There was only one day left before the expedition to Sloveus’ Palace. With the papers that Gradrel had given him, Astra had quickly enchanted the rest of the equipment in the storage room. He had also learned basic inscriptions for all sorts of weapons and armor.

Click.

Gradrel walked into the storage room, “I assume everything in here is enchanted now?”

Astra nodded.

“Good, here you go,” Gradrel threw a red ring towards Astra.

Astra caught the ring and inspected it, “What is this?”

Gradrel stared at Astra for a while before replying slowly, “A space ring.”

Astra raised an eyebrow.

Gradrel frowned, “You don’t know what a space ring is?”

Astra shook his head.

Gradrel explained to Astra what a space ring was. A space ring had the ability to store all sorts of items as long as they weren’t alive. The size of storage varies by the grade of the ring which was ranked the same as mana purity. A white ring would have the space of a crate while a red ring has the space of a small room.

Astra wore the ring and injected his mana within it. A projection of a small room appeared inside his head.

“Amazing…” Astra murmured. “Say, why did you lock me in the storage room? I had to sleep in here without a bed yesterday.”

Gradrel smiled and said nothing.

Astra raised an eyebrow and stopped his interrogation.

“Am I free to go now?” Astra asked.

Gradrel nodded, “Make sure you come to the Training Grounds at least once every two weeks or you’re fired.”

Astra nodded and left the training grounds. There wasn’t a whole lot that Astra could do anymore since he only had one day left until the expedition. He had been working himself to the bone for the last two days. If he was still suspended after the expedition, Astra would beg Gradrel to train him.

Astra went back to his dorm and slept the rest of the day away.

…

..

.

Dawn.

Astra woke up and prepared himself. He went to the cafeteria to have a quick breakfast before heading to the plaza to meet up with Isabella’s party. As Astra reached the plaza he saw four other people with Isabella.

“You’re a little bit late, but we should be fine,” Isabella said as she waved Astra over.

“Sorry, I overslept a little,” Astra apologized.

“Let me introduce you to the rest of our party,” Isabella began to give a little background information on the party while the six of them headed out of the Academy.

Isabella and her group were all wearing a common attire. Their robes had a shiny luster and emanated nobility. All of them were fourteen years old and haven’t broken through to White rank.

Joseph Lonebow, a boy with short brown hair who uses wind spells with his bow.

Robert Bouldergust, a muscular young youth who uses twin battle axes along with earth magic.

Clara Commonflame, a red haired girl who uses a wand for fire spells.

Anton Bluehelm, a heavily armored teenager who uses a longsword and didn’t specialize in any elemental spells but focused on physical enhancements.

Astra nodded his head as Isabella finished her introductions. None of them seemed very pleased to see Astra. Only Isabella was willing to stand beside him, the rest of the group were a couple of meters ahead of them.

Thanks to the frequent kill-quests the Academy gave out, only a couple of stray wolves and foxes came attacking their party. They reached the Dense Southern Forest without much trouble.

“Gather around,” Anton grunted. He reached behind his back and pulled out a pouch. Anton threw the pouch in the air as a mysterious powder surrounded the party.

“What’s this?” Astra asked Isabella.

Isabella explained, “This is a repelling powder, there are quite a few White ranked monsters in this forest and we don’t want to waste too much time dealing with them.

Astra nodded. The party headed deeper into the forest. The repelling powder seemed to be working, no monsters were seen in their vicinity.

A couple of minutes later, a black hole appeared in front of the party.

Clara spoke up, “Sloveus’ portal, the only way into his dimension and only opens once every ten years.”

“Try to keep track of the time inside, when the sun inside sets, that means the seventy hours is nearly up. If you’re still inside, you’ll be trapped forever,” Joseph warned.

Robert continued, “You won’t even be able to survive since the entire dimension will collapse.”

Astra nodded. This was crucial information to him. If he didn’t know this and he was split from the group, Astra would’ve died inside Sloveus’ dimension.

The party jumped into the black hole.

A vast grassy plain appeared in front of Astra. There were several bulls and bears around.

Anton whispered to the group, “While the powder is active, let’s rush to the palace.”

Everyone nodded and quickly sprinted towards a massive mansion off in the distance.

Astra felt Zephyr increasing his speed by leaps and bounds. He was able to keep up with the group just by running.

A few moments later, the group arrived at Sloveus’ palace.

Joseph’s ears perked up, “Careful; I can hear a mob of monsters inside.”

The group cautiously entered the palace.

Torches automatically lit up around them, brightening the faces of the trolls and kobolds inside.

“They’re much stronger this year. I can feel that their aura has almost reached White rank,” Clara whispered.

Anton commanded the group, “Protect Isabella and Clara, don’t let them get close no matter what. Stay behind, Astra. You’ll just get in the way.”

Astra stood near Isabella and Clara.

Astra raised an eyebrow, wasn’t Joseph also ranged? Astra stared at Joseph as he ran towards a troll. He shot two arrows, each hitting an eye. Joseph nimbly arched his back as the troll swung its club and missed. Joseph took out a small dagger and jumped on top of the troll.

The troll groaned as Joseph accurately pierced its jugular. Joseph jumped off the troll as it slumped down on the ground.

“Amazing…” Astra murmured. It was the first time he had seen this type of fighting.

Astra looked over the the others. Anton was drawing the aggro of two kobolds and a troll while Robert snuck behind them and chopped off their legs. Anton and Robert dodged out of the way as Clara and Isabella bombarded the monsters with fire and ice magic. Meanwhile, Joseph had taken care of another troll.

Astra stared at the group in amazement. It was evident that their party had been on many adventures and fought with each other through many battles.

Suddenly, a drop of gooey saliva landed on Astra’s face.

“Huh…?” Astra looked up.

Ten goblins were gripping tightly onto the ceiling. They noticed that Astra had spotted them, so they immediately let go and fell towards the party.

“Watch out above!” Astra yelled.

“AH!” Clara screamed.

Isabella managed to fire off an icicle, piercing through one of the goblin’s head.

There were still four goblins above them. The rest of the group were too far away. The one weakness of being a long-ranged mage was that they needed time to conjure up a spell that could actually deal damage.

Astra unsheathed his Sword of Gale and jumped up towards the goblins. He realized that even his vertical had increased by at least thirty percent. Astra smiled as he surrounded his sword with wind magic.

Astra fired off a horizontal beam of wind.

Slice!

Four goblin growls echoed throughout the palace as the goblins fell to the ground. The injured goblins held their disemboweled organs in their hands as they tried to run away.

Joseph shot two arrows at the goblins as Isabella and Clara finished off the other two.

Anton walked up to Astra, “Nice job, kid. You surprised me; I thought you were just some leech Isabella picked up.”

Astra smiled meekly, “Thanks.”

The group advanced further into the palace.

Inside another part of Sloveus’ Palace.

“Heath, do we really have to do this?” A short youth with abnormally large muscles asked.

“Polito, when did I ever say you could question my decisions? You’re my fucking lackey. Do lackeys ever question their bosses?” A handsome young man dressed in a white robe spoke harshly.

“Sorry, boss.” Polito stared at the ground, feeling disheartened.

“Listen, I’m very well aware of my father’s plans. I guarantee you this won’t affect them in any way,” Heath assured Polito.

Polito asked in a worried voice, “But you’re thinking about killing him, wouldn’t that actually influence his plans significantly?”

Heath, repressing his rising anger, spoke softly to Polito, “Listen here you maggot…”

Suddenly, Heath exploded in a furious voice, “HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO SAY THAT OUTLOUD?!”

“Eeek!” Polito quivered as he took a couple of steps back and fell to the ground.

“Go away! Don’t appear in front of me unless I call you!” Heath commanded.

Polito quickly crawled away.

A black shadow appeared behind Heath, “My lord, he’s here.”

A harsh light glinted in Heath’s eyes, “Good...We’ll get rid of him after the trials.”