“Welcome students! As you all know I’m Mage Knight Eleus. I will be your instructor today for the survival lesson. All of you have again been given a lifeline button, the same as during the survival test.

“If anything goes wrong I want all of you to press the button and you will automatically be sent back to the academy. Our purpose for this lesson is to understand how to track magic beasts and learn how to keep camp in an enchanted forest.

“Therefore, we’ll be going to the east forest as our research site. We will split you into groups of 5 each group accompanied by either a professor or a military soldier. You will all carry out different research based on where tracks are and how they look etc. Your instructors will help you out.

“Does anyone have any questions?” Mage Knight Eleus stood on a pedestal and amplified his voice with mana.

There were about 50 of us students in the hall. As this was our first survival lesson, this year many professors and military soldiers were going to come with us.

“Are you excited?” Jace asked, throwing his arm around my neck.

“No, why would I be? We’re just going to a forest that I’ve been in dozens of times. The survival test was even held there.” I scoffed, folding my arms.

“Judging by the chattering and no hands up I take it that there are no questions, good. Now I’ll be calling out your groups.

“Group 1: Katherine, Adiola, Becky, Keisha and Jake…” he called out the groups one by one. Jace, Naz and I ended up together luckily but we had the 2 stuck up nobles that I met in my survival test. It turned out that they didn’t die and escaped with broken arms.

Their family almost sued and shut the school down but Xanxus somehow got out of the situation. Surprisingly, no one died in that test; only some were mildly injured, nothing life threatening.

“Okay enter the portal group by group. Group 1 follow me.” Eleus took the first group through the portal and we all entered the portal in an orderly fashion.

“See you on the other side!” Naz exclaimed, smiling as she went in first. The two noble kids gave her dirty looks and followed after, including Jace, the instructor then lastly me.

[You have entered a blue portal]

**

The familiar smell of plants and grass wafted up my nose and lots of bushes and greenery flashed into my view.

“Okay everyone’s here, gather round kids.” The military officer said sternly and we all circled round.

“I know that you guys have had some issues,” he looked at the two noble kids then looked at me, “…but you have to forget about it. I don’t want any of you dying because of trivial matters. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir!” Our voices resonated.

“Good. Now follow me, the first thing I will teach you is how to find the tracks of a magic beast.” the officer began.

We followed him in line and made sure to hide our mana presence.

“As you know, magic beasts or mana beasts, doesn’t matter what you call them, evolved from normal animals by absorbing the world’s abundant mana.

“This helped them to adapt and evolve, grow bigger, be able to utilise mana as skills etc. This doesn’t mean all of them are intelligent. They leave tracks, they emit mana pressure, in conclusion most aren’t as good as us.

“We’re able to utilise the mana in different ways due to our intelligence, something that they lack. There are rumours though, that still haven’t been proven about some S rank beasts being able to communicate with humans. I personally find that hard to believe.

“We are the superior beings.” He said swatting long grass with his hunting knife.

He put his arm up in the air signalling for us to stop, “Come round, see here, this is our first track, a large footprint.”

The officer pointed at a large footprint, which looked to belong to a large lizard like creature. Jace gulped looking at the size of it and moved closer to me, looking round in fear.

“Jace, Naz, stay close to me if anything happens. I don’t trust this guy, at most we can use him as bait and escape by ourselves and those two stuck up kids, we can leave them too okay? Look out for each other and stay alert.” I said quietly to the two.

“Ayy! I heard that! You peasants will never learn. Trying to abandon us and run for safety, it’s your duty as the lower class to protect us.” The chubby kid retorted and I took a deep breath, holding in my urge to kill him.

“Yeahh! You lowly scum, trying to plot against us. See that officer, deduct points from them!” the short one whined pointing at us.

I could hear Naz and Jace cursing under their breath in disgust.

“I thought I told you guys to leave your past behind, I will not let your quarrelling put us in da-

“AAAArghhhhhhhh! Help!!!!!” The officer screamed as a colossal 30 foot Lizard type beast grabbed the officer by his leg and threw him into its mouth. It crunched down on the officer’s lower body making the two nobles, Jace and Naz stand frozen in fear.

The lizard type beast had Blue scales and a long tail, large jagged spikes poked out from its spine and an orange flame glowed on its ears like torches.

The screaming stopped and the officer’s dead eyes stared back at us. Then the beast munched down the rest of his body in one bite.

“AAaarghhhhhhhhhh!!!!” The fat boy screamed, falling to the ground in shock and taking the smaller noble kid down with him.

“Jace, Naz RUNN!” I said pushing them both forward.

We sped through the dense green, not looking back. I pulled out the black enchanted dagger from my dimension ring and kept it in my hand just in case.

“WAIT! DON’T LEAVE US BEH-”

Crunch! Crunch!

“Helpppp!!!! Aarghhh-” The short one shouted as he was also picked up by the lizard and gulped down in one go like his friend and instructor.

Thud! Thud!

The lizard beast wasn’t delighted with its disgusting tasting food and chased after us in hopes of eating something better.

“Jace, Naz. Hide here quick!” I ordered the two pointing at a huge bush. They didn’t say a word and both slid down into the bush and hid in crouched positions.

“What about you?!” Jace exclaimed, his voice a bit shaky.

“I’ll buy some time, I think I can kill it as long as it’s not S rank. I want you two to press your survival buttons; it will take time for a portal to open or even a professor to be sent. I’ll buy you time for that.” I said sternly, spinning the enchanted dagger in my hand.

Truth was I was fidgeting and itching to slay the beast. If my luck wasn’t too bad, it wouldn’t be some S rank beast, otherwise I’d have to make a run for it.

“No! We’re fighting with you.” Naz said, standing up and appearing out of the bush.

I glared at her showing I was serious; she looked down at the ground slowly, evading my cold stare, knowing there was no arguing back and crouched down into the bush next to Jace.

Thud! Thud!

The ground shook as the beast got closer and closer.

“Over here you btec ugly Dinosaur! Follow me! I’m delicious.” I shouted, running laterally and catching its attention.

Thud! Thud!

I led the beast on for a good 200 metres or so before activating ‘Lightning Aura’. I flash stepped in front of the beast before stabbing the dagger into its eye.

Rarghhhh!!!

It let out another deafening shriek as it shook its head violently making me let go. It then focused its vision on me with its last remaining eye and opened its mouth wide open.

What? Was it going to breathe out fire now? I smirked, leaping up onto a tree.

I spotted a burning orange glow at the back of its throat slowly getting larger and larger. What the fu-

The flames burst out and almost scorched my skin; I luckily moved away in time but the merciless flames didn’t stop there. The beast turned its head and kept exhaling its breath of flames in the direction I was moving.

No way! Could it be?

A Drake!

Drakes were part of the Dragon Family of magical beasts and the cousins of Wyverns. The Dragon Family stood at the top of the food chain along with other S rank beasts I forgot the names of.

Drakes were exponentially weaker than their fathers: True Dragons, but had extremely strong flames compared to their cousins: Wyverns, and they couldn’t fly.

What in the world?! How did such a creature make its way here? Into this magic forest?

I took off my eye patch immediately and unsheathed Voadhailis’s Claw. I leaped into the air and swung down vertically, a violent streak of flames sliced down on the beast’s neck making it fall on its side.

It got back unscathed and shook its head trying to find its enemy again.

[Name: Baby Drake (Dragon Family)]

[Level: 60]

[Mana pool stage: 6]

[Weaknesses: Water Magic, Lightning Magic, Earth Magic, Aerial attacks.]

Great! I could only use Lightning attacks, Voadhailis’s Claw wouldn’t help much! This short sword only worked with Flame mana otherwise it was useless. It wasn’t compatible with any other element.

Last time I was able to cast ‘Zeus’s Wrath’ but even that, I didn’t need the sword to do it.

Let’s give it a go. I cast Gravity mana on the large beast pinning it down on the ground; it tried to resist but every time it tried I raised the gravity by tenfold. Soon, cracks formed under the beast as it started to sink into the ground under the pressure.

I levitated in the air gathering the lightning mana particles in the atmosphere, dark clouds formed on top of us and a dark storm brewed. Blue streaks of lightning struck down as punishment, hitting the Drake countless times.

It shrieked each time as the millions of volts of electricity passed through its body.

Now for the final swing.

‘Zeus’s Wrath!’

I pushed my arms down towards the Dragon and a final thunderbolt struck violently arousing a loud thunderclap.

[You have used 4000MP]

I levitated back down gently and looked at the beast, its body was charred from navy blue to black and its eyes were closed, but for some reason the orange flames still glowed from the tips of its ears.

Suddenly it opened its eye but before it could get up large vines wrapped around its body pinning it down to the ground. Who’s magic was this?

“I’m only helping you this once because I need a favour from you.”

The Forest King’s true voice echoed in my head. I could tell there was no sign of hostility but I still kept my guard up.

“What do you want?” my voice came out cold with hostility.

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