"The promotion assessnt, how’s it related to this suicidal attempt?" Alex raised an eyebrow as he stared at Eric.
He knew that their last assessnt as year-one students was around the corner and that the assessnt would be different from the other two, since the university had refused to release any information. But how was hunting a mutated rank magic beast going to help?
"My big sister told that although the university always changed the events of the assessnt, there was always a pattern to it.
Considering how the last one went, this one would definitely include teaming up to face magic beasts. And since so of the students are already at the Expert mage rank, I assud that the rank of the magic beasts won’t be too weak!" Eric hurriedly explained.
Alex fell into silence after listening to Eric. What the kid said really made sense; if the news from his elder sister was true, that is.
"If we can take down this snake, we should be able to handle any magic beast by teaming up in the assessnt!" Eric added when he saw Alex’s contemplative look.
"Fine, let’s hunt this snake together. But keep in mind that I’ll only help you keep it in place, you’ll have to land the killing blow." Alex waved his hands and said.
He wanted to use this as a form of training for Eric, the kid’s shadow elent was awe-inspiring, and since he was related to the shadow monarch, Alex wanted to use this opportunity to repay the Saint’s help back then.
’ I’ll help you train your descendant for answering my questions last ti, no need to thank .’
With that, both of them set out. They arrived at one of the borders and were allowed to pass through after presenting their explorer identity cards.
After coming out of the City, both of them brought out their magic scooters and rode off. They saw other explorers along the way but didn’t communicate as they moved further away from Brandvel City.
Information from the Union had stated that the steel horned snake was last spotted in the ironwood forest, which was a few kilotres away from Brandvel City. The ironwood forest was a forest filled with towering trees and large vines that were as hard as tal. The bark of those trees was sotis used as material for making low-grade magic items, thanks to their sturdy nature.
Aside from that, there was a large canyon behind the ironwood forest. This environnt was perfectly fitted for such a magic beast to stay since it could easily hunt unsuspecting targets in the forest and retreat into the canyon if needed.
Alex and Eric rode their magic scooters for so ti and finally arrived at the entrance of the ironwood forest. In front of them stood gigantic trees with brown barks that seed to pierce into the sky above, even from outside, they could see the several ters thick vines that twisted like snakes inside the forest.
The large branches of the trees grew canopies of leaves that blocked out sunlight, making the inside of the forest look dark and eerie, as if entering a dead land.
This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, shadow mages were at their strongest in environnts like this.
Before they entered, Alex turned to Eric and said.
"Rember, I’ll block and try to keep it in place, you take care of attacking it."
"Hmm," Eric nodded, his eyes flashed with excitent as he stared at the ironwood forest.
"Good, let’s go," Alex said and took the lead, stepping into the thick shadow of the forest.
He spread out his senses and imdiately discovered the location of the steel-horned snake. He was a Saint after all so a mutated rank magic beast couldn’t hide from him.
But even after discovering the position of the snake, Alex didn’t reveal it to Eric as that would spoil everything. His purpose here today was to help improve Eric’s awareness as a mage, so he would let the kid do more work.
Entering the forest with Alex, Eric instantly felt his shadow elent grow stronger under the coverage of the forest, and his senses turned sharper.
However, he didn’t react to this change because he was always used to it; he knew that his elent would grow stronger if he wasn’t exposed to strong light.
"Let’s go," Eric said and went in front of Alex as they started their search. Alex smiled slightly and walked behind Eric.
The ironwood forest was very quiet as not even the sounds of bugs could be heard, calm wind blew past occasionally, but the sounds of their passing were barely audible. The ironwood forest was ho to a lot of magic beasts that specialised in tailing and ambushing targets, so it wasn’t strange that they couldn’t hear anything.
Alex could sense a few common rank magic beasts a few tens of ters around them, but these magic beasts were only quietly following them and hadn’t made any moves yet.
They didn’t make any sounds as they silently tailed the two; Alex wouldn’t have noticed them if not for the fact that he was far stronger. As for Eric, he couldn’t tell whether the kid had noticed anything or not.
’The creatures here are so skilled at stalking, must be because of the environnt that they grew up in.’ Alex thought to himself as they kept walking.
Currently, they had walked over three hundred ters into the forest and reached a place where a network of thick vines had blocked the path ahead. The only way to pass through would be to cut through, turn back, or climb over.
But the vines were too tall for them to climb over quickly, and cutting through would make a lot of noise; the only sensible option right now would be to turn back and pick another route.
Alex turned his head and glanced at Eric, he would let the boy make the call.
Eric didn’t say anything as he stared at the vines in front of them, instead, his eyes turned pitch black as black stars appeared around him and quickly connected into two star patterns.
"Shadow blades," Eric mumbled softly.
Alex had seen Eric use this spell before, during their registration test. Two shadowy daggers appeared from the two star patterns and Eric grabbed them.
Compared to the last ti, Alex could feel that the shadow blades were stronger now thanks to the condition of their environnt. The daggers were almost invisible, and Alex could tell their sharpness had increased too.
Eric didn’t stop there as he summoned his stars again after creating the shadow daggers. Alex just stood there and watched with interest, curious as to what Eric was going to do.
The shadow daggers were swift feet of the wind elent; a mage could keep them from disappearing as long as they had enough mana, and it wouldn’t prevent them from using other spells. That was why Eric was still able to cast another spell while still holding onto the daggers.
After completing the two-star patterns, Eric turned to Alex and said he would be back shortly before whispering the na of his spell.
"Shadow blend,"
Right before Alex’s eyes, Eric sank into the ground like a mass of black smoke, and his presence was greatly reduced to the point that it seed like he had disappeared.
Alex’s eyes flashed with a soft glint, he was impressed with the abilities of the shadow elent. Shadow blend was a spell that allowed shadow mages to move within shadows.
With the entire forest currently being one big shadow, Eric was literally an invisible assassin!
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