Chapter 21: Alea Valhoran

"What did you say?" Mr. Maverick asked with frowned eyebrows and a slightly opened mouth.

"To make things fair, I will go solo, having me in one of the teams can already be considered unfair," She replied as she walked forward towards Mr. Maverick.

For a moment, Mr. Maverick froze and looked at the girl wondering whether she was strong enough or if she was just crazy.

He then faced the ground and cleared his throat before saying, "Well then as you wish, now for the others, please make a group of 3 each, and think swell!"

Suddenly, three students grouped up and let the rest know that they had already made up their minds. These people were Nozel, Lydia, and Lysanna.

Given the fact Lysanna had a gold tier healing phoenix, Nozel had a Platinum tier flaming tiger filial, and Lydia had a platinum tier water modeling filial, this group was set out to be the strongest of the three, or was it?

This left only three others, Alfur, a young boy with short brown hair and an adventurer's attire, Langris, and Rayzen.

"Now that the teams are set, here are the requirements, as you can see, there is a portal behind me, and it is the entrance to the forest where you will be undergoing your training. However, the only problem is, that to come back through this portal, you must hold an amount of 5 crystal cores with you. The objective is simple, I want you to come back through the same portal before the time limit,"

"How much time do we have?" Langris asked.

Another smirk came up Mr. Maverick's face as he answered, "you don't get to know the time limit, all you have to do, is get out of the forest as fast as possible,"

Rayzen gulped and looked around him to see if anyone felt intimidated by the requirements, but surprisingly, no one flinched, kept the same composure as they had before.

"Once you gather the 15 crystal cores, all you have to do is say these following incantations, and you will be teleported right back, now, good luck!" Mr. Maverick concluded as he stepped aside to allow the students to enter the portal.

First was Alea who entered the portal, then, it was Nozel's team, and last, Langris' team.

Once they went through the portal, they were teleported into a dark, and gloomy environment with large trees as their only surroundings. The sky was dark, and the only light they had was the bright full moon.

"Be aware," Alfur suddenly said as he looked around and analyzed his surroundings, "In this type of situation, you must have your senses on high alert,"

Rayzen tried opening his eyes wider than usual hoping that he would be able to see better, but nothing changed.

"Damn it, I still can't see!" He whispered as he started to turn his head left and right.

Alfur approached closer to Langris, and tried to reassure him saying, "There is no need to panic, we know that the objective is to get out of here, but we need 5 crystal cores each. So we've got to kill 15 monsters to get outta~"

Suddenly, the three heard a loud bang coming from further, and they contemplated a large number of spikes spreading high up the sky. Even in the dark, the spikes were so imposing they covered their view of the moon.

"That's Alea, and her platinum tier filial, Divine Nature..." Alfur whispered while looking at the attack with a deja vu expression on his face.

"Is she that powerful to defeat 5 monsters on her own?" Langris asked while contemplating the imposing spikes.

"Hmpf... she could probably kill around 20," He replied.

'20 fucking monsters slain by a student who hasn't even reached academy years...' Langris thought and he started to realize that even though he had obtained a powerful system, there were beasts among men that have the potential to wipe a whole army, and that, starting by the prodigy, Alea Valhoran.

After walking just a few steps into the forest, they started hearing noises coming closer and closer to them, however, due to the dark, they didn't have a clear vision of what was happening.

"It's about 5 green spiders," Alfur whispered to his two other mates.

Rayzen who started to feel goosebumps running all over his body approached slowly towards Alfur's voice to feel safer.

"How do you detect their presence in all this dark?" Rayzen then muttered with a trembling voice as he was taking slow steps to Alfur.

"It's simple..." Alfur replied, "just use your breathing to detect the Zeal energy in the monsters, its called the see-through ability"

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a spider leaped from the dark letting out a screeching sound, and attempted to attack Rayzen launching one of his webs at him.

Before it could even launch its attack, Alfur turned around and swung his hand creating a deadly wind slash that was speeding towards the spider who couldn't stop his momentum cutting the spider in half and a light blue shiny ball came out of the spider which was slowly vanishing into dust.

"How exactly do we detect the Zeal energy inside monsters!?" Langris shouted in a panic looking around him with a horrified expression.

He could hear the screeching sound the spiders were emitting coming from every direction, however, the forest was surrounded by trees and it was very dark. It was just like being a blind man surrounded by dangerous animals.

"How am I supposed to explain this, I'm not a teacher," Alfur replied, "concentrate your breathing and focus the smallest sounds to the loudest ones in your surroundings, and from there, just let the Zeal energy from outside flow in harmony with the energy inside you,"

Alfur tried his best to explain in the best way possible for Rayzen and Langris to understand, however, they didn't have much time, because the sounds of the spiders were getting closer and closer

"Cover me," 'Langris told Alfur before closing his eyes and focusing on his breathing.

'I feel the Zeal Energy flowing inside me, and I also feel the Zeal energy flowing around me too. All I have to do is connect my Zeal energy to the ones I feel to sense where the monsters are, but that's easier said than done...'

On the other hand, Rayzen and Alfur were fighting off the green spiders that were leaping from the darkness to attack them.

These spiders were as tall as a toddler, green looking with black furry legs, and 8 red and round eyes which gave a scarier look to them.

The only attack these spiders knew was launching a large web that would trap the prey and prevent it from moving. The spider then proceeds to eat its trapped victim till there is nothing left.

"Be careful!" Alfur shouted to Rayzen using a spear-shaped wind attack to pierce through the third spider he had killed.

"Thanks..." Rayzen muttered as he looked at the dead corpse of the spider.

"At this rate 15 spiders will be impossible!" Alfur shouted wiping his sweat from his face.

He hoped that Langris would be able to help him once he mastered the basics of the see-through ability.

'It's nearly there, I can feel their Zeal energy closer than before..." Langris thought in his head.

After a few seconds, Langris finally saw blue shining light appearing from the darkness of the forest. That was the Zeal energy that was inside of the monsters.

As he was about to shout that he had managed to use the see-through ability, a message suddenly popped up in front of him.

< Congratulations, you have unlocked "Universal see-through ability" >