GUARDIAN OF THE END

Jason and the group didn't face any problems for the rest of their stay. The monkey king had fulfilled his end of the deal and made sure that they remained safe.

Though on the third day, the children had started getting bored. They started experimenting with their magic to keep themselves occupied and not feel bored.

Jason tried increasing his aim by shooting lightning bolts at one of the branches but his attention was diverted.

'I never paid much attention to what I could do with dark element…' Jason thought silently.

He only had two skills in his dark mage job class. After seeing how the golems had made use of the dark element, Jason had realized that there were still many things he hadn't tested.

His dark element could do many fantastic things which he had overlooked. Jason had diverted all his attention towards the passive healing and his thunder element.

'Dark element deals in curses which are definitely going to be useful for me.' Jason silently thought.

He wanted to enter his dream world and practice with dark magic. But due to how time passed inside the dream world, Jason knew that he would stay there for much longer than he intended.

[ Even I find it difficult to keep track of time while being inside the dream world. ] The system admitted.

Jason could only sigh and wait until he was alone. He didn't want others to figure out how he was using his dark magic.

'Speaking of dark magic, I wonder if miss Izzy would help me with this. She is a dark mage as well and judging from those two golems she casually created, she must be pretty strong.'

[ She also said that she is the vessel to the guardian of Dardono. ]

'Hestia, what type of guardian is that?'

[ I don't know the guardian but I know the realm. Dardono is known as the realm of darkness. It is the home to the dark elves if I remember correctly. That guardian must be an expert in dark magic. ] Hestia informed.

'Then its settled. I will ask Izzy to teach me more about dark magic and since she isn't restricted like my family, I might be able to make her my master.' Jason thought at last.

Three more days passed by in this manner. However, on the morning of the last day, the group encountered a hurdle.

"Guys, we ran out of food pills," Jason informed.

All of them had woken up hungry and had been waiting for Jason to provide them with food pills.

An uneasy silence hung over the place. Since they had counted the number of pills, it was impossible enough for them to run out of food pills.

"Uh… that's strange considering that the water pills have run out as well," Amber broke the silence only for it to come again.

All of them stared at each other while silently trying to figure out what had happened.

***

Izzy, who was watching them from her spot in the forest, smiled. The last class she had become the teacher of hadn't been able to complete this part of the trial.

They had started blaming each other for stealing the pills and had ultimately inflicted minor wounds on each other.

Izzy had of course failed them and given this report to the principal. Such students might be powerful and intelligent but if they couldn't do well with others, they might as well be useless.

The Vancouver academy knew that if children grew up without trusting anyone, they might become arrogant or remove themselves from the society.

They might also become an enemy of the kingdom so Albus had instructed the teachers in the academy to pay special attention towards trust building and teamwork.

'How are you going to resolve this?' Izzy thought silently. After all, she had been the one who had made the remaining pills vanished.

***

Back in the forest, Jason suddenly thought up of a weird theory.

'System, what if this was a plan formed by Izzy?' Jason questioned.

[ I feel the same. Perhaps she wants to see whether we blame each other or try to find some solution for this problem. ]

'It might have worked.'

"Guys, do you think miss Izzy is using some sort of trick on us?" What if this is a trial of sorts which we have to pass?" Jason questioned.

The others slowly nodded. Since all of them had experienced many strange things in their lives, they were used to being tested at all times.

"Now the problem is that we have to find food. Hunting or fruits?" Zeke asked.

"We have to get some sort of meat to eat. Our bodies have been running on the bare minimum nutrition if I am not wrong," Wade added. "Fruits should be helpful too."

"I can get the fruits easily. Wait here for a few minutes." Jason suddenly jumped towards a branch.

Using his lightning steps to its limit, he dashed through the branches and made his way to the red-butt monkeys settlement.

Once he had arrived at the place, Jason directly went to the king's house. A maid was standing at the door to help other monkeys get their work done quickly.

But when she saw Jason, she immediately knelt. The maid monkey knew who Jason was and immediately asked what he needed.

"Can you provide me with some fruits for me and my friends?"

"Sure, my lord." The maid dashed inside the house.

She personally went to the monkey king's food vault with her fellow maids and put fruits into two sacks.

The maid came back and handed the sacks to Jason, who put them in his dagger.

"Can you tell me about some beast that is edible and doesn't taste too bad?" Jason questioned the monkey maid.

"You can try hunting the Mad-Peck Chickens. They roam around the beginner's area in groups and are usually hunted by other groups. Sometimes, we also hunt them." The maid answered.

"I see… Thank you for your help." Jason thanked the maid and turned around.

He left the settlement and started making his way back to the camp. It took Jason a few minutes to arrive at the camp but once he did, he took out the two sacks containing the fruits.

Jason placed them on the ground and looked at his group with a smile

"That was quick." Amber whistled. If they had tried to manually hunt for fruits, it would've taken a long time to gather this many of them.

Furthermore, their bodies were hungry and required food. Amber was sure that they could have only lasted a few more hours without food.

"Let's eat these for now and go hunt for some meat," Jason suggested while taking fruits out of the sack.

He distributed them to his classmates and all of them happily ate their breakfast.

"What do you think we should hunt for?" Mila asked curiously while eating a banana.

"I asked the monkeys for some help. According to them, we should hunt some chickens that roam around in huge groups. Hunting a few of them wouldn't be that difficult." Jason answered while eating a peach.

He didn't know how but some fruits from Earth also existed on Duphia.

'I am itching to test something new and multiple targets are the best test dummies for this.' Jason thought with excitement.

He wanted to experiment a bit with his dark element and if he got food for doing so, why not?

"So we go around looking for the chickens and hope to bump into a group?" Wade asked curiously.

"That's the only way to find them in this huge forest. Maybe we will find them soon enough." Jason suggested.

[ I think I might be able to help you there. Being a guardian of Animolis, I could sense all the beasts that lived there. Maybe I would be able to do the same here as well. ]

'Maybe you should have told me that before. I already told them that we will have to roam around while trying to search randomly.'

[ Divide them into two groups and let one of them stay behind. If anyone gets in trouble, they can run back to the camp and use the help of the person to fight. ]

Jason agreed with the system. Doing this would be the most optimal course of action for them.

Jason placed his plan before the group and everyone agreed. Wade was the one staying behind. Mila and Zeke formed one group while Amber and Jason formed the other.

The silver-haired boy was about to ask Amber to join the other group so that both teams would've one guardian. But Amber's words shut him up.

"There's is something I need to discuss with you in private." She whispered in his ear.

"Let's head out." Jason said to the others before setting out.

Hestia silently extended her aura around Jason and tried to sense the place where the chickens were.

In the meantime, Amber stated the matter she wanted to talk about.

"Flamey said that one of the special ability he provides me is the power to control body temperature of beings by manipulating the heat produced by them." Amber said in a low voice.

Jason eyes widened in shock when he heard the ability Amber had received. 'What the hell?! How come she has an overpowered killing ability while I am stuck speaking Monkeynese?!'

[ Well, that's one of the abilities she has. Hestia might have some killer abilities like this too. ] Since Hestia was busy searching for chickens, the system replied in her stead.

"What can I do about that?" Jason questioned while trying to prevent envy from leaking into his voice.

"I wanted to see if your beast powers could help me analyze this ability. I can't sense the body heat a person has so I have no idea how to use this effectively." Amber stated. "I need your help in learning how to use this ability."

"I…" Jason was about to reply when he suddenly felt something popping a few hundred meters in the west.

A connection of sorts formed between him and the place. Jason could sense multiple creatures moving directly towards him and he could tell that they weren't monkeys.

[ I located the chickens! ] Hestia exclaimed at the same time.

'I know. I can sense them…' Jason replied.

[ Huh? You can sense them even though I was the one extending my aura? ] Hestia asked in a confused tone.

'Your aura is my aura. I never knew that this bond could be exploited in this way. What's the size of your aura on Clover?

[ I am not sure but its definitely bigger than seven hundred meters. ]

'Good.'

"Amber, we will talk about this later on," Jason slowly replied. "We have some chickens to catch right now."

***

AN: This is turning out to be quite the slow burn... Oh well, I have some exciting things planned once we get through these initial training phases. I hope I get through these xD