Leon picked up the strange card, then checked its information.

[Basic Ability Upgrade Card - Evolve your ability into a Tier One ability]

He was stunned for a moment, and he quickly turned to Thyra who was beside him.

"Leave the explanations for later. Instead, ensure you keep it for yourself."

Leon nodded inwardly, then turned to Selene and the others.

"Since I dealt the most damage and killed it, I’ll be taking this."

Reymond looked like he was about to argue, but when Selene nodded, he fell silent.

Leon kept the card, then resumed their journey.

"Although I’ve passed here over a thousand times, it still looks so alien to me. I’m sure this road was never this narrow."

Samson muttered as he looked around.

Walking beside him, Leon answered calmly. "Don’t you notice the difference with the trees? They’re growing larger and taller."

Samson’s eyes widened. "My old eyes really didn’t notice that. Kid, you’re sharp."

Suddenly, Leon paused, hearing faint squeaking sounds from around them.

The others heard them too, and immediately became alert. He glanced back at his own team, and they immediately came forward.

In a few seconds, a horde of mutated rats the size of large dogs came out of the forest to attack everyone.

Cassie, Marie, Fel, Miguel, and Richard immediately sprang into action.

Cassie stabbed her dagger into one mutated rat’s head, then turned around to slice through the neck of another.

[You have slain a Level 11 Mutated Rodent! +3 Agility points gained!]

[You have slain a...]

On another side, Marie moved like a cat among the mutated rats. She struck forward with her spear, blasting the head of a mutated rat into pieces. Then, she swung the weapon like a whip, crushing a few to the ground and crippling them.

Miguel worked smartly with his own weapon, directly crushing the mutated rats into meat paste.

Richard and Fel stayed together, slowly reducing the numbers of the mutated rats and gaining more stat points.

Selene watched the team’s performance with furrowed brows.

’He trained them this much in just five days?’

She cast a glance at Leon who stood calmly like a commander overseeing a battle.

Shaking her head, she decided to not pay unnecessary attention to him.

’By the way... that card was really strange. What exactly does it do?’

Although she was curious, she wouldn’t lower herself to asking him to show her. She closed her eyes and waited for the battle with the mutated rats to end.

In a few minutes, the mutated rats had been wiped out, and Leon’s team began picking up the dropped rewards.

"We’ll check it later. Let’s go."

Putting it all into a bag Fel carried, they continued their journey towards the east gate.

Finally, they arrived at the parking lot where the university buses were parked.

A few buses had fallen sideways, probably hit by something heavy. Still there were some buses that remained untouched.

"Let me check if they’re in good condition."

Samson said as he walked up to one, then forced the door open.

’Hmmm...’

He checked a few things on the dashboard, then came outside.

"All good. But we’ll be needing some extra fuel just in case."

At that moment, Reymond’s voice sounded from inside a small building near the parking lot.

"I found fuel here."

Samson turned to him and clapped. "Great. We can load them into the bus and drive our way out of here."

Selene came down from another bus, then said in her signature tone.

"We’re taking two buses. We can’t leave ourselves stranded when the one we take breaks down."

Samson pondered about it for a moment, then nodded.

"Alright. I can drive this one, but who’s driving the other?"

They all glanced at each other, untill Richard raised his hand.

"I’ll drive it." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

The middle-aged man smiled and patted his back. "Good. Let’s begin our own ’Fast and Furious’."

Richard smiled and shook his head at the man’s humor.

Reymond, Marie, and Miguel loaded the extra fuel they had found into the buses. With that, it was finally time to return.

"Leon?"

Gwen called out to the young man who stood in the distance, looking around absentmindedly.

Hearing her voice, Leon gave their surroundings one last look, then walked up to them.

"Ready to depart?"

They all nodded, then divided themselves into two groups.

Samson, Selene, Reymond, Miguel, and Cassie, entered the first bus, while Richard, Leon, Gwen, Fel, and Marie, entered the second bus.

The two drivers started the engines of the buses, then drove out of the parking lot, retracing their steps back to the field house.

As soon as they got onto that road, Leon felt his hair stand on end.

He immediately stood up, opened the door, then climbed onto the roof of the bus.

"Boss. What’s the problem?"

Richard was confused, and began to drive carefully so Leon wouldn’t be thrown off the bus.

Leon didn’t answer him. Instead, he steadied his footing and grabbed the handle of his sword.

"Selene! Get out now!"

He turned towards the first bus that was driving ahead of them, hoping the girl could hear him.

A few seconds later, the door opened and Selene stretched her body out just to look at him. Her cold blue eyes narrowed faintly, wondering what was wrong.

However, before she could ask, she heard the sounds of monkeys lunging through the trees.

Her eyes widened, and she instinctively shot an icicle into the forest.

One unlucky mutated monkey came out just in time to be skewered, and fell to the ground.

However, Selene wasn’t relieved. There were more monkeys coming for them.

Gwen opened one of the windows and stuck her upper body out, shooting her arrows at the monkeys chasing after the buses.

Leon also used his shadow ability to pierce the monkeys with shadow spears, killing them before they could reach the bus.

’Thankfully, they’re all weak.’

He thought as he took down the last monkey, looking at the corpses on the ground behind them.

Suddenly he frowned, feeling the bus tremble under his feet. At first, he thought it was Richard driving roughly, but then he noticed the rhythm of the tremor.

’That is...’

He looked back just in time to see a silverback gorilla come out of the forest and look at the moving buses with a murderous gaze.

Leon’s body tensed instantly as he saw the yellow crystal on its forehead.

’If this thing reaches us, the buses will be destroyed. Most of them might not even survive.’

He grabbed the hilt of his weapon, then looked back at Selene. She could also see the mutated silverback gorilla, and she could feel how dangerous it was.

"If I don’t return in five hours... forget it."

The silver-haired girl read his lips and her eyes widened. Before she could protest or say a word, Leon jumped off the bus.