Classes had started and Del was currently giving a lecture about the history of mages and the shadow plague.

  "There are many theories on who the Divine being was but the most probable one is the fact that she was a powerful mage. They said that she was originally born in the Empire and then later started to explore the lands for herself. But one day she had disappeared and something else arrived in her place. That's when the Shadow's had started their move. It was as if they knew that humanity had significantly been weakened. Our goal as mages is to help fight back against the shadow, just as the Divine being once did." Del said.

  Del continued to speak.

  "However, only mages that have broken through are able to truly fight those shadows as they are frighteningly strong. If any of you were to face a True infected, I guarantee you would be dead in an instant."

  Everyone's face was deadly frightened as the teacher went through images of what the True infected looked like and how they fought in battle. A lot of the students in Roland, for the first time were seeing the strength of the enemy.

  There were videos of Knights and mages attacking a True infected but the shadows around him would just block the attacks or regrow its limbs.

  Of course, Ray yawned while watching the video. At this point, he was already a veteran in going against the shadow.

  "I hate to say it but it wasn't too long ago that we had no clue how to deal with these things." said Del, "The kingdom had hidden it from the public but we felt like the True infected where truly unkillable and we had yet to kill a single one. That was when out knights at Avrion uncovered important information, the True infected were using a powerful illusion. It's constantly using its power to make you think you are hurting it when you are not. The only way to kill a True infected is to destroy the heart."

  Unknown to Del, that the very person who had uncovered this fact was Ray himself. The information was a turning point for the war against the shadow.

  With the lecture over it was time for lunch with the students. Ray looked over at Van and decided, he needed to get to know him. Not just for the divine being but also to keep his promise to the Queen. He had already told her that he would help out.

  At first, it was just a simple mission that Ray agreed to, but now he wanted to find out more for personal reasons.

  "Hey Van, do you want to head for lunch with us two?" Ray asked.

  But Van was unresponsive and Max and Ray decided to head to the canteen themselves.

  This was going to be a hard task for Ray as he had never tried to become friends with a human before and didn't really know what to say.

  "Hey did you hear, that someone is trying to become friends with the freak?"

  "What, does he have a death wish!?"

  "Yeah, I here there even sharing the same rooms and now they're sitting next to each other in class."

  "Who is it?"

  "It's that new kid that arrived yesterday."

  "Oh, so is it because he doesn't know anything then, after all, he just arrived at the school right?"

  "Well if he does know, then wouldn't it be like he is declaring a war against the upperclassmen."

  Just then as the two students were talking, a large figure had approached behind them.

  "Hey you two, that thing you were talking about, I would like to hear more about it." The student said.

  The student had two stripes on his shoulder indicating that he was a middle-class student in the school.

  ****

  In the canteen it was as Max had expected, now all the students weren't only avoiding Van, but it looked like they were now avoiding him and Ray too.

  "Look Nes, it seems like you're a good guy and you're just trying to help out but we're going to become an enemy of the whole school at this rate just because of one person. With just the two of us, there's no way we can change anything and besides, it's not even like Van is appreciating what you are trying to do for him. Here you are sticking your neck out for him and it's like he doesn't even acknowledge you exist."

  Ray was deep in thought, unlike Max who was worried about the student's Ray didn't care. According to Lenny, Ray was strong enough to deal with nearly any of the students any time he wanted. The strong ones he needed to watch out for were the teachers who had already broken through.

  And Max was wrong about Van, He did care, while in class Ray noticed that Van hadn't written a single word in his notebook. The presence of the two of them was clearly affecting him.

  Max then placed his head down into the table.

  "Why me, my friends who were just talking to me yesterday now don't even talk to me anymore."

  "Hey what about me?" Ray said with a smile.

  "This isn't a joke," Max said.

  Although Ray really felt like this whole thing was a joke. The problems Max had were nothing compared to what Ray had going on in the outside world.

  "Well if you're that worried, then all we need is allies on our side right? Just create a group and then we will no longer have to worry about them."

  "Nes it's not that simple…" However, before Max could finish his sentence, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

  "We have some business to discuss with the two of you." The student said.

  Standing behind Max was a total of six students, each one of them were in the middle class, a rank above Max and Ray.

  "Nes Talen, and Max Heart right?" Said the student, "Why don't you too come with us, someone wants to speak to you."

  ***

  Special thanks to Fenrir2040, Ekwuruke_Samuel, Robert_Burkhard, Isaac_Lopez_3223, and Jennifer_Thiel These gifts are so special and really help thank you. If you haven't already Join the discord we have a good community growing. Link in Synopsis. Will be posting some art work of characters from the novel as thanks soon.