Zachary walked through the corridors, following the directions on his communicator. For some reason, his heart felt lighter. Unresolved thoughts still lingered at the back of his mind, but he chose to focus on what mattered right now.
When he finally arrived at the Wilderness Survival classroom, he opened the door and was greeted by a spacious, empty room.
Professor Julius was everything he had imagined—maybe even more. He looked up from his desk and gave Zachary a wide, welcoming smile. His messy hair and blown-out eyebrows gave him the air of a mad scientist.
"Ah, young man! Come in, come in quickly!" he called out, rising to his feet.
"I'm Awakened Julius, but you can call me Teacher Julius. Hurry now, find a seat!" he added, already walking around the desk to greet him.
"Say, young man. What's your name?"
"Zachary," he replied. To keep the conversation moving in the right direction, he added, "Excuse me, Teacher—did I come too early?"
He looked around with feigned curiosity. "It looks like I'm the first one."
"Bah! No one else is coming. I tell you, those brutes only care about swinging fists and swords. Very few are smart like you and understand the true value of knowledge..."
He rambled for a bit before pausing. "Say, young man… what other courses will you be taking?"
"The basic combat class late at night," Zachary replied with a slight smile.
Teacher Julius turned and gave an awkward laugh. "Well. Haha… you certainly don't look like a brute." He cleared his throat and quickly changed the subject. "Anyway! Why did you choose this class?"
Zachary considered mentioning Soul Reaper Jet's recommendation but quickly decided against it. No need to get caught in one of Teacher Julius's long-winded tangents.
"Well, in my First Nightmare I almost died descending a cliff. It made me realize that before I start killing Nightmare Creatures, I should start by learning how to stay alive," Zachary said in a professional tone.
At that, Teacher Julius beamed and patted him firmly on the shoulder. "Marvelous! Such sharp insight. Don't worry, young man—I'll make sure you learn everything you need to survive in the next four weeks. Thankfully, you're only taking that brutish class at the end of the day, so we can plan a solid curriculum for the rest of your time."
With that, he guided Zachary to a desk near the front and handed him paper and a pen. "I always say, you may never look at your notes again, but the act of writing helps you absorb information better."
Zachary couldn't help but lampoon, 'Man, some might find this situation funny. The most common scenarios in transmigration novels are students escaping classes to go on adventures. I escaped my lectures only to transmigrate into more lectures.'
While Teacher Julius busied himself gathering materials, Zachary noticed a faint drawing at the edge of the desk—a black snake, barely visible. At the sight, Zachary squinted slightly, but—
"Well!" Julius's enthusiastic voice cut through his thoughts, and Zachary straightened up, pen in hand, ready to take notes.
"We'll begin with the basics and go from there: how to procure food, clean water, and shelter. How to make fire in different environments," Teacher Julius began, excitement in his voice. "Let me remind you, young man—the Dream Realm doesn't work like the Waking World. What's normal here might be completely useless there."
The novel truly underestimated the magnitude of knowledge Teacher Julius could shove into your brain in just a few hours. He talked about everything—he went through the different ways to make fires, both traditional and Awakened methods.
"No, no, no, no! I told you already, the advantage of the Dakota fire is that, because it's made underground, you can use it without announcing your presence. Also, due to the way it combusts, it doesn't produce smoke. The disadvantage is that, despite producing a strong flame, you won't be able to use it to warm yourself." He explained.
"I don't know why it's called 'Dakota,' though," he mused to himself.
"Anyway, in the Dream Realm you'll find yourself in situations where you won't be able to light a fire normally..." And before Teacher Julius could continue, Zachary decided to steer the conversation in a necessary direction.
"I'm curious, Professor. How would you produce a fire if you found yourself in a place with more water, like a sea or a... shore?" Zachary knew he still had a month to learn, but he decided to guide the lessons toward what mattered most from the start.
Teacher Julius's eyes lit up at Zachary's interest. "What an amazing question! Certainly, there are some regions in the Dream Realm surrounded by water, like the Storm Sea—and there may be some unexplored ones, too." He placed a hand on his chin, thinking for a moment. "Producing fire with wet materials has always been a problem in the wilderness—and a tricky one at that."
"The thing is," Teacher Julius said, flipping through some papers, "There are a lot of variables to consider. Firstly, is it just material that got wet? Or is it organic matter that grew underwater? You also need to consider the type of water that made it wet. It may sound silly, but the high concentration of salts in seawater causes the water to group into dense 'bags,' which makes it difficult to dry. That's why seaweed is trickier to use as fuel..."
To Zachary's delight, his question had steered Teacher Julius toward exactly what he needed to know. Unfortunately...
"You know what's curious? Thanks to some Masters, we were able to bring research material from the Dream Realm. We've had the opportunity to study the foreign flora that grows there. And to our surprise, yes—they might share some form of common ancestry with our own flora, but that's the only similarity. They contain chemical elements and molecules we haven't even had the opportunity to name yet! And—" He suddenly went quiet and let out a sad sigh.
"It saddens not only my heart but the hearts of researchers around the globe. After the Dark Ages, we lost a huge portion of the knowledge our ancestors worked so hard to obtain. So now we have to search for answers not only about the Dream Realm, but also about our own Realm—answers that had already been discovered but are now lost."
Zachary suddenly tensed and paid closer attention. This was something he genuinely wanted to learn about. The author hadn't delved much into this topic; it wasn't part of the main plot anyway. But as a transmigrator who technically came from this world's past, knowing what happened in his future was important.
"What happened in the Dark Ages, Professor Julius?" Zachary asked with feigned innocence.
Teacher Julius arched an eyebrow at him, but after a few seconds, he gave a resigned sigh. "There's not much I can tell you. I was born just at the end of the conflict, after all. Thanks to all the destruction, there aren't many records left. I think it spanned roughly thirty years. But during that time, with the fall of Europe to biochemical and nuclear weaponry, a lot of satellites and critical data centers were lost. The people of that time managed to maintain a semblance of order, but after the coming of the Nightmare Spell, most of the undersea cables were destroyed. So now we have a massive blank space in our history to fill."
"But anyway, that's not why we're here now," Teacher Julius said, his spirit reigniting. "We still have five more hours before your barbaric class."
***
Zachary was walking through the halls toward the dojo. His eyes were vacant—Professor Julius had said they had five hours left, but he had made them feel like five days. He even had an Academy staff member bring food from the cafeteria, robbing Zachary of the chance to take a break and eat. He let out a reproachful sigh as he finally reached the dojo. Upon entering, he caught sight of the last of the Sleepers heading into the locker rooms, so he hurried to follow them.
Zachary checked his phone and quickly located his locker. When he enrolled in the basic combat course, the Academy had issued him a new set of combat uniforms. He studied them briefly as he changed—the uniform was fairly orthodox: loose black pants that allowed for wide movement, and a long-sleeved shirt bearing the Academy's logo—a sword guarding the recognizable red gates. They didn't look like much, but they had to be well-crafted to withstand the abilities of Sleepers.
As he changed, Zachary noticed how everyone around him was chatting excitedly—mostly about the courses they had attended during the day. Studying them more closely, he realized just how out of shape his own body was—probably because the last few years, the Original One had survived entirely on synthpaste.
'I got lucky he had a pretty stable household growing up. I don't know what I would've done if I'd ended up as small as Sunny,' he thought with a shudder.
Suddenly his lampooning got interrupted.
{_^_}
Just as he finished putting on his uniform, Zachary noticed a handsome young man making his way toward him.
'Caster. I didn't notice yesterday, but damn, he really is a handsome bastard. But wait—wasn't I pretty rude to him yesterday? Just like Sunny in the original novel, he shouldn't be paying attention to me. So—'
"Hello. Are you feeling better now?" Caster interrupted his thoughts with a smile that didn't match the calculating look in his eyes.
"Yeah, more or less," Zachary replied flatly, without much thought.
He paused to consider his next move. He didn't want to get close to Caster, but he also didn't want to antagonize him. As far as he remembered, Caster wasn't evil. He wasn't a villain in the novel—more of an antagonist, opposing the protagonist later on for his own reasons.
'Man, I sound like a Caster apologist... if those even exist,' Zachary lampooned to himself, noticing how Caster continued to study his face. 'Anyway, what's this fellow's problem?'
"Good. I have bad days too. Sometimes when my 'family'..." Caster began, but Zachary had already stopped listening.
Everything clicked. His intuition told him he was right. The way Caster had emphasized the word 'family', the way he wasn't looking at his face but directly into his eyes—his crimson eyes.
'This fellow must think I'm some Valor spawn! It makes sense. The Ha Lin clan is a vassal of the Valor clan. It wasn't fully addressed in the novel, but red eyes have to be rare. So now, seeing some random Sleeper show up with them, he must be trying to figure out if I was given the same mission as him!'
Zachary kept unraveling the thought, his intuition hammering harder with each second. Meanwhile, Caster kept talking.
'Now what do I do with this situation? Should I lie to him? Make him think I'm on his side?' He considered all the angles but sobered quickly. 'No. That's not smart. Too many things could go wrong. This misunderstanding might escalate and make me antagonize Nephis. There's too much I don't control, and it could all spiral out of my hands.'
With a sigh, Zachary decided to defuse the situation before it got any more complicated.
"What's your problem, man?" he interrupted, cutting off Caster's yapping session.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Caster asked, momentarily taken aback.
"Well, you've been staring into my eyes this whole time. I know the color's a little weird, but they turned like this after the Nightmare," Zachary replied with feigned irritation.
"Or—if it's not about the eyes—are you interested in... something else?" He tilted his head with a sardonic smile. "Look, I don't judge, man. But for your information, I don't swing that way."
He saw a faint flush rise on Caster's face as the young man wrinkled his nose.
"What are you talking about? I was just showing concern for a fellow Sleeper. There was no need to react like that," Caster muttered, then turned on his heel and walked back to his entourage.
***
After they finished changing, the group gathered around the dojo, sitting cross-legged as Awakened Rock went over the final details of the class. One by one, the Sleepers began stepping forward to punch the measuring machine.
'Man, what should I do?' Zachary thought, glancing down at his runes.
Name: Zachary.
True Name: Heaven's Equal. [Unclaimed]
Rank: Dreamer.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Soul Fragments: [600/1000].
With six hundred soul fragments, he was probably the strongest Sleeper at the Academy—at least in terms of raw power. Because what he had in essence, he severely lacked in technique.
'Should I show all my might? I don't really have a motive to go unnoticed like Sunny. But I also don't have the ability to back up my strength.'
Zachary pondered this while watching the other Sleepers take their turns at the strength-measuring machine. Most of the results hovered between ten and fourteen. That gave him an idea.
'I should probably aim for something around fifteen. Not as good as the combat-oriented guys, but not too bad either.'
Finally, it was his turn. But as he stepped up, a sudden realization struck him.
'Damn, I still don't know how to throw a punch. Back in the Nightmare, all I ever "learned" from Dahrio was how to dodge. I never managed to land a single hit.'
He stared at the machine. 'Well, what I lack in technique, I can make up for with my soul. Let's aim for sixteen!'
And with that final thought, gathering every scrap of nonexistent technique he could muster, Zachary threw a punch.
The result?
Eleven.
'Huh?' That single word kept looping in his head as he walked back to his seat. His performance passed without pain, glory, or even much attention. The only real reaction came from Caster, whose expression subtly shifted—he seemed to finally realize his mistake.
'How? I mean, my form was pathetic, sure... but I still have six hundred soul fragments.'
Confused, Zachary felt a familiar nudge from his intuition. With a frown, he checked his Aspect runes.
Aspect: [Samsara's Prisoner]
Aspect Rank: Sacred
Aspect Abilities: [Balance Control]
Aspect Ability Description: [You're in your early steps toward enlightenment. You're foolishly attempting to change the world—but for that, you must first change yourself. Your being exists through balance. You're able to exert control over yourself.]
Zachary went over his runes again and again. But no matter how many times he scanned them, his gaze always returned to the same phrase: "Your being exists through balance."
Balance between what, exactly?
'What is a human being made of to begin with?' Zachary wondered.
Back in his old world, this question had been debated across countless disciplines—medicine, philosophy, genetics, even obscure ones like alchemy. But when he turned to what he knew from the novel, a faint recollection surfaced: the description of Weaver's Legacy.
'Let's not rush,' Zachary warned himself.
The seven pieces of Weaver's Legacy clearly hinted at the aspects that formed an individual, but he could feel that his ability wasn't nearly that complicated. Still, the Legacy gave him a direction. His Ability Description said he now existed through balance, so this pathetically weak punch must have been caused by some kind of imbalance within him.
His intuition stirred—he was on the right path.
'There were two things that clearly stood out during that punch: my lacking technique, and my overwhelming soul.'
Zachary suddenly felt something deep within him tremble. As though a part of his being had finally acquired a name. A recognition. A sense of understanding that brought clarity.
He finally comprehended his Ability.
[Balance Control] was a purely passive skill, but a powerful one. It formed a triad between his Body, Mind, and Soul.
The Soul was self-explanatory—it referred to his essence. The Mind revolved around technique, cognition, and the ability to process and execute complex skills. The Body governed his physical capacity to express those techniques and the develpment of his body.
So when he punched the machine, the truth was simple: his body had been in a state of imbalance from the beginning. His soul overflowed with essence—but his mind and body lacked the ability to wield or express it properly.
And so, [Balance Control] had stepped in—forced a balance between them that allowed him to use the most optimal power. In this unbalanced state, Zachary estimated he could muster only around 30 to 40 percent of his actual power.
Suddenly, loud clamors around him interrupted his thoughts. Zachary raised his head and saw Caster stepping back from the machine, the numbers flashing: twenty-one.
'Well, I think next comes the "everyone vs Nephis" event. Damn, I hope she goes easy on me—although going up against someone strong might be the perfect way to test the limits of my Ability.'
With that thought lingering, Zachary watched as Awakened Rock stepped forward, smiling at the gathered Sleepers.
"Not bad. Now, we'll move on to sparring. Unfortunately, we're a little short on time," Awakened Rock said as two more Academy Awakened entered the dojo. "So we'll pair you with Sleepers who had similar scores. From there, we'll evaluate your general level of training."
Sleepers began to shuffle and form pairs, guided by the instructors.
But once again, Zachary's mind was thrown into chaos.
'What?! Another change?!'