Scylica and I slid down the hill through a steep pathway where many gray pebbles and rocks rested comfortably. Our disturbance caused some of them to voluntarily roll away.
Many of these rocks may look ordinary, but they are actually camouflaged insects. They vary from the size of a finger to a whole arm of a grown man. Their only form of movement is rolling around and crawling since they are burdened by their own weight. This is due to the minerals they feed upon.
I'm glad they're not carnivores...
We continue to make our way down hill and arrived in front of the forest of dead trees. A few miles further, we could see the giant portal gaping open with monsters sprawling out continuously.
Slowly, we marched from tree to tree, making sure to stay as quietly as possible. The dead trees seemed to have lost their life essences a lot faster than those beyond this territory.
I knew portals were dangerous but I didn't know that even the lowest levels of portals can be this devastating...
We crouched behind a large tree, and Scylica turns to me. She gives me a confident smile, cool but still feminine and alluring.
"Jin, when I count to three: we blow them up."
"Got it." I nodded.
We both place a palm on either side of the tree and began condensing mana into our palms.
Scylica began counting.
"One..."
Our palms shun with a dim orange light.
"Two..."
The mana swirling in our palms began attracting attention.
"Three!"
I release the pressure built up inside of my tensing palm.
*Shwoosh*
We blasted the whole group of abnormal beasts with a devasting flare of heat.
"Did we get them all?"
"We did!" She laughs excitingly.
I peek out from behind the tree and watch the four-legged creatures run around burning into crisps.
"Let's go. We'll nab the next creature that comes out."
We approach the portal quickly without wasting a single second.
I aim my cross bow precisely at the portal while Scylica prepared magical whips: ready to capture any vicious beast.
Steady...
A leg decends through the portal. It was hairy, gray, and slender.
A sharp snout pops out from the front. It has long wiskers and sharp jagged teeth.
I slowly sneak in front of the creature and aimed precisely where I thought it's head would appear.
It's nose twitched.
Oh shit!
"AVVRARGG!!!" The canine-like creature roared as it leaped forward.
I flinched from the surprise and nearly dropped my crossbow. All I can do was watch the dimensional beast in slow motion as it decended upon me with an open jaw, ready to tear me apart.
Two golden strings instantly bursts into action and caught the beast in mid-air. It flails violently while gnashing.
I breathed heavily. This was my first encounter with dimensional beasts and I messed up. I'm so glad that Scylica was prepared for anything to happen...
"Are you alright?"
"I-I am..."
"Let's go back to the school now. I've got our pass."
"You're bringing it live?!"
"Of course! We get more points this way!"
"Then what about this portal?"
"The guilds will deal with it. We just have to tell the knight where it's located."
"Alright then..." I got off my bum and patted down my ghillie.
Man... I brought her mom's awesome crossbow and I didn't even get a chance to use it.
We hurried toward the same path we came from while carrying the live beast together. It was larger than both of us combined and contained dark hairy fur. The body mimicked a dog but it was elongated and lacked muscles.
I look back one last time. The black canines spawned together in a group just like how it was before. This is pretty much a portal outbreak; luckily, the creatures are too weak to cause major issues.
I faced forward again and continued to run along with Scylica.
---
In an hour, we managed to trot along the hills and made our way back to the Magic Academy. It was definitely exhausting the carry the struggling beast but it's all worth the effort.
The knight waited patiently beyond the gates on a comfortable rocking chair.
As soon as we stepped in, the knight got up frantically, astonished by the sight before his very eyes.
"Woahoho!" His eyes glowed with golden coins.
"Is this enough for us to pass?" Scylica asked.
"It's more than enough! A live beast like this can fetch a few bronze coins..." The knight jumped excitedly, like a child who's found his new toy.
"There's more of them across that orange hill to the west. Don't forget to report it to your guild mates."
"Thank you good student! Also catch!" Before he forgot, he tosses two small golden badges with a special marking resembling a "Z" towards us. We happily caught the badges and held onto them.
Scylica turns towards me.
"See? We passed easily. Now I can give you your reward~" She grins.
"Huh... okay." I faked a smile for her.
I didn't even do anything impactful...
Oh well... sex is sex.