"Who is in charge at this resource point?" Asked one of the top ten students from the Umbra School, who had arrived at this tungsten ore range.

Lafite stepped forward and answered: "It's me. Lafite from the Black Isotta."

The student glanced at her, whose stunning grace--a sort of grace that came with an unrestrained domineering manner--flooded him. Following which he narrowed his eyes.

Lafite's withered skin had been healed after years of treatment. She had become a gracious queen again. And her character had become a little more cunning.

The student pulled out a map and chattered. "You take your men to reach here in five days." He pointed his finger at somewhere in the map. "The remaining few will be enough to guard this ore range."

"A center resource point?" Lafite got startled and then she murmured. "That '20 Drops of Blood' is getting stronger enough to have this final battle? Their members were behaving like fools only years ago."

"Experiencing a purgatory of killing, most of them have been wiped out. If it were not for the protectors, the rest of them would have no resource points in their hands and would have been crushed a long time ago. This war would also have ended." The student sneered.

Lafite replied, thoughtful. "Then the 12th section is mobilizing all of the forces to go here?"

"Nope, it's them that are doing this. We've occupied 180 points. The target of 30 points per school has been achieved. Thus it's unnecessary to commit such a sacrifice as raiding the remaining 20 points. They're doing it because, according to the intelligence of our men disguised on their side, they don't intend to lose the war and are making their last-ditch efforts."

All of the students on the range were startled.

It seemed that the 20 Drops of Blood had become unified, and was now a behemoth that could meet the 12th section as equals.

And this was a flaw in the organization of the 12th section students. No strong leadership deprived them of the chance to smash the enemies once and for all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tsha, tsha, tsha...

Lafite led her team along with other three students in running across an untraversed desert. The soft sands made melodic tsha sounds.

"Stop." Lafite motioned for the team to halt.

The team looked at Lafite whose eyes were watching the distant sky above.

They had no idea that in the distance skies, a bird small like a black spot was hovering above them. Nobody was paying any attention to it except for Lafite. She had the Eagle Eye!

"Something is wrong with this bird. It had been following us for an hour. I think we are being watched by the 19th. This route is not flanked by our resource points which makes it a perfect place to ambush," said Lafite slowly.

"Yeah, we're not going to view them in the old way. They are sorcery students. They learn. They were acting foolish because of their schools' system." Cut in Robin, riding on her boar. She then picked up a water bag for a drink, and then watered the boar.

Chris put in: "Lafite, what do we do now?"

After some thinking, Lafite said: "You guys keep changing directions while moving forward in case of falling into their trap. I'll get that bird and then catch up to you. And Robinson, you go to the nearest resource point to bring a rescue team. Considering your speed, reinforcements will be with us in three hours."

Hearing the instructions, Robinson took out the map and said: "I'll try to achieve that in three hours!" He then continued. "My wife, keep in touch through the crystal ball."

Soon Robinson had disappeared with his mission in hand.

A pair of huge green leaf wings unfolded on Lafite's back, and she then straightened her upper body, targeted the bird and shot a whistling arrow.

The bird sensed the coming arrow and fled away immediately.

In the team, an Ivory Castle School student fished out a little magical stick and threw it into the air. As it landed on the ground, he murmured. "We go where the stick's tip points. We flip the stick every tenth of one hourglass. Basically, we're heading to our destination and they couldn't ambush us."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glenn was also in the team yet he was busy with his study of water and fire, and he had become completely immersed in this complicated element knowledge. It was called the Fire Blast Sorcery because this was the most basic application of the forces produced by water and fire when met. In simpler words, when the more stable water element was added into the stable fire element, some sorcery would be used to unite the joint forces when the two elements met into one destructive force.

This rough use of energy was like when Elaine had detonated the magical stone without using the precise control through lever back in Glenn's first class at the Black Isotta. It was a shame to sorcerers known for the lever method.

But this simple method was the best the ancient sorcerers could achieve in the area. The destructive force energy had their specialty and could not be collected through physical means and thus couldn't be studied in-depth.

But in Glenn's mind, even such a simple use contained the power of "prying up the lever", and this power was over 30 times greater than the effect that could be produced by basic mental force. If someone could create a more stable environment where water and fire elements blend, then the instantaneous destructive force would be even stronger. Besides, there was more potential in the force waiting to be tapped into.

Glenn was lucky to get this fire element sign with the indistinguishable property, so it wouldn't be put out by water! This provided a solid base for his study of the Fire Blast Sorcery.

Rejoicing greatly, Glenn just kept his head low while following the team as if he was a mechanical log.

For the past few years, Glenn had been behaving like this. Except for the few who were friends with him, no other students had had any conversation with him. The only information they knew was his Ashen mask, and that he and Lafite were a couple.

Half an hourglass of time passed, and the travel-worn Lafite landed on the ground before the team. "That eagle ran off." She grunted.

Another three hourglasses elapsed.

The team looked out to the reinforcement in the distance Robinson had brought and became relieved. This 20 Drops of Blood was a lot stronger than the 19th students before. The team began to feel pressured even though they had yet to confront them.

After having greeted the new arrivals, Lafite led the new team and ran to the war zone resource point.

A day later.

"Cross this hill, and we'll arrive at the Stigmata Canyon--the very center of the Traces of Stigmata Valley. This place possesses the lion's share of the resources," said Lafite. "But this war wouldn't be counted by the resource quantities." Lafite encouraged the tired group.

The group trudged their way and arrived at the hillside in an hourglass. They sat down, had a rest and ate something. When they climbed to the top and got ready to go downhill, they were taken aback.

The other side of the hill was almost 1,000 meters deep and it was very steep with a slope of about 45 degrees. The slope was slippery with no plantation nor protruding rocks. And opposite to this hill was an ordinary hill without any features.

The hill ranges spread in rings in a radius of 10 kilometers and the farthest one met the Daqipeng mountain. This was a witness to the traces of the years of the sorcerer world.

"This is not a hill. It's a crater. Is this where that ancient Stigmata sorcerer fell?" Glenn thought

The fall of a Stigmata sorcerer caused such a great geological change, and this was the center of the Traces of Stigmata Valley--the Stigmata Canyon where resources abounded.

Now Glenn could be considered as having a preliminary understanding of the great powers. And this Stigmata sorcerer must have been top one of their class to have caused such damage.