Several days had passed since Aiden’s arrival at the Awakened Academy.
He spent those days carefully observing his surroundings.
He dedicated hours to experimenting with his Aspect, analyzing sparring matches between other Sleepers, and dissecting how they applied their abilities in practical combat.
Most of the duels he witnessed were surprisingly straightforward.
The majority of Sleepers relied heavily on standard longswords, basic footwork, and unrefined aggression.
However, one duel stood far above the rest, a match between Nephis and Caster.
The top two ranked Sleepers in the entire cohort.
Aiden wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to gather intelligence on the strongest students in the facility.
The duel was illuminating.
Caster was, without a doubt, the most formidable combatant Aiden had seen among the Sleepers.
Though Aiden couldn’t fully deduce the underlying mechanics of Caster’s Aspect, one thing was undeniable: the boy was fast.
His speed was exponentially greater than anyone else’s in the room.
It made Aiden immediately file him away as a target far better kept as an ally than an enemy.
And then there was Nephis, the Changing Star.
She was a complete enigma.
Beyond her quiet, detached demeanor, her performance against Caster felt wrong.
To an untrained eye, it looked like she had given the duel her all.
But to an experienced military strategist like Aiden, it was obvious she was holding back.
Even with his focused observation, he couldn’t determine what her Aspect actually did, or if she had even activated it during the fight.
She relied solely on fundamental sword techniques, ultimately conceding defeat to Caster.
Her loss triggered a wave of rumors throughout the Academy.
Sleepers openly questioned her actual capabilities, with many claiming her True Name was nothing more than an exaggerated fluke.
Aiden, however, placed her squarely on his “do not cross” list.
His caution wasn’t merely based on suspicion that she was concealing her power, it was reinforced by her emotional resonance.
Although he was still adapting to the passive feedback from [Emotional Vessel], he could easily register raw emotions within his immediate radius.
Yet, on the rare occasions he passed near Nephis, the emotional aura emanating from her felt eerie.
Hollow. New chapters come out on g.com first.
Almost entirely lifeless.
She felt almost completely devoid of emotion, leaving Aiden deeply unsettled.
Regardless, he refused to underestimate her.
If there was anyone in this facility he needed to maintain absolute vigilance around, it was Changing Star.
When he wasn’t observing duels, Aiden spent his hours in his subterranean room practicing forms with Kurohana.
Occasionally, he attended Instructor Julius’s wilderness survival lectures.
The classroom was almost always deserted, as most Sleepers preferred combat drills, but Aiden knew he lacked critical operational intelligence about the Dream Realm.
Julius’s detailed breakdowns of terrain, climate anomalies, and regional flora proved invaluable.
Then there was the matter of the blind girl.
When Aiden had first realized she was sightless, his cold tactical assessment gave her a survival chance of practically zero in the coming Winter Solstice.
Rumors among the Sleepers suggested she hadn’t been born blind; her vision had been lost immediately upon completing her First Nightmare.
Her blindness was the direct consequence of her Flaw.
It was a stark reminder that the Nightmare Spell’s Flaw mechanics were utterly merciless.
Aiden found himself being slightly more accommodating toward her.
Given her condition, Academy staff occasionally stepped in to assist her with logistics.
Whenever he saw her navigating the campus or carrying supplies, Aiden offered a hand or fetched what she needed.
She almost always politely declined, clearly determined to manage on her own, but he helped anyway.
Through these brief interactions, he learned her name was Cassia, the girl ranked dead last on the evaluation board.
Given her condition, her placement made brutal administrative sense.
Meanwhile, another student was constantly circulating through the Academy’s rumor mill: the Sleeper named Sunless.
He was the same scrawny, exhausted boy who shared a cafeteria table with Cassia.
According to the gossip, he was an arrogant liar who boasted about slaying a Fallen Tyrant in his First Nightmare and securing an impossibly high trial evaluation.
As a result, his reputation across the Academy was in absolute tatters.
Aiden found the story equally hard to swallow.
The idea of an unrefined, physically unimposing teenager soloing a Fallen Tyrant in his First Nightmare sounded like pure delusion.
Over the past few days, Aiden could swear he felt the distinct, independent emotional signature of that shadow lurking around various sectors of the Academy.
It was an unsettling presence that kept him on edge whenever he was in public spaces.
*
At one point, Aiden attempted to address his most pressing tactical vulnerability: securing the Life Stone.
He wondered if placing the stone inside the [Bottomless Pouch] would keep it concealed even if his Soul Essence were completely depleted.
Unsure of how the Spell would react, he ran preliminary tests first.
He placed standard food rations and water containers inside the pouch, dismissed the Memory into his soul, and re-summoned it.
Exactly as expected, the stored contents remained intact and unaffected.
Encouraged by the result, he decided to test his hypothesis with his Flaw.
He intended to place the Life Stone inside the spatial pouch, and see if he had successfully discovered an operational loophole.
He summoned the Life Stone and carefully slipped it into the pouch’s dark opening.
A split second before he could dismiss the pouch, the unexpected happened.
Without warning, the pouch violently rejected the item.
The Life Stone was expelled from the opening as if launched by a spring.
Aiden’s heart nearly stopped.
The physical anchor of his entire existence was airborne, plummeting toward the hard concrete floor of his dormitory.
Reflexes forged over a lifetime of combat kicked in.
He lunged forward, catching the translucent violet crystal inches from the ground before willing it back into his soul with an intense burst of mental focus.
Sitting on the floor, breathing heavily, Aiden stared at his trembling hands.
The message was crystal clear.
The Life Stone was bound directly to his soul, and the Spell would not permit it to be stored inside another spatial Memory.
His only option was to manage his combat strain meticulously and ensure his Soul Essence reserves never hit rock bottom.
Aiden leaned back against his bed, looking up at the ceiling.
The countdown was almost over.
The Winter Solstice was right around the corner.