6 AM in the morning at Art Beats Castle; the city had yet to properly "wake up" as it only had around ten percent of its peak.
However, it was different for an agency that handled the "ground" movement. Two buildings next to the portal that led to Earth, there was a certain three-story building with all light turned on.
If one took a closer look inside, all people were panicking over something as they held a meeting in a small room.
There were ten people gathered, facing each other. One of them stood up and slammed the table. Next to his hand was another Skylink, projecting a blue screen.
This translucent screen glowed brightly even under the shining light bulb.
A middle-aged man, who slammed the table earlier, clenched his teeth and looked at the research. "This is not possible. We need to inform the government to announce the closure immediately. What is the magnitude?"
"Our prediction is around 7.0 – 7.5, but the situation has become a bit more extreme, so I'm afraid it can go all the way to 8.0." Another man raised his hand and answered him.
Although the satellite couldn't be launched in this world, they could still detect an Earthquake and estimate its impact, giving a prior warning to save many lives.
"Time?"
"It's between three hours to half a day."
"Kh. It's barely enough." The middle-aged man frowned and said, "We can't save every single person outside this castle. They also need that kind of resolve to hunt monsters there. However, an Earthquake with this magnitude will surely cause a huge migration for monsters, so I'm afraid there is a place where it will endanger so many lives."
"Where is it, Leader?"
"It's the training camp. My son is on it too. Although they have fighters from the military, I'm not sure what effect the Earthquake will give to the entire camp." He gritted his teeth and pointed his finger to the first subordinate next to him. "You're going to inform the government to send their planes to pick the students up."
"Yes, Sir. I shall do it immediately." He nodded and left the room.
The leader then pointed to another one. "You go signal for the military to prevent any of the people coming out of this castle. I will give the Earthquake warning too. The others will continue observing this Earthquake and inform me if there's a chance."
"Yes, Sir."
The building became busy so soon.
As one would expect, the government had understood the graveness of this matter and sent their military airplanes to evacuate the students until they deemed it safe enough to continue.
Unfortunately for them, there was still a chain of command. The time they took to reach was more than two hours. Of course, this would be fine since they could return to Art Beats Castle with the airplane, even in the worst-case scenario.
Yet, they couldn't rejoice because around ten percent of the students had actually gone hunting monsters. And most of them were elites in the school who understood the real test in the first training camp.
"…" The moment Theo's teacher overheard their conversation, she closed her eyes for a minute before leaving with a serious expression. She also felt something didn't match up and wanted to see the real cause that might add something to this incident.
Meanwhile, Theo and Alea just reached their destination as they ended up finding a cave first before hunting.
"Are you sure we will use this cave?" Theo narrowed his eyes.
"I don't recommend venturing too deep, but I think we will be fine if we use only around the entrance." Alea looked at the cave. "Looks, the entrance will hold at least ten people at the same time. Not only that, the rock formation above this cave doesn't seem to be that tall either."
Theo raised his vision and found a fifteen feet tall rock formation. On the bottom, there was a half-circle entrance leading to a pitch-black cave. It was made of limestone, so it should be pretty durable.
At the same time, if he turned around, he could only see trees and bushes covering the cave pretty neatly.
He thought for a moment and nodded. "I understand. Let's use this cave, but I'm not going inside alone. Who knows what kind of monsters are hiding inside."
"Haha. I will be here protecting you, so don't worry. Besides, we don't know whether you're going to take a trial or not." She smiled. "At least, according to the information, there is only a level 60 monster as the highest inside this cave, but you need to go deep inside."
"Is there any other cave around?"
"Yes. But it's one hour away from here and you will find Level 60 to Level 70 monsters there. That cave is pretty small, but no monsters should reside in it. We can make our way there for now, but if we meet more enemies than expected and you somehow level up first, we will go back here. What do you think?"
"Sure. Let's go there. I'm going to become an Elite Rank like you, so I think I can face higher-level monsters too if we are together. I can increase my level faster that way." Theo nodded and asked, "And what kind of present did you want to give me? You said I need to wait until we reach the cave…"
"Ah. This is what I want to give you." Alea took out a skill card from her bag and handed it to Theo.
Skill: Focused Charge (E)
Effect: Infuse the user's energy into the spear and charge with the user's spear to impale the enemy. Depending on the range, the energy accumulated in the user's spear will be higher.
"Such a simple skill…" Theo was surprised by the description and looked at Alea. "I never thought you would give me an E Rank Skill."
"Hehe. I just want to thank you for allowing me to use my left hand again. Although it's only with you, I know that I will be able to wield it without a problem in the near future." She smiled.
"If that's the case, is there a need for me to wait for almost half an hour earlier?" Theo's eyebrows twitched as he realized that he was getting played.
Alea confirmed it by sticking her tongue out. That wait was just out of spite because she couldn't win in every single argument. "Hehe, this is my win."
"Ah, I don't know if you have realized this yet, but I'm a vengeful person, you know," Theo added with a poker face, making it look like he wasn't joking.
At the same time, Alea read his expression and gesture and knew that he didn't lie. "Can I take back what I said earlier and apologize?"
"No." Theo shrugged, ignored her remarks and used the skill. "Anyway, let's hunt some monsters already since we have confirmed the cave's position."
"Sure."
The two then began their journey, not knowing that something big would come their way.