A glyph in the form of a pale, decaying heart floated above the coffin-like cauldron. An orange light bound the glyph and dragged it to the imp.

"Should I place this glyph somewhere specific or not director?" asked the imp.

"It doesn't matter though most place situational glyphs somewhere which isn't your arm that you use primarily, in your case your right arm"

"Could I ask why?"

"Because most place their spells that are used for battle in their right arm because the spell activates faster that way. For glyphs that affect your body, the best spot is the middle of your body but for this glyph it is entirely useless to fasten the cast time, simply because it is used out of sight of the enemy or to survive in situations with limited air."

"Using up space on a place where it would be useful for other types of spells is wasteful. Glyphs can't be moved after all, only erased. I would recommend to place it somewhere on your legs or feet." the director explained thoroughly.

The imp listened to the director's advice and decided to place the glyph at the inner side of his left thigh.

That way, should he somehow be in a situation where his naked legs are exposed, it would be harder for a potential enemy to recognize this glyph which could safe his life later. Faking one's death had immense potential to escape trouble for a while.

As the corpse stasis glyph touched the imp's soft, mortal body, a numbing feeling permeated through the spot where the glyph was placed down. The numbness slowly faded into nothingness after awhile.

After seeing that the imp was done, the director said "Are you read for the second part of the test then? Or do you want to wait?"

The imp turned his head and answered "No, we can begin right now"

The director coughed a little before explaining the second part of the test "The next test is to survive through the use of your glyph. You will be burried alive for half a day. If you survive, you pass the test, getting access to the glyph that would allow you to deal with your.. peculiar situation and I will tutor you personally in the dark arts of necromancy."

The imp frowned. He was to be burried alive for half a day? Since it was a test, it couldn't be easy.

"Could I train with the glyph before hand?"

"No." the director answered coldly.

"Can I atleast have some advice on how to use it?"

For a few seconds the director fell into deep thought. If he didn't give the imp enough advice, his benefactor could see it as far too hard. He decided to give in to the imp's wish.

"To survive this test you must nearly stop your breathing at all. You must almost suffocate to survive this. Normally it wouldn't even be possible to survive this, but with good use of the glyph you can do it"

The imp looked at the director with an "are you kidding me?" expression.

The imp sighed while he thought "Why have I thought that this was going to be a test by human standards? I am talking to a vile necromancer here."

"Alright, when can I begin?" asked the imp.

"Right now. Follow me."

The imp nodded, so both of them went out of the room, with the director locking up the door behind him.

After a short walk, they arrived at a specific place in the giant yard of the academy grounds. It was a place where a lot of trees grew, hiding the place from would be disturbers.

The director activated a glyph and the ground was enveloped by an bright orange light and just like the glyph telekinesis glyph, a path of earth moved into the air at the director's command. Underneath, a wooden coffin revealed itself.

"You know what to do. I will come back here in the evening. Oh, and one thing, don't inhale too much air before going into the coffin. It would only work against you. Good luck" said the director with a cold glint hidden within his eyes.

The imp hesitantly nodded. He didn't want to go in there but in his situation he didn't exactly have much of a choice.

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He crawled into the coffin. When the lid of the coffin was about to close, he filled half his lungs with air. He didn't trust the director completely to completely exhale all the air inside his lungs but also didn't want to make a foolish mistake.

He activated his glyph and instantly felt as if a monstrous creature stepped onto his heart, trying to stomp it to nothingness. The rest of his body was completely numb. He could feel nothing except the horrible pain that plagued his heart.

He now understood partially why the glyph was in form of a pale, rotting heart. He wanted to breathe faster because of the horrible pain yet knew that if he did that, this would be his certified doom.

He gritted his teeth, which he couldn't even feel anymore, trying to persist as best as he could.

Only a few minutes passed. He felt like he would suffocate the very next second for three minutes now yet he didn't.

In his decades of being an imp, he was subjugated with all kinds of horrible torture but this was a new kind of torture that he didn't feel before. His heart felt like it would explode any second and the feeling that he would suffocate the next second, but didn't, wasn't exactly the most pleasant feeling in the world either.

And worst of all, he needed to persist through twelve whole hours of this.

"Damn that director! He hasn't told me anything about this heart pain! Damn that rat!" The imp cursed within his mind.

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In a luxurious looking cave sat a man, sipping wine while looking into a silver basin of water which showed the scene of a half elf getting burried alive. The man had an amused expression on his face.

A woman with raven black hair who stood beside him asked "Master, should you not interrupt this 'test'?"

"Why should I? It's terribly amusing to see the director of that academy trying to obtain my glyph. Actually, that he tries to obtain it isn't that amusing, but the fact that he thinks that I am so stupid that I don't see his obvious greed for the glyph is hilarious."

"Master, but isn't it unwise to potentially let him kill your project? It would take a while to prepare everything again"

The man shook his head. "Don't forget that the imp is in control of the body right now. If the demon or the half elf himself was in control, then I would step in but the imp has high chances of survival. If the imp survives this test, then it would learn that mortals should not, under any circumstance be underestimated."

"Atleast I hope so. You know what happened with the previous examples of my project. If the imp learns it from the start then the chances of success rise considerably. Outsiders often underestimate mortals, especially the young"

The woman looked into the basin again, lost in thought for a few moments. "That aco demon also seems quite promising doesn't it?"

The man sneered "Of course it is, I was the one who chose it. Let's just hope it doesn't go too smoothly for the imp"

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Meanwhile in a classroom, Orson sat on his seat, seeing a perfect opportunity. Class has already begun twenty minutes ago and his servant was nowhere to be seen.

In the next break he would point out to others how Krenas was missing on only his second day at the academy.

Of course he would only mention this on the side in a conversation. His father taught him how to best spread rumors.

This was a noble's bread and butter. Through simply spreading some nasty rumors, one's rivals can be disposed of easily. If he went up to others and pointed out that the half elf was missing out of the blue, anyone would easily see through what he was trying to do and thus his plan would fail.

His father taught him that subtelty was the most important asset. He didn't plan on disappointing him.

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After six hours of being inside the coffin, the imp was starting to get used to this horrible pain. The first three hours were the worst of all, thus he used up much more air in those hours than afterwards.

Six hours passed and more than the half of the air inside the coffin was used up. This was a gigantic problem, for the imp didn't know how much his air consumption has decreased. He needed to survive another six hours and he consumed more than half of the air left.

Now not only did his heart feel like it would explode the very next second, no, now he even started to get nervous.

After another five hours passed, the air was almost used up.

He never experienced this before. He was tortured much more harshly in hell sometimes but he never had to genuine fear for his survival back then.

Terror crept up into the imp's heart.

Terror. That was the only feeling he felt now.

The imp never feared death nor did he ever understand mortals' fear of death.

Why did mortals fear something as simple as death? Their death was predestined anyway.

The imp was tortured many times, tricked many mortal souls into giving themselves willingly into the fiery embrace of hell and gleefully cackling while doing so, but this?

This terror even took away the intense pain the imp felt.

The only thing his heart did now was shivering. Even though his body was completely numb, he felt cold, extremely cold. He felt as if his entire body was shrinking under the dreaded influence that was terror.

He was so afraid that he nearly did something extremely foolish. He almost deactivated the glyph to try and escape his coffin. Fortunately he stopped himself in the last second from doing so. If he did that he would've died without a doubt.

Now the resource of limited air was on its last legs. The last few minutes. If the lid of the coffin didn't open after that, then he was dead.

He wanted to scream, but couldn't. He wanted to get out, but couldn't. He wanted to survive, but couldn't.

-Or could he?

Just as hope faded from his very soul, he heard a spell being cast. The earth above his coffin moved up, letting sun light shine through the cracks of the coffin's lid.

The next second the lid opened, letting him see the summer sky. He instantly deactivated the corpse stasis glyph and greedily sucked in as much air as he could numerous times.

Air never seemed to taste as wonderful as it did now. The sky never looked so beautiful as it did now.

Being alive never seemed so beautiful as it seemed now.