Wallace squinted his eyes after seeing that the monster he expected to put up a fight just splattered like that without much resistance.

"So this is already forty percent of Astral Core's energy..."

He muttered while remembering the sensation of destroying that monster.

He didn't use the full strength of his core. It was simply because he didn't want to create too much mess and noise for killing the unknown beast. It may just attract more monsters if that happens.

Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned. The ground caved in and two nearby trees were even damaged.

"Let's hurry."

Yumi felt other presence coming from monsters with different sizes. They were starting to gather on their current location. Everyone nodded and hurried to follow Yumi on her trails. She was already running at her full speed.

"Hey! I used one of the abilities of this knife... It happened after I sliced that worm a bit. So don't be surprised that your punch looks strong..."

Hannah smilingly said to Wallace while they were running. She even showed her knife to him that was still glowing with blue light...

"Oh? So that was why it felt so soft... or probably brittle... May I ask what kind of effect it has?"

"It affects the flesh of any being I sliced with this knife... Interesting, right? This is a 6th Gen Mana Artifact..."

"6th Gen? Impressive..."

"Hehehe... Of course! I spent my whole year of savings just for this weapon... These artifacts weren't out for the public yet..."

"That must be expensive..."

"Of course, not anyone can create a 6th gen mana artifact... Just call me sister Hannah and I'll introduce you to someone I know who can create one..."

"Really?"

"Hey! There's another one..."

Yumi said in front as she noticed another mana beasts or monsters. They seem to have trespassed their territory so right now, a lot of similar monsters were appearing...

"What are they?"

Clint glanced at the group of beasts they encountered.

"Sentient trees?"

Hannah muttered after seeing them.

"Treant!"

Yumi shouted as she used ice magic to stopped their enemies from getting closer.

"Frost Field!"

The domain magic wouldn't last long so they have to immediately act.

"There were nineteen of them... Should we escape and conserve our energy?"

Wallace suggested after using his Divine Sense to determine their numbers. They can surely defeat all of them but it will take some time. They only engaged with the worm a while ago to determine their strength against such monsters.

"Let's eliminate a few... About three or four of these treants then we'll leave..."

Yumi was the leader and as soon as she ordered this. They acted at once and targeted the Treant in front of them.

Unfortunately, unlike with the previous worm filled with flesh and blood, these treants doesn't have those and they can mysteriously regenerate their branches.

It continuously tried to strangle them or pierce their bodies. They were even using the cover of the ground to launch a surprise attack using their roots.

"They're weird creatures..."

"Tsk... I can try burning them but the whole place might be affected..."

Hannah complained as she saw her knife skills were ineffective against the monster.

Clint, on the other hand, was still managing to deal some damage using his gauntlet that seems to be made of bluestone...

Craaasshh!

One of the treants was half-destroyed by the sheer power of his punch.

They were obviously minimizing their usage of Mana as most of the skills they used were the powers imbued in their Mana Artifacts...

"Let's see..."

Wallace decided to use one of the Mana Artifact he brought with him instead of using his Astral Core again.

He pulled out a handgun similar to what he made during TMAC but this time, it was a bit bulkier and had a red and silver color on its design.

Whooosszzhh!

He pulled the trigger and instead of a bullet coming out of it, a steady beam of light came out and took a perfect whole out of the treant's body.

The part where it was damaged was even continuously being burned until it turned the whole treant into ashes.

"Good..."

Wallace was satisfied with the result and decided to keep away his Mana Artifact. Although it was only very effective to people or creatures not using an Arcane Link to suppress the burn damage, he was still satisfied at the level of its destructiveness.

He made this during one of his classes at the Academy.

During their third year in the Academy, they just mostly spent their time studying Mana Artifact's method of creation and practical learning.

They normally use what they learned to fabricate other Mana Artifacts using their latest version of Artifact Forging Box but not in Wallace's case.

Although Wallace created this artifact before he had an Astral Core and learned other skills, it didn't matter since he was still unable to incorporate them to his mana artifact especially the energy coming out of his Astral Core. He was unable to use it as he pleases at the moment as any other object except his fist and other parts of his body would be destroyed completely.

Aside from his physique, there is no other body that could contain such energy.

Unless he met those celestial beings that could probably do the same.

Wallace glanced at Yumi who used another Magic Spell to control her opponent, she cast a spell to freeze a treant completely before shattering them into many pieces.

She was looking strong as always and not breaking any sweat against such enemies.

"That should be enough as a warning... Let's go..."

A space or path to escape has been created so Yumi declared and quickly lead the way out of the enemy's encirclement.

Seeing her swift escape, the members followed quickly.

This time, Yumi and her group decided to ignore the other monsters and just try to escape until they reach Percival's location.

***

Somewhere in the underground facility where the two magicians from the southern continent were sent into, a huge explosion was suddenly heard making the ground tremble and dust fall from the ceiling.

It has been very tough for Percival to cover the young lady during their struggle to fight their enemies. It was almost getting to the point where he was thinking of using Avery as a distraction to escape from a powerful beast.

"Wait... This sensation... Elaine?"

Percival suddenly noticed a unique fluctuation of energy.

Although it was faint, he couldn't be mistaken about it.

He immediately connected it to an instructor in his academy and realized that their rescue wasn't too far away. It would probably take three or more days based on his calculation.

One of the reasons he didn't send Elaine to rescue Wallace during the Terrorist attack was due to her power related to blood. If ever she encountered the Heart's Grimoire who similarly utilizes blood to some extent, she would be in huge trouble.

Anyway, his mood immediately lifted up as he learned that someone was trying to find him.

'It's impossible for Elaine to be alone. She must've brought an Army or got some help from the Lucent Force...'

Percival didn't think of Yumi yet since he was sure that Yumi was still working on a case related to Seed Holdings.

"Very well... Our struggle here seems to be going nowhere... I should find a better place to wait for them instead...."

Percival decided as he was truly running out of ideas. There seems to be no end in their struggles here.

He looked at Avery who was starting to look lifeless due to exhaustion and hunger.

The man decided to give her a piece of good news to lift up her mood.

"Hang on... We just need to survive for three or five more days..."