Heaven's Greatest Professor

The group joined up together with everyone in relatively healthy form. He did find some wound in Caleb, but the older spearman was up and kicking ready to complete their mission.

The siblings were close as ever, sticking to one another, and protecting one another from the cold weather and heaviness. But who was going to save them from themselves?

"So, tell me about what you found?" Agnes asked, after finding everyone alright. "Did you meet any forsaken races?"

"Nope," Caleb said. "There were a few cursed creatures, mostly chimaeras here and there until we found a place with high spiritual energy concentration. It is like ten times than natural and we haven't ventured deeper in fear of wild beasts slumbering in the high-energy environment."

"Ten times than natural is a clear sign of Essence vein, maybe a lower grade one," Agnes thought out loud. "There can be a couple of other things, but essence vein seems most likely. Anything else did you find?"

"The highly concentrated energy seemed to create a closed space on there," Caleb continued. "There were plenty of wild beasts and tainted creatures. We found a few silver-ranked creatures and we didn't move deeper into the space. Perhaps there are even Gold-rank creatures here."

"Gold rank creatures were rather rare in the Second fold of the rift, but not unheard of," Agnes said. She discussed deeper on the movement and the task to finally say, "We'll make a final venture into that space to confirm. In the meantime, have some rest. We need to be at our very best for this.

Although you haven't come across the forsaken, they are here… it is unlikely they came for something else."

Even if they did, an essence vein was something of everyone's interest.

In about a couple of hours of preparation and rest, the group was on the move again in the familiar formation. Kevin scouting ahead, while the captain leading the crew.

Thankfully, the suppression hadn't gone over 25%, by the time they saw the first sign of spiritual energy concentrating in a specific area. That was mostly the reason there were so few wild animals in the areas, most of them were slumbering in the high-energy concentrated area to grow stronger.

The essence vein was something that can give a boost to all the attributes. Well, more or less, there was clearly a division on the type. The one they encountered seemed to be pure energy, which meant it is beneficial to all rankers.

The group slowed down at the first sight of demonic beasts. Here only the strongest ones remained, as they had either devoured or chased away all the weaker beast that came to benefit from the high energy concentration.

"At this concentration, I think I can grow a point each day for about a couple of weeks," the captain said, frowning. Thankfully, most of the beasts were busy benefiting from the highly concentrated energy to inspect for a few humans skulking around. "Let's go a little deeper."

With she covered everyone but Kevin with her stealth power as they crept forward, taking the long way into a high-energy concentrated zone avoiding all the wild beasts.

'We only moved this far,' Caleb mentioned through sign language when they came across a massive serpent slumbering, coiled up inside the ground.

They rounded the serpent without waking it up. Warden could feel his body rejuvenating with each step he took—this could only be compared to a few special chambers in the academy that took a lot of credits. powered by NovelFire-mp|y|r

Skills grow at a higher speed in this environment as well.

After skulking around in the zone for some time, they came to a relatively safer spot high in a barren ridge, where they could talk more freely.

"I'm positive with your assessment," Agnes said to the others. "This is likely the side-effect of the essence vein leaking out and creating this zone of high energy concentration."

"Wouldn't the energy simply disperse in a lower concentrated area?" Warden asked. "I mean, that is what general physics says."

The others seemed oblivious to what he was implying, but the captain got what he was meant to tell. "You're not wrong," she said. "But that is under normal circumstances. I shouldn't have to tell you that this is not a normal situation."

Warden nodded. "Well, there is this suppression, which should keep the leaked energy grounded," he said, "but that shouldn't be enough to create a natural energy array like this. It's almost like the energy were circling some unseen attraction force."

Agnes blinked. "you're right." Then she went on to contemplate more. "If there really is an attraction force—it should be the location of the essence vein."

Everyone perked up at that.

"Which is probably at the core of the zone," Warden said, scanning his surroundings. "If we can make an accurate map out of the structure of this zone, I think I can locate the focal point."

Agnes shook her head. "The zone is too big with dangerous creatures roaming around… we cannot in good faith make an accurate map with just this much manpower."

Warden shrugged. He simply suggested, not that he thought it was anything special. Making the map accurate would be the difficult part.

"Anyway," Milia said, "doesn't this prove our mission is over?"

The others wanted to know as well, as they turned to their captain, waiting for the answer.

"Pretty much," she said, standing up. "Stay here for an hour… I'll round the place a little more."

"Alone?" Warden asked.

Agnes nodded. "Taking someone else will only hinder my pace," she said, as dark wings spread on her back, wide enough to cover them all. She flapped the wings of darkness and flew up in the air. In no time, she disappeared from their sight.

Warden could only look at her vanish in the sky enviously. When the hell will he manage to get his radiance power to activate [Wings of Radiance]?

****

Twilight processed through the administrative work in relative silence like she liked it to be. There were many questions the scribbler asked and many he would have liked to ask, but her unresponsive mood to most of his quarries stopped him from going deeper into them.

The scribbler was a boy of around her age, perhaps a couple of years younger, but more nervous than her when she was not in her dark assassin costume.

Well, considering he was asking questions to a figure fully covered in a dark and purple robe glued to her form with an eerie-looking mask over the face with two eye sockets glowing in purple light, it wasn't his fault that he was nervous.

Moreover, whenever she talked in this form, the air vibrated with echoes of spirituality, which was quite disconcerting to most people so far from what she had seen.

Twilight could stop that echo if she concentrated, but she deemed it was necessary if she didn't want to waste time in here.

"Alright, umm Miss Twilight, here's your paper," the young scribbler said, returning her arcane society badge. "You're officially a free agent for the Republic. I'm sure you're aware of the benefits of this position. Basically, you will have the freedom to choose the types of contracts you take."

Twilight nodded, scanning the paper once.

"As you have asked for the entry into the frontlines," he continued, checking with other papers lying on his table. "There are three contracts open for people of your… talent."

Twilight just stood there, which was enough for the guy to continue.

"First is of course, um assassination mission."

Twilight shook her head once.

"Then there's those contracted soldiers and other specialist positions. There's a slot open for a bodyguarding mission of a young—"

Twilight shook her head again.

"Alright, the last is a scouting mission," the scribbler had already lost his confidence in getting her a mission. "It is a long mission, where you have to travel far into the rift, closer to the empire's side, I reckon."

Twilight perked up, considering she would have to move into the lands of the empire, this mission seemed to be the right excuse for her task.

Seeing her interest, the scribbler continued, "Oh there's still a few spots open, considering most people didn't want to move so much. If you want to take this mission… meet up with Colonel Damon, he's in charge of this."

Twilight nodded. After a second thought, she bowed slightly and disappeared from his view.

She heard him sighing in relief as she walked away in stealth. A smile laced up in the corner of her lips, as she lifted the paper.

Now she could finally move into the frontlines, which was also the fastest way to move into the empire to complete the task the oracle gave her. It had been some time since then. Took her a week to move around through teleportation to into the Republic sight. After that, she had to prove her skills through some tests and missions to finally cash in this certificate.

For most people, she had done it super-fast… but not enough considering her schedule.

I'm still not doing the job I was hired for, Twilight thought as she moved into, the main camp to meet with this Colonel Damon. Well, Ai had asked her for this, and the blind woman even promised she would help find a relatively safer way into the forbidden islands. Blind she may be, but Ai was not without resources. She was one of the most compenent women, she knew.

Still, Twilight couldn't just leave everything to the girl. Ai had trouble of her own, and unlike her, she couldn't hide behind a mask and pretend she was someone else.

At least, what I left behind should be enough to protect her from any harm, Twilight sighed.