"From these mystical places, beings like gods, demons, undead, and such attack our world…" Ullrich the Scholar explained with great emotion. Occasionally, he cast his gaze at the only student sleeping through the lesson. Whenever he laid his eyes on the clueless yet dedicated sleeper, anger consumed him.

With a dark expression, Ullrich tried to calm himself. The students who were paying great attention to the lesson also had dark expressions on their faces. It was a common occurrence between Ullrich the Scholar and the peasant who barely passed Burdock's Magic Academy. This back and forth between the two took much of the instruction the students were hoping for.

It also made no sense as to why a peasant would not be treasuring this experience. It would be understandable if he passed with flying colors, but the boy barely flew by the seat of his pants. This anomaly of a situation smeared Ullrich's reputation. Whenever he talked to other scholars, they always mentioned the sleeping Haler to dig into his skin.

Ullrich looked at the boy once more before sighing.

"Through hunting these creatures…"

Although the student's attention was on the words Ullrich was spitting, their focus was not as concentrated. They were more focused on the fact that the greatest teacher in the academy gave up on educating a student.

Their thoughts went back in time to the first thing Ullrich said.

"A Scholar must never give up on educating the ignorant. No matter how much the uneducated infuriate a Scholar, he must be willing to take the burden of truth. That is the responsibility of the Scholar."

It seems as if the peasant crushed the spirit of the Scholar. The students momentarily shivered at the idea of the Peasant Class beating the Scholar Class. Nonetheless, they re-focused their attention back to Ullrich in hopes of finding information that could save their lives in the future.

Although Haler was sleeping, he could somewhat understand what was happening. His tense body relaxed even more, and he went into a deep sleep. Only when he reached this state of sleep that he accessed the greatest of secrets.

[Entering the Mouse Burrow]

The darkness associated with closing his eyes cleared out and left him looking at a spacious dirt cave. He looked at a giant but broken wooden bowl. His height did not even reach the top of the cracked bowl. This was a familiar sight to him.

Ever since a couple hundred years ago, creatures of mass destruction entered the world through mystical means. Long-lasting Empires of the north and the small island kingdoms found themselves fighting creatures that came from stories. One day it was attacks from devious goblins, another day was attacks from colossal giants.

Humans were almost pushed to the brink of extinction until they found that killing these creatures would have a chance of dropping Class Keys. By cultivating these classes, humanity ended up regaining some territory.

An example of these classes would be the Scholar and Peasant Class. Humanity has gotten so much of the Peasant Class Keys that it was widely spread. Even then, the Peasant Class was miles ahead of a human without a class.

For example, cultivating the Peasant Class allowed for greater Constitution than normal which allows for disease resistance, endurance, and general life-saving boons. Cultivating the more renowned Scholar class allowed for higher Energy than normal which gave photographic memory, a chance to awaken magic talent, and a greater understanding of the world.

Although the Scholar Class barely had any considerable benefit, the chance to awaken a magic talent made it a popular choice among the poor. It was considerably cheaper than other Class Keys that initiated magic. Also, the job choices among the Scholar Class was way laxer than the other Classes.

Haler slowly crept up behind a large mouse. So far, he did not have a single successful hunt. However, today would be the first successful hunt. He died over twenty times and said the same thing nineteen times. But always at the last second, the mouse would use a talent ability and avoid the killing shot.

The sleeping mouse suddenly started sniffing the air when Haler got five feet away from it. Its comically large eyes glinted dangerously and the fur on its skin started dancing with electricity. This did not surprise Haler anymore. Although the pose the mouse struck was comically funny, it did not take away from the times it killed him.

With the sharp pebble in hand, Haler quickly threw it at the mouse's eye. Immediately when the pebble left his hand, the Mouse started moving towards him. This was all timed by Haler.

Screee

The pebble submerged itself in the mouse's eyes while it hollered furiously. Due to the size of the mouse and the size of Haler, the screeching would have made him disoriented. However, this was not the first time fighting the beast. Haler already covered his ears and intently stared at the mouse.

'Not my first Rodeo.' Haler clenched his teeth as the mouse regained its bearings.

This was the most important part.

According to his numerous scuffles, the mouse should swipe its claws at him. If he timed it carefully, he could kill the mouse.

The mouse kicked up dirt as it scrambled itself towards Haler's body. The erratic movements made it difficult to know which direction to dodge. On top of that, the mouse had a higher agility stat than Haler did. The only thing Haler had to his name was experience and hope that the lack of eyeball would interfere with the mouse's train of thought.

The mouse's claws glinted from the sunstones planted across the ceilings and Haler held his breath.

'Now!'

The sudden jerk in movement caught the mouse unaware. Its claws headed straight for the broken bowl, quickly shattering it. This was the farthest his attempts had ever gotten him through, so he did not know what to do after avoiding the swipe.

Nonetheless, he charged at the creature. He was not willing to let his hard work go for nothing. He was not willing to forgive the mouse for the loss of lives. His lives.

In that second, a yellow light burned on his torso and he found himself exerting strength that went past his maximum.

[Awakened the Protector of the Fallen Class]

[Chivalry ⤜ Courage 1/10]

In the heat of the moment, Haler failed to see the notification pop up. His attention was on the beast who tore through the wooden bowl. His attention was on the strike that always ended his life. His attention was on the wound of the mouse.

The moment he got his balance, he charged at the mouse. For many reasons, the mouse was not at peak performance. Therefore, it did not recover from the charge attack quickly enough. Haler jumped on to the dazed mouse and dug into its' eyes.

The gory insides were visible to Haler, but he did not care. He wanted to stop dying!

The pain cleared the daze the mouse was in and it moved savagely in efforts to throw off Haler. The movement stopped after Haler shoved his entire hand into the mouse's eyes and dug out the frontal lobe.

Haler fell off the tipping giant and hit the ground hard.

[Killed Mortal Sequence Lighting Mouse – Dropped Lightning Mouse Astral Crystal(8)]

Haler quickly got up and massaged his shoulder. It was broken during the fall, but it did not matter. Whenever Haler got killed, his injuries would disappear the next time he entered the burrow. As if waiting for the cue, a hoard of giant lightning mice devoured his being.

Because he was waiting for death, he controlled his body to remain calm. He did not make a loud noise or fall off the stool. To everybody else, he was just having a calm nap. If one looked closer, however, they would realize his face was paler than before.

While he was still in the deep sleep state, Haler went through his loot.