Reynolds strapped the spear to his back once more. Looking at the corpse of the duo, he quickly went through their bags but didn’t find anything good. Seeing there was nothing else for him to do there, he soon disappeared into the trees.
Two minutes later…
A figure appeared at the scene of the battle.
‘This should be the place’
The figure thought as she started walking closer for further inspection.
The figure was none other than Alice who was attracted here by the scream.
She was moving in the forest when it suddenly started raining. At first, she was surprised since for the one month they’ve been here, there haven’t been any signs of rain. But she didn’t attach too much importance to it since it was normal for it to rain anyway.
But surprisingly, after the lightning strike, the rain stopped instantly. This only added to the mystery she felt this place was, it was only after she heard the faint scream of the girl did she guess the rain was probably caused by someone. And from the direction of the shout, it was almost the same place the lightning struck.
She moved quite nimbly and delicately. With a beautiful face, she looked at the bloodied scene of the battle without many reactions. Even when she saw the beheaded girl, there weren’t any changes in her facial expression.
“So she’s been killed. Hmm, good. She was lucky to escape from my hands previously, guess her luck ran out. Huh! Where’s the last one?”
Alice recognized the girl when she saw her head.
After separating from the group, she ran into this girl and her crew. When they recognized she was a student from the Lunar Academy, they attacked her, but unfortunately for them, she was too strong for them to handle. At that time, the trio were all in the Eighth stage of the Arcane Plane, while she was in the Ninth stage
She was able to quickly suppress them, but unfortunately, they escaped.
Since the battle was already over and there was no one else present, she turned to leave the place. Initially, she came here to find out who caused the rain, but it seems like the person is looking long gone.
Only, just as she was about to leave, she stopped and looked to her left. She sensed someone was watching her from the shadows of the trees.
“Come out”
Alice said calmly.
She didn’t have anything to fear, she had already broken through to the First stage of the Origin Plane. So even if she faced off against those in the Origin Plane also, she didn’t think she would lose out.
The figure of a young man slowly came from behind one of the trees.
Looking closely, Alice thought he looked familiar and tried searching her memories from where she saw him before.
The young man was actually Jonas. Just like Alice, he was also attracted here by the girl’s scream. On arriving here, he noticed someone else was here, so he hid behind a tree to observe what was going on. It was just that, he didn’t think the girl would be able to sense his presence.
“You’re from the Starlight Academy, right?”
Alice suddenly asked after some time.
After thinking closely, she was finally able to remember who the youth was. She didn’t really know his name, but she remembered Grey had spoken of him once, and she also saw him during the competition when he fought against Reynolds.
“Yes. You’re from the Lunar Academy”
Jonas didn’t try to hide his identity since there was no use anyway.
He remembered seeing the girl at the competition, and she sat close to Grey. So he guessed they might be friends. He had actually forgotten Grey’s name, it was only during the competition that he remembered it once again.
“Friends?”
Alice asked while pointing at the corpse of the headless girl as well as the one of the boy with a hole in his head.
She was still quite skeptical about where the last boy was because she remembered the trio always moved as a group. Not seeing the corpse here, she assumed he most likely escaped. Of the trio Reynolds killed, only the bodies of the girl and the first boy he killed were present at the scene of the battle. The other boy ran quite some distance away before he was put down by the Elemental Warrior. Since none of the two people present passed through that direction when coming, they didn’t see the third body.
“I don’t have friends”
Jonas replied coldly.
“I figured”
Alice nodded.
Although she had only seen him once which was during the time of the competition, she remembered after his battle with Reynolds, when he went back to his seat, the other students didn’t have a welcoming attitude towards him, some even looked at him with scorn.
“Are you going to attack or not? If not, then I’ll be on my way”
Jonas spoke calmly, there wasn’t even an ounce of fear evident in his face.
With this question, the atmosphere suddenly tensed up.
After some time Alice spoke up.
“I’m quite surprised you didn’t run the moment you noticed I’ve sensed your presence, given the relationship between our Academies”
A playful smile appeared on her face when she asked this.
“Hmph! Why would I run?”
Jonas snorted coldly before replying.
“Given the difference in strength, running the moment you saw me was the best option for you. You’re still in the Eighth stage of the Arcane Plane, and I’ve already broken through to the First stage of the Origin Plane. Also, with the feud between both Academies, we can be said to be enemies. I might even consider sparing you because of how quickly you ran away”
Alice replied with the same playful smile.
“Then why aren’t you attacking? Or do you usually talk this much to people you want to kill?”
Jonas asked calmly.
“Of course not, I’m not that bored to start talking with people I want to kill”
Alice replied with a laugh.
“The reasons you’re still alive is that I remembered hearing Grey say you were from the same city as himself, and also, when I saw the reception you got from your fellow students, I figured your life was quite miserable at the Starlight Academy. But the real reason was because you came from the same city as Grey, and he didn’t say anything bad about you. Actually, he didn’t say anything about you other than being from the same city”
She added.
Jonas didn’t speak any further and just looked at her. Just as he turned to leave.
“Did you see who did this?”
Alice suddenly asked.
“No”
Jonas replied as he continued walking away.
‘Hmm, I can sense a high amount of lightning element in the environment. Looks like the person who killed them is a lightning user’.
Alice thought while leaving the place.
“Oh! So here you are”
Alice gave a light laugh when she saw the corpse of the second boy.
When she was leaving the place, she surprisingly took the path the boy headed when he was trying to escape.
Two weeks went by without much happening on the side of Grey, Klaus, Reynolds, and Alice. The three boys were still in seclusion trying to break through to the next Plane or in Grey’s case the next stage and awakening his fourth element. Alice had already broken through to the Origin Plane, so there was no use in going into seclusion for her. With her strength, she had few opponents among the people who entered. Only those beasts at the Origin Plane or higher could scare here, but she hasn’t gone that deep yet.
Klaus had unsurprisingly broken through to the First stage of the Origin Plane but still didn’t exit seclusion as he wanted to increase his stage before coming out.
Another two weeks went by uneventful for the trio as they spent their time cultivating. They were already preparing to exit seclusion because they had already met their objectives.
Grey had broken through to the Ninth stage of the Arcane Plane and wasn’t far from the peak. But that was not the biggest gain in his one month of seclusion. His biggest gain had to be the awakening of his water element, and also the increase in the grade of his wind element.
As it stands, his lightning element was blue grade, his earth element was purple grade, his water element was also purple grade, and lastly, his wind element was orange grade.
His strength has seen a great boost, although he hasn’t broken through to the Origin Plane yet, he doesn’t have a problem battling with someone at the First stage of the Origin Plane and winning given his current strength.
Reynolds had broken through to the First stage of the Origin Plane, while Klaus broke through to the Second stage.
From their cultivation, Klaus could be said to be the strongest. But Reynolds is the strongest among them, given his Elemental Warrior is now in the Third stage of the Origin Plane.
But if they said who had the highest attack power, then it would be Grey. The reason, elemental fusion.
When he was still in the Seventh stage of the Arcane Plane, and only had three elements with his wind element still being at the pink grade, he could already dish out an attack that didn’t lose out against someone in the First stage of the Origin Plane. Now, among his four elements, one was blue, two were purple, while the last one was orange. The attack power currently will be terrifying, Grey felt it might even exceed the attack power of someone in the Fourth stage.
One week after the trio exited seclusion, a light suddenly shot up at what looked to be around the middle of the trial land attracting the attention of everyone.