Heading south all the while, Han Shuo's party of twelve had traveled for eight full days. Along the way, the magical beasts they encountered grew stronger and stronger.
Single-horned bull beasts, enormous lizard beasts, and later demon wolves that could release wind blades and flying eagles that breathed frost. From handling them with ease at first to barely making it through the past day, the party clearly felt the steadily mounting pressure.
At first, everyone ate the food they had brought along. Once their supplies ran out, they simply cut up the magical beasts they killed, roasted them, and ate them.
These magical beasts grew increasingly ferocious, but their meat was not all that tasty. The lizard beasts' meat, for instance, had a peculiar odor that made it almost impossible to swallow.
However, the stronger a magical beast was, the more valuable its body parts became. In particular, magical beasts capable of casting simple spells all had Magic Beast Cores inside them. These Magic Beast Cores were extremely precious and could fetch very high prices depending on their grade.
The party's haul was quite impressive. Over the past few days, they had obtained four Magic Cores in total: three from Wind Blade Demon Wolves and one from a Frost Flying Eagle.
Magical beast cores were divided into six grades. Grade-six cores were the cheapest, while grade-one Magic Cores were the most precious and were rarely seen at all. These Magic Cores could be made into powerful magical weapons that amplified a mage's magic. Some special ones could also increase a mage's mental strength, making them extremely valuable.
Wind Blade Demon Wolf cores were grade five, with a market price of around twenty gold coins apiece. Frost Flying Eagle cores were the higher grade four, worth around a hundred and fifty gold coins each. The Magic Cores they had collected alone already put them in profit, even after deducting the fifty gold coins needed to borrow the warhorses.
Moreover, besides their cores, some of these beasts' hides and flesh were also valuable. The Wind Blade Demon Wolves' pelts and the single-horned bulls' horns were worth a considerable amount. Altogether, these things were already worth far more than Fanny and Gene had expected.
"After these past few days of training, all of you have improved considerably. You no longer panic so much when facing magical beasts, and that's the most important thing in actual combat. Also, we've been lucky. This training trip has yielded a great deal, a little more than our previous trips. Once we return to the academy and sell these things, we'll distribute the gold among you." Fanny was in a good mood, a satisfied smile on her lovely face as she spoke gently to the students.
Throughout their journey, Han Shuo had watched everything around him with a detached eye. He had clearly seen how the inexperienced students went from utter panic to calm composure as they trained against magical beasts.
Thanks to practicing the Demonic Cultivation Art, Han Shuo's senses had become sharper than anyone else's. In their later encounters, his advance warnings had contributed a great deal. No one could understand how Brian had such keen senses. Fanny had carefully examined Han Shuo's body over the past few days, but naturally, she had found nothing.
Fanny was somewhat dejected and puzzled, but she could find no good solution. In the end, she could only say that she would use some of the academy's magical equipment to examine Han Shuo thoroughly once they returned. His advance warnings over the past few days, coupled with his delicious roast meat, had unwittingly raised Han Shuo's standing on this training expedition.
Bark, Bella, and the others still treated Han Shuo with great hostility, since their "bad luck" repeatedly left them eating food that was difficult to swallow. The other students, however, had stopped ordering Han Shuo around. A few picky eaters had even begun trying to get along with him in hopes of receiving better food.
"Teacher Fanny, when will we reach the Death Cemetery?" Lisa asked immediately after Fanny finished speaking.
At those words, Fanny frowned. After a moment's silence, she sighed softly and said, "I've only heard that someone discovered the Death Cemetery deep in the southern Dark Forest, but I'm not too sure of its exact location. Actually, the main purpose of this trip into the Dark Forest was to teach you to cast Necromancy correctly without panicking when faced with danger. Judging by your performance so far, you've all basically met that standard.
"I have no idea where exactly the Death Cemetery is. By now, you should all have noticed that the magical beasts we're encountering are growing stronger and stronger. If Brian hadn't warned us in advance these past few days, I think some of us would already have been injured. Even so, we only barely made it through our encounter with the Frost Flying Eagle yesterday. If we go farther south, I'm worried that some of us won't just be injured-someone might even die. So I think it's time for us to turn back."
Fanny's words left the students somewhat stunned. Gene nodded and said, "That's right. We only came here to train. We can't establish where the Death Cemetery is, and we don't even know whether it really exists, so it's perfectly normal that we haven't found it. You all experienced what happened yesterday firsthand. If we go farther south, I think everyone's lives will be in danger. We've already gained a great deal from this expedition. There's no need to keep taking risks."
With both teachers saying this, some of the more timid students thought about the dangers of the past two days and all nodded in agreement, saying, "All right, let's go back to the academy. It's been getting more and more dangerous lately."
"Bark, you coward! How can we gain anything great without danger? If it hadn't been for yesterday's danger, how could we have gotten the Frost Flying Eagle's Magic Core? We should keep heading south. We might get even better things, and then the other departments won't dare look down on our Necromancy Department when we return to the academy." Lisa gave Bark, who had spoken earlier, a disdainful glare and mocked him with her chin raised. Then she turned to Han Shuo, who was indifferently roasting meat by himself, and said, "Brian, don't you agree?"
Previously, Han Shuo would never have received everyone's attention. But now, because of his performance over the past few days, the moment Lisa finished speaking, all the students actually looked at him. Even Fanny and Gene did the same, as though Han Shuo's decision mattered a great deal.
Han Shuo was momentarily speechless. After a brief pause, he gave a guileless smile and said, "We should take some risks. No one's been injured yet anyway, so why not go a little farther? We might gain even more."
Fanny gave Han Shuo an odd look. After a moment's silence, she actually nodded and said in her sweet voice, "All right. In that case, let's go a little farther. Once someone gets injured, we'll return the way we came."
"Come on, everyone, the food's ready." Han Shuo chuckled and called them over. Lisa and Fanny were the first to rush over happily, reaching for the two largest pieces of meat he offered without any concern for decorum.
Late at night, cool moonlight spilled over the Dark Forest. Some of the students were fast asleep inside several crude tents, while a few others fought off their drowsiness as they shouldered the important duty of standing guard.
Without a sound, Han Shuo left alone, slowly moving away from the students' tents and slipping through the shadows of the towering trees.
Between the patches of shadow, Han Shuo's not particularly sturdy body moved as swiftly and nimbly as a cheetah, changing direction abruptly with the greatest ease. Before long, he had left the tents where Fanny and the others stayed far behind and continued south.
Suddenly, Han Shuo stopped dead. Raising both hands, he recited the skeleton-summoning incantation: "Fallen Undead Warrior, heed the summons of the Dark Messenger and reveal your existence!"
As the incantation ended, the small, pitch-black Little Skeleton suddenly materialized in midair, Bone Blade in hand. His bones now seemed even more tightly joined and glossy black, blending completely into the night like an elf in the darkness.
As Han Shuo sped forward, Little Skeleton's leg bones bent and sprang continuously, but no longer made faint creaking sounds. The seven bone spurs on his back fluttered, making him seem to glide through the air as he raced along, weaving through the Dark Forest beside Han Shuo.
Two Wind Blade Demon Wolves suddenly appeared ahead of the man and skeleton. They were tearing at the corpse of a boar-shaped magical beast. One of the wolves seemed to sense movement. Its pointed ears suddenly pricked up, and its green eyes scanned from side to side.
A Bone Blade gleaming with a faint, sharp, cold light suddenly appeared in the night. It traced a peculiar arc through the air, curving and straightening, then abruptly stabbed toward the Wind Blade Demon Wolf that had raised its head in vigilance.
At the same time, an agile figure suddenly burst out of the dark shade of the trees, darting straight toward the other Wind Blade Demon Wolf. A faint streak of purple light suddenly cut across the dark night, looking eerily beautiful.
Two shrill, agonized howls rang out from the Wind Blade Demon Wolves one after the other. Both savage, bloodthirsty wolves were killed before they could react. One died instantly as the Bone Blade pierced straight through its skull. The other fell rigidly to the ground, its body continuously emitting an icy chill.
"Hehe, two more grade-five Magic Beast Cores!" Han Shuo withdrew his hand and muttered to himself with a satisfied smile.
On the other side, Little Skeleton had already begun using his Bone Blade to cut away the Wind Blade Demon Wolf's valuable pelt. Judging by his practiced movements, this clearly was not his first time doing this.
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