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Bang!
The ice barrier cracked and shattered from the man's kick.
'He's a formidable opponent!'
Davian adjusted his grip on the ice sword, preparing to block the man's attack.
The mace flew at him again, drawing a wide arc.
Davian gripped the ice sword with both hands and raised it above his head.
Crack!
The mace struck the ice sword with overwhelming force.
Davian barely managed to keep his knees from buckling.
At that moment.
Thwack.
Bonita's slender sword, appearing from nowhere, pierced the man's elbow holding the mace.
It accurately and deeply stabbed the area thinly protected by chain mail, not the steel armor covering his entire body.
She must have finished off her first opponent and joined the fight.
"Argh! You bitch!"
The man, looking furious, swung the mace with one hand at Bonita.
Bonita easily evaded the man's mace.
As the man's mace missed its target and slashed through the air, a large gap appeared behind his shoulder.
Thwack.
This time, Davian's ice sword deeply pierced the connection between his torso and shoulder.
"You bastards!"
Then.
Boom!
The man, hit by a fireball in the chest, fell backward.
It was Latia's finishing blow.
Without turning around, Bonita raised her fist above her head and gave a thumbs-up.
Thwack.
Bonita, having severed the man's knee, started running again.
Davian shook his head.
'She's thorough with the cleanup too.'
After a couple more quick skirmishes, Davian managed to reach the baggage cart.
Bonita was engaged in another fight with the newly arrived mercenaries.
"Bonita!"
Davian waved at Bonita.
With light movements, Bonita jumped high and landed on the shoulder of one of the mercenaries.
Whoosh!
Jumping off, Bonita landed next to Davian.
"Let's go!"
Davian tore a large scroll with a rip.
The light emanating from the scroll enveloped Davian, Bonita, and the baggage cart.
"Stop them! Stop them!"
A furious voice could be heard from afar.
It seemed to be Leonel Specula, arriving late.
'I won't get to see his face before leaving. Well, I'll meet him soon enough.'
The empty lot behind the dormitory.
Whoosh.
A bright light appeared and disappeared, and Davian and Bonita appeared.
The warp was successfully completed, even with the baggage cart.
"It worked?"
"Yeah."
Bonita casually held out her palm.
Smack!
Davian smacked Bonita's palm with a loud sound.
"We make a pretty good team, don't we? Davian Naone."
"So, you won't call me a sword-fighting chick anymore?"
"Chick, my ass. I'll have to train even harder to keep you from catching up to me."
Whoosh.
A bright light emanated from another magic circle drawn right next to them.
The rest of the Gray Bear Exploration Team also returned safely.
Libere ran toward the baggage cart.
"Wow! It worked! We did it! We brought back all the traces!"
Libere pulled hard on the thick padlock on the back door of the baggage cart.
Nubes approached him.
"I know you're eager to check, but that padlock doesn't look like it'll break just because you pull on it, does it?"
"Haha, right? I'm just in a hurry. Then, with some magic..."
While Libere was wondering what magic to use to break the thick padlock.
Crack!
Nubes grabbed the padlock with one hand and simply ripped it off, along with the hinge.
"Whoa. Nubes. What are you?"
Nubes flexed his arm halfway, showing off his biceps.
"These aren't just muscles I built to look big, you know."
"Wow..."
Bellum approached and pushed Libere's back.
"Hurry up and go up there to make sure we got the right stuff!"
Libere climbed into the baggage cart and carefully peered at the contents.
After a while, he simply collapsed on the floor of the baggage cart.
"...Why? Is it not it? Did we bring the wrong thing? The informant said this was the baggage cart."
Libere's shoulders started to shake up and down as he hung his head.
Bellum climbed into the baggage cart and gently grabbed Libere's shoulder.
"...Hey. Are you crying? We can just go back and take it again."
"Hic. Sniff. It's not that..."
"Not that? What is it?"
Libere suddenly jumped out of the cart.
He stretched his arms up and circled around the cart.
Bellum, who followed him out of the cart, asked Luna.
"That idiot... Could he have gone crazy from disappointment?"
"Nah, no way. But Bellum."
"Yeah?"
"Does Libere look like he's smiling?"
"Huh? Really?"
Luna was right.
Libere was circling around the cart, making strange noises with his arms raised high.
Tears were streaming down his unsightly face, but his mouth was smiling.
"Hahaha. Ahahaha. I was right. I was right! The traces of the Archmage were really there! Ahahahaha! Genius Libere Specula! I was right!"
Davian's group pulled the baggage cart toward a specially prepared warehouse.
A thick iron door had a sign that read 'Gray Bear Exploration Team Only'.
A warehouse building in a secluded area was emptied and provided for the Gray Bear Exploration Team.
The warehouse floor, walls, and ceiling were all enchanted with powerful protective magic.
Next to the iron door was a hollow in the wall, just big enough for a hand to fit in, and inside was a well-crafted mana stone.
"Alright, open the door, you idiot."
"Okay!"
Libere put his hand in the hollow and injected mana.
Buzz.
A bright yellow light emanated, and then the thick iron door slowly opened.
It was a security system with the mana of Davian and Libere pre-programmed.
If someone else's mana was injected, or if someone tried to force the iron door open, the system would immediately sound an alarm.
Davian's group each took one of the four traces of the Archmage and headed inside the warehouse.
Carrying the largest trace was Nubes's job.
After they had all placed the four traces in the warehouse, Davian heard an notification sound in his ear.
Ding.
=====
[Event 'Find the 12 Traces of the Archmage' in progress]
=====
Libere pointed to the first trace.
"This is a token of friendship received by the Archmage for protecting three villages in the Bure Plains. It's a staff created by melting down artifacts passed down through generations in those three villages. This is the first trace of the Archmage. Next is..."
Libere explained the origins of all four traces.
Since they had directly looted them, his friends listened carefully to Libere's long explanations.
After Libere's explanation, Latia asked.
"Then what's the trace that Leonel went to find in the Western Mining Zone?"
"Probably... the claw of the Mad Dragon Insanies. The claw that the Archmage and the army took to the royal family as proof of their success in sealing Insanies."
"Then why is it in the Western Mining Zone when it should be in the royal family?"
"Well... some prophet said that if the claw wasn't returned to the place where Insanies was, great misfortune would befall the royal family."
Latia nodded.
This time, Nubes asked.
"Then when are we going to find that claw?"
Davian replied.
"Probably the Leonel Exploration Team will be guarding that place every weekend. They know that the only time we can move is on weekends."
"So what do we do?"
"Let's go find the fifth trace and onwards when vacation starts next month. Leonel can't just stay put in that mine waiting for us forever."
"So we're just going to let them stew and then strike the moment they retreat."
"Well, something like that."
In the meantime, Luna approached Latia.
"By the way, Latia, what you did earlier... I knew you were amazing, but it was really incredible, wasn't it?"
Latia, who had been slowly examining each of the Archmage's traces, turned her head.
"What?"
"That fight with the mage earlier. It was obvious that the opponent wasn't an ordinary mage. You completely overwhelmed him with magic power? That mage probably couldn't have imagined that his opponent was a first-year student from the academy, right?"
"I didn't overwhelm him with magic power. That mage had more magic power."
"Really? But the two of you were no match, right? Latia, you took care of him quickly. And then you helped Davian and Bonita too."
"He only had a lot of magic power, but he didn't know how to use it efficiently."
Davian looked at Latia.
The mage who was guarding the baggage cart was at least a professional mage brought from the Magic Tower.
At the lowest, he would have been a 6-star mage or higher.
'Come to think of it...'
Davian was confident that Latia wouldn't be easily pushed back, but the fight ended too quickly.
This time, Davian asked.
"That's right. Latia, how did you do it?"
Latia tilted her head.
She looked like she didn't know what they were curious about.
"I just made the most of compatibility and efficiency. You can do that much too, right, Davian? That mage wasn't anything special."
The words "That's not true, you weren't this strong in the previous playthrough" came up to his throat but didn't come out.
It's not that the mage wasn't anything special.
'Latia Meridiem. She's definitely gotten stronger. Much stronger than in the third playthrough.'
A week later.
On the weekend, Davian went out to Elton City for the first time in a while.
"Young Master!"
"Mons. How have you been?"
"Of course, I've been well. I heard you started another exploration team in the meantime?"
"How did you find out about that?"
"It's all over Elton City that a first-year student founded a formal exploration team. If a first-year student did something like that, it must be our Young Master, right? Hahaha."
"Let's go get some food. And talk about anything you've found out in the meantime."
"I've found something out. Let's go eat first."
Davian and Mons set out to go to Se-Bure.
As they passed through a narrow alley to get to the main street, a group of people was blocking the way ahead.
It seemed like something had happened, as it was noisy.
"Shall I go check it out? Those guys look like 'Red Fangs'."
"Red Fangs?"
"It's a new gang that's sprung up in the back alleys of Elton City. Ever since Young Master crushed the 'Black Wolves' gang, a turf war started between the small organizations, and recently those 'Red Fangs' seem to have completely taken over this area."
"You can clean up the trash, but more always comes back. Let's just turn around."
"Yes, Young Master."
Then.
Thwack! Thwump!
An indiscriminate assault began.
The person surrounded by the gang was lying flat on the ground, barely protecting his head with both hands.
Harsh kicks continued to rain down on the man.
Davian's eyebrows furrowed slightly.
"What, some gang is just doing a group beating in broad daylight? They should be hiding in the shadows at night."
"That's right. They're rumored to be very cruel. It's not confirmed yet, but it seems like they have connections with the city guard."
"That's how they can act like that."
At that moment, a man wearing a leather vest looked in Davian's direction.
He was wearing nothing else but the leather vest on his upper body, and between the unbuttoned vest, his muscular body full of scars was exposed.
His face, with its fierce expression, was also covered in scars.
"Hey! What are you looking at? Get lost now!"
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