......

Shin and the group quickly proceed towards the source of the explosion that they heard earlier while maintaining their formation.

Meanwhile, Arthur and Molton were moving ahead of the team to investigate. And along the way, the two immediately noticed the mess on their path. There were a lot of broken trees scattered on their path, indicating that a fight just took place in this place.

Arthur stopped in front of a fallen tree trunk and touched the surface, observing it. "It is too cold; it is as if this is close to freezing. But it is clear that this trunk is just taken down given its resin is still flowing out from it."

"Moreover, the air around here is quite hot, so it is quite strange for this thing to be this cold. Unless it is because of the abilities of one of the Monster Beasts fighting here earlier."

As he observed a little more, Arthur discovered more traces of the intense battle that just took place here, which also further proved his suspicions. He saw a lot of claw marks on the other fallen tree trunks and a couple of huge footprints of Monster Beasts on the ground.

Molton's discoveries were pretty much the same as Arthur's. But unlike the latter, he had some ocular techniques of Mentalists so he could scan the surroundings more clearly than Arthur even if his so-called senior brother had more experience in this field.

Due to that, he was able to see the chaotic energy lingering in the air. And with his discoveries, he immediately regrouped with Arthur and reported what he discovered.

Arthur might be acting like a fool most of the time but he was quite reliable when it came to these kinds of situations and could make some rational decisions. "I can't recognize these footmarks on the ground and I have never seen them before. We can't just blindly proceed with this kind of uncertainty; especially that we don't even know how strong these monster beasts are."

"Let's go back for now and inform the others with our discoveries before deciding what to do next," he added after some careful consideration. "I just hope that Shin recognizes what kind of monster beasts are ahead of us to avoid some potential risks."

Not long after, the two met up with the team and told them what they saw ahead. Hearing their reports, Shin contemplated for a couple of moments before deciding to proceed at the place that Arthur and Molton had seen, planning to investigate the place himself since he couldn't get much information from what they said.

When the group arrived at the place, they immediately busied themselves investigating it while keeping an eye on their surroundings.

Unlike what Arthur was hoping for, Shin seemed to also have a hard time figuring out what kind of monster beasts were fighting ahead of them. "I also can't recognize these footprints. It is also not recorded on the Bestiary that I know. This is going to be a little troublesome."

After that, he proceeded to scan the humidity in the air. "A pair of Monster Beasts with opposing elements?"

While Shin was muttering to himself, a sudden flash of an idea unexpectedly entered his mind. "Could it be!?"

Having that in mind, he suddenly said. "Let's go! We are going to proceed ahead."

His decision somewhat surprised the group, especially the guys who were familiar with him. Though, they immediately recovered themselves since they were confident that Shin would risk their safety without having a plan in mind that would guarantee their success.

But Jillian and Alice were not the same.

"Are you sure about this? From these trances that those monster beasts left, we can tell that the scale of this battle is clearly not something we can handle," said Jillian with a frown.

He was also quite knowledgeable with Monster Beast Bestiary, and the fact that she also couldn't recognize what type of monster beasts were ahead of them really concerned her. She also didn't want to take the risk given the uncertainty that they had.

On the other hand, Alice also nodded her head and seconded. "There is even a possibility that they are 5-star monster beasts given the traces that we have here. We can't afford to proceed with the limited information that we have."

Hearing their thoughts, Shin nodded his head in agreement before explaining his decision. "But that 'uncertainty' is clearly being emphasized by the academy since the start of the exam."

"Since the very beginning, we all don't know what is happening in his exam; especially that second part where we need to observe the situation for a long time before we are able to figure out what's really happening."

He then paused for a moment and pointed in their surroundings before continuing. "And now, they sent us to an unfamiliar place with who knows where."

"From this information alone, we can clearly tell that the academy is trying to test our abilities to solve these 'uncertainties'," he added, emphasizing the last word.

After saying that, he turned silent for a couple of moments and waited for Jillian and Alice to think about his words.

A few moments later, he then quickly added. "And right now, we are facing yet another 'uncertainty' and being tested whether we are going to proceed ahead or retreat away."

"So, I will leave the decision to you – are we going to continue moving forward or not?" asked Shin while crossing his arms in front of him. "Though, I also want to remind you that we may get some extra points if we choose the first choice."

Hearing those words, both Jillian and Alice couldn't help but hesitate how they were going to respond. They wanted to get those extra points but they still couldn't risk their safety due to their greed.

Seeing their hesitation, Shin helped them decide by saying. "Don't worry, I'm still the leader of this group, so I'm responsible for all your safety. I'm not going to tell you to advance if I'm not confident that we can't safely retreat if the situation turns for the worst all of a sudden."

Unfortunately, the two girls were still not fully convinced with words. After all, those were still just words, what they needed was a proof that they could see in front of their eyes.

Shin could only sigh helplessly when he saw those looks that they were making before taking out a talisman from the small belt bag around his waist. He then held it in between his index and middle fingers before channeling some of his Mental Energy on it.

A moment later, the runes that were written on the talisman suddenly glowed with a brilliant light before floating in the air and forming a rune circle around the group.

When the rune circle was completed, the Mentalists of the group immediately sensed that there were some spatial distortions in the air surrounding them. "An assisted spatial technique!?"

"You are also an Advanced Talisman Master!?" blurted out by both Jillian and Alice when they saw the actions that Shin had just displayed.

Shin immediately replied to them as he asked his own question. "Is this enough to reassure both of you? Fully activating this 'Assisted Teleportation Technique' may consume most of my Mental Energy in my reserve, but it is more than enough to let us escape any unforeseen situations in the future."

The two girls didn't pay attention to his words since showing the 'Assisted Teleportation Technique' was more than enough to reassure them. Both of them just looked at him, waiting for him to answer their previous question.

Seeing that, Shin could only release yet another helpless sigh before deactivating the technique with a flick of his wrist. Fortunately, it was just partial activation that did not consume a lot of Mental Energy.

After that, he replied in a nonchalant manner. "Yeah, you two are right – I'm indeed an Advanced Talisman Master."

"That shouldn't surprise you, right? After all, both of you have the same level of achievement; an Advance Forgemaster and Advance Enchanter," he added while looking at Jillian and Alice respectively.

In a sense, what he said was actually true. The problem was the fact that he was a Dual-Practitioner who focused on training both Martial-Arts and Mentalism. So, him being an Advanced Talisman Master on top of practicing those two disciplines really surprised them.

'This guy…' the two were quite speechless as they couldn't believe what they just learned. But quickly they recovered their composure after a moment and became motivated to train harder.

After all of that, Shin and the others quickly reorganized themselves before proceeding to move forward. And just like earlier, they were moving with the same formation with Arthur and Molton moving ahead.

But this time, they were quite tense and more focused while advancing forward.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Not long after, they started to hear a consecutive explosion sound which indicated that they were already near the place where the two monster beasts were currently fighting.

...…