In today's survival tactics, Blight was joined by Marsuu, Shazbot, Bernault, and Leyhart.
The instructor was giving a more in-depth lesson on Horrors.
"Like humans, horrors also have realms, ten of them to be exact. However, the way they gain strength is different from ours, they absorb the latent ether in the air to strengthen themselves."
"They also do not need to undergo ascension to advance to the next realm. Once they have reached the peak of their current realm and cross the threshold, they magically advance."
"Of course, there are some special cases of horrors having even more unique strength progression paths like eating each other or humans, even devouring consciousness or emotions, but these are the exception."
Blight could hear a few chairs creak as the trainees shifted around in their chairs uneasily.
"There are many different kinds of Horrors, coming in many different shapes and sizes, their appearances can vary, but beyond the walls, you will find that many of them exist in groups consisting of similar-looking horrors."
"Once they reach the second realm, they can create descendants of themselves. Some lay eggs, others give live births. There are many 'groups' of horrors like this who are ruled by at least one higher realm horror."
One trainee raised her hand, and the instructor paused.
"Yes, Kelly-Anne?"
"Sir, what is required for them to give birth to other horrors?"
The instructor shook his head.
"We don't know, most of the horrors that exist today are descendants of the original beings, the ancient horrors, and their number grows ever more. But still, most of the ancient horrors never made any descendants, and many of them still exist today."
The instructor continued.
"Unlike us, the horrors do not grow old and die. For as long as there is ether, it seems that they can live forever unless they are killed."
Blight gulped.
As he was leaving to go to his next class, sorcery, which only had one class per day at this time, he noticed Shazbot from behind, trying to catch up to him.
"Hey, what's up? Aren't you going to swordsmanship?"
Shazbot shook his head, "nah, I want to try sorcery."
Blight's eyebrows shot up. "How come, weren't you the one telling us it was useless?"
Shazbot looked at him and scratched his head, replying without any confidence.
"Hehe, I changed my mind."
Despite never having taken the class, Shazbot always repeated the rhetoric that it was useless, which was the public sentiment.
Well, it was still good that he had finally come around.
When they arrived at the classroom, the old man was standing up front and a few of the trainees were already sitting down, including the legendary ranked number one girl in the regiment.
The instructor turned to look at him.
"Come sit down, you're already late!"
He nodded.
"Hmm, you brought a friend?"
"Who knew that even such a socially inept kid like you could make friends!"
The instructor laughed, and a few of his classmates smiled too.
Blight said helplessly, "This is Shazbot, he wants to learn sorcery too."
The old man turned to look at Shazbot, and after a few seconds gave him a knowing look.
"That's fine, but I won't have time to teach him anything I've already gone over. You can help him catch up."
The old man gave him the same book with different surge spells to choose from.
Shazbot's boon and lineage both had great affinity with the role of acting as a scout.
His boon gave him a kind of danger sense ability, he could for example look at two paths and see one of them highlighted in green, and another in black.
One would be the safe path to take, wheras the other led to death.
But this was an oversimplification. It was much more complicated than that, the entire world appeared as an overwhelming myriad of colours to him, and he had to decipher it.
The only thing it didn't show him was a color overlay for other people.
His lineage was related to being an expedition scout, and his first ability was that he could press his ears against the ground to detect the positions of moving beings within a few kilometers distance.
The surge he chose to learn was called "Mark", it was a rank one surge with progressive variations at higher ranks too.
It allowed him to infuse a small object like a stone or a twig with his ether.
Once marked, this object would record ambient sounds and vibrations over a duration of roughly eight hours.
At any time in this period, or within around two days after it ended, Shazbot could retrieve the object and, by touching it, could absorb the recorded sensory information within it.
"I never considered this spell, but it will surely synergize well with the abilities you already have."
Shazbot nodded while reading over its surge manual.
Blight had already summarised most of the previous teachings to him so he knew the basics of how sorcery worked and was ready to start learning.
One thing Blight noticed was that Shazbot kept on glancing at the legendary ranked girl in their class. He would look at her whenever she was unaware, or anytime he spoke to guage her reaction.
By the end of the class, he understood that this guy had a massive crush on Flonecia.
Blight thought he was genuinely interested in learning sorcery. It turned out he was only here to steal glances at a girl!
He shook his head disdainfully and felt proud of himself.
'Pathetic! At least I'm not a pervert. I don't have to worry about girls.'
It was a new word he learned after attending the barracks.
But soon he couldn't help but feel his sense of pride was misplaced.
The day continued like the day before, after completing all of their classes his group met in the training grounds and continued their sparring session.
He fought against Avil, Devin, Marsuu, and Leyhart and studied all the other fights.
After dinner, he retired to his room and continued to study [Spider Sling].
He soon drifted into sleep in his chair while practicing sorcery.
But something unexpected occurred.
Where there should have been nothingness, Blight was startled awake, and a towering golden bell appeared in his vision.
He recognised it was the manifestation of his resonance, [Bound].
The bell hung suspended in the void, its surface gleaming with an otherworldly luster.
Without warning, it began to swing gently, the motion growing with each pass.
A deep, resonant toll emanated from within, each chime sending ripples that passed through him.
The sound intensified, reverberating through his very being. Each toll felt like a hammer striking his soul.
The bell's swing grew more violent. He tried to resist and shield himself from the onslaught, but the resonance was relentless.
He kneeled, mouth agape, as he clutched at his heart. His mind was in disarray as the presence of something unfathomable entered him.
Cracks formed in his consciousness, fissures spread as the tolling continued.
With a final, thunderous toll, the bell's sound shattered everything, leaving only silence.
Blight felt as if his consciousness had merged with the void from earlier, there was nothing, yet everything at the same time.
Soon after, another change occurred, and he was shown a vision.
It was of the clan fortress on Nameless Peak.
The first wall, the great wall of Riven, had fallen.
The once imposing wall lay in ruins. Massive stones were scattered like mere pebbles.
Flames licked the edges of the debris, casting eerie shadows that danced amidst the chaos.
The fortress was overrun by Horrors of different kinds and sizes, waging war against the gods and the earth, and spreading corruption on the earth.
The survivors of the clan defended the fortress with desperate vigour.
He noticed movement near the second wall.
A shadow moved across the sky, circling around the fortress. Something alive—vast, winged, and ancient. Its wings stretched hundreds of meters wide, and its glossy black scales shimmered with a subtle iridescence.
Blight felt suffocated by its presence. It emanated an unspeakable pressure on his being.
The Red Legion, known for their discipline and strength, were in disarray. Their crimson mark, once a symbol of hope, was now stained with soot and blood.
They fought valiantly, forming defensive lines, but the Horrors were relentless.
Blight watched as one regiment made a stand at a breached section of the wall.
They held their ground, striking with their blades and powerful abilities, but it was no use, and one by one, they all fell. The Horrors swarmed over them, like a tide of darkness consuming all in its path.
In another corner of the besieged wall, the ether of the world seemed to be in disorder as a clan elder launched a powerful attack.
A humongous war chariot descended from the skies above, sieging the invading horrors.
The current clan leader, Cato, levitated in the sky above the fortress, looking towards the flying horror with his arms raised into the air.
Blight could feel his blood boil as he watched him launch a powerful attack towards it.
The fabric of space seemed to tear, giving birth to a towering sword of destruction that struck down towards the horror.
One of its wings was cut, and a fountain of blood rained down from the skies.
From above, the winged beast let out a deafening growl, its eyes glowed with malevolence.
It swooped down, unleashing a torrent of fire from its maw that engulfed the center of the fortress. The heat was intense, and the flames consumed everything.