it and drink half the bottle, frowning strongly while doing so, probably as the taste was the worst.

“You said you had a heavy injury. Where is it?”-I asked.

“…”-She nodded while giving me her right hand, which had a really deep and heavy wound. “This one…”

“*gasp*”-Hajin gasped in shock after looking at the wound. “You should have shown that first!”

The wound was open, even showing the bones, it could basically cripple her if not treated swiftly.

“Well, it’s not that bad.”-Or that should be the case normally if it wasn’t for the properties of natural energy. “Good job focusing on the wound. Your mana now has slight recovering properties.”

While the injury is still critical and could cripple her, it’s not that serious to have to act immediately, she could go for at least a little less than an hour before the worst would happen.

“Now, this is going to hurt.”-I said to her while grabbing a potion Hajin gave me. “Really hurt.”-I dropped the liquid on her wound.

“Ugh…”-She clenched her teeth.

Meanwhile, I used a little bit of the remaining potion she drank before, wetted a bandage, and covered her wound.

“Now. Just to finish it.”-I canalized a little bit of Natural Energy through her body, focusing it on the wound, helping her accelerate the healing process while helping her mana work to recover her wounds. This time, the energy went in and out from the wound, so the breathing process wasn’t necessary.

After a little while, I let go of her hand, while she was trying to suppress the pain.

“It’s done. We should probably get going…”-I said to Hajin. “But, well, let’s wait for her to recover from the pain.”-I finished while standing up.

“Okay. By the way… Did you check it?”-He asked.

“No. I’ll do it later.”-I said.

While we were talking, Rachel finally stood up, wobbling a little bit, but still relieved from the pain of the potion.

“Thank you, both.”-Said Rachel.

“Sure, no problem.”-I answered.

“Yes. It’s okay that you’re safe.”-Hajin said.

She just nodded towards us.

“Well, let’s go.”-I said to both of them.

And right after that, the lights turned on again.

“Mm? I guess everything is solved.”-Said Hajin.

“…”-Rachel nodded.

“Let’s go.”-I went towards the door and opened it, going outside. Once on the long corridor leading towards the waiting room. After a little bit of walking, we heard the sound of steps coming towards us. And when we looked further down the corridor, we found our instructor Kim Soohyuk.

“Thankfully, we restored the electricit-”-He was talking through a transceiver. But stopped once he saw us, putting down the communication device.

“You guys, what are you doing here? No, why did you come back here?”-He asked.

“Come back?”-Rachel asked.

“Didn’t you guys…”-He stopped, suddenly realizing that some Djinn would have probably created illusions of us going out of this place.

“Instructor. There was one more guy with our group. He should still be in there.”-I said to him while pointing towards the other room.

“Ah, shoot! You three, wait here. No. Forget that, run to the infirmary.”-He finally shouted while looking at Rachel bandages, before going towards the last room.

We three stayed there looking at him go.

“Well, we should hear our instructor. Let’s go.”-I said after a few seconds. Leaving the place with both Rachel and Hajin behind.

“Um, I may have to lie soon, so when the time comes, please match words with me. If they find out that I brought in my personal weapon, I’ll be expelled.”-Hajin suddenly whispered to us.

“Mm? Sure. No problem.”-I answer, while Rachel only nodded at him.