The main problem Ray had faced when trying to get stronger was the lack of advanced tier beast in the Alure kingdom. It was one of the reasons why Alure kingdom was considered one of the weakest out of the six kingdoms.

  If there were no high tier beast then that meant there was no way for them to get better beast gear as well. However, for Ray, it was an even more serious problem for he relied on these to get himself stronger.

  But now that they were in the shadow continent, of course, there would be plenty of powerful beasts roaming around.

  There was still around ten months left before the time allotted for Gary and Ray to do their duel. Ray had assumed this was because the demon inside Gary's gauntlet was struggling to take over. It needed time before it could use all its power.

  It was confident that as long as it got all its power back it could defeat Ray in a fight. But what they didn't know was time was exactly what Ray needed. As long as he could find enough beasts, he would be able to get stronger at a speed unheard off.

  Then a thought had come into Ray's mind, the students, before when Ray thought about the basic tier beast he was worried, but now he was even more worried. Their target was clearly Van for whatever reason and although Ray still didn't care much for the student's death, he didn't like the idea of the shadow getting what they wanted.

  "Noir, can you do me a favour, if you see any of the students wearing this uniform do your best to protect them for me, okay?"

  Noir howled slightly before running off in a random direction. Now that Ray had seen her strength, he was confident that she could handle herself. Even if she did meet something even more powerful than her, her speed was so great she could always run away, or Ray could just de summon her before too much damage was done.

  Ray had learnt his lesson from last time, although absorbing the beast crystals healed Ray and made him feel stronger, there was always the chance Ray could come across someone who he just needed that extra strength for.

  While Noir was busy out looking for the students, Ray went out for a hunt.

  ******

  Meanwhile, somewhere in the shadow continent, half of the student's form Del's class had been transported to a certain location. This included the young professor Flynn.

  "All right students please remain calm, let's do a headcount to see how many of you are here," Flynn said with his voice slightly shaking.

  The students were panicked, scared and afraid, it was hard for them to feel safe when it seemed like even the professor didn't have his act together.

  That was because Flynn was a white mage, his powers specialised in healing magic. He wasn't suited for combat in the slightest and when he looked around the area, he knew exactly where they were and from the look on some of the student faces, they did too.

  After making sure all the students were safe, they decided to see who was there. In total there were around fifteen students who had arrived with the professor and out of those fifteen, it included Bliss and Van.

  They weren't the only ones though, for Blake and another upper-class student was with them too.

  The whole time Van had remained silent and was shaking.

  "Hey, are you alright Van?" Bliss asked

  Over the last few days before being transported. Bliss had gotten to know Van. He was a nice person who seemed like he would never even hurt a fly. She wondered how on earth everyone had gone along with calling this person a freak in the first place.

  And right now, he looked like a young boy frightened.

  "This, it's all my fault, I'm the reason why everyone's here."

  "Stop it." Bliss said, "People are listening and we don't want them to make you a target, besides stop saying those ridiculous things."

  Van decided to not say anymore but deep down he truly felt like it was his fault. Even if he didn't use any magic, it was clear that the others were after him.

  "I think it's best if we stay put." Flynn said, "They always say in those survival books if you are lost it's best to stay in one area."

  "Maybe that isn't the best idea." Bliss interrupted. "That might be the case if we knew where we were but we don't. It is highly unluckily that even Roland don't know where we are. I don't think help will come, we're on our own with this one."

  The students started to talk amongst themselves, and then rumour started to spread. Where they really in the shadow continent?

  "Professor I think the girls right." Blake added, "We need to find the others and get out of here."

  Flynn didn't know what to do, he had only recently become a professor that year and suddenly all this pressure was put on his shoulders. In the end, he decided it was best to take the advice of the other two.

  "Alright, everyone get ready to move out, we'll mark the ground so we know where we are. We will slowly search out and come back here as our base. In each direction, we'll travel a certain amount of distance before coming back to the base and chose a new direction." Flynn explained. "The magic circle can't have teleported us far away from the others, so they should be nearby."

  Although Blake sounded confident, he was deep in his own mind, his body too was shaking and his mind was filled with a single thought.

  "It's my fault that everyone is here."

  *****

  Special thanks to TheLordGodHimself, ShiroDN, Fenrir2040, Bridget_Oviogo, Maik_Ulrich, Adebambo_Adebowale, DarkShadow_DS. These gifts really help support me, letting this become full time.