​As soon as he selected the Class, he felt something deep within him change.

No, evolve was the right word.

​It felt like he became more attuned. The Nightmare Domain in his soul space shifted and he felt his connection to it become even stronger.

Now, he could truly feel it; it was like a seed planted within him and its presence as clear as his heart, lungs, or any other organ.

​He looked at Lucy, Lilith, Eve, and Death realizing he could now understand them much more easily. The connection between them seemed to have grown thicker. Curious, he checked his status.

​Status

​Name: Night (Nightmare)

​Race: Homunculus (Artificial Human)

​Class: Summoner

​Level: 6 (EXP: 385/700)

​Energy Value (EV): 529 (+10%)

​Aspect: [Nightmare]

​Skills: [Sensitive Nose (Common) (Lvl. 10)], [Beast Instinct (Common) (Lvl. 10)], [Basic Knife Proficiency (Common) (Lvl. 10)], [Pack (Rare) (Lvl. 2)], [Advance Claw Proficiency (Rare) (Lvl. 1)], [Wind Dash (Uncommon) (Lvl. 1)], [Wind Overdrive (Epic) (Lvl. 1)]

​Unique Skills: [Nightmare Domain]

​Summons: [Eve], [Lilith], [Death], [Lucy]

​Title: [Awakened]

​Nothing seemed to have changed except for his Class status and him losing some EV.

​Then he realized there was something he should have checked before but had forgotten until now. He focused on his Unique Skill [Nightmare Domain] and its details expanded.

​[Nightmare Domain

​Devour: The Nightmare Domain can directly devour a target to extract records and make them a permanent part of the Domain.

​Bond: Allows the summons to freely use Night’s skills, and allows Night to use the skills and physical attributes of his summons. Skill effectiveness depends heavily on the synchronicity between Night and the specific summon.

​Lucy – 40%

​Death – 25%

​Eve – 21%

​Lilith – 21%]

​Wow, I didn’t expect my Synchronicity with them to increase so much. This must be what the Class enhanced, Night thought.

​From what he remembered, it was previously Lucy – 20%, Death – 5%, Eve – 1%, and Lilith – 1%. This meant a flat boost of 20% across the board which equated to a significantly reduced EV cost to keep them manifested all the time.

​I should find ways to increase this percentage. It can reach 100% according to the Summoner Class details, he reminded himself.

​Night said happily, "I selected it." Through their bond he could feel his friends were just as happy.

​Sara smiled and said, "Let’s leave, then. I also have to return to my work; I have taken a long enough break."

​Just as she took a step, a white palm was placed on her shoulder. She turned her head, only to see Blade smiling revealing her sharp triangular teeth.

​"I quit."

​It was quite unnerving; not because she looked so different from humans but because of the way she carried herself, which left absolutely no room for rebuttal. Always straight to the point.

​Sara asked, just in case she had misunderstood her, "Quit?"

​Blade nodded.

​It was Sara’s turn to be confused. "Where will you go, then? I doubt you will find anywhere more peaceful than this place."

​Blade’s smile grew sharper. "I changed my mind. I don’t mind if the outside is less peaceful. Don’t worry I will not harm humans and if I come across some in need of help, I don’t mind lending a hand."

​Sara’s confusion didn’t decrease; it only multiplied. She knew the being in front of her although she looked like a warmonger was anything but warlike.

She loathed fighting and killing. This was exactly why Sara had assigned her to guard a closed-off place like this.

​As for Blade harming innocents, Sara would doubt humans before she ever doubted her, because she knew Blade very well.

​When the System first arrived and the first-generation Awakeners were sent to the tutorial to adapt to the new world, the tutorial Sara was in was particularly brutal. She was the only survivor.

That wasn’t because she was incredibly amazing at the time, but due to a lucky coincidence: she had entered a dungeon in that tutorial.

​The dungeon only had one boss and it was Blade who was stupidly strong even back then. Sara survived because Blade simply refused to fight her.

However Sara couldn’t leave the dungeon unless she killed Blade and Blade couldn’t break the dungeon without killing Sara.

Stuck, they spent some time together and quickly became friends. There they hatched a stupid plan to escape the dungeon without clearing it or rather to simply destroy the dungeon altogether.

​Thanks to Blade’s Unique Skill , they succeeded and they had been friends ever since. They went their separate ways for some time but after Blade witnessed the cruel outside world, she came back to Sara to complain.

Sara secretly asked her to guard this chamber and Blade was very happy with the peaceful arrangement. After six years Sara thought Blade had finally settled down.

She brought Night to meet her since she knew Night had a Unique Skill as well but she certainly didn’t expect this encounter to make Blade want to leave.

​"Where will you go?" Sara asked. Unlike the early days when Blade was overwhelmingly strong, there were now a lot of powerful people, beasts, monsters and devils roaming the Earth. Now, the planet was even being invaded by powerful beings from other worlds. Sara was genuinely worried for her; it was not exactly safe out there.

​Blade showed an amused smile and said, "Don’t worry, I won’t leave the Academy grounds. And if you need help, you can call me with the communicator."

​Hearing this Sara sighed in relief. If she was just staying at the Academy, then it was alright. Since Sara was empowered by the magic circles and arrays here, it was safe

or at least, much safer than the outside world.

​Even though she must have been bored, she never showed it, Sara thought. It’ll be good for her to get some fresh air or whatever it is she inhales.

​Night watched their exchange and kept quiet. It seemed like an important conversation. Also his [Beast Instinct] told him that Blade gave off the same genuinely nice feeling as Sara.

​Maybe I’ll invite her over for dinner sometime, Night thought. When I have enough money to host such a dinner, that is. Blade looks like she’d be a picky eater.

​Blade then turned to him and smiled. He shifted slightly because it didn’t look like a "goodbye" kind of smile. It looked more like a "see you very soon" kind of smile.

​But then she vanished and in her place was a perfectly straight spatial tear. It looked like it had been carefully calculated, measured and then cut with precision, rather than hastily slashed in a flash.

​Seeing Blade leave so soon, Sara’s smile dimmed a little. Then she looked down at Night and said, "From tomorrow, you can join your classes. You can use that token to find your schedule and classrooms soon enough."

​"And in case you need anything, you can use the same token to contact me. I have already added the communication feature."

​Seeing her get ready to leave, he felt a little sad. He really liked spending time with her but he knew she had to look after the whole Academy. The other kids needed her attention as well and probably the entire city judging from what he had heard from Lucy.

​Sara saw his expression but didn’t say anything. It couldn’t be helped; she had a lot of responsibilities. Even though she loved spending time with Night a lot of lives depended on her so she had to get back to work.

​Sara teleported him back to his home and left soon after some brief small talk.

​Seeing the empty house all the lingering happiness from his Class Awakening began to drain away. Not wanting to be alone he immediately summoned his friends and soon enough, his cheerful mood was back to normal.

​Eve and Lilith went into the kitchen, while Death sat gracefully on the sofa in the hall. Lucy trotted out into the small front garden happily sniffing the blooming plants.

Night went to the bedroom to rest for a bit before trying out the energy-recovering idea he had thought of earlier.

​He walked into the bedroom, lay down on the soft yellow bed and drifted off to sleep.

​....

​When he finally opened his eyes, he stared up at the familiar yellow ceiling. But something white caught his attention in the corner of his eye and he turned his head to look.

​He saw a being standing right next to his bed, looking down at him. It had yellow sclera, black irises and yellow vertical pupils. It had smooth white skin, a white tail and a huge horn that looked more like a pointed blade than an actual horn.

​He quickly turned his head back around, squeezed his eyes shut and pretended to go back to sleep.

(x_x) zzz

​Why would she visit me? She must have a lot of better things to do, he reasoned with himself Must be a dream.

​He figured Blade must have been even cooler than he initially thought if he was already having lucid dreams about her.

​However opening his eyes again and staring blankly at the ceiling didn’t seem to wake him up from the "dream." He could still see the white shape in the corner of his eye and it seemed to be growing in size; almost like the being was leaning in closer to him.

​Night:

(._.?)

​Turning his head again he saw her smiling. He could clearly see her sharp triangular teeths as she spoke. "Did you sleep enough? I can wait a bit longer if you wish..."

​Night:

(×﹏×)

It was real after all.