She stared at him coldly, then in one simple sentence, she asked. "Who are you?"
Michael looked at his temporary teammates, and they stared back at him with questions written all over their faces. They wanted answers, immediate answers that could somehow explain everything they had just witnessed with their own two eyes.
"..." He remained silent, as far as he was concerned, it was none of their business.
"The first trial has been cleared, our alliance is over." He turned around and walked away.
"H—He!-" Alexia didn’t even finish speaking before the ground beneath their feet suddenly began to tremble violently.
It was almost as if an earthquake had struck the depths of the Abyss.
Everyone looked around in alarm, their eyes widening as they struggled to understand what was happening.
[A Soul Stone has been consumed.]
[Forceful extraction of specified participants has been approved.]
[Extracting participants...]
A bright light suddenly engulfed Michael and his teammates, their bodies glowing with a blinding glow. Before any of them could react, the light grew even brighter, completely swallowing their figures.
Then, just as suddenly, it faded away, and thee five students followed along. They had all disappeared from the Abyss.
One by one, students from the various classes began appearing in the open field right outside the portal that led into the Abyss. Moments later, Michael finally materialized in front of the massive gates.
[Evolver’s Status has been updated!]
[You can now proceed directly into the second level of the Abyss upon your return.]
Michael blinked as the system notifications shot up, he looked around and saw none of his temporary teammates anywhere near him, at least not where he stood.
"That’s right, the Abyss doesn’t exactly spawn someone in their desired location."
"What’s going on?!"
"Why are we back here!?"
"The first level had only just begun thirty minutes ago!"
"How are we back here?"
The students of Evolvers Academy began murmuring among themselves, some confused while others were clearly angry.
The Abyss was the only place where they could freely farm experience, grow stronger, and improve their skills without limitations or restrictions.
Yet somehow, they had all been forcefully removed from the Abyss. No one knew why it had happened or who was responsible.
"Congratulations, you all live to see another day."
The students’ attention shifted to a man approaching them from afar, with his hands clasped behind his back. He wore a sleek black suit that had the emblem of the Evolvers academy sewn into the left side of his suit, polished black shoes and a well knotted black tie. His head was completely bald, and a well-trimmed brown beard covered his jaw.
Behind him, two teachers followed closely side by side which of course were, Mr. Jin and Mr Vance. Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
"It’s the principal..." Someone whispered.
’The principal? Of the Evolvers academy?’ Micheal took a good look at the man who seemed to be in his late thirties, but despite his old his age, his presence was anything but overwhelming to most.
’So this man is the principal of the Evolvers academy... He’s strong.’
"Principal Lucien, why were we all removed from the first level of the Abyss?"
"Yeah, we had barely just begun!"
An uproar emerged, and all it took was the raise of a hand from Principal Lucien to silence all the students, a proof of his indomitable authority.
"As you would have seen, I exhausted a Soul Stone to summon all the students back from the first level of the Abyss."
The Soul Stone was an incredibly rare item that could only be obtained by clearing the fifth level of the Abyss. The principal possessed only two of them, one acquired by Mr. Jin, while the other was obtained decades ago by the academy’s predecessors.
The Soul Stone contained the same energy that stabilized the levels of the Abyss. With it, the principal could manipulate the space between the Abyss and the real world and extract anything he had previously marked.
Before the students entered the Abyss, he had marked every student of the Evolvers Academy, and that was how he was able to pull them all out at once.
"But why?"
"Why?" The principal raised a brow. "Throughout the three months of your training, the training plan the academy provided was only geared at helping you in the first level, not the second level."
"H—H—Huh!?"
The students, especially those of Class A, could hardly believe their ears. For a moment, they simply looked at the principal, trying to understand what they had just heard.
They knew what he was trying to say, but they had a hard time trying to understand.
"Principal... Are you saying that..."
"While you all fought, farmed and raised your experience, the boss of the first level was defeated and the first level was cleared."
The principal’s words felt like a heavy anchor had dropped onto the chests of every student. Someone had actually defeated the boss of the first level of the Abyss.
In theory, it had been done before. The academy had produced many talented graduates who had gone on to clear deeper levels, with some now fighting their way through the tenth level and beyond. But clearing the first level in less than thirty minutes was something else entirely.
It was almost unheard of.
Even Mr. Jin, one of the most powerful graduates the academy had ever produced, had needed nearly two days to clear the first level when he was younger and still growing in strength.
"Unbelievable..."
"The only people that could have done that... Class A... They really are something else."
"Class A did that?"
"Holy shit..."
The student’s disbelief quickly turned into excitement. Loud applause erupted across the field as they turned toward the members of Class A.
Some students cheered while others shouted in excitement, filling the entire field with noise as they applauded their achievement.
Michael rolled his eyes as a hint of frustration struck him, it was a bit nerve wrecking to watch someone else being praised for your own hardwork.
But then again, it wasn’t like anyone asides his teammates who saw it with their own two eyes would believe him.
However, the members of Class A did not share the rest of the academy’s enthusiasm. In fact, class A only had ten students, made up entirely of princes, princesses, and other members of the royal and noble families.
Each of them had activated an Origin ranging from high Grade 2 to low Grade 3, making them some of the strongest students in the academy.
Some of the princes tightened their fists, while others gritted their teeth in frustration. The rest simply lowered their heads, avoiding eye contact with everyone around them.
They knew none of them had defeated the boss of the first level. Class A had split into teams of two consisting of five students each during the first level, so there was no way one of them could have taken down the boss without the others knowing.
"Well, this certainly was a very unpredictable outcome, but regardless we push forward."
Usually, the first level took a little over a month to clear. This gave the academy enough time to prepare the necessary materials and training for the students before they advanced to the second level and beyond.
But now that the first level had been cleared so quickly, the academy would have to adjust its entire schedule.
The principal, along with Mr. Jin and Mr. Vance, led the students back to the academy.
While the others returned to their classes, Michael slipped out of the classroom for a moment.
He stood at the other end of the hallway, staring at his palm. The sensation of the first Genesis still lingered in his hand, as if its power had left a faint trace behind.
"The first origin huh?"
What bothered Michael the most wasn’t his own power, but the source behind it.
The Third Origin allowed an Evolver to support or aid others. The Second Origin allowed an Evolver to control and manipulate the forces of nature, while the First Origin allowed an Evolver to manipulate forces beyond nature itself. Things that couldn’t naturally be found on the planet, such as gravity and certain forms of energy.
But Michael still didn’t understand where his own power came from. He had an idea, but the darkness simply couldn’t explain it. After all, as far as he knew, darkness didn’t have the ability to revert something, or any atom, back to its original state.
"In any case, till I can fully understand it, I can’t use it recklessly around others." He sighed, putting down his arm.
"As I suspected..."
Michael’s eyes shot wide open when he heard an unfamiliar voice. He quickly turned around and froze.
That crimson-red hair, those blue, sparkling eyes, her ample, brilliantly curved figure, and perfect streamlined waist, he couldn’t forget them.
It was the academy’s beauty herself.
"It was you, wasn’t it?"
Princess Rias.