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nAfter asking one of the government workers in charge, their small group found out that the rift would stay stable enough to venture through unhindered for approximately 25 more days.

nOnce this period passed, it would turn unstable with the forceful gathered mana slowly being released before it would dissipate.

nAs such their group decided to venture out for 20 days before they would come back with five days as a buffer if something were to happen.

nDescending the mountain the highland plateau, they were currently at was situated took a few hours, while it was a little bit strange that not a single beast could be seen by them.

nThey didn't summon their soulbonds during that time and only Artemis flew around, observing the whole situation, in order to reassure a safe trip towards the valley.

nJason´s mana Five-SeveN was already holstered with armor-breaking bullets in his magazines, while his Viridi-Starstream daggers were safely sheathed.

nIn the beginning, he was pondering if he should sheat them in a scabbard or not, but Malia demonstrated to him that taking weapons out from the storage device took slightly longer than unsheathing them.

nThis short interval could already decide over his life, which he didn't want to challenge.

nPotions and other items were still better protected within his storage device, but even if that was the case, Jason took out a few potions, which he placed into his customized belt for potions because of the same reason as his daggers.

nThe throwing knives couldn´t be used by him anymore because their grade was too low and he didn't have any time to make new ones.

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nEven if he did, his throwing strength would have been too low to make a big difference.

nThe same applied for a bow and Jason decided to be a perfect tracker, while he would also rely on his dagger if necessary.

nOnce they reached a less steep hillside, they could finally carefully enter the valley´s outskirt, while the area around them turned from the gray stone field with a few lush bushes greener with a fresh and lush grass field greeting them.

nLife began to blossom and the whole scenario around them changed once they entered the valley, with large trees, wide bushes, and the chirping from birds reaching them.

nEveryone except Lux summoned their soulbonds because they determined that it would be better not to attract too much commission for the time being.

nDeath-affinities were extremely rare and most beasts weren't able to suppress their transmuted mana radiating from them while exactly that was the case with the Lux´s Skeletons.

nWild beasts would react completely differently when they sensed their soulbonds, compared to perceiving the mana flucutations of undead beings because most beasts would at first take care of these beasts as their priority, disregarding anything else in their surroundings.

nThis had some reasons but the most important was that death transmuted mana destroyed their surrounding landscape turning it infertile.

nAt the same time, every living being was innately hostile towards undead beings, causing even the most hated arch-enemies to create an alliance against the same innate enemy.

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nIn the end, Lux was extremely unlucky, even though his mana core size was the largest among the whole team because he would never be able to freely handle his soulbonds without being regarded as the most hated enemy.

nSurrounding Jason, as the weakest in their expedition team, everyone unsheathed their weapons.

nWhile Jennifer used a peak-grade-2 bow, Lin used daggers and throwing knives.

nTheo used a peak-grade 2 longsword and Lux unsheathed two short swords that were only slightly larger than his long Viridi-Starstream daggers.

nHowever, what astonished Jason, was that Malia took out a wand from her storage device.

nWands were always mana weapons and from the mana fluctuations he saw, Jason was sure that it was a mana grade-1 wand that had to be extremely expensive.

nWands were much more expensive than normal mana weapons because of their ability to amplify elemental attacks to a certain extent.

nWith Malia´s fire affinity at the unblemished rank and the water affinity at the peak of the evolved rank, she would be able to defeat a few unblemished beasts at once.

nEven a group of unblemished beasts shouldn't be much of a problem, as long as she had enough mana to sustain her elemental attacks.

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n'Why didn't she use the wand in Jiro-City?' Jason suddenly asked himself, but there could be multiple reasons to answer this.

nAs such he would ask later because they had more important things to do at the moment.

nAs their Tracker, he was supposed to tell the expedition group where to go, even though he wasn't exactly sure what his group wanted to do at first.

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"Should we explore everything within a safe proximity or take a look at what beasts habitat in the more secured areas in order to walk around more freely to find more treasures?

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nJason asked in order to figure out what his team wanted

nHe was not the leader of their group and upon looking closer, it seemed as if nobody leads their group which was not really good.

nIf they were in great danger, who knows what would happen, and without anyone´s backbone holding everyone together, the whole group could end up separated.

nJennifer looked at her brother, as if she wanted him to speak, while both Malia and Lin behaved like they wanted to say something too.

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"Let´s do both at the same time. We can take a look at most beasts while exploring the outskirts, right?

" Lux, who didn't say a word previously asked and nobody wanted to rebuke him, due to the eerie feeling around him.

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nJason only nodded his head, as he told them which path they should follow before he roughly described what kinds of beasts he would perceive or rather how many beasts were gathered in one spot with their mana core rank included.

nIn addition, he could also tell his team their elemental affinity, but Jason didn't want to expose everything he could do at the moment.

nMost beasts would openly reveal their elemental affinity either from their fur

/skin

/hide color or even before their fight began in order to intimate their opponents.

nAs such it was unnecessary for Jason to reveal all his secrets, as they approached a small group of heavy armored mountain bears next to another group of green windwalker bears.

nThese two groups lived in different small groups but weren't hostile to each other. Apparently, they even divided their meat with the other group as Jason noticed them ripping apart a large ten-meter tall forest guardian at the peak-unblemished rank.

nJason had never seen any of these three races in front of him but he was astonished to notice that the two bear groups that were at the low

/mid unblemished ranks were able to defeat a forest guardian at the peak-unblemished rank.

nThe forest guardian looked similar to a moose, which wondered Jason slightly because what he remembered about them was different, but the faint, almost completely dissipated mana fluctuations he saw were exactly what he read from a forest guardian, that was said to be a bipedal beast.

nNevertheless, the bear groups they approached would make a good harvest, either for their hide, claws, or even their organs to concoct special potions, which attracted everyone´s attention.

nSuddenly, the Nightmare-horse's black flames flickered, attracting the attention of a certain bear, as it roared out, causing the remaining heavy armored mountain and windwalker bears to turn around.

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nGlaring at each other, Jason wondered if his decision to venture into a four-star rift was so smart, as he quickly unholstered his Five-SeveN.

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