Chapter 52: Ice-Yetis [2]

Alice Storms was having bad day.

’What am I doing here?’

She asked herself this question everytime ever since she was admitted into Golden Dawn Academy.

She was princess of the Storms clan, many noble family are part of her family domain and bow towards her.

She has everything that anyone could desire to have.

Wealth, Fame, Power, Countless weapons art and skills.

Anything.

After all she’s daughter of one of Overlords.

Then what she’s doing at Golden Dawn Academy?

It felt like she was wasting her time here, all she wanted was go back to Spirit realm and hunt down many monsters as she could....

But her grandfather had forbidden her to do so.

’Childern of your age should attend school and have normal life as much you can in this ending world.’

Children? She wasn’t some child.

She had inherited the lineage of War God from her grandfather, all she wanted was to fight, not waste her precious time on academy.

BOOM!

The ground trembled beneath Alice’s feet as a massive fissure tore through the snow-covered landscape.

The shockwave swept across the mountainside, scattering ice and snow in every direction. Several trees snapped under the pressure, while the nearby rocks crumbled into dust.

Alice lowered her sword and glanced at the destruction with an indifferent expression.

"...Weak."

She hadn’t even used a fraction of her strength.

Yet the attack had been enough to split the frozen ground apart for dozens of meters.

If her grandfather had seen this, he would probably have told her to exercise more restraint.

As if I care.

Alice sheathed her sword and continued walking.

She had no intention of wasting her time hunting ordinary E rank monsters. Even an E+ rank creature offered little entertainment, and the thought of spending an entire day killing them made her feel increasingly irritated.

Unfortunately, her grandfather had explicitly forbidden her from returning to the Spirit Realm without permission.

His reasoning was simple.

She was still young, and he wanted her to experience a normal life before devoting herself entirely to combat.

Normal life?

Alice almost laughed.

What was normal about living in a world where portals constantly spewed monsters into human territory, where Awakeners risked their lives every day, and where even entire cities could disappear overnight?

Humanity was fighting for survival.

And her grandfather wanted her to attend classes.

Ridiculous.

Still, she couldn’t openly disobey him.

Dreck Storms wasn’t merely her grandfather. He was the Sword Saint, an Overlord whose strength stood at the pinnacle of humanity.

If he wanted to keep her in the academy, there wasn’t much she could do about it.

For now, at least.

Alice sighed and looked toward the mountain range ahead.

"Let’s just finish this."

She released a small amount of mana.

The air around her sword vibrated, and a thin layer of energy wrapped around its blade.

Then she disappeared.

Swoosh!

A moment later, a massive Ice-Yeti emerged from behind a rocky outcrop.

The creature barely had time to roar before a silver flash passed through its neck.

Its head slid from its shoulders.

THUD!

The body collapsed into the snow.

Alice didn’t even glance at the corpse.

She continued forward, cutting down every monster unfortunate enough to cross her path.

An Ice-Yeti attempted to strike her from behind.

She severed its arm and split its chest open in a single motion.

Another charged at her from the front.

Her sword flashed once, and the creature fell before it could reach her.

Within minutes, several monster corpses littered the mountainside.

----

Meanwhile, on another side of Falcon Mountain.

Another group of youths was climbing the mountain.

The group was following behind the three youth that were ahead of others.

Those three were Joseph Goldberg, Lilliy Ashfaq and Jhon Snow.

All three of them were from nobel families that was part of world government and Joseph Goldberg was the hope of the world government and many noble families with potential to reach [SS] rank, an Overlord.

Joseph was currently speaking while taking out a long spear from the body of a rank F+ Yeti.

"This doesn’t work, we need to go higher or we won’t get any point." It was Joseph Goldberg who said that.

They had decided to group up and to divide equally the kills but it was obvious that the Josheph was trying to take the bigger share.

"Joe, I already told you that we should remain on a lower altitude. Lilliy is never wrong with these things."

Joseph Goldberg snorted and replied to the tall black-haired man.

"And what could she even know? There are only rank F+ beast in this area! We need to climb if we want to collect points!"

The others in the group nodded and followed Joseph lead.

Jhon Snow sighed and looked towards Lilliy.

Lilly Ashfaq, S-rank potential, having a rare sensory skill ever since she was born.

Lilly Ashfaq watched Joseph lead the group farther up the mountain, her expression growing increasingly displeased.

She had already warned him twice.

The higher they climbed, the stronger the monsters became.

The E+ rank Ice-Yetis inhabiting the upper slopes were considerably more dangerous than the F-rank and F+ rank monsters they had encountered so far.

Even a single mistake could leave an inexperienced Awakener severely injured.

Yet Joseph seemed determined to ignore her advice.

"Are you really going to let him do whatever he wants?" Jhon Snow asked quietly.

Lilly glanced at him.

"What do you expect me to do? Drag him back by the collar?"

"That wouldn’t be a bad idea."

"Then you do it."

Jhon immediately fell silent.

Lilly rolled her eyes.

Despite his complaints, Jhon wasn’t particularly interested in confronting Joseph either. The Goldberg family held considerable influence among the noble families affiliated with the World Government, and Joseph’s status as a potential future Overlord made him even more troublesome to deal with.

Naturally, Joseph was well aware of his own importance.

He had been praised as a genius since childhood, and his exceptional talent had earned him the expectations of countless people.

Unfortunately, talent and common sense weren’t necessarily the same thing.

"Besides," Lilly continued, "something feels wrong."

Jhon’s expression turned serious.

"What do you mean?"

She closed her eyes for a moment.

A faint pulse of mana spread through her surroundings.

Unlike ordinary Awakeners, Lilly possessed an innate sensory ability that allowed her to perceive fluctuations in mana with extraordinary precision. She could detect approaching monsters, estimate their approximate strength, and distinguish between different mana signatures.

It was the reason she had insisted on remaining at a lower altitude.

There were too many powerful signatures further up the mountain.

And some of them were moving in ways that made her uncomfortable.

"I can’t identify them clearly," she admitted. "But there are several creatures ahead whose mana signatures are considerably stronger than anything we’ve encountered so far."

"How strong?"

"At least E-rank. Possibly E+."

Jhon frowned.

"Then we should stop here."

"Try telling that to Joseph."

The two exchanged glances.

Neither of them looked particularly optimistic.

Up ahead, Joseph was already waving his spear impatiently.

"What’s taking you so long? If you want to earn points, stop standing around!"

Lilly sighed.

What a headache.

She had initially agreed to cooperate with Joseph because working in a group was the most sensible way to survive the practical lesson.

Unfortunately, she was beginning to regret that decision.

Still, abandoning the group wasn’t an option she could take lightly. If something went wrong, the students following them would be in serious danger.

She opened her eyes and hurried forward.