Chapter 132: First Task

Shane was unsure of why Aisha and the Valkyries kept stealing glances at him that made him feel uncomfortable and weird at the same time. The group of valkyries had crowded around him in a loose circle and he could see a few students peeking out their heads from the back, in order to understand what the fuss was all about.

'Oh? Has everyone already arrived?' He was astonished, as he took a few steps to the right in order to see who he would enter the Radiant mountain ring dimension with.

He was glad to see Aimy and Olivia, and smiled at them, leading Aisha and the Valkyries to also turn around to look at the two oblivious girls.

They were already extremely nervous because they would go on an expedition with Aisha, their Idol and role model, and even the Valkyries, which were seen as one of the strongest military units within the Basic Dimension.

Both the girls felt intimidated around Aisha and the Valkyries when Aisha suddenly announced.

"Everyone gather around us, I have to announce something before we enter the RadiantRing shelter!"

Following her instructions, the students gathered in front of Aisha, while Shane stood where he was, with Aimy and Olivia falling in line beside him.

"What is your relationship with the Ice goddess and her Valkyries?" Olivia immediately inquired of Shane, not even bothering to greet him, and Shane could only shrug his shoulders as he listened to Aisha's words.

Aimy only stared at him, wondering who exactly he was to be even eligible or allowed to have any sort of relationship with Aisha, be it romantic or mere friendship.

Somehow, Shane was a mysterious person to her and unbeknownst to him, he had piqued her curiosity to find out more about him.

Focussing her attention on Aisha, Aimy noticed that her idol was serious as she talked, which caused her to gather her senses.

"As everyone should know, we will enter the Radiant mountain ring shelter that was constructed not long ago and has faced previous attacks by a double beast tide which it only barely survived.

Additionally, there is an extremely intelligent and powerful bloodlust thunder wolf with which even we had our problems. Without any means to heal himself, the bloodlust thunder wolf might still be injured or recuperating, but this is not something we can know for sure.

That said, everyone should be aware that the situation inside the dimension we'll enter is still extremely dangerous and not to be taken lightly as if one were strolling in a playground!! The main purpose of the expedition is comparable to a training camp as we want to improve everyone's survivability, combat experience and knowledge of all kinds of necessary stuff, inside the wilderness.

I don't want to beat around the bush...if anyone wants to leave, they are free to do so, however, do not be under the false impression that I or any of the Valkyries will babysit anyone who is too afraid to defend themselves!"There were barely more than ten students in front of Aisha and Shane already knew four of them!

Excluding Aimy and Olivia, there was also Melanie Neal, who he fought in the final at the mortal combat ranking.

Additionally, he also saw the blonde-haired youth who he had met merely half a day ago.

He still released a warm, relaxing aura and Shane noticed that he had been subconsciously sizing up the young man for too long, a fact that the blonde-haired youth had noticed as well, as he returned Shane's gaze.

'His aura is interesting!'

Smiling lightly, he simply nodded his head, and Shane returned the smile before he directed his attention back to Aisha, as two students decided to leave on the spot after realizing how dangerous the expedition really was.

The students who stayed back were visibly more confident and serious which one could easily decipher from their expressions, as Aisha continued.

"Now that we have weeded out the first batch, I can reveal the second reason for the expedition to all of you which was somehow unintentionally added."

Halting her speech for a moment, she gazed at Shane before she continued.

"The first task I want to give all of you, is to conquer a cave!"

Hearing this, the students that had applied for the expedition were confused

"Conquer a cave? What does that mean?" Olivia blurted out in a confused voice, forgetting to sound polite.

Having realized her mistake, Olivia immediately apologized and cursed herself inwardly, as she looked at Aisha ruefully, only to receive a small smile as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, just ask your friend next to you and you'll know! I don't know much about it myself and for this task, we are only there to protect everyone from powerful beasts that you can't defeat on your own.

However, if I remember correctly...Leon Rar should be able to defeat peak-Awakened beasts, as long as they're not too powerful!" Aisha added as she glanced at the blonde-haired youth standing in front of her.

Shane frowned a bit when he felt that Aisha was making fun of him because she had let him deliberately run into a trap, as everyone stared at him with a questioning expression.

There was only one thing he heard from Aisha's words that helped him figure out something about the blonde-haired youth next to him.

From his cultivation rank, Shane knew that he was the strongest, and he now knew his name, which was Leon Rar.

Furthermore, he also concluded that Leon should have a mana purity of roughly 70% to 80% because Aisha mentioned his ability to defeat peak-awakened beasts with the exception of a few terrifying existences.

As everyone awaited his explanation on the need for conquering the cave, Shane cleared his throat and replied

"It's a hidden elemental crystal cave a few hours away from the shelter. I found it a few weeks ago before the bloodlust thunder wolf waged war against the RadiantRing shelter."

In order to prevent unnecessary questions, he answered almost everything in a single line and it was as if a light bulb went off in everyone's head, as Olivia uselessly asked.

"Is that the reason for your [Wealth] ranking?!"

This was exactly what everyone else had also imagined, as their desire to achieve the same ranking could be sensed over several meters causing him to frown.

However, he still nodded his head to answer her question before he averted his attention from her.

Since Aisha had teased him, Shane too decided to make fun of her, as he said teasingly

"Can we go now, Ice goddess?"

Aisha glared at him for a moment as her back stiffened, and she ordered

"We have already wasted too much time, let's go!"

With these words, the Valkyries, who were previously relaxed, immediately adjusted their demeanor and attitude, as they followed Aisha in a disciplined manner.

Shane was still eyed from behind, as he noticed Leon appearing next to him.

"Hello, Shane...I believe? We already met yesterday, right? My name is Leon Rar, third-year student."

Looking to his right, he noticed that Leon, the blond-haired young man extended his hand to shake his, which Shane firmly shook, as he said

"Yes, I'm Shane Suro! Nice to meet you again!"

Leon felt a mature and serious aura around Shane while shaking his hand, an extraordinary achievement for a youth who had entered the Primordial Dimension barely three months ago according to his cultivation rank.

Shane had thought of Leon to be someone special which he could prove by looking into his eyes that shined brightly as if they held an infinitesimally small sun of their own.

"Interesting eyes" He thus said, causing Leon to stiffen for a moment, before he nodded his head lightly, and replied

"Your aura is also not bad!"

Smiling, the two let go of each other's hand and walked towards the Dimensional Portal, only for Aimy and Olivia to eye the two boys weirdly, as Olivia innocently asked

"Is Shane flirting with women and men??"

Slapping the back of Olivia's head, Aimy decided to ignore her as she stared daggers at the boys before Shane vanished into the Dimension Portal.

"What did I do wrong? That hurt!!!" Olivia shouted as she followed Aimy into the Dimension Portal where both disappeared.

The remaining students could only look at each other in shock, as they asked themselves if they had really made the right decision to follow the expedition.

However, thinking about the elemental crystal cave and possible profits, they couldn't help and gulp down their saliva, as they rushed towards the Portal, which they immediately assessed.

Their greed overwhelmed their anxiety when Aisha talked about their training camp which was the main point of their expedition. Ignoring the possible challenges they had to overcome, they entered the RadiantRing shelter with an innocent and naive mind.

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