Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce

Suddenly, Leo stopped his cultivation and opened his eyes. From his consciousness, he had felt the Chaos Orbs that he had given to Ethan had detonated, implying that they were now using it.

"They should be on their way now," Leo confirmed to himself. In his mind, he could only think of only one reason why Ethan's group would use the Chaos Orbs, and that is they have met with a dangerous situation. Aside from the Magical Beast tribe of the Beast Lord Sandpit Worm, he doesn't know anything else that could make Ethan's group use the Chaos Orbs.

Of course, it's also very possible for something else to cause Ethan's group to use the Chaos Orbs, but certainly, they will be careful enough not to attract unnecessary attention from other powerful Magical Beasts, right? After all, they were planning to lure a troublesome target already, so attracting another trouble would be very stupid of them, which he clearly knew that they were not. Unless, of course, if they were bored enough or something, so they thought of playing with the Chaos Orbs.

Anyways, he'd rather believe that Ethan's group is already on their way here so that they could finally continue with the journey to Horizon Empire.

"Time to rest," Leo decided as he lay down on his bed. He was now sure that Ethan's group would be arriving tomorrow, so it's much better to rest in order to recuperate his energy and stamina. He wasn't really waiting for this information before going to sleep, it's just that he only has a few Magical resources left inside his Storage Ring right now because the majority of the Magical resources were left back at the Green Eagle Flyingboat, so he decided to take a rest.

.....

The desert was extremely hot during the day, to the point that just starting at something would make one see a hazy scene.

"Can we really not rest inside and just come out once one of your Wind Elementals detected Ethan's group presence?!" Cassandra expressed her annoyance at their current situation.

"Indeed, it's extremely hot right now. It feels like our body is going to be exhausted first before Ethan's group could even arrive." Elizabeth also felt the same way as Cassandra.

"This heat is nothing," Angel can't help rolling her eyes in displeasure at Cassandra and Elizabeth. Well, as an Elite member of the Sword and Magic, she had already experienced something, even more, worst compared to this mere heat. She added, "The main problem here is we've been dealing with Magical Beasts that wanted to attack us this entire time. Shouldn't we need to try avoiding such a troublesome situation?"

Veronica created a wooden roof using a Nature Element spell above her head before saying, "Just put roofs above your heads and the heat problem would be solved. As for the Magical Beast, just think of it as you are training yourselves."

"I agree with Veronica. Both of you should definitely start adapting to this kind of lifestyle. The sooner you adapt, the less troublesome it would become for you." Ash reprimanded Cassandra and Elizabeth.

While they were arguing, Charlotte can't help turning to look at Leo, who she right after noticed was just mischievously smiling at them right now. Her forehead began twitching at how he seems to be enjoying himself to the sight of them suffering. She exclaimed loudly, "You're really enjoying this, aren't you?"

Hearing Charlotte's words, Cassandra, Elizabeth, Angel, Veronica, and Ash finally noticed Leo's look on his face, instantly making them even more annoyed.

"Oh, don't misunderstand me, I'm not enjoying your suffering. I'm actually enjoying myself from learning more knowledge about Magic and stuff from all of you. You can say that; the more you fight, the more I learn." Leo quickly defended himself.

"As if we believe you!" Cassandra and the others coldly harrumphed after hearing Leo's reply. Who was this guy even fooling here? Base on their understanding of Leo, they are one hundred percent sure that he is most likely enjoying their suffering.

Unbeknownst to Cassandra and the others, what Leo had said is actually the truth right now, though he was indeed also enjoying watching them suffer.

However, the main thing is, he is indeed enjoying himself at watching Cassandra and the others fight the Magical Beast because he still lacked a lot of knowledge in terms of fighting using Magic. This problem has been troubling him ever since he became a Mage, specifically that time he picked up the small Mana stone, and he badly needed a way to fix this problem.

He clearly knows that he would be able to learn more about Magic the more he experienced using Magic. But, he found it not enough, that's why he was looking for more ways to learn. Simply reading books and training was really insufficient.

Fortunately, today, while watching Cassandra and the others fight against the Magical Beast, he was inspired and finally thought of a way to solve this problem of his. He thought, "I should have thought about this earlier. I've said this before that I will be learning more knowledge about Magic from powerful Mages. Yet, I failed to realize that Cassandra and the others were also considered as one."

Although he has mentioned already that he has a considerable amount of knowledge about Magic, it was clearly not enough to satisfy his thirst for even more knowledge. After all, he stopped training about Magic for 10 years after his memories were sealed by his older brother Reinhart. So, he could only count on the knowledge of Magic he had learned before his memories were sealed when he was still a child and the few minuscule knowledge of Magic he had learned back then when he was still studying at Silver Mage Academy, which, honestly speaking, is still not enough, especially considering that his goal is to fight against the Gods.

As for Cassandra and the others, he was sure that the moment they discovered their affinity to become a Mage, they right after began learning more about Magic until this very moment.

Therefore, this means that; when comparing to him, Cassandra and the others could be counted as powerful Mages, thus it's possible for him to learn from them. Not only from Cassandra, Elizabeth, Angel, Veronica, Ash, and Charlotte, but also from Ethan, Elaine, Edward, Sele, Chief Lago, Sebastian, Dan, and old man Torre as well, or even the others that came along, which also includes the slaves he had bought.

He soon understands that the main reason why he failed to recognize this fact was simply because he had never thought that he could learn from any of them. After all, he was the Leader of this group. Simply put, he was blinded by the belief that a leader can never learn from their subordinates, because how come they have a higher position and their subordinates were in a lower position if they were much more better than them, right?

"I have seriously been thinking this the wrong way from the start. My thought process should not have been that I am still one of the best assassins in the Mischievous Lion organization, but rather I am now just a newbie Mage! So, as a beginner Mage, I should start learning from the bottom again if I want to know more knowledge about Magic, not instantly go from the top." Leo thought inwardly.

That was the exact reason why Leo was enjoying watching Cassandra and the others fight, and why he said that he could learn more the more they fight.

"Believe what you want to believe," Leo replied nonchalantly as he motioned his hand that they should continue fighting with the Magical Beasts.

"You..." Cassandra and the others pointed their fingers towards Leo to express how irritating he was and how angry they were. But soon noticing that his look was as if waiting for them to continue on fighting with the Magical Beasts, they could only helplessly follow what he wanted. What else could they do? It's not like they could easily abandon their position, especially considering that they have already chosen to agree with this from the very start.

"Don't worry, you won't be fighting for long," Leo consoled them.

"Why?" Cassandra and the others immediately became curious.

"Ethan's group should most likely be arriving soon." Leo didn't bother hiding the reason why.

As to how he knew about such information. It's simply because Ethan's group had already used 8 Chaos Orbs out of the 10 Chaos Orbs he had given to them before.

While he was resting last night, he had also been calculating in his mind just how far off a distance Ethan's group had traveled based on the amount of Chaos Orbs they have used. At first, they have used 4 Chaos Orbs in a short time gap, but the latter 4 Chaos Orbs that were used have a big-time gap between one another. They basically only used one Chaos Orbs every 4 hours, and adding the first 4 Chaos Orbs, which means 20 hours or so has already passed.

In 20 hours or so, Ethan's group should most likely have already traveled a very far distance. And considering that they only have 2 more Chaos Orbs left, specifically equivalent to 8 hours, in their arsenal right now, it should be okay for him to guess that they are already very close.

At least, that is what he chooses to believe because basing on Ethan's groups' movements so far, they should be finding it difficult to not use the Chaos Orbs in luring the Magical Beast tribe of the Beast Lord Sandpit Worm, thus they would most likely try to be conservative when using the Chaos Orbs and had made a plan that the 10th Chaos Orbs would only be used once they have already arrived at their destination, which is the Sandstone Mother Spider's nest.

He really hopes that what he had assumed right now is the truth. No other reason aside from he doesn't want any unknown variables to happen at the Sandstone Mother Spider's nest that might make their chances of succeeding very slim while they are still waiting on the surface for Ethan's group to arrive.

He believes that the sooner Ethan's group arrived, the better.