A few minutes later, the trio approached the outskirts of Talonia, and their hopes were immediately dashed. A thick cloud of dark gray smoke hung over what once was a small settlement, slowly being blown towards Kai’s trio by a light breeze.

Even before they exited the forest, the acrid scents of fire and blood wafted into the young men’s noses.

[I’m starting to sense mana signatures up ahead, they’re all within the settlement ahead. I’m not noticing the terror bird, though.]

Even without a tier 3 enemy present, Sydney didn’t dare lead their group any closer to the settlement. From their position at the edge of the forest bordering the settlement, they could already see that the battle was already over.

Along the perimeter of the small town, a few flames still licked over a scorched and trampled wooden wall, and there were many spots on it that had been completely trampled to the ground. All of the buildings near the walls on the western side of the settlement had similarly caught ablaze.

In the gaps between the fire and ash, Kai could see multiple beats moving around as they fought over something.

I can see at least two flesh eating deer, and a couple boars. All of them are bigger than the tier 1 ones we hunted over the last week…

“Halia, can you see how strong they are?”

She was silent for a few moments, and Kai glanced down at the ruby necklace.

[Kai… they are fighting over people’s bodies. I- I think I see an arm hanging out of that boar’s mouth…]

Kai nodded, but his expression was dark.

“Yes, that’s what beasts do. It was the same back home. Without our and other sects hunting them, they would’ve overrun every mortal town and village around us.”

With how little Halia left the sect grounds, she probably never had the misfortune of seeing this much carnage. She was uncomfortable when I was cleaning the deer before, and there are dead human parts littered all over this town. I'll need to make sure she's alright once we get somewhere safe.

Halia went quiet again, and Kai frowned as he looked back up at the wreckage of the settlement before them. Memories flickered through his mind, from a time before he found himself in this world. Before he started training with the sword, before he even joined the sect.

Sparks flickered in the air like stars, and the thick smoke smothered his lungs. Scorched rubble was scattered everywhere, burying everything. A few meters beyond the flames, the figures of two beasts clashed with each other as they fought over someone.

A spark flickered in front of his face, and the scene changed. Now, he had on white robes, and his hand clenched so tightly on his sword’s grip that blood threatened to run between his knuckles. Before him, there was a small trader’s caravan. The carriages were toppled over, and their tarps were haphazardly stained red. A bloodied hand hung out from one of the carts-

“We were too late.”

Sydney’s voice jolted Kai out of his memories, and he looked over as the knight trainee turned to walk back into the woods behind them.

“We’ll head straight for Hillhold. There aren’t any other settlements close to here, but we should get the news back quickly. It’s not normal for a fresh tier 3 beast to immediately gather a beast wave and destroy a settlement. You ran into it when it was still at tier 2, right? Did you notice anything different about it?”

The trio started moving again as Kai recalled his memories of their first day after arriving in this world. After fleeing to the academy grounds, he and Brewan sheltered in one of the wooden storage buildings. Kai’d only peeked his head out for a few moments to try and see the source of the noise, and he hadn’t been able to see the battle directly.

“I think there was a light shining down in the town when it fought the deep ursine. Given how much burnt stuff we’ve found in its wake since then, it definitely was some kind of fire ability. It was injured by a formation when it chased us into the building you were sleeping in, and we never saw it after that.”

Sydney nodded as he listened, but there wasn't much they could do with the information for the time being. They could only hope that the seniors at Hillhold would have some use for it.

Just as the trio was leaving the vicinity of Talonia, a loud snapping noise in the brush behind them caused the entire group to spin around. A hulking mass of black fur flattened an entire thicket of brush as it ambled toward Kai. It was easily the largest boar Kai had ever seen, even bigger than the ones rooting around in Talonia’s ruined streets.

“Halia, where was our warning?!”

[S- Sorry!]

[Rage Boar- Lvl 26]

Kai cursed under his breath as he raised his sword and got ready to fight. Sydney and Brewan also got out their weapons, with the knight trainee moving to the front of their team.

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“I’ll be the frontline, the two of you try to find an opening. Kai, the attack you used earlier might be able to take this thing do-”

A bright blue light cut through the clearing as Sydney was mid-sentence, brushing past the trio and shooting at the boar. Kai felt his hair prickling in the split second before it reached the boar.

C-Crack!

A thundering bolt of lighting followed exactly in the blue light’s path, rending the air and filling the area with the scent of ozone. The boar’s muscles spasmed as electricity coursed beneath its skin, and its coarse hair stood up.

After nearly a second, the lingering electricity faded away and the boar hefted itself back to its feet, but not before more attacks were launched at it. Another projectile flew from behind Kai’s group, the sunlight catching on its glassy surface as it arced through the air toward the bear.

A little glass orb?

The glass sphere hit the boar’s head, then melted into the beast. Like water seeping into sand, the glass orb was steadily absorbed into the beast’s head, and it immediately started thrashing around in panic.

The boar let out a panicked screeching noise as the orb completely disappeared beneath its skin, and its muscles spasmed randomly again before going still. It was dead.

“Sydney, you’re alive!”

Kai turned around to see a group of four blue-robed young men coming out from the forest, as well as another whose uniform matched the one Sydney was wearing.

The blue-robed folks’ robes look pretty similar to Brewan’s, just darker in color. One of them is darker than the rest, too.

“Soren? Why are you out here?”

Sydney stepped forward as he spoke, subtly putting himself between the newcomers and his teammates.

One of the robes mages stepped forward while tucking a grimoire back into an inner pocket. His silvery-blonde hair was styled in a way that reminded Kai of some of the more annoying, pretentious young masters from his world.

“Because you went missing. Even if you aren’t ranked first in our grade, it still would’ve been a loss for our academy if you died. Someone had to come save you.”

Sydney let out a derisive snort as he glared at Soren.

“Sure, after waiting a month, you came to save me.”

One of the other mages- a lackey-looking fellow- quickly retorted.

“Hey, we asked for permission to set out two weeks ago, when you didn’t show up. The professors refused, and sent some first year instead. We were only able to come out here now, accompanied by a tier 3 mage!”

Instead of watching the lackey, Kai’s eyes were on Soren. Surprisingly, he looked genuinely angry as his companion recited what happened. Kai couldn’t tell if it was out of concern for Sydney- who was presumably one of his rivals- or for some other reason.

Kai’s eyes briefly flickered over to the mage with darker robes as tier three was mentioned. He hadn’t been watching as the attack was thrown, but he was pretty confident that this was the fellow who threw the melting glass ball.

[???- Level 33]

[Soren- Level 25]

Only after his lackey finished speaking did Soren finally seem to notice the two people standing behind Sydney.

“Ah! You’re that first-year they sent… Brewan was your name, right?”

Brewan looked surprised that his name was remembered, and Soren turned toward Kai. The blonde mage’s forehead crinkled as he tried to think if he’d Kai before. The snowy white robes and cold expression on Kai’s didn’t register anywhere in his memory.

“I’m Kai. I got lost near here after an accident, and found these two in a tough spot nearby. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Soren nodded his head in a short bow to Kai.

“I’m Soren, and my companions are Entil, Lonn, and Owl. Our team’s knight is Lucas. I would like to invite you to Hillhold academy as a thank you for assisting my friends.”

Soren gestured to his teammates as he spoke. Entil and Lonn were the two lackey-looking folks, while Owl was the tier 3 mage. When he spoke, the respectful yet confident tone of Soren’s voice once again reminded Kai of multiple instances he’d seen at sect competitions in the past.

It’s the same tone intelligent cultivators use when they meet someone of unknown strength. This fellow looks like a typical young master, but it seems his brain isn’t as rotted as some that I knew back home.

“I’m unfamiliar with the area, so I will gladly accept your invitation. I came out to train, but I’m hopelessly lost now. With a dangerous beast in the area, it’s probably best for me to move somewhere safer.”

Kai could see the tension in Soren’s smile fading away as he gauged Kai’s strength. If Kai considered a tier 3 beast to be dangerous, he was likely equal or below it in rank.

[Eh, why would you give away information about yourself like that? You could’ve pretended to be super strong and gotten a bunch of resources or something!]

Kai shrugged, then spoke softly while turning back to look at Brewan. It was only loud enough for Kai’s teammates to hear his words.

“Don’t reveal Halia, and try to keep stuff about the Crescent Moon Sect to a minimum. I want to look into it more first.”

After all, who knows what the other three idiots are up to right now. Sydney mentioned before that there were no records of the academy in their library, and considering how this place doesn’t seem to be that far from their academy, I find that a bit odd. If there is something going on, and someone is alerted by us talking about it here, it could cause more trouble for the other disciples.

Kai’s trio decided to go with Soren’s group back to Talonia, but just to observe the destruction. Owl was a tier 3 mage, but that didn’t mean that they were ready to hunt down the terror bird. He was marginally stronger than it mana-wise, but the fight would still be a tossup.

Betting the lives of nine talented young humans on a fifty-fifty fight would be too nonsensical for anyone to consider. After taking a short peek at the ruins of the town, the group turned back and headed for Hillhold once again.

Even without following Halia’s callouts and mana detection, the group didn’t lose much time to beasts. A hail of magic from the tier 2 mages and Brewan silenced every beast they encountered before they could even enter the ranges of the knights.

When night came, they had enough people to rotate through watches so that everyone got plenty of sleep.

Two days later, they reached their destination.

Hillhold Academy.