“I still can’t believe you guys did this!”

Kairen said that with a fake hurt expression on his face while sitting at a table. Serria who was looking at her empty wallet with sad eyes replied to him.

“Why? What’s the problem with making a bet?”

“Making a bet isn’t the problem, the thing you made the bet on is!”

The waiter brought their food at the moment. The table was filled with various delicious-looking food. Kairen had never seen this much food in his life before. Reyan and Serria attacked the food as if they had just run away from a jungle!

“Stop nagging and eat your food!”

Kairen sighed and picked up his spoon and fork as well.

Last week, after he agreed to do what these two bast- friends wanted him to do, Reyan picked up his phone and suddenly called Serria saying that he has won…

They had made a bet on who could persuade Kairen!

‘Is my life a joke to you guys?’

And the result of their bet was this luxurious table in front of them, bought by the unfortunate loser, Serria!

Kairen didn’t say anything else as he was also starving. The last week was supposedly their holiday, but Kairen had to spend it all on training. Actually, he had improved a lot that he himself was surprised.

And today, they were assigned their first mission, to slay some monsters. Students were separated into different groups based on their grades and were sent to different locations based on their rank.

As for Kairen, he was fortunately in the same team as Reyan, as they were top students. And they were… assigned to kill one of the highest level monsters…

Kairen shook his head and brushed off his thoughts. He had to eat his meal… that may become his last meal…

After finishing their food, the three of them went to the train station by taxi. That was where they had to part and go to different destinations.

“Imma go now~ Try not to die Kairen~”

Those were Serria’s last words before she walked into the train where her teammates were waiting for her.

“Let’s go.”

Reyan and Kairen also joined their 3 other teammates and went on the train. The team was made up of 2 mages and 3 swordsmen, all top students in their class. It was an efficient way of teaming up actually. In a team made up of randomly chosen cadets, the weaker ones would hinder the stronger ones and slow them down while the stronger ones would ignore the abilities of their other teammates. Well, learning how to cooperate was also needed but that was for later.

Their team’s target would be a level 2 monster in a small city in the southern mountains of Celinden, the capital of Hainston, and also where their academy was located. It wasn’t that far away from the capital, so the monster could be considered a danger for the capital as well if it wasn’t taken care of properly.

Kairen had never seen a monster. Well, he had seen some pictures of them on the internet but not from up close. So he was quite nervous now.

As much as he knew, monsters were creatures with an unknown source. They would randomly pop up in different places out of nowhere and cause destruction. No one knew where they come from as they just started appearing at one point in history thousands of years ago. That was also when people with unique abilities started appearing.

There is a saying that Emperor Reynold, the great founder of the Hainston Empire, was the one chosen by the god. In tales, he is often regarded as the one who brought unique skills to people and blessed them with these powers so that they could fight against the newly found calamity, the monsters.

Anyway, what mattered now was the fact that Kairen was going to kill a level 2 monster, that could be considered to be really strong. Their team consisted of top-rank students so it wasn’t surprising.

It didn’t take long for them to reach their destination. Kairen could see tall mountains and beautiful plains as they got closer to the southern mountains of Celinden. The weather was warmer than that of the capital and the air was fresh. It was around 7 PM that the train stopped and they exited it.

“Hello, are you guys the cadets?”

A man in a black suit walked to them. He used the polite speech as he talked to the cadets. Reyan, the group’s leader, answered him.

“Yes, we came here for our mission.”

“I am Garyn Hale, your guide in this mission. Nice to meet you.”

“Oh, I’m Heartz, the group leader. It’s nice to meet you too.”

The two of them greeted each other and shook hands. Mr. Hale looked at the other four students and nodded his head in a sign of greeting. He told them to follow him as he started walking and continued on his explanations.

“You will rest the night here and will start your operation tomorrow morning.”

“Shouldn’t we act quickly? The monster is a level 2 monster. Won’t it cause harm to people?”

“That would normally be the case, but the monster is being suppressed by agents that have been stationed there. It didn’t move around from the first moment that it appeared, which made it easy for military agents to evacuate the citizens and use spells and equipment to surpass its movements. And also, the monster isn’t the type that could be dealt with now as it gets stronger at nights.”

“Is that really safe?”

“This is the method that has been used in training cadets for ages, sir. There are rare cases that lead to any accidents, so don’t worry.”

After walking for about 30 minutes, they arrived at a campsite outside the city. They would stay here for the night in order to not be too far away from the monster. Even if nothing has happened until now, it was wise to be cautious.

There were a few tents set up in the mountainside. They were guided to an approximately big tent, which was apparently where they would stay the night. Even as a temporary tent it was really well equipped.

Kairen looked around. The sun was about to set and it was getting dark. The fresh scene of grass had filled the space. It was a really pleasant place. Kairen would feel like he was in a picnic if it wasn’t for a sleeping monster a few meters afar.

They were free at the moment so the cadets decided to do what they wanted till dinner. Kairen wanted to enjoy the nice weather and the beautiful sky so he exited the tent and walked away.

After walking a little bit, he saw a stone and sat down on it. Kairen could see the beautiful shining stars in the sky, a scene he could never see in a crowded city. He sat there and gazed at the stars.

When he was little, he used to be mesmerized by the night sky. A part of it was because of his father and brother, who used to talk about the stars a lot. But no matter how much he looked at the sky, he couldn’t distinguish the constellations here. Was it because he was in another world? It made him feel a little bit sad.

It was at the moment

BOOMM

A loud sound came from a distance.

BOOOMM BOMM

Kairen stood up, startled.

‘What is that?’

ROAAAAARR

The sound of something roaring could be heard as well. Kairen ran towards the place where the sound was coming from. He could see people running around as he got closer.

BOMM BOMM BOMM

The sound continued, the earth was shaking as if a huge something was kicking the ground.

“What’s happening?”

“Why did it wake up?”

“Did the seal break this soon?”

“Move aside! It’s dangerous!”

People were yelling and running around. Kairen didn’t know what was going on. He stood there blankly looking at the mess.

ROAAARR

He turned his head towards the sound. There, he could see a huge black shape. He couldn’t see it properly because it was dark, but there was definitely something there. It was the place that the monster was supposed to be asleep.

‘Is that… the monster?’

Suddenly a light lit up the area. It was a huge lamp that probably belonged to the agents. By that, he could see what that black shape was.

A huge black and dark brown body, thorny skin, and sharp nails. A huge weird thing was standing there. On its head was a single long horn and its sharp teeth were exposed by its open mouth. It was glaring at the humans with fierce eyes and bumping its foot on the ground.

The mountain beside him seemed as if it would crumble at any moment and the ground was cracked and destroyed.

Kairen was frozen. He felt like his soul left his body and ascended to the afterlife 5 times in a row. It was too frightening.

‘Fuck! Why did that shit wake up?!’