Abyssal Awakening

Hephas – The Forge. Special class Handicrafts Student.

Fynn – The Scholar. Special class Theory Student.

Fae – The Witch. Special class Combat Student.

Luke – The Warden. Special class Handicrafts Student.

Their titles weren\'t just nicknames that were given to them by the students. It was a representation of the weapons and relics granted to them as congratulations for becoming Special class Students.

"There are a few interesting ones in the Theory Department this time. The technique he used seemed to be from the Astram family. Only the Astram family uses the Stasis technique during an operation." Fynn yawned while leaning back in his seat.

"What rank do you think he\'s aiming for?" Fae asked with a smile.

"Who knows. If he\'s aiming for Special class then he\'ll need to defeat Arunya first." Fynn shrugged.

Arunya was the closest to becoming a Special class Student after him. Yet she still failed in the end. While it was partially due to bad luck, one couldn\'t blame everything on bad luck. Those with capabilities can push through even in the face of bad luck.

"Luke, where are the friends you mentioned will be taking this test? I want to see how they\'re faring." Hephas asked with a hearty laugh. As they\'re both part of the Handicrafts department, they often hang out with one another.

"Well… Ria killed her beast instantly ahaha. While Alice is the one next to her, the one with the hood." Luke chuckled while scratching his cheek. He had seen the way Ria handled that scalpel. Even though she tried to restrain her power, it was still too rough for an operation.

"If they\'re going for the Combat Department then there\'s no need to be good with a scalpel." Fae chimed in.

While the Special class Students were discussing with one another, Garret and Xinbei sneaked a peak towards the principal.

She maintained a mysterious smile on her face while humming a tune.

Neither of them knew why she changed the exams just for Alice but they didn\'t want to verbalise their questions. After all, she might just shrug them off like usual.

Ignoring these stares, the principal simply kept her eyes on Alice.

As an Abyss Beast, could sense a feeling of disgust and repulsion towards her. The way her blood smelled and the Sigils on her body invoked a primal hate from deep within.

This was the first time a human had caused her to feel this way. Even the Lords chosen by the Abyss could not invoke such reactions.

Yet a three Star girl had just done exactly that.

\'Does she feel dangerous because she\'s been chosen by Kaden and Allura? Or is it something else?\' She wondered to herself. She could sense Allura and Kaden\'s aura on her.

It was faint but unmistakable.

Regardless, she will see what Alice has to show during these exams. To invoke the curiosity of not just one but all three Head of Departments was quite the achievement.

Even the strongest graduate long ago had only attracted two of the Department Heads.

###

Moving onto the second half of the Theory Exams, each examinee was expected to face off against an Abyss beast using nothing but the blood they extracted.

"The blood you\'ve extracted is what we consider to be an extreme counter to the Bone Hound. With the right application and purity, even a single drop will be able to kill this beast. But, if you are to mess up, it\'ll send the beast into a frenzy. Your task is to showcase your knowledge without using any of your Sigil abilities~" Elara explained before snapping her finger.

From her body, countless appendages appeared and embedded themselves into the ground.

One by one, walls began to encircle each of the contestants, locking them into a one-on-one fight with the Bone Hound.

Looking at the beast before her, Alice was silent.

She had several vials of the blood that she had extracted but she was not familiar with this beast nor was she familiar with the blood.

Scratching her chin, Alice wondered how she should approach this.

Meanwhile, the beast glared at the girl in front of it but dared not to take a single step. It was merely holding its ground out of desperation.

Within her eyes, it felt as though it was staring at the monster within. A beast that sent fear into the Bone Hound\'s heart.

"Oh well, let\'s just give it a go. Worse comes to worse I don\'t get that many points here." Alice shrugged since there was no use in worrying about it.

Picking up the vials she had extracted from the table, she took calm collected steps towards the beast.

Several blades hovered beside her, warning the beast. Should it take a single step, the blades will shoot out and sever its limbs!

But no matter how scared it was, a cornered beast would still bite back!

*CRACK!

Just as the beast jumped towards Alice, she twisted her body and slammed her heel into its jaw with a roundhouse kick.

The cracking of its bones was audible as those who were spectating Alice cringed while imagining the pain the beast felt.

Collapsing onto the ground, the beast was dizzy from the kick and was unable to react to Alice grabbing it by the throat.

"Shh~ That\'s a good beast." Alice smiled ominously. Lifting the beast up while maintaining her grip, she poured a vial of blood into its mouth.

Seeing red veins pulse through its body along with the flow of energy around it, Alice understood that it was undergoing a similar transformation as the Grimwater Wyrm.

One Sigil Resonance!

Shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly, she injected the other vials into the beast\'s body, hoping to find the right area but all it did was continuously increase the beast\'s strength.

As the beast recovered from the concussion it received from Alice\'s kick, it felt a piercing pain in its chest.

With a single stab of her hand, Alice punctured a hole in the beast\'s chest and destroyed the heart!

Tossing the beast aside, she smeared some powdered blood beads onto the blood and shook it off using her blood manipulation.

With her jacket now clean, Alice smiled in satisfaction.

Seeing as how she was one of the first one to finish considering her beast was rather docile and that she killed it in one hit, Alice used the operating table as a seat and leaned back while looking towards the Inverted World in the distance.

After a while, the walls disappeared and Elara concluded the Theory Exams.

There were examinees lamenting the difficulty of the exam while Alice could only tilt her head in confusion.

In her eyes, the exam wasn\'t that hard. The only hard part was potentially the blood extraction. What Alice didn\'t know was that the Bone Hound was known to be extremely ferocious and hostile. More so when it goes berserk due to the addition of a certain type of blood.

But between her and the beast, the beast was more afraid of her than she was towards the beast thus she felt the exam was far easier.

For the other contestants, the second half was truly the most difficult part.

As for Ria… Just like the first half, she killed her beast and shrugged it off since she wasn\'t aiming for the Theory Department.

"Can we not just skip these tests? I\'m terrible with Theory and Handicrafts." Ria complained to Alice who could only shrug.

"I mean if you really don\'t want to do them you can just take the time to rest up and figure out what you want to do for the Combat test." Alice suggested.

Contemplating this for a moment, Ria made up her mind.

"Yep, that\'s exactly what I\'m going to do. I\'m made for punching things not reading them." She proclaimed.

With the Theory Exams done it was time for the Handicraft Exams.

Much like the Theory test, the Handicraft was split into three sections.

Abyss Blood Engineering, Blacksmithing and Tailoring.

The first two were by far the most popular out of the three but Tailoring serves a big purpose as well. Those who specialise in Tailoring are able to make Hunters Gear that are resistant to elemental Sigil Abilities.

Unlike her demonstration in the Theory test, Alice was completely clueless regarding these three subjects. Just like Ria, she skipped out on all three and noticed how Xinbei was a little disappointed she didn\'t have any hidden talents in Handicrafts.

Aside from fighting, drinking and knowledge around Abyss Blood, Alice didn\'t have many talents.

And finally, it was time for the Combat Exam. Upon the conclusion of the Handicraft exams, both Alice and Ria had a fire light up in their eyes as their interest was raised to the max.

Standing in front of everyone with his arms crossed, Garret swept his gaze over the crowd and focused momentarily on Alice and Ria.

The principle had asked him to be extra strict with those two to bring out their talents.

"I\'m not a man of many words. I believe actions speak louder than words. Thus the first part of the exam will be how well you can cope with this pressure." Garret grinned as he tapped his finger.

In an instant, a heavy pressure descended upon the crowd as several examinees slammed against the ground, unable to pull themselves up.

"This is just the basic pressure you\'ll feel once you start going deeper into the Abyss. But this is a far cry from what you feel in the Inverted World. If you cannot handle this then you can forget about joining the Combat Department!" Garret shouted.

If the surface of the Abyss and their current pressure was described as level one, what he was having them experience was level two.

But most impressive of all, Alice and Ria looked unaffected despite him raising their pressure up to level three!

\'Have they been deeper into the Abyss already?\' He wondered to himself as he understood why the principal wanted him to be more serious with these two. It was to find out the depth of their power.

Narrowing his eyes, he accepted this challenge.