In one of the many infirmaries within Galvane, a person was having a dream. A nightmare. In that nightmare, their limbs were being cut off repeatedly by a sword that was covered in a dark violet aura. Their left arm was being repeatedly cut off, regenerated, cut off, and regenerated.

The person had lost count after the thousandth amputation. The nightmare, including the pain, felt so real. The person couldn’t tell how much time had passed within the nightmare, but it felt like an eternity had gone by. Any lesser person would have been driven insane by the pain, isolation, and repetition.

In one of the rooms of an infirmary in Galvane, a person lying on a bed who was wrapped in white bandages awoke. The bandages were not there because of that person’s injuries. The person’s eyes slowly opened to reveal eyes that were a deep, dark blood-red. Those eyes were not the eyes of those that had seen true despair, or the eyes of those that had given up, they were clear and determined eyes without a trace of haze and dullness within them.

After waking up from the nightmare, the first thing she did was to look at the left side of her body. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw a pure white arm, the only place on her body not wrapped in bandages, lying there. It seemed like all of her limbs were intact, contrary to the recent nightmare. Her body felt incredibly weak.

She recalled the battle with the boy. She was certain that victory would be hers, and replayed the scene inside of her head countless times. She had envisioned her gauntlet’s blade easily slicing into the boy’s neck during their fight and decapitating him, but then something went horribly wrong.

“That feeling…” she faintly said. She was mesmerized by that feeling seeping into her very core.

The boy was suddenly shrouded in a sinister and baleful aura. His mana seemed like it was being taken over and corrupted, replaced by a mana that was dark purple. When his mana changed colors, she experienced a feeling that she had never felt before. Although it was not cold, a shiver ran down her spine when she recalled it. She tried to stop the attack, but her body wouldn’t respond, and before she realized it, her left arm had been severed in a flash.

The girl had never felt this strange and foreign feeling before ever in her life: Fear.

Others were the ones that feared her, calling her “The Ripper.” They were the ones that were supposed to be afraid. She was undaunted even when she saw Cain’s power in his duels, but that boy produced a brief feeling of fear that paralyzed her. The vestiges of the lingering fear even resulted in a terrifying nightmare.

Only now did she realize how weak she was.

“That boy… Hope…” she muttered.

That new feeling became an obsession.

“He’s the one… The only one…” Alcantis continually rambled, entering into a trance.

The only thing on her mind was him and fear. She began to slowly understand the emotion known as fear. A sliver of information, and a revelation. A spark of insight appeared in her mind. She saw the same sword covered in a dark purple aura that she saw in her nightmare.

Without realizing it, she had entered into a meditative state. Her body was radiating a faint blue. The mana in the vicinity was being absorbed into her body. Power was steadily flowing into her. She heard a cracking noise only audible to her. An internal barrier within her was breaking, and soon after she felt another enormous blockade that was limiting her potential, an otherworldly white and divine closed door that seemed to maintain the laws of the universe.

On the same day of Zieg’s enrollment into Galvane, Alcantis had made a breakthrough to the A tier. Unbeknownst to her, she was already near the apex of it and was reaching out towards the understanding of a Worldbreaking technique. Alcantis stood near the entrance to immortality. She had gained something out of her duel with Zieg.

An entire week had passed since Zieg entered into the academy, he had just broken through to the B tier at the end of it. He fought and killed all 28 people in his duels throughout the week. He felt that the students in the academy were way too prideful. Every person he challenged never yielded. With his 7 duel challenges, he killed 7 people at the peak of B tier, and was now ranked at 105th place within the “magic school for elites.”

Until now, he still hadn’t yet gained anything from any of the battles. It felt like all those challenging him were pests that were tired of living, and he just wanted to quickly break into the A tier without being bothered by other students every day. They were beginning to get in the way of his growth. He wanted to grow stronger and get back to his original strength, maybe even surpass it, and he wanted to do it soon.

There was a group of five immortals that he wanted to get rid of at all costs, and one of them would be delivered straight to him ten years from now. Zieg was no fool when it came to fighting. His years roaming the North of the Grandiel Continent had honed and sharpened his battle sense. In a battle with odds that were stacked against him, he relied on both his experience and instincts.

The moment Zieg had met The Elemental Master Julius, he could tell. His instincts told him Julius was much more powerful than his “father” Volheilm had been, and this time he couldn’t rely on the only Worldbreaking skill that he knew. Collapsing Dragon was meant to be a dying blow that consumed your life force upon use. He couldn’t gamble with his life again. The only chance he had to fight evenly with the remaining five members of Paragon who had all been immortals longer than he had been was to gain insights into new abilities.

The solution he came up with to deal with the annoying duel challenges was to gain immunity from them. He recalled that there were missions that could be undertaken that granted you money or temporary duel immunity upon completion. Having decided his course of action, he headed to the mission center in the west wing.

Making his way into the mission center, he noticed the largest amount of stone gargoyles placed both inside and outside the building in the entire academy since his arrival here. Seeing all the stone gargoyles made him think that the mission center was a place of significance.

Like the armory, there was a counter manned by several golems directly in front of the entrance, but unlike the armory, there were five large notice boards spread through the first room. There was a huge amount of students in the building, and three of the large notice boards were completely surrounded by them.

Upon his entry, some of the students stopped what they were doing to observe what the student with the bounty on him was doing here. Zieg eyed the other two notice boards. The one with more paper pinned onto it was being surrounded by five students, and the other remaining notice board had only a few sheets of paper pinned onto it, with no students around it.

A commotion was raised by the students in the mission center when Zieg approached the notice board that no one was looking at. He ignored them in his irritation. If he had been paying attention, he would have heard that this notice board held the most difficult tasks and missions within the school. Only the students in the top ten within Galvane had ever dared to accept a mission from that notice board, and only Cain had ever returned back alive after completing a mission from there. Looking at the slips of paper that numbered less than ten, he found one that caught his interest.

‘Ancient Dungeon Exploration’

Explore and scout the newly discovered underground Ancient Dungeon located within the Frontier. Rewards will differ based on achievements and information reported. You are allowed to keep all items found within the Ancient Dungeon.

Rewards: ???

Estimated Danger Level: A/S rank

Ripping the slip of paper off the board, he handed it to one of the golems at the counter.

“This mission’s estimated danger level is one to two ranks above your current level of power. It is recommended for you to be at least one rank higher than the tasks you choose to undertake. Do you still want to accept this request? Failure will result in expulsion,” the golem asked in a mechanical voice.

“Yes,” Zieg replied while smiling ferociously.

Out of the many people that were watching him hand in the mission form, there was one whose gaze contained more than curiosity.