Following Astrid out of the student council room and further into the building, with no students besides us in sight as it was lunch, I was tempted to ask about our destination, but after a bit of thinking, I realized there was about a 99% chance she didn''t tell me.


    Abruptly stopping in front of a door, Astrid pushed it open before immediately walking in. Staying outside the room, I peered in, noticing that the room was a janitor''s closet as it solely consisted of brooms, mops, and tissues.


    My previous calm and indifferent attitude immediately transformed as I stared into the small room, devoid of any light, where Astrid was waiting for me inside.


    Looking at me hesitantly standing outside the small room, Astrid scoffed before grabbing my arm and pulling me inside, letting the door m shut.


    Not giving me any time to create a misunderstanding, Astrid immediately pulled out her phone and held it up to my face.


    The picture showed a circle with a full ck X that had two red horns protruding out of the top. Legs were added to the bottom of the X, making it seem like a human, and the rest of the outer edges of the circle were dark red.


    As I stared at the symbols, a sense of familiarity washed over me. Recalling the djinns I had fought with Astrid at the Nightclub, I remembered that the cloaks I had taken from them, which were currently stored in my room, had that same exact symbol.


    "Recognize it?"


    Seeing me nod my head at her question, Astrid continued.


    "I''ve received intel that their organization has something nned for the uing Festival."


    With the book never mentioning anything about their initial attack at the nightclub or anything at all about the organization Astrid was talking about, I could neither confirm nor deny her words, so I simply nodded.


    If they were to attack, that could be a huge problem for Lily and my goals.


    Recognizing our situation, I was confused to realize that Astrid had probably brought me here to ask me to help her prevent this organization''s attacks.


    "Why me? Don''t you have your family or the academy?"


    With the position of student council president, she must have thousands of powerful people who would be willing to help her, and that wasn''t even including her family, which was a force of its own.


    Shaking her head, Astrid responded.


    "No... I can''t mention this to them."


    Was it because it would reveal her part-time job in singing? Did she really care more about keeping her singer identity a secret than preventing the academy from being attacked?


    Well, it''s not like I have anything better to do...


    "Alright, I''ll help, but you''ll need to give me more information."


    " mhm, they''re called the Xylo Syndicate, and their main goal is to overthrow the High Dominion and the Empire as a whole."


    So, another revolution organization?


    Nodding my head, I prompted Astrid to continue, however...


    "Besides that... not much is known about them."


    What kind ofzy source is feeding her this information? They know of the Xylo''s n to attack, but nothing else?


    Well, I guess we have to get the information ourselves.


    "I have their cloaks in my room; we can use them."


    If they were nning to attack during the Festival, they must have some sort of base set up in the capital, so we''d need to find them before attempting anything else.


    Nodding her head, Astrid pulled something out of her pocket and handed it to me.


    [From now until the start of the Celestial Festival, Ren is excused from attending all sses due to critical matters that require his participation. /Astrid, Celestial Academy Student Council President]


    Grabbing the slip out of her hands with a smile, I asked.


    "What''s the n?"


    Surely, she didn''te to me, hoping I could pull some n out of my ass and have it magically work.


    "Today night, we''ll depart from the academy and ask around the city for clues on their hideout. Once we discover their hideout, we infiltrate using the cloaks and find out their primary objective."


    Indeed, attacking the Celestial Festival as a whole was too unrealistic for such a small organization that wasn''t even mentioned in the book, so they must have a more specific objective.


    Slightly opening the door to see if anyone was around, I walked out after confirming no one was in sight and immediately headed back to my ssroom.


    Entering the ssroom, I saw Professor Zia picking up the chairs that had fallen from my throw earlier, so I attempted to slip the note into the teacher''s podium... but she noticed me.


    "And what might that be, Ren?"


    Even with my Stealth rank at a C, I couldn''t avoid her sight. Sighing, I walked over to her and handed her the note that Astrid had written.


    ncing at the note, then ncing at me, then ncing back at the note, and then back to me, she asked.


    "If I were to call to confirm the authenticity of this note, I would receive a positive answer, right?"


    Did she really have that little trust in me?


    Nodding my head, I patiently awaited her to pull out her smartwatch and call the office, but to my surprise, she just grabbed the note and put it in her pocket.


    "Well then, you''re free to go."


    After a second, I regained myposure and picked up a single chair and set it up before walking to the door, but as I exited the ssroom, Professor Zia''s voice sounded once again.


    "Be careful; I can''t have any of my students dying on me."


    "... Yeah."


    What kind of teacher says that to their students? Clearly, she''s jinxing me; does she want me to die?


    Going back to my room, I packed up the two cloaks and my daggers before immediately heading to the academy''s mana gate.


    A bow and arrow would be quite useful, wouldn''t it? I had some corruption farming to do.


    Setting the mana gate destination to a town on the outskirts of the kingdom, I walked through, immediately adjusting my surroundings to a nice vige with no insanely decorated buildings but instead nice two-story cottages.


    Since it was daytime, the adults were all at work, and the students were at school, so I enjoyed the serenity of it all for a moment before making my way towards a nearby forest.


    Channeling my corruption and mana, I manifested two pitch-ck curved daggers in both of my hands. Each dagger seemed to have been created by darkness itself, as their surface was smooth, glossy ck, devoid of any reflections or imperfections.


    Since these daggers were created by corruption itself, I didn''t need to imbue them with the pitch-ck aura, as it was already contained within them.


    It was a bit of a loss, as the pitch-ck aura helped hide the size and shape of my daggers so my enemies couldn''t estimate their reach, but you can''t have everything.


    Corruption would only be lost if the daggers were destroyed or damaged, so I just had to keep them safe.


    Peering through the gaps in between the trees, I quickly found a horde of D-rank goblins hunting for food about 3 miles away from my current location.


    Wasting no time, I dispersed my two corrupted daggers and sprinted toward the clearing without any attempt to be silent.


    As I neared the goblin camp, my existence was already known, as dozens had already gathered at the front with spears in their hands.


    Well, the more the merrier.


    Pulling out my standard daggers, I threw them at the two goblins at the front before activating the dash and dashing right into the center of the camp.


    Those two kills wouldn''t count for corruption as they weren''t embedded with the aura, but I needed some distraction to get to the center of the camp.


    Creating the two pitch-ck daggers once again, I chipped at my hands before using all of my remaining mana to create a Shadow Cage. While it was risky, as if the cage was damaged by the goblins, I would lose corruption, the benefits were far too good to pass up on.


    As a pure blue slowly enveloped me and the remaining goblins before turning pitch ck after it was at full size, the light slowly disappeared until there was none.


    Putting on my cloak artifact, I felt a surge of power envelope me as I stared around to see that most of the goblins were running around chaotically as they could no longer see.


    *SWISH*


    *SWISH*


    *SWISH*


    Switching from goblin to goblin, I silently stalked my target until I found the perfect moment, then lunged at them with my dagger already directly aligned with their fatal organ.


    As fast as this process was currently, imagining how much easier I could do all of this bow almost made me drool.


    Wait, don''t I have enough already?


    Feeling a surge of corruption flood into my daggers, I dismissed the two daggers before manifesting a single bow and arrow.


    Made of pure darkness, the entire recurve bow appeared in my hands. Colored a lustrous ck as even the normally white strings were pure ck, the limbs of the bow curved gracefully towards me, almost poking me in the face.


    cing the single night-ck arrow in my hand, I effortlessly pulled the bow''s soft stic string back and nocked the arrow. From the goblin''s perspective, I doubted the bow could even be seen, as the darkness of the shadow cage perfectlyplimented its color.


    Releasing the string, I watched as the arrow gracefully flew through the air like a hawk gliding towards its prey.


    *ZING*


    Having perfectly calcted the goblin''s approximate location with my eyes, the arrow was right on the mark as it pierced all the way through the goblin''s body, showing its perfection.


    A normal arrow wouldn''t even have the sharpness to harm the goblin''s body as it would bounce off, yet this pitch-ck arrow had punctured all the way through the goblin''s body when it wasn''t even at full speed.


    Realizing that it was thest goblin, I marveled at the bow in my hands before dispersing the shadow cage and walking towards my arrow, whose tip was now painted a dark red from the goblin''s blood.


    Opposite the shadow cage, the bow and arrow in my hands stood out immensely in the sunlight, perfectly contrasting with the pure sunlight emanating from the sun''s rays.


    Staring at the countless goblin corpses in front of me, I sighed as I realized that all I could conjure with my bow for now was a single arrow.


    Although I hadn''t realized it at first, gaining corruption was getting tougher and tougher every time I killed something.