Shadow Slave: The Great Hunt

In the end he had never found the solace and shelter that he truly wanted, resigning himself to find another corner that was not filled with a couple.

Once found he took the opportunity to size up the leaders of the small enclaves that were forming around the room as slowly but surely the noise died down if only barely as they waited for the real reason they were here, the induction ceremony.

It was strange to see a crowd of insanely beautiful people, even though most of them were sleepers and not true awakened they were still startlingly attractive.

The next minute, strangely enough he was joined by his "friend" who suddenly crossed his arms over his chest and waited for the ceremony to begin with an almost proud smile plastered across his face.

"What are you so happy about? Practically the whole of the academy hates your guts."

"I have control." Sunny said after an elongated pause.

Art, raising a dubious eyebrow, waved politely as Sunny trotted off again a devious smile playing across his face.

He is going to get himself in trouble for this behavior. Well I need to be careful about this, I don't want to be seen as so weak that I Won't get access to the deals and money, but I also don't want to stand out and make people wonder where I came from.

I'm sure in an actual battle my flaw will quickly become obvious as it is extremely rare to see an awakened person not wielding a weapon of some sort.

Sighing whilst looking at his hands, large and rough they seemed to him at least to radiate a slight danger.

But how do I position myself to say 6th place out of the top five but in the top ten, a good but not amazing prospect as far as recruiters are concerned.

I will have some more time when we see the actual rankings which I believe they show somewhere, if the novels and such are to be believed that is. 

Another thing to consider is what I tell people, another thing I don't understand is why should I become friends with these people if most of them are doomed to die.

Deciding to sit down at a nearby table he finally noticed the source of the lack of people in this corner.

It was a beautiful girl with clear blue eyes, blonde shoulder length hair and an above average beauty.

She must be blind. He noticed after a few seconds of observation.

"Hello there." he said.

"Oh, why ummm… hello?"

Poor girl and here I was thinking my flaw was bad. She is as good as dead out there.

Then a long awaited at least for Art hush came over the crowd as he heard the peeling tone of a microphone.

"Ehem, I am Awakened Rock. Sleepers are welcome to the Academy."

The large man that looked to be the mix of a bear and a human in stature boasted rippling muscles that barely fit into his uniform.

"In less than a month, you will be summoned to the Dream Realm. Some of you might think that you are well prepared. You're wrong. The spell is merciless and cunning."

By the gods is his purpose to be a fear-monger or to inform us.

"The moment Awaken begins to think too much of themselves, they die. I've seen countless Sleepers like you lose their lives in fact none, not even Saints, are safe when it comes to the Nightmare Spell."

"In the following four weeks, we will do everything in our power to increase your chances of survival. You will receive training from some of the best in the world. However, don't take your survival for granted: in the end the only one you can depend on for survival is yourself."

It seemed like the instructors blatant fear tactic was working as the Sleepers were looking at one another with fear only The Legacies seemed unaffected.

Even though this is all old news it is still a good reminder to remember that The Spell is a cruel cruel power.

To Art it was fascinating to see in the pause Awakened Rock took in his long winded speech the terror that quickly spread through the young Sleepers.

"Now we will talk about the difference between Nightmares and the Dream Realm…"

Now this is the juicy stuff.

Most of the crowd seemed to pay more attention to this ; it was rare to gain experience from those who had actually explored the dream realm. For Art he was curious about these gods and who or what exactly they were because it seemed that he was chosen for the gods.

"Most people are aware of what Nightmares are– That's why you were guarded whilst your first was taking place."

I wonder where the Awakened who was there went and why Master Jet had to take both me and Sunny? I forgot to ask.

"Second Nightmares are very different and therefore very dangerous. They are not tied to the individual but rather the Dream Realm itself. Growing in what we call Nightmare Seeds they grow in the Dream realm before opening a Gate into reality either at maturity or when someone fails by dying in the challenge. This seed can be closed by any number of Awakened."

Huh so that means that the main job of Awakened is to hunt down these Seeds.

"So it is not incorrect to say that the purpose of Awakened is to hunt down such seeds and defeat them before they can wreak havoc in the real world. If Nightmares are the destination then the Dream Realm can be seen as the road though that is an egregious oversimplification."

"The Dream Realm is a world vast and unexplored though it is dead only filled with Nightmare Creatures. But it wasn't always this way. It seemed that in the past The Nightmare Realm was home to several Civilizations though they were primitive."

I call B.S. on them being primitive if we can see parts of them now they couldn't have been primitive just different from what we see as sophisticated. 

"We don't know how these two places truly relate to each other or the true scale of the Dream Realm however we do suspect that these Nightmares are from specific events in history and this includes the first one though its scale tends to be much smaller."

So there must have been an Ameture Beast Hunter in that unimaginably large Jungle, he wondered how that person had eventually made it to the Golden City? That it was really bothering him that he didn't know the name of.

That must be important somehow.

But the thought seemed to elude him and the more he tried to focus the more it slipped away leaving him confused and conflicted.

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This one took a while but hey better late then never, please tell me what you think in the comments good or bad I appreciate it