AN: Bonus chapter. Don't forget to add the novel as a favorite and if possible, rate it. Thanks and enjoy!
The students had already seen Grim before in the gathering, and from his build, they could guess that he was a man.
That guess was further confirmed as he spoke to them with his hoarse voice:
"We vampires are natural predators. As creatures of the night, the best time for us to hunt is at night. But a good predator can kill both during the day and night."
The students were starting to get lost in his words, and before they knew it the fear that was gripping their hearts slowly disappeared.
Grim suddenly raised his right hand, causing his long sleeve to fall just enough to show his three raised fingers.
"You guys humiliated yourselves because of three things." Shifting his head to the outstanding five one by one, he brought down one finger and continued, "For some reason, you didn't use your mana."
Of course, the teachers and Principal had already questioned the elites about the matter and later found out the truth.
But they could do nothing about it and could only silently curse Evangeline in their hearts.
Grim brought down another finger.
"You guys have yet to adapt to staying under the sun!"
The majority of the students were sweating bollocks and Arlo could still remember clearly that it was the same in the ranking war two days ago.
After all, the ceiling of the training center had opened while their dueling platform was raised.
It seemed there was another reason for that arrangement.
Among the students, only Arlo, Joe, and Arianne were not reacting differently under the sun.
While Rosaline, Ric, and the other elite's reactions were not as pronounced as the students, Arlo could tell they were still affected by the sweat that matted their foreheads.
"Because of that, you were not able to fight with your full strength in the ranking war yesterday!"
Pausing momentarily, Grim brought down his last finger.
"The last but most important reason is that you guys cannot bring out the full potential of your powers. While a great part of it is because you are yet to awaken your origin blood, another reason is your weakness. Your darkness laws are pathetically weak, and the majority of you can only create objects from it while only a select few can create actual living things!" At the end of Grim's statement, a few of the students raised their heads in pride while the others lowered theirs in shame, but that didn't last for long as Grim's next words served to bring them back from the sky to the ground:
"Creating bats from your mana and darkness laws is nothing noteworthy. You guys have failed to grab the essence of darkness. Just as fire burns, and ice freezes, darkness has its unique essence, but of course that is not for me to teach you. I am sure Moose will start teaching you all that from his next class."
"What I want to teach you is how to be a true vampire. And you can only learn that when you hunt and kill. The thrill we vampires feel when we kill and then feast on the blood of our victim is simply..."
There was no change in Grim's voice, but Arlo was still able to notice the slight trembling of his exposed fingers when he spoke his next word:
"...amazing!"
Seeing the students look stunned at him, Grim coughed twice to regain himself.
"Majority of you drink the blood of beasts while only a select few drink the blood of humans. But I am sure that none of you have ever hunted for the blood yourselves."
None of the students refuted him, so Grim nodded and continued:
"Look at the bracelet and the bag given to you."
The students did that even when they had already observed them many times.
Arlo did the same as he looked at the silver pouch hanging beside his waist before he shifted his gaze to the black bracelet on his right wrist with green runes etched on it.
Grim's voice drifted into the ears of the students at this time:
"That is a space pouch. You are to kill the beast on the outer part of the forest and collect their beast cores."
"As for the bracelet, I believe you can all see the silver runes engraved on it."
"Yes!"
"The bracelet has been engraved with a formation that can teleport you back to the academy. All you need to do is send in a certain amount of mana for the formation to activate. Just make sure that no matter what happens you don't lose the bracelets." Grim's hoarse voice sounded grave at the end of his statement.
Some students nodded and covered the bracelet with their other hand as if to defend it.
Only a select few remained completely calm.
'Seems the bracelet is pretty useless to me since I don't have mana.' Arlo thought silently.
Still continuing with a grave voice, Grim spoke:
"Also, no matter what, do not leave the outer region of the forest. The outer region comprises mostly of beasts at the beginner stage!"
One student couldn't help but raise his hand, to which Grim nodded.
"How do you know when we leave the outer region?"
"You will know!" was all Grim said, but Arlo felt like he had grinned when he said that.
Rosaline's eyes flashed with a strange light before she also raised her hand.
"Yes!" Grim said.
"Teacher, you said previously that the outer region comprises mostly of beasts at the beginner stage, does that mean..." While she didn't complete her words, even the students could tell what she was driving at.
"Smart!" Grim praised sincerely.
"There are a few beasts in the advanced realm but they won't surpass the late stage."
Rosaline released a light but imperceptible breath.
"You are to move individually and not form teams." Joe flinched and his face paled from hearing such words, but Grim continued:
"Finally, you are to gather back here when it is dawn tomorrow. If you teleport back before then, it means you failed today's class."
The students who started communicating using spiritual messages when Grim said there was no team suddenly went still and their eyes widened when they heard his final words.
The students were clear about something. They could die in this forest. Some of them couldn't help but want to back out but before they could even voice their thoughts, Grim's hoarse voice resounded loudly in their ears:
"Move out!"
The outstanding five were the first to quickly disappear into the scary forest.
Of course, they left in different directions.
Soon after, the others followed. The students who wanted to back out could only swallow their words, and with trembling legs disappeared into the forest.
Arlo, Arianne, and Joe were the last to leave Grim's sight.
Their entry points were not too far from each other. Arlo figured some students would still team up. After all the forest was just too huge as it covered over a hundred thousand kilometers. There was no way Grim could supervise them all.
Arlo was right in his thinking but he still made a mistake.
After making sure that all the students had disappeared into the forest, Grim turned back and walked into the Academy.
He never had any thought of supervising them.