Chapter 77.1: Group Hunt Part 1

Mira and Maria made it back to their inn and went straight back to the room. Before they even entered they heard noises from inside of the room and they both got a little nervous to open the door. Mira almost just turned around and left. She didn't want to open that door only to find the room destroyed. She was already running out of Spirit Stones from this damn place. She didn't want to spend even more because of her stupid beast! She eventually opened the door and what both of them saw surprised them quite a bit.

Vulcan was running around like he was running for his life while Rhydian was chasing after him with her tail wagging and a stupid smile on her face. Vulcan had multiple bite marks all over him as it seemed Rhydian was using Vulcan as some sort of toy.

"At least Vulcan was here to keep her company." Mira muttered.

"Vulcan!!" Maria yelled at Vulcan with a voice full of concern. Vulcan heard Maria's voice and rushed into her arms while whimpering. Maria just caudled him trying to make him feel better.

Rhydian also noticed Mira and her eyes glistened with lightning and she launched herself towards Mira. It was so fast that Mira didn't even have time to react before Rhydian head-butted her in the stomach and she fell to the ground. The wind got knocked out of Mira as she gasped for air for a couple of seconds.

"Ah! Fuck! Don't do that Rhydian! You might actually kill me. It seems I need to get stronger quicker so I don't accidentally die to my own pet. *Sigh*." Mira released a heavy sigh when she said this. She looked over towards Vulcan and wondered why the difference was so great between the two. Rhydian is like a child and is about as intelligent as one, but Vulcan was born with the intelligence of at least a teenager. Rhydian is also stronger than her so it's not like she can stop Rhydian.

Mira just grabbed Rhydian and threw her off. Rhydian didn't know what she did wrong, but she could tell that Mira was in a bad mood right now. So she just walked over to Mira with her head down and tried to rub up against Mira. This didn't faze Mira though as she just looked around the room to see if anything is destroyed.

It didn't look like anything was destroyed while they were gone for the day which Mira was happy about. Mira gave a thumbs up towards Vulcan in her mind.

All 4 of them walked back into the room to get some rest. Vulcan slept in Maria's arms tonight as he didn't want anything to do with Rhydian. Both Mira and Maria decided to sleep tonight so they are ready for tomorrow.

***

The night passed quickly as both Mira and Maria woke up before dawn and rushed over to the gathering place for the next test with both of their beast companions.

They attracted quite a bit of attention from everybody when they neared the area to start the next test. Not only because they have gotten quite famous from yesterday, but now because of their beast companions. Everybody notices a small golden wolf with blue streaks on its back along with 2 tails, 1 gold, and the other ice blue. They then started to notice the power that this small wolf cub held. A Low-Stage Rank 4 Magical Beast! An extremely powerful one at that! After they saw Rhydian, their focus then went onto the small fox. Its bright red fur really stood out and it had a fiery aura around it. This fox also held power somewhat close to the wolf. The fox has the power of Late-Stage Rank 3. Yes, within the last 6 months Vulcan was able to make it to Late-Stage Rank 3.

"Hey, isn't it cheating to bring beast companions of that power? That wolf seems to have power much stronger than a normal Low-Stage Rank 4 magical beast as well. She wouldn't even need to do anything! She can just let that wolf do all of the work!"

"Those two pets look so young yet they are so powerful! I wish I could have something like that!"

"Holy shit! Those two are so cute! Please let me pet your beast companion! I will even pay you!"

Many people were whispering about Rhydian and Vulcan except for a couple of people that offered to pay them so they can pet the beasts. Vulcan didn't seem to care about all of the stares, but Rhydian was feeling rather uncomfortable. She could also feel gazes that contained malicious intent directed towards her. Rhydian was starting to get angry that these insects would even think about doing something bad to her. Rhydian stopped and slammed her foot into the ground leaving a web of cracks in the ground as lightning started to crackle around her. All of the hairs on her back stood up as she started growling at the people looking at her. She then gazed towards all of the areas where she felt malicious intent. The people that were having greedy or envious thoughts immediately froze and wanted to run away.

Mira just kept walking seemingly ignoring whatever Rhydian was doing.

'It's their fault if they die. Having greedy thoughts about Rhydian is just a death wish. She's in a Life and Death Contract with me so it's not like it would matter if they killed me to take Rhydian since her life is tied to mine.' Mira thought to herself, but luckily for those people, Rhydian was still a cub.

Once she noticed that Mira had walked off, she stopped releasing her aura and lightning and ran to catch up to Mira.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when that golden wolf ran off without doing anything. They were all shocked that Mira didn't even try to stop and left it up to the little cub to decide their life and death.

'I think it's better if I don't get involved with her.' All of the people thought as they watched the 4 of them walk off.

Mira and Maria soon made it to the area where they are supposed to wait for the test to start. They saw the rest of the 500 women either already there or making their way over. Around 20% of the people seemed to have a beast companion. Most were Rank 2, but there were actually quite a few Low-Stage to Mid-Stage Rank 3 beast companions among them.

Mira noticed Nisha and Audra, the two girls with dark and lightning elemental affinities. Nisha had a Mid-Stage Rank 3 Panther Magical beast. It was completely black and Mira assumed that the panther also controls the dark element, and the panther was clearly not full-grown either as it was much smaller than a full-grown panther. Audra brought with her a Mid-Stage Rank 3 Hawk-like magical beast. It had a wingspan of around 2 meters, but also seemed like it wasn't fully grown. It either controlled wind or lightning, but since it had golden-orange feathers she assumed that it controlled lightning.

All 500 women soon gathered and the middle-aged woman from yesterday came up in front of everyone.

"It looks like everyone was able to make it back here in time for the next test! The next test will be a group hunting test. We will take you to a hunting area filled with magical beasts ranging from Rank 1 to Rank 4 where you will stay for the next week. You will be graded based on how many points you earn. Points are earned by killing magical beasts. Rank 1 magical beasts are 1 point, Rank 2 magical beasts are separated into 4 point categories. Low-Stage Rank 2 is worth 2 points, Mid-Stage Rank 2 is worth 3 points, Late-Stage Rank 2 is worth 5 points, and Peak-Stage Rank 2 is worth 7 points. Rank 3 magical beasts are also separated into 4 point categories as well. Low-Stage is worth 10 points, Mid-Stage is worth 12 points, Late-Stage is worth 15 points, and Peak-Stage is worth 20 points. Seeing that none of you are in the Foundation Realm if any group is able to kill a Rank 4 magical beast then that group will immediately pass. Each group will contain 5 excluding magical beasts. I know that we allowed you to bring magical beasts with you, but you are not allowed to use them in fights. You can use them to search or track for other magical beasts. Now go form your groups! We will set out after every group is formed!" The middle-aged lady explained to everyone as they all began to think of who they wanted to form groups with.

Mira and Maria obviously formed a group together, but they needed 3 more people to join their group. But for some reason, Nisha and Audra came walking over to Mira and Maria.

"Hello, my name is Nisha. I'd like to join your group." Nisha, the girl with black hair and panther said.

"Yo, I'm Audra. You two seem like the strongest people here, so I say we make a group together. All we need is one more person." Audra, the girl with orange hair and the hawk said.

"Hey! My name is Maria and this is Mira! I'm glad that you two decided to join us as everybody else seems to be too scared. Well, they aren't wrong, hehe. Mira can be pretty scary!" Maria said as she grabbed their hands and shook them. Mira's eyebrow twitched when she heard what Maria was saying about her, but she only nodded her head.

Both the panther and the hawk were looking at Vulcan and Rhydian carefully, especially Rhydian. Their instincts as magical beasts were telling them to run away from these two.

It got a bit awkward between the 4 of them as nobody knew what to say. They just decided to wait until a fifth person comes. Almost everybody formed a group by now and only Mira's group needed 1 more person. They looked for the last person left and found a young and small girl looking around with a panic expression. Mira could tell this person is probably really timid and shy. She probably doesn't talk to people that often. Maria just ran over to her and dragged her to their group. The girl was visibly tearing up and panicking now that Maria had grabbed her and started dragging her, but Maria is too strong for the girl to escape. She's only Stage 2 Qi Condensation. If both Nisha and Audra, who was Stage 6 Qi Condensation, couldn't escape Maria then how could this little girl.

"Hello! My name is Maria, this is Mira, Nisha, and Audra! You seem to be the last person left, but don't worry as you can join our group haha! What's your name?" Maria excitedly asked, but the girl was hesitating to answer.

"M-M-My n-name i-s C-C-Celaine! I-I'll be in your care!" Celaine stuttered out as she bowed towards everyone. Maia just raised her back up and talked to her cheerfully.

"No need for that! We are all in a group, so let's all get along! I guess we should probably pick a leader now. I don't want to be the leader and I don't think Celaine will be able to handle the stress of it. I don't know about Nisha or Audra, but Mira is a great leader. She's been leading and training me for years now so I can verify that she is a great leader, although she can be quite cruel sometimes." Maria immediately voted for Mira to be the leader of the group and Celaine just timidly nodded her head.

"I don't mind. We can have Mira be the leader." Nisha said as she didn't think that she would be the best leader here, plus Mira and Maria are both stronger than her.

"If everybody else wants her to be the leader, then I guess she can be the leader. I also prefer to be the one up front fighting rather than trying to lead people." Audra also accepted this, mainly because she's getting an extremely dangerous vibe from Mira.

"Then it's decided! Mira will be the leader! Please take care of us, Leader Mira. Hehe." Maria giggled as Mira sighed.

"Very well, I will be the leader of this little group for this test. But I will let you know right now, I won't accept anybody slacking. I will drag your sorry ass out of this test if I don't see 100% effort, this includes you as well Maria. When we get to the destination, I will have you 4 show me your abilities. Even though I know how you fight, Maria, they also need to know. Understood?" Mira commanded like a drill sergeant. The 4 of them stiffened when they heard Mira's commanding tone. Nisha, Audra, and Celaine thought that Mira might be the quiet type, but it appears they completely missed the mark.

"Y-Yes!" They all stuttered as they affirmed and Mira nodded her head.

The middle-aged lady then spoke up.

"It seems that all of the groups are formed. Only 40 groups, or 200 people, will be able to pass this test and move onto the next test. Now that all of this is out of the way, I will now lead you to where you will spend the next week hunting magical beasts!" The middle-aged lady said as she started to lead them out of the city and towards a small mountain with a forest that goes halfway up it.