Chapter 21: Small Achievements

"As you know, there are three types of monsters that hunters and scientists deal with. The first of these, as you know, are the monsters encountered in dungeons. In order to maintain mana stability in dungeons, high-ranking hunters cannot enter low-level dungeons, so a live monster is difficult. Even if monsters and humans are of the same rank, monsters have always been stronger than hunters. This is why very few hunters go to dungeons alone. Although they are usually in a group, it is impossible to capture a monster alive."

Looking at everyone in the class from behind his glasses, the man took a short pause and continued.

"The second thing we deal with are the monsters that escaped the dungeons when the first dungeons appeared centuries ago, and the animals that mutated due to mana poisoning as mana entered our world. The monsters that escaped from the dungeons are known to be high-ranking ones that are asleep. The mana cocoon around them prevents them from getting close, so high-ranking hunters can't go and kill them, but there's another reason for that. Can anyone tell me why?"

Several people raised their hands and Professor Snowfield allowed a girl sitting in the front row to speak.

"The hunters won't go near them because the pressure from SSS-level monsters and hunters is enough to destroy a city," she said with a satisfied smile on the professor's face.

"Exactly! As the ranks increase and people's capacity to use mana increases, the pressure they exert can be deadly for low ranks or normal people. Also, a single SSS hunter, no matter how powerful, is not enough to fight an SSS rank monster. One SSS rank monster requires at least two SSS rank hunters. As I said, this is not a preferred method because it creates an energy so powerful that it can easily wipe a city off the face of the earth."

"But professor, what if these monsters wake up one day?" One student raised his hand and asked.

"I hope it doesn't happen, but if it does, I believe that all the hunters of the SSS rank at the head of the League will do their best to defeat them."

"And finally," he continued, "the monsters created from chaos energy, which we have been dealing with and which, unfortunately, after centuries, we don't know much about.

"Chaos energy entered our world long after mana, but it has been a bigger problem than dungeons. Not only did it pollute our lands, but the monsters created from it caused huge waves of monsters that killed countless people. This energy, completely toxic to humans, drove them insane. Thanks to Hugo Yu's sacrifice, the only measure that could be taken was to create equipment resistant to chaos energy."

"Professor, is the research on chaos energy still going on?"

"Of course," he said and smiled. "Although there are deaths, scientists are working hard to find a cure for it even today."

"Sir, are there any survivors of chaos energy?"

"Unfortunately," he said and sighed. "Chaos energy is a force that kills people. No living creature has been able to overcome it. No matter what race has succumbed to it." The students knew he was talking about the other races of the world.

When the bell rang, Professor Snowfield gathered his things and left the classroom and Cale quickly left as well. He was planning to stop by the library because he had some questions about chaos energy.

'Why am I able to use this power? Even the original Cale had not survived this. The only difference in his ability to use this power was that the soul inside the body was different.'

That's what he wanted to come to the Academy for most of all. He wanted to find information about chaos energy. When he went to the black market, he tried to find something about it, but he couldn't find anything worthwhile.

It was a complete enigma. Why it was a mystery only to him. He felt he had to solve it.

When he came to the library with these thoughts in his head, he took all the books he could find on chaos energy and sat at a table in the back where no one could see him. He chose a book from the ones he bought, opened it and started reading.

He didn't know how much time had passed as the pile of books he read and put aside increased, but when a shadow fell on him, he looked up curiously and saw a very beautiful girl with auburn hair and hazel eyes looking at him with a slight smile on her face.

Cale blinked a few times when she said, "Hi, can I sit down?" and gestured to the chair opposite him.

"Sure," Hope Duncan said and sat across from Cale. Cale was about to go back to the book but couldn't because Hope was talking to him.

"You don't remember me, do you?" Cale frowned slightly, even though he knew what she was talking about. When Hope saw that he didn't remember, she pressed her lips together and smiled.

"It's natural that you don't remember, but it's been six months," she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. "We met six months ago at the E-grade dungeon explosion," Cale remembered that day.

He had met Hope there and later learned who she was from the news. He had forgotten about her because he had more important things to do. Still, Cale didn't know how it had happened, but now he could act so freely because everyone had forgotten about the video, which had been removed from the internet.

'Maybe Hope's grandmother Ophelia Duncan took it down'

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said as he looked at Hope, his face expressionless. He was uncomfortable being confronted by a witness to an event he didn't want, while avoiding unnecessary attention.

"I want to thank you for that day, even though I understand what you want to do," she said, and when Cale didn't say anything to her, she just smiled, as if she had expected such a reaction.

As Cale turned to the book in front of him without saying anything, Hope hesitated as she saw the titles of the books.

[Energy Types]

[Chaos Map]

[The Effects of Chaos on Man]

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"Are you interested in chaos energy?" Hope asked curiously and Cale looked up from his book.

"I was just thinking about what Professor Snowfield said," he shrugged.

"I have some books on chaos energy at home and I can get them for you if you want."

Cale thought about Hope's suggestion. Normally he didn't want to have any contact with the names in the novel, but it didn't seem to matter anymore. Besides, getting information was his priority.

Hope's smile widened when he said, "I'd appreciate it if you could do that."

"No problem, they'll let us go home this weekend so I'll give it to you next week," she said and stood up.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. I'll see you later," she said and left him.

After Hope left, Cale read some more and then left the library. He had hoped to find something, but there was nothing but the basics. The information on chaos energy was in the banned books section and Cale was not allowed to go there because of his low rank.

He came to his room and sat cross-legged on the floor. The training facilities were always crowded and Cale couldn't use chaos energy easily. So he worked in his room.

Unlike the mana heart found in hunters, Cale had a chaos energy core in his head. When Cale activated his power, a black inverted crescent moon appeared on his forehead.

The energy that rippled around it traveled through the mana meridians and charted a path for itself. In today's training he would try to shape the chaos energy. He had been working on this for a long time.

If monsters were created from chaos, he wanted to create his own animals.

He focused and gave way to the energy of chaos. He pushed his limits to form the figure that appeared in his mind. A drop of sweat trickled down his cheek from his temple. The veins on his forehead became prominent.

He thought his head would explode from the pressure in his brain. After a long time, the veins turned black and climbed up his face like a web. He clenched his teeth. He knew this was a battle of wills.

This was how he had always fought against the energy of chaos. This was how he had defeated this power that was lying in wait to swallow him. So he endured it again.

He endured so much pain that he wanted to die. So that it would obey his will and not swallow him. Every moment he thought his pain threshold was rising, a greater pain enveloped him.

Blood came from his nose, ears and eyes. He did not give up.

"Caw!"

He opened his eyes gasping for breath when he heard a crow. No, it was not a crow but a raven. It was looking at its master with its shiny black feathers and red eyes.

Cale stroked the raven's feathers on his leg with a smile on his face.

"I did it!"