32 Mid-Level...

After going through her memories, Zaria realized who the girl was most likely. She was probably the leader of the crawlers, an evolved Stage Five beast.

An evolved beast was able to change their body into three different forms at will. The evolved form, the human form, and the monstrosity form.

When in human form, as the name implies, they would look like a human. Their human form was almost an exact biological copy of a normal human. It could copy all of the human bodies functions near-perfectly, the only difference was that it had a beast core. Their evolved form was typically humanoid with aspects of their species, it was also the form they took most often as it was the most comfortable. Lastly, the monstrosity form. It was something you would never hope to see in your lifetime if you weren't strong enough.

Little was known about the queen of the crawlers other than that she was as beautiful as she was cunning.

Zaria was a little concerned. 'Was it just coincidence or was she specifically targeting the hybrid? I definitely need to tell Axel about this...'

Making up her mind, Zaria ordered the group to move out and head back. There was definitely crawlers in the area still. Especially so if the leader was present. There was no doubt that there was probably hundreds of warrior-class beasts.

A warrior class beast was a beast that was at Stage Two. Zaria could easily handle them with a large scale destruction spell, but in the process she would turn everyone else to cinders. Hence, the best option was to head back to camp.

Zaria stored all of the soul-stones into her dimensional storage after tallying them up. There was a total of 1426 soul-stones, only 74 short of a complete quota. Zaria was pleased with the amount, especially considering that they had to leave early due to the sudden crawlers.

Seeing as there was unavoidable circumstances, Zaria decided to waive the rest of the quota.

'Heheh, my workers are the best. It must be because of me.'

No other group was as efficient as Group Four and Zaria was indeed correct. It was because of her that the workers were so 'motivated' to complete the quota. Definitely not because she was partially insane and the severity of the rumors about her were almost double her achievements. It was also definitely not because they worked in the most dangerous location 90% of the time and wanted out.

After confirming with Andrew that Cage was okay, she dismissed Group Four and handed them their meal ticket.

After walking for a little over five minutes, she approached the management office where Axel was located.

Standing in front of a large door, she grinned.

Boom!

The door was kicked open by Zaria aggressively.

It only took her a second to find Axel. She marched over to the overworked man with bags under his eyes. Axel didn't even look up, "Sigh, How many times do I have to say to NOT kick open doors..."

Zaria pouted a little, "Come on~~, It's fun though! Dramatic entrances are always fun!"

Axel just sighed again, "So, what do you need this time?"

Zaria glanced over at a secretary who stood rigid. She said, "I'm going to need to borrow your boss for a little. He'll be back in a few minutes."

The secretary nodded robotically in response.

"Great, thanks!"

She grabbed the back of Axel's shirt and began to drag him out. Despite Axel being a Stage higher than Zaria, he made no effort to resist.

'It would be pointless anyways, she would just distract me if I said no. It would probably take longer trying to refuse than it would to just go along...'

Like a bag of flour, Axel was dragged around in he heels. Eventually, they reached a secluded area.

"What did you want to tell me that required going out here?" Axel asked.

"The leader of the crawlers sent her subordinates to attack the hybrid. The strange part was that the hybrid was defeated, but they left him there."

Andrew frowned, "How strange..." He stroked his chin, " If the leader hadn't known what he was, then she would have taken him back as food or something. But if she had known what he was, she still would have taken him. Is there something we are missing?"

-=-=-

About 12 hours later, Cage woke up in his room feeling refreshed. He felt better than refreshed actually, it was like his entire body was energized. Normally there would always be some lingering fatigue, but there wasn't any; And Cage didn't attribute it to just having a good sleep. He had been injured so he should still be tired.

Cage checked his body to see if there was any changes by trying to sense the mana. Cage shouted out in surprise, "What?!"

Before, when he tried to sense mana, he could only feel an invisible energy, it was equivalent to feeling the wind blow but only having your sense of touch. Now though, almost everything was coated in a translucent light-gray color.

It was kind of bleak to be honest, it was like he had been thrown into some noir-esque world.

'This should be neutral mana.'

He went to try and touch the gray energy, but his eyes fell on his hand which had become abnormal.

He followed his hand to his body and looked down at himself.

His body was completely saturated with two different types of energies! The first energy was an icy-blue color that seemed indifferent and like it would freeze anything it touched. The second energy was a very dark purple that felt very negative.

'Is this elemental mana?'

At that moment, he heard the sound of footsteps that sound familiar. Turning around, he saw Andrew. Andrew was coated in a bright green energy that seemed calm, but random.

Andrew waved at Cage, "Seems like you woke up finally. You're probably starving, let's go down to the main camp to get some food. I just got back from Quadrant Seven and came to check on you first in case you're wondering."

Getting out of his flurry of thoughts, Cage nodded. "Sure. Now that you mention it, I am pretty hungry..."

He hadn't noticed it, but his eyes were faintly glowing with dark-purple and icy-blue energy. This naturally didn't escape Andrew's acute senses, although it did take him a few seconds to notice.

His eyes opened wide in realization, "You broke through to mid-level!"

Cage thought about it for a moment. 'I know that I'm mid-level now because I can see elemental energies, but would that mean I gathered mana while unconscious?'

Normally he would have to initiate cultivation and then he would enter a trance-like state, But it had been done while he was unconscious. This meant that he was doing it subconsciously as an automatic action.

Cage had reached mid-level, but he didn't know what his affinity was. Right as he was about to ask what it was, Andrew beat him to it and asked with an excited expression, "What's your affinity? I hope it's not fire..."

"What? why not fire?" Cage asked.

"Ha ha ha! no reason..." Andrew laughed loudly then muttered under his breath, "Definitely not because it would counter me..."

Cage facepalmed inwardly.

He tilted his head a little, "How do I know what my affinity is?"

Andrew blanked for a second until he remembered that he never explained how. "You should be able to use something called mana-vision now, but I'll just tell you."

Andrew's eyes faintly lit up a bright green before he laid them on Cage.

Andrew didn't think he could get more surprised, but oh how fate proved him wrong. " ... You lucky son of a-! ... You have a dual affinity! Moreover, one if them is already at Tier 2!"

While Andrew had his mouth open like a fish, Cage was surprised. A dual affinity was as rare as winning the lottery, only one in 100,000 would have a dual affinity and most people with dual affinities rose to great heights.

It went without saying that being able to use two different types of attacks would not only increase one's power exponentially, it would also give them a rare magic known as compound magic.

Compound magic was special in the sense that it was decided by one's past experiences, their bloodline, and of course, their respective base elements.

Compound magic, depending on what it was, had the potential to be stronger than Tier 3 magic.

Tricia, Cage's mom, was a dual affinity mage with the attributes of Earth and Water. She was able to use a compound magic called swamp magic. It was very powerful in a control type sense rather than a damaging sense, it was able to halt an entire army in their tracks. Anyone foolish enough to step into the swamp had the possibility of never being seen again.

Andrew, getting over his shock, continued with what he was going to say. "You truly are lucky, your affinities are Shadow and Frost. Shadow is a Tier 1 element and Frost is a Tier 2... At least it wasn't fire though."

"Did I just hear you insulting my affinity?"

Like a phantom, Zaria appeared out of nowhere. Andrew felt a shiver go down his back, "No ma'am! It's just that we already have one super talented and amazingly powerful Fire mage!"

Zaria smirked, "That's what I thought..."

Turning her attention to Cage, she said "So, he finally has access to his affinity? Good."

Andrew scratched the back of his head and held up two fingers, "There's two actually..."

Zaria laughed, "Even better! In highlight of your most recent battle-feat, we are transferring you to the exploration team that was recently created due to your high combat abilities. It will take about a week to find more members of the team, so I recommend you use the time to work on your skills."

She was about to walk off but then remembered she forgot to mention something. She pointed to Andrew, "Oh yeah, you as well. You have high combat abilities and the commander thinks you have leadership potential."

She turned and waved at the two, "Cya in a week!"

With a swoosh of air, she vanished again...