"H-huh? W-what?"
Noah looked down, and a spear pierced his stomach.
His warm blood tickled down the spear, falling onto the dark sand beneath him.
His legs wobbled, losing their balance even to stand straight any longer.
Noah raised his head to look at the man before him, who had just received his awakening. One of his classmates, who entered into this mysterious realm known as "Godsgrave".
"You surprised?" The man tilted his head, smirking widely at him.
"This is what you get for always being a thorn in my path." He gritted his teeth and pulled out his spear from Noah.
Blood gushed out of his guts, his knees bent down, letting his body fall on the ground.
Noah spat a mouthful of blood, he wasn't even able to utter a single word in his condition.
His eyes flared up, watching his mocking grin without being able to do anything.
Alas, it was his luck.
This place, a mysterious realm, which suddenly appeared about 50 years ago, was called Godsgrave.
Who called it that? No one knows.
What is this place? No one knows.
Why does a place like this even exist? No one knows.
There is absolutely nothing known about this place, besides its name and a mysterious miracle it does.
Fifty years ago, the world was plunged into chaos after the emergence of monsters.
It was like a scene from fiction, monsters coming out of portal-like things. However, for them, it was real.
They came and slaughtered everyone in their sight.
However, that wasn't the only thing that happened... with the emergence of monsters, something else also came into existence.
This very well death zone.
Godsgrave.
A place filled with monsters, far more powerful and bloodthirsty than those on Earth.
Along with the danger, this place held other mysteries.
Mysteries which gave people courage and an opportunity to actually fight against those monsters.
It is said that, you can only enter the "Godsgrave" once and whatever you get in this place is your luck.
People call that luck an awakening, where you can get classes, from normal ones, like mages, warriors, healers to some hidden and unique classes.
Whatever you get here is your destiny, you can absolutely never change that.
Seems unfair? But it isn't.
As mysterious as it is, this place calls people here. There isn't a fixed way to earn a class... it just happens, as if it is already written in your destiny.
Your class, your fate and your destiny call you into this place... to give you an awakening.
As weird as it is, you can even get a class of rank C or higher after touching just a single pebble of this realm. One gets a class like that while someone doing the same doesn't get anything.
Lastly, there is one thing that must be kept in mind. It is not guaranteed.
You can get killed before you get an awakening at all.
Whether through monsters, or... from a close friend.
"A monster chased after us. Luckily, I was able to get a class during that moment and killed the monsters, but sadly, I wasn't able to save my dear friend Noah." Robert wept with sadness, planning a perfect sad story to impress the crowd outside.
It was all an act, as in the next second, he was back to normal.
"This should be more than enough to impress those fools, right?"
He was talking about the people who are waiting for him and his other classmates who entered into this realm.
Robert squatted down, staring down at his best friend with pity.
"Oh Noah, don't have any hard feelings for me, okay? You were brothers once and I wished we could continue that, I really did, but... you, you are too good. Even when I was the second best in our class, the difference I felt between us was too much. I had no problem with that, really, but you know my background, right? I couldn't be the second one before them. You can at least do this much for me, can't you? You can be the best again in your second life, maybe at that time, we can be brothers again."
Then patting his head, he got up while saying, "Die well, dear friend. This already looks like a graveyard, so it shouldn't be that bad, right?"
With that, he picked up his spear and went away, letting Noah die alone.
The sound of his footsteps soon disappeared, leaving Noah all alone to die in agony.
The friend he had, the brother he made, betrayed him the moment he got a class. More than his death, the betrayal hit him the most.
'Fucking shit.'
He gritted his blood-soaked teeth, there was no longer the brotherly attachments remaining between them.
He hated him to the core. If he could, he wouldn't even hesitate to butcher him into a thousand pieces.
Noah looked around, his vision was getting blurry after the huge blood loss. He knew he was about to die, but he wasn't willing to go down so easily.
Even in this dire moment, he had a chance he might live through this.
If he can get a class, then he might survive, but it was only might, there was no guarantee he would survive and there was also no guarantee he would live long enough to get a class.
His eyes wandered around, trying to find anything on which he could place his hopes, but he found nothing, until... something strange happened.
In the distance, he saw something, no, he felt it. There was no light, no voice calling him, but he did feel something.
He could be wrong, that could just be an illusion his mind made up to give him hope. Still, he wanted to cling to that last hope.
"Argggh~" He screamed in pain, even a slight movement was causing him to writhing in agony.
Still, he got up on his knees and took out his jacket, tightly wrapping it around his body to stop the blood loss.
He then clenched his fist, his eyes focused on the same place without wavering.
"Move, you shit." He groaned, mustering up every last energy he could to move his body to that place.
His legs pushed the ground, giving it their all to move his bloody body.
He fell, face slammed on the ground, but even then he did not stop, he crawled, with his knees, even with his head.
A long trail of blood was left on the ground as he crawled over.
The debris on the ground caused him to bleed through his head, but he still did not stop.
However, he couldn't reach that place. His blood-soaked hand did the last struggle to reach for that place, but he wasn't able to see if he succeeded or not.
His eyes were closed, making him fall into a deep sleep.
But before he could reach the end of that dark space. Something pulled him out of that.
Followed by a voice in his head.
Ding~