To leave the forest, Nathan advanced slowly but steadily, as he kept an eye on his surroundings to be sure nothing would appear in his path and create trouble for him.

This way, he evaded two encounters with beasts by hiding on his way out of the forest. They didn't look strong, but he feared that if he made too much of a fuss, it would attract other beasts. So instead of killing them, he decided to let them be and continue their paths as if he didn't exist.

A few hours later, he was on the grassy plain outside the forest where they had previously camped. As he realized that he had managed to get out of there safely and with his investigation, he couldn't help but smile.

'Now I just need to make it back to the academy to continue with our investigation, and everything would be perfect.' he thought.

But soon after, he realized that wouldn't happen.

When he was not more than half an hour away from the academy, he met Travis and Marianne sitting on a rock by the path's side.

Looking at them, Nathan realized something was wrong as there wasn't much happiness on their faces. Not only that, but Travis had his arm completely bandaged, which suggested that he hadn't recovered from the corruption yet.

"What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the academy?" Nathan asked, surprised after seeing his friends.

"We can't return to the academy..." Marianne said while looking at the ground.

"What? Why is that?" Nathan asked.

"We have been expelled," Travis replied, with anger in his tone.

"What? How the hell did that happen? We haven't done anything wrong." Nathan said.

After hearing those words, Marianne and Travis exchanged glances, which made Nathan suspicious.

"We haven't done anything wrong, right?" Nathan asked while arching an eyebrow.

"Well, maybe I told the Branch Master to go and fuck himself..."Travis said.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Why do you always have to be so mean?" Nathan shouted.

"It is not my fault, alright? That guy is a scumbag. He tried to steal our investigation and keep it for himself." Travis replied, trying to defend himself.

After hearing those words, Nathan couldn't help but be shocked and, at the same time, grateful for Travis' temper.

"Alright, let's start from the beginning. How is it that he tried to steal our investigation? No, that's not the correct question. How the hell did he know about our investigation?" Nathan asked.

"Everything began last night." Marianne explained." After we delivered the mission's report, the Branch Master called us to his office. He was furious because he said we had made up the report to avoid going to investigate the forest."

"What? Why would he think that?" Nathan asked, shocked.

"Well, maybe I made sure to not mention the runes even a single time in the report," Travis confessed.

"He said we couldn't encounter such powerful beasts in such an area, as there should only be low-stage-beasts around. And after seeing Travis' arm and that you were missing, he said we were a disgrace to the academy and threatened us with expelling us if we didn't tell him the truth immediately."

"And you didn't tell him anything, right? I'm proud of you, guys." Nathan said with a smile.

"No, we spilled the beans." Travis said." We told him what we thought about "The Theory of the Ever-Changing Phases" and his face turned into one of greed immediately as he began to demand that we show him our investigation."

"Did you tell him anything?" Nathan asked, concerned.

"No, we didn't even tell him that the symbols are the key," Marianne said.

"Good, good," Nathan said, relieved.

"We told him that we couldn't tell him anything if it wasn't in front of a discovery tribunal, so even if we told him something, we would get our recognition and some rewards for our contribution. But he declined the offer, declaring that he couldn't lose so much time on something fake. After that, he expelled the three of us and gave us a few hours to take everything from our rooms and leave." Travis explained.

"But don't you worry. We have taken your belongings, and we destroyed any evidence of our investigation, including the turtle's shell, so they wouldn't have any clue about what we were studying." Marianne said.

"You did good work, guys." Nathan finally said with a smile.

"That doesn't matter. What matters is, what have you gotten from the forest?" Travis was ecstatic.

"Something pretty epic," Nathan said as he took out his investigation notes.