It took several seconds until Asher finally became fully relaxed after the adrenaline high of his fight. He quickly glanced over to his digital watch, noting that he still has enough time for one more battle.

Asher remained still for a few more seconds to also gain back his Aura energy reserve.

From his repeated uses of it, he eventually figured out that somehow, his Aura energy will automatically regenerate on its own if he relaxes his body.

Asher wasn't sure the quantity of Aura energy reserves he has or how long he should rest for. He had always relied on when his body felt like it was roaring and pumped up to go.

Even as he stood, Asher's vigilance never decreased.

While he was sure that after killing one Mana monster, another won't appear again for a bit in this starting area, there had been times where this pattern got broken.

Luckily for Asher, there wasn't any broken pattern today.

Once he finally felt his energy come back to him, Asher pulled his axe from the Mana monster wolf's bloody skull.

His blue axe out in the open revealed it was coated with foul-smelling blood and horrid gorey brain matter.

Asher knit his eyebrows at the putrid sight. He sighs a little bit before shaking his axe, spraying off the blood and guts.

Though he constantly fights and kills these Mana monsters, it never really got easy to see so many gore sights.

It didn't make Asher feel overly sick or disgusted. But he could say it was a little off-putting to look at.

With his axe mostly clean now, Asher began walking even deeper in the Decrypted Woods. He still kept Aura's energy flowing through his body at a slower rate.

His walking speed is just a bit brisker than before, wanting to make sure he makes it in time to his room.

However, after just several feet of distance, Asher suddenly stopped walking. His eyes began to narrow as he whipped his head directly to the left.

Asher's eyes began to glow, a jolt shocked through his entire body as he witnessed a mesmerizing sight he couldn't look away from.

The sight was an incomparably beautiful woman whose mere presence radiated a shimmering bright starry allure.

This woman stood a mere ten feet away from Asher, and he could spot every aspect of her beauty even from this distance.

Her face was perfectly gorgeous, being irresistible for anyone to tear their gaze from, down to her profound abysses like black eyes, bright cherry red lips, and her natural cutesy long eyelashes.

There wasn't a single aspect of her face that wasn't glorious to gaze upon.

The woman wore a classy black and white uniform blazer along with an elegant long skirt that hangs down to her knees. Even her clothes perfectly fitted her, accentuating her bewitchingly sexy near-perfect figure-eight body.

Long beautiful blue hair swirled out of her head, reaching down to her waist like the gorgeous blue sky.

From far away, this woman emitted an unapproachable aura.

It was as if she was above the common person, and it would be a sin to so casually walk and talk to her.

Asher, however, was only briefly stunned by her beauty. He certainly did appreciate the spectacular sight, but he didn't lose himself to his desires.

Asher shook his head a bit, clearing up his mind, gaining a small friendly smile. He wasn't affected by this woman's ethereal presence or how her eyes were half-closed.

Asher boldly strolled up to the beautiful woman as she remained rooted to her spot. Even as Asher got within a few feet from her, the beautiful woman still didn't turn around to him.

"Elsa. Lovely morning isn't it?" Asher spoke in a clear, calm voice, showing no hints of nervousness or tension.

He even got within six feet apart from the lovely Elsa, standing near her like they were long-time acquaintances.

When Asher got closed, Elsa finally gave her attention to him.

She only slightly turned around to Asher, not giving him her full undivided attention. Although as her eyes briefly trailed over him, there was a small flash of respect that quickly appeared and vanished within Elsa's eyes.

"Asher Vipond. Hm." Elsa gave Asher a simple nod before turning her attention back forward.

She didn't bother to say anything else, and at this point, most would find it hard to continue a conversation with her.

Although for Asher, he didn't leave and even got just a smidge bit closer to Elsa. He was completely uncaring about the slight standoffish greeting and seemingly getting ignored.

"Feel like teaming up again today? Or are you in a lone wolf mood?" Asher asked with an even, confident tone.

He didn't make himself sound eager when asking, showcasing that he would still continue his own training whether or not Elsa agreed.

Elsa had actually turned back around to Asher. Her expression was seemingly always indifferent. But Asher could spot a slight shift in her eyes as she began asking him,

"You. Surely this is an important day for you. Are you not looking forward to it like others are?"

Asher smiled while shrugging his shoulders. "Training never stops for anyone, no matter the day. And I know that you know, you're just like me in this regard, right?"

Elsa didn't respond to Asher's jesting comment. She turned back her head, already knowing the answer in her mind.

Suddenly, Elsa felt a sensation prick into her senses. Her eyebrows wriggled around a bit before telling Asher, "Let's go. I'm in, as you call it, 'a team mood' today."

"Great." Asher nodded towards Elsa. "You'll lead the way as usual."

Elsa only gave a small grunt in agreement before walking off in a specific direction.

Asher stuck close to her while being vigilant of the surroundings.

When Asher would briefly glance over to Elsa, he could never spot any nerve or tension on her body. At least, Elsa didn't outwardly show any tension.

But with how she usually acts, Asher wouldn't be surprised if she was completely calm.

As they walked deeper into the Decrypted Woods' starting area, neither Asher nor Elsa was talking. What could be a weird or awkward walk wasn't weird or uncomfortable at all for Asher and Elsa.

Admittedly, Asher felt calmer in Elsa's presence.

They both had calm yet vigilant expressions being entirely fine with silence hanging between them.

Asher wasn't sure when or how it happened. But this type of silence felt natural to them, seeing as they knew each other for quite some time.

After a minute of traversing the silent woods, Asher and Elsa finally felt a shift within the ground. They both stopped walking, feeling a rumbling vibration mildly quake the ground.

Asher closed his eyes for a second to feel out how far this rumbling was.

Perceiving things that couldn't be seen with his eyes, heard with his ears, or smell with his nose, Asher had dubbed this ability as the sixth sense.

From feeling out the ground, Asher could tell something big was barreling towards them at least sixty feet away.

Of course, the only way Asher could use this so-called sixth sense ability was by relying on the Aura energy in his body. Aura's energy not only heightens his physical body to superhuman capabilities but also greatly enhances his mind.

Asher opened his eyes not a second later as a slight smirk etched up his lips. "This kind of rumbling, hmm….I bet it's a Mana monster bear for today."

Elsa didn't need to close her eyes to focus. She simply slightly shifted her feet, getting a whole feel of the ground's vibration.

Elsa half nodded towards Asher but told him, "Adequate senses as per usual to tell the weight class of the beast. However, you're a bit off. It's actually a specific variant boar." She spoke in a blunt, lecturing tone.

And as she said, Asher wasn't given the time to reply as his eyes caught large something barreling out of the dark green bushes ahead of them.

'Of course.' Asher lightly rolled his eyes as what was ahead of them genuinely was a Mana monster boar-like beast.

Its height towers even slightly above the previous Mana monster wolf Asher fought with. Terrifying looking long sharp horns protruded out of its mouth, its eyes were bloodshot, and there was even more foam pooling out of its mouth than the monster wolf.

When the Mana monster boar locked its sight on Asher and Elsa, it immediately snarled and shot off right towards them.

Its massive weight increasingly shook the ground with each ravenous step it took.

"As per usual, your whole body just has freaky perfect senses." Asher jokingly remarked before tightening his grip on his axe, getting completely serious.

A blue flash lit up on Elsa's hand as she magically brought out a short silver sword. "It's 'freaky' because you're not at that boundary of understanding."

She remarked back without a hint of humor in her tone.

Asher just felt a wry smile form as even with Elsa's completely indifferent tone, this was just her own way of bantering back.

Asher focused back up entirely after that brief moment. And without any spoken words between them, Asher and Elsa swiftly dashed towards the Mana monster boar simultaneously.

Elsa's speed was just slightly faster than Asher, and even the Mana monster boar appeared to be slower than Elsa's charge.

When both human and beast crossed tens of feet of distance in several seconds, the Mana monster boar's eyes explosively turned more feral.

"Skwaa~!!"

It opened its putrid foaming mouth, unleashing an ear-piercing screech!

The sheer power behind the Mana monster boar's voice even caused the wind to kick up at a faster pace.

Asher had to grit his teeth as his ears were painfully ringing from that booming screech. For a split second, he felt his conscience become dazed.

But, before it could fully affect his conscience, Asher forcefully surged Aura's energy towards his brain, giving himself a huge shock!

His eyes regained focus though he had to slow down just a bit to deal with the slight headache of sending Aura energy towards his brain.

Elsa, on the other hand, wasn't affected at all.

Her face remained calm and collected as she barreled right through the monster boar screech. In just a second, Elsa got within inches of the monster boar and slashed her short sword right towards one of its horns.

'Chi!'

Elsa felt zero resistance as her short silver sword smoothly sliced off half of the Mana monster boar's horn.

"Geaa!!"

The Mana monster boar released another ear-piercing shriek at the sudden burst of the pain of losing half of its horn.

In that instance, the Mana monster boar went unhinged. It didn't stop because of the pain and immediately attempted to ram its one and a half horn into Elsa.

However, before the monster boar even started its charge, Asher came up right beside Elsa!

He surged a bit of his Aura energy into his arms and viciously smacked his axe right on top of the monster boar colossal head.

'Bang!'

The Mana monster boar tanked the full-frontal blunt edge of Asher's axe, sending it skidding across the ground.

Elsa worked in perfect tandem with Asher, immediately rushing down the Mana monster boar without giving it a chance to react. She plunged her short sword deeply into the monster boar's eyes while it was still dazed from Asher's last attack.

"GE-" The Mana monster boar started to shriek again, but Asher wasn't a second slower in following up Elsa's strike.

He got within inches from the monster boar once again, surged off all his Aura energy, and plunged his axe deeply into the monster boar's second eye.

Asher and Elsa's combined energy was released in the monster boar's skull, scrambling its brain to a bloody mush, killing it almost immediately.

With monster boar dead, the Decrypted Wood starting area fell back towards its usual eerie silence.

Asher turned to look at Elsa, giving her an encouraging smile over their teamwork kill.

Elsa, though blinked her eyes once without a change in expression before turning her attention back on her plunged sword in the monster boar's eyes.

Asher, unbothered by this, kept up his smile, telling her, "That was almost a record time kill today."