As his eyes darted Damian stepped off the train in extremely rigid motions, carefully inspecting his surroundings to confirm his safety. After their encounter with the unknown creature, Damian had struggled to remain calm through the rest of his travels—laying down in cautious silence after he finished his talk with Aricin.

Eventually, the guarded vessel slowed to a stop and his group began to prepare their exiting process. Now outside, Damian began to stare at the large structure in front of him as he walked along a dirt path beside Aricin. The impressive fortress evoked a sense of isolation similar to prison complexes he'd seen in the past with its all-encompassing walls and guard towers monitoring their arrival.

'Not exactly a welcoming sight if you ask me.

Before fully leaving, Damian glanced back at the old metal train with a grim expression. Along the side of the hulking vehicle, he could easily see from a distance incredible dents and scratches scarring its entirety.

'If this is the amount of damage it had done simply grazing past us, what kind of destruction could that thing have done if it had known there were humans inside?'

Damian shuddered as he entered the facility.

"This place looks like a prison," Damian muttered.

Aricin chuckled lightly.

"I can see why you'd think that, but this place isn't designed to keep people inside. It's designed to keep whatever's out there from getting in."

"That's just fantastic." Damian bitterly replied.

"Hello everyone, Welcome to the Marin Outpost!" Gathering the attention of Damian's group was the bright tone of an oddly ecstatic female voice.

Everyone stared at the woman, dumbfounded.

"I'm happy to introduce you to your new home as of today and I do hope you enjoy your time as either a guard or a newly administered student!" A lady with long wavy hair colored a pale brown spoke with a light smile.

Damian looked around at his new home. A wide field of grass and dirt paths filled the area along with worn-down buildings and structures separated from each other by a fair distance. The scenery read as a glum and run-down atmosphere, oddly disparate to the grinning lady in front of them.

"Now that you're here, let's get you all settled properly." The lady spoke, sighing lightly.

***

After their introduction to the outpost, everyone roughly separated having people around the area take them to their new sleeping quarters. Luckily for Damian, it turned out that Imprinted are actually provided their own individual rooms, unlike the other simple humans who have to sleep grouped together in a room full of bunks.

Damian curiously sat down on his bed, looking around his own room. It was a small windowless box, provided with a single desk situated across from him and drawers sat beneath the mattress. While the group sleeping quarters were a whole building roughly sitting around the middle of the field, his private room was actually built into one of the incredibly thick concrete walls of the outpost. Although it may not seem like much, to him, it felt like he'd finally taken a step toward moving up in the world.

'I can't believe I get to have my very own room. It's no wonder people want to become Imprinted so badly and risk their lives trying to search for rune artifacts outside the city.

'However, now that I think about it, how exactly did I get runes for myself? Didn't Aricin say you needed to leave the city to acquire runes? Not to mention, he didn't say anything about getting forcefully transported outside the city. I'm definitely missing some information here…I should ask him about it later.'

Standing back up, Damian crouched in front of the drawers beneath his bed, hoping they'd provided for him, otherwise, there may be some problems with personal hygiene. Inside, he found a stack of various intricate sets of clothing all colored in simple browns and greys. To the side, he even saw a set of basic bathroom supplies.

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Gawking at the sight, an enormous smile slowly formed on his face.

'Oh my god, they're giving me all this stuff for free?! I had no idea I'd get to live like a king while I'm out here! Oh, and I should probably start heading to the field now since they're gonna be holding a meeting for all the students.'

Damian left his room, walking through the empty hallways inside the outpost walls. Under the dim lighting, he casually glanced toward the other private rooms as he passed by. Approaching the nearest exit, however, a door swung in his face, nearly hitting him in the head.

Stumbling backward, Damian stared wide, awaiting his perpetrator. A new figure exited the room casually leaving the area, unaware of their near miss. Walking out onto the field, a girl with ashen grey hair walked away from him, oblivious to his presence.

'...What the hell just happened?'

Recovering from his stupor, Damian quickly followed behind her—noticing they were both heading to the same area.

After a long walk through the outpost, a large group of students gathered on a dirt field.

Stood at the front, the woman who greeted him at the gate earlier talked with two other strangers dressed in similar garb. One was a tall man with short black hair and a stern expression. The other person was a shorter guy with brown hair and a neutral face, clearly bored with his situation. The two together mindlessly listened to the vibrant woman beside them—a strange dynamic between the three.

Damian searched around the dirt field for any familiar faces where he then spotted Aricin waving over to him.

"So, how's the room?" Aricin spoke up to Damian as they approached each other.

"It's the greatest room I've ever had." Damian nodded approvingly.

Aricin chuckled in response.

"Good one."

Damian stood, confused.

'I wasn't joking though?'

Looking at the other students, Damian immediately caught sight of that same ashen hair from earlier.

"By the way…do you know who that girl is?" He pointed out to Aricin.

Aricin turned around, his face slowly growing in shock and confusion.

"You don't know who that is? That's Yulie Dagory, daughter of a famous and powerful rune bloodline. What the hell is she doing here of all places?

Damian's brow furrowed in response.

"Could you explain to me what a rune bloodline is?"

Twisting back to Damian, he squinted, even more befuddled at his question.

"Do you live under a rock?"

"I mean, several years ago, yeah. What does that have to do with what we're talking about now?" Damian answered back, unaware of his sarcasm.

Aricin froze in speechless wonder.

"Nevermind…to start, normally runes are obtained through some kind of great achievement like if you were to slay some kind of rare beast. When this happens, and the gods look upon you kindly, you are blessed with either magic power or a magic artifact. However, bloodline runes are a little different; they can be obtained by simply being born of a lineage related to a god that existed long ago. That's what the bloodline families are; the distant relatives of ancient gods. This is also why they are far stronger than normal imprinted since they are usually guaranteed multiple powers and artifacts instead of praying to earn just one or two like most imprinted."

Listening in, Damian was left puzzled by the last statement.

"...Wait a second, only through being born? Is there no way for people to get bloodline runes without being born with them?"

"Well, no. Otherwise, how else would they have gained that kind of power? Aricin replied

"I guess that makes sense? So does that mean that these bloodline families are demigods or something like that? If they have all this power is there anything that can even stop them?" Damian wondered.

Aricin chuckled at his naive question.

"You're right, but there's definitely more to it. Since there's more than one powerful family ruling the city, they are always keeping each other's power in check."

Damian nodded in understanding.

'It makes sense, but that still leaves so many questions to be answered. Jeez, I need to get myself to a library once all this is over.'

"ATTENTION." A stern empowered voice silenced the many students conversing with each other, forcing their attention to the front.

"We have a few new students joining us from today onward, please give them a warm welcome to the Marin Outpost." The tall man with black hair declared.

Unenthused clapping then spread amongst the students as some of them glanced around to find these supposed newbies. A few eyes landed on Damian and Aricin standing at the side.

"For starters, my name is Instructor Vailecks and I am an Imprinted of the second tier."

After his introduction, Instructor Vailecks then gestured to the people beside him.

"This woman next to me is Instructor Guriya who is also a second-tier Imprinted. And lastly, this man here is Instructor Kley who is graded as a tier three Imprinted. We are who will be taking care of you from here on out."

Damian observed the three instructors.

'I wonder how big a difference there is between each tier?'

"With our introductions finished, all newcomers, please stick around. The rest of you are dismissed for today but don't slack off. Your training won't be getting easier regardless of who's arrived today."