Alex looked around the empty training ground, confused. "Where's everyone?"

He absentmindedly started his training, increasing the intensity as he continued. While training, he noticed one of the training instructors passing by.

"Instructor!" Alex called out. "Where is everyone?"

The instructor looked at him in confusion. "The training period for the recruits is done. You only need to worry about the recruit exhibition in two days. After that, they're all returning to the academy to graduate," the instructor explained.

"Oh..."

"Good luck at the exhibition. It'll be refreshing to see an exposure-recruit win this time."

"Pardon?"

"Kid, have you met another exposure ever since you've been here?"

Now that the instructor mentioned it, Alex had not heard of anyone recruited the same way as him.

"Normally, we just wipe the witnesses' memories," the instructor mentioned. "You're a rare case."

The instructor patted Alex on the back before returning to what he was doing. Alex silently stood in the middle of the training hall for a moment. The silence was broken when his lich appeared by itself. He hadn't summoned it. The lich floated into the room.

"I have succeeded, master," the lich handed Alex a dozen scrolls.

The scrolls looked very different compared to the scroll Lorena gave him and much more ominous in appearance. "Are you sure?"

"Certainly," the lich nodded. "This is nothing like the poor imitations created by this organization."

"I'll need to find another dungeon to use this one."

"Demonic lair," the lich corrected.

"Why is everyone so sensitive about that?"

------

"I'm really sorry I couldn't find you another demonic lair," Simon said as they arrived at the stadium.

"It's fine..." Alex groaned as he stepped off the carrier. "Did I need to go here?"

"You're a recruit. This would be an amazing opportunity to get scouted by powerful families and raid teams," Simon explained.

"Can I not?" Alex grumbled. "I like my freedom."

"Well, simply participating will give you many rewards," Simon pointed out. "And the first part will happen in a demonic lair."

"What kind?" Alex got interested.

"You're really power-hungry, aren't you?" Simon commented, ignoring his question. "How many resources do you even have stored up."

"I still have one extra core and a bunch of demonic energy crystals," Alex answered.

"All participants, please head to the waiting room."

The announcement rang out. "We just arrived..."

"We are kind of late," Simon said. "Anyways, good luck, Alex," Simon patted him on the back since he couldn't reach his shoulder while still in a wheelchair.

Separating from Simon, Alex made his way to the participant waiting rooms. Thankfully, guides were pointing toward the waiting rooms. Otherwise, Alex would have gotten lost.

There were different waiting rooms for each of the districts. The first thing Alex noticed when he entered their assigned waiting room was Jared. Specifically how bulky he had gotten.

"Took you long enough," Jared commented upon seeing him.

"What the hell happened to you? Steroids?" Alex gestured to his body.

"If you consider demonic energy crystals as steroids," Jared replied. "I'm going to take a guess here, but you have no idea what's going on, do you?"

Alex just smirked and shook his head, making Jared sigh. "To be fair, I didn't really plan on participating."

"Either way, I'll give you a brief summary," Jared said. "The first part will be an open demonic lair."

"What kind?" Alex asked, remembering that Simon avoided the question earlier.

"I don't know either. The organization has a lot of demonic lairs under their ownership."

"Are we going to get transported there?" Alex raised an eyebrow.

Jared just smirked. "The other way around."

Alex tilted his head in confusion.

------

"Iselle, is there a reason you're forcing me to watch this?" Katarina asked as she sat in a pensive pose out of boredom.

"Trust me, lady Katarina. You'll find this year's recruit to be worth your time," Iselle assured.

Katarina Asheborne is the current head of the Asheborne family and the strongest user of black magic. As a testament to this, all her cores were in the black magic category.

"This better be worth it."

Katarina watched as all the recruits deployed to different districts entered the arena. Her family didn't have a recruit participating this year, but she didn't watch it, even if there was any.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"It's already starting!" Iselle exclaimed as the umpire stood at the center of the arena.

The rules were simple. Display your skills by hunting down the demons inside the demonic lair. The recruits could form teams or do things solo. Either way, they must display their ability as a demon hunter.

"What is the theme of the demonic lair?" Katarina asked Iselle.

"It's a swamp with the demons being reptiles," Iselle answered.

"Reptiles?"

Katarina wondered how this would play out. Reptiles were a difficult opponent, even for trained demon hunters. Their scales provided excellent defense, and their natural habitat aided their stealth and maneuverability.

As soon as the recruits were tossed into the demonic lair, Katarina noticed that the majority of them decided to form teams. A wise choice, considering the nature of the demonic lair.

"That's the recruit I wanted to show you, lady Katarina," Iselle pointed to the screen showing a recruit that foolishly decided to go solo.

"Is he a necromancer?"

"As expected of you, lady Katarina. You noticed immediately."

"He's a fool."

------

"I hate this place already," Alex grumbled as he walked through the swamp.

He summoned his skeletons, making them walk around him to scout the terrain to ensure he didn't suddenly fall into a deeper part of the swamp.

Alex made his way to dry land, but before he could step foot on the dirt, three lizardmen jumped out of the swamp. They smashed through the skeletons and charged Alex.

His skeleton knight managed to block two of them, while the last one was blocked by his werewolf.

"Let one through."

The death knight swung its great sword, flinging one of the lizardmen away while only pushing back one of them towards Alex. The lizardman rushed at him, but Alex ducked under its swipe and dug his fist into its gut.

The lizardman buckled, and Alex used the opportunity to punch through its chest. A new skill he obtained gave his Aether the properties of metal, not as an element, but as its properties. His Aether acted as if it was metal itself.

Hard as metal.

"What would happen if I turn them into skeletons?"

"Lizardmen skeletons aren't as impressive as their living counterparts since their scales are a vital part of their strength, but once you learn to reconstruct undead, it opens many possibilities," the lich answered.

"What happens if I combine them?" Alex asked as his death knight finished off the other two lizardmen.

"They will still be mere bones of lizardmen, master," the lich stated.

"What if I reattach the scales?" Alex suggested, pointing to the corpse floating on the swamp.

"I'm not certain if it is possible," the lich answered.

"Only one way to find out," Alex used three undead scrolls on the lizardmen.

He was treated once again to the horrific sight of flesh shedding of the bones of the monsters. Once the three skeletons stood, Alex stored the scales in his bracelet.

"Let's continue," Alex ordered. "Slaughter everything in our way."

"As you wish," the lich bowed and summoned more skeletons.

For the next hour, Alex obtained nine more lizardmen skeletons. Since he only had a dozen scrolls, he could only take the scales from the other lizardmen he killed.

With how much time passed, it wasn't long until Alex encountered other recruits. They were a group of five, with three men and two women.

"Which district are you from?" the guy at the front of the group pointed his sword at Alex.

Alex raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Pointing your weapon at me?"

The other recruits took a step back. "Arrogant bastard!" the leader charged, his sword releasing a gale of wind as he ran.

"He's mine!" Alex told his skeletons as he charged to meet the man head-on.

Alex stepped out of the way of the sword and drove his knee into the man's side before grabbing his head and pulling it back. Alex followed with a punch to the man's face, sending him crashing to the ground.

The man was knocked out, but it didn't end there as Alex caught an arrow heading for his head. "You were trying to kill me," Alex smirked at the woman holding up the bow.

"Attack!"

"Wrong choice!" Alex yelled in response.

A man carrying a large shield charged at him while a woman with two daggers circled around him.

"Are you forgetting someone?" his death knight said as he tackled the man with the shield.

"Ignorant humans," his lich used a curse to bind the dagger woman's legs.

The normal skeletons charged the remaining two recruits, overwhelming them now that they didn't have a frontline protecting them.

After defeating the recruits, they lit it with a golden light before disappearing.

"I enjoyed that."

------

Katarina watched the scene with a mix of confusion and awe. Necromancers were known to take more of a commanding and supporting role. The fact that she just witnessed a necromancer bash a group of recruits with their hands was a shock to see.

"Who is this guy?" Katarina asked.

"He's an exposure recruit," Iselle revealed. "Apparently, he's been taking down demonic humans even before being recruited."

"He's got talent, but why did he become a necromancer?"

This wasn't the first time Katarina had seen someone attempt to be a close combat necromancer, but those people were usually short-lived. This guy was actually strong to the point where it's a waste not to pursue a more combative role.

He would have done well as a martial artist.

"The reason is unknown, but he seems to have a newly discovered necromancer skill," Iselle mentioned.

"Oh?" that got Katarina's attention. "Why didn't you start with that?"

"Because you might kidnap and experiment on him, lady Katarina," Iselle said boldly.

"Is that how you see me?"

"You've done it before."

"They made an enemy of me."

------

"When is this going to end?" Alex muttered as he sat on a pile of crumbling corpses of monsters.

He had collected enough demonic energy crystals to the point that he could supply his lich to make a bunch of the undead summoning scroll.

"Master, we have discovered another group of humans," his lich informed him.

"Lead the way."

The group of humans turned out to be Jared's group. Jared acted as the leader on the frontline, wearing a full set of armor and carrying a giant sword.

He had five other people in his group, all from the same district as them. Two of them were supporters, while the rest were close-range fighters with different weapons.

"I honestly wasn't expecting you to still be here," Jared greeted him.

"I should kick your ass for that comment," Alex grinned.

Before any further conversation happened, they all noticed a person step out of the forest. The person was a woman with white hair and brown skin. She was quite muscular, as evidenced by the toned muscles on her arms.

Her red eyes locked in on Alex, making him raise an eyebrow. She squatted, flexing her muscular thighs. A small gust of wind erupted from the area around her thighs.

"Did she just..."

"Create a shockwave by flexing her thighs?"

"I thought I was seeing things."

Alex ignored the comments as he stared at the woman in admiration.

"Get ready!" Jared yelled, but it was too late.

The woman shot towards them, creating a shockwave behind her that tore through the trees. Jared raised his sword to block an attack, but her kick shattered the sword and slammed into his side.

She proceeded to tear through the remaining recruits and skeletons in her way before reaching Alex. He barely got the chance to react and somehow managed to avoid her kick by ducking under it. But she sailed over him so fast that it didn't allow counterattacking.

His lich tried to bind her, but it didn't even take her a second to reach it and smash its flaming skull.

Alex looked around him and saw that everyone flashed with a golden light before disappearing.

"Before you kill me," Alex raised both hands in front of him. "I have to say. I'm impressed."

She smirked. "You never change."

"Pardon?" Alex tilted his head in confusion.

The woman responded by kicking him in the gut.

The next thing he knew, he was in the infirmary.