A few minutes before the scientific branch entered the Portal.
Gasps and exclamations could be heard among the combat students who were petrified by what they saw after entering the Portal.
"What is that?"
"Instructor Alexander!"
A few scared students backed away, afraid for their lives after seeing over twenty monsters dead as soon as they took their first step.
What was even scarier was the black-haired woman, who appeared to be in her 20s. She currently had her back turned to them, even after noticing their presence.
"Xia, come with us. The test will officially begin after we pass the hundred-kilometer mark."
As Alexander Leone, the strongest among them, spoke, he casually strolled forward. The other instructors nodded at the girl before following Alexander.
"Wait… Xia?"
"Where have I heard that name?"
A discussion started among the students, and even some from prestigious families joined in.
"Xia, it's been a while. How is your brother doing?"
Surprisingly, it was Myra Blaze who started a conversation with the unknown girl named Xia. The two seemed to know each other.
Hearing that question, the girl named Xia slowly turned back to look at Myra before saying, "Killing."
It was a simple word, but for some reason, it sent chills down everyone's spines.
Myra seemed to be speechless as she heard that.
The awkward atmosphere didn't last long because Xia quickly departed from the corpses, leaving behind gasps of amazement from the students who saw her speed.
Agile like a monkey, Xia stepped on a tree branch before completely disappearing.
"Let's go." The one who spoke this time was Mark Tenebris. He was the number two student of the Special Class.
Different from Lux, he was the strongest combat student.
Those like Valentino and Amelia, who were part of his group, decided to go after Mark without any complaints about his 'order'.
Then, there was Silvanna's group composed of Nia, Maximus, and Emily who also started to move forward.
Seeing this, the other students didn't want to be left behind, so they also stopped what they were doing and followed the few groups ahead of them.
Before they could take a few steps, someone suddenly exclaimed, "Xia! She's the Shadow Monarch's sister!"
When the other students heard that, they all froze in their tracks.
———
Back to the current timeline, Lux was casually collecting blood, pieces of monster skin, and meat in different vials.
Because the monsters killed by Xia were of different races, as seen from their body shapes and skin colors, Lux actually gathered more than enough to pass the test with full marks.
"Now, materials and herbs for the first mission, and signs of life for the third one…"
Lux smiled, thinking of something. He had an idea of accomplishing the third mission quite easily.
It was true that the SkyLimit bracelet couldn't contact others while inside a Portal; this was probably due to certain laws preventing it.
But this didn't mean that other functions didn't work, like taking pictures, for example. And from what Lux knew about Academy tests, this method was also taken into consideration.
Of course, he wasn't the only student who thought of this, but as long as it worked, everything was fine.
Before departing from the Portal's entrance, Lux's eyes turned a golden color, different from his usual emerald green eyes.
He looked straight ahead and, while others couldn't see it, he perfectly saw Nia and Silvanna's group as they advanced.
"They passed the fifty kilometer mark; in fifteen minutes, they should arrive at the true start of their mission."
"Speaking of which, I wonder what their mission is."
As Lux wasn't aware of their requirements for completing their tasks, he was a bit curious about it.
But for now, he was going to try to finish his own first, before seeing if he can help his sister and the others with something.
A golden aura enveloped Lux slightly before he vanished.
About 300 kilometers from the entrance, a golden silhouette could be seen. After revealing his face, it was Lux.
He seemed to have moved instantly from one place to another in a matter of seconds.
"Oh, is it over there?" Lux's eyes spotted something a few kilometers from his current position; in less than a second, he was already there.
It was a pretty large hole, guarded by two large monsters.
One resembled an elephant, and the other was a house-sized jaguar that seemed extremely nimble.
It was the perfect combination of strength and speed that could pose trouble to even the most powerful Ability Users.
Judging from their auras, Lux concluded that they were somewhere around Disaster-Class.
This wasn't something he couldn't handle.
In fact, Lux was much stronger than that…
But for the sake of keeping up appearances, he decided to quietly bypass the monsters ahead.
He didn't want to cause too much of a fuss when taking photos of what he was about to find.
So he enveloped his aura and appearance, almost to the point that someone standing in front of him wouldn't know someone was there.
This was a small trick Lux learned about manipulating light. It wasn't the best, but it was still extremely useful in such situations.
Slowly descending into the hole, Lux wasn't surprised by the pungent smell of blood.
It was clear that the monsters outside weren't only making sure that no one trespassed; they also had their own needs.
"Look what we found…" Lux thought this as he focused on the mural in front of him. It depicted tens of beasts, all bowing down to a single creature, a dragon of enormous proportions with a halo above its head.
Seemingly captivated by the image, Lux wasn't even aware that a weak, almost invisible aura was released from the depiction.
It even seemed that the giant dragon moved its eyelid for 0.01 seconds. But as Lux wasn't paying attention only to the dragon but the entire picture, he didn't see it.
After a few seconds, the aura receded, and Lux shook his head before using his SkyLimit bracelet to take a few pictures.
Walking down the hole, Lux discovered another eight such drawings, every single one of them had the same dragon, but with different types of beasts bowing down to it and another halo, bringing it up to nine halos in total.
"I wonder what this means…"
Despite being curious, Lux stopped himself from advancing any further. This was because if his theory was right, the end of this hole was another exit from the Portal.
One that should go to another world, one that Khione told him about, her own world, the Divine Dragon World.
One of the Seven Great Worlds.
Not thinking about this anymore, Lux quickly exited the hole and made his way back to the entrance of the Portal.
He didn't want to be suspected of something, so he needed to fabricate some proof.
For starters, he would need to dig a big hole.