Chapter 71 — Headmaster

When Damian woke up the next morning, he found himself lying on hard ground surrounded by massive trees.

’What the hell...’

He distinctly remembered falling asleep in his own bed inside his dormitory room last night, exhausted from the operation.

But now he’d woken up in the middle of a dense forest, sunlight filtering through an impossibly thick canopy overhead.

When he looked around, trying to make sense of the situation, he found the strange old man who’d taught him the Abyssal Slaughter weapon art sitting calmly under a nearby tree.

The man was eating what looked like incredibly delicious roasted meat, tearing chunks off with his bare hands.

He looked exactly the same as the day they’d first met.

Long white hair and beard tied with random knots, but he had a surprisingly muscular body that suggested far more strength than his ancient appearance implied.

"Help yourself."

The old man pointed toward the meat without looking up, having noticed Damian wake.

"..."

Damian stood up slowly, brushed dirt and leaves off his clothes, then walked over and sat down near the old man.

He grabbed a piece of the meat and started eating.

He was genuinely hungry, and the food definitely didn’t disappoint. It tasted absolutely heavenly, far better than anything he’d eaten at the Academy cafeteria.

Rich, savory, with flavors he couldn’t quite identify.

"Why didn’t you just wake me up normally instead of abducting me while I was sleeping?"

Damian asked in a confused, slightly annoyed tone while continuing to eat.

"...The last time I teleported you while you were conscious, you immediately vomited all over my face."

The old man replied with a grimace, glaring at Damian with obvious irritation.

"I learned my lesson. Unconscious transportation is cleaner."

Damian looked a bit awkward and quickly focused all his attention on eating, deliberately avoiding the glare.

The silence stretched for several minutes, both of them just eating in companionable quiet.

"...Are you the Headmaster?"

Damian finally spoke again, remembering what Professor Richard had mentioned the other night.

The old man stopped eating and looked at him properly for the first time.

"When you asked about my identity previously, you weren’t qualified to know my name or position. I actually planned to cut off your head and add it to my collection when you inevitably failed to learn my weapon art properly."

’Seriously... what’s the deal with this guy’s weird head fetish...’

Damian kept quiet and listened with a helpless expression on his face.

"But it seems luck was on your side. You eventually succeeded in learning the basics and even reached minor success level. I kept my eyes on you every single day you practiced, watching your progress."

The old man cleaned his oily hands on his robes, then looked at Damian with a genuinely serious expression.

"Now that you’ve successfully learned my art and achieved minor success, you can officially be called my disciple. So allow me to properly introduce myself."

He straightened his back, and suddenly the air around them felt heavier.

"You may call me Headmaster Kaiser. I have been the Headmaster of Stormhold Academy since the day it was first established by my own hands over a century ago. I am one of the most powerful humans in the entire Federation."

Damian’s eyes widened in genuine shock.

He’d never expected the eccentric old man sitting casually in front of him to be the legendary, mysterious founder of the Academy himself.

A living monster who was more than two hundred years old!

The being who’d established the very first Academy dedicated to training humanity’s best warriors in the endless fight against the Monsters beyond the portals.

There were countless tales and rumors about who had actually established Stormhold Academy over the decades. But no specific name was ever officially confirmed or spoken.

The person sitting in front of him eating roasted meat like a common traveler was actually one of the greatest humans to ever exist in the entire history of this planet.

Only now was Damian truly understanding why Professor Richard had put that strange, stunned expression on his face when Damian had casually described the old man as having a "weird fetish."

"I have personally trained thousands upon thousands of students over my long life. But only those who ever successfully learned my Abyssal Slaughter weapon art could truly be considered my actual disciples."

Kaiser’s voice carried weight.

"And now you have earned the right to call me Master as well."

Damian adopted a more serious expression on his face but still didn’t speak, processing this revelation.

"But don’t think of it as some kind of great achievement or honor."

Kaiser’s tone turned colder, almost bitter.

"All those who became my disciples throughout history died on various battlefields before ever growing up to their full potential.

My real disciples never lived past twenty years of age. Every single one of them fell in combat."

He said this with absolutely no expression on his weathered face, as if discussing the weather rather than the deaths of people he’d personally trained.

"...I see. Master, can you tell me why you brought me here today specifically?"

Kaiser was inwardly surprised by the complete composure of his newest student.

He could count on his fingers the number of people throughout his long life who could maintain such calm in his presence, especially after learning his true identity.

Even though this kid clearly understood what that identity meant and the implications of being his disciple, he sat there calmly with no excessive questions, no awe, no fear, not even basic curiosity about Kaiser’s legendary past.

Just going straight to the practical point.

’I’m starting to like this kid.’

"We came here to train you properly, of course. The meat you’re currently eating is beast meat from the mutated animals that inhabit this forest."

Kaiser gestured vaguely at the surrounding trees.

"It’s extremely nourishing for the body and helps strengthen your physical foundation.

All those expensive Aura-strengthening resources and vitality-boosting potions that those so-called Nobles use are actually made through processed body materials from these same creatures."

Damian wasn’t particularly surprised by this information.

This knowledge might not be widely known among common people or students who never bothered to dig deeper into how the world actually functioned.

But Damian remembered clearly what the Old Beggar had mentioned in his past life about the world inside the novel.

Still, he carefully put on an expression like he didn’t know any of this, trying to avoid looking suspicious or too knowledgeable.

Kaiser noticed the expression and began explaining in more detail, settling into what was clearly a well-practiced lecture.

****

In the year 2350, the portals tore open across the entire world simultaneously, unleashing monstrosities that no human had ever faced or even imagined in their worst nightmares.

That single moment changed absolutely everything about human civilization.

Humanity realized with terrifying certainty that they were not alone in this vast universe.

Constant brutal struggles against impossible odds eventually allowed some humans to awaken strange powers. To survive when they should have died. To fight back against threats beyond normal comprehension.

They gained supernatural abilities, ranking systems, and status screens that defined their exact place in this new world order.

This allowed humanity to finally repel the initial waves of Monsters and establish defensive positions.

But the world itself fundamentally changed that day as well.

The very continents slowly began drifting and joining together over the following decades, eventually forming one massive single supercontinent.

Though there were still many scattered islands and broken pieces of land separated by devastating battles that occurred during those chaotic early years.

It wasn’t only humans who became powerful through this transformation.

The animals and nature itself evolved dramatically as well.

Although they didn’t develop status screens like humans, they followed their own distinct path to power.

They mutated. Their bodies gained massive strength and durability. Some even developed special abilities that rivaled or exceeded human capabilities.

Unlike humans who formed concentrated Aura cores in their chests, these beasts absorbed Aura differently.

It permeated their entire bodies – their blood, their bones, their muscles, their very cells.

And they evolved further by hunting down and consuming their own kind, growing stronger through selective predation and survival of the fittest.

Most of these newly evolved beasts were eventually driven out of the main continent and into the very same portals that had changed the world in the first place.

They now served as an unintentional buffer zone between humanity and the true Monstrosities that existed beyond those portals.

The rest of the beast population inhabited the massive forests and mountain ranges that spread across the continent, creating their own territories and ecosystems.

Humanity deliberately allowed these beast populations to multiply and thrive, managing them like renewable resources.

Because they were, quite literally, the greatest resource available to humans aside from the natural environment and evolved plants.

All Aura-strengthening potions, vitality supplements, healing elixirs, every type of enhancement product used by awakeners – all of it was made through carefully processed materials harvested from these beasts’ bodies.

And information regarding this uncomfortable truth was secretly controlled by both the Federation government and the Noble families.

They made absolutely sure the general population believed these products were scientifically synthesized in laboratories.

Which was technically true – they were indeed manufactured using advanced science and alchemy.

But the raw materials were all provided from slaughtered beasts.