Dark Enchanted World Of Demons And Monsters

The Dawn Academy offers a variety of unique class programs, allowing students to choose from seven different art classes. The available art classes at the Academy are:

- Sword Arts

- Spear and Lance Arts

- Range Arts

- Arcane and Mystic Arts

- Taming Arts

- Slaying Arts

- Shadowy Arts

The Shadowy Arts class specializes in espionage, sabotage, and assassination. Known for its secrecy, this class ensures that other students remain unaware of the knowledge imparted by its instructors.

This secrecy has led to numerous rumors circulating throughout the Academy. Some claim that students are practicing dark arts and colluding with demonic forces. However, these rumors are unfounded and stem from the misconceptions of those who do not understand the vital importance of this class to humanity.

Typically, a student at Dawn Academy graduates after four to five years of study. However, students in the Shadowy Arts class usually take five to six years to complete their training, depending on how quickly they master the skills, knowledge, and techniques taught by their instructors.

Remarkably, one student graduated after just three years. She was an exceptional genius with a natural affinity for the shadow arts. After becoming an apprentice to the renowned Radiant adventurer Blur, she now serves as the head instructor of the Shadowy Arts class, as Blur has returned to combat the dark forces once again. Although the name Blur is not widely known to the public, he is a legendary figure among Radiant adventurers.

Blur performed unprecedented feats, saving humanity from extinction. Through the Pillars of Light, which continually creates miracles in the struggle against darkness, mankind persists in its fight. One such miracle was Blur's assassination of the continent-level threat, the Demon General of Greed.

The young genius who became the youngest head instructor at the age of eighteen is Siyara Ousahernas. Currently, she is guiding Phyxius as he prepares for the entrance examination for the Shadowy Arts class. While they walk through the passageway, Phyxius observes her closely, unaware that the exam has already begun.

They have been walking for about ten minutes now, and the passageway is growing darker and hazier. Phyxius is still watching Siyara's back, but in the blink of an eye, she disappears, leaving him in an even darker space. It feels almost as if she were merely a hallucination playing tricks on his mind.

Phyxius is not entirely surprised, knowing that such skill is necessary to be the Academy's head instructor. Now he understands: the exam has already started.

"I see, so this is how it all begins, huh? Alright then, let me show you how it's done!"

Phyxius's mana sensitivity is exceptional, allowing him to wield mana as if it were an extension of his own body. He gathers mana to his eyes, enabling him to see clearly in the dark, as though he were gazing upon a sunlit open plain.

Scanning the tunnel-like passageway, he spots a door ahead and notices some irregularities on the path leading to it.

"It seems like they prepared a lot of beautifully crafted traps for me. What an exciting welcome party this is!"

Although Phyxius lacked skills for disarming traps, he possessed the knowledge and cunning to deactivate them manually. He continued along his path to the door, systematically disabling each trap he encountered. When he reached the door, he noticed symbols engraved on its surface. In the center was a round mechanism divided into four circles: the innermost circle was the smallest, while the outermost circle was the largest.

He touched the innermost circle and, to his amazement, found that he could turn it. Encouraged, he tried the other circles and discovered they turned as well.

Each division of the circle had four symbols: a sun, a moon, a dagger, and a skull. He attempted to align the symbols so that the sun was on top, the moon at the bottom, the dagger on the right, and the skull on the left. After aligning them, he pushed the center of the circle, only to hear the cracking sound of cogs moving behind him as arrows shot toward his back.

"What the?!"

Phyxius executed a somersault, dodging the arrows in mid-air. As he inspected one of the arrows that had been shot at him, he noticed a green liquid substance dripping from its tip.

"Poison, huh? I should have expected that. This is becoming quite entertaining; I'm excited for the next surprise."

Phyxius recalled the symbols he had seen on the walls along the passageway.

"Hmm, if I remember correctly, it was a moon on the first wall, followed by a dagger, then a skull, and finally a sun. Let me align it like that: starting with the moon in the center, then the dagger, the skull, and finally the sun."

He pressed the center of the mechanism again. This time, he heard a familiar sound from the other side of the door, the sound of cogs, and instead of traps, the door began to open.

"I guess that wasn't too difficult after all."

Just then, a voice spoke at his side.

"That was fast! How did you figure it out?"

It was Siyara, who suddenly appeared from the shadows. Phyxius was not at all surprised by her presence; it seemed he had known she was hiding there all along.

"It was nothing fancy; I just had to be observant."

"I see. Your self-confidence is slowly becoming arrogance."

"Say what you want, but you can't deny that I arrived here faster than anyone else. That means I'm currently in first place, right?"

"Tsk! Let's see if that remains the same in the next trial, you smart ass!"

"I'll take that as a compliment, our beautiful headmaster."

"Hmmph! I'll be watching you, Phyxius Ezriel."

Phyxius smiled at her words and then sat in the corner to wait for the other examinees. He was in a square-shaped room, with small torches installed along every wall, though they were not adequately lit. He remembered seeing Siyara vanish into the shadows.

"I think that's a skill called Stealth or maybe Shadow Walk. Maybe I could learn it while waiting for the other students to arrive. Well, let's start practicing."

Phyxius tried to remember how exactly the skill was activated. He imitated the movements of mana in Siyara's body and the particular motions she had made at that time. He continued this for several minutes until another examinee arrived.

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After forty to fifty minutes since the exam began, one of the examinees finally entered the room.

"At last! I finally solved it! Who could have realized that the hint for that annoying puzzle was actually engraved on the walls of the passageway?"

Then another examinee came in.

"Yeah! I finally made it!"

One after another, the examinees continued to arrive. There were supposed to be about two hundred examinees, but the number dwindled to one hundred and forty.

"Settle down, you maggots!"

A voice rang out from the darkness, causing the crowd of examinees to fall silent. Someone emerged seemingly from nowhere, like a shadow.

"I'll be your next examiner for the following trial. My name is Deshawn Dhayghol. There should be exactly one hundred and forty examinees. However, you're down to one hundred and thirty-nine. Where is the last one?"

"I'm right in front of you, Instructor Deshawn."

A voice came from about three meters away, from behind a pillar at the center of the room, just below the torch. There he was, emerging from the shadows, Phyxius smirked as if to mock the instructor for not being able to sense his presence.

"So, what's our next trial instructor?"