Pale grey stone walls as high as the eye could see. Guard towers taking up positions every few feet. This was the city of Valesguard. A fortress city heavily guarded due to it housing one of the few teleportation gates. This gate took you from the southern region of the kingdom to the capital. What exactly they were guarding against is unknown. The city walls and the teleportation gate had been here since ancient times.

“There are no records to tell present day humans what happened back then. There are only burnt remnants of the past that tell us nothing. But it is suspected that during the ancient era that EX-rank monsters once roamed the land.”

“Elder Lancaster, I have been wondering this for a while since you have been telling us stories the past few days, but if there are only four kingdoms to speak of within the barrier mountains, what lays beyond it?” Leo had been very interested in the stories the elders had been telling them. But he had been confused as to why there were no stories about going beyond the barrier mountains.

The barrier mountains surrounded all four kingdoms, and all four kingdoms seemed to have the same amount of land. His village was on the edge of the entrance of said barrier mountains. While the deeper parts of the mountains were at least a month's travel away and filled with tigers, other animals, and the unknown that he would not dare get close to, he had always wondered what lay beyond the mountains themselves.

“We…” Elder Lancaster did not expect this question. It was a hard one to answer since no one knew. “We do not know. All of the teams that have gone out to try to reach the barrier edge never returned.”

‘Liana, do you know?’ Leo really wanted an answer to his question. He wondered if one day once he became powerful enough, he, too, could investigate it one day.

‘N-No…’ Liana did her best not to seem like she was lying, but to her, there were some things her fledgling Master should not know for the time being.

Leo sighed as he stepped forward with the rest to be inspected by the guards. “State your business.”

“They can pass!” Another guard rushed over and stepped in front of the young guard who had questioned Elder Hill. “Elder Hill, Elder Lancaster, the teleportation gate is already ready. I will escort you and the young recruits there.”

“Thank you for your kindness, Lieutenant Dan.”

The group was hastily escorted through the grand gates. Leo looked up at the massive metal door that would be dropped down at night and during enemy attacks in awe. The door was huge. The entire gate entrance into the city was big enough to allow even a dragon through. He wondered just what kind of monsters had passed through this gate at one point.

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As he passed through the gate, he noticed some scratches on the side wall. They looked like massive claw marks that were a hundred times bigger than him. The history of their world was much more interesting than what meets the eye. Leo wondered what he would be learning at the Academy. His excitement began to rise.

The only one who was not very happy about anything at this point was Jasmine. She had been unable to clean herself for almost a week. They had not stopped in any town or village to rest and spent their entire time out in the wild. She even had to use Leo’s shoulder as a pillow since she did not want to lie on the ground. The entire trip had been the biggest disgrace and humiliation of her life. What made her feel even more frustrated was how, even though Leo, the weakest link, was nice enough to let her use his shoulder to sleep, he seemed to be only acting out of kindness and did not seem interested in her whatsoever.

She had figured by now he would have been head of heels in love with her. After all, having a beauty use your shoulder as a pillow should have pulled on his heartstrings. She had decided to use him as a slave once they reached the Academy until she found her prince. But he did not even look her way unless she was speaking. He did not show any interest in her at all. This was a huge blow to her confidence!

She bit her fingernails as she looked at Leo’s back as they walked down the street. She decided she would need to get her revenge. To have the weakest link ignore her was unforgivable! ‘How dare he ignore me! Treating me as if I was air! Humph! I will get a few followers and have them torment you and then swoop in and save you from your misery. Once you have fallen for me, I will drop you in a cesspool and let you wallow in your own despair.’

Jack felt a chill rolling down his spine as he nudged Leo. “Leo, she is staring at you and smiling strangely again.”

“Just ignore it. She probably thinks something stupid like I should be madly in love with her or something.”

“You shouldn’t have let her use your shoulder this trip. You are too kind.” Jack knew fully well now that Jasmine was a big bitch. He wanted nothing to do with her. His image of her had been completely shattered during this trip.

“I couldn’t just say no. I was brought up to treat girls kindly. She has yet to do anything to harm me or say anything bad about me. If she keeps the status quo, then I will continue being nice to her. But if she crosses the line…”

‘Kill her! Rip her face off!’ Liana was raging in Leo’s mind. She hated Jasmine so much she wanted to jump out of Leo’s chest and bite the damn girl’s face off!

Leo ignored Liana and shook his head. “Only time will tell. Plus I did not lose anything. Even if her personality is bad, she is still beautiful so having her rest on my shoulder was no loss to me.”

“Haha, this is true!” Jack grinned and patted Leo’s back. His good friend made a lot of sense! There was no loss to him if the beauty wanted to snuggle up to him! But now Jack felt a little disappointed. “Why didn’t she choose me?”

“I think it’s good she didn’t or else you would have been wrapped around her little finger.” Leo gave Jack a teasing grin before laughing. Jack scratched his head. He really couldn’t deny what Leo said. This actually frustrated him and scared him at the same time.

“Leo, you need to keep an eye on me. Don’t let scary girls like Jasmine rope me in.”

“Hahaha!” Leo burst out laughing before nodding his head. “I will do my best.”