They finally arrived in what looked like a massive hall. It wasn't decorated or polished like the rest of the academy buildings. It was industrial and built purely for function.
At the center of the hall stood the portal.
It was huge.
The biggest Rhian had ever seen.
Massive machines and towering pillars surrounded it, humming faintly as energy pulsed from the glowing surface.
It shimmered like liquid glass, swirling pale green with traces of faint light weaving inside of it.
Rhian tried to get a better look, but with how packed the hall was, students filling every corner, he could barely see anything beyond the heads in front of him. He wasn't exactly tall enough to peek over everyone either.
As murmurs and scattered voices grew around the hall, a sharp voice cut through everything.
"SILENCE!"
The sound echoed hard enough that even those whispering froze instantly.
Every head turned upwards.
Standing on an elevated platform was a tall woman dressed in a sleek black uniform. Her long black hair flowed neatly behind her shoulders, streaked with green strands that glinted faintly under the artificial lights.
Students around Rhian started whispering immediately.
"That's the Headmaster..."
"It's mistress you dumbass."
"Say that again, I'll burn your dick off."
"..."
Whispers of her name spread like wildfire, some with awe, others with nerves. Everyone here knew about her, even if few had seen her this close.
Behind her stood all the first-year instructors, every teacher from every class assembled here today.
Rhian's eyes naturally caught Liane standing among them. She stood there like everyone else, arms folded, expression calm.
But it didn't go unnoticed.
"I didn't know we had cursed teacher.'
"I can fix her."
"She can fix me."
Some of the students still couldn't hide their surprise or discomfort seeing a Cursed standing alongside the other instructors like it was normal.
Rhian frowned slightly. Not that it surprised him.
The Headmaster stood firm, letting the silence settle after her command. She didn't need to shout twice. The presence alone was enough to keep everyone's attention locked on her.
"You will all be entering the portal today," her voice carried clearly through the hall, steady and absolute. "This is part of your growth. This is part of becoming a hunter. But I won't waste your time explaining everything myself."
She turned slightly, gesturing with a hand.
"Dr. Tesker will explain the details."
From behind her, Dr. Tesker, the Portal Studies and Monster Ecology instructor, stepped forward. His usual tired, rough look remained unchanged, glasses low on his face as he casually adjusted them.
"The portal before you is one of the largest training portals this academy has access to," he began, his voice calm but loud enough for everyone to hear clearly. "Big enough that, once inside, it'll feel like its own world."
He paused, giving the students a moment to let that sink in.
"You won't all be together in there," he continued. "This portal was created to help students learn, grow, and most importantly... test them."
He motioned to the massive structure behind him.
"When you enter, the portal will automatically scatter teams into random locations. Don't expect to meet your friends easily. Don't expect safety in numbers either."
The murmurs around the students grew slightly louder.
"The environment inside will contain beasts ranging from F Rank to D Rank," he explained. "You will each be given a tracking watch. This watch will glow depending on the nearby beast's rank."
He lifted his hand, showing a device.
"Green for F Rank. Yellow for E Rank. Orange for D Rank. If it flashes Red... turn around and leave. You're not ready for whatever that is."
That brought a few nervous laughs from the crowd, but none from Dr. Tesker.
"The objective is simple," he continued without smiling. "Hunt beasts. Collect cores for the next 3 days. The team that brings back the most cores will be ranked first. Rewards will be given accordingly."
He adjusted his glasses again.
"This is to foster teamwork. To test your ability to work as a unit and handle real threats. But remember... monsters don't care about rankings."
He paused briefly, his voice dropping just slightly.
"If you die in there... you're dead. There is no coming back."
The hall went dead silent again.
He let that hang for a moment before finishing.
"There are also rules while you're in there. Student fights are prohibited. This is not a battleground for personal grudges. Any conflict or death caused by students will be investigated thoroughly. Punishments will follow."
Without another word, Dr. Tesker stepped back into line, his part done.
Instantly, the room filled with quiet whispers and hushed conversation.
Everyone processed the information differently. Some were excited, some nervous, while others were already calculating plans.
Rhian stood still, eyes on the portal, his heart steady.
Mr. Callor stepped forward from the line of instructors, his presence alone drawing most of the students' attention.
"Alright," his voice cut across the room, loud and sharp, "group up into teams of five. Be quick about it. No shouting, no chaos. If you cause trouble now, don't expect to step inside that portal."
Despite his warning, it only took a few seconds for the room to break into noise and movement.
Students rushed to their friends, pulling them in. Others moved with sharper eyes, scanning the crowd for anyone strong or famous. Some formed their groups naturally, while others desperately tried to avoid being left out.
It was always like this.
Every year.
On the raised platform, where all the instructors stood watching, Liane stood with her arms folded, her sharp eyes calmly scanning the sea of students. But she wasn't watching just anyone.
She was looking for hers.
Her freaks.
A voice came from beside her, casual but rough. "This year's batch is big... and surprisingly controlled."
She turned slightly, seeing the speaker, a bald man with sharp red eyes. He was one of the instructors teaching Mysticals this year. His posture was relaxed, but there was an edge to him that only instructors tended to notice in each other.
Liane nodded. "Yeah, I can see that," she answered calmly. "Looks like we might actually have a good year for once."
The man glanced at her sideways. "How many you got this year?"
Liane exhaled through her nose in mild annoyance, knowing what he meant. "Seven," she replied. "That's all."
Seven students.
It sounded small compared to the classes of Mysticals, Physicals, and Hybrids that had well over twenty or thirty students each.
The man made a low sound, not exactly surprised. "Numbers keep dropping, huh."
"They do," Liane said quietly. "Every year fewer Evolved apply to enter. Can't really blame them either."
It was reality.
Cursed, or Evolved, as she preferred to call them, weren't just hated.
They were afraid.
Parents didn't want to send their kids to an academy where they might be bullied, isolated, or worse. And most Evolved kids grew up in secluded places, away from humans, away from noise, away from people.
But Liane knew better.
Isolation was just another kind of death.
Sure, the discrimination was real. The isolation was safer, for now. But it came at a price.
People still saw Evolved as human. Even with all the fear, the hate, and the distance... there was still that line in people's minds.
But the more the Evolved pulled away from the world, the more they hid and kept to themselves... the easier it became for that line to blur.
And when that line was gone, when people no longer saw them as human, killing them would just become easier.
And one day, someone would try.
If they were not doing it already.
A purge wasn't history.
It was inevitable if they kept going down that path.