The next day everyone met up at the academy entrance. A total of 226 first years with 115 sixth years and 20 teachers as guardians.
"If it isn't the genius class, I didn't expect the esteemed geniuses to join us in this small outing." A tall teenage boy with spikey hair, similar to Ray's own hairstyle, spoke as he looked at the group with eyes full of mockery.
"Now now, don't be so childish Nate, they are just children and the genius class was made by the school and not by them." Another teenage boy spoke as he walked by, Nate hearing him just scoffed at him before also leaving. Ray and the rest did not bother to respond, Ray found that the people in his class were more mature than most of the people here, probably due to their background.
'I forgot that not every child can be like these, I wonder if my sister will be like more like a child.' Ray thought to himself but soon shook his head 'Knowing mom and dad, they are probably faking their dead or using the destruction as a means to hide somewhere, I always knew that they had a history and a reason for not improving their strength but for even headmaster Cailin to not have the capabilities to help them means the enemy is that powerful. I need strength before I can be of help, [Sigh] I just wish I am not wrong.'
While Ray was lost in his own thoughts, the rest started to get on their respective mana carts. The Magic Academy had it's own customized mana cart that were made with living space included, each one was huge. for a total of 35 Mana Carts shared between the students and teachers. On average with 10 students a cart.
"Stop daydreaming and let's go." The teenager named Nate spoke as he walked towards a mana cart, he was with the genius class together with the other youth who spoke up for them. On their trip they got to know both teenagers, one being Nate and the other his classmate and teammate Lion.
It took them a whole week to reach Kilin Forest, after they arrived there they were net with seemingly endless trees blocking their sight. The size of the forest alone would take months to drive through with a mana cart, it was that big.
"Alright, we will be training here for 2 months, remember that your goal is to improve yourselves and not to die here. We will make teams in groups of 4 with each having 2 sixth years as their guardians and a teacher nearby in case of emergency. Don't go too deep inside the forest, your guardians will stop you if you try to and don't split up, if you do you will be forcefully returned here and kicked out of the academy. Make your teams and stand together then 2 guardians will join you, afterwards you will be free to train in the outer parameters of the forest." The one who spoke was the teacher who helped Ray register for the examination. His nickname is Tyrant, It was giving to him after he single handedly wiped out a whole crime syndicate in Rune City that kidnapped 2 of his students during his first year teaching in the Magic Academy.
Ray made a group together with Lucas, Ria and Yuki while the twins made a group together with Warren and Erik. Though they were in different groups they were not far from each other so they decided meet at end of each day. The guardians that Ray's team got was Nate and someone else known as Yate. Both being just a step away from becoming Archmages.
Ray's team left with Lucas and Ray taking the lead, they went towards a relatively safe spot but with a decent number of low ranked monsters to start some hunting. In the Kilin Forest all attribute monsters can be found which is a paradise for those trying to improve their strength or become an Archmage. In order to become an Archmage one needs to have enough mana in his body to refine every cell but also a good magic beast soul to integrate with and because of the insane prices for them and the difficulty to finding one that is a good match it becomes insanely hard to buy one. So the majority of the people hunt one themselves.
After arriving at their chosen location, they found a few magic beasts roaming around. They were all cat-like magic beasts. There were 4 of them, when Ray saw them he was excited and ran at them. The others who saw him running were a bit late at the following up.
Lucas ran behind him as he tried to keep up while both Ria and Yuki used long ranged attacks, Yuki crested a water arrow and shot it at a magic beast with red fur. The beast got pierced through the head, killing it in an instant. Ria, while a close range fighter is proficient with long range attacks, she created a needle of red lightning and shot it towards a beast with white fur, who got burned all over, dying in the process.
Ray saw 2 of the magic beasts dying, but he did not stop. He activated his lightning cloak around his head, mainly focusing on the eyes to increase his perception. He saw a blue furred cat and a purple colored cat come towards him. With his increased perception he saw their movements, the purple colored cat had flicker of lightning dancing around its body and its claws were clad in lightning, making even a single hit deadly. While the blue colored cat shot a stream of water from its mouth.(A/N: imagine Water gun from pokemon xd)
Ray instantly dodged the water stream and used one of his daggers to deflect the claws of the purple colored cat a bit to the side, avoiding injuries. at the same time he spun around and stabbed the purple cat in the head with a backhanded stab, killing it in an instant.
That was a technique he learned from Lucy, it used mana to increase the strength of the muscles and increase its speed to deal devastating damage. But also very damaging with its recoil if used for too long. After the purple cat was killed off, Lucas managed to catch up and ran towards the blue colored cat.
He used his a light to create a shadow behind the shadow beast before traveling into its shadow waiting for an opportunity to kill it off. Ray who saw it rushed at the cat as well. the cat tried to cloak its claws in fast moving water, like a saw. the moment it was about to pounce at Ray, Lucas came out of the shadow and punched the cat at the back of its head, pushing it towards Ray. Who in turn used the same technique to increase his damage, his arms bulged as the veins could he seen, he stabbed the dagger at the skill of the incoming cat, through killing it.
The party decided on the distribution of the beast cores to be according the needs of the party members. all lightning and light beast cores will be going to Ray, Ria and Lucas for example. Ria gets fire cores, Lucas space and darkness with Yuki taking water cores, the rest would be traded with the others or sold later in the city. Ray was definitely the biggest loser of this deal, but he did not complain, the others were strong and with a collective team he would get enough cores.
For the remainder of the day Ray and the others hunted magic beasts, although at a fairly relaxed phase, which netted them a total of 56 beast cores when they stopped. There were 9 light and 12 thunder cores, Ray took the majority of both because Lucas and Ria got darkness and fire cores. he ended with 8 Thunder and 6 Light cores.
When the reached the camp, the others were already there. After trading the cores of attributes they didn't have, Ray got 3 more lightning and 2 Light cores. After eating with the others he went to his tent to take a shower and absorb the beast cores afterwards. The Terms 'tent' is not what one might expect, it was a high quality tent provided by the academy. With it's own defense system, alarm, shower, bed, toilet and many more functions that were better than most homes back on Earth Ray thought.
Ray was very excited as he held a beast core of Thunder attribute in his hand, this is his path to the future, where he will be strong enough carry his parents burdens with them. He did not believe that they would die that easily.
He tried to absorb the beast cores in every possible way he could think of, he did that for 5 hours to no success. When he could think of no more options it was already past midnight. Frustrated, he decided to sleep for the night.