The ground was pitch black and the trees were brown with no sign of colour. The leaves looked like they had long left and there was no sign of them coming back. The little areas of water that should have been, were no longer there, and instead of ponds and rivers, they were filled with red fiery lava.

"So it really is the Shadow Continent.

" Ray thought as he tried to get his bearings.

As Ray looked around him, he noticed he was all alone and the only one there. The teleportation device that had been corrupted by the shadow had taken them to the shadow continent. But when Ray was taken, he was taken alone.

"They can't be too far, maybe because of the disruption in the first place we were all chucked out at random points,

" Ray said as he scratched his head.

"Argg this type of thing isn't for me in the first place, where is Kaito or Lenny when you need them.

"

The other problem was just how far deep in the shadow territory where they. The shadow continent was as large, it covered half of the continent of Bronzeland and equalled in size to the human's territory combined.They had several fortresses plotted everywhere.

If they wherein the centre, then it could take them weeks, months even to travel back to the point where they were in Alure kingdom.

Ray once again then tried sending a message but as usual, the error message had appeared. The army he had built up for tough situations such as these, he couldn't even use them.

Just then, glowing red eyes could be seen in the forest surrounding him from all different directions. Ray now had to rely on his other senses due to not having the ability to use his dragon eyes anymore. However, Ray's senses where greater than most, after evolving twice he could hear better, see better and just overall had a better feeling of things.

As the beasts came out, they slowly walked towards their prey. The beast looked just like a dog but all over its body, it had tentacles sprouting from its head and at the tip of the tentacle it had something that looked like a bone-shaped blade.

Ray didn't even need his Dragon eyes skill to know they were infected by the shadow, all beasts found in the shadow plague area had long been infected. Looking at them Ray assumed they were basic tier beasts.

But a basic tier beast infected by the shadow would have the strength of a tier above it, so right now it was more like Ray was surrounded by a group of twelve intermediate beasts.

Finally, the first one pounced forward at Ray with its tentacles shooting forward. As the tentacles came towards his head, he moved it ever so slightly allowing the spear-like tentacles to pierce into the ground and miss.

Ray then grabbed the tentacles and pulled the beast towards him and at the same time punched the beast in its head, the blow so powerful causing it to explode on impact. Black blood from the beast had covered Ray all over.

As Ray smiled, he looked like a demon covered in black blood. For him dealing with an intermediate beast was just as easy as a basic tier beast.

Ray then dashed forward dealing with each of the dogs only using his fists, killing each one of them with a single blow. He made sure to not use any of his magic skills and use just the right amount of Ki.

He was doing his best to conserve his mana and Ki. There was no telling what things he would face here, or how long they would be here.

After killing all of the basic tier beasts Ray didn't even bother to extract the crystals. They would only harbour basic tier crystals that could be sold at a low cost and right now he had a more pressing matter.

The other students, although Ray was strong enough to deal with the intermediate beasts, the others would struggle.

Just then though, while Ray was deciding on how to find the others, a larger Dog had emerged from the forest. The sound of its heavy paws could be heard and felt through the ground.

looking similar to the others before, but this one was the same size as a house.

The beast looked at its dead comrades around it and howled into the sky. Several large tentacles then sprouted from the beast's head.

While others would be stood in fear at such a great beast, Ray instead smiled with excitement. It looked like he had found another advance tier beast.

Ray immediately placed his hand on the ground.

"It's been a long time friend, now come out, Noir!

"

Just then, a large portal appeared just above Ray's hand and out came a large black-furred wolf with a horn on the front of his head, only this time Noir also had new beast gear equipment. On each of her paws, they were covered with sharp metallic claws laced with poison.

The beast was slightly larger than Noir for its muscle mass but Ray was interested in how Noir would fair.

The dog fired out its tentacles towards Noir, but she was too fast, jumping backwards avoiding the strikes, then before the tentacles could retreat back, she swiped at them with her claw. As the claws touched the tentacles a big cut could be seen and a green liquid surrounding it.

"That must be the scorpion's poison?

" Ray thought.

Noir was at the similar level to the advanced beast, she had evolved the first time from a wolf, into a black horned wolf, and now evolved into a larger wolf that was able to equip beast gear.Even if the shadow plague increased the strength of an advanced tier beast to a king tier, Noir had beast gear which helped close the gap and it was looking like it did more than that.

The dog beast was learning and decided it should no longer use its tentacles, it then rushed forward and so did Noir. If the two were to collide, Ray, was afraid the beast would out power Noir, but before the two did, Noir shifted to the side and immediately got behind the beast.

It was amazing how fast she was even though she was large, she then struck with her metallic claws twice at the beast and tried biting the thing. However, when she went to bite the beast, her teeth and jaw were not strong enough to penetrate the beasts hide, but her claws still were.

She continued to attack the beast with the metallic claws, although the attack's weren't deep, it seemed to be having more of an effect then it should.

The only thing Ray could guess was, it was from the poison in the claws. It would take some time to react but it was finally working. Eventually, the beast was moving so slow even Noir had stopped attacking and looked to Ray for another command.

Ray stood there watching the beast and eventually it had stopped moving altogether.

< Advanced tier beast crystal received >

"Maybe this place isn't so bad after all.

"

It was time for some grinding.