The two groups met right outside the gate and immediately headed to their destination without bickering with each other.

"Without any beasts, we can reach that place in about 7 to 8 hours. However, how are we going to handle the beasts?" Ellia asked.

Maxwell answered, "We can do a rotation every hour. This way, you will know each other’s abilities and what to expect from them."

"Sounds good to me. Who will start?"

"You can start if you want."

Starting first would mean giving more information about their group to the other group. At the same time, it also meant more opportunities to fight the beasts. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

It would be good to give them some experience, especially to Eric. She already knew Auric’s capability after going to the ruins together, but Eric would probably need an adjustment.

"Okay. My group will start." Ellia agreed and took the drones out of her storage. "Arina."

"Got it!" Arina started flying the drones at the same time, allowing them to go ahead and scout the entire area as she observed everything from the screen.

"I’ve found ten beasts 100 meters in front of us. The space is too narrow, so going around probably won’t work. The other route will take much longer," reported Arina.

"Eric, Milinda. You two will take care of them." Ellia gave an order. It was a perfect chance to see Eric’s performance. Although Milinda was quite strong, Ellia had never seen her fight, so she was going to assist Eric.

The two of them nodded. Milinda asked for confirmation. "No experience in fighting beasts, right?"

"Yes?" Eric didn’t know why she asked that question. He had fought a couple of people, so he thought he had enough experience to take down the beasts.

However, it became clear the moment they reached the location of the beasts.

"Go!" Milinda channeled her power, showing her gray energy.

The students from Kallarnos University couldn’t believe what they were seeing. In Ellia’s group, there were actually three people with unique elements. They were supposed to be very rare elements, yet they managed to gather three of them.

More importantly, two of them had evolved their avatars.

Unfortunately, their focus shifted the moment they heard a bark coming from the front.

The beasts in their path turned out to be dogs with dark elements.

Eric raised his hand and formed a scythe.

Eric channeled his power at the tip of the scythe before swinging it horizontally, sending a crescent-shaped blood slash toward the dogs.

A few people twitched their eyebrows, knowing that this wasn’t what he was supposed to do.

Ellia didn’t say anything, as though she had expected this result. Even Auric had done something similar in the past.

The dogs saw the blood wave and immediately dispersed, avoiding Eric’s attack. Then, they rushed to him with a more spread-out formation, making it hard to target multiple of them at once.

"!!!" Eric was startled. He halted his steps, trying to figure out what he should do next.

Milinda snapped her fingers. "You shouldn’t do that. Dispersing the beasts will make it harder for you to kill them. For now, I’ll take care of the ones on the right. Focus on the beasts on the left."

She intentionally picked the right because there were six beasts on that side. Eric would have a better time adjusting his strategy with only four enemies.

Multiple spears formed all around her. The moment she waved her hand, the spears flew toward the beasts.

The dogs were trying to avoid them, but the spears were faster, impaling them.

"Auuu!" Some dogs died instantly; others were heavily injured. Milinda skillfully closed the distance between them and beheaded the surviving dogs.

Meanwhile, Eric actually did the same thing as before. He scooped up the ground and formed a massive wave, further dividing the dogs.

When Milinda was about to tell him that he shouldn’t do that again, Eric moved at a fast speed.

The four dogs split into two groups because of the blood wave. So, Eric first intercepted the dogs going farther left.

He swung his scythe swiftly, clashing with a dog’s claws. The other dog was trying to attack him from a different direction.

Eric abruptly turned his scythe into a double-sided scythe, making it look like an anchor instead of a scythe.

Since the first dog stopped him, he immediately spun the other way around and sliced the second dog, which was too focused on attacking him.

Not expecting an attack from Eric, the dog was slain on the spot. The first dog angrily pounced on him, but Eric pointed his palm at the dog, formed a blood tornado and killed it.

The other two dogs that went to the right earlier had caught up and pounced on him.

Eric raised his eyebrows and shifted slightly to the right. Suddenly, a spear sliced the dog on the left.

"!!!" The other dog was startled, looking at its friend getting slaughtered from behind. It turned out Milinda had reached them.

With the dog distracted, Eric sliced the other dog with his scythe. In a way, they had killed ten dogs in just a minute, which was a good achievement.

At the same time, Milinda couldn’t praise Eric’s actions.

"Why did he split up those beasts in the first place? Shouldn’t have done that!" Vera complained.

"Training." Ellia shrugged. "He doesn’t have any experience fighting beasts yet, so it’s good to get used to it."

"You’re bringing an inexperienced person on a mission like this?"

"The last time I recall, our targets are humans, not beasts." Ellia rolled her eyes.

Vera clicked her tongue because Ellia seemed to always have a reply.

They continued their journey. Once an hour was up, the students from Kallarnos University led this time.

As Auric had seen before, Tommi’s fire overwhelmed the beasts. It was good to crush the beasts, but he used a bit too much energy on his attacks.

Vera, who had been trying to badmouth Auric’s team, cut down many beasts herself. It was no wonder that Arina said she was the one replacing Ellia after Ellia awakened a unique element avatar.

Her element was wind. She could swiftly move from one place to another with the help of her wind element. She was nimble, flexible, and precise.

Her wind element was also an extreme element with a rating of 4.1. It was something that Auric wanted, but he really wanted to see if there was a possibility of her using a battle technique that allowed him to obtain the basic form of this element.

For the time being, Auric registered her power first.

Maxwell helped the team in a much more versatile way. His element was light, but he was the sniper of the team. With a rifle in his hand, he supported the team from behind, firing one bullet after another.

The bullets weren’t simple ones. They were sharp and packed with power. Every time it hit a beast, a part of its body would be blown apart.

Although his element only had a rating of 3.0, it fit Auric’s criteria. He would surely try to get Maxwell to use the basic form of his element.

The assassin, Christopher, turned out to have a lightning element. Auric first expected he would have a dark element or something, but this was fine as well. The lightning element rating hadn’t reached the extreme variant level, but it was more than enough to become part of Auric’s collection.

More importantly, since Auric had also evolved his lightning element, he could simply snatch this lightning element whenever he wanted.

Still, cultivating this power was not his priority, considering he wanted to focus on getting all his elements to evolve first.

The last person, Ruka, was actually much more interesting than any of them. She possessed a plant element called Gentle Nature. This element had a rating of 4.6.

It was surprisingly high, but it was even more surprising that they actually sent her knowing that Tommi, who possessed the absolute fire element, was there.

Even with her extreme element, she simply couldn’t fight Tommi’s element.

There was a way Tommi’s ability ended up restricting her power in a battle.

Nevertheless, Auric didn’t complain. She hadn’t evolved, as she was also a first-year student like Tommi and Auric, so he could copy this element right away.

Auric was quite satisfied with this trip. As one would expect from Kallarnos University, their students definitely had all the good elements.

It was tempting, but even right now, Auric hadn’t completely filled all the elements he possessed. If he went there now, he would simply have too many options and too little time to fill them up, not to mention opening his store.

That was why Auric thought it was indeed the right choice to remain at Grand Magica College.

Auric kept observing the other team. They were explosive in a way, but they had so many holes.

It might be because they possessed rare talents and good backgrounds, so they were more individualistic. The person who patched the holes was Maxwell.

He supported the team from behind and monitored everyone’s movements.

Unlike the time Auric went on an expedition with Ellia and Arina, the scale of this fight was larger. That was why each of them wore an earpiece.

Maxwell gave the command to the team. Ruka’s element was much more powerful than Arina’s. Although Arina’s control was good, she realized that Ruka might be able to defeat her if they were at the same level.

Nonetheless, both of them fulfilled their roles.

Christopher, on the other hand, leaped around the battlefield a lot, using the speed he got from his lightning element to eliminate all kinds of beasts that would interfere with their battle plans.

Of course, Maxwell also observed Auric and the others. Milinda was interesting enough, but they realized Milinda’s ability was still lower than Ellia’s. Even after killing all these beasts, there were two people who hadn’t gotten serious this whole time. They were Ellia and Auric.

Ellia simply did the minimum, telling them that she wanted the others to gain experience before the battle against the scavengers.

On the other hand, Auric had only used his plant element all this time. He had yet to use the other two elements.

That was why Maxwell couldn’t take his eyes away from these two. He had to see the abilities they had been hiding.

Unfortunately for Maxwell, they reached their destination before Ellia and Auric were required to show their full strength.

"Why are they using this city, though?" Eric asked while looking up, staring at a high-rise building on his left.

"It’s pretty simple. This place is far from active cities. The military or the police won’t risk their own people to capture or kill these scavengers. At the same time, it’s not too far for them to be completely isolated either. They can still go around and attack people. So, yeah..." Arina shrugged.

"Let’s focus on the mission first, shall we?" Ellia smiled.

Maxwell nodded. "I will take this building and see if there are scouts around us. Tommi and Auric will have to find another building to use."

"Got it!" Tommi and Auric nodded.

"Chris. Go scout the mall first. The rest of you will approach the mall quietly. Make sure to avoid any scouts. Once we get a clear picture of the area, we will eliminate the scouts one by one."

They didn’t have an objection, so Ellia and Vera immediately led the team to approach the mall three blocks away from them. They used the alleys to get closer to the mall.

Christopher skillfully moved around the main street to figure out the location of the scouts while approaching the mall.

Maxwell rushed to the top of the building, but considering the number of floors he had to climb, he would still take a while.

At that moment, Christopher brought bad news.

"Ehm... guys? I think we’ve got a problem... a very big problem." Christopher gasped. "Our target seems to be meeting with another group."

"!!!"