Ian woke up in the morning and glanced around the room with half-closed eyes. Blernian Academy had developed a weird way to teach in the past years. Instead of unnecessary lessons, they were gaining real-life experience with low-rank missions under the supervision of their team captain. Today was the day they were going to leave for a mission for the first time. So Ian expected Elius to be loud as usual, but he wasn’t even there.

‘Did he already leave?’

He got up, prepared, and left the room. It was pretty early, so most of the students were still sleeping. He looked for Elius for a while and finally found him in the training ground, snoring.

“Hey, wake up!”

He nudged Elius with his feet.

“Uhh.”

Elius slowly opened his eyes and realized the sun. He quickly jumped up.

“Oh my god! Are you done?!”

“What? Done with what?”

Ian was confused.

“Ahh, n-nothing.”

Elius scratched the back of his head.

“Yes, I was already done in a few minutes after you fell asleep.”

‘Then why didn’t you woke me up?!’

“You didn’t tell me to wake you up.”

‘Even if I didn’t, you should’ve thought that.”

“But you told me to stop deciding by myself.”

Elius paused for a second.

‘I don’t even remember saying that. Ignore it.’

“Okay.”

Ian had a worried expression on his face because, to him right now, Elius was constantly changing his facial expression, like he was having a conversation with someone.

“Are you okay?”

“Huh?”

Elius came back to reality.

“Why wouldn’t I? I’m perfect. We are leaving today.”

‘Oh, he turned back to his usual self.’

Elius grabbed Ian’s arm.

“Let’s go, let’s go, time to pick a mission.”

He excitedly dragged Ian behind him. After a while, they were looking at a notice board with tons of papers on it. They were the missions, and they all had different difficulty levels ranging from F to C.

“Highest is the C?”

“Can we even complete a mission with a greater difficulty than C?”

“We can’t know without trying.”

Elius said while looking for a more challenging mission. Ian was still thinking about what King Chase said yesterday.

‘If what he said is true, then who are my real parents? Did Harold kill them? I want answers. No, I need answers!’

Then suddenly, Ian felt his heartbeat rising. Just for a brief moment, even less than a second, when his eyes were on the noticeboard, something weird happened. All of the other mission papers blacked out in the eyes of Ian except for one.

‘What the hell was that?’

His eyes were locked onto that paper, so he reached and took it.

[ The Great Unknown ]

“Unknown?”

He said it out loud without realizing it. Elius raised his head.

“What is it?”

He took a look at the paper Ian was holding.

“Elius, let’s take this.”

“Why? It looks pretty ordinary, even though it is a C rank and- Woah! What kind of reward is that?!”

Even though he was the one who picked the paper up first, Ian didn’t realize the reward. The rewards ranged from 100 to 150 silvers for most C-rank missions. Ian’s eyes widened also.

“F-four gold?! Just for an investigation?”

“I wouldn’t be that surprised.”

Both Elius and Ian flinched. The one who spoke was Jay.

“Did I scare you? I was looking for you to pick a mission, but I guess I’m late.”

“Why wouldn’t we be surprised?”

Elius asked.

“That mission has a lousy reputation. That four gold reward is the result of an accumulation over the years. First, everyone picked that one because it looked easy, but they found themselves outside of it after a few seconds whenever they entered the portal. At first, everyone thought it was a teleportation portal that randomly appeared because of a mana distortion. But when someone with enough courage tried to enter it, they realized it wasn’t. The one who entered said he found himself in a dark area and immediately came back out. People tried to do it for years but failed and decided to let that mission rot in the notice board. Then somebody spread a rumor about that area being cursed, and after that, I don’t think anyone ever picked it up. It was almost 50 years ago.”

Jay briefly explained them. Four golds were enough to live in luxury for a few months. Elius’ eyes sparkled.

“What happened to the people who took this mission?”

Jay shrugged.

“Nothing, they just wasted their time.”

“Ian, why did you want to take it?”

“I-I don’t know. There is something about it.”

“Okay, let’s go then. Where is it?”

Elius snatched the paper from Ian’s hand.

“Hmm, Lazor Kingdom.”

“Okay, give me. I’ll ask Idarin to approve.”

Jay took the paper and left. A tiny dark red crystal appeared in Elius’ hand, Idarin gave one of them to every student. It made communication easier between team members, but its range wasn’t too wide. Elius poured some mana in the crystal and began to speak.

“Attention! Your leader is speaking. You are all expected at the entrance in five minutes!”

“To do what?”

“Who are you? State your name!”

“You know I’m Liam. Stop talking like an idiot.”

“We are leaving for a mission in five minutes. I repeat we are leaving for a mission in five minutes.”

Then Elius deactivated the stone.

“Heh, this is fun.”

Even though just 10 seconds passed, Liam came running.

“Finally! What are we hunting? My hands are itchy.”

“Treasure.”

Elius said with a smile.

“What?”

“This is not a combat mission. We will discover something unknown.”

“What?! No! I refuse!”

“Too late, it’s already decided. Huhuhu, four gold will be ours.”

Elius rubbed his hands together. Liam was about to open his mouth and oppose, but he stopped.

‘Did he say four golds? I can eat meat and drink all day for a long time with that kind of money.’

“Why are we still here?!”

Liam yelled while drooling. Ten minutes passed, and they all gathered to wait for Jay at the entrance.

“How do you feel?”

Ian asked Eldron.

“I’m good surprisingly, I still have a slight headache, but that is all.”

“Aahh. Where is Jay?”

Elius grunted. A few minutes later, Jay walked out of the academy’s door while dragging someone behind him.

“No! I said I wouldn’t come. Let me go!”

“This is not optional. Stop resisting.”

“I’ve never agreed to join!”

‘Shit, my father tricked me!’

“Too late.”

“Ohh! Neil, welcome aboard.”

Elius greeted him, Neil wasn’t looking happy as always, and he didn’t answer Elius.

“Okay, kids, it will take a few days to reach the Lazor Kingdom on feet. So let’s move quickly. I’ll explain the details of the mission on the way.”

Jay went ahead while dragging Neil. The excitement was evident on their faces, and they followed Jay.

‘Pst.’

“Don’t pst me. I have a name.”

‘Summarize what you learned from Julius yesterday.’

“Why don’t you just read yourself? It is only around twenty pages.”

‘No. I like learning new things, but I don’t like reading! So we are a perfect match!’

“Sigh…”

‘Did you just sigh?’

“He was talking about the four elements. Apparently, these are the only elements you can have complete control over. Water is the element of purification, regeneration, and healing. It has the power to heal any injury. The element of earth is associated with endurance and strength. This element is mainly manipulated with the use of earth spells, which can be used to summon roots and vines to trip or restrain opponents; conjure rockslides to block off paths, and trigger earthquakes. The air element is as powerful and unpredictable as the wind that it controls. It is primarily manipulated with the use of wind spells, which can be used in a variety of ways, such as directing air currents, conjuring smoke, and strangling opponents. Finally, the fire element, you already know it. It’s mostly for destruction. I can only shorten this much.”

Elius already knew some of this, but he nodded in satisfaction. When he talked with Elly, he often lost his connection with the real world. It happened again, and he came to his senses after Elly had done explaining. Neil wasn’t resisting anymore. Instead, he was walking obediently behind Jay with a sullen expression.

“Listen up. Our objective is to find a way to enter that unknown portal and discover where it leads. People tried to do it over and over, but they all failed. Over the years, the portal’s reputation spread amongst the folk. No one could get in, and then the least expected thing happened. A 4-year-old little kid managed to get inside, but no matter how long people waited, the kid didn’t come back out. Thus his parents issued a mission for it. Adventurers all over the world were involved this time instead of common folk. But as you can guess, they also failed.”

“Then what is the point of even trying this?”

Neil asked irritatedly.

“So, even though nobody cleared this mission for decades, why is it still C rank?”

Ruvyn asked with a suspicious tone.

“Good question. Because its danger level determines the rank of a mission, and in this case, there were no major issues or sufficient information about the mission. Plus, we are doing this because there must be a way if a four-year-old kid manages to enter.”

Elius sighed after listening to them.

“Walking like this is sooo boooring.”

“Stop whining.”

Jay said with a smile.

“There is a reason I chose this path. You’ll understand soon.”

They kept walking deeper in the forest it was almost midnight now. Various monsters appeared as the distance between them and the academy grew, but they were all harmless. Jay took out a map.

“You all have one, right?. Take it out.”

Everyone took out theirs. The map has magic on it, of course, like almost everything. On the map, there was a tiny red dot. That was the owner of the map.

“We will spend the night here. Then, with the first lights, we will move there.”

He pointed a point on the map and scanned the area with his eyes.

“I’ll be observing you.”

Kids didn’t understand what he meant by that, and they gave a weird look to smiling Jay.

“This will be a good exercise. So try to survive until morning.”

After saying that, Jay disappeared.

“We are surrounded.”

Before Elius could react to Elly, pairs of eyes appeared on the trees. They quickly took out their weapons and heard heavy step sounds. Something was approaching them.

“Aha, I remembered now.”

All of them turned towards Ruvyn like they were expecting an explanation.

“We are currently in the territory of night monkeys, and they don’t like intruders.”

A roaring sound made them all flinched, and something came jumping between the trees. A white monkey almost five-meter long in height appeared, and it jumped on them while roaring.