For the next three days, Zack met with the team every day so they could prepare in the best possible way for their expedition to the Yanan desert.

During these reunions, Zack would familiarize himself with the rest of the team as well as with the various pieces of equipment that they would use, so when the day of the expedition arrived, he was as prepared as his companions.

On the day of the expedition, he met his companions at the doors of the academy, where they began to walk toward the port of the city. Because Losa was situated in the space between two mountains, the easiest way to leave it and the one that most people used was to follow the river that divided the mountains as a highway.

Like that, when they arrived at the port, they embarked on an inland boat that led them to the outskirts of the city. Once they had moved away from the city by a few kilometers, they landed at a smaller port to continue their journey by land.

Thankfully, they had already arranged a few wagons so they could carry more resources than they would be able to do by foot. As soon as Zack saw the horses that were pulling the wagons, he immediately realized that they weren't normal animals. Seeing his interested face, Walt neared him and began to talk.

"As you may have noticed, these horses are not common animals. They don't reach the realm of magical beasts, but their bodies have mutated in a way that they are much more resilient than normal horses, and what's more important, they are capable of resisting high temperatures like the ones that we are going to have in the Yanan desert, so they are the perfect means of transportation for this mission. " Walt explained as he patted one of the beasts.

Since he had arrived at the academy, he had been reading a lot in the library, and even though he had read a few studies about the domestication of mutated animals, it was his first time seeing something like that, so he couldn't help but feel curious.

It was obvious that taming most magical beasts would be completely impossible because of their pride, aggressiveness, and superior intelligence compared with normal animals, but if humans managed to tame some specific species, they would have an easy way to obtain special resources that otherwise would be out of their reach.

He felt that something like that could be possible with enough preparation and study, but as it wasn't the most urgent matter at the moment, he decided to make a mental note of the idea and continue with the expedition.

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As soon as they got the wagons, they got into them and began the journey. Because Zack was one of the people that were responsible for the security of the group, he sat outside of the wagons so he could keep guard while the other members of the group rested.

Like this, they spent the first half of the first day crossing a few regions that were mostly filled with gigantic plains and dense forests. During this time, the group made a few stops so they could rest or so they could collect some kind of plant or resource that they found on their way toward the Yanan desert.

As for danger, the group managed to continue their journey without any major inconvenience, encountering only a few groups of magical beasts that either decided to leave the group alone or wandering individuals that weren't a threat to the security of the group.

"Be prepared, Zack." Walt suddenly said when they were about to leave a forest. "The real journey is about to start. Until now, we have only crossed what we call neutral regions, areas that don't have any kind of elemental affinity in particular. Right now, we are about to enter our first elemental region. Even though it is easier to predict what kind of magical beasts you can encounter in an elemental region, the environment tends to be much harsher for humans than those that you encounter in neutral regions, so you should always keep an eye open. "

"Are those Cinder Plains that you talked about the other day the region that we are about to enter?" Zack asked curiously.

"Don't listen to anything that he says. He has no idea what he is talking about." Merlo, one of the scholars in the group, said as soon as he heard their conversation. "Yes, we are about to enter the Cinder Plains, but they are not an elemental region."

"Are they not?" Zack asked confused.

"What? If they are not an elemental region, what are they then?" Walt asked angrily.

"Well, they are what is called a semi-elemental region, a region that is in the process of becoming an elemental region but where the main element has yet to overcome the others," Merlo explained. "Right now, the Cinder Plains are becoming a fire energy region because of the influence of the Yanan Desert."

Just as Merlo was explaining how the Cinder Plains were formed, Zack began to realize that the vegetation of the forest that they were crossing began to become less dense, while at the same time, more and more plants had some parts of their bodies burned.

In less than a minute, the wagons managed to leave the forest and enter the gigantic grey plains. There was no green; the only color that Zack could see between the tones of grey was red from the embers that were still burning.

The group had just entered the region before the Yanan desert, the Cinder Plains.