Prologue(2)

The year is 2017, a year had passed since "portals" appeared all over the world and brought monsters along with them. Many people suffer on that day and all hopes seemed lost, as even bullets and tanks aren't effective against the monsters. However, humanity was given a fighting chance when people started developing powers that could rival the monsters. These abilities developed from the inner desires of humans—whether it would be their will to live or their hope to protect their loved ones. People who'd gained such powers will all be evaluated using a special machine yearly in order to determine their strength and what "Class" they belong to. After a worldwide examination, a total of 4 primary classes were discovered: Fighter. Mage. Archer, and Support, in which there are many other sub-categories, like Healer, Paladin, Sniper, Assassin, and more. Around 60% of the world's population had now been designated as "Heroes" and had been given official licenses to help bypass even national security if it means that they could reach monster-infested areas and rescue those who couldn't protect themselves.

Humanity has evolved past the point of scientific explanation and many world systems have been changed to adapt to the new era of monsters and game-like powers. Along with those changes, schools now mainly focus on developing children's fighting prowess and along with the many changes, a new school has been built—The Stella Academy—with the purpose of training high school students with great potential where they hope to create the future stars of humanity.

Theodore and Merlin transferred to this school a few months after the first portals incident, their schedules and lessons had changed entirely, now they had to do something close to military training each day with little time to stay in classrooms. Some children loved these changes since they no longer have to worry about homework while some preferred to sit in class rather than work out—While there are many voices about these changes, the government deemed this as something necessary to do for the future of humanity.

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"Listen up!" An instructor wearing military gear shouted at the group of students. Around 60 people were standing on the plains, each wearing a different colored uniform distinguishing them into groups: Red. Yellow. Green and Blue. Everyone would turn their heads toward the well-built man and hastily line up in front of him, separating each other into their own teams. "Today, each group will be assigned to an area. Your task is simple: Kill or be killed. Hunt every monster in your area, you all have three days to complete this task."

Immediately after they'd been given their assignments, people started muttering to each other. Theodore and Merlin, who were on the green team, looked at each other for a moment before turning towards the rest of their group. There are a total of 15 people on their team and around half of them were looking at the two boys with expectations glinting in their eyes. "Theodore, you would take care of the monsters like always right?"

"I want to eat Merlin's cooking!"

"Seven girls and eight boys..." Theodore let out a sigh, the people in each team were assigned at random with the thoughts of balancing the gender in mind. He'd never met any of them before so it was hard for someone like him to properly socialize, he was lucky to have Merlin with him. "We should start discussing our strategy first. It seems the instructors won't be giving us anything apart from some camping materials. This includes food."

"Hah...I'll have to hunt again aren't I?" Merlin scratched his head. After Theo had officially been evaluated as a mage, the redhead had developed the skills of a "Hunter" a sub-class of the Archer, they specialized in gathering materials and have the great accuracy of a bowman.

"Yes! Please be our cook again!"

"I can't eat Chris' cooking, last time he gave me food poisoning..."

"Hey! I washed the vegetables thoroughly I swear!"

While half of the group were enthusiastically alluring the two boys to carry them on their backs again, the rest of the group weren't so eager to join, they were a prideful bunch that has the talents to back them up, and they don't see Theodore and Merlin as their leader, unlike the others. "Instead of throwing all the work to them, why don't you do something useful too?" A thug-like boy spoke in a venomous tone, causing everyone to look at him with a frown.

"What are you talking about Eugene? We literally carry all the items!"

"Yeah, and that's all you guys ever do." Eugene rolled his eyes.

That was when everyone started arguing against each other, Eugene's friends joined in as well and it wasn't long until only two people from the green team were left to watch from the sidelines. Theodore sighed, this had happened multiple times throughout the days they'd been assigned to the same group, it was to the point that this had become the norm for them.

Merlin usually is the person who broke up the fights and it seemed he's doing it today as well. He walked into the crowd and extended his hands outwards as if pushing away two walls that were about to crush him. "Cut it out, you guys! We won't get anywhere by fighting! Look, the other teams are already getting their supplies."

The wise man's words caused the hot-headed group to come to their senses, they mumbled curses under their breath but otherwise dropped the matter. Under Merlin's leadership, they all walk to the instructor who'd been waiting for them towards the east, behind the military man was a deep, dense forest that constantly gives off an eerie atmosphere, apparently, it is named "The Delphi Forest" due to its mysterious aura, this would be the area the green team will spend three days in. After taking all the items given to them, they would check to see if anything was missing or not since each group is required to return these items once they're done with them.

After taking notes of their supplies, they divided the items amongst each other to help reduce to load, Theodore and Merlin carried the least due to them being the strongest offensive fighters on the team, they took the lead and stayed at the front, each of them only carrying a single backpack.

It wouldn't be long before they decided it was time and headed inside the forest.

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"Ice Chains" Multiple lines of crystal-like chains flew from the magic circles created by Theodore. They homed in towards their target, a large wolf called "The Direwolf", before wrapping themselves around its neck and joints like persistent snakes. The wolf growled as it struggled against the bindings, despite being made of ice, it was as durable as steel. "Merlin!"

Upon hearing the signal, Merlin, who'd been perching on one of the trees, aimed an arrow at the direwolf before releasing it. The projectile flew straight into the beast's head, it twitched a few more times before completely going still and the ice around it disappeared into small particles.

Theodore disbanded the magic circles and turned toward his friend. "Is this the last one?"

Merlin frowned before looking around, his dark brown eyes were glowing a soft gold as he used his skill "Eagle Eye". Not long after, the redhead shook his head. "Nope! All clear!" He then looked towards the ground where the rest of the green team was waiting. "We can set up camp here now." He then hopped off of the tree and landed next to Theodore.

"I just noticed. You didn't chant anything back then!" Merlin raised an eyebrow at Theo.

He nodded. "Mm, I wouldn't need to say the incantations of basic spells anymore after reaching a certain mastery with it."

"Man~ I really want to hurry up and learn the Magic Arrow skill! Hey, you reckon if you teach me some magic I would unlock it faster?"

"You can't learn magic like that anyway, why bother?"

"Oh c'mon! It's worth another try!"

Theodore ignored his friend and turned towards the other group members, seeing that they were working on setting up the tents and getting a campfire ready. He looked up at the bright orange sky, taking note of the time. "You'll learn it someday."

"Damn! You're so cold!" Merlin pouted as the bow in his hand disappeared into light particles, it's a special skill of mid-tier swordsman and archers, "Weapon Summon", it's useful for storing weapons.

Theodore decided to take a walk around their camp while disregarding Merlin's constant beggings. They'd tried to teach each other their unique skills before and found out that while Theo could master archery given some time, Merlin can't use magic at all no matter what he did—That was why he didn't want to spend hours doing something so useless.

Mages had been the first class many had put the time and effort into studying due to them clearly breaking the laws of nature themself. Researchers had concluded that they're the class that requires both luck and talent to acquire since not every human is born with a large quantity of mana—some have little to none but at the very least a skill like Magic Arrow would be the minimum that someone could use.

"Stop it, Merlin, you're going to break my ears."

"No! Please! I wanna use magic~"

Even by nightfall, the redhead persisted in having Theodore teach him magic. He is quite tolerant of annoyances but sometimes too much is too much. When Merlin noticed the irritated look in his eyes, he went quiet, his best friend would know it was not a good idea to make Theo angry. "Ah, fine! I'll learn magic on my own!"

Theodore let out a sigh of relief. "Finally." He looked around the camp and saw his group mates gathered around the campfire. They seemed to be singing and having fun though he chose to stay back and watch, even when Merlin showed up to join the little group as well.

"I can never fit in..."

He doesn't like social interaction, it tires him, and it mentally drains him. He hated it so badly that he once thought of quitting school despite his great academic records and good grades. Only when Merlin approached him that he change his mind, despite being so different, they somehow became best friends.

Rustle

"...?" Theodore turned around at the sounds of something grating the bushes. The movement stopped when his gaze landed on a particular bush which aroused his suspicion. A magic circle appeared in his palm as he moved closer. Ten meters. Four meters. One meter.

His eyes widen when he suddenly felt something creeping behind him like a predator was about to strike. He turned around on instinct and fired his magic immediately however it didn't hit anything alive, instead the ice shard shattered as it made contact with a longsword held by a shadowy figure. Theo could barely notice that they were covering their body and face with a cloak since they moved at an incredible speed. He gritted his teeth when he realized the opponent is a swordsman since close combat isn't his strongest suit, and because they were fast enough to react to a high-level mage's casting, he knew this only meant one thing: "They're high rank too."

"Ice Wall!" A magic circle appeared on the ground and a pillar of ice shot upwards to block the swordsman's next attack, however just as Theo thought he has a chance of winning, a bright light emitted through the ice and instantaneously the wall shattered, revealing a burning sword in the swordsman's grip. "A magic swordsman"

"There's only one person like that in our group."

Theodore shifted his focus towards the battle at hand. There was no time for him to lose his concentration, he created three more magic circles and started gunning the person down with shards of ice, each of them powerful enough to pierce through steel given the right conditions.

The swordsman didn't waver and easily deflected and cut the ice with his sword, his fire affinity is a counter to Theodore's ice. "I can't let this drag out."

With a grit of his teeth, Theodore withdrew all of his spells and created a new circle in front of him, it was large enough to cover his figure from head to toe. "Great lord of the Artic—"

"Oh no, you don't." The swordsman—a boy—spoke for the first time, confirming Theo's suspicion about the man's identity. Although he didn't have the time to think about anything else as the man closed the distance between them in an instant and broke the magic circle with a swing of his burning sword. Theodore staggered backward and winced in pain, if a mage's circle is forcefully disabled, they suffer a backlash for it—the pain depends on how powerful that circle is. Unluckily for Theo, that was one of his most powerful spells, the drawback of having the circle destroyed was immense pain and temporary paralysis. "Damn it! I can't move—"

The blazing sword pierce Theodore's shoulders, although he didn't get the chance to scream as suddenly something fell on his head, covering his vision and muffling his voice. The blade was pulled out a moment later and blood oozed from the large wound, even the fire wasn't enough to mend it shut.

"Boss, we got him." Another man's voice spoke behind him.

"We really didn't have to do anything! This is easy money!" This time it was a woman.

"I mean, the rest of us are here just in case the infamous Winter Frost Mage manages to struggle for a lot longer than we thought." A man's chuckle rang out.

The leader of the group let out a sigh tinged with annoyance. "Hey, I did all the heavy lifting now you guys quickly tie him up before the penalty is over." He told his lackeys, not wanting Theo's paralysis to go to waste.

"Why are you doing this?" Theodore spoke in his chilling calm tone as he was being forcefully moved to the convenience of the kidnappers, they tied his legs together and place a pair of cold manacles on his wrist, immediately as he heard the metal clasped shut, he could feel his magic disappearing. "Magic suppressor."

The leader laughed. "Why? What do you mean why? You humiliated me!" He screamed with anger as he kicked Theodore to the ground. "Fucking shit. I prepared that whole evaluation just for myself and you stole my spotlight."

"...That's it?" Theodore couldn't believe someone could do something so illogical over some leftover frustrations from over a month ago. "Still. I saved your life multiple times, don't you remember?"

"What do you mean that's it? My father almost killed me! I spent a shit ton of money to prepare for that event and I didn't get any profit from it!" The man stomped on Theo's bagged face, causing him to groan in pain, he felt something crack under the pressure, and blood began dripping from his nose. "Saved my life? I didn't even need saving you narcissistic piece of shit!"

"I was going to stop at just you but it seemed like I need to teach you a lesson. Guys, take him back to camp."

"Aye, aye, boss!" Suddenly Theodore was picked up by the collar, he assumed that this person had quite a large build, and apart from Merlin, there was only one other person he could think of.

"Rhys?" Eugene's voice was heard, he sounded perplexed and Theo knew they were now back at the camp. "What's with you guys? Who is that?"

"Oh, him?" Rhys, the fire swordsman, let out a chuckle. "I'm making him pay for offending the Griffins family, get out of the way if you don't want to suffer the same faith."

"H—Huh? What's going on here?" Merlin's voice was heard next and Theo's heart sank as he realized something.

"Don't," Theodore spoke, more specifically he was talking to Rhys. "You just want me, right? The rest of the team had nothing to do with it."

"Theo?" Merlin's voice shook with anger, he must've seen the wound on his shoulder. "You guys ambushed him? Let him go you. cowards!" Theodore heard the soft shing! of a weapon being summoned and immediately knew that Merlin called his bow into his hands.

Rhys only laughed, a swoosh of a flame could be heard accompanying the sound of an arrow gliding through the air, although it was most likely cut down by the swordsman since the man continued laughing. "Hey my friends, you know what to do, right?"

Rhys lackeys seemed to know what their boss had meant, they unleashed their strength and a fierce battle began between the two groups. Theodore couldn't see anything but the sounds of a blade cutting through flesh and the screams of the green team's weaker members were enough to make him tremble. "No...Stop! Please!"

His desperate cries were drowned out by the noise of battle—No, it was a massacre, without Theodore's prowess, the rest of the green team's combat power dropped significantly, and because Merlin is also a long-range fighter, he stands zero chance against his opponents. "A magic swordsman. A Berserker. Two mages. A tanker and an assassin..." Theodore could guess the classes of those who followed Rhys, but it was futile since he couldn't join the battle.

He was desperate and tried to move, however, the penalty from his battle was still taking effect and the heavy wound on his shoulder was making his breathing shallow. He suddenly feel droplets falling onto his skin and not long after a heavy downpour fell onto him. "Rhys! Please! What is the point of killing innocents!?"

All of a sudden, the bag over his head was pulled off, causing his raven hair to fall onto his forehead. His emerald eyes met with the fierce azure of Rhys' gaze. "What's the point, you ask?" The tanned man smiled as he straightened his back, throwing away the bag in his hand. "Because if I let them go, there would be witnesses, no?"

Rhys moved to the side, allowing Theodore to see the scene behind him. His expression turned neutral but his eyes were wide with shock as he gaze at the bloody sight in front of him. He was used to seeing death on the battlefield but this was different. His stomach churned but he didn't have the strength to vomit. Everyone from the green team was dead, he counted the bodies in his mind and confirmed a total of eight corpses.

"Merlin...No..." His voice shook as he noticed a familiar body among the rest.

"Oh don't worry! Your best friend is still alive." Rhys chuckled. "I kept only a few of them since their strength is useful for the Griffins, father would be pleased to know I've gathered more slaves."

"Slaves?"

"It doesn't matter to a dead man anyway." Rhys turned back towards him and afterward, Theodore felt something pierce his stomach, he slowly looked down just as Rhys pulled out his sword and blood gushed out of the wound. "You're an awakened human, so that wouldn't kill you instantly" The man smiled crookedly. "That's what you get for crossing the Griffins family."

Theodore fell backward, he could feel the strength in his body leaving him to the point that he could no longer turn his head to look at anything else but the grey sky above. Rhys and his lackey's laughter and footsteps grew farther and farther until he was eventually alone in the field.

Blood mixed with rain pooled around his body and he gritted with teeth, in his last moments, a surge of emotions rushed through him, rage, fear, regret, he didn't want to die just yet. He glared at the heavens and shouted with his last bit of strength. "Hear me! If there's anyone up there, I want a second chance! I am willing to pay any price! At least...At least let me drag them down to hell with me!!!"

He'd made his last wish using whatever he had left, it was his time. The sensation of pain left his body and everything went numb. He couldn't move nor spoke any longer, and soon, his vision would grow dark.

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[Greetings Theodore Varon, it's time for your first quest in your second life. Please wake up.]