Ethan Hale sat alone in his dormitory room, staring blankly at the wall like a man whose soul had been personally insulted by reality.
Moonlight spilled softly through the tall academy windows, painting silver lines across the wooden floor.
The room was quiet.
Too quiet.
Because inside Hale's head?
Absolute chaos.
He slowly raised his right hand and examined it carefully.
Normal.
Completely normal.
No glowing runes.
No legendary aura explosions.
No signs that this exact hand had indirectly caused an SSS-rank prodigy to vaporize a priceless academy artifact six hours ago.
"…Amazing," Hale whispered.
He flexed his fingers.
Pain immediately shot through his palms.
"OW."
Right.
The burns from the Ancient Sealing Book.
Still there.
Still disrespectful.
Hale leaned backward in his chair dramatically and stared at the floating blue system screen hanging in front of him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current Survival Chance: 19%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Silence.
"…Nineteen percent."
He rubbed both temples slowly.
"I genuinely have a better chance of becoming emotionally stable than surviving this storyline."
The system did not respond.
Probably because even it knew he was right.
Hale let out a long exhausted sigh and looked toward the two glowing notifications still floating near the corner of his vision.
Main Quest:
AWAKEN THE FIVE HIDDEN POTENTIALS
Reward:
300 PX
Store Expansion
Instructor's Insight Upgrade
Failure:
Destiny Destabilization (Severe)
That last line still felt incredibly threatening.
"Destiny destabilization," Hale muttered.
"What does that even mean?"
Did the world explode?
Did HE explode?
Did the timeline file a complaint and uninstall itself?
The vagueness was terrifying.
Still…
300 PX.
That amount of points could completely change his situation.
Right now the Tier-0 Store barely offered survival essentials:
Minor mana recovery potions.
Weak defensive charms.
Beginner skill scrolls.
Emergency stamina injections.
Nothing incredible.
But if he unlocked Tier 1?
That changed everything.
More importantly—
He needed power immediately.
Because his current situation was horrifying.
To survive the future storylines and eventual Demon King return, he needed to awaken five future monsters.
Unfortunately, the awakening requirements sounded like psychological warfare designed by an evil therapist.
Hale mentally reviewed them again.
"Lyra: Emotional catalyst."
He sighed.
"So I need to emotionally heal the frost queen."
"Calen: Extreme combat pressure."
He looked at his own body.
"If that guy punches me once, I'll become modern art."
"Serin: Confidence development."
"That one's manageable."
Pause.
"Maybe."
"Ronan: Controlled shadow release."
"…That sounds illegal."
Finally—
"Elira: Mana overflow or near-death trigger."
Hale stared at the ceiling.
"…Near-death."
Silence.
"WHY IS THE CHEERFUL ONE ALWAYS THE MOST TERRIFYING?!"
He buried his face into both hands.
The entire situation was insane.
He wasn't a legendary instructor.
He wasn't secretly overpowered.
He wasn't some ancient hidden master.
He was just a guy aggressively surviving through panic, luck, and aura-based misinformation.
And somehow—
It was working.
Which honestly scared him more.
Hale slowly lowered his hands and glanced toward the Ancient Sealing Book resting on the desk beside him.
The chained artifact pulsed softly with golden light.
At only ten percent synchronization, it already nearly cooked his nervous system alive.
Strong?
Absolutely.
But limited.
The artifact excelled defensively.
Absorption.
Reversal.
Counterattacks.
But Hale lacked offensive options.
Something capable of creating genuine pressure.
Something terrifying enough to push awakening conditions without actually murdering his students.
His eyes slowly narrowed.
Then—
A memory surfaced.
Not his own.
Game knowledge.
Lore knowledge.
Knowledge from *Revenant Kingdom Online.*
Hale straightened slightly.
"…Wait."
There WAS another artifact hidden inside Rowanveil Academy.
A dangerous one.
A forbidden one.
The Dreadborne Grimoire.
His expression darkened.
In the original game storyline, the artifact was discovered much later by a secondary villain during the academy collapse arc.
A cursed grimoire capable of manipulating shadow, fear, and high-level illusions.
Most users went insane after touching it.
Others got consumed completely.
Only powerful individuals could dominate its will safely.
Hale stared at the ceiling quietly.
"…Well."
Pause.
"My survival rate is already nineteen percent."
Another pause.
"What's the worst that could happen?"
His survival instincts immediately answered.
*DEATH. HORRIBLE DEATH.*
"Fair point."
Still…
He needed that artifact.
Without offensive pressure, awakening Calen's Berserker Bloodline safely would be nearly impossible.
The Dreadborne Grimoire's illusion magic could create realistic combat experiences without actual lethal danger.
Perfect.
Terrifying.
Probably cursed.
Exactly what he needed.
Before common sense could stop him, Hale grabbed his long black instructor coat and stood up.
"Okay," he muttered.
"New objective."
He pointed dramatically toward the door.
"Acquire evil shadow book."
Then he paused.
"…That sentence alone should concern me."
The academy hallways were nearly silent at this hour.
Only dim magical lanterns illuminated the ancient stone corridors.
Hale walked calmly through the darkness while internally experiencing escalating regret.
"Why am I doing this at night?"
Because forbidden artifacts always activated at night.
Because horror logic hated him personally.
Because if students saw him sneaking into restricted underground ruins carrying cursed books, the rumors would evolve into religious prophecy.
That too.
Eventually Hale reached the restricted lower staircases beneath Rowanveil Academy.
The atmosphere changed immediately.
The deeper he descended, the colder the air became.
Ancient torches flickered weakly along the walls.
Long shadows stretched unnaturally across the floor.
The stone architecture looked older here.
Much older.
Like this part of the academy existed before the academy itself.
Hale swallowed nervously.
"This place is absolutely haunted."
A distant metallic scraping sound echoed through the darkness.
Hale froze instantly.
"…Nope."
Another sound followed.
Heavy footsteps.
Stone grinding against stone.
Then—
Two glowing red eyes opened within the darkness ahead.
A Stone Gargoyle slowly stepped forward from an alcove in the wall.
Level 12.
Academy defense construct.
Massive claws.
Thick stone armor.
Enough strength to tear apart ordinary students easily.
Hale stared at it.
The Gargoyle stared back.
Internally:
*I am unarmed.*
*I am underqualified.*
*I am walking seasoned meat.*
The Gargoyle crouched aggressively.
Hale prepared to fake confidence so hard reality itself might collapse.
Then suddenly—
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Passive Skill Activated:
Dangerous Aura
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A wave of invisible pressure spread naturally from Hale's body.
The Gargoyle froze.
Its glowing eyes widened slightly.
The construct slowly looked Hale up and down.
Then—
The monster made the saddest grinding noise Hale had ever heard.
"…grk."
And immediately backed away.
Slowly.
Respectfully.
Before quietly returning to its original statue position.
The red eyes turned off.
It pretended to be decoration again.
Hale blinked.
Silence.
"…Good boy?"
No response.
Hale stared at the fake statue suspiciously.
"You were absolutely about to kill me thirty seconds ago."
Still nothing.
The gargoyle committed fully to the act.
Honestly impressive.
Hale exhaled deeply.
"This aura skill is carrying my entire career."
He continued downward.
The lower chambers became darker with every step.
At some point the academy noises disappeared completely.
No students.
No teachers.
No life.
Only silence.
And something else.
Whispers.
Faint.
Ancient.
Barely audible.
Hale's skin crawled instantly.
"Nope."
The whispers continued.
"Absolutely nope."
Eventually he reached a massive rusted iron door at the bottom of the staircase.
Ancient symbols covered its surface.
Most had faded beyond recognition.
But Hale remembered this place from the game lore.
Beneath Rowanveil Academy existed remnants of an older civilization.
One obsessed with forbidden magic and dimensional experiments.
The academy had simply been built over the ruins centuries later.
Which was somehow incredibly irresponsible.
Hale pushed against the heavy iron doors.
They opened slowly with a deep groaning sound.
Beyond them—
Darkness.
Thick.
Heavy.
Almost alive.
At the center of the chamber stood a cracked obsidian pedestal.
And resting atop it—
A black-purple grimoire radiating horrifying miasma.
The Dreadborne Grimoire.
The air around it warped unnaturally.
Shadow-like mist curled from the pages.
The entire room felt hostile.
Like the artifact hated existence itself.
Then—
A voice whispered beside Hale's ear.
"Come…"
Hale nearly ascended spiritually.
"…Child of the Dark Aura…"
The voice was ancient.
Distorted.
Wrong.
"…I have waited…"
Every instinct inside Hale screamed RUN.
Immediately.
Violently.
He wanted to sprint back upstairs, lock his door, and pretend none of this happened.
Unfortunately—
Perception was survival.
If cursed artifacts sensed weakness?
Bad things happened.
So Hale straightened his posture slowly.
Cold expression.
Sharp eyes.
Terrified soul.
Business as usual.
The voice continued.
"…Bearer of incomplete fate…"
Purple-black miasma spread outward from the grimoire like grasping fingers.
"…Awaken…"
Hale slowly stepped forward.
One step.
Then another.
His boots echoed ominously through the chamber.
Inside?
Pure panic.
Outside?
Final boss energy.
Finally he stopped before the pedestal and looked down at the cursed artifact calmly.
Then he delivered the most important line of his career.
"You talk too much."
Silence.
Even Hale almost got chills hearing himself.
*WHY AM I SO GOOD AT ACCIDENTALLY SOUNDING COOL?!*
The grimoire suddenly released a violent wave of dark magic.
The miasma surged upward aggressively toward Hale's face.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WARNING:
Hostile Dark Magic Detected
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The pressure intensified instantly.
The chamber shook slightly.
Ancient whispers screamed from the walls.
Then—
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Dangerous Aura Intercepting…
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The dark magic touched Hale's passive aura.
And froze.
The system reacted immediately.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Target Assessment:
Dreadborne Grimoire detects overwhelming hostile entity.
Conclusion:
SUBMISSION ADVISED.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The grimoire physically trembled.
The purple miasma instantly recoiled back into the pages like a dog realizing it barked at a dragon.
The whispering voice suddenly changed tones completely.
"…Apologies."
Hale nearly lost composure.
*IT APOLOGIZED.*
The evil cursed artifact APOLOGIZED to him.
Internally, Hale celebrated harder than humanly reasonable.
*LET'S GOOOOOOOO.*
Outwardly, he simply sneered faintly.
"Sensible."
He reached down calmly and picked up the grimoire with one hand.
The artifact immediately became obedient.
Like a workplace employee trying not to anger upper management.
DING.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Artifact Acquired:
Dreadborne Grimoire (Sealed)
Type:
Illusion / Shadow Control
Abilities:
• Tier-4 Shadow Illusions
• Fear Inducement
• Pressure Zones
Status:
Submissive to Host Aura
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Hale's eyes widened slightly.
"…Oh."
This was perfect.
Actually perfect.
The artifact specialized in psychological pressure rather than direct destruction.
Meaning—
He could create realistic combat situations without lethal risk.
Calen's combat pressure requirement?
Solved.
Ronan's shadow-control training?
Possible.
Fear inducement?
Useful.
Extremely unethical probably.
But useful.
Hale hugged the grimoire slightly closer.
"I love manipulative shadow magic."
Then he paused.
"…That sounded concerning."
The return trip upstairs felt significantly less terrifying.
Mostly because now the underground monsters looked at Hale like he was carrying a nuclear weapon.
One basement slime literally squeezed itself into a drain pipe to avoid him.
Honestly understandable.
Eventually Hale returned safely to his dormitory.
The moment he entered the room, he placed the Dreadborne Grimoire carefully beside the Ancient Sealing Book.
Then stopped.
And stared.
Two legendary world-altering artifacts sat on his cheap wooden desk.
One radiated golden sealing energy.
The other leaked dark purple shadows.
Together they looked incredibly dramatic.
Owned by:
A man whose legs still hurt from walking downstairs too quickly.
Hale slowly sat in his chair.
Then burst into exhausted laughter.
"This world is ridiculous."
He opened the system menu again.
The Store icon glowed faintly now.
Tomorrow would be important.
Class Astra was scheduled for outdoor combat training.
And tomorrow—
He would test the Dreadborne Grimoire properly.
Specifically on Calen Draxford.
The future berserker monster.
Hale leaned back slowly while imagining the chaos already.
"Tomorrow," he whispered into the quiet room, "I'm going to psychologically traumatize several teenagers."
The Dreadborne Grimoire pulsed approvingly.
The Ancient Sealing Book glowed faintly.
Hale pointed at both artifacts immediately.
"Do NOT encourage me."
Silence.
Then Hale sighed and looked toward the moon outside his window.
Fear still existed.
So did uncertainty.
But now?
He finally had tools.
Real tools.
Maybe his survival rate was still terrible.
Maybe the future still looked horrifying.
But for the first time—
Hale felt like he might actually have a chance to fight back.
A small smile slowly appeared on his face.
"Alright then," he murmured.
"Let's rewrite fate properly."