Among the nations with power struggle with the Empire, the one that has been at odds with its neighbor the most is the Kingdom of Kars Fortis.

They were always in some sort of conflict with each other, wars and economic struggle have been their eternal struggle against each other.

But they also differ in their customs and ways to procure advancement over new era of mechanics that used low input of magical resources and produced results with minimal magical waste.

Since magic was becoming more advanced to access, in other words, magical talents and magical energy itself were becoming insufficient all over the world, this had been a new crisis tormenting the future that lay ahead.

The number of magic users who could practically use magic was decreasing steadily, as people's reach to magic was becoming more and more restricted than ever.

This has made the foundation of magical and mage battle intuitions play a major role in filtering out talented individuals, be they from noble lineage or beggars from the streets, to maintain the concentration of “useful” individuals that can contribute to the kingdom as the battle force

Since magic was decreasing as the number of people who could use magic was also decreasing, intuition was assigned by the government to turn talented individuals into useful individuals.

Battle Rankers are the embodiment of these sentiments, they are people of the kingdom tested and given advanced training so that they can become leading groups of individuals akin to Commander General, to follow their legacy.

With this in mind Battle Rankers were individuals with the potential to carry on the legacy of Keith and Rustom, since these were the heads who took the lead in this campaign.

By no means Battle Rankers are individuals with a lot of experience on the battlefield, these were groups of youngsters who were ordered to investigate this mission.

Since they were not experienced with actual heated battles in the experience spectrum they would lie on novice range who only fought monsters of rank B at most, which is an incredible feat, but due to the absurd difficulty of Labyrinth investigation, this was a cruel test of their “usefulness” in actual combat with vicious creatures of Ravenswood forest.

Having been ordered to take the front of their campaign, they kept fending and fighting a great number of monsters, by using the compass tablet they would investigate the area for traps or monsters to exterminate them.

That was their duty in the field, they would be the first group of kingdom force to fight the monsters.

“They just keep coming over and over, jeez.” Emily, Battle Ranker ranked #5.

“hooh, are you getting tired already, hah!” Tessa, Battle Ranker ranked #3.

“At least they don’t come in groups, but the fact that most monsters are around C Rank, we haven’t encountered a single D Rank monster.” Fred, Battle Ranker ranked #1.

“So, you want to fight Ranked monsters??” Edward, Battle Ranker ranked #2.

“No, what he meant by that is, that, they are intelligent enough not to challenge us.” Reggie Battle Ranker ranked #4.

“So they know who to pick a fight with, hmm interesting.”

Says Tessa, black black-haired girl with a Bob cut wore a sleek matte-black bodysuit with reinforced plates for agility and protection, Knee-high boots with sound-absorbing soles and pads on her joints for protection.

Indeed, she resembled much like a ninja or an assassin but her ways and mannerism describes something opposite to these stealth-utilizing classes.

She was not stealthy she would be the one to attract the most attention to herself, her easygoing personality made it easy to get along with others.

“For a monster to have this much mind.”

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Remarks Reggie, a boy hardly over eighteen years old, wore a cobalt-blue cloak with a Kingdom flag symbol in golden at its rear center, a breastplate of steel for protection, and an improvised gauntlet akin to steel gloves covering his palms.

Similar to Reggie rest of the Battle Rankers wore similar combat-improvised armor that was easy to move in, and provided them with a stylish yet luminescent charm, any eyes that fell on them could recognize their special rank amid a group of foot soldiers.

“See, my theory about monsters being similar to demons is not all that far off,” Fred.

“No way, they are just using their animal instincts, Yeah, I bet they aren’t avoiding us due to their survival instinct, besides Rank C monster are also no match for us, ” Edward.

“That makes sense.”

Putting a finger on her chin, Emily, the pink-haired girl remarks.

“No way they can be intelligent enough to figure that out, even Emily agrees with me,” Edward.

“Regardless of this and that, how many have we killed up until now, if this goes on then we might have to call Master Keith or Gale Princess to take turns,” Reggie.

“Don’t be absurd, don’t you know this is a test for us,” Tessa.

“That’s right, he mentioned this is an evaluation of our feasibility in actual combat against Ranked Monsters” Reggie.

In their surroundings, corpses of low-ranked monsters lay in great numbers, and the foot soldiers would pick necessary items and edibles from their remains.

A group of vigilant soldiers were scouting the area from the tree branches, to ensure safety from sudden attack from a powerful beast.

Readily and strategically they continued marching and killing hordes of monsters, with the co-operation of Battle Rankers dealing the most damage to their enemies.

“But where are those, high-ranked monsters,” Edward.

“But think about it, if we manage to discover the labyrinth, then we will have our first achievement as Battle Rankers, you know that this is a centuries-long quest, don’t you,” Reggie.

“Correct, this is the best opportunity we can ever have, Edward consider yourself fortunate,” Fred.

“Hey, why are you only saying that to me, Aang,” Edward.

“Hey hey weren’t you complaining about this mission this entire time.” Tessa, putting both of her hands behind her head, she mocks.

“That’s some bullshitt you are sprouting, it was Reggie who is scared shitless,” Edward barked in defense.

“It’s okay we get it, people can find hard things difficult,” Emily, putting a hand on Edward's shoulder, sighs as if to comfort.

“Y.. you, Emily you as well.”

Edward replies but his gaze flustered realizing Emily’s kind gesture even if their true nature were to be that of mockery.

“It’s okay Edward,” Fred sighs putting his hand on Edward's shoulder.

“It’s okay Edward,” Reggie sighs putting his hand on Edward's shoulder.

“It’s okay Edward,” Tessa sighs patting Edward's head.

“We…Stop playing around, you all.”

Shaking their hands off Edward Exclaims, the rest of the group of Emily, Fred, Reggie, and Tessa, burst into laughter.

“Don’t worry, we will win, just as always we have,” Fred, his brown eyes narrows in determination.

“Demons are long extinct race and not all demons look the same Ranked demons used to look close to humans,” Reggie.

“But this is Ravenswood, we might encounter some crazy shitheads,” Edward.

After studying about different classes and Ranks of monsters, as they move to high-ranking monsters, their monstrosity reclines on their wits and cunning use of their skill, some low-ranking monsters have more potent and vicious skills than high-ranked monsters.

But due to their inability to use their skill skillfully, they lack in skill to out-skill their high-rank competitors, who are monsters.

Monsters by nature hold hostility towards any other races, they may be from humans to non-humans, and they even attack and hunt among themselves, that’s how ruthless and monstrous they are.

However, no matter how monstrous they are, they lack enough intelligence to fight humans or other races on equal footing even though this is compensated by their skill set.

Fred, who is Ranked first among the Battle Rankers had come up with a theory about monsters and long-extinct races like Demons, beastman, etc. to be a variant subspecies, similar to monsters.

But this was just a wild theory he randomly stumbled across, this was due to not being able to meet other races, most races other than humans have already gone extinct, and even if they were alive somewhere, people within the Battle Mage Academy wouldn’t be able to reach them because of how secluded they are.

People of this world are going through a revolution, a new way to find power and energy. They have already developed the steam engine, they have already concurred a great portion of sea routes, and they have managed to learn new technologies to strengthen their might in front of the catastrophic decline of magic.

It was not magic that was declining the world, magic was simply becoming more restricted, thus the power of little magic they knew and the power of heat-related technologies they developed their strength in furious competition.

However, amid this capricious power structure, the world had its eyes on this one place, this one place that held all the magic of the world, it reeked of magic, it boosts of magic, it threats with magic, so much uncontrollable, volatile magic, the moment Lord's labyrinth became a topic of discussion.

Other surrounding nations such as the Kingdom of Kars, Eridania, Gustavo Kingdom of Maidenhead including Endoxos Empire itself were on their nose, they were waiting for an opportunity, even if Jean forbade investigation and exploration of Ravenwoods, the people of the empire were eager, they wanted to fulfill their curiosity.

Even after all that, the power of Endoxos Empire ranked over all the nations in the Aeria Continent, in terms of land the Empire excelled, in terms of trade the Empire excelled, in terms of military might the Empire excelled, its reigns over the Aeria Continent.