Leo walked back to the house. When he entered it, the house just seemed empty. Daphne hadn’t taken a lot of stuff with her, but now that the house only housed one occupant, it felt very hollow. By leaving, she took away the life from the house with her.
Even though he hadn’t talked with her a lot while she was there, just knowing that she was there was enough for him. But now that she was gone, he didn’t know what to do all of a sudden. After sitting on the couch for a while, he realized what his new goal was.
He would just have to become strong enough to ignore the strength of the family that Daphne belonged to. So what if it was a Duke family? He had a tome. If the Whitmore family had an 8th Circle Mage, he would become a 9th Star Mage.
After deciding his goal he stood up. With Daphne gone, he no longer had to hide his moves. No one was there to inspect each of his actions. He took out a cloak from his dimensional ring and wore it. He took out his mask and put it on his face.
He didn’t walk out of the front door. Instead, he Shadow Stepped out to the street quickly and started making his way to the gate. He was sticking to the shade that the houses offered. Since he was going very quickly and constantly going to the Shadow World and back, no one noticed the blur that was racing through the streets.
When he got to the gates, he saw that for the first time, they were properly staffed. There were a lot of guards on the walls and they were looking forward at the forest, waiting for the Beast Wave.
He thought for a minute and realized that he couldn’t actually leave the city yet. Since it was daylight, there weren’t any shadows. So he just waited at the edge of the gate till nightfall. It was already close to the evening, so he didn’t have to wait for long.
After just an hour, the sky started to darken. He noticed that the guards were also changing shifts at this point. He took his opportunity to cross the gate. He Shadow Stepped along the wall to get to the top and then to the bottom. He quickly went back into the Shadow World and raced to the forest.
“Is that a person?” One of the guards asked. He pointed at the distance, but by that time Leo had already gone into the shadows.
“You’re just tired. Don’t worry about it. Why would there be a person going into the forest now? That’s suicide,” another guard said.
He was right. The Beast Wave hadn’t even started yet and Leo was already going into the forest. There was a proper reason behind it though.
He was planning on camping at the waterfall in the Outer Forest till the Beast Wave started. The wave itself was only going to last a single day. If it lasted any longer, then the Magical Beasts would likely retreat back into the forest. The leading Magical Beast would be smart enough to recognize that.
So that meant that he couldn’t waste time trying to get to the forest. Also, it would be harder to go into the forest by crossing all of the Magical Beasts compared to already being in the forest when the Beast Wave began.
So he quickly made his way to the waterfall. This time, he was able to quickly swim to the space behind the waterfall without fighting any monsters. None of the Magical Beasts noticed that they had an intruder hiding in their forest because they weren’t patrolling like a normal human army would.
He settled into the small space and started practicing. He was still paying attention to his surroundings. He decided to practice his 3rd Circle Spells during this time. He hoped that the Beast Wave would start the next day, but he was prepared to stay there for an entire week if required. All the food he needed was in his dimensional ring.
The entire night passed while he practiced his Shadowbind Bolt. He achieved novice mastery in the spell, which meant he could still use it in battle. Even with novice proficiency, the spell would be very effective. Since he had a lot of experience with shadows, it was easy to learn the spell.
When the morning came, he tried to see if there was any change. He got out of the waterfall and started to look for where all the Magical Beasts were congregated. He ventured slowly into the forest.
As he got closer to the Inner Forest, he heard a howl. He changed his course to the howl and slowly made his way. As he got closer, he heard a lot of noise made by a lot of animals being fit into a tight space. He got onto a tree and checked out what was happening.
He knew for a fact that there were a lot more than just 500 Magical Beasts in the forest. So this meant that there were divisions in the Magical Beast army. The only way a 3rd Circle Beast was being treated as only the leader of a minor part of the whole force was if there was a stronger Beast at its helm. So there was a 4th Circle Magical Beast organizing the entire Beast Wave.
He observed for a little more time before going back to his hiding spot. Even though the wolf looked like it was ready to attack, none of the beasts showed any hints of moving anywhere. They were probably going to move the next day. So he still had time. He went back to his hiding spot.
As he got back, he connected two key pieces of information. The Purple Moon Wolf had to be the parent of the Purple Moon Wolf cub that was just sold in the auction. This was why it looked so impatient and angry. He was happy he didn’t have to face off that angry wolf.
He trained in Shadowbind Bolt again for the rest of the day while maintaining his perception of the real world. He didn’t find anything out of the ordinary happening for the rest of the day. Once night fell, he went out to see if the situation changed any bit.
He went back to the same place he found the Purple Moon Wolf and its army the first time. When he got there, he found them still in the same place. They were waiting like disciplined children. This made Leo worry. He knew their soldiers weren’t this disciplined. They should learn from the Magical Beasts.
He quickly went back to the waterfall. His gut told him that the night was going to be his last piece of waiting.