The Observation Room

Yeah, this is basically what I was expecting to happen.

Cipher can’t help but think this as he, along with a dozen or so other professors in the room – the professors teaching primarily first year courses – watch Scarlet simply rush through the forest slaughtering the low level demons with ease, noticeably growing stronger with each kill. Likely due to some sort of skill she gained at some point from her reckless actions.

“What type of skill do you think that is?” “Maybe a stacking skill? One that grows with every kill?” “But aren’t those only legendary skills? How could she already have a legendary skill?! She’s only been contracted for a few weeks!”

The man sighs.

Maybe I should just give up on trying to keep her from doing what she wants… because even with all of the close calls she’s had, she has at least come out on top every single time.

As if proving the man’s thoughts, he hears more of the conversations from the nearby tables.

“Do you think she’d be willing to sign an apprenticeship?” “Maybe… but don’t you think there’d be too many people gunning for her if she was willing to do that?” “Well, I’m certainly going to try.” “Same here.”

A chorus of agreements from other professors, all Class IV Guardians, echo around the tables. That is, until one voice silences them all.

“She’s mine.”

Cipher’s eyes widen in shock as he sees the source of the voice standing in the corner behind all of the tables.

Even Viper?! Damn, I didn’t think that woman liked anyone enough to consider something like that…

The woman, unlike the other first year professors speaking about Scarlet, is one of the few Guardians currently commonly considered to have the highest chances of reaching Class V, along with a few others such as Frost, Reaper, and Archon to name a few. And many of the Guardians of the capital city and elsewhere wonder why she bothers teaching the first years.

Unlike the Guardian Universities in Tier 2 cities, the Guardian Universities in Tier 1 grant their professors a rather large income, along with prestige, the opportunity to make connections with all of the students they teach, stronger priority for Fractures, and for some Guardians, achievements related to teaching other Guardians. But these benefits decrease when teaching the first years, some of whom will likely be dead before they become second or third years.

Silence spreads amongst the professors – including both the ones involved in the conversation and those not – before everyone’s attention is brought to one of the screens in particular that shows a Class II Guardian finding and clashing with another Class II Guardian.

Cipher can’t help but raise a brow at how easily they were all distracted. But at the same time, Viper isn’t known to be a very friendly person, and many people don’t tend to like her because of it.

He glances at Viper to find her looking back at him before nodding. After he nods back, he turns his gaze back to the screen showing Scarlet.

An unexpected but not entirely unwelcome development. Because if Scarlet can form a connection to her, it would be for the best.

Out of the corner of his eye though, he can’t help but notice another woman still staring at Scarlet’s screen. This one being an older one who also happens to be considered to be close to Class V. Archangel. But unlike Viper, this one is a teacher for the graduate students.

Why’s she taken an interest in her?

Somewhere in the Outer Ring of the ForestHalf an hour later

Caleb was ecstatic the moment he was accepted to Lion’s Heart. He had studied, asked his parents for help with their connections, and gone into several Fractures – while under watch from a hired guard, of course – to prepare, and the moment the letter came in the mail telling of his acceptance, he couldn’t hide his excitement anymore. He let out the biggest whoop possible, startling all of his family members and even the delivery man.

But he didn’t care. Nor did he care when the ranking tournament was announced, beyond being a little upset that the school was ranking them in the first place. Even if he did know that it was the government’s fault, since they were the ones funding most of the bonuses that come along with the higher classes in the universities.

It’s the same with every GU.

And if there’s one thing Caleb hates the most about how the world has turned out since the Demonic Assaults? It’s their focus on competition. How the humans decided to put the Guardians on a pedestal before comparing them to each other just to get something else to drown out their depressing and frightful lives with.

Caleb lets out a sigh after slamming his fist into the level six spider demon, squashing it with ease.

Now that I have the power of a Guardian and the backing of the top Guardian University, I might be able to change this crappy world for the better…

The twenty-year-old raises his fist, which is still covered in blood, to his face before swinging it to the side and beginning to walk through the forest again.

To get rid of the Tier based society and the competitions once and for all and focus humanity’s Guardians on the demons like they should’ve been focused on in the-

Caleb’s thoughts are interrupted when he feels a prickling sensation on the back of his neck, his danger sense skill activating before he turns around to find a beautiful girl with black hair streaked in red, two wolf ears, glowing red eyes that shine in the darkness of the night, and an arm shapeshifted into that of a werewolf coated with bloodlike claws on both hands as she leaps through the air at him with her shapeshifted arm raised to strike.

He quickly tries to raise both of his arms to block her, but she’s too fast, and soon he finds himself lying on the floor bleeding from a massive string of claw marks that go all the way down the side of his neck, across the major artery there and down his chest towards his gut. And not long after, everything in his vision begins to fade to black.

Then he finds himself respawning somewhere else in the forest with a message from the earpiece stating that he had lost a fifth of his points.

Silence reigns after that for several seconds.

What… just happened?