Chapter 15- Expect the unexpected

The plane to Kangning city was filled with students from both the Imperial and Pearl universities as they headed towards their training mission while Xue'er cutely slept on Itacihi's arm.

Training missions were extremely important for magicians who were still studying. Even if the schools did not force the students to participate in the missions, those who strove for excellence would still organize them for themselves. How could they not try to gain experience if they were thinking of becoming an expert?

He was still thinking over the meeting earlier as the teacher explained their assignment.

They had been assigned to go past the safe zones into the abandoned city Jinlin to survey the monsters living in the areas. The students were very shocked after hearing its situation.

"This Jinlin City is quite special. It was wiped off the map around fifteen years ago," Qiu Yuhua had said calmly.

"Wiped off from the map?" The students were astounded. They had never heard of any city being wiped out!

Besides, what did it actually mean when a city got wiped out?

"Fifteen years ago, the are close to Dongting Lake was caught up in a great disaster. The over-populated demon beasts swarmed toward Jinlin City, which was relatively remote. Luckily, a magician found out what was happening while in the midst of his training in the countryside. He immediately asked the government to evacuate the people of Jinlin City.

"On the second day, the entire city turned into a feast for the demon beasts after it was overrun. Those who could not evacuate in time were buried there forever."

This statement had horrified the students as they were still not aware of many horrors since they were for the most part safe inside the safe zones protected by the military.

The way monster groups were identified were quite simple. Fifty beasts become a nest, fifty nests become a horde, which means a horde would have at least twenty-five hundred of them. Hordes are between 2500-10,000 monsters and they are normally led by 1-3 commander rank beasts.

The hordes of demon beasts that attacked Jinlin city was much worse than the wolf horde that attacked Bo city and they would have to be prepared to avoid a commander rank beast that would pretty much mean certain death for everyone other than Itachi.

Their job was to survey the monsters inside the city, and count servant and warrior ranked beasts they came across. The deans of the two schools had planned this to help get their best students experience along with helping evaluate the abandoned city. The magic association planned to once again expand the safe zone to possibly rebuild the city and they wanted to evaluate the danger level in the area.

Soon after arriving they were sent off into the wilderness along with maps and equipment with the teachers stopping at the end of the safe zone wishing them luck. Currently the 17 students made their way down the abandoned railway before coming to a tunnel.

Zheng Biangxiao sent a rock golem up ahead to clear out the path while the rest of the team looked relatively unconcerned. While this would be a very frighteningly ordeal for most students, these were the best of the students who were for the most part some of the strongest in the school even though they were very young.

Especially Mu Ning Xue who despite just finishing up her first year she was already close to high tier with mid tier level 4 wind and ice that could already rank her as one of the strongest in the school. Those ranked stronger than her were most likely a couple years older than her, so it was no mistake she was the captain of the Imperial team.

Many of the team members for both schools were also quite frightening with tier 2 or 3 mid tier for their respective elements at such a young age.

Their team had a pretty solid composition and they even had Bai Tingting who was a rare healing mage that had come from the Pearl University to help heal injuries. Sensing movement Itachi looked faintly into the darkness of a small gap in the tunnel wall.

Turning to face Zhao Manyan he commanded him to cast light magic on it and sure enough it showed over 5 Cavern Slave minion ranked monsters were illuminated hiding in the darkness. They were briefly stunned by the light before charging out swinging a bone club down fiercely with enough strength to shatter stones.

The group was stunned at this turn of events because they thought the narrow cave wouldn't hide anything, but they realized there were many gaps in the tunnel. Reacting relatively quickly some of the faster ones began casting magic, but they stopped after a blue colored Ignite shot into the alcove exploding with such ferocity that all the whole tunnel shook. Turning in shock they faced the grinning Itachi holding a blue flame in his hand.

After the competition he had told everyone how every awakening, he awakens two elements and this news quickly spread around as Itachi's talent of innate dual elements was quickly registered placing at number 5 on the top 100 natural talents board which was quite popular all around. The Imperial university students already knew Itachi had held back quite a bit, but after seeing this blue flame that had to be well into the soul grade for spirit seeds they couldn't help but be shocked again.

They already knew his lightning had to have a spirit seed around soul grade quality after his showing at the tournament, and now he revealed another. Besides Mu Ning Xue there were probably 1 or 2 other students in the entire Imperial university who had a soul grade seed which shows how rare it is.

If spirit seeds could be stolen, those students would most likely long be dead since even most High tier mages would not have a soul grade seed since they were quite an astronomical price and finding one in the wild would be very rare.

Immediately after their death however, a large amount of cave slaves appeared coming up the path menacingly as a group also appeared behind them. It seems they had missed a passage Itachi thought watching both sides intently.

The others on the team immediately prepared magic deciding fire was the best option Luo MingXiao, Lu Zhenge, and Song Xia casted fiery fists into the narrow passageway which swept away the weak minion ranked monsters.

Itachi shouted to hurry as they quickly made their way down the tunnel that had many branches showing more Cavern Slave monsters. Itachi led the group blasting monsters out of the way while Mu Ning Xue dashed around with wind track quickly freezing any monsters that tried to ambush the group from the sides.

There were a couple close calls since it was hard to tell where the bone shattering attacks would come from, but aside from Xiao Feng taking a surprise swing to the ankle which broke it, the defense mages had time to stop any attacks with water, light, and earth shields.

Recovering outside, Xiao Feng's leg was healed after a couple minutes by Bai Tingting's healing element. Soon the group approached the desolate city. Looking over the landscape they eventually chose the former cities administration hall since it had a good point of view and it looked relatively cleaner than the other buildings.

Seeing something in the shadows Itachi immediately stopped the group. The entire building was covered by vines. That did not seem too strange, but Itachi saw something move on top of the heavily overgrown roof. It seemed to be some vine like creature with it resembling a brain.

None of the others noticed the beast hiding in the vines and as Itachi was planning to find somewhere else a dark shape descended onto the roof as a giant lizard descended from the skies.

"Razortail Drake" a few team members muttered in fear seeing the giant beast appear out of nowhere lashing out at the tentacle monster. The previously innocent looking vines sprang into action as it desperately attempted to flee from this frightening predator at the top of the food chain.

Speeding up the dark flying lizard opened its large crocodile like maw as it crunched down on the beast instantly killing it, and it quickly ate the monster. After finishing its meal, the deadly predator turned to face the group of mages its black pupil locked down as they shivered in fear.

Walking past them, an unconcerned Itachi loudly said looking at the monster "My pet needed a playmate, Felix I Choose You" Itachi said smirking a bit at the last line. while out of his summon space shot the ferocious 3 tailed fox Felix who roared threateningly scaring all the lower beasts away not wanting to interfere in the battle between commanders.

If they had doubts before then they were surely cleared up. Itachi's Fox summon is without a doubt at the commander level and it was definitely not weak considering it dared challenge the Razor tail drake.

Slowly walking up the fox stared down calculatingly at its opponent as it considered its options. The Razor tail drake chose to attack first leapt towards the fox its jaws wide open leaping forward swiftly towards the fox. Felix nimbly leapt out of the way fiercely whipping its long sturdy tail around smashing into the side of its face throwing it to the side into a building.

Growling the Drake emerged from the rubble shaking off its dust as it gave its opponent more attention. It leapt into the sky its black wings unfurling around it as it stared down at the fox. Shooting down like a hawk it extended its claws towards the fox. Similarly Felix leapt powerfully into the sky meeting its attack in mid air as the two fiercely slashed at each other.

Felix seemed to come off worse in this exchange as he was slashed multiple times by the drakes sharp claws as it was more difficult to penetrate the reptiles sharp scales covering its body. Roaring in pain and anger Felix intertwined its tails fiercely whipping it around into the side of the beast resulting in a few cracks showing some ribs have broken.

Seeing his Fox get cut up Itachi decided it was time to end this.

Using his strong mid tier lightning magic he combined with his spirit seed, he fiercely shot off a split shot of lightnig that resulted in 20 deadly bolts shooting into the distracted Drake mainly targeting its wings effectively crippling them preventing it from flight.

Activating his blood tabi boots Itachi leapt into the air doing one of his favorite moves. Arriving above it he increased gravity by a lot as he brought the metal boot of his magic equipment strongly into the beasts spine a loud resounding crack signalling it had broken.

It was quite funny watching Felix steal his kill right after that when he leapt forward bringing his claw into its skull. He even roared in victory prancing around arrogantly as if he had done all the work. Sighing a bit Itachi told him to go play around before turning to face the shocked gazes of his classmates.

Seeing the ease at which he dealt with the drake was unnerving considering all their lives they pretty much considered commander rank beasts unbeatable since they could barely beat warrior ranks beasts that were like ants to commanders.

Walking ahead happily, Mu Ning Xue turned back to face the others "Its really not that surprising considering its not his first time hunting commander rank beasts. He even killed the Darkwing wolf that attacked BO city along with another mage when he was a lot weaker than he was now." she said once again surprising the others with how talented her boyfriend was.

Itachi helped them get back on

track "we still need to survey the area. I will take a couple sensors to get the surrounding areas while you all should take the other areas. Meet back up at the church over there which should be a good place to stay.

Meanwhile far away, a group on military eagles quickly approached them

"Commander Lu, we are three hundred kilometers away from Jinlin City.

There's a group of Blood-Puncture Vultures living close to Jinlin City. Should we engage?" The Advising Officer was a female Battlemage. Her eyebrows were almost joined in a straight line, not a good-looking woman.

"There's no need for that. We will travel on foot once we are close to their territory," Lu Nian said.

"Acknowledged!"

"Remember, only success is allowed for this mission!"

"Affirmative!"

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Soon the team reassembled at the church having completed the assignment. Itachi was attacked by many minion and servant ranked monsters, but they were not too much of a problem and he used the collected warrior souls he got from their attacks to bring 7 stars of his wind element to level 5 giving him x4 novice wind magic.

Overall, all of Itachi's stars for the elements that were able to be upgraded such as Lightning Wind and Fire, were at level 4 from minion souls with 7 stars of each upgraded to level 5 from warrior souls. As strong as Itachi was, finding 42 more warrior souls to upgrade all his stars to level 5 for each element would be a pain. He was not guaranteed to get a soul from a warrior ranked beast and they were rather uncommon. Since mid tier magic uses 49 stars he needs to upgrade all 49 stars to get the added bonus effect of x4 magic strength.

Most of the group was tired, but they decided to return home. Seeing a flock of eagles in the distance Itachi realized 1. that this event still happened even though he had changed the timeline alot 2. he should make the best of this situation and he quickly thought of a a good plan for this situation. Many of the students looked up happily seeing the army mages thinking they were safe.

Seeing the battle-mages touch down he perceptively noticed Lu Zhenge making eye contact with the leader before nodding at Itachi. Lu Nian immediately gave the order to kill them all shocking the students, but Itachi was prepared for that and quickly captured Lu Zhenge who he remembered was Lu Nian's brother. "Don't move or he will die" Itachi said dangerously holding his blue fire close to the terrified Lu Zhenge. While he could probably fight them off since they only had a few high tier mages, Itachi decided to go along with their plan since he would only gain benefits.

Raising his hand Lu Nian stopped the mages behind him as he looked coldly at Itachi "You are quite perceptive, worthy of being the most suitable test subject"

Playing along Itachi faked being shocked "What do you mean?"

"While history books may give the appearance that man kind has fought back that is only the lies spread to civilians to keep the peace. In truth we are nothing more than cattle that the beasts let reproduce before they have a grand feast." he said coldly looking at this naive students.

When he had first joined the army he was so full of hope. He was going to become a mage, a great protector of humanity, but his hopes were dashed and he soon realised that they were nothing against the vast hordes of monsters.

If they chose to, humanity would be exterminated without a doubt. Many of the higher ranked beasts were extremely intelligent and he had no doubt that instead of killing them entirely, they would let humans grow out for couple years before viciously attacking for food.

"Soon I realized that we were too weak. We needed something... Stronger! More Powerful! capable of showing these beasts what we were capable of. We needed something better than the weak elements we currently have. We needed a new element" He said to the shocked students practically shouting near the end his eyes crazed in a zealous manner.

"Are you telling us that you guys are planning to invent a new Element?" Zhao Manyan blurted out in disbelief.

Turning around he grinned crazily "Yes, and the dual element wielder is the perfect candidate to test this" he said looking at Itachi.

Pretending to be shocked Itachi said "Why would I be a better candidate?"

Lu Nian continued speaking with a smirk. "The test subjects only managed to survive for a brief period. On top of that, they would also lose their ability to think rationally, as their bodies could not handle the burden from the process. They would die instantly once the efficacy of the test drug ran out. It felt like all their life force was depleted within a short period of time. We have never had a single survivor since the start of the experiment."

"Your crazy!" Mu Ning Xue said shouted out disgusted at what she was hearing

Suddenly on the horizon the winged Zhan Kong arrived his magically enhanced voice enraged shouting out"Lu Nian you Dare attack him when the higher ups agreed he was protected?" While the military did approve of the experiments they were done on vicious criminals or similar. They had yet to find someone who could bear the power of the Blood Sarira demon element without going crazy.

After finding out about the dual element student Lu Nian had immediately demanded that they test it out on him much to the anger of Zhan Kong and the others. It was already bad enough they were experimenting with this sinister method and now he wanted to use it on an innocent school child one who Zhan Kong was especially thankful for his help back in Bo city.

When he had discovered Lu Nian had disappeared with a group of troops he immediately grew worried and flew out to protect the group of students. Luckily he arrived just in time to help them out.

Itachi smiled a bit at this, but his expression suddenly changed when a deep tremor shook the land 'what was that' more than a little panicked. 'I already took out the leader of the city what other danger is there.' All though he had never cared about the timeline, that wasn't going to stop him from taking advantage of it, but when something unexpected happened during an expected event, Itachi would be more than a little concerned and when he saw dust rising up in the distance he immediately turned serious realizing he was in deep shit.

Everyone at the scene friend or foe had their eyes turned towards the sound as the entire earth shook buildings around them crumbling at the force being transmitted.

Zhan Kong weakly whispered in a scared tone

"Monarch..."

His fear was well founded. If warriors were ants in front of commanders than commanders in front of monarchs were less than ants. They were dust waiting to be blown aside swept away by the true elite strength of the monster world. Itachi had grown too complacent thinking this world was quite easy.

After all, even if he changed events up a little he shouldn't even be expected to see a Monarch for a couple years. Now here he was targeted down by this near-invincible existence.

There was no escaping from a Monarch. If it cared enough to chase you down their was no where you could hide as every footstep, every breath would be heard as it tracked you down. He realized he had made a grave miscalculation, and he was too naive. Even with all his cards he could at most escape. Killing it or even severely injuring it was impossible.

Turning to face Lu Nian, Itachi said something that shocked everyone there "Give me the Blood Sarira or we all will die" he said coldly his previous persona completely different like a king ordering his subjects to comply

Shocked at this turn of events Lu Nian looked at the previously scared mage realising it was all an act "You Knew?" he said shocked at the frighteningly calm display the mage gave off as he gazed towards the incoming beast.

Laughing slightly Itachi looked at the stupefied army mage "Know? of course I knew. I was actually hoping for a chance to try it out. Otherwise, you would already be dead" he said darkly gazing down at the now frightened army mage.

"It would be a good chance to gain a strong element, but it seems like we have an uninvited guest which seems to be a Silver Titan Ape" he said gazing at the now recognizable beast standing over 50 meters tall shaking the ground with every step as it charged over with an ETA of around a minute.

Itachi wondered if this Monarch came over due to him killing the Razor tail drake who was the leader of the city. 'It seems I underestimated the intelligence of those in charge' he thought staring at the nearing beast. It seems killing a commander rank beast isn't as small of a problem as I thought since it turns out if you beat the dog, the master comes out which in this case was Titan ape. He had neglected that killing a monster leader of a small territory such as Jinlin city would attract this Monarch rank who was most likely looking over a large region.

Realizing the serious of the situation, the army general handed him a blood red vial that pulsed with energy. Itachi turned to face the stunned Xue'er "I'm sorry but this must be done. Don't worry I will be fine."

He crushed the vial in his hand as the dark red energy surged up his arms disappearing as it surged into his body. Closing his eyes Itachi smiled ruefully a bit before thinking, 'some things just can't be changed' before his pupils turned completely black and hell descended.