A few days later, the cafeteria.

“Just the three of us? I don’t think we are authorized to take missions located in Secret Planes with difficulty 4 and beyond.” Kaishin muttered. “The danger level isn’t linear, just because you can stroll around difficulty 3 Secret Plane doesn’t mean you’ll be having a hard time in difficulty 4. Instead, you’ll be dead.”

“If I am alone, you are correct, but we have Satoru and you, who are more knowledgeable in things. This is a good chance for us to consolidate teamwork and improve our methods. Otherwise, we’ll forever be like a headless chicken with no way of knowing what aspect of our cultivation needs improvement.” Nagata retorted back.

“Satoru, don’t tell me you have the same thoughts as him?” Kaishin diverted his attention toward the remaining member who was eating his meal peacefully.

Gulping down the food in his mouth, he replied, “I agree with him.”

“See!” Nagata feels his points are reinforced.

“However, we need to have another member. Preferably someone who has high survivability skills.” Mordred added. “Otherwise, we won’t be able to get to difficulty 4 Secret Planes.”

Kaishin, who had been disappointed by Mordred’s response, had her mood improved. “Yes! At least, we need some more members.”

“Haven’t your Brute Wyvern fully healed yesterday? If we’re talking about survivability, shouldn’t your pet be more powerful than me?” Nagata really wants to go, he won’t stop just because someone told him to.

“Hmm, you see, exploration of difficulty 4 and above Secret Planes will be completely different compared to the ones that you’ve seen. For us rank 0s, the secret planes we are allowed to delve into are separated into ten tiers, Difficulty 1 to 10. You need to pay attention that difficulty 1 to 3 Secret Planes are made for introducing the dimensional shock and whatnot, so it’s not a problem for early-stage rank 0 apprentices like us to go back and forth.”

“Difficulty 4 to 6, however, is different. They are designed for a group of mid-stage rank 0 apprentices. Unless you are a heavenly genius who can fight across minor realms, I don’t recommend doing so because Kaishin is correct, the difficulty level isn’t measured linearly. You can’t and shouldn’t think of difficulty 4 as simply 33% harder than difficulty 3. Perhaps, it contains 100% more enemies or possesses special circumstances that make the Secret Plane harder to explore. The metrics to categorize the difficulties aren't as simple as they seemed, it’s not wise to underestimate the Royal Academy which has information-path measures. In any case, even if I wanted to quickly hunt in difficulty 4 Secret Planes, we need someone who can tank damage.”

Being scolded by the Control Tower of the party, Nagata relented. “Fine. I’ll shut up.”

“No, I understand your impatience.” Mordred interrupted him, “I have finished three gathering missions in difficulty 3 Secret Planes since our last meeting and had recently achieved a breakthrough in my Bloodline Ability, so I also wanted to get to difficulty 4 or even difficulty 5 Secret Plane to test them. That’s why…” His voice trailed off, seemingly on purpose to wait for a new arrival who sat next to Mordred.

“This is your party member?” The newcomer scoffed as she put down her lunch, which consisted purely of meaty dishes. “All of you look so damn fragile that a handshake from me would probably crush your bones…”

The two were surprised at the rude woman who wore white medical outerwear, but they didn’t immediately refute her rude words because they were flabbergasted at her dark skin and long ears. Even with a glance, they were capable of recognizing this purple-eyed woman, because she is of a different race.

“Let me introduce you… this is our potential Medic, Adraste Delcroix. She’s a dark elf.” Mordred’s words seemingly went through both of their skulls as they were too stunned to react. Never in their wildest dreams could Mordred get an audience with the esteemed member of the Delcroix clan.

“I hope you won’t waste my time.” Adraste began to devour her food as she spoke. “There are a lot of parties who tried to invite me, only to find out they cannot fulfill my condition. Even their DPS or Defender is weaker than me. Trash, I say.”

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Mordred didn’t take offense. He was completely aware of where she came from. Despite being a member of the Delcroix clan, one of the great four clans of Galatreon, some people couldn’t see beyond her background, only wanting to make use of her to get close to Galatreon or steal her inheritances.

In reality, the clansmen of the great four clans of Galatreon don’t need to enroll in some academies outside of their bastion-city, but there are some who either bored of the cold homeland, got unwillingly dispatched to other parts of the world, or sent to perform special missions. For Adraste Delcroix, it should fall into the third category. Yellow Fragment should’ve arranged for her to be Mordred’s helper so that he could skip the cumbersome process of forming a strong team.

“I assumed those who wanted you onboard just wanted you to be their nannies while relying on your background. Well, whatever…” Mordred continued eating, “I just needed to prove to you that I am strong enough to beat you up, right?”

The dark elven woman had already consumed half of her food, despite having just arrived. Her teeth, containing two rows of pure white bone fangs like that of a chainsaw, revealed itself with her smile. “I like beating arrogant people like you the most. Although I am inherently a Medic, my Branch is unique.”

“Spineweaver Neurochemist… It’s a branch of Medic that I needed the most since my team lacked a Defender, you’ll fit in like a glove.” At this point, Mordred had finished his meal. He had timed it well, knowing the habit of Adraste who eats very fast.

“Oh?” Adraste was intrigued. Despite knowing her branch, Mordred was determined to have her on his team. Wiping her mouth, she stood up. “Let’s get this over with. I want to descend to a difficulty 6 Secret Plane soon.”

“Likewise.” Mordred stood up but stopped the two from following. “Just wait for my return, I’ll make sure to tame her the next time we have a team meeting.”

“Hah!” Adraste wrath meter has briefly exceeded the maximum value. Instead of overflowing, she channels that emotion into amusement. “Of all the people who tried to recruit me, you were the first to be that arrogant. Let’s see if you’re all cock but no cum.”

Mordred shrugged, then led the way.

The Royal Academy had various Training Halls that housed some private training rooms. Adraste herself has no qualms about wiping the floors with Mordred in public areas that are crowded with people, but he chooses one of the high-quality training rooms, one that is allocated to everyone by the hour each week. He has no use of the quota anyway since most of his experiments and training are performed during extraplanar missions, so it’s better to make use of all of his resources.

Entering the high-quality private training room that he booked beforehand, Mordred was assured that most rank 0 and perhaps even rank 1 investigative methods are incapable of piercing through the walls. Unlike Adraste, he had something to hide, so it is imperative that nobody can get a sniff of this.

The private training room has various facilities, from adjustable weights for physical training, to combat puppets for testing new methods, and even some spiritual hallucinogenic devices that could assist in spiritual training. Yet, the two aren’t interested in using them, because the goal is to fight and determine who’s the stronger between the two.

“Are you ready?” Adraste inquired as she started to undress some of her outerwear. Underneath her white medical overcoat, she wore a tight bodysuit made out of nanopolymer, allowing her curvy body figure to be emphasized without sacrificing her defenses. “Just so you know, the Medics from my Delcroix clan can kill you before you even notice. Being a ‘Control Tower’ is not an excuse, you can always rely on your Brute Wyvern to beat the shit out of me.”

“There’s no need.” Mordred smiled. “My weak body is enough to beat you to submission.”

Adraste squinted, trying to swallow her anger. “You keep on claiming that you’ll tame me and whatnot… but all I see is a weak Bloodline Warlock who can’t even unleash 10% of your potential. You only got a few Bloodline Abilities, and I doubt your revolver can pierce my epidermis.” Her eyes quietly scanned the rifle on Mordred’s back, “As for that rifle… Well, I’m not dumb enough to face it head-on.”

“Too much talk.” Mordred shook his head. “Let’s get this over with…” He taunted as he calmly put his hands in his pockets.

“Heh…” Adraste took out multicolored tubes from her dimensional storage and began injecting them into her neck, thighs, and wrist. As the dubious potions, combat drugs, began to saturate her veins, her body bulged into unhealthy proportions. Her dark gray skin turned paler at a noticeable pace, and fibrous white bone tendons grew at multiple spots, turning her into an ugly amalgamation of flesh and bone creature in humanoid form.

“Idiot.” Adraste spat, her voice deep and unnerving, it was as if a mutant creature had spoken instead of her. “Shouldn’t have given me time.” She lunged at Mordred who acted indifferently at the speed difficult for an early-stage rank 0 apprentice to follow.

Seeing the impending doom, Mordred smiled as he slowly unleashed his soul radiation.