Absolute Beast Dominion

The moment 25 students appeared in what seemed to be a closed building, they realised that the professors were no longer around. Rather, Tarun was standing there with his hands folded behind his back.

"From here on, most of the things will be handled by you. The professors have hidden themselves to guard you from the shadows in case a situation arises. But don't expect them to appear if you're bullied by someone from another academy," Tarun explained.

"We are here to handle the threats that you don't have the chance to deal with, or that have higher authority than you. In that case, you can rest assured that we will be there. But not in places where you are supposed to handle things, like with fellow students."

Tarun turned around and signalled for the men to distribute essentials such as higher-grade life bracelets and authorised armour with no special abilities.

"That is to say, you can understand that even you can have fun with other students to repay favours or simply for 'enjoyment'. Though..."

He swept his gaze around them.

"Your batch is the very first batch coming in contact with other races like elves and dragons. It would be desirable if you show unity among humans and that we are more than capable of living on our own, like we have been doing."

After that, Tarun explained the facility they were in.

Apparently, it was Aurelius Beast Academy's private building, intended for the staff and serving as the initial resting place for the students before the competition began.

As the armour was distributed, Lily pouted once again at the colour.

"Eerrgg... what armour is black..."

Apparently, the academies had their special-colour custom armour made for ease of recognition, and, as was known, it was black at Aurelius Beast Academy.

And, of course, it wasn't going to match Lily's white uniform. She simply put it away.

"I will wear it and have my academy dress changed after the competition begins... for now, I will keep this dress on."

Lily really seemed to hate the colour black, which didn't go best with her hair colour. Though it didn't look bad, it didn't look the best either. Thus, her frustrations.

Everybody was even given 200 Gold Coins. No less or more, just 200 Gold Coins distributed evenly across the 25 individuals.

A total of 5000 gold coins.

This money was supposed to be used to buy things like food, if needed, alchemy materials that couldn't be obtained in the wild, spiritual Beast Parchments for crafting talismans, jade slips, spatial rings to make it easier to carry things, or weapons and armour with magical abilities that would make the strongest in the team even stronger.

Now, collectively, this was a great sum to buy some strong items, but it wasn't much individually.

In other words, the competition had already begun, and this was the test of team unity.

What would they do?

Buy items individually or pool the funds to buy a sturdy item meant for use by only a couple of people?

And, as expected of Leo, the team leader, he immediately told everyone to hand over all the money.

They wouldn't be spending a copper on stupid things like food that was easy to obtain in the wild, and with cooks like Miho, Lily and Sylrael, even that would turn out tastier than anything bought.

It turned out that the location they had come to was actually behind by almost 12 hours... Meaning it was the afternoon of 30th April.

They had a lot of time.

The first thing Leo did was divide the group into 5 main fighting units. Since, according to others, the 1st phase of the competition was always common across years, it compelled the team to divide its forces effectively so that appropriate resource gathering could be carried out.

Not to mention, according to this, things would be bought with the 5000 gold they had immediately pooled on Leo's order.

1st unit: Leo, Lily.

2nd unit: Dhalia, Marco, Miho, Aaron, 1 scout.

3rd unit: Kaelion, Uraan, Rhaegar (Eagleman).

4th unit: Ronan, Cecil, Thalvyr, Plato (healer), 1 scout.

5th unit: Tavian, Lyra, Yano, Aeila, Sylrael, 1 scout.

Resource unit: 3 brewers, 1 intellectual.

Normally, Tavian would have been in the resource unit, but his ability to fight at close range with the Lost Era martial arts made him an effective battle force to be considered... and a strong one.

"Oy, you forgot a healer in our unit," Kaelion said.

"Eh? Yours is a flying unit; do you even need one?" Leo asked.

"Why not? Elves would be great archers if we look at Sylrael," Kaelion reasoned.

Leo nodded slowly.

"I guess it can't be helped. Lily will join you, and I will go solo."

At that, both Uraan and Kaelion raised their hands simultaneously to stop him.

"No!"

"W-we mean, if she joins us, our group will end up having way too much power, and that would leave Dhalia's team a bit weaker," Uraan said, and Kaelion continued.

"Not to mention, you are right about us being a flying team. We would be in a lot less danger than the group units."

Leo raised his brow.

"Are you sure about that? We will have dragons roaming the skies."

At that, both men became quiet.

"Hmm... looking at your Wyvern... I guess it will be safe to assume that my Skyreaver and Uraan's falcon can outpace them. Not to mention, in the end, our major role will be to spot resource points."

Uraan and many others turned towards Kaelion.

"Your Skyreaver? What do you mean by that? Weren't you going to ride my falcon?" Uraan asked with a frown, not knowing about Kaelion's beast.

"You will understand; just know I have a flying beast... a strong one."

"Damn, you actually kept a card hidden and settled for 2nd position..."

Uraan and the others were astonished at the control Kaelion had. Even he was forced to show both his beasts.

Leo considered his choices.

In the end, he decided to weaken the ice team by putting Miho on Kaelion's team as a healer and Lily on Dhalia's team.

Well, it's not that she can't use ice at all... Zelut's abilities—though weak—are ice-related.

Not to mention, Lily's wind could turn the ice that Dhalia and Marco used into a blizzard.

"Leo, will you be fine alone?" Lily asked with a bit of worry.

Though she hadn't come across the dragons, she knew they had tons of positive traits that made them way stronger even if they were in the same realm.

So, there was a high chance Leo might come into trouble, and there was no way to confirm things unless they got to see the dragons.