Chapter 197: Welcome To The Expedition

The next moment Jim found the disciples moving already under the leadership of Rana and her ten masters.

"Stay close to those higher than you with one grade," Igory warned, "and make sure to collect your spoils of war after each battle. Never give up your share and be sure this would increase your survival chances."

"Thanks," Jim nodded before turning to his team, "let's go."

The team nodded with conflicted thoughts while following him. They all remained as everyone walked in this grand march… silent.

It was like they were going to their funerals, or their enemies'. Jim didn't talk as his mind was busy thinking about his team spells.

And his old man didn't stop giving pieces of advice to him.

'Don't use the Twisex fusion spell head on from the start, leave it for later. You know how it will render them motionless plus it attracts attention.'

'Listen to Igory and never let the spoils of war off. No matter what you bring into the forest, you will get out with much more.'

'Don't be fooled by this good atmosphere everyone has. At times of distress many will run and some will even turn against you. Keep your eyes open for those on your side, they are far worse than your true enemies.'

'Monsters are wild at night, drawn to the scent of blood. So no matter what battle you have, you must salvage your spoils fast and leave faster.'

'The forest is formed of layers. The deeper you delve the higher the chances of meeting stronger monsters. So try your best to stay at the edges and not delve deep until it's necessary.'

'Try to first hunt down as many disciples as possible and take all their belongings. That will give you a lot of options early on before even facing the monsters.'

'Don't overuse your own spells. Even with the Seson monster on your side you can only use spells continuously for a couple of hours. So you need to search for a place to rest and hide, safe from monsters and away from the eyes of your enemies.'

'Don't be polite and ask that chick for some gears. She must have many at her disposal and can lend them to you. Just be shameless and ask.'

He listened to everything yet he couldn't do the last one. First Rana was already far ahead, even vanished off his sight from time to time without knowing where she went to.

As for being shameless, he didn't have problems with that but he already got the gears of her and didn't know if she could help with more.

When he got near the forest in less than one hour, he noticed the presence of so many disciples.

"All of those… there are thousands!" Deno couldn't help but mutter in deep shock while others only nodded.

"The academy has a very large disciple base," Hector suddenly appeared next to the group marching at the rear of the inner campus disciples, "and there are tens of thousands at least."

"This…" Rick was speechless.

"It seems we are outnumbered," Jim muttered.

"That's given," Hector said, "after all the core disciples take control of a large base of the inner disciples and a much larger base of outer disciples and slaves."

"So we will be crushed!" Saga couldn't help but express her doubts.

"Not necessarily," Hector said, "after all we all will enter the forest in batches. Plus there is a safe area extending for one mile after we enter the forest. There we can't fight others."

"So we will wait for them to move on before we go forward?" Kro asked.

"That's not a good idea," Hector shook his head, "we should move fast, faster than anyone can catch up to us. This way we will be miles ahead of everyone and they won't be able to come to us thanks to the monsters."

"But those higher grades can stop us!" Ashley said.

"That's why the masters back there stressed upon not clustering with higher grade disciples," Hector replied, "we need to fan out and that would ensure more safety to us."

"I hope we can survive the start," Jim honestly said, "after all I believe most of our losses will be at this rough beginning."

"That's true," Hector nodded, "but as they pushed the time to this part of the night then we will be protected by those berserk monsters."

"Won't they attack us?" Jenny asked.

"The higher grade disciples will deal with those strong ones, leaving only weak monsters for you to handle," Hector said before laughing, "or why would I and other high level disciples act as jokers?"

Jim understood more of what he was going to face. As they already reached the big wall of the academy, everyone stopped speaking and watched that huge closed gate up front.

The gate spanned for over half a mile with a group of dozen strong looking towers on its sides. Jim noticed some silhouettes flying in the air, and he could tell the dean was one of them.

"Welcome to our academy's semi-annual demon forest expedition," the dean's voice appeared from that direction, attracting everyone's attention.

In the middle of the darkness his face features weren't visible, but his voice could be easily heard by all.

"Starting from this moment onward you will all go inside the forest. For one week you are all asked to kill monsters and retrieve the monster cores. The stele will record every disciple's activities and you all need just to do your best inside and worry nothing about anything else."

Jim and others knew this wasn't true, but it seemed he had to maintain his public image despite all the ill intentions and great preparations he did.

"Now let the contest begin," the dean said and next the loud creaking voice of the gate being opened echoed after his words.

The gate slowly moved and in less than a few minutes the two sides of it were now wide open.