Tina looked at Tristan and Emily. "White Star can grow quickly in the Vast Expanse, but only because he is so rich he can easily support several people on his own. Otherwise, it isn't easy to grow quickly in the Vast Expanse.
The government on the other hand does nurture talented students. Like your sister is very talented at magic and martial arts and is being trained specially at Eastern University. If you join the government, may be you could also get the chance."
Emily thought about it. "I like to have my freedom. I can't join a regimented organization lile the government. In the Vast Expanse, I have no minimum quota or compulsory quests to be completed." Tristan nodded in agreement. He is so busy nowadays, the last thing he would want would be to become inundated with stupid tasks he isn't interested in.
Tina was shocked. "How can it be like that. Joanna, does the government assign you compulsory tasks and minimum requirements?"
Joanna nodded. "Initially I was thinking of going to the Mage Tower, because the treatment of the government was horrible and my supervisor purposely kept a lot of information from me. It was my brother who helped negotiate with the government after getting my talent tested. Even now, the lower level has a lot of corruption and very difficult to grow."
Tina was shocked. "There are such problems?"
Tristan shook his head. This girl was really so naive. She had the privilege of being born as the granddaughter of the chief and thought everyone was offered a silver platter like her.
Tina shook her head. "So I've been having rules bent for me?" She thought.
Joanna didn't want the situation to go awkward. So she said. "How about we go do a mission? The four of us?"
Emily cheered. "Sure!" Tristan nodded. Tina hesitated before accepting. The previous conversation about special treatment was on her mind and she wanted to prove herself now.
Tristan spoke up. "There is one mission I've been meaning to check out." He displayed the details on his phone.
"Clearance Mission - Repeatable"
"Clear the mysteriously spawning beasts in the Tunnel World one time.
Bonus: Investigate the mysterious nature of the Tunnel World
Level 1 or higher"
"It's a clearance quest, I can train my spells in a group. This is perfect for me." Joanna said.
"This is suitable for my technique." Emily said, but she saw Tristan worried. "Don't worry, I was never intending to use that."
Tina punched the air. "Good, I'll protect you all if anything goes wrong."
An hour and a teleportation later, the four were at the gate to the Tunnel World.
"Be careful, the tunnel world is a narrow tunnel that goes on forever. No one has ever reached the end, just make sure the beasts don't gang up on you, otherwise it shouldn't be difficult." The guard warned before opening the gate.
The four entered inside the tunnel world. It was literally a tunnel where four people could stand side by side with some gap between them. The tunnel was made up of glowing white crystals, which made it seem very beautiful and quite bright, but the tunnel went on forever.
Tristan touched a crystal and the system actually showed up.
[Crystallized Earth Milk]
"So it is Earth Milk. How unfortunate that it has already crystallized." Tristan thought. Earth Milk was a powerful source of concentrated Earth essence that could be used to further forge the energy body, but once crystallized it is absolutely useless.
Soon beasts began appearing in ones or twos. Joanna used spells to set the beasts aflame. Emily was using a sword as was Tina. However, Emily used to be a fearful demon princess and had incredible combat experience. She immediately began over powering the beasts and destroying the beasts and Tina began competing with her. Tristan, on the other hand was strolling like he was in a garden.
He would occassionally stop to touch objects, make marks on the walls and be in thought. The three continued fighting for a few hours. After five hours the three were tired. Joanna said she wanted to eat and the others agreed.
Tristan put his hand in his backpack and took out lot of food from his storage. "You guys sit and eat. I'll manage the beasts. Eat your fill and relax for a little bit."
Emily looked at Tristan. She hadn't seen him fighting so far, so she wasn't sure how he would fare. "Will you be fine?" She asked and he nodded. Tina was also irritated that he had suggested the clearance mission and didn't kill any beast at all till now, just kept loitering around.
The three began eating, but maintained some vigilance. Suddenly twenty beasts came together. Tristan used Dominating World, Ares Aura controlling technique. Suddenly his entire body was covered in a black half metallic half liquid half corporeal substance and under the principles of dominating world, stretched into spikes that pierced the heads of all the animals quickly and then began swallowing the beasts carcass and disintegrating them.
When the three saw that they were stunned. Then they saw more beasts coming, but tristan wasn't even moving, he soon sat down along with them and the black substance was doing the killings. Tristan was practicing his aura control as well as the practice of dominating world.
"This is so... overpowered!" Joanna yelled.
Tina was stunned as well.
"Is this the so called innate talent?" Emily asked.
Tristan shook his head. "This isn't an innate talent. It is simply my battle aura. I am using an art to control the aura to act upon my will."
"Aura? How can an aura become corporeal?" Tina asked.
"It can." Tristan said and shrugged. He didn't bother explaining. Meanwhile the aura was rapidly killing and disintegrating the beasts.