Months have passed since that lovely smorgasbord.

  The starfish has consumed many living creatures, whether it is animals or plants throughout these months. He felt as though something in his body was being filled up and was at a breaking point.

  As he mindlessly walked around, he felt a burning sensation on one of his arms and looked towards the heatwave. It was coming from above.

  The sky wasn't its normal bluish color anymore. Rather, it was a more... dark violet color. It was as if the sky was telling him to run away.

  Without hesitation, he starts to run. Footsteps rang out in the silent forest. While running, he searched for anything that could serve minimal protection. Arriving under a huge tree, he found a semi-circular rock big enough for him to fit in next to the muddy soil that was rapidly drying up.

  The starfish didn't know why but he felt as if the rock was pulling him in like a vacuum. He picked up the rock and went under it, discovering that there was a small natural pit under the rock.

  After putting the rock over him, he suddenly felt a weird, comfortable sensation all over his body. Something is starting to itch but he paid no heed to it because he's slowly losing consciousness.

  · · ─────────────────── ·??· ─────────────────── · ·

  The most famous academy in the human empire was Tyvorn's Battle Institution. It was founded by the first emperor of the ages, Tyvorn. The first rule of the academy was to accept all talents as long as they had a human bloodline. This allowed even commoners to join as long as they were talented. It was created after a period in the past when intense warfare between several races scarred the land.

  Up until now, angels haven't descended upon the land for thousands of years. The so-called demons have retreated into their territory on the other side of the world. Many other races, including elves and dragons, have either laid dormant or become extinct. Perhaps the only dragon rumored to be left in the world, a red dragon, has long passed away from her injuries. There was no movement nor news from her.

  Of course, everything is hearsay. They silently disappeared, causing the humans to not know what truly happened and they could only leave it to their imagination.

  What triggered the war was the monsters, who had a myriad of species. We found out that they can evolve rapidly by eating intelligent creatures. A fellow human researcher who went into history for his brilliant achievements met his fate in an encounter with a giant bamboo rat. He wasn't eaten thanks to the help of his bodyguards, but poor Albie Istain died from a blood vessel in his heart bursting. He refused treatment because he felt that he already contributed enough and it was time for him to meet his fate.

  Back to the topic.

  The academy was created to allow humans to be able to defend against foreign races because the situation back then... was a tragic victory.

  No, it's an exaggeration to call it a victory because the humans had been cowering throughout the centuries of war. Only after the other races suffered fatal losses and went into hiding did the humans start thriving like bamboo shoots in spring.

  In one particular classroom, the rowdy class fooled around as they waited for their substitute teacher. They think they would have a sub because the teacher is taking so long to come.

  Only god knows what they are thinking about. One is stacking chairs and forming a barrier. The others are catching them when the rest of the students charge through the great wall of chairs like a stampede of bulls.

  After the bell rang, a person with a rather...petite stature stepped into the classroom.

  The students somehow calculated the exact time when the bell would ring and managed to put everything back in place before it rang.

  For a while, the group of kids stared at the teacher stupidly. The teacher gave them an indescribable feeling that they couldn't comprehend...

  "I don't have much time to teach you. So students... today we shall learn something about souls."

  The students suddenly felt as though they were too scared to speak. But then they realized... why are they afraid? They subconsciously brushed it off and focused their gaze on this unknown instructor. Perhaps it is because it's the first day of school.

  He smiled, "Class, tell me what you know about souls. Don't worry if you don't know"

  No one responded. They looked around and waited for someone to take the lead.

  Looking at how they couldn't answer, he could only shake his head and point at the only student who seemed to be a reincarnation of a couch potato.

  "Stand up, Damon!"

  Damon jolts up

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  "?!"

  The class snickered quietly as they looked at him. They sighed in relief inwardly but ironically, they also had a tint of envy since they weren't called upon.

  After being briefly informed of the question, he braced himself before speaking, hoping he wouldn't mess up too badly and get laughed at.

  "I consider a soul to be energy that has condensed to a point of having consciousness, awareness, will, and memory."

  Nodding, the teacher replied, "You are on the right path but there is more to it."

  The class perked up to listen while Damon sat down with a sigh of relief. He almost thought he would get 'specially educated' by the teacher but it appears that this teacher wasn't keen on embarrassing students like the other teachers that he had met before.

  "Souls are not energy but they emit energy. If you condense energy too much, it will create an imperfect soul that will eventually face spiritual decay."

  He started pacing around the room as he explained.

  "As for why, it's simple. They lack a 'core'."

  The class watched as he tapped on a skeleton model that was standing in one of the corners of the room.

  "Let's use an analogy that a friend of mine told me. If the body or to be exact, the experiences you go through is painted, then the soul is the canvas. Tempering allows the canvas to become bigger to some extent and achieve a higher quality, resisting the penetration of the paint. But eventually, the canvas will be filled with all sorts of colors. Not only that, the colors will also start to merge and turn black. At that point, complete death is a relief to the person because everything has become very dull. But of course, before that happens, the 'canvas' would've already become soggy pieces of paper due to the amount of paint."

  Taking the chance that everyone was still absorbed in the lesson, he sipped on the drink that he brought before continuing.

  "Since the 'core' constantly produces 'paper', even if you rip the 'paper' to shreds, the soul won't die. It would just be a loss of memory. With infinite 'paper', spiritual decay won't be able to affect it."

  "Oh, also. If you are by chance, thinking along the lines of destroying the core, abandon that idea. It is indestructible. Besides, you can't even see your own souls, so don't talk about the core, which is even more illusory."

  Taking one more sip, he put down the bottle and cleared his throat.

  "Moving on. According to size, souls can be divided into ranks. The higher their rank, the more intelligent and powerful they will be. Of course, don't even underestimate a rock. They can go way beyond their limit if the conditions are right."

  The teacher quickly wrote on the board at the amazing speed of 4 words per second. Before they could even blink their eyes, he was already done writing.

  * (0.1 - 0.9) - Inanimate things like rocks

  * (1 - 1.9) Triturate - The foolish creatures. Imperfect soul.

  * (2 - 2.9) Iota - Average intelligence according to human standards

  * (3 - 3.9) Prill - The more powerful creatures

  * (4 - 4.9) Fragment - Gods

  * (5 - 5.9) Primordial Soul - Creator

  * (6) ??? (A soul that has a core)

  "You should already know why a soul with a core doesn't have a moniker. It's because we have never proven that one exists and don't know if it would either continuously get bigger or be a regular soul."

  Their interest slowly peaked as they silently engraved it to their heads, the teacher clapped his hands, "Okay, to end this class on a good note. I will teach you something about a skill."

  They lifted their hands and gained permission to speak

  Somehow, the words seemed to have been in their minds since the beginning of class.

  "We seemed to already know how to do it. The incantation is '▇??▇??▇??▇??▇??▇??▇'"

  The others nodded in agreement.

  "Do you know what it is for?"

  The class became silent.

  "It was created for the souls to go back to where everything began, though we don't know if it's true since no one came back after that. Later, it was discovered that for some reason, your combat power skyrockets after it makes you temporarily achieve a 'detached' state, where some laws of the universe do not bind you anymore. This is why it is labeled as taboo and it slowly disappeared under the annals of history..."

  "The spell only works if you have a longing to 'return'. As for why you guys know the incantation..."

  They subconsciously leaned toward him in curiosity only to see him smirking.

  "Let's allow it to remain a mystery, shall we?"

  The children almost fell face flat on their desks. An inexplicable feeling arose in their hearts as they stared at him in speechlessness.

  Ignoring them, he went on.

  "Well, since you already know that one, I'll tell you one that someone has used in the past. It has quite the opposite effect in my opinion."

  He poked where his heart should be.

  "Energy has been emitted from souls and diffused into the air throughout who knows how long. Now that they are concentrated into an extremely dense amount, we can achieve anything as long as we know how to use them.

  This skill doesn't have any names. I call it 'Sacrifice' because, through this technique, you have to lose to gain.

  I can go on and on about it but it sums up to one thing - In exchange for everything that you have, you will slowly merge into the world. Before you completely lose your existence, you will have access to the knowledge or power accumulated by the world."

  The teacher leisurely strode out of the classroom after he finished speaking, leaving them dazed as they complained in their hearts, "But teacher... you only gave us a description..."

  After a while, the bell finally rang and snapped them out of their thoughts.

  A sentence resounded in their minds, "Students, we will meet again if fate allows it.

  Oh, one more piece of advice. Use your brain, don't let there be only one track. Especially you, Damon."

  Being pointed out by him again, Damon sat there dumbfounded, wondering what he did wrong this time.

  Footsteps were heard and a teacher suddenly walked into the room. The kids looked at him suspiciously and were also puzzled. A common thought appeared in their minds, "Didn't this class end already? I thought there was a 4-minute break in the middle."

  He awkwardly laughed under their gaze, "Sorry kids, I was late. Well, it doesn't matter since we won't be doing anything today except introducing ourselves. I shall start first..."