Favian started to ponder on the question asked by Dunkel. Logically speaking, Dunkel was right, there were numerous students who would be able to simply survive in whichever range they were sent to. Even, more than 80% of the students should be able to at least stay alive for a whole month, and those who weren't able to kill off the beasts should still be fine hiding for the allotted time. He'd wondered why they were allowing everyone to bring in supplies such as fresh food and water when it was supposed to be a test. Surviving for a month became drastically easier by not needing to hunt or forage for water and meat.

"Yea, I found it weird that Professor Mildred talked about the 'first month' when she explained how we signal for help. I'd think that the test isn't survival at all," Licht said as she rubbed her chin in thought.

"Maybe the test is to actually hunt the magical beasts in our area? I mean, that would make sense. Or maybe the test is to see which students progress the furthest in this month? I don't know, but I think that just sitting idly and doing nothing will be a waste of our time anyways," Favian said.

With that, their conversation ended, and the party decided to go hunting for different magical beasts. Like this, they spent the next ten days. Hunting, meditating and more hunting was what their time consisted of. Favian could now be said to have completely mastered the use of his shadows, and had even found out that by casting a spell at the same time as his shadow, they could increase the strength of it multiplicative. Sadly, his only usable spells currently were Time-Stop and Net of Shadows, thus, they didn't display too flashy of an effect. His Net of Shadows, however, was able to subdue creatures with raw strength equivalent to that of a Level 1 Mage. Of course, he couldn't subdue a Level 1 Mage with ease as they would have various protections, and the effects wouldn't last as long as they did on a mindless beast.

Spirit beasts on this continent had much stronger raw power than the sentient beings (Humans, Elves etc.) and only gained sentience once they reached a particularly high cultivation level. This would take hundreds of years, which was the downside that they innately had. They were much stronger starting off than humans or elves, but they took a lot longer to progress through the different ranks. Their ranks were the same as that of mages, assassins or warriors, which all spanned from level 1 to 9. An interesting thing with these beasts, however, was that they would automatically learn their skills upon reaching a certain threshold. Thus, they needn't agonize themselves over hours spent perfecting a spell or skill.

The party had yet to come into contact with a beast that was out of their level. Except for the mammoth that they'd run away from previously, everything else was smooth sailing. Favian would scout out for the party, which resulted in this comfortable setting for the trio. His shadow couldn't be attacked physically, and spiritual attacks were necessary. This meant that even fire or wind magic was useless, and only attacks related to dark or light magic could affect it.

Favian absorbed as many beast cores as possible, which was sped up by his shadow absorbing some as well. He'd been able to find various beast cores with a light magic attribute in the desert, and only a few that contained a dark energy attribute. These were precious to him, as his shadow magic consisted of the two magic's, and meant that his rate of improvement was significantly increasing.

'Huh, what is this slimy wall I've hit on?' Favian asked himself as he was sat meditating in his tent. It was currently nighttime, and the moon seemed absent to the area. The whole forest was covered in darkness, and no light illuminated the area.

The wall Favian hit onto felt sticky, and each time he poured energy into it, it seemed to open up a gap, before closing again when his energy ran out. His heart was beating fast as he realised that breaking this barrier should make him a Level 1 Mage. He tried for hours to break this barrier, however, it seemed that his mana pool was insufficient.

'If you need more mana, then what about this?' Favian thought. This was the first time that he'd recalled his shadow into his body, along with his second arcane core, as the protection and utility it provided seemed too good to just recall.

The feeling of himself being whole again washed over Favian, and a strange surge of energy awakened within him. The second arcane core released large tendrils of black energy into his body, before attacking the sticky wall.

'What is this?' Favian questioned, but didn't waste any time in putting his first arcane core into the fray. Mimicking the actions of the second core, Favian released purple tendrils of energy at the barrier.

Favian had thought that the tendrils of energy would forcibly break through the barrier, but instead, it sapped away the power from the barrier, forcing it to become more solid, like glass. 'NOW!' Favian shouted in his mind.

Favian pushed all of his body's energy, including all of his mana, to the extreme in an attempt to break the barrier. He conjured two daggers in his hands, one black and one purple, and smashed them against the glass wall. With a crash, the wall shattered in half, and Favian fell through it with the amount of force his body put into thrusting himself at it.

A wave of world energy surged into Favian, nourishing his body and mind, and strengthening his arcane cores. His eyes now became a deep purple, and his hair started to give off a lustre of purple. His cores now felt not only stronger, but like they were pumping out much more arcana into his body to turn into mana.

[DING! Host upgraded to Level 1 Mage. Congratulations!

Favian Umbra (Level 1 Shadow Mage)

Stats: Str:3.0, Con:3.5, Agility:4.2, Intelligence:10, Arcana: 10, Mana pool 10,000.

Host has unlocked new passive ability:

Perception Level 1 - Host ability to view world clearly without use of sight. This passively allows host to interact with surroundings using only arcana.

Host required to choose a subclass, would host like to see the list of subclasses now?] Elon loyally spoke.

Favian could not have been more ecstatic at the sound of the system he thought he'd completely lost. His emotions were running high, however, he still had questions to ask.

'System, what happened to you? Why did you only appear now?'

[DING! System was forced to undergo evolution by the massive energy force created by the lightning current host received whilst battling at the Colosseum. System would have finished evolution after 6 months, but the excess energy host received by levelling up right now boosted this process to completion.]

Favian was shocked at this situation. It was almost comical; his precious game system was forced into a premature evolution? He didn't know whether to laugh or cry at his luck.

'Why did you have to wipe away my memories on all of the books you scanned? Couldn't you just upgrade with the knowledge still intact?' he asked.

[DING! To answer host's question, the upgrade and evolution of the system requires 100% of the system's attention, therefore all facilities are halted until completion.] Elon replied mechanically.

'So the system isn't completely overpowered then I guess. I have at least a set period of vulnerability everytime the system upgrades, so I need be a lot less reliant on it, in case another event such as this happens again.'

[DING! Would host like to see contents of the system's evolution?]

'Yes.'

[DING! Object scanning 2 acquired - Host can now scan the power levels of individuals above host's strength rating, up to a certain limit. The stronger an opponent is, the more unknown values will be projected. Objects can be scanned from further away, not requiring host's touch to perform analysis.

Arcana knowledge 2 acquired - Host can now absorb intermediate arcane particles from his surroundings.

Arcane core assembly acquired - Host is limited to the purchase of maximum 1 additional arcane core. Experience required 100,000.

Analysing host memories... Performing synthesis... Experience gained...

Host experience 20,000. Host can purchase item shop now. Would host like information on it?]

'Hold on, so I can absorb intermediate arcane particles now? My cultivation speed should skyrocket now that I can directly absorb shadow energy. And another arcane core would probably be amazing, but I'm far from having enough experience to buy it. I guess I'll do this,' Favian thought.

Favian decided to purchase the item shop, which Elon explained would allow him to purchase weapons, armour, potions and other miscellaneous items via the usage of combat tokens. Combat tokens could only be received by killing beasts, and those significantly weaker than him wouldn't net him many tokens. Also, he had to contribute more than 50% of the damage dealt to a beast in order to get these tokens.