"Damn..." Alex groaned as he got up from the hospital bed.

"You took quite the hit," Simon commented as he rolled up to his bedside. "Can you continue to the second round?"

"What's the second round?" Alex asked. "I only participated in the first round to get resources."

"It's a boss raid event," Simon informed. "You'll fight alongside the other recruits against an elite demon hunter."

"I'll pass on that one," Alex stated. "After losing that badly, I want to push my cores to the limit."

"Don't mind it too much. The recruit you faced was a special case," Simon mentioned.

"What do you mean?" Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Her name is Kiyoko Shirotani," Simon revealed. "She's considered the golden goose of this generation."

Alex had to admit that she was absurdly powerful. Alex had taken hits from demons and kept fighting. One hit from her, and he woke up in the infirmary.

"She's even stronger than most demon hunters. Competing with her would only damage your self-confidence."

Alex chuckled. "Don't worry, Simon. I didn't have any self-confidence anyway. I'm weak, so I need to get stronger. It so happens that I have someone to set as a goal."

Alex got up and began stretching.

"Take me to the training ground."

------

"Kiyoko-chan!"

Kiyoko looked up to find her friend, Ty, strutting toward her. Ty wore his usual flamboyant style with a white fuzzy scarf coiled around his neck and his fur coat over his demon hunter uniform.

"Don't you feel hot in that?" Kiyoko couldn't help but cringe.

Ty gasped dramatically. "Come on, sister. Heat must not come before fashion," Ty stated while doing a dramatic pose.

"... whatever you say," Kiyoko sighed.

Ty rolled his eyes. "How did it go?"

Kiyoko knew he was referring to the recruit exhibition. "Good. I was the only one left standing."

"That's a given," Ty said. "But I was referring to them."

Kiyoko released a deep sigh. Ty was the only person who knew Kiyoko's situation. She wasn't some gifted prodigy or a golden goose.

Kiyoko was a regressor. A person that gained the memories of their future self. With her knowledge of the future, Kiyoko knew what her strengths were and what to avoid so as not to waste any time. She made use of advanced and difficult training methods, resulting in her monstrous growth.

But the dilemma she was facing involved her future comrades. The recruit exhibition was where she first met the majority of them. The berserk guardian and the rampaging necromancer. It wasn't hard to figure out who they were.

They were a force to be reckoned with in the future, which led to them making many enemies who were envious of their power. Before her regression, Kiyoko was too weak to fight beside them, but this time, she'll make sure to be the one leading them.

"Just wait, you little shits."

------

Alex cracked his neck as he looked over his current stats. His goal today was to upgrade all his other cores to tier two and maybe get a few skills along the way.

Name: Alexander Gray

Race: Human

Augmentation: Strength, Agility, Durability

Core:

Black magic: Necromancy - Tier 3 - stage 1

* Demonic core revival - Summons the demon sealed within your core. The strength of the demon is proportional to the stage of your core. Prevents the user from creating their core but enhances the absorption rate of demonic energy.

* Lich - Tier 3 - stage 1

* Death knight – Tier 3 – stage 1

* Lycanthrope - stage 10

* Earth spirit – stage 5

* Bone Armory - Allows you to create any weapon or armor using bones as material. The quality of the creation depends on the user’s familiarity and the tier of their core.

* Skeleton call - Allows you to summon skeletons (20) from the abyss to aid you in battle. The number of skeletons and the quality of the control will depend on the user’s familiarity and the tier of their core.

Legion

* ??? - Revenant – High-tier undead

* Alpha - Skeleton wolf – Common undead

* ??? - Lizardman - Common undead (12)

Shapeshift: Beast - stage 10

* Bloodhound - Physical abilities and senses are greatly enhanced in proportion to the stage of your core.

* Grayhound – Your Aether adapts a metallic trait, increasing its defensive and offensive applications.

Enchanter: Healing – stage 5

* Self-preservation – Every 48 hours, your body sheds all negative statuses and recovers all injuries. (Does not affect severed limbs)

"Time to get started," Alex stretched as he prepared to face his undead.

He picked up two demonic energy crystals and crushed them in his hands. His werewolf charged, and Alex welcomed the initiative by grabbing its arm and flipping it over his shoulder.

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The werewolf crashed into the ground, but the impact was softened due to the ground turning into mud. Alex glanced at the earth spirit who had caused it.

"Working together huh," Alex spun and threw the werewolf towards the earth spirit, but the death knight intercepted it and caught the werewolf.

Alex grinned at the sight and crushed another pair of demonic crystals, absorbing the energy into his body.

"Bring it!"

-----

"The third round is a duel system," Simon mentioned. "You can challenge senior demon hunters and get a reward based on who you defeat."

"I don't know anyone," Alex shrugged. "I doubt they'll accept a challenge from some outsider."

"You'd be surprised," Simon said. "You made quite a name for yourself."

"Alright," Alex sighed. "Who can I challenge to gain the chance to enter an undead demonic lair."

Simon clasped his hands. "I know just the person."

A moment later, Alex stood in the middle of an arena. Stands were full of people and even a few demons. He didn't expect such an audience, considering this organization was supposed to be hidden from the public.

"You challenged me to gain entrance to my demonic lair."

Alex faced his opponent. It was a tall man named Deckard with pale skin. His eyes were sunken and barely showed his red eyes. Another thing to notice was his lack of any visible hair at all, not even eyebrows. If Alex didn't know he was human, he'd think he was an undead.

"They said you were the dealer," Alex stated. "I'm surprised you accepted."

"I'm in business with nearly every necromancer in our organization. I needed to test if you're worth the opportunity."

"Business?" Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Demonic lair maintenance isn't easy, kid. Demons would pour out of it if we leave it unattended."

Alex nodded in understanding. Before he could say anything more, a loud gong rang out, and he was immediately surrounded by a horde of undead.

"Every moment counts for a necromancer!" Deckard stated as black chains shot out from beneath his feet.

"I'm sick of that trick," Alex charged while easily avoiding the chains and smashing the skeletons in his way.

Three death knights blocked his path, but his death knight blew them away with a single swing. "How?!" Deckard's eyes widened. "Unawakened death knights should only be around tier two."

"I ain't normal!" Alex yelled as he bashed through another horde before reaching Deckard.

Alex swung his fist toward Deckard, but it was blocked by a heavily armored skeleton. The sound of his fist hitting its shield rang out.

"Your Aether has properties," Deckard realized.

"What gave it away?" Alex grinned as he summoned his own skeletons to block the undead approaching behind him.

"Impressive, but not enough," Deckard commented as his armored death knight pushed back Alex.

"I'm not done!" Alex began unleashing a barrage of attacks.

The armored death knight took every attack without wavering, but Alex didn't relent. He kept attacking until his knuckles began bleeding.

"Futile," Deckard summoned more undead.

"What took you so long?" Alex's lips curled up into a smile as the skeletons were summoned.

"For my liege!" his lich appeared and detonated their surroundings, creating piles of bones everywhere.

"Bone armory."

All the bones around them turned into spears, damaging everything around them. Deckard barely managed to avoid getting impaled by creating a barrier, but it shattered upon getting hit by Alex's punch.

Alex's hand wrapped around Deckard's neck. "Got you."

------

For every thousand demon hunters, one of them would obtain a necromancer core. Within those, only a few would pursue becoming a necromancer seriously. And within that select few, even fewer become successful necromancers.

Among every other core, necromancy was the most challenging to pursue. Necromancers needed to acquire many external resources to create and strengthen their legion. Additionally, they needed to invest many resources in themselves as well.

Not only did they need more resources compared to others, but their growth was much slower compared to others as well. Necromancers need to train themselves to handle the strain of their cores, while their undead also need to get stronger to advance to awaken and advance to higher tiers.

In short, being a necromancer required double the effort to succeed.

Deckard knew this very well. He dedicated his life to his craft. He may not be overwhelmingly powerful, but he has access to abundant resources. Because of this, Deckard has connections to the strongest necromancers as their main supplier of resources.

"Are you glaring at me?" the newest necromancer in the organization asked.

Deckard observed Alexander Gray. He has potential but lacks guidance. He charges in like a wild animal, nothing like a normal necromancer.

"I can only give you access to a low-tier demonic lair," Deckard ignored his question. "My mid and high-tier demonic lairs are reserved for my business partners."

"How does your business work?" the young necromancer asked.

"The organization informs me of undead demonic lairs, and in return, I manage it," Deckard answered without going into detail about the whole process. "That's all you need to know."

Alexander Gray shrugged. Deckard noticed that despite the young man's nonchalant demeanor, he was alert and observant. The moment he entered Deckard's office, his eyes scanned the whole room and took in every important detail.

"I'll inform you when you can enter," Deckard stated.

"Alright," Alexander stood up to leave, but he stopped for a second to glare at a crate at the corner of the room.

Deckard smile grew. "You can sense danger."

-------

Alex walked around the arena. From what he learned, this arena was located in District One but is a separate facility from their base. He wondered how this whole arena was unknown to the civilians. How did the organization even control the spread of information? Even Alex knew about demonic humans before finding out about the organization.

"Got lost?"

Alex turned around to find Jared wearing casual clothes. He was wearing a denim jacket with a white shirt and gray pants.

"Never knew where I was in the first place," Alex replied. "I don't really want to stay here any longer."

"Has any organizations reached out to you yet?" Jared asked.

Alex shrugged. "No idea."

"Have you checked your phone?"

In response, Alex took out a broken phone. "In my defense, I don't know when it happened."

Jared sighed. "I guess it doesn't matter much since you won't join any family anyway."

"How'd you know that?" Alex raised an eyebrow.

"I've known you for a short time, but I'm sure you don't like being tied down."

Alex didn't deny that. "If only I could stay as a recruit."

Jared rolled his eyes. "Good luck with that," Jared patted him on the back. "I have some family matters to attend to, so see you around."

"Sure," Alex replied.

Jared left as quickly as he arrived, leaving Alex to his thoughts once again. If he remembered correctly, the other recruits would be returning to the academy after this.

"Now what...."

Alex noticed a crowd forming in the distance and decided to check it out since he didn't have anything to do. It was still within the arena, so everyone around was still involved in the organization. And it seemed the thing that gathered everyone's attention was a group of men surrounding a short girl with messy black hair.

They were speaking in a language that Alex barely recognized as Japanese, mostly because he had recognized a few words. But even though Alex couldn't understand the situation, it was already a cliche scene.

Alex pushed through the crowd and approached them. Getting a closer look at the situation, it became clearer that the group of men were trying to harass the short woman.

The men quickly noticed Alex. "Stay out of this pu-" the man didn't get to finish as Alex grabbed them by their face, his grip tightening.

"What's going on?" Alex asked the woman.

"Mothe-" another man got grabbed by the face.

The remaining two men ran away.

"So much for demon hunters," Alex commented before turning back to the woman.

"They wanted my friends' contact information," the woman answered.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Do you have supermodel friends or something?"

She responded by showing him a picture of three women doing exaggerated poses. "They're very popular. Do you want their contact information?" she asked.

Alex responded by showing her his broken phone.

That made her giggle.