"Before the first Epoch started, everyone was a normal person without any soul power.
There used to be two massive continents, one was in the east and one in the west. As for the Arcana world, it simply used to be a dry planet, revolving around the sun in adjacent orbit.
Suddenly, our world was bombarded with some unidentified rocks from the sky.
No one knows their origin. Their size is from the size of a fist to the size of this building.
The small-sized ones made several craters while the big-sized ones created earthquakes.
They weren't simple meteors that we know…
Some of the people who were able to survive the disaster discovered strange characters engraved on it. Strangely, all the rocks have the same set of 24 characters."
Exea then started to draw 24 runic alphabets on the whiteboard.
"Along with these strange characters, an enormous amount of energy was released into the surroundings, affecting everyone.
That energy is called Arcana energy. It is the wildest form of Arcana that doesn't have any consciousness. The monsters in the Arcana world possess this energy.
Anyway, the humans and the animals unknowingly absorbed the Arcana energy.
But, the energy was too strong for them.
More than 99% of the organisms who were affected by the energy turned into monsters whether they are of the human race or the animals.
The world went into chaos as they fight against each other. The humans who weren't affected by the energy were also caught up in the mess and humanity went to the brink of extinction.
At that moment, a god descended onto this world. Fire, Earth, Water, Metal, Lightning, and even time... Everything is under his control. One swing of his weapon killed the beasts that are considered rank-9.
A snap of his finger stops the time or even reverses the time. He turned every beast into an infant and sent all of them into the adjacent planet of our solar system. He was also the one that merged the western and eastern continents to form a single massive continent that we are living in now.
To make sure they won't escape the world, he placed a barrier over it.
After saving the world, the god lived on a mountain for a while to take a rest.
Some of the survivors asked him to accept them as his servants as a way of thanking him for saving their life but the god simply replied, "the runic alphabets. Use them to form symbols," as he pointed at one of the nearby meteorites.
No one ones what happened to that god. Maybe, he returned to the celestial world.
Following the order of the god, when our ancestors used these 24 runic alphabets to make runes, they discovered it wasn't just a symbol. It was power.
It isn't exaggerating to say that these 24 runic alphabets are the origin to where we are now." Exea finished her introduction of the history of the runes.
Every student was listening to her lesson very attentively. Even Azzy was no exception.
Aside from her voice, when she started her lecture, Azzy felt as if he was trapped in an illusion.
'Despite being only a peak-rank-5, her storytelling was even more powerful than Aunt Evelyn. Maybe, it's the power of her Arcana,' Azzy thought as he returned to his senses in the middle and then, continues to listen to the story in silence as if nothing happened.
As for the others, they were still in an illusion until she snapped her finger and brought them back to reality.
While everyone was being amazed for experiencing such a powerful illusion, Exea continued, "or the next ten months, all of you will learn how to make intermediate runes and how to channel them to make your Arcana stronger."
Since Azzy was quite new to the subject and only heard of some useless history, he started to wonder, how these runes work… The only runes he saw are the ones on the relic of the Death clan.
Forget about intermediate runes, he doesn't even know about the basic ones. Azzy thought he should hit the library once the school ends and spend there for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Since he is already staying at the school for additional 2 hours, he might as well spend an additional hour.
As the bell rang, Exea started to walk towards the exit. Before she left, she glanced in the direction of Azzy, and then, left the classroom while wondering 'that kid can resist my charm as well as my voice even though there is a gap in our rank. Is he the one with platinum grade Arcana?'
She doesn't know that it was nothing to do with his Arcana at all. Azzy was only able to resist because of spending his time with a powerful charmer like Evelyn. Well, at least that was Azzy thought.
After the runes class is finished, it's the time of theoretical combat lessons taught by a rank-6 Arcana master, who is a popular figure in the academy.
Everyone was excited to learn from this teacher.
Soon, a person entered the class with a smile.
Azzy was stunned as soon as saw the new teacher.
He is a tall, bony man dressed in extravagant clothing, carrying a gold, ruby-eyed cobra-headed staff. He has a twisted, black goatee and a faint mustache, as well as grey eyeliner.
Azzy went down into a memory lane and remembered a certain animated movie he saw when he was around 7 years old.
The movie was about a poor man who obtains a magic lamp and frees a genie. He gains the wishes and marries the princess.
But, this teacher doesn't look like a hero but seemed like an identical copy of the villain sorcerer. Strangely, even the weapon in his hand was also the same.
'Did they make the film, taking him as a model?' Azzy can't help but have useless distracting thoughts but then, as he tried to gauge his power, he was surprised.
'I can't sense his level. It wasn't as strong as Avia or Evelyn but it was much stronger than grandpa. Is he a high or peak-rank 6?'
Meanwhile, the other six students were also taken aback, immediately judged him for his looks.
"He looks like a greedy merchant from every angle," Gideon suddenly whispered in his ear.
The next second, the smile on the new teacher is vanished and is replaced by a frown and looked at Gideon, sharply.
"Eek…" Gideon quickly lowered his head and closed his mouth.
Azzy shook his head with a sigh, 'this fool. Doesn't he know that if a rank-6 tries hard enough, they can even hear the whisper from a kilometer much less from a 5-yard distance…'
"Hello, I'm Uphiar, a sorcerer…" He introduced himself to the class. "As today's the first day, I'll give a live demonstration of the subject."
He then raised the staff in his hand. Azzy saw the cobra's eyes blinked in red and a smile appeared on this sorcerer's face.
Everyone gulped in fear, looking at his wicked smile.
All of a sudden, their surroundings changed. Azzy and the other found themselves on an island except that it isn't a simple island that was surrounded by water.
They were surrounded by lava. Azzy and the other six students felt hot under his feet but they have no time to care about such a thing because there's a large maroon-colored monster with spikes all over its back was walking towards the island.