"What was the biggest reason behind the Third Great Disaster?"

A few cadets raised their hands raised upon hearing Olivia's question. This was a piece of common knowledge, so it wasn't hard to answer.

Olivia glanced at the numerous cadets and chose the cadet whom she had recently gotten acquainted with.

"There were three reasons: Absence of Sandra rankers from Earth, the Gate of Hell, and Royal demons."

Anna spoke in a clear and sweet voice.

"The devices capable of detecting Gates formation couldn't detect Gate of Hell because it had been on Earth even before the First Great Disaster, it was the Bermuda triangle."

Nobody could have guessed that the myths behind the Bermuda Triangle were true, and it was a Gate.

"Demons took the advantage of the absence of Sandra-rank awakeners and attacked Earth. Among the behemoth army of demons, there were many Royal Demons."

The Third Great Disaster was when humanity encountered Royal Demons for the first time.

"Royal Demons could use cursed energy, Nether. All of our attacks were useless against them and the only way to hurt them was by using abilities of stigmas."

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This was the same situation as the First Disaster. At that time, humanity couldn't harm monsters and beasts using their normal weaponry. Cold weapons and stigmas were far more effective in fighting the beasts back then.

Unfortunately, the only way to counter Nether energy was Stigma.

Only a few awakeners have a stigma special enough to use as central attack ability. Mostly stigmas are only strong enough to act as secondary attack ability or as support.

Olivia beckoned Anna to sit with furrowed brows. Anna's explanation was perfect. Olivia wasn't annoyed because of her.

It was due to the cadet who had his hand raised the entire time Anna spoke.

"Do you have something to add?"

The cadet who had raised his hand had become famous among the administrative faculty for his notoriety.

Ward's curricular was set to give cadets as much freedom as possible, but not once did they think that someone like him would appear.

He skipped most theory classes that were necessary for awakeners like energy circulation class and energy recovery class.

He didn't choose any weapon learning courses but was taking magic chanting classes when he can't even do a spell due to being an Aura user.

Because of him, there were already talks to make changes to the curriculum.

"Yes, I wanted to ask about a theory I came up with for Royal Demons."

Olivia causally nodded her head. She thought that most likely than not, he was just playing around.

But she had to listen to him after he spout his nonsense before throwing him out for disturbing the class.

"I believe that reason only stigma abilities could hurt the Royal Demon was due to it using Aether."

This was already an established theory behind stigma working. It was because regardless of being Aura-type or Mana-type, every awakener can use a stigma that doesn't match their type.

A perfect example was Ryan. He could breathe fire, even though such abilities should not work with Aura at his level.

Researches were already being done to compound Aura and Mana together to recreate something similar to Aether.

Stigmas proved that the closer the source of energy is to aether, the better it will do against Nether.

Olivia thought he was only telling something he had read and using it to become a center of attention.

But her thoughts changed when he spoke again.

"What if we use demonic energy? Royal demons and Demons are similar except for the fact that Royal demons use Nether and Demons use demonic energy. Demonic energy has exceptional resistance against being devoured by Nether."

Demonic Energy was also a constituent of Aether. It was hard to think that it will have resistance against Nether, like mana or aura.

TRING-! TRING-!

The siren signifying the end of classes blared, but Olivia ignored it. She was already continuing Nathan's theory in her mind.

The gears inside Olivia's mind churned.

'Royal demons are almost entirely composed of Nether. If demonic energy isn't resistant against Nether, then it wouldn't make sense why demons aren't going insane from being corrupted by Nether.'

Information about Nether was a closely guarded secret of demons. So nobody knew how exactly it worked.

Olivia could justify what Nathan spoke with her theory, but there were still glaring flaws in it.

'He certainly put some thought into this but using demonic energy won't work. If it did, somebody should have been able to do it already. Besides, even if lesser than Nether, demonic energy still corrupts beings.'

Nathan maintained a smile on his face and spoke for the last time.

"If we create a magic circle to compound Aether and demonic energy, shouldn't we be able to create something that is resistant and a counter against Nether?"

Olivia disapprovingly shook her head. Using demonic energy was already dangerous, but creating a magic circle to use Aether was even more so. Humanity still hadn't reached a point to be able to create magic circles for using Aether.

She dismissed the class and walked out. In her mind, she had raised Nathan's evaluation.

Although Nathan's idea was only correct in theory, it still showed that he had a high-level understanding of various energies and a sharp mind for critical thinking.

"If only he was in the research department to make proper use of his talent."

***

I looked at the cadets who were similarly walking to their next classes, like me.

"It's done."

In the previous class, what I did was make an impression on Olivia's mind. She was responsible for quite a few important things in Ward that I would make use of in the future. And she was also going to be the assistant of the future Alchemy King.

It wouldn't hurt to make a good impression on her right now.

I was probably already known by many instructors because of the classes I chose.

It would be easier to change Olivia's opinion of me now before it gets cemented as an idiot and attention hogger.

As I was walking, my footsteps slowly halted.

"Do you need something?"

I spoke with a smile to the cadets that were surrounding me.

"No, we just wanted you to know you can come to us if you need help. We can help you more than the trash friend you have."

My brows furrowed as I looked at Lark.

'Why is he coming to me? Shouldn't he be going to Leon to bully him?'

"I can? Thank you!"

I maintained a smile on my face as I thought of what was happening. Smiling was the best method to mislead others while giving a friendly impression.

This was something I always used in my previous life and it became a habit of mine.

"It's good that you understand."

Lark patted my shoulders and left with a laugh.

It didn't take me more than a few seconds to understand what was happening.

In the novel, Leon only talked with Lilith at this point. But now, because of what happened during the first ceremony, Leon would occasionally talk to me.

Of course, I always kept the conversation short and curt. But avoiding him wasn't very easy when both of us were low rank and shunned by the class.

It didn't help that he was also always at the common training grounds at midnight.

Lark couldn't target Lilith because their strength and status were worlds apart. But now there was someone whom he could target to slowly corner Leon.

In the situation, it would be ideal to bootlick them and deny any involvement with Leon.

"The problem is Lark."

He was most likely using Leon as an excuse to go after me.

"If it wasn't for Ryan, I would have eliminated this bastard during the exam only."

Ryan was a very vital character in the novel. To be precise, his death served a very vital role in the story. It was the only reason why the Second hero helped humanity.

I felt like crap as the worst-case scenario was happening.

Lark would keep targeting me no matter how much I deny my involvement with Leon or bootlick them. He would probably keep coming after me.

Going against him wasn't an option either. If I did, Ken would get involved and then the scale of things will be out of my hands.

The best option would be challenging Lark to a duel and defeating him. Then bootlicking Ken to get into his good graces so he doesn't target me for beating his minion.

Bowing my head wasn't something I hated as long as it helped me. Retaliating without anything backing you up was something only retards do.

"I can't fight him."

The only way to defeat Lark would include me using my art to the fullest.

But this would expose me. After all, stigmas aren't supposed to grow after you have awakened them. It also wouldn't make sense if I said that I mastered it in this short amount of time.

"Do I have no other choice?"

When I had shown myself to Ryan and Lark during the exam, I was ready for this possibility.

The way to get out of this situation was easy and simple.

Only it was painful, very much so.

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