Leo had come to Nathan’s office, prepared to make his case. He was expecting the General to make a bigger fuss out of sending one of his best officers to a red portal planet, but surprisingly... Nathan had already considered it.

Since the two affected students didn’t come from any big name families, Nathan thought it was a risk to his personnel to have them save two no-name children. Leo didn’t like this mentality, but he would voice his complaints later.

"Seeing as you are already willing to save them, I grant you permission to go with Hayley, and another staff member of your choosing," Nathan stated.

Without hesitation, Leo replied, "Send a message to Faye Dallum to meet us in the portal room."

Nathan nodded, "I’ll see if she’s interested knowing you’re on board."

With that, Leo got up, and left the office.

He had chosen Faye due to her history of saving the first years during the assembly incident, making her a good person in his book. The same couldn’t be said for Del, as when he was told about Erin and Fex earlier, he was very adamant about needing to stay here for "teaching reasons." Leo wasn’t a fool, he could tell that Del thought it was a lost cause.

Soon, the trio of Leo, Hayley, and Faye all stood together in the very room that Erin and Fex were in the night prior. They all stared at the portal, its ominous red color illuminated the room.

"Let’s make this as fast of a mission as possible," Faye said, determined, "The report stated that this planet once had a shelter, but was destroyed when hoards of strong beasts attacked it. Thankfully, those hoards are no longer around, meaning that this is the best time to arrive."

Faye then added, "Who knows, there’s a chance those students of yours might actually be alive."

Leo hummed, acknowledging Faye’s comment, before they all held each other by the hands and entered.

They all knew that this was a quickly put together mission, and the longer they stayed on the planet, the more likely they were to risk death. They didn’t have a lot of time to finish this before their other duties would require them again.

As they arrived on the other side, a bright light shone before three human figures suddenly appeared on a dark planet. They had found themselves in between two broken down buildings in an abandoned city which was only lit by its two moons.

"Are we all accounted for?" Faye spoke again as she looked at the other two, "Just because the reports state that the strong beasts are no longer around, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t slack off. Stay alert"

Since they were going to a red portal planet, they had to be geared up. Even though Faye and Leo were quite strong, and Hayley could defend herself, there was no guarantee that a horde of basic tier beasts couldn’t surprise and overwhelm them. There was even the potential that the dalki were around.

They had brought a teleporter back to military base 2, which Hayley was in charge of. Despite her smaller stature, she was given this job due to the fact that she wore a lot of high tier beast armor, which granted her strength she wouldn’t otherwise have. Since Faye and Leo were fighters, it was better to have their hands free.

As Hayley was adjusting the position of the portal on her back, Faye took notice of her armor, and how it contrasted against the normally shy looking lady.

Her beast gear was massive, with giant pointy shoulder pieces, and a chest piece with a frightening face on it. She also had a jagged toothy sword hanging on her waist that was as wide as she was. If Faye didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought this doctor was a professional traveler.

It was high-end armor, and since her mother was the current head general of the base, Hayley had access to the highest tier beast gear money could buy. It made Faye’s and Leo’s light armor look plain in comparison. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"I know that we might need to make an emergency exit, but doesn’t the planet have a portal?" Hayley asked as she rebalanced her center of gravity. Even though they brought a portable teleporter, it was still large, making it unwieldy.

"You should know it is better to have something and not need it, then to need something and not have it," Leo replied, "And besides, the portal here could be destroyed."

Hayley sighed, "I should put in a request to make these teleporters have wheels..."

"Okay, with that said and done, let’s head for the training center. It was the place the portal was last known to be, and we can see if it’s safe or not. Leo will lead the way for us." Faye commanded as she nodded towards him.

Leo walked ahead of the group, and used his ability as they traveled. Not only could he detect the auras of living beings, it also made it so he could perceive the world from a 360 view. This made it incredibly easy for him to scout out potential threats, and they were able to avoid any confrontations with beasts.

On their way to the training center, Leo noticed something with his ability. The group had traveled to a very ruined building to investigate, and spotted a dead beast on the ground right next to it.

"It’s an advanced tier beast," Leo noted, as he was able to sense the energy from the crystal inside.

Looking at the scene around them, it looked like some sort of battle occurred with how the rubble from the building nearby looked recently destroyed. The stone was sharply cut, not worn down from years of waiting, and the beast’s corpse was still around. Normally beast bodies don’t last very long after death as they would disintegrate quickly without a crystal inside.

"It’s still fresh," Hayley pointed out to the red blood splattered around the dead deathbat, "Who could’ve been strong enough to kill it? A traveler? Another beast?"

Cutting out the beast crystal from the deathbat, Leo responded, "No. If a traveler were to have come by, then they would’ve collected its crystal. Most travelers wouldn’t give up a chance to get an advanced tier crystal, especially after going through the trouble of defeating it."

"Or there was an even stronger beast nearby, preventing them from harvesting the crystal," Faye suggested.

But Leo had other thoughts. There was a surprising lack of beasts in the entire area, even with him using his ability. So far, not a single sword was unsheathed, and there just weren’t nearly enough beasts around that made him think they were on a red portal planet.

"Let’s move," Leo said as he pocketed the crystal.

The group started to move again, but Hayley couldn’t help but feel the tiniest bit disappointed. She went on this mission to help the students, yes, and that was definitely the biggest reason why she was even out here at all, but a little part of her wished she could’ve used her beast gear. Work was rough, and it wasn’t every day that she had the opportunity to let loose on some beasts.

Instead, to fill in the silence, she decided to talk.

"So, how does your ability work, Leo?" Hayley said.

The two stopped, and Faye looked to Leo, not quite sure if he would respond. As far as they knew, Leo was the only one with his ability, making him an Original. Originals were normally tight-lipped about their abilities as they were the original users of their powers, and they had the benefit of people not knowing how their powers worked, unlike the publicly available abilities.

"If you must know, it allows me to see the auras of people, beasts and dalki," Leo simply replied.

"Well, I know that, we all do, but if it can only do that, then surely someone like Faye could beat you in a fight, right?" Hayley said, "No offense, Leo."

"You say that, but I can confidently tell you that Leo is actually the stronger one out of us two," Faye responded, "Back then, when Leo was only a private, he had done so many accomplishments, it felt unbelievable. We practically had to beg him to join our ranks after the first war, but he only did after the one request that he would like to become a teacher."

"Oh?" Hayley said, intrigued.

They continued walking again, and despite the conversation about the man, Leo stayed silent. Hayley couldn’t help but wonder how exactly his ability helped him in a fight. It was a powerful ability, yes, but that was purely due to the amount of MC he had. Was there something more she just wasn’t aware about?