"Ugh, I really don't like winter," Jin sneezed.
Jin was wearing a woolen outfit adorned with the academy's signature, these winter uniforms were provided for all students to wear in the cold weather.
He and the other students were heading to the History Hall as usual, but Jin and the others noticed something strange.
First, there were fewer teachers than usual this week, and Saruman's main building was closed the entire time.
Second, the S- category students were completely absent during this week too.
"This week is really strange… and it's also weird that I haven't heard anyone talk about them for a while" Jin sighed in boredom
B-category students always kept up with news about S-category, as they were obsessed with them.
The group was divided into factions supporting certain S-category members, discussing their news or betting on who would come out on top next month.
For example, many supported Jonathan Malakith, while others cheered for Yomi Artavelia. Alucard Shanzu had supporters from both sides.
Anyway this week also, students were allowed to leave the academy and by the way they could do this twice a month to buy what they needed from the main city or to visit their families.
So, Jin decided he will go out later to pick up some personal necessities.
Jin and the other students went to their daily classes as usual, with the first lecture being taught by teacher Itchiki. They sat in their usual seats, waiting for their teacher.
The students were talking about various things while Jin silently looked out the window, bored.
A few minutes later, Teacher Itchiki entered the classroom, placed his book on the desk, and looked at the students.
"Students, I have some news for you. Combat lessons with Teacher John will be postponed for a while."
The students expressed their frustration saying,
"Why is it postponed?"
"The only lessons that are useful to us are the ones that get canceled!"
"What the hell is going on?"
Teacher Itchiki sighed deeply and said as he coughing as usual, "Ehm well… although I was supposed to stay silent, I'll tell you that a dangerous gate has appeared."
"For now, Saruman and some of the other teachers and saints are handling it."
"Ehmm and by the way, Teacher Catherine's lecture will also be postponed for a while. So you'll all have some extra free time for a week or two, so make sure to enjoy it and get some rest while you can."
Silence filled the classroom, and everyone's expressions turned to shock.
"Oh my god… what kind of gate requires several saints to close it?"
"Did he just say Saruman himself, along with a number of saints?!"
"My god, that sounds really dangerous."
Everyone murmured and discussed this sudden surprise, even though Saruman wasn't the strongest in the continent he was one of the few truly powerful ones.
His personally going with other saints meant only one thing... a high-level gate had appeared somewhere!
Jin felt a little worried. "Well… that's unexpected."
These thoughts lingered in everyone's minds until one student raised their hand and asked, "What about the S-category students? They've been missing for a while."
The teacher answered, "Oh… you could say they've already returned home because their families asked them to come back"
The students realized that the teacher meant their families had asked them to go back because of the gate. It seemed the gate was truly dangerous dangerous enough to worry even the royal families.
One student asked, "Teacher, where did the gate appear?"
The teacher replied, "No more questions about the gate. You'll know about the details later. For now, open your books for today's lesson I expect you've prepared."
When the class ended, everyone had a long stretch of free time.
Jin decided to return to his room, but first he will go outside the academy to buy some personal supplies.
As he was moving through the academy's roads, he felt a familiar sensation he had been experiencing for a while.
Whenever he passed by this road, especially this building he gets a strange feeling, or rather he felt that something was drawing him towards that building...
This building was part of the scientific complex and contained a room that Howell had warned him about. Howell said it was dangerous and could even lead to a student's expulsion if they entered that area.
This building was the Idris basement.
Although Jin was aware of the risks of entering, he strongly wanted to go inside. Not out of simple curiosity, but because his body always reacted strangely whenever he passed nearby.
And since the guards were fewer than usual today, gathered at the Academy gate for some reason, a crazy idea came to Jin's mind, he will sneak into the basement today and take a quick look inside!
Jin entered the scientific building, pretending he was there just to do some scientific experiments, then quietly made his way toward the basement without anyone noticing.
He took a deep breath and muttered, "Alright… I'll gamble a little and hope I don't get caught."
The basement was tightly sealed, but there was a way Jin could get inside.
Although he hated the idea deep down, he decided to use his powers to find out why his body always reacted whenever he approached this basement.
He cut his finger slightly with his teeth, letting the blood flow, and imagined it forming the shape of the basement key.
With that, he was able to enter the basement easily!
Looking around, Jin shaked from the seen "What a horrifying room!"
The place was filled with the corpses of real Chaos creatures, and the smell was unbearable. Jin even wondered how students outside the room couldn't smell it.
He followed the room deeper until he stopped in front of a disgusting corpse.
The creature was headless, but its body remained intact, revealing every detail.
Its body was fixed to the wall, its hands secured by massive nails in the shape of a cross, and it has a long wings covered in thick, raven-like feathers.
The creature was at least five meters tall, its skin a deep purple, and it had massive hands ending in three sharp claws.
The lower half of its body was like a gigantic snake, covered in thick scales harder than iron itself.
Jin stared at the creature, sweating "It's the Typhon…"
Typhon was one of the most dangerous demonic Chaos beings, known for its brutal power.
But Jin was now certain that this creature was the one that had been pulling him toward the basement all along.
He moved his hands closer to the creature to touch it, and suddenly in a second the creature's blood flowed into his hands...
All this happened so suddenly that the powerful creature of just moments before was now nothing but lifeless flesh and skin, devoid of a drop of blood!
Then, unexpectedly, he heard a voice of a girl he had long forgotten…
"Ding! Congratulations you killed a Demon. Your stats have improved."
Jin was speechless, unable to comprehend what had happened.
So He swallowed hard and asked the paper to see the statistics.
" Paper ... show me the statistics "
Then the paper appeard and what was written in it shocked jin so hard as he stared at it for 3 whole minutes !
─────────────────────────
[ Statistics ]
Title: Corrupted
Rank: Lurien
Artifacts: 0/1
Weapons: 0/1
Summons: 0/1
Kills: 4 / 500
Ancient Souls: 0/ ???
─────────────────────────
Jin slowly regained some awareness, but he was terrifie... the Typhon was alive — and somehow he just killed it !
His head was spinning, a sharp headache cutting through him, as he stared at the corpse in front of him, realizing he had caused a disaster that could put him in serious danger.
"shit…" he muttered.
He quickly fled the basement, shutting the door behind him, and hurried back to his room and forgetting entirely that he had planned to go out to buy some supplies outside the academy.
When he returned to his room, he opened the statistics again and focused on the word written in it " Corrupted "
Jin didn't understand what was meant by "Corrupted ," but one thing was for sure, he managed to get a title.
He wanted to ask the paper what it meant, but the paper just replied, "It's your title."
The answer was so stupid that Jin pushed the paper away and went to sleep, hoping no one would ever discover what he had done…
-----------------------------
A week had passed since Jin had entered the forbidden room, and nothing had happened during that week.
But as he was walking through the academy to go to his usual classes, he noticed that the atmosphere had suddenly become chaotic.
Everyone was moving quickly, their faces grim and tense.
"Move !" one student shout as he pushed jin by accident.
Curious, Jin followed him and found a crowd gathered around a familiar figure… Saruman. He was severely injured, and some of the teachers looked equally desperate.
Around them were numerous students and medics rushing to treat the wounded.
"What the hell is happening?" Jin thought, staring in shock.
Everyone was in shock.. how Saruman the great saint got injured in top of that how many teachers which are powerful Awakened commanders get in the desperate situation !
Jin asked a random student standing nearby, "What's going on here?"
The student didn't care who was asking and replied "It's a disaster… a disaster in every sense of the word."
Jin pressed, "What do you mean?"
The student replied, "It's a Level Seven Gate!"
Jin's heart skipped a beat. "A Level Seven Gate? Where?"
The student said, " Anvil… the whole city is wiped out and millions have been killed there !"
Hearing this, Jin's mind went blank. His vision blurred, then he collapsed to his knees as if the world around him had shattered.
He stared at the ground, overwhelmed by shock and pain. His face were lost in despair, and he felt as if everything inside him had broken.
From that day on, something inside Jin changed—he became a different person…