Fighting ahead
It had been more than two weeks since they left chronicle city and out of terac country, they successfully left the outer part of the empire five days ago and were now close to one of the high-level cities in the inner circle of the academy.
During these five days they left the shadow of the outer part of the empire, and the group encountered a lot of high-level beasts that they freaked out. They were already aware that warrior-level beasts were pretty common once you reach the inner circle of an empire, but what they did not expect was that their numbers were comparable to the number of servant-level beasts back in terac country; there was almost no guard-level beasts and warrior level beasts were found in batches and one could easily run into them like stumbling into flies at a butcher's shop.
They had experienced the brutality of the inner part of the city the very day they stepped into it, mages like them could easily die if they wandered off from the group.