Toren nodded. He had also arrived at a similar conclusion.
He was trying to see if he had missed any clues.
"I don’t know any either," Jaran shook his head.
He continued to look at the battle traces on the ground.
Toren nodded, finding their explanations reasonable. He would have found it unbelievable if they knew someone with such offensive abilities, and he was not aware of them.
Because such a person would have been well-known in the department.
He concluded that this attack wasn’t the result of the attacker’s abilities, but from a magic item.
Although students could use magic items within the dungeon, it wasn’t advised because it was detrimental to the purpose of helping them gauge their strengths and training to become stronger.
Still, the academy didn’t ban the use of magic items in the dungeon.
Magic items were also an essential part of a Hero’s strength.
The stronger their magic items were, the more powerful they became.
It would defeat the purpose of enabling students to experience the dreadful dungeons outside the fortress.
"Unless we went from student to student to see the magic item they are carrying, which is currently impossible, we can’t know who had done this," Jaran said.
"The culprit had taken careful measures before taking action to avoid being caught. But the battle still looks fresh, so it means that he hasn’t gone too far."
"Let’s split up and head in different directions. We might be able to uncover him if we are quick enough."
Jaran turned to Riven and Toren.
"If you find anybody, no matter how suspicious they are, inform the rest of us, and we’ll be there instantly to provide support."
"What if we are unable to locate the culprit?" Toren said, exhaling tiredly.
He had prepared to quickly complete the task before attending to other personal matters. He hadn’t expected that he would encounter such a situation.
"If we can’t catch them now, then we can wait until after the task refreshes. If they don’t show up next time, then we know that our assumptions are correct that they are targeting us," Jaran responded, his expression serious.
A bloodthirsty glint flashed in his eyes.
"If they do, we’ll report this matter to the others and team up with them to handle the culprit."
The strength the culprit had shown to kill a silver-tongued serpent with one attack made him wary. He understood that they couldn’t handle them alone if they wanted to capture them and teach them a lesson.
Toren frowned, "You don’t plan on letting the others know about this now?"
"No, I don’t," Jaran shook his head, "What would they think when they found out that someone had stolen our task on the day that I had been humiliated by the Worst One?"
He narrowed his eyes at Toren.
"They might also use the opportunity to take advantage of this by stealing the next task. And that won’t be the end of it. We should wait until we can come up concise solution by ourselves, then we can decide whether to inform them or not."
"Until then, no one is allowed to utter a word about this to anybody," he demanded.
Toren clicked his tongue in frustration. Rather than responding, he asked, "And what if none of that works?"
"Then it’s best we begin to uncover who they are immediately. Our scores are hanging on this," Jaran responded.
"Are you with me or not?" He stared at Toren, awaiting his response.
After careful deliberation, Toren nodded.
"Okay. I hope that you don’t make me regret teaming up with you later on."
Jaran nodded and turned to Riven.
"I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure that the culprit is found and this issue is quickly resolved," Riven quickly responded.
"Let’s meet back here in the next three hours, if we are unable to uncover anything," Jaran said.
The other two nodded in understanding.
All three of them leapt into the sky, landing on a nearby branch in a different direction. They jumped from one branch to another, disappearing into the distance.
Before me was a four-meter-tall brown with green scales covering its back, four limbs, and two large green-scaled tusks protruding from the sides of its mouth.
This was a Woodland Boar. A mid-stage Rank One magical beast, like the silver-tongued serpent.
Its body was currently covered in scars, stained with blood, and the left side of its horn had broken off.
Its eyes were filled with rage as it locked its gaze on me.
It bellowed fiercely at the sky. The tusks spun rapidly like a drill. Then, it charged towards me, aimed directly at me.
I clenched my left hand, which was enveloped in the cybernetic gauntlet, tightly, with my sword held in my right hand.
I swung my blade forward, meeting the woodland boar’s charge head-on.
My blade collided with the green-scaled tusk.
The woodland boar’s sole tusk shattered and fell to the ground.
I was only pushed backwards a few inches.
I quickly regained my bearings and rushed forward.
The woodland boar’s eyes let out another bellowed, but this time filled with anguish towards the sky. Sensing as I drew near, it swiftly attempted to retreat into the dense forest.
I swung my cybernetic gauntlet toward the side of its face.
Its face caved inward. Metal collided with meat.
The sound of bones crackling echoed in the air.
Its body was propelled backwards, tumbling and twisting in the air, hitting the ground several times roughly before it came to a sudden stop.
The woodland boar attempted to get back up to its feet. But it quickly fell back to the ground lifelessly.
I wiped away the beads of sweat on my face.
I walked towards its tusks and quickly stored them away in my storage before walking towards the corpse.
After digging out its core, I beheaded it.
Blood trickled out from the flesh. Fortunately, I wasn’t carrying a cheap storage bag, so I didn’t need to worry about the blood spilling on the rest of my items.