The silver-haired girl, Nephis, also received a True Name in her First Nightmare.
'I wonder how she had gotten hers.' Fang Yuan and Sunny both thought of the same thing.
Sleepers in the cafeteia were struck dumb by the revelation of this achievement. They were staring at the screen with astonishment, fear and admiration.
Caster's gaze fixed on the screen. There was a strange, somber expression on the humorous young man's face.
But the weird thing about it was that, as far as Sunny could tell, Caster wasn't looking at the line of text containing the True Name.
Instead, he was staring at the line of text that read "Nephis", as though the girl's actual name held more meaning to him than the one given by the Spell.
Fang Yuan looked at the young legacy with deep eyes.
A princess of a fallen exalted clan, came to the academy alone and destitute like him and Sunny. A scion of a lagacy looking to assassinate her...
"Even in this dying world, threat of extinction can't defeat human greed." Fang Yuan whispered and went back to eating his meal.
Sunny heard it and looked at Fang Yuan incomprehension written on his face.
Sunny stopped looking at Fang Yuan and thought, 'Interesting. Do they know each other?'
Why would a lofty Legacy know someone who came to the Academy in a police-issued tracksuit? And speaking of Nephis… where was she?
Sunny glanced around the cafeteria and quickly noticed the silver-haired girl, who was sitting quietly in a corner with a cup of coffee in her hands. She wasn't paying a lot of attention to the commotion, seemingly immersed in her thoughts. Her grey eyes were serious and distant.
"A Sleeper with a True Name? That's impossible!"
"It's technically possible. Smile of Heaven received her True Name in the First Nightmare, I think. But yeah, I'm doubtful…"
"Maybe she lied in the interview?"
"Are you stupid? If it was that easy to deceive the administrators, the crazy pervert from yesterday would have been in the first place instead!"
Sunny's face twitched. Crazy pervert, huh…
"Well, why don't we just ask her?"
Suddenly, there was a deafening silence in the cafeteria. Following the suggestion, Sleepers stopped talking and turned around, staring at Nephis.
However, no one seemed to have the courage to approach her first.
Finally sensing something, she raised her eyes and looked at them with surprise.
"Mmm. What?"
Even the blind girl, Cassia, turned in the direction of her voice. Only Fang Yuan kept calmly eating his meal.
After a couple of moments, Caster suddenly walked over and made a small bow.
"Lady Nephis. I am Caster from the Han Li clan. I see that your trial went well?"
Lady? Why is he addressing her that way? And he had to introduce himself… so, they don't know each other? Interesting.
Nephis seemed to be a little bit perplexed by the question. After thinking for a while, she smiled brightly and shrugged.
"It is what it is."
Caster awkwardly returned the smile.
"I see. I am very glad that you returned unharmed. Uh… not that I doubted your abilities."
Nephis nodded.
"Thank you."
After that, she returned to her coffee, indicating that the conversation was over or simply oblivious to everyone's attention.
Sunny sighed.
'How mysterious. Well my so called is also mysterious.'
There were a lot of thoughts on his mind. However, none of them could distract him from the most important thing… breakfast.
A few seconds later, he had forgotten all about the awkward dynamic between Caster and Nephis and was happily shoveling down his food.
***
The Wilderness Survival classroom was spacious, tastefully decorated… and completely empty. Sunny even thought that they were mistaken, but then spotted a gloomy instructor sitting behind a wide wooden desk. Noticing them, the instructor perked up.
"Come in, young fellows!"
He was a lively old man with messy grey hair, absentminded eyes and a pair of bushy eyebrows that seemed to jump around on their own.
"I'm Awakened Julius. You can call me Teacher Julius. Sit down, sit down! What are your names?
Sunny and Fang Yuan obediently sat down.
"It's Sunless."
"I am Fang Yuan."
Julius raised his eyebrows.
"Ah! What an ominous name. But that is good, very good. After all, we have to deal with a lot of ominous things!"
Sunny carefully looked around. Fang Yuan was being silent.
"Uh… I'm sorry, Teacher. Did I come too early?"
"No, no… you guys are right on time."
"Are other students late?"
The instructor grunted with incredible contempt.
"No one else is coming. Those brutes are only interested in swinging their fists and swords around. Very few are smart like you two and know the true value of knowledge…"
Oh. So it was that unpopular. Sunny inwardly sighed, hoping that he won't regret the decision to abandon combat training in favor of this course.
"Say, young man… why did you choose Wilderness Survival, of all things?"
"The Awakened that monitored me during the First Nightmare, Master Jet, had advised me to study it above all things." Sunny answered.
"A very wise advice! That Master truly knows what's important… wait. Did you say Jet?"
His eyes widened.
"Soul Reaper Jet? That murderous savage?! Hm. Who would have thought that a barbarian like her would know the value of intricate knowledge."
Soul Reaper? Both Sunny's and Fang Yuan's curiosity was picked.
"Teacher, do you know Master Jet?"
Julius carefully looked behind his back before answering:
"Who doesn't know the Soul Reaper? She might not be the most powerful Awakened out there, but she is certainly one of the most feared. That's because her Aspect Abilities disregard flesh and target soul cores directly. Which means that no amount of armor, damage resistance and physical protection can stop them."
He leaned forward.
"The only good thing is that she's young and not likely to become a Saint anytime soon, or even ever. Yes, luckily, there's a very low probability that she'll ever advance."
Sunny blinked.
"Why?"
Julius looked at him as though trying to comprehend how someone could be so ignorant.
"Because of her problematic personality, of course! Who would want to help a psychopathic killer become a Saint? You need a team of outstanding companions and a lot of support to attempt conquering the Third Nightmare. Soul Reaper Jet isn't… wait!"
Suddenly, Julius frowned and leaned back.
"Why am I gossiping with you? You're too young to know such things! More than that, it's not in my character to badmouth others behind their backs!
'I would beg to differ,' Sunny thought sarcastically, but didn't say anything out loud.
He already got a lot of juicy information out of Teacher Julius.
Meanwhile, Fang Yuan confirmed his assumption.
"What about you? Why did you pick the wilderness survival?" Teacher Julius asked Fang Yuan.
"Since, childhood I had been reading about the nightmare spell and dream realm when I have the chance, well, whenever I got enough money to visit the a digital terminal in the outskirts, as there is a very high chance that I will become an awakened.
But Knowledge is expensive and I only got the rudimentary knowledge about the awakened, dream realm, nightmare spell and more importantly how to survive. Now I want to learn from a real awakened." Fang Yuan replied honestly.
"You are really farsighted and your dedication for knowledge is praiseworthy. I wish there were more young people like you." Teacher Julius praised Fang Yuan.
"Let's get back to your curriculum. What other courses are you two taking?"
Sunny sighed.
"None. For the next four weeks, I'll be fully concentrated on Wilderness Survival."
"Same for me." Fang Yuan added.
Julius stared at them for a whole minute, an expression of utter astonishment written clearly on his face. Then, slowly, an excited gleam appeared in his eyes. Finally, he grinned.
"Wonderful! This is wonderful! You two are such astute young man! Don't you worry. In four whole weeks, I will make you two immortal…
***
Sunny's lessons with Teacher Julius started pleasantly and without much tension, but just an hour later, he felt like his head was ready to explode. There was so much new information, and all of it was so strange and counterintuitive for someone who had never left the walled-off, sheltered confines of the city.
From time to time, Julius gaped at Sunny's lack of knowledge and relevant experience. However, he had a good attitude and an endless enthusiasm for teaching. Whenever Sunny stumbled, he would patiently slow down and allow his student to catch up.
Teacher Julius was astonished at knowledge, expertise and skills Fang Yuan showed. Fang Yuan was highly knowledgeable. Even kids who went to school weren't as knowledge as him.
"I wish I had found you earlier."
"Such a diamond, rotting in the outskirts."
"Truly, self-education is the best form of education."
Teacher Julius praised Fang Yuan endlessly. Now Sunny truly felt jealous of Fang Yuan. Why was there a such a big difference between? They are both from outskirts. Why wasn't he such a genius?
The curriculum that Julius planned out for them was practically insane. There was an endless amount of theoretical knowledge to learn, practical lessons both in virtual reality and the real world, numerous subjects and weird things to study.
There were even several lessons dedicated exclusively to learning the basics of several dead languages of the Dream Realm!
Fang Yuan accepted the arrangement without any complaints. Meanwhile, Sunny...
'Why would I need to learn new languages?' Sunny thought with self-pity.
'The Spell automatically translates everything!'.
But Julius was uncompromising.
"The Spell is not a translator! Do you think it has the time to express the intricacies of human speech? Let's say you're seeking shelter in a ruin and find an inscription that reads "certain death ahead". There are thirty words for death in the rune language! Just by knowing the runes, you'll be able to deduce what kind of danger there is!"
On the first day, they studied until the sun was about to set. Only then did Julius decide to let Sunny and Fang Yuan go. Mentally exhausted and lamenting the fact that he had to miss lunch and dinner, Sunny decided to gently remind his teacher about the importance of food for maintaining high levels of concentration tomorrow.
After supper while Sunny went to dormitory, Fang Yuan went to the library. While walking towards the libary, Fang Yuan reminisced about his first life....
***
Days flew by.
Sunny and Fang Yuan only had four weeks to prepare theirself for the journey into the Dream Realm, so there wasn't even a minute to spare. They were relentless, pushing his body and mind to the limits in an attempt to absorb as much knowledge and skills as possible in that short amount of time.
Learning something from a textbook and learning the same thing from an actual Awakened were two completely different matters.
Teacher Julius had a habit of going much more in-depth when explaining his subject.
Thanks to this time-consuming habit of his, Sunny not only learned about the "what", but also often gained glimpses into the "why". This nascent understanding of the underlying principles of the Dream Realm environments gave him the ability to face any situation with at least some measure of readiness.
Meanwhile, Fang Yuan developed, deepened and extended his rudimentary knowledge of dream realm, nightmare spell and awakened in general.
Sunny, who had never seriously studied before, found the process of acquiring vast amounts of theoretical knowledge strange, numbing and exhausting.
However, in a sense, it was also exhilarating. After all, knowledge was something that only the privileged had access to. It was also this authority over knowledge that kept them in the position of power, creating a vicious circle of inequality.
While Fang Yuan was like in his own element. He was soaking up knowledge like a dry sponge in water.
Sunny secretly collected information about other Sleepers and practiced shadow control every night.
His shadow was independent enough to be sent on scouting missions without his direct control. It would sneak here and there, listening in on the conversations and observing different classes where Sleepers had to demonstrate their Aspect Abilities.
Then, after Sunny had finished his supper and returned to his room, it would come back and share everything it had heard and seen during the day.
Apart from gathering information and slowly learning about the scope and details of various Aspect Abilities, and, to a lesser extent, Flaws, he was also experimenting with Shadow Control.
Fang Yuan also explored his aspect ability. He felt various presence, sensation, intuition, aura, premonition. He started classifying them. He gained enhance control over his body due to his ultra sense. Using his experience and enhanced body control, he could exert his body's potential to the highest limit...
Just like that, day after day passed, slowly turning into weeks.
Before they even knew it, the winter solstice was already here.