Meanwhile, Angus keeps his study and research inside the Royal Academy, Duke Victory keeps his vigilance inside the Black Fortress in case of an attack from the monster horde.

Soon, the sun goes down and the Black Fortress seems to blend with the darkness of night. If it is not because of the magical lamp around the fortress, people will hardly notice this big fortress.

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In the middle of the calm and silent night, many guards could be seen patrolled across the wall of the Fortress. Though there is no danger nearby, nobody is relaxing and keeping their vigilance as they know the importance of their job, especially at this precarious time.

Unbeknown to them, a group of black-cloaked people managed to get near the Black Fortress from the Heart Kingdom's direction. Hidden by the darkness of night, the black-cloaked people keep moving at a steady pace towards the gate.

At normal times, these gates become access for other people to transport supplies or as the checkpoint for adventurers before going towards the Black Forest. In normal times, this place will be full of long queue people even until the night.

However, in this precarious time, the gate is closed as no sane person wants to enter the Black Forest even for high-grade adventurers.

Not expecting someone to sneak around the gate, the group of black-cloaked men easily scale the gate and wall. This also shows that these people are not ordinary people. After entering the Black Fortress, this group keeps moving silently.

"I never thought entering this Fortress would be this easy." said one of the men inside the group in low voices.

"Kekeke… That's because they never suspect anyone will be sneaking from the kingdom direction especially at this time." replied the others in a low voice.

As they kept sneaking around, they finally found a normal guard patrolling. Using fast movement, they managed to knock out the guard silently. They keep walking silently towards the huge Fortress Wall.

As they walk carefully, one of the people in the group steps on the hidden invisible rune and activates it. *TING* *TING* *TING* as an alarm heard through the whole fortress.

Hearing this, the cloaked people immediately hurry their step towards the Fortress wall. Suddenly, a huge hammer came blocking them. *BANG* The leader of the group parries the incoming hammer with his arm.

"Sneaky rats!! How dare you come into my Fortress!!" Shouted General Borkins.

"Tch.. it seems we can't leave peacefully." said the leader of the group.

Then, he takes out his hood and reveals a bald man with a crazed smile.

Looking at the person, the dwarf general immediately recognized him. Suddenly, at this moment, a big fire wyrm appears from above and attacks the black-cloaked group.

One of the groups raises his hand and creates a bluish barrier towards the incoming Fire Wyrm [3rd circle - Water Barrier]. The bluish barrier instantly holds the attack of Fire Wyrm.

"Orpus, you dare to come towards this place?!!" said the Duke Victory who kept controlling the Fire Wyrm.

"My.. My.. Isn't it Duke Victory? The last time we met, you were still a grade-five combatant. I guess you are becoming stronger during my absence. Why don't you join me?" said the bald man.

"Stop, your nonsense!! Everyone attacks!!" Command Duke.

Out of nowhere, the Orpus group already surrounded by the guard and get attacked from all direction. *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* Various projectiles and spells hit the [Water Barrier].

Soon, the water barrier collapsed. As the water barrier collapses, the guard begins to clash with the group in close combat. All the guards have the strength of a third-grade combatant with few belonging to a fourth-grade combatant.

Such a force, giving Orpus group a difficult fight despite their higher grade power. While the group is trying to fend off Orpus and his group. Duke Victory began to cast spells without interruption from the back.

As for Orpus himself, he is being held by general Borkins in close combat. The strong physical trait of the dwarf managed to keep Orpus's strength at bay. Moreover, the dwarf also got help from Duke Victory from time to time.

Looking at the situation, "Claire, bombard the Fortress!! Everyone, protect her." command Orpus towards his subordinate.

Hearing this the black-cloaked group huddles up while the woman in the middle casts a huge magic circle in the sky as the others protect her.

However, at this moment [4th Circle - Inferno] *BOOM* a huge explosion appeared in the middle of the group.

"Orpus, it seems you forgot that we magicians are specialized at dealing with a group of people at once." chimed Duke Victory coldly.

The explosion left the unexpected group and knocked most of them. Using the strong wind blast, Orpus jump into the fortress wall.

"Kakaka… Gentleman, this is the day to remember as you almost caught me." said Orpus before going towards the Black Forest.

Looking at the Orpus running towards Black Forest direction, "Sir, what should we do?" asked one of the guards.

"Stand down and contact the exterminator squad about this incident. Also, increase the guard be it from the Black Forest or kingdom side. Throw these people into the dungeon until the extermination squad arrives." Duke Victory giving a series of commands.

"Yes, Sir." replied the nearby soldier.

After the guard dispersed and cleaned up the place, "Jacob, Do you think he will survive inside the forest?" asked the dwarf general.

"As long as he doesn't enter the inner area, he will survive with his strength. I hate to say this, but Orpus is strong enough to fight for days." replied Jacob.

"Hmm… Why did you think he came here anyway?" asked Borkins.

"That's also something I don't know. No one ever could guess the mind of the crazy people, especially the mad monk. He is too unpredictable. The only reason we could catch him last time is that he attacked one of the dukes when there was another duke nearby." explained Jacob.

"Yeah.. I also heard about that incident. What a truly strong and mad lad. He even matched my physical strength in our previous bout." said general Borkins.

After that, the two men back inside the fortress while peace comes back to the Black Fortress. Few days after that, the news of Orpus escapes to the Dark Forest reaches the capital city.

This news makes King Leon frustrated, but he knows how strong Orpus was. So, he couldn't dispatch his force to hunt them down, especially at the Dark Forest where anything could happen.

Few months have already passed since Orpus managed to escape to the Dark Forest. Since then, there is no single news about this mad monk. The peace starts back at the Heart Kingdom as the exterminator squad keeps apprehending the escaped prisoner every day.

As for the fight with the Monster Overlord still coming into a stalemate state. However, the other nations notice that monsters in the other habitat also become more aggressive. Sometimes they also launched a small attack towards the nearby nation.

In the meantime, Angus is currently having another class tournament as the sign of the end of the academy term. After getting divided into specialized classes, the class tournament is different from before.

The class tournament will be like joint combat training where students will be divided equally into groups.

Angus got into a group which he doesn't know about each of their members besides Ian. By some coincidence, Angus got into one group with Ian who is famous for being a troublemaker.

After introducing themself which Angus didn't bother to hear, they begin to talk about strategies to work as a team.

The current Class Tournament theme is another battle royal where they will fight in the nearby forest for a certain time. Angus didn't care about all this stuff and kept silent while nodding with a lazy expression.

'*Yawn* This is getting boring. I should just take a nap at the nearby tree when the fight starts.' thought Angus inwardly while keeping yawning every few minutes.

Currently, Angus is not in the mood to have a class tournament as the experiment of creating Miasma Cure Potion preoccupied his mind for the last few months.

He is still trying to search for the ingredient to complement the Elephant Grass as it is too volatile and dangerous to consume alone. Over the past month, he already found a few materials that may complement it.

Still, it is in the theoretical process and still not to be tested as the material is hard to procure. Even with the help of the Golden Trade Merchant Guild, Angus requirement material is still hard to procure especially at this economic crisis time.

'*Yawn* It is better to fight against monsters than all these kids.' Thought Angus inwardly.

The moment the Class tournament started, Angus immediately sneaked away before Ian could react. He didn't care about the tournament and searched for a suitable tree to rest.

After hopping on the thick big branch, Angus immediately lay down on it and waited for the tournament to be done.