"I can explain".
"I know already, you guys borrowed money for the cake, right?"
"…"
Rex smirked. "You guys can't keep any secret from me. I knew you guys took a drastic measure once I saw a cake unexpectedly to celebrate my birthday, your weird behaviors minutes ago verified my guess".
"So, what was the bargain that you made with Mr. Butcher?"
Ben turned to look at Cassandra, then coughed before speaking.
"We'll get the money for the cake in exchange for providing 10 full pork meat for him a day later. We originally decided to go to the beast sanctum to get them earlier on, but your decision to go to school spoiled our plans".
Rex's face twitched. "Ok, that's fine. So, how many hours do we have left?"
Ben checked the time on his old wristwatch before raising it.
-4:05pm.
Rex's eyes twitched even more furiously. "What? How does Mr. Butcher expect us to hunt for 10 domestic pigs in less than 2 hours?!"
"Beast sanctums close at 6 pm! Why didn't you tell me earlier?!"
Cassandra flinched once Rex raised his voice. "I'm sorry".
"…"
Rex felt like raging some more but Cassandra's unexpectedly fragile and guilty expression at this moment made him stop. He was still furious at the stupid decision made by his friends but he forcibly calmed himself.
The fact that the cake was for his birthday should have made him feel calmer, but it only left him feeling more furious at the stupid decision.
The beast sanctum was a dangerous place.
In normal circumstances, hunting 10 domestic pigs in the beast sanctum using conventional means would be impossible for them. The only way to breach this gap was if they employed completely unconventional means.
As its name suggested, beast sanctums were controlled forest environments that were artificially made to accommodate mystic beasts.
After the shelter project was completed and humanity slowly started developing towards a normal trajectory, the higher-ups decided to create a less dangerous means for basic mystic warriors to temper their strength.
This was the reason for the creation of beast sanctums.
Here, mystic warriors could get the perfect opponents to temper their strength in a slightly controlled environment.
In the 7 great shelters, beast sanctums there were rumored to accommodate mystic beasts that were even as high as the pinnacle mythical realm.
After years of battle interactions and understanding, humans graded mystic beasts into 5 major tiers according to their strength which was the basic, intermediate, advanced, super, and mythical beasts.
Mythical beasts were the strongest that humanity has ever faced. With strength mighty enough to trample over cities, these were beasts that were befitting of their grade as mystic beasts of myth.
As for beasts that were below the basic realm, these were beasts that could not control mystic energy, only receiving the basic boost from it. There was no grade for them, they were simply called domestic beasts.
Even if it was a lion, so long as it could not make use of mystic energy, only receiving a modest power boost from it, they were called domestic beasts.
Humans also graded their warriors using the beast grading as a model. Mystic warriors were divided into basic, intermediate, advanced, super, and legendary.
The Principal of the Obedin Mystic Academy was a powerful advanced mystic warrior, including the governor of Delta State.
This same grading was also used to classify mystic treasures, mystic treasures were divided into basic, intermediate, advanced, super, and myth grade treasures.
After the advent of mystic energy, humans soon discovered that certain weapons that were created using the raw resources harvested from mystic beasts had a certain chance of evolving into something more than normal weapons.
The advanced-grade Lightning Rod of the Obedin Mystic Academy was the perfect example of mystic weapons. Rumors say that when used by a befitting warrior, it can unleash a lightning blast that could range kilometers.
They called them mystic treasures because not only weapons could evolve to contain mystic energy. A lot of other accessories could too.
Obedin City's beast sanctum contained advanced mystic beasts, but all these monsters stayed at the deepest and most treacherous parts of the sanctum.
The periphery sanctum mostly contained domestic beasts, but it was still extremely dangerous with yearly records of countless students dying from encounters in this training ground.
The periphery sanctum was Ben and Cassandra's goal, but Rex was furious because this was also an extremely dangerous zone, at least to them.
In the end, he could not bear staying angry at his friends. The fact that they took such a dangerous and stupid decision just to make his birthday memorable made him give in, even making him feel a bit guilty about his reaction.
He really had such silly friends. Instead of staying angry, it was best if he thought of a solution to the problem.
Though he had never entered the beast sanctum, he had read and heard more than enough about it to understand it.
The reason why he said killing 10 domestic pigs in 2 hours was extremely hard was because domestic pigs were some of the most cowardly and elusive beasts to target, spending most of their time hidden from sight.
Well, to counter this problem, all he needed to do was to think of a drastic plan that could succeed in drawing the pigs out on their own accord.
2 days ago, Rex would have never thought of thinking of such a drastic plan when he had never entered a beast sanctum.
Beast sanctums were dangerous, yes, but the main reason that gave him the courage to think of this was that he was now a basic mystic warrior. This was enough of a reason to base his confidence on.
Because they were already under a time limit, Rex could not think for long but he succeeded in arriving at a rough engagement plan.
First, Rex turned and held Cassandra by the shoulders and apologized.
"Cas, I'm sorry for raising my voice at you".
"Hey, what of me?"
"Go away". Rex shooed Ben before focusing back on Cassandra.
"Cas, look at me, I and Ben have everything in control. I want you to go home and prepare the best dish awaiting our arrival".
"I want to go!" Cassandra protested but Rex shook his head vehemently.
"You made this mistake, now allow me to fix it, okay?"
Cassandra squirmed a bit in protest in his arms before she calmed down. "Promise me that you'll be back before 6:30 pm".
"I promise!" Rex grinned.
"Haha, now go prepare my best food". Ben laughed aloud.
After they succeeded in persuading Cassandra to leave, the 2 male friends were now left alone.
"Rex, you have a plan?"
"Yeah, kind of".
"Before we go, one more thing. Do you remember the basics of channeling mystic energy?"
"…"