Amid a vast meadow, dotted with wildflowers and leafy trees, stands the imposing city of Astarock. 

Its high stone walls, crowned with watchtowers, stretch along the horizon, offering protection and security to those who reside within. 

The walls are a constant reminder of the threat of the monsters that lurk outside the city.

Among all the stone and wooden buildings, in the center of the city, rises the Astarock Academy of Magic, an architectural gem that stands out among the surrounding structures. 

Its tall and elegant towers reach towards the sky, while well-tended gardens and serene ponds add a touch of tranquility.

The walls of the academy are adorned with various emblems representing the four classes of students who attend it. 

The noble emblem is represented by a golden dragon, symbolizing power, wisdom, and nobility. 

The knight emblem is represented by a lion, symbolizing courage, bravery, and dedication to protecting the people. 

The divine emblem is represented by a phoenix, symbolizing rebirth, resurrection, and spirituality. 

The plebeian emblem is presented by a soaring eagle, symbolizing freedom, perseverance, and keenness.

Since it was not yet noon, most of the students were focused on their classes. 

The academy's research class was conducting an experiment that required the concentration of its most skilled students. 

The others, who didn't stand out much for their abilities, were sitting, observing, and learning.

Today was an important day as they were investigating a magical artifact sent by the kingdom for their practice for the first time. 

This artifact was a small blue cube containing a large amount of mana and was used as a tool for large-scale teleportation magic. 

The task for the students was to decipher the workings of the artifact in groups to use it, but they were not successful.

The class ended, and soon all the students reluctantly left while thinking about their lunch. 

Only a few students remained in the classroom, and one of them was a boy picking up his scattered notes from the floor.

"Do you need help, Isuke?" asked a glasses-wearing boy as he bent down.

"Of course, are you blind, Leo?" Isuke responded mockingly.

Leo smiled at that comment and helped gather all the papers. Then Isuke put everything in his leather bag, and both were ready to leave.

"You look like a walking dead, haven't you slept at all?" Leo asked, noticing Isuke's dark circles.

"Thanks, I learned from you."

"Hey..." Leo was about to protest but remembered that he hardly slept due to spending countless hours practicing with his sword. "At least try to eat! You're too thin!"

"Let's go hunting together?" Isuke immediately suggested, but soon both heard a cheerful voice behind them.

"Hey, guys! How are you? I finished talking to the teacher. Are you fighting again?" The girl looked at Leo first and then at Isuke with her eyes.

"You arrive just in time, Alexia. I'm going hunting to feed the malnourished Isuke. Are you joining?" Leo said, pointing at Isuke with a mocking smile.

"Of course!" Alexia responded with a smile as her tail wagged with excitement. 

Unlike Isuke or Leo, who were humans, Alexia was a demi-human with brown cat ears and a tail that contrasted with her fair skin.

Isuke let out a sigh, and the three of them headed outside the city walls to go hunting.

◇◆◇

Since Isuke wasn't very proficient in practical magic, he lagged behind in the group while Leo and Alexia searched for a monster to hunt. 

They spent several minutes looking for prey, but because other students were doing the same as well as other city dwellers dedicated to hunting, they failed to find anything for themselves.

"Are you looking for food?" a girl asked Leo, accompanied by four other people. 

It seemed to be another group of students, and based on their attire, three were nobles and two were knights.

"Yes, are you venturing into the forest?" Leo replied as he evaluated how those students were equipped.

Leo's eyes were fixed on the weapons of the students.

"You're quick! And yes, since there's quite a competition in this area, we want to venture into the forest for hunting. We have enough people, but I still want to play it safe," the girl explained, glancing at her companions.

Reluctantly, Leo's eyes stopped looking at those shining swords carried by the knights, and he responded: "I understand. Do you want us to cooperate?"

"Yes!"

"Wait, that's not my responsibility."

Leo took a step back and let Alexia step forward in front of the noble who asked for their help.

"Are you the one leading the group?" the surprised girl asked, as she had thought that the student with the Lion emblem was the leader.

The student in front of her was a demi-human with black cat ears and hair. She also wore an eagle emblem on her chest.

She was a plebeian.

"Yes, can you tell me about their formation?" Alexia asked directly.

For a moment, the noble wanted to step back, but she resisted and began to explain, "We have 2 knights, and the rest of us use offensive magic..."

"Great. We have 1 knight, 1 support mage, and a hunter," Alexia explained, pointing to her companions, and at the end, she pointed to herself. 

"What!? You're a hunter?" the girl said, impressed. 

She knew that the academy had many classes for different tasks, but she never imagined there would be a class dedicated to hunters. 

"Yeah. Any problem?" Alexia asked with a cold gaze. 

"No! I was just surprised. I hope we can cooperate well." 

"Perfect. I can be the bait to lure the prey, and you can lead everyone else. Are you okay with that?" 

"Agreed!" Emily accepted without hesitation. 

"Can you tell me your name?" Alexia asked as she extended her hand. 

"I'm Emily," Emily responded, shaking hands with Alexia. 

Both groups joined together, exchanging a few words. Leo introduced himself confidently, while Isuke did so in a more reserved manner.

◇◆◇

As they moved away from the city and ventured into the forest, the sounds of battles from other people gradually faded.

Alexia walked several steps ahead of the group, observing her surroundings cautiously.

For a moment, Alexia crouched down, but it was to gather momentum and jump onto a tree branch to observe everything from above.

A few seconds passed before she said, "Over there! There are two."

After everyone looked in the direction she pointed, Alexia wasted no time and advanced to attract the attention of the two giant boars.

As she approached, she struck the boars' heads with ice magic, causing them to charge toward her and hit the tree with their heads.

Emily and the others positioned themselves to attack the boars by surprise.

One of the students, a knight, extended his sword until it transformed into a spear.

Leo's eyes were astonished to see such a tool.

Then, with a strong and precise throw, he managed to pierce the skull of one of the boars.

The other boar, panicked by that attack, didn't notice that Alexia had leaped from the top of the tree to drive a small dagger through its head in the same manner, and it soon began to electrocute itself to death.

Both the boar and Alexia fell to the ground.

Everyone ran towards the spot where she was, and Isuke approached Alexia.

"Are you an idiot?" Isuke asked as he helped Alexia up.

"I saw the opportunity and took it," Alexia said between breaths, as she was tired.

The hunt had ended quickly, and most of them hadn't been able to do anything.

"Great. With this, both groups come out as winners. Now we have to escort the food back to the city..." Emily said, observing the knight who hadn't done anything.

Using some ropes while someone stood guard, they captured the prey and began pulling them out of the forest.

There were a few creatures that attempted to attack them, but thanks to the help of the mages, everything was easily resolved.

Once they arrived in the city, they delivered the creatures to a butcher shop in the academy and received several papers in return.

"Great! The kills were clean, so this time we have a huge amount of meat. We'll have meat for the whole week!" Alexia said cheerfully as she stored the papers.

"That acrobatics move was insane," Leo said as he touched Alexia's sword.

"I had to do it. Otherwise, it would have been a headache negotiating which group did more and..."

"Yeah, I understand. Just be careful," Leo sighed, furrowing his brow.

Alexia and Leo's gazes turned to Isuke, who had a somber expression.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot! Let's order some food. He might die at any moment," Leo exaggeratedly said, pointing at Isuke.

"Stop exaggerating, idiot," Isuke replied as he sat at one of the wooden tables around the butcher shop.

"What do you want to eat? We have meat, but... I think we don't have any vegetables," Alexia said, somewhat worried, as she sat at the table where Isuke was.

"Whatever. I'm fine with anything..." Isuke said dejectedly, as he had very little strength left.

Isuke had stayed up all night researching various artifacts in an attempt to figure out how they worked, but he still couldn't decipher how the artifact brought by the professor functioned.

To his misfortune, he couldn't be of any help during the hunt, and he currently felt useless.

Leo had gone to the counter to order the food, while Alexia looked at her friend's exhausted appearance.

"You know, the professor talked to me about our group," Alexia said, approaching Isuke with a smile.

"And?" Isuke asked.

"And? She told me that our group is better!" Alexia explained proudly as she continued her story. "While the other groups almost destroyed the classroom or fought among themselves, we are the ones closest to achieving it."

"Are you sure you're not making it up to cheer me up?"

"No way!"

"You lied when we formed the group to go hunting with the others. I'm not a support mage, and you know that," Isuke said angrily as he closed his eyes. He didn't want to look at Alexia.

"That's different!"

"You're a liar."

"One must use all their tools to survive in this academy, you know?"

"Lying isn't a good method."

Alexia was about to counter Isuke's argument, but Leo arrived at the table.

"Are the couple fighting again?" Leo said with a smile as he placed the dishes on the table.

"You're an idiot," Alexia said with a furrowed brow as she grabbed her food.

She had a lot of meat on her plate!

Isuke opened his eyes and saw the food that Leo had brought him.

"Enjoy your meal," Leo said as he sat down and prepared to eat. "What were you talking about?"

"The professor congratulated me on our group," Alexia explained as she took a bite of her food with her hands.

"Awesome! Did she tell us how much we'll get?"

"She said we have to stabilize it. She called me earlier because she saw some signs of something strange, so she asked me not to deviate from traditional methods and recommended a book from the library."

"Is she giving us the answer!?" Leo exclaimed in surprise, as the professor was known for being stubborn and not giving answers to her students.

Did she see something special in us? Leo thought excitedly as he ate more quickly.

"I don't know. We'll find out when Isuke reads the book."

Alexia and Leo's eyes focused on Isuke, who had barely touched his food.

"Unless he starves to death first... Isuke! Why aren't you eating? Don't you like the food?" Leo asked, concerned, as his friend looked extremely downcast.

"Nothing... it's nothing," Isuke said as he started eating faster.

"Chew your food! Don't just swallow it," Alexia complained, noticing that Isuke was simply eating for the sake of it.

Leo was bothered by this situation, but he had no idea how to help his friend.

"Alexia?" a girl suddenly said as she approached the table where they were eating.

"What? Who... Liria? Liria!" Alexia exclaimed with excitement, standing up from her seat and hugging the girl in front of her.

"Alexia!"

Both girls embraced passionately while the boys averted their gaze.

Behind Liria, there were two boys and one girl who was hiding behind one of the boys, who appeared to be quite strong based on his muscular build.

"I brought my friends, so they could meet each other. I think we could form an exploration group in the future," Liria explained as she separated from Alexia.

"I see... Can you introduce them?" Alexia asked.

Liria's friends, two of them wearing golden badges, one with an eagle badge, and Liria herself with a dragon badge.

What kind of people did Alexia bring this time? Leo thought as he stood up to greet them.