For Mike, becoming a spirit caster wasn't just about achieving his personal dreams—it was his chance to pull his family from the depths of financial struggle and give them a future they desperately needed.
He placed his hand on the Orb, and for a moment, every where went still.
Then.
The Orb shimmered with a faint silver light, a final, flickering heartbeat of energy—then dimmed into stillness, its glow extinguished like a dying star.
All eyes turned to Mike, whose heart gave a faint, uneasy tremor. This was definitely not a good sign. A low murmur rippled through the classroom as confusion filled the air, no one quite understood what they had just witnessed.
"Pathetic." Lillian spoke with a firm, unwavering voice, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. If there was one thing she despised more than anything else in the world, it was weakness—and she could smell it in the air surrounding Mike.
"E-rank Spirit Caster." Leon let out a heavy sigh—it was far from the outcome they'd anticipated.
According to the principal's convictions, these individuals were supposed to possess hidden potential. But Mike… Mike was proving to be an entirely different case.
"How.." Mike's eyes flew open in disbelief, the final spark of hope extinguishing into the void. His one chance—his only chance—to lift his family from the weight of their financial struggles had slipped through his fingers once again, vanishing into darkness.
As he returned to his seat, all eyes settled on him, some filled with pity, most with happiness that it wasn't them that turned out like him.
"Mike..." Peters whispered as Mason strode past. He stayed silent, teeth clenched, fighting to bury the storm of rage and sorrow churning inside him. They couldn't possibly understand? How could they? They had no idea what his family went through each passing day because he always covered it up with a smile.
"Next."
Finally, it came down to the last student in the class. Mason Harris.
He rose to his feet and stepped toward the Orb resting on the teacher's desk, his presence calm, measured—almost unnervingly composed.
Lillian's eyes narrowed, locked on him with unwavering focus. There was something about him—something stirring beneath the surface—that she had never encountered in all her years of recruiting freshly awakened candidates.
'System.' He said in his thoughts.
[Yes master?]
'Activate the Spirit Concealment skill.'
[As you wish.]
[You have successfully activated the demon art skill (Spirit Concealment)]
As he placed his hands on the Orb, a subtle tension filled the room. Lillian's eyes widened slightly—the strange, stirring presence she had sensed within him earlier, vanished the instant his skin met with the Orb's surface. It was as if whatever force had been flickering to life had been snuffed out in an instant.
"D-rank Spirit Caster, sorry kid."
A wave of surprise washed over Mason in an instant. D-rank? How was that even possible? Especially after he had gone to such lengths to conceal his spiritual energy?
'System, how the hell did I get a D-rank? I thought you concealed my spirit power?'
[The average spirit caster has a power level or a spirit pool of up to 70, the moment you awakened a portion of your bloodline lineage, your spirit pool transcended exponentially. Until you are able to learn how to completely seal your energy, that's the best the skill could do.]
'What? Then how did I manage to evade that supernatural if that was the case?'
[Because you expended a portion of your energy while completing your first task, it wasn't a challenge to conceal the rest of it.]
'Oh, that's right.'
"Damn." He mumbled with a soft sigh, turning around and walking back to his seat.
As he returned to his seat, Lillian's eyes trailed after him, narrowed with suspicion. His words had been casual, almost dismissive—but for someone of his standing, an opportunity to the Caster's Academy was meant to be a once-in-a-lifetime dream.
Yet everything about his demeanor suggested otherwise.
"No way... You too?" Peters couldn't believe his eyes—out of everyone in his friend group, he alone had been chosen to attend the Caster's Academy.
It was a rare, life-changing opportunity, one most could only dream of. But as the weight of that reality settled in, so did the absence of his two closest friends.
Without them to share in the joy, the triumph felt strangely hollow.
"That concludes the evaluation ceremony, thank you for your time." The agents of the Spirit Caster's Academy were known for their style—simple, direct, and brief.
Before the students could react, the agents had already left the classroom, their attention pulled elsewhere by more pressing matters.
Out of the twenty-five students in the classroom, only three had earned a coveted place at the Caster's Academy. The outcome of the selection ceremony was disheartening, casting a quiet gloom over the room. But despite the results, the agents journey wasn't a waste.
School hours ended swiftly, the results of the Awakening casting a somber mood over the class, leaving most students in heavy, unspoken silence.
Most of the students had already gone home—especially Mike, who wasn't in the mood for conversation. Even Peters didn't know how to face him after everything that had unfolded.
He didn't know how to talk to his friend, knowing he now held the very opportunity Mike had longed for—a chance to change his family's fate.
"I can't believe this just happened." Peters began as both him and Mason left the classroom, heading home.
"That's the real world for you, it's not everyone's that strong enough to survive in it, and unfortunately for me and Mike, we don't fall into that category. At least you get a chance at payback after what your ex did to you."
"Mason Harris." A voice called out from behind, and as the two turned to see who it was, they were surprised to find Mr. John standing there, a warm smile stretching across his face.
"Mr John? Is there any problem?"
"Your attention is needed in the principal's office." His response came swiftly and firmly, carrying the unmistakable weight of authority.
"The hell did you do now Mason?" Peters said.
"I pretty sure I didn't do anything today, man this is too sudden. I guess I'll catch you later." As they parted ways, Mr. John guided him through the hallways of the school, his silence more noticeable than usual.
"So you finally took up that naked gorilla situation." He chuckled nervously, attempting to break the quiet tension that hung between them. He was fairly certain he hadn't done anything wrong.
So being summoned so suddenly left him feeling uneasy.
Mr John pushed open the door to his left, extending his hand in a smooth gesture to guide Mason inside before quietly shutting the door behind him.
"Hey, this isn't the princip-"
"Welcome back, Mason Harris was it?" A voice jolted him back to the room—sitting directly in front of him was the female agent from earlier, with the man who had stood beside her now looming quietly at her side.
"You're the agents from earlier... What's going on?"
"To cut to the chase, Lillian believes something was off during your evaluation, quite frankly I was against this, but her acute senses are always accurate." Leon began, recalling the events that transpired during his evaluation.
"You seemed unnervingly calm about your evaluation earlier, tell me, have you ever wished to become a Spiritual caster?" Her jaw rested on her interlocked fingers as she spoke, her eyes sharp and unyielding as they bore into him.
"Yes, but that was long ago, currently I have no ambitions of becoming a Spirit Caster."
"Oh? And why is that?"
"Family reasons."
She let out a soft sigh as she slowly rose to her feet, her eyelids gently shut, as if gathering her thoughts before speaking again. "I see."
Mason's eyes widened in shock as an overwhelming presence loomed before him. In the blink of an eye, the atmosphere shifted—heavy, suffocating—and his breath caught in his throat.
It was a feeling beyond words, beyond reason—one he couldn't describe, couldn't fathom. It was a feeling he had only felt it once before in his entire life.
Fear.
As his mind scrambled to process the moment, his eyes locked onto Lillian's incoming fist—wreathed in flames and barreling toward him at supersonic speed. It looked like an ordinary flaming strike, but everything about it felt wrong, overwhelming, as if reality itself bent around its force.
It felt as though the Titanic itself had come crashing down from the sky.
Before he could even react, the searing brightness of her flames reflected in his cornea—followed by a blinding flash of light that swallowed everything.
Then...