Over the course of the following few hours, Zayn and the hunters encountered five monster groups.
At first, Jeremy and the others wanted to intimidate the monsters because they were not confident to fight them head-on. They were exhausted and some of them were injured.
But Zayn charged at the monsters without hesitation. He used the Dragontale Twin Sabers to slice through his opponents with the freezing trait of the Saber artifacts and a thick mantle of a Soulblade. That way, by exerting the Double Saber Kalivan technique, it wasn't much of a problem to defeat the charging monsters.
Miranda began to use her enhancement spells on Zayn, accelerating his speed quite a bit. This further increased his strength.
Jeremy shoot at the most threatening targets as well, while Kevin and Mike protected the group.
Because of this combat formation, if one could consider it such, in the first place, Zayn's high combat prowess was clearly demonstrated in front of everyone.
It was obvious that Zayn's weapons were quite powerful as well, but it was also a matter of fact that he was extraordinarily powerful. His physical strength, flexibility, reaction time, perception, and overall combat experience were in a completely different league than the cadets of the 352nd Hunting Unit.
They could only stare at him in awe whenever he emerged victorious from the battles, without a single injury.
Sometimes, it looked like he was a little tired, but he recuperated extremely fast. It was almost as if his soul particles were replenished instantly.
What the others didn't know was that Zayn used the ownerless particles of the deceased's Soul Wisps to refill his soul particles. He made sure that his Spirits could recuperate as well, and gave them some additional soul particles to strengthen them a little.
After all, he couldn't absorb the ownerless soul particles of too many Soul Wisps, otherwise, his strength would increase to a notable degree. It would be weird if he were to get stronger with every fight. Zayn was not willing to explain that he could see Soul Wisps. That could lead to unnecessary trouble, which he wanted to avoid for the time being.
Once they defeated the fifth group of monsters it didn't take long until they emerged in a huge clearing that was connected to the mountain range. Zayn saw a huge cavern entrance that could have hardly been created by nature. At least, that was what he first presumed.
However, he was not too sure who was insane enough to create a fifty meter tall cavern entrance that looked like an arched gateway.
"That's the Silverflame Camp. Doesn't it look nice?" Miranda exclaimed, pointing in the direction of the mountain. The Silverflame Camp entered his eyes, but Zayn couldn't help but feel a little bit stupefied.
"Isn't that a town rather than a camp?" He blurted out, shaking his head in denial.
The Silverflame Camp was clearly a town, not a camp. It was neat and organized, with everything in its designated place. The only 'odd' thing, if one could really call it such, was the fencing and other forms of security measures to prevent the access of monsters.
At least, that was what Zayn saw from farther away. He had yet to take a good look at the camp's structure.
However, what he could tell pretty quickly was that the Silverflame Camp was basically a military camp, with a parade ground, training areas, a mess hall, a command post, and equipment and supply areas. Of course, there were also hundreds of tents and full-blown barracks.
This attracted his attention even further because he got a pretty good inkling of what the three big legions were trying to do.
First, the differences in the quality of the tents and barracks were huge. The cadets' accommodation had been arranged in an orderly manner, with every Hunting Unit having an assigned sleeping space. The Hunting Groups with the highest merit points were given the best accommodation with the highest quality, and the worst Hunting Group had to suffer in the worst tents.
This was probably something the commanders of the Silverflame Camp wanted to use as a means of motivation and to spurt everyones' competitive spirit.
However, it was more likely for it to end up in making the worst Hunting Groups feel miserable and like losers. Their confidence would be crushed and they would give up halfway.
The big three legions didn't need losers who gave up halfway, but Zayn was still unsure what to think about that. It felt a little wrong.
'Maybe I'm just mistaken. Their plan might be something else, who knows?'
Zayn couldn't know what was going on in the minds of the Silverflame Camp's organizers. He only knew that it would be hard to create camaraderie across the different Hunting Units if they were forced to compete with one another for a more comfortable bed to sleep. He didn't really think that it was only a competition to obtain better accommodations either.
From the way, the 352nd Hunting Unit's members acted, and the fact that they were willing to hunt three Trolls on the verge of advancing to Soul Lords, it was pretty obvious that the accommodation was among the least important things to compete for.
"Is everything here a competition? Like the best of the best receive private tutelage from the higher ups, better resources, meals, accommodations, and so on?"
The others looked at him with a dry expressions. They wanted to say something but ended up sighing deeply or shaking their head.
"There is a ranking system, yes. It resets every month with the removal of the 10 Hunting Units with the lowest accomplishments. Completing Missions, completing training drills and other means such as Unit Battles change the ranking accordingly…" Mike said, his expression full of frustration and a trace of guilt.
If he was only a little stronger. If all of them were just a little bit stronger. Maybe…just maybe they could make it.
"...and that's why you guys chose to hunt the Trolls. I see." Zayn added, revealing the bitter truth the others had been hiding.
They were too embarrassed to tell Zayn about it, but there were only 360 Hunting Units left right now. Being at the 352nd rank meant that they were the next to be expelled from the Silverflame Camp.
They had given their best to become strong. Yet, even after all their effort, they couldn't defeat the Trolls on their own.
Some of them had even been injured.
It was humiliating and discouraging.
But even then…they were desperate enough to do everything it takes to advance in the ranks, even if it was just a little.
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