Self Training

"Trust me, I searched for the grass because it was in a much more dangerous area. I just want to keep the students safe!" Dan said.

"Yes, we know that. We still need information on specific areas, though," Levi replied.

"Okay! Fine!" Dan positioned himself better against the wall and extended his right hand forward, "you want some info? I'll give you some! Hand me your map!"

Levi smiled at Dan as he complied. He took his map out of his pocket, one that had no words written all over it, and handed it over. He watched as Dan scribbled on the map.

Seeing that nothing interesting was about to happen, the rest of the members dispersed. They did their usual routine when camping. Only Levi remained to accompany Dan.

"Maybe, the next time you go on a trip, you can call us over," Levi said with a grin.

Dan scoffed. He did not appreciate being offered help by some students. He continued on scribbling. He carefully encircled the important areas and wrote the safety precautions they should take when moving around the area. Although he was grumpy, he was quite generous in giving information.

After Dan finished what he was writing and scribbling, he handed the map back to Levi.

Levi received the map gracefully then said, "Thank you. Also, we're taking the grass as collateral."

"What?! That's not part of the deal," Dan said as he banged on the ground. Unknowingly, his gloves also started glowing red, revealing his identity as a Fire Seran.

Levi did not react to Dan's movements. Instead, he patiently replied, "We used three days of our precious time to deliver you safely back to camp. We could have used it to find two or three more items."

"Ha!" Dan gave a mocking laugh then yelled, "You think it's that easy to find the items?! There are a bunch of groups out there but only one managed to find two Galaxy Flowers! You better beg for them to let you join their group if you want to find even a single item!"

Levi stopped smiling.

Seeing this, Dan smiled smugly, thinking that he must have crushed the person's confidence.

"Hm. Interesting." Levi stood up and placed a hand on his chin, assuming a thinking posture, "last time I checked, we were the ones who delivered the Galaxy Flower."

The smile on Dan's face froze, and his upper lip twitched.

It's them?!

….

"Are you heading out again?" Korona asked Aeon as she lowered her Ice Wall that covered the mouth of the cave.

Aeon replied with a smile, "Yep, I need to train extra to keep up with you all."

After leaving his sentence, Aeon jumped over the Ice Wall. He didn't even get lots of rest. He simply organized his fanny pack then went out again.

Korona's eyes drooped. For the past three days, Aeon had been doing this. She felt sad for him. Of course, she knew about Aeon sneaking away because he had to go through her if he wanted to exit the cave.

Probably, they had already slain about a thousand beasts, but after they settled on a place to stay, Aeon would head out alone. It seems like it still wasn't enough for him. Also, he would return with lots of bruises and cuts. She thought that Aeon was overexerting himself.

Korona turned around and went back.

….

Aeon thought that his training with Montis was enough. Sure, he wasn't able to hit the guy, but his overall condition was improving rapidly. At the moment, Aeon was confident in beating all of his other classmates except Levi. With this, he was still on par with the rest despite training for two months in the academy already.

However, after facing gigantic magical beasts that were practically everywhere, for the first time in his life, Aeon felt powerless.

The beasts had such random properties added to their nature that they became super unpredictable. Moreover, with their unusual growth, Aeon could only deal little to no damage to those extra big ones. In the previous battles, he merely served mostly as a distraction. He was virtually useless against the colossal ones because they would just ignore him unless he gets too close.

He needed to be much, much stronger.

He had to do more training!

Aeon lured over a dozen mid-sized magical beasts, those who were about three meters in height.

Still not enough.

Aeon continued to run around. He was moving at a much slower pace so the monsters behind him would keep on chasing as he added more to their numbers. He had to set a more difficult battle for him to improve.

After he lured about 30 beasts, ranging from two to four meters in height, Aeon stopped running.

In their family, his father and grandfather both used halberds. However, when he started training on using one at the age of six, his grandfather died. His father was also too busy with the war against the Florentine Empire so he couldn't train Aeon as much.

In the end, Aeon fancied using Daggers and Swords. When he received Verdure and Zephyr, he was truly overjoyed. Although his mastery over the two swords was still immature, he could already display a skill above his Seran peers.

The 30 or so beasts ganged up on Aeon, putting aside their enmities with each other to defeat another threat. He was surrounded in all directions, but no fear was written on his face, only calm.

Aeon breathed hard as he felt the flow of magic inside his body. He was activating his Tenro.

His eyes glowed with a piercing gaze.

There!

Aeon dashed forward, towards a lizard-like beast. The beast was much slower than the other ones in the front, becoming the weakest link and creating a small opening on the encirclement.

Aeon stabbed at the lizard with lightning-fast speed. The other beasts were not even able to react and those who pounced at him earlier bumped into each other. The stab accurately hit the heart of the lizard then Aeon moved to his next target.

One after another, the beasts fell. If one looked at the battlefield from a top view perspective, it was as if Aeon was simply dancing. Whenever his blades moved, a beast will fall. His actions were extremely efficient, conserving as much energy by killing with only a single fatal blow.

In no time, the monsters were all on the ground. Aeon was completely soaked in blood. He was breathing heavily and looked completely exhausted.

As he had expected, using his tenro for an extended period of time and at a much higher level was still too taxing for his mind. He could only perform his one-hit-kills if he pushed his tenro to its limit. Without it, in an extremely chaotic battlefield, he was still not capable of achieving such a feat.

Wiping out more than 30 beasts alone was already amazing and only a few in their batch could do it at their current level. Despite knowing this, Aeon was still not satisfied. He wanted to fight a much larger opponent by himself, with his own power.

Aeon continued his hunt.

He returned to camp, again, full of bruises, before the night fell.

….

The next day, at 3:00 AM, the group set out.

Dan was still not capable of walking, but he could already stand. He was carried by Aeon once again. Also, he had given up on getting back the Saphirric Witch Grass.

Dan didn't particularly dislike the group. His main purpose was to save the students from danger by taking the responsibility of hunting for the items in a much deeper area. So despite losing the grass, he was still able to achieve his goal. What he did not appreciate, however, was the lack of respect he was getting. He found out that two were actually from a prominent family, but that still wasn't enough reason for them to disrespect him, no?

After an hour, they silently entered the camp and returned Dan to his tent.

With this, their hunt for another item ended in another success. Although indirectly.

They decided to turn the grass in at a later time.

Each member of the group returned to their respective tents and went back to sleep. The past few days for them was really taxing. Nothing beats resting at home.

….

Dan sat down inside his tent.

Although it was early in the morning, he knew that Klaus would feel his presence as soon as he entered the camp. After all, his aura made him stood out among the bunch of weak mages.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, Klaus appeared.

"So how was the search?" Klaus said nonchalantly.

Dan stood up and walked towards his table. He did not take a seat. "I did not find any."

"Really? Where did you search?"

"Northeast. I was looking for the Ur Tree's essence."

"Why did you return with Morgan's group then?"

Dan felt his heart knot and beat louder. He did not expect Klaus to know who he came home with. "We just happened to cross paths."

"At 4:00 AM in the morning? Interesting," Klaus exited the tent, "it's good that you're okay."

Klaus left without another word.

After hearing Klaus' footsteps fade away, Dan fell down.

Sweat fell from his forehead, and he was breathing heavily. It took all his strength just to stand up straight for the brief span of their conversation since he was still too fatigued, both mentally and physically. It was good that Klaus didn't press further.

It wasn't inherently bad if he had been assisted by students. The thing was, he didn't bring back any items. That means that if Aeon's group did bring some, which they would, it would only imply that they were receiving preferential treatment. That they were being assisted by an Academy Staff.

It wouldn't look good for Dan's reputation, especially as someone new in the Academy.

He could only move on and hope that he wouldn't be linked to the party.

Well, it was also good enough that he was able to keep the info about Project Eclipse from the students.

….