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The group slowly transported Aeon near the mouth of the cave to give him as much fresh air as possible. Although they didn't really move too far, they were already sweating because they tried to move as slowly as possible to avoid causing more pain to the unconscious patient.

It sounded quite easy, but they actually had quite a hard time. Their planning even lasted for a full 10 minutes. Their problem: how would they distribute their height?!

Levi and Selena were almost just as tall with Levi being slightly taller. No problem. Suri and Korona on the other hand…

In the end, Korona became responsible for carrying Aeon's legs while Levi and Selena supported Aeon's body. Suri managed Aeon's head alone. For the whole duration of the transport, they could never get a perfect balance. The entire time, Aeon's body was tilted.

When they settled him on the floor, they all heaved a sigh of relief and started wiping on their dripping sweat. They all had no clue what to do, so they only sat beside the patient. Suri went back inside the cave to get Samuel who was also unconscious. They couldn't just leave him there because there might be beasts entering from a different entrance of the cave.

Levi examined Aeon's body, but there wasn't anything wrong about it. When the latter was still struggling, he was clutching his head, so he should have gotten an extremely painful headache. But what kind of headache was that? He shook his head and went back to his seat.

Eventually, Suri came back, a person hanging from his shoulder. He placed the person rather gently beside Aeon so that they could monitor both at the same time.

Korona carefully covered the mouth of the cave with a sheet of ice, but she left a few holes to let the fresh air seep in.

After a few hours, night fell.

Although it was indeed slightly more dangerous to camp near the entrance, they needed to do it to keep track of Aeon's condition with the help of the dim moonlight.

Thankfully, the day passed by without any mishaps.

….

Samuel blinked his eyes as the sunlight shone directly on his face. Immediately, he placed a hand in front of his face to block the intense light that almost blinded him. As he peeked through the gaps between his fingers, he realized that he did not awaken to the bright blue sky as he had expected. Instead, he saw the canopy of the tall trees and probably the mouth of an underground cave.

Where am I?

Samuel wanted to sit up straight immediately and observe his surroundings, but his body completely betrayed him. He could not muster the strength to sit up, so he leaned right. He thought that he should be able to sit up with a little boost. When he leaned forward, however, he saw another person lying next to him. He was surprised, but he immediately recovered. He realized that he knew the person. He was the musclehead in Instructor Bell's classes, Aaron!

Suddenly, a familiar voice came from the other side of the room, opposite to where he was currently facing.

"You're awake. That's good."

Samuel twisted his neck, trying to get a glimpse of the person. He knew who the person was though, so he didn't really need to see him tell that it was Levi. "So you found me. No wonder."

"Actually, there are five of us," Levi stood up and walked towards the direction of the other room inside the cave, "let me get you something to eat."

Samuel plopped to the ground. He wanted to feel pain so he could confirm that he wasn't dreaming. It did hurt, but not as much as he had expected. He had actually been lying on soft fabric, he and Aaron. He shifted a little bit to avoid the sunlight shining straight into his eyes. He twisted his neck to the right and saw the bandages on his shoulders. Because his gauntlets covered his hands and his entire forearm, they only had a few bruises that appeared to be healing already. He thought about how long he had been unconscious.

After a few minutes, Levi returned. He walked in with a leaf folded into a makeshift lunchbox. He sat cross-legged beside Samuel and slowly opened the "lunchbox" then assisted the latter to sit up straight. Although Samuel was behaving like he did not need the help, in reality, he still couldn't do it on his own. In the end, he could only accept Levi's assistance. After that, Levi left him on his own to eat and went back to his seat.

Samuel swallowed a piece of meat then said. "You said there are five of you. Where are the other three?"

"They're observing the area. It's that time of the day where the beasts disappear," Levi replied. After dropping his sentence, he peeked over at Aeon who was still unconscious. "Don't worry about your body. There are no permanent injuries and you're just weak because you haven't eaten and drank any water in four days."

Samuel silently acknowledged his statement. Any mage could easily live without food and water for two to three weeks, but his body, needed lots of food and water to recover, so he felt quite famished after only four days of being unconscious. As a mage, as long as he ate lots of healthy food and drank enough water, he would be able to recover in half a day. "Are there no vegetables here?"

"We haven't gone back to the camp in three days, so no." Levi casually said.

"Why?"

"Some reasons that don't concern you. The moment you recover, you can go back on your own. Leave when the beasts disappear," Levi said flatly.

"This is why I don't like you," Samuel tore off a piece of the meat he was holding using his teeth, "you're always sneaky and shit."

"Not really. I just want to avoid problems as much as possible," Levi replied nonchalantly.

"You say that, but you're here facing beasts that are completely out of our league."

"It's for a greater purpose and one of those problems I couldn't avoid."

Samuel clicked his tongue.

Suddenly, the two heard some footsteps from above them. The others were returning.

Suri was the first one to pop up from the mouth of the cave, then Korona and Selena. They were shocked to see Samuel munching on some meat, and not unconscious. They all smiled after recovering. They were genuinely happy for Samuel regaining consciousness.

Samuel didn't bother being friendly with the others though. He stopped talking and continued munching on the huge piece of meat.

Suri stood next to Levi and reported, "I think we missed something really important."

Hearing this, Levi was intrigued. "Really? What is it?"

"I think we were too focused on the beast's behavior that we completely forgot about their nature. Some beasts arrived earlier than the others, so we followed them. Instead of settling on their respective habitats like they usually do, they continued moving. I bet they're moving towards the outskirts," Suri said in a serious tone.

Immediately, Levi understood where Suri was getting at. He looked at Korona and Selena who had worried faces. Such bad news at such a time, Levi thought. He sighed and replied, "So that's why we saw more gigantic and colossal beasts in parts where they should not be in."

The three nodded.

If they spent two more weeks cooped up in the cave they were currently staying at instead of reporting the matter, they would deliberately be putting the other students… no, the entire camp in danger.

The beasts around the area, for some reason, refrain from preying on each other for survival. Instead, they go to feast on the relatively smaller magical beasts in the outskirts, those who were not invited to the "meeting" at the lake. But those smaller beasts would not satiate the colossal beasts' hunger. They would surely be looking for more. It won't be long before they discover the camp.

One or two, or even five wouldn't be a problem because they had Klaus, Dan, and Merell. But how about the number of colossal beasts Aeon and Selena saw near the lake. According to them, there were more than 60 of them. If they get surrounded, it would all be over.

"I guess we need to get back and report, then," Levi stood up, "we'll rest for an entire day and hope Aeon wakes up. We move tomorrow."

Samuel coughed, appearing to have choked on the meat. He hammered his chest a few times before he could recover.

His name is Aeon! Not Aaron, Samuel thought as he wiped his mouth.

….

Since Aeon's condition had already stabilized, or at least it appeared to be, they transferred both him and Samuel deeper into the cave.

In the afternoon, each of them took their own spots to train. None of them were really too tense about the situation. They just had to take advantage of the beasts' meeting in the morning and head back to the camp as soon as possible. Samuel should be able to run without any support by tomorrow morning, so they only needed to worry about the unconscious Aeon. Suri volunteered to do the carrying.

Suri reviewed the two spells he recently learned.

Draconic Flare Wave, a B-ranked spell from the first book of the Draconic Flames series he learned about two weeks ago. It was a spell that could immediately drain his magic completely if combined with his explosive technique. He had yet to test its full power in actual combat though. When he previously used it, he lowered the power to a D-ranked version.

A week after learning the Draconic Flare Wave, he learned another useful one, Searing Draconic Blade. It was also a B-ranked spell, but it is a bit more powerful than the Draconic Flare Wave.

There was a reason why the Draconic Flames Series was called as such. Every spell written in the book is said to have the ability to change the properties of the user's flames. Its properties would become closer to the flames that dragons use, containing purer fire energy. Of course, more destructive and powerful.

Suri breathed in deeply. He started casting the spell, but he didn't fuel it with too much magic to lower its destructive properties.

After about four seconds, his blade started glowing bright red. However, the glow now was quite different from his other spells. It was pulsating. Like a beast struggling to escape from a net.

Suri slashed horizontally at the wall, opposite to where the others were training.

The glow immediately disappeared from the blade and took on its own form. A growing red line expanded in the direction where Suri slashed at.

The moment it hit the wall, it didn't make the explosive sound that Suri's other spells usually made. Instead, it only let out a low hiss.

A long and thin horizontal line was now written on the cave walls.

….