Early in the morning the next day.
As the sun slowly rose over the horizon, Catherine suddenly woke up.
Even after opening her eyes, Catherine still stayed in her bed for a few minutes, merely staring at the ceiling above her.
Suddenly, Catherine's ears slightly moved, as a faint sound was heard from behind the door to her room.
'Shane woke up,' thought Catherine as she got up from her bed and began dressing up before walking out of her room.
"Good morning," said Catherine as she looked around the room, noticing that Oliver was also walking out of his room.
"Good morning Catherine, have you rested well?" asked Shane, who right now was eating breakfast.
"Yea, it was alright," mumbled Catherine as she then walked into the bathroom, emerging out of it a few moments later with a bucket full of water in her hands.
Without saying anything, Catherine slightly knocked on the door of Madeline's room, and upon not getting any reply, opened the door and walked in.
"Wake up, we need to go soon," said Catherine, looking at Madeline, who was sleeping with her new spellbook right next to her head.
"Just five more minutes," unconsciously mumbled Madeline, who was still sleeping right now.
Hearing that, Catherine then walked up to Madeline.
"Seriously, wake up," said Catherine as she touched her friend's shoulder, trying to wake her up.
"Just five more minutes," mumbled Madeline as she suddenly changed her sleeping position, escaping Catherine's grasp.
Seeing this, Catherine let out a sigh, picking up the spellbook that was right next to Madeline's head and placing it on a table.
A few moments later, Madeline suddenly opened her, as over ten liters of cold water were suddenly poured onto her.
Only a few moments later, Madeline had already gotten up from her bed, being ready to fight whoever had woken her up, but sadly, by now, Catherine had long exited the room.
Five minutes later,
"Was that really necessary?" asked Madeline as she walked out of the bathroom, looking at Catherine, who was eating breakfast at the table.
"It was," said blankly said Catherine before continuing to eat her food.
Hearing the latter's words, Madeline let out a defeated sigh as she then sat down at the table, knowing that trying to argue with Catherine was a completely lost cause.
Ten minutes later, after everyone except Madeline had finished eating.
"We can set off today and probably reach that place tomorrow," said Shane as he looked at the rest of the group with a serious expression on his face.
Hearing Shane's words, everyone, even Madeline, suddenly became serious.
"That would be good, we've already made as many preparations as possible in this place, now that we've managed to buy Madeline a spellbook, staying here any longer would only increase our risk," said Catherine as she looked at Shane.
"I agree," said Oliver.
"I don't have any opinion on this," said Madeline, knowing for sure that planning was not her forte.
"Then it's decided, we'll set off in thirty minutes, let's pack up our bags," said Shane before getting up from the table.
Soon after, the rest of the group also got up, walking into their rooms and preparing for the journey ahead.
...
Thirty minutes later,
At eight in the morning, on a sunny day, four hooded figures discretely walked out of the mage gathering, not being noticed by anyone as they began traveling west.
...
"Say, do you think this place really hasn't been discovered by anyone, after all, it's so close to civilization," asked Madeline, whispering to Catherine.
"Well, it was discovered by someone, but that person didn't manage to explore it, other than this, I really can't be sure about anything else, after all, I'm not omniscient," said Catherine as she looked at Madeline, causing the latter to fall into though.
"That's true, hopefully, we don't encounter anyone," mumbled Madeline as she turned her attention to the road ahead.
"Yea, hopefully, we don't," mumbled Catherine as her finger unconsciously moved in a certain direction.
A moment later, a large earth spike instantly rose through the ground inside of a bush, causing a hooded figure to suddenly dodge it.
But by this time, before the figure could once again dodge, a sharp wind blade suddenly flew through the air, toward the figure, causing it to suddenly stagger.
This amount of time was all Oliver needed, as the earth below the feet of the figure suddenly rose, up, catching his legs and keeping him in place.
Before the figure could even try to break free, Shane suddenly appeared before it, as his fist, now coated in fire, suddenly rained upon the figure.
A moment later, Shane retreated, leaving only the figure, which was not coated by fire.
Unlike normal fire, which is usually useless against mages, the flames which Shane had created did not seem to want to go out, as they burned through the barrier of the hooded figure.
Only a few moments later, another wind blade suddenly struck into the weakened barrier of the figure once again, but this time, unlike before, the wind blade cut through the barrier like butter, cutting the figure in two.
Seeing this scene, Shane breathed a sigh of relief, as he then dispelled the flames, stopping them from burning up the body of the hooded figure, as well as whatever belongings he may have had on him.
"As expected, we were followed, thanks Cath, if not for your help, at least one of us would have probably died fighting this guy," mumbled Shane as he quickly approached the dead body of the hooded figure and began searching for anything valuable.
"You know you don't have to thank me, I just did what I needed to do," said Catherine as she once again became alert and began searching her surroundings, using the wind, trying to see if anyone else was following them.
Looking at the scene in front of her, Madeline couldn't help but slightly shake as she gritted her teeth.
Right now, it was not a fear of battle, or a fear of death that Madeline was feeling, rather, anger.
'Why am I so useless?' thought Madeline as she slightly raised the spellbook she was holding in her arms, staring at it for a few moments.