Aeon and Suri turned towards the huge explosion.
Strong!
However, what they saw was completely unexpected.
The spell did not explode on the red baboon's face. It was supposed to, but at the last moment, the baboon was able to cover its face. And now its...paw was much bigger than earlier! The back of its paw was incinerated, but that was all. Aside from the fact that its paws were extremely tough, it could actually grow its other body parts according to its own will.
Does that mean they could grow to a larger size?
Everyone shivered from the thought, but they have no room to relax. At the moment, they were still in danger.
Aeon had finished wiping out the 3-meter tall small fries pestering him and could now focus on the blue baboon. Suri was closing in rapidly as well.
Without a second thought, Aeon rushed towards the baboon's forelegs. He hoped that its skin and fur was not as tough as the grizzly bear's. As Aeon neared, however, the baboon stood up on both legs, clearly displaying its height of five meters. The baboon slashed both of its metallic claws at the same time.
The attack was fast, but Aeon was much faster. He demonstrated a huge burst of speed.
The attack landed on the ground hitting nothing. At that moment, Aeon was already near its belly. His target was its hind legs to hinder its movements. Without anything standing on his way, Aeon slashed with his Verdure and Zephyr.
"EEEEEEEEK!"
The blue baboon wailed in pain and it dropped to its knees.
Aeon simply left the cleanup to Suri.
Suri jumped towards the baboon's exposed back and stabbed with his broadsword. Sadly, the baboon was able to defend with its short tail. Suri's Flaming Stab failed to land on the baboon's back but it completely destroyed its tail. Progress was progress.
Suri landed on the ground beside Aeon.
….
They were about to wrap things up over at Korona's side.
Although the red baboon demonstrated another extraordinary ability, their expectations did not come true. It was not capable of increasing its own size. Maybe if it was left to evolve longer, then it might be able to achieve this feature. Unfortunately for it, its life was about to end right there and then.
Levi dealt the finishing blow with a C-grade spell, cleanly slicing the baboon's body in half. As if that wasn't enough, he decapitated the baboon's head as well.
The three did not feel any remorse. They were in a kill or be killed situation.
The two girls panted from exhaustion and looked over at Aeon and Suri.
As expected, the two were able to deal with the blue baboon. It was not sliced cleanly in half, like the red baboon, but it was burnt to a crisp and had lost all its limbs. The scene was quite brutal.
The two battles ended at almost the same time and everything fell silent.
The team regrouped with each other and moved towards the direction of the falls. Everyone was exhausted. Except for Aeon, the rest used some relatively high-level spells that took a toll on their magic reserves. They were in their weakest state since the Grand Magic Examination. Meeting more magical beasts along the way would surely spell trouble for them.
Fortunately, the forest was quite peaceful after that. Their battle must have scared away the weaker beasts. The team reached the waterfalls safely, and everyone entered the empty space behind it one by one.
Just as Aeon said, there were three Galaxy Flowers. Sadly, one of them was crushed. Maybe it was stepped on when the baboons were rushing outside.
Levi crouched down and carefully took out the two plants. He placed it on a small pot that would temporarily hold it so it won't wilt along the way back to the camp. They had Korona so they wouldn't worry about it not getting enough water.
When Korona was about to touch it, Levi wiggled a finger at her. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Eh? Why?" Korona asked curiously.
"The surface of the Galaxy Flower excretes a liquid. When this liquid enters the human body through the pores, instantly, you will start to hallucinate," Levi responded as he marveled at the beauty of the plant, "you will imagine yourself floating on rainbows."
Hearing this, Aeon could not help asking, "Do you think those baboons were getting high here or something?"
Levi stood up and shrugged, "Probably."
Unexpectedly, Levi took out two vials from his bag and a metal popsicle stick. He carefully placed the two pots on an elevated surface inside the cave and started scraping on the flower's surface. He then rubbed the popsicle stick on a vial's mouth, efficiently collecting the flower's juice.
"Yo, what are you doing?" Aeon asked even though he already knew.
Levi covered the vial with a cork and tossed it towards Aeon. Aeon nimbly caught it and examined the contents. It had a gooey, translucent, sparkly liquid inside it, like a shiny glue peppered with glitters.
"We should also have a share of this, no?" Levi said to the group with a smile.
He did the procedure four more times and distributed the vials. Everyone got one each. No one apprehended Levi for his actions because there were no rules that forbid what he was doing. Moreover, the flower could always produce more of its liquid as long as it was alive, and Levi was doing a pretty good job at that.
If such a plant induced hallucinations, wouldn't it endanger the students who were about to collect it? The list should have contained more details regarding the items, lest they put the students in harm's way.
Well, there was also a possibility that the items weren't supposed to be found by the students. Instead, they would only serve as motivations. They all thought that this was logical.
"These are the fruits of our labor," Levi said as he raised the vial up in the air.
"Mn." Everyone happily agreed.
….
Everyone was fairly tired so no one objected about staying the night inside the cave. To take precautionary measures, Korona placed a thick Ice Wall on the mouth of the cave. It wouldn't be good if some magical beasts spot them while they were sleeping.
Inside the cave, a bonfire burned to keep them warm.
As expected from Levi, he was a good cook. The baboon meat and several others were immediately turned into several dishes topped with spices from who knows where. Thankfully, the aroma from the delicious food could not go through the waterfall so it did not end up attracting some beasts over to join their party.
The group happily ate and none of them held in their compliments, even Selena who rarely talked.
They weren't sure if what they saw was an illusion or not, but Aeon, Suri, and Korona swore that Selena's eyes were sparkling as she looked at Levi while she ate. None of them really brought it up though.
The night ended with no mishaps, and everyone was full.
Everybody had a good night's sleep.
….
The next day morning, at dawn, the group returned to the camp.
They did not forget to hunt for their quotas for the next day along the way and carried several beast meat. Although the main purpose of the quota was to make sure that each student had enough food for himself, Aeon's group brought much more. It was even enough for the whole camp. They were about to have Levi cook again. All the members of their group looked at him sinisterly.
After dropping their belongings inside their own respective tents, the group gathered around the list at the center of the camp once more. Levi brought with him the two pots that contained the Galaxy Flower.
They compared the features of the two that they have to the image, and the resemblance was uncanny. The image was indeed that of a Galaxy Flower. They assumed that, in order to mask its function, the supervisors of the camp withheld the name of the items. The group questioned why they needed those sorts of items, but as students, they were in no position to question the authorities.
The group moved towards Klaus' tent.
"Supervisor Klaus," Aeon called out.
"Mn?" Klaus replied.
He exited the tent and saw the two flowers inside a makeshift pot that Aeon was holding. His eyes were filled with amazement. He looked over at the members of the group one by one. After that, he nodded at them and said, "Congratulations. Two Galaxy Flowers, each for 150 gold coins. After we go back to the city, don't forget to claim your rewards."
Klaus wrote something down on five pieces of papers and gave the members of the group one each.
The paper had Klaus' signature, and above that was the amount they were receiving: 60 gold coins.
Of course, everyone was delighted. Although Suri, Korona, and Selena were relatively rich, earning money through their own abilities felt very fulfilling. All of them carefully pocketed the piece of paper.
"Since this class is indeed capable of searching for the items in the list, we will need to update it," Klaus spoke unexpectedly. He walked away and moved towards the assistant supervisors' respective tents.
Aeon looked back at the group and asked, "Update the list? What did he mean?"
Suri and Korona shrugged while Levi was back to reading his book. Selena was nowhere to be seen.
Levi bade Aeon's group farewell and went back to his tent.
Having finished their quest, their temporary team-up was practically over.
….