Varth closed his eyes and took a deep breath after saying those words. In the face of such a disturbing situation, he seemed awfully calm for someone his age. Of course, it's because, in the past eight years, he has come across a lot of disturbing things, and a situation like this one wasn't new to him.

"What a joke," Peter said.

Thinking about the situation from his point of view, the young boy felt that life is a miserable joke. He also felt the need to become strong, as justice can only be enforced by the strong.

"Is there nothing we can do about it?" Leila's eyes lowered down in helplessness.

Vincent looked at her and then at Lisa, and said, "There's no need to feel down. We can't enforce justice with our hands, but what about the military academy and the law enforcement of the other eleven cities? As long as we tell them about it, there is no reason for them to ignore this situation. And we also have proof of their insidious crimes by our side. Lisa's words will be enough to act as evidence. Am I right?"

As soon as he said those words, a grin stretched across Varth's face behind the mask.

"Yeah. She is the most important piece of the puzzle. Our main priority is to take her safely back to the academy and inform the instructor about this matter. Eventually, everything will be resolved. They will take care of everyone involved in the crime in the best way possible. The instructors of the military academy are the true overlord of Xavier, after all."

"It's bad that we can't communicate with them right now," Peter said after a moment.

In the wilderness, long-distance communication devices don't work for some reason. They couldn't communicate with the people outside of the woods even if they use their quantum identity cards.

"Nothing we can do about it," Vincent said.

"Let's return to the academy after getting the evolution material from the evil of tree and slaying the bandits," Varth said.

"We are still going to kill bandits?" Peter asked as he looked at Varth.

"Coming across this situation doesn't give us a free pass to fail or delay a mission," Varth said as he calmly looked into Peter's eyes.

"It's alright. We will kill the bandits before heading back to the academy," Vincent said. He agreed with him. After all, it was their responsibility to kill the bandits as they have selected the bandit subjugation mission.

After a few minutes, once they finished with talking about some important stuff, Peter asked, "Where's the evolution materials of this monster?"

They had scanned the monster from head to toe but they didn't find any fruit of darkness hanging on its branches.

"The fruit of darkness are usually found inside the mouth of the Tree of Evil," Varth said.

"Are we going to enter that dark and creepy place?" Peter asked as he pointed at the horrific mouth of the Tree of Evil.

"Let's go!" Vincent said with a look of anticipation on his face. He was looking forward to obtaining and consuming the evolution material of this monster.

BAM

A few moments later, they blasted open an entrance to its mouth and went inside the dark mouth of the Tree of Evil.

However, once they stepped further inside of its mouth, they came across a place well lit with silver crystal releasing silky, moonlight radiance.

Varth's eyes opened wide as he looked at the silver crystals embedded in the wooden walls of its mouth.

"These are materials necessary to create mystical glow sticks. Every single one of them is worth a good amount of money. Don't forget to store them in your storage devices," he said to them before heading towards the sides of its mouth to collect the material releasing moonlight radiance.

Leila and Peter also helped him in collecting the materials.

Vincent didn't as his hands were already full carrying Lisa.

"Are you going to keep on holding her in your arms?" Leila asked her boyfriend as she pointed at Lisa.

"Are you feeling jealous?" Vincent said with a teasing smile on his face.

"In your dreams," Leila said as she rolled her eyes and looked away from him.

Vincent smiled as he started at the back of her figure. Immediately after, his voice sounded out, "Peter, come here."

As soon as he said those words, Peter stepped up to him, and he said, "What do you need?"

"Hold her for me," Vincent said with an amiable smile as he handed the elven girl cladded in a long jacket to Peter.

"Huh?" Peter looked at his back with eyes open wide as Vincent walked towards Leila.

He leaned down to put his face near her ears, and said in a seductive voice, "There's nothing in my hands. Do you want to fill the gaps?"

Leila's eyes turned ruddy but she has gained resistance to his teasing and didn't blush like crazy.

"You can fill the gaps between your hands by helping us collect the silver crystals," Leila said without looking at him.

"You sure?" Vincent asked as he collected crystal from the wooden walls.

Leila looked at him in silence before looking away and doing what she has been doing.

After a while, once they cleaned the walls from the glowing crystals and reached the end of its mouth, they came across a spacious area that resembled an average-sized apartment. There was a small pond made out of dark water in the center of this spacious area. There was a golden tree in the center of this pool. This tree had three thick branches and three inky, black fruits were hanging from them.

After taking a minute to analyze the properties of the fruit of darkness and the mysterious pond of darkness, Vincent found out that the fruit of darkness could be used to awaken a special ability with a 100% chance while the pond of darkness was the condensed form of negative energy.

[Resource Name: Pond of Darkness.

Description: A pond that is made out of condensed negative energy.

Effect: Can be used to evolve mana into dark elemental mana. You can also strengthen Dark-type beasts by using this source of energy. However, they will become more aggressive. There is a high chance for beasts to gain the ability to go berserk by consuming a lot of water from this pond.]

[Evolution Material Name: Fruit of Darkness

Description: A fruit that starts budding inside the mouth of the Tree of Evil the moment it becomes conscious. The fruit has absorbed an adequate amount of magic power and negative energy to reach maturity.

Effect: You will gain a special ability once you absorb the fruit of darkness. The fruit of darkness can also strengthen all types of Ice, Frost, Darkness, and so on abilities.

Note: The fruit of darkness can not be consumed without first being purified of negative energy otherwise, you'll end up losing your minds to sinful and murderous desires]

The fruit of darkness couldn't be directly consumed as it contained the negative emotions of a lot of people.

The negativity inside this fruit was enough to make a saint go crazy and commit heinous crimes without thinking much about it!

That's why it was necessary to purify it before consuming it.