Aries frowned at his reflection thinking what the day would bring. Due to his mother's genes his features were rather androgynous though training to enter the Academy had helped somewhat. He had inherited the silvery white hair of his mother and her delicate features but he shared the amethyst eyes of all Nightshade direct heirs.

The black trousers and white shirt were tailored to perfection to fit his tall lythe physique. The Academy blazer was also black but the lapels were lined with gold and the school crest was stitched in gold on the breast pocket of the blazer. The tie denoted the year of the students and first years like him wore red tied. To represent his family he wore amethyst crescent moon shaped collar pins connected by a gold chain.

In the last few days articles about his so called heartbreak had disappeared and had been replaced by an even more interesting story. An anonymous source had pointed out the similarities between the commoner top student Victor Kane and the mysterious Hunter who called himself "Ash" who had been clearing dungeons like crazy. The article pointed out the disparity in the growth and leveling rate of Victor versus the children who had access to all sorts of technologies and techniques to maximize leveling speed. Even if he was a monster or genius, there was no way he was levelling at that speed without fighting in dungeons. This was forbidden for Academy students before the second year for several reasons. This was a rather villain like thing to do but Aries didn't care. Because of that bastard Victor and Serena who turned against him, his life was constantly under a microscope. He would simply consider this revenge and focus on his plans.

His nightmares kept replaying that horrible moment that he was torn apart by monsters and he started to feel a sense of urgency. Being weak in this world was akin to a death sentence. The first change happened over a hundred years ago when the air suddenly changed becoming rich with mana. The mana became poisonous to some but for many it was a chance to become stronger than the human limits allowed. The world itself began to change in alarming ways. Flora and fauna that never existed suddenly appeared. Some that already existed were warped beyond imagination. The worst changes were those made to the landscape as it caused the most death an disaster. Mountains rose out of nowhere shifting the terrain around it. Phenomena that could only be described as floating islands appeared and some chasms opened that were of immeasurable depths. Just as man started to adapt to these changes, the first gate opened and the world changed from a fantasy to a nightmare.

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The military stood no chance against the monsters that crawled out of the portals that appeared all over the world and the smaller countries that only had a small local militia were quickly wiped out. Some areas became Monster breeding grounds that were called dead zones. It was a thing from war of the worlds until the first awakened joined the fight. No one knew where he came from, only that he called himself Nightshade and he was something of a monster himself. Soon many of his kind with varying abilities joined the fight and the monsters were pushed back and man entered the portals for the first time. In the end they learned that defeating all the monsters in these portals would cause them to close and disappear. Not only that but the treasures that could be obtained from them could make a common man have the power of dieties. The Awakened also noticed that they could check their levels through a status that appeared once they entered dungeons. The first awakeners were later called Hunters and were the first to discover levelling. After many more years there were too many Hunters and the world was no longer on the brink of destruction. Chaos reigned so the strongest Hunters decided to form guilds to keep things in order.

Years later schools that trained newly awakened were created called Hunter Academies and the world was lulled into a false sense of safety. Aries now knew that the days of peace wouldn't last much longer and he needed to get stronger as quickly as possible. He had many methods but he had to be careful not to attract too much attention like that fool Victor did. Attracting attention would only mean he would have to waste his time mixed up in conspiracies or avoiding fights from battle maniacs. Being strong too fast was a slippery slope and if you weren't careful you could fall into the abyss.

By exposing Victors secret he had put the boy under even deeper scrutiny from the major players. Victors vendetta against the Nightshade family would be the least of the boys worries for a while and Aries could level up in peace.

Through his dream he learned that Victor somehow blamed his family for the death of his mother. Whether it was true or not it had nothing to do with Aries so he would make sure that Victor was kept too busy to mess with him. After all he knew of all the boys heavily guarded secrets. He smiled to himself before stopping suddenly and touching his face.

"I really do look like a Villain"

He muttered before turning away. He stiffened as he heard a whisper form the shadows of his room.

"Did the artifact perhaps have a beautification effect? The young Master seems really interested in his looks"

He grit his teeth and cursed under his breath as he stomped out of his room.