As the morning arrived, Damian shrugged off his fatigue and readied himself for a full training day like any other. However, there appeared to be a slight difference from what he had been conditioned to expect.

After a quick breakfast, Damian made his way to the morning training block with Aricin, which often involved the entire population of recruits in the outpost—excluding the guards, of course.

It was often done as an extended regiment of stretches, running, and occasionally some kind of short announcement about the week or schedule. Unlike usual, however, Instructor Vailecks gave a rather unsettling announcement to the group, establishing odd new rules for everyone to follow

"Good morning, everyone; from today forward, there are going to be a few new rules that you'll be required to follow. Now, Listen closely:

Rule 1: All residents are to return to their sleeping quarters by sundown. Do not leave your cabin. Do not let anyone else in your cabin.

Rule 2: Throughout the week, there will be mandatory role calls, so make sure you're present for each of them.

Rule 3: When outside of your cabin, remain accompanied by another student.

Lastly, Instructor Kley will unfortunately be gone for the next week due to something coming up on his end. For the recruits that are a part of his training block, you'll be moved over to mine until his return.

That'll be all, you may resume your morning training."

Damian, along with dozens of other students, furrowed their brow at the sudden new guidelines.

'That seems…strange. Why enforce something like this now? Maybe I'm just reading too much into it. Not like I know anything about how things work outside the city.'

Lingering on the foreboding changes, Damian followed through with the morning training in absentminded instinct. Afterward, he made his way to speak to his companions on the subject—at an all too familiar lunch table.

"So…what do you guys think of the new rules?" Damian spoke, somewhat reserved.

The others looked over in moderate surprise.

"Wow, you…seem pretty stressed this morning, you doing okay?" Aricin examined in bewilderment.

Damian scoffed at the reply:

"Hah..? I've never been better! I just…think it would be interesting to hear what you guys have to say about these new changes."

"You care about what your friends have to say?" Mika inquired with squinting eyes.

"You-

"Well, Damian, to answer your question, these new rules aren't really that big of a deal." Aricin interrupted in a tight-lipped smile.

"...Really?"

"Yep. Since these outposts are built out into the forest where everything is far more dangerous, it wouldn't be surprising if they needed to take some precautions when things aren't looking good in their area." Aricin explained.

"What about the fact that Instructor Kley isn't around? Isn't that a big deal?"

Aricin shook his head at the question:

"He's most likely working as a scout for the outpost. He probably found something out there that looked a little more dangerous than usual. I heard these rules are pretty common in other outposts. Some even have them set up as permanent guidelines."

Slowly, Damian began to nod his head.

"Just relax; it's probably not that big of a deal. If it does end up becoming a big deal, then they would just have all recruits sent home until the issue is fixed." Aricin reinforced.

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"Alright, alright, you make a good point." Damian sighed.

'This is all because of that damn incident from last night that I'm so paranoid. As soon as Kley gets back, I need to tell him about that strange noise.'

"Other than that, what are we gonna do about that whole buddy system they've decided to set up?" Mika questioned as she finished her food.

"I mean, nothing has really changed; we all kind of walk with each other anyway. Actually, do you guys wanna join me and Yulie, for our exclusive training? Since Kley is gone, it would be cool to have you guys hang around." Damian asked, glancing over at Yulie for approval.

Noticing his gestures, Yulie continued to eat.

"...I don't care."

"It's not a bad idea. What do you think, Mika?" Aricin replied.

"I don't see why not. It may even be safer for us since Yulie is an amazingly talented Imprinted." Mika nodded.

"What? Have you forgotten that I'm also Imprinted?"

"Oh yeah…I guess you're right…" Mika hesitantly agreed.

"Why do I feel like I'm being insulted?" Damian questioned in suspicion.

***

From then forth, the days slowly passed by. With the changes that came, life continued as usual with Damian training relentlessly to pass the time—occasionally reading into his runes out of boredom.

At some point, however, he eventually remembered he actually picked up an old book from a certain forsaken library many moons ago—a place he vowed to not enter until Kley's return. Now with nothing else to do before his sleep, Damian finally decided to give the mysterious book a read.

Several days into his training without Instructor Kley, Damian returned to his room—clumsily, he fell into the chair at his small wooden desk. Resting atop the desk, lay an incredibly worn-out book with a leather cover.

Giving the book a curious gaze, he finally flipped it open. From the first page, he read: 'The Forest'

Near the bottom of the page, however, a small print labeled: 'Log 01' caught Damian's eye as he searched for any other details he may have missed.

'If it's labeled as Log 01, does that mean that there's a Log 02, 03, and so on?'

Curious, Damian resumed his reading.

The book listed no author, only containing the strange logs of what could only have been assumed as a Traveler from a distant past.

Although Damian tried, he couldn't exactly comprehend any of the text the mysterious author had written, the writing just seemed too disorganized and messy. On certain pages, all he could read were never-ending logs of numbers and cryptic codes.

Heaving an exasperated sigh, Damian clumsily scanned through the book.

'Why did I even bother grabbing this thing? It's all just filled with complete nonsense anyway-...oh?'

Skimming through the pages, Damian halted in mild shock.

Although he couldn't really read the horrendous writing, what he could understand were the actual drawings the writing came with. Deep into the book, there were detailed sketches of a variety of numerous unusual creatures.

'What the hell are these things? Are these monsters from the forest?'

Now intrigued, Damian adjusted his posture as any fatigue from the earlier rigorous training had vanished.

Page after page, he found sketches of all sorts of bizarre monsters of the forest. Something even better was that they all seemed to have been given names that were genuinely legible—as well as small notes beside them that if he really tried, could even understand them.

From the first dozen pages, strange insectile creatures took up the majority, each with distinct dangerous aspects to their looks and short descriptions.

Into the middle sections, the creatures seemed to grow more intimidating as they displayed needle-like furr, long wings, numerous limbs, or many other dire characteristics.

Damian studied the drawings with a grim expression.

'I think it may have been a better idea to stay in the city.'

But it was near the last few pages that Damian began to scratch his head.

The last few sketches were no longer drawn as horrific beasts or ominous insects. The first was a simple sketch of a beautiful flower. The second was a detailed sketch of a small town. And the last page, where there was no sketch—only a name and a short description:

'The Heart.

Although there's a lot of skepticism, sources are starting to show clues of its existence. Await further observation.'

Damian leaned back from his chair in thought.

'A flower, a town, and a heart…what the hell does any of it mean? There were a few other strange pages as well that had no sketches. But what exactly am I supposed to do with this information?'

Rubbing his eyes, Damian closed the book in resignation, choosing to give up and head to sleep.

Habitually, he continued to train with his companions, awaiting Kley's return. His efficiency as a fighter had even begun to hone itself into something more akin to genuine skill—his ranking even amongst the recruits was slowly climbing to the top as well.

As the days came and went, however, Kley had still not returned. In his place, a calm fog had gradually manifested throughout the outpost and into the forest—making for an interesting experience for the students. Now forced to live in the unusual haze, everyone immediately connected the sudden change with the new guidelines—taking on the new environment with understandable caution.

One week went by, two weeks, then three weeks. Damian and the other newbies had now experienced a full month of hardship at the outpost. And yet, the longer he remained, the more uneasy he began to feel—and the thicker the fog continued to grow.

Instructor Kley had now been missing for nearly a month.