Raphiel returned to the alley and ate the bread he had bought. He was so hungry that he didn't care about the taste and devoured it quickly. After eating almost all of the bread, he felt as if he had regained something he'd long lost—a renewed hope for life.
Suddenly, a creative idea came to his mind: it might be possible to absorb the nutrients in the bread using magic. Raphiel closed his eyes and focused on the piece of bread in his hand. Before he could even try, a breeze blew, making his hair sway as if he were a mage casting an epic spell. It was a perfect setting for magic, but Raphiel failed.
He knew why he had failed—the only problem was that he lacked enough mana. This failure sparked an insight, and after replenishing his mana, he attempted a few more spells. He tried to move metals using magnetic force. This time, he understood the essence of the matter: magic is the art of controlling the energy that makes the impossible possible. The more logical something is, the less mana it consumes, as it is more feasible.
For instance, when he tried to create fire just by thinking about it, he couldn't succeed because the amount of mana required for such an act was enormous. But when he considered the basic principle of heating an object, it made more sense.
Leaning against a wall, Raphiel rested. Once his mana was fully restored, he decided to attempt something more dangerous. He closed his eyes and began thinking about what he planned to do.
---
There was a girl trembling with fear as she slept. A boy woke her up, saying, "Relax. Your mom and brother have gone to heaven." Upon hearing this, the girl began to cry. A girl named Ruby entered and smacked the boy on the head, saying, "Leave Mianna alone, Bob." Ruby approached Mianna and said, "Mianna, your family is watching you; they wouldn't want to see you cry."
Mianna was comforted by her voice and stopped crying. With immense determination in her eyes, she looked at Ruby. Ruby understood her intent and told her to follow Bob.
Bob got the message and took her to the senior demon hunters. Bob told the seniors, "She wants to join the entrance test." The senior demon hunters saw the determination in Mianna's eyes, and some nodded in approval.
They led Mianna into a room containing only a chair, a table, and a burning fireplace. She was given a waiver and an ink pen. A man told her to sign, and Mianna did as he said. Then the man hit Mianna without mercy. She felt intense pain, and before passing out, she could only whisper, "Why?"
When she opened her eyes, she found herself in bed, with Ruby looking at her happily. Ruby pointed to a line on the paper Mianna had signed earlier and said, "If you want to know why you got beaten, read here." Mianna read the text on the paper:
[I offer my soul as a sacrifice to the demon.]
Ruby said, "If that paper had contained even a tiny amount of demonic energy, you would have faced a fate worse than death. You're accepted as an apprentice because anyone can be a demon hunter apprentice. The real challenge is not getting expelled because the moment you make the same mistake again, you're out."
---
With his mana fully restored, Raphiel lay down in the most comfortable position he could think of. With his eyes closed, he began counting seconds. He was trying to use mana to mimic the effects of Lucid Dream from his previous life. This could be used for countless purposes, but he had something more interesting in mind.
After about five minutes, he began to see random images, though due to his recent experiences, over half of them were related to demons.
He imagined a white rope and began climbing it with his imaginary body. As he descended into his subconscious, he felt something pulling him upward, sensing that he would wake up if he let go of the rope. Slowly and confidently, he continued downward. Eventually, the upward force faded, replaced by a feeling of weightlessness.
He immediately used his imagination to create a Sun. This Sun would serve as a checkpoint, so if anything happened, he wouldn't have to start from scratch. As long as he remembered the checkpoint's existence, it would remain functional, and its light would make it easier to locate.
Confidently, Raphiel continued his descent into his subconscious, knowing his limits and thus not intending to go too deep.
With the light of his Sun illuminating him, he climbed the rope. Then he heard a voice calling, "Raphiel, dinner is ready." The voice sounded like his mother's, but it wasn't exactly the same. Ignoring it, he continued down.
As he descended further, the white rope he was climbing turned into a white snake, and suddenly, he found himself in a dark forest. There was no Sun, and he had nothing in his hands; the rope he had been climbing had completely disappeared.
For a brief moment, he forgot how he got here and started wandering aimlessly. A few minutes later, he noticed a change in the sky with the help of mana. "Where's my Sun?" he asked himself. He thought, "I'm dreaming," but he was afraid to say it out loud, fearing he would wake up.
With a smile, Raphiel began to wander. Since this was a dream, he could probably fly, but he didn't attempt it. He feared that if he did something physically impossible, the dream world would collapse.
After wandering for a bit, he saw a rabbit-like creature. In an instant, it transformed into a grotesque monster made of raw flesh and lunged at him. Raphiel didn't even have time to react; the creature devoured his head in one bite.
He woke up instantly and cursed out loud, directing his anger at his subconscious. He didn't need to be a genius to realize that his subconscious had been damaged by recent trauma. He tried to re-enter the dream realm, but this time he couldn't; he felt something blocking him. After several attempts, he decided to give up for now.
He decided to spend the rest of the night wandering around the city. He was very curious about what was happening in the slums last night, even though a voice in his head told him it wasn't safe. He believed his instincts were terrible; the last time he followed them, he'd bought two high-quality ropes for Father's Day, and they hadn't been put to good use.
As soon as Raphiel entered the slum area, he felt a cold hand on his shoulder. When he turned, he saw a female vampire looking at him with disgust. The vampire was staring at the cross pattern on his neck and focusing on Raphiel's brown eyes.
The vampire leaned closer, sniffed him, and then said, "You're definitely the one who broke into my house back then. How did you become human again?" She applied slight pressure to his shoulder with her hand. Vampires lacked a sense of pain; she didn't plan to torture him into revealing his secret but only intended to show that she was powerful enough to destroy him whenever she wanted. Raphiel understood almost none of what she said, only catching the word "human," so he changed his eyes back to red. He believed she thought he was human.
The vampire asked, "What kind of magic is this?" but Raphiel didn't respond. He only pointed to his ears and pretended to be deaf. This infuriated the vampire, but instead of attacking him, she asked another question: "Don't you know the Gahara language?"
The vampire shook Raphiel by his shoulders. This unconsciously made Raphiel curse. The vampire heard him but didn't understand what he said. Realizing he didn't know the Gahara language, she stopped shaking him unnecessarily. She said with discontent, "I have nothing personal against you, but I need to know the magic you're using. So please forgive me for this."
She firmly gripped Raphiel's throat with both hands, attempting to knock him out. A vampire didn't need to breathe to live, but this was only true for noble vampires; half-vampires had to breathe.
Raphiel tried to resist, but the other side was too strong for him to stop her. After struggling a bit, he fainted. The vampire slung the unconscious Raphiel over her shoulder like a sack and left.
---
In a dark void, there was a Sun, an endless rope, and the unconscious Raphiel drifting aimlessly. Raphiel suddenly opened his eyes and looked around. "At least I have time to think," he muttered to himself.
A platform appeared in the void, with a table and a chair on it. When Raphiel sat in the chair, a cup of coffee appeared on the table. After taking a sip, he commented, "Tastes like water. Looks like I can't imitate the sense of taste yet."
"Let's think. That vampire is stronger than me, so fighting is not an option. She's also much faster than me, so escaping isn't a choice either. I doubt I'll find a good opportunity to hide, so the only option is to make her let me go somehow."
Raphiel looked at the Sun beside him and took another sip of his coffee. This time, the coffee had a faint taste.
"I'm still alive, so she doesn't intend to kill me yet, but I have no idea what she'll do next. If she didn't suddenly fall in love with me and decide to kidnap me, she probably wants to know how I changed my eye color. Unfortunately, I can't give her what she wants, so I need to find another way."
Raphiel looked at the Sun and started planning