The morning sun rose over Rowanveil Academy in warm shades of gold and amber, painting the ancient stone towers in peaceful light.
Birds chirped softly near the eastern gardens.
A cool breeze drifted across the training grounds.
It was, objectively speaking, a beautiful day.
Ethan Hale felt like he was marching toward his own execution.
He stood motionless before the mirror inside his dormitory room, staring at his reflection with the exhausted expression of a man being psychologically hunted by destiny itself.
His long black instructor coat hung perfectly over his shoulders.
Sharp.
Elegant.
Terrifying.
Exactly the appearance expected from the academy's newest rumored monster instructor.
Hidden beneath that flawless appearance, however, were two legendary artifacts capable of rewriting battles.
Inside his left coat pocket rested the Ancient Sealing Book.
A golden chained artifact capable of absorbing, storing, and reversing magical force.
Also capable of turning Hale's nervous system into grilled meat after prolonged usage.
Inside his right pocket rested the Dreadborne Grimoire.
A cursed shadow artifact so evil and malicious that it had literally apologized to him the previous night out of fear.
Hale stared at himself for several long seconds.
Then sighed deeply.
"I am an instructor," he whispered solemnly.
He pointed dramatically at his own reflection.
"I am a responsible educator."
Pause.
"I am absolutely NOT about to psychologically traumatize a teenager using forbidden shadow magic."
Longer pause.
"…For his own good."
Silence filled the room.
Hale rubbed his temples tiredly.
"This job is ethically complicated."
The system panel hovering near his vision did not offer emotional support.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Calen Draxford
Status: Dormant
Bloodline: Berserker Lineage
Requirement: Extreme Combat Pressure
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Hale stared at the words.
"Extreme combat pressure."
He looked down at himself.
"If that boy lands one serious punch," he muttered, "my skeleton is going to separate from my body and file for independence."
Unfortunately, the system didn't care.
Calen's awakening required overwhelming danger.
Not mild pressure.
Not regular sparring.
Real pressure.
The kind that pushed instincts beyond fear.
Thankfully—
That was exactly what the Dreadborne Grimoire specialized in.
Hale slowly buttoned the cuffs of his sleeves while reviewing the plan in his mind.
Step one:
Use illusion magic.
Step two:
Scare Calen into awakening his Berserker Bloodline.
Step three:
Avoid dying.
Simple.
Probably.
Maybe.
The fact that "avoid dying" remained the hardest step deeply concerned him.
Still, Hale straightened his posture and forced his terrifying instructor mask into place.
Cold eyes.
Unreadable expression.
Calm breathing.
Internal panic hidden beneath overwhelming aura pressure.
Business as usual.
When he finally stepped out into the academy hallways, the reaction was immediate.
Students stopped talking.
Several moved aside instantly.
A pair of first-year boys carrying books nearly dropped them while bowing awkwardly.
Hale kept walking calmly.
Internally:
*PLEASE STOP TREATING ME LIKE A FINAL BOSS.*
Dangerous Aura was genuinely ruining his social life.
Or perhaps improving it.
Hard to tell.
At least nobody tried bothering him anymore.
As Hale crossed the central courtyard, he overheard fragments of conversation drifting between students.
"That's Instructor Hale…"
"I heard he suppressed an awakened bloodline yesterday with one hand."
"No, seriously, my cousin saw him break a mana crystal just by staring at it."
Hale's eye twitched slightly.
*I hate rumors.*
The worst part?
The rumors kept getting more absurd because Hale never corrected them.
Correcting them would require conversation.
Conversation risked exposure.
Exposure risked death.
Therefore:
Fake intimidation remained optimal.
By the time Hale reached the outdoor training fields, Class Astra was already assembled.
Twenty students stood waiting near the large dirt arena surrounded by stone walls and weapon racks.
The moment Hale's boots touched the training grounds—
Every student straightened immediately.
The atmosphere tightened.
Fear mixed with anticipation.
And among the group, the five hidden potentials stood out instantly.
Lyra Edmiston stood perfectly still near the front row.
Silver hair.
Cold eyes.
Emotionally detached enough to make statues seem expressive.
Serin Valemont looked one nervous thought away from collapsing into another dimension.
Ronan Crestfall stood quietly beneath the shade of a large oak tree, observing everything silently.
Elira Thornhart waved excitedly the moment she spotted Hale.
"Good morning, Instructor!"
Why was the future world-ending mana prodigy so cheerful all the time?
It felt suspicious.
Then there was Calen Draxford.
Calen stood near the center of the field cracking his knuckles with visible excitement.
Unlike the others, he looked thrilled.
Battle-hungry.
Energetic.
Dangerously eager.
The boy practically radiated "I solve emotional problems through violence."
Hale immediately became more nervous.
"Good morning," Hale said calmly.
His voice wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
Dangerous Aura naturally carried authority through every word.
The entire class listened silently.
"Today," Hale continued slowly, "we abandon theory."
He began pacing across the field with measured steps.
"Combat is not elegant."
"Combat is not fair."
"Combat is survival."
Internally:
*I am personally surviving through misinformation and panic.*
Outwardly, Hale looked like an ancient war veteran speaking from experience.
"Many of you believe you understand pressure," he continued.
"You do not."
The students listened intently.
Even the breeze seemed quieter.
Hale stopped walking directly before Calen.
The tall boy grinned immediately.
"Draxford," Hale said.
"Step forward."
Calen obeyed eagerly.
Several students exchanged nervous glances.
Lyra narrowed her eyes slightly.
Ronan focused completely now.
Even Serin looked alarmed.
Calen rolled his shoulders loosely.
"A sparring demonstration?" he asked with a feral grin.
"You sure about that, Instructor?"
"I hit pretty hard."
Internally:
*YES I KNOW PLEASE STOP REMINDING ME.*
Outwardly Hale simply stared at him with complete boredom.
"We are not sparring."
The grin on Calen's face widened.
"Oh?"
"Sparring," Hale continued calmly, "implies equal exchange."
A dangerous silence settled across the field.
Then Hale delivered the line.
"I am simply testing whether you break."
Several students physically flinched.
Elira whispered "woah" under her breath.
Calen's eyes sharpened instantly.
Battle excitement surged visibly through him.
"Oh," he muttered.
"Now this sounds fun."
Hale strongly disagreed.
Internally he was fighting for emotional stability.
Still, he slowly slipped one hand into his coat pocket, fingertips brushing the surface of the Dreadborne Grimoire.
Cold shadow energy pulsed softly beneath the leather cover.
The artifact felt eager.
That alone was deeply concerning.
"Begin," Hale commanded.
Calen exploded forward instantly.
The dirt beneath his feet cracked from sheer force.
Fast.
Far too fast.
Hale's mortal body barely processed the movement.
One second Calen stood twenty feet away.
The next—
A fist was already racing toward Hale's face.
*OH GOD HE'S FAST.*
But Hale didn't move.
Couldn't move.
Instead he activated the Grimoire.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Artifact Activated:
Dreadborne Grimoire
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Shadow mana surged silently through Hale's pocket.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Skill Cast:
Tier-4 Shadow Illusion
Fear Inducement
Pressure Zone
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
To the watching students—
Nothing happened.
Instructor Hale simply stood perfectly still while staring calmly at the charging Calen.
Then suddenly—
Calen froze.
His fist stopped inches from Hale's face.
The tall boy's eyes widened violently.
His entire body began trembling.
Then gravity itself seemed to crush him downward.
BOOM.
Calen slammed onto one knee.
The entire training field fell silent.
"What—"
"He didn't even touch him!"
"Calen collapsed?!"
"Was that aura suppression?!"
Students stared in horror.
From their perspective, Hale merely looked at Calen and destroyed his fighting spirit instantly.
Internally Hale nearly celebrated.
*IT WORKS.*
*THE EVIL SHADOW BOOK WORKS.*
Inside the illusion—
Calen's reality had shattered completely.
The bright training field vanished.
The sky turned black.
The sunlight disappeared.
The world transformed into an endless abyss of crushing darkness.
And standing before him—
Was no longer Instructor Hale.
It was something else.
Something enormous.
A towering shadow entity radiating pressure so monstrous that Calen's lungs physically struggled to function.
Ancient eyes glowed within the darkness.
Fear flooded every instinct inside him.
The Pressure Zone activated fully.
Gravity multiplied.
Air thickened.
The world itself seemed hostile.
Calen's body trembled violently.
Every instinct screamed RUN.
But the towering shadow moved one step closer.
The ground cracked beneath its feet.
And then Hale's voice echoed across the illusion realm.
Cold.
Ancient.
Overwhelming.
"Stand up, Draxford."
Calen gritted his teeth.
Sweat poured down his face.
The fear was overwhelming.
Unnatural.
Absolute.
"Is this," the shadowed voice echoed again, "the limit of your arrogance?"
Calen's breathing became ragged.
His body screamed at him to surrender.
But something inside him rejected that instinct completely.
"No…"
The pressure increased instantly.
The darkness surged around him.
"I…"
Calen's fist clenched violently.
"DON'T…"
A pulse of crimson mana flickered beneath his skin.
"LOSE!"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Target Under Extreme Combat Pressure
Rage Threshold: 71%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Outside the illusion, crimson energy suddenly flickered around Calen's body.
Students gasped loudly.
The dirt around him began cracking.
Hale kept his expression calm.
Internally:
*OH THIS IS WORKING WAY TOO WELL.*
Inside the illusion, the towering shadow took another step.
The pressure became unbearable.
Calen's vision blurred.
His muscles screamed.
Fear consumed everything—
Until rage answered.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Rage Threshold: 85%
Berserker Bloodline Stimulating…
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A violent pulse erupted from Calen's chest.
CRACK.
The illusion realm shook violently.
The darkness fractured.
The towering shadow paused.
Calen slowly rose from one knee.
His eyes glowed crimson now.
Breathing heavily.
Teeth clenched.
Every ounce of fear transforming into raw fury.
"You…"
Crimson energy exploded outward from his body.
The illusion realm cracked further.
"You think…"
The ground beneath him shattered.
"…I'M WEAK?!"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Rage Threshold: 96%
Bloodline Unlock Imminent
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Outside—
The students backed away instinctively.
Calen's aura was becoming monstrous.
Red mana spiraled violently around his body like flames.
The pressure became suffocating.
Even Lyra looked shocked now.
Serin looked moments away from crying.
Ronan stared intensely.
Elira looked amazed.
"Incredible…" she whispered.
Then—
BOOOOOOM.
Crimson power exploded from Calen completely.
A massive shockwave ripped across the training field.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
BERSERKER BLOODLINE: UNLOCKED
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Calen roared.
Not shouted.
ROARED.
The sound felt inhuman.
The illusion realm shattered completely.
Fear vanished.
Only rage remained.
And unfortunately—
The system immediately flashed another notification.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WARNING:
Target Rationality Lost
Lethal Attack Detected
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Hale's soul left his body briefly.
*EXCUSE ME?!*
Before Hale could deactivate the Grimoire—
Calen moved.
The crimson aura surrounding him condensed around his fist.
The pressure became monstrous.
The boy launched forward like a cannon.
Straight toward Hale's chest.
Students screamed instantly.
"INSTRUCTOR!"
"He's going to kill him!"
Internally Hale agreed completely.
*I HAVE MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE.*
No time to dodge.
No time to run.
No time to emotionally process his life choices.
Hale immediately released the Grimoire and grabbed the Ancient Sealing Book hidden within his opposite pocket.
Pain exploded through his arm as synchronization activated.
Ten percent.
Maximum safe output.
His bones already felt like molten glass.
Still—
He extended one hand forward.
*Seal.*
The glowing chains inside the artifact activated.
*Reverse.*
Golden light surged through Hale's palm.
*Store.*
Then—
Calen's fist connected.
BOOOOOOOOOOM.
The impact exploded across the training field like artillery fire.
A massive shockwave erupted outward.
Dust blasted into the air.
Students were nearly thrown backward.
The stone walls cracked.
Wind roared violently through the arena.
For one horrifying second—
Hale genuinely thought his arm detached from reality.
Pain shot through every nerve in his body.
The Ancient Sealing Book screamed within his pocket as it absorbed the strike.
The kinetic force.
The mana.
The Berserker energy.
Everything.
Then the artifact reversed it instantly.
BOOOOOOM.
Calen's own attack detonated backward into him.
The crimson-haired boy flew through the air violently before crashing hard into the dirt dozens of feet away.
The aura vanished instantly.
Silence followed.
Dust drifted slowly through the air.
The students stared in frozen disbelief.
And in the center of the ruined arena—
Ethan Hale still stood exactly where he started.
One hand extended calmly.
Long black coat billowing dramatically through the settling dust.
He looked untouchable.
Invincible.
Like a war god who casually stopped a berserker charge barehanded.
Internally?
Hale was experiencing unimaginable suffering.
*MY ARM.*
*OH GOD MY ARM.*
*IT'S COOKED.*
His entire right hand trembled uncontrollably inside his sleeve.
The skin was red.
Burned.
Faint smoke curled from his fingertips.
The backlash nearly made him scream aloud.
But perception.
Was.
Survival.
So Hale slowly lowered his hand.
Calmly.
Smoothly.
Like he had planned everything perfectly.
The students looked absolutely terrified now.
Serin was visibly shaking.
One ordinary student had fallen backward entirely.
Lyra's emotional composure cracked for the first time since meeting Hale.
Her silver eyes widened slightly.
Because she realized something horrifying.
Instructor Hale hadn't even moved.
Not one step.
Calen's awakened berserker strike—
An attack strong enough to crater stone—
Had been stopped with a single hand.
Ronan slowly lowered his book.
For the first time, genuine respect appeared in his eyes.
Elira practically sparkled with admiration.
"That was SO COOL!"
Hale appreciated her enthusiasm.
Unfortunately he was currently fighting for consciousness.
Still—
He forced himself to speak calmly.
"Medical team."
His voice remained terrifyingly steady despite the agony screaming through his nervous system.
"Retrieve Draxford."
Several academy healers who had been observing nearby snapped into motion immediately.
"He has overexerted himself."
Understatement of the century.
The healers rushed toward the unconscious Calen.
Meanwhile Hale slowly turned toward the rest of the class.
Every student straightened instantly.
"Power," Hale said quietly, "without discipline…"
He clenched his burned hand harder inside his sleeve to stop the shaking.
"…is merely self-destruction."
The students listened silently.
Terrified.
Awed.
Completely convinced they had just witnessed an S-rank master casually suppressing a berserker awakening.
"Class dismissed."
Nobody argued.
Nobody moved carelessly.
The students dispersed slowly while repeatedly glancing back toward Hale.
Whispers exploded instantly once they were far enough away.
"Did you SEE that?!"
"He blocked it barehanded!"
"Calen awakened!"
"Instructor Hale is a monster!"
Hale ignored all of it.
Slowly.
Calmly.
He turned and walked away from the ruined training grounds.
Each step measured perfectly.
Each movement controlled.
A picture of absolute dominance.
The moment he rounded the corner of the academy building and vanished from sight—
He collapsed against the nearest wall immediately.
"OH MY GOD."
Hale slid downward dramatically until he sat on the ground clutching his smoking hand.
Pain pulsed violently through his arm.
"I survived…"
He laughed breathlessly.
"I ACTUALLY survived."
Then—
DING.
The system panels appeared rapidly before him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUEST UPDATED
AWAKEN THE FIVE HIDDEN POTENTIALS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Calen Draxford
Status: Awakened
Berserker Bloodline Unlocked
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Progress: 1/5 Completed
Reward: +60 PX
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Hale stared at the reward.
Then laughed again weakly.
"Worth it."
Maybe not physically.
Definitely not emotionally.
But strategically?
Absolutely worth it.
Another notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Destiny Branch Adjusted
Current Survival Chance: 24%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Hale stared silently.
"Twenty-four percent…"
Still terrible.
Still horrifying.
Still meant destiny wanted him dead.
But—
Higher than nineteen.
Progress.
Real progress.
He leaned his head back against the cold stone wall and closed his eyes briefly.
Today he had manipulated a forbidden shadow artifact.
Triggered a berserker awakening.
Survived a lethal strike from a future calamity.
And maintained his terrifying fake persona successfully.
Honestly?
That was impressive.
Even if most of it happened through panic and desperation.
Hale slowly opened his eyes again and looked toward his trembling burned hand.
Then toward the distant training field.
One hidden potential awakened.
Four remaining.
A small smile appeared on his face.
Not fake this time.
Real.
Confident.
Dangerous.
"One down," Ethan Hale whispered quietly.
The system glowed softly beside him.
"Four monsters to go."