Chapter 12: (11/12)

Etgar Revenmar was struggling in his battle against Markus Berethryl, a Saint-tier level 90 Light Mage. In that case, how can he defeat strong opponents such as:

Noe Clerico, the level 100 Saint Conjurer Mage.

Kath Donoghan, level 100 Saint Earth Mage.

Wrenn Fasketel, level 100 Saint Fire Mage.

And of course, Gwenn Bigham, who was considered to be a Holy Mage, Leader of Mages Council?

Gwenn Bigham advanced into level 100 Saint Light Mage before she turned twenty thousand (20,000) years old. She is the youngest Leader of the Mages Council in the history of Toria Continents and she was considered to be one of the top thirty strongest of all magic casters in this realm. Legends have said Gwenn Bigham was chosen by Zorim, the Watcher of Toria Continents, to lead the Mages Council that was why she could advance into level 100 greatly faster compared to all other magic casters who were born in this forty-eighth calendar.

As a Blood Mage, Kain was trained to put the Guild’s affair ahead of everything or everyone else. Kain had learned that some Blood Mages got married in the past. However, when their identities were exposed, the Mages Council sent Executioners to hunt down their families to execute them publicly despite their families having no knowledge about them being Blood Mages. Blood Mages can not bring their family members back to the Blood Mages Guild because the Guild was built for Blood Mages only. There were several dungeons built underground to keep non Blood Mages to be torturing to obtain information. Some Blood Mages decided to keep their family members in those dungeon cells and quickly regretted it when they found out their spouses and children had died from bad living conditions.

In the past when the family members of Blood Mages were allowed to live in the Blood Mages Guild, a family member of a Blood Mage betrayed the Guild by leaking information to an Executioner in exchange for golds and pardon. That Executioner was quickly killed by Etgar Revenmar before he could carry the news back to the Mages Council. From that moment on, Etgar made a rule of imprisoning all Blood Mages’ family members in the dungeons or kill them to prevent them from exposing any information that could jeopardize the Blood Mages Guild. There is also another option, the Blood Mage that was exposed could escape immediately and leave their family members to stay behind. Needless to say, all family members of Blood Mages will be killed by Executioners if they can’t give them useful information to save their lives.

Knowing what could have happened to Sofia and her parents when his identity was later exposed if Kain married her. Kain chose to distance himself from Sofia and stopped hanging out with her in his free time like he used to. He knew Jaane had feelings for him, that was why Kain decided to be nicer and get closer to Jaane so Sofia would be given up and forget about him. Kain had no intention of getting into a relationship with Jaane or any other females. Especially not after receiving threats from Etgar that whoever he loved will get killed in the future because of the mistake he had made for exposing his true identity to Aber Hardy.

Back to the present. “I’m sorry, Sofia. It is better if you forget about me. I am not the person you always thought I am.” Kain thought to himself after Sofia left his tent in tears. Kain had lied to Etgar about the feeling he had for Sofia, so at least she will be safe for now. But if Kain continued to be with Sofia, he feared Etgar would one day see through his lies. And not only that would cost Sofia her life, but something worse will happen since no Blood Mage should ever lie to the Guild Leader, Etgar Revenmar.

The next day, the groups actually headed into the magical forest. The magical forest looked just like any other forest except it was much quieter. No birds were singing, no hunters were roaming, and no woodcutters were walking around. None of the ordinary animals live here. All animals living in this forest are all magical creatures that can cast magic spells like human magic casters.

After nearly an hour of walking and not encountering any groups of magical creatures, Professor Cade Lawson said, “Sofia, lead your group toward the North. Arthur, lead your group to the East. And Kain, lead your group toward the West. All three groups must come back here in four hours. If your group encounters any magical creature that can cast Master-tier magic spells, come back immediately and do not get into a fight with it, understand?”

“Yes!” Sofia, Kain, and Arthur said at the same time.

“Alright, instruct your groups to set up camp then you may leave. Don’t forget to bring a backup compass.”

After the camp was set up, they then led their groups toward the directions that they were assigned by Cade while she guards the camp. Each group leader carried a set of fireworks that could be seen up to ten miles away. If any group needed help, Cade would summon her Angel Warrior who could fly above the forest to get into a location within ten miles radius for less than a minute to assist them that was why Cade allowed the groups to split into three different directions.

Cade started talking to herself out loud since no one was nearby, “Sofia Verardi is a good student, but she is too weak compared to Arthur Castillon and Kain Almos. Hopefully, she will be able to advance a level or two after this hunting event is over.”

Arthur’s Soul-Bound Creature and Kain’s Soul-Bound Creature are stronger compared to Cade’s Angel Guardian, that was why she wouldn’t have to worry much about them. The only group Cade was worried about was Sofia’s group. Sofia is a Master-tier Student Light Mage, but her current level is only twenty-one (21). Sofia won’t be able to summon Angel Warrior until she reaches level 30. Even so, Cade wanted Sofia to get stronger by having her own group to gain real battle experience instead of relying on other strong group leaders such as Kain and Arthur.

Two hours later, Cade had finished setting up the camps and had nothing else to do so she decided to take a tour around the magical forest. Kain and Arthur won’t need her help that was why she followed the North direction to check on Sofia’s group. On the way to catching up to Sofia’s group, Cade could see seven groups of different magical creatures were killed. She was happy to know Sofia’s group gained some new real battle experience because it will help boost their confidence in the future after they graduated from the Mages’ Academy.

After about another half hour of walking, Cade thought to herself, “Not bad… They have killed a pack of Wind Wolves.” Cade nodded her head after she saw a pack of twelve Wind Wolves was killed. “Wait, this isn’t right. The wolves weren’t killed by magic, but sword damage.”