"Since everyone is ready, follow me and don't fall behind." Dave took the lead and said with a serious face.
So Dave and Eric took the lead, followed by the Watson Aristocracy members and finally the Shark Team.
As they silently walked outside, the snow fall increased, not to the point where it could affect their eyesight, but still higher than yesterday.
Nobody talked anything, only the silent strides of their footsteps echoed in the surroundings.
'So, delaying the fight wasn't an option, ah!' Nova thought after he examined the climate.
On the way, they encountered a few monsters who blocked their way, but they were killed by Archers from the Watson Aristocracy.
They traveled for almost half an hour, but they only found a few weak monsters. But weak would be an understatement, the monsters they encountered were strong in their own right, but enough for a group of twenty people to fight. Even before they reached the rear, they would be killed by the incoming arrow.
'I guess he wanted to find a large group of ordinary monsters.'
"Guys, get ready, our first target is right in front of us." Dave said as he pointed his finger left.
Fifty metres away from the group, a sloth of bears was also looking at them intensely— a total of twenty, perfect for practice.
'Polar bears. This fight will be easy.' Nova confirmed their identity by their behaviour and appearance.
Polar bears are the major occupants of the Winterland region and only they tend to live in groups. So, it wasn't hard to guess their identity.
By Dave's order, the group got in formation. Since they don't have much understanding of each other to begin with, the group simply formed an ordinary, yet effective formation.
The long range attackers in the back, dealers in the middle and tanks in the front, leading the charge.
Rock, Ray and some of the Watson Aristocracy members were in front, Nova, Amelia, Shane, Dave and Eric were in the middle and the rest of them were in back.
Seeing the group ignoring the warning and invading their territory, the polar bears attacked.
A polar uprooted a huge tree near and threw between them to disturb the formation. Other bears followed the examples and did the same thing.
'They are smart!'
"I will take care of it." Nova yelled and stopped those who were about to make a move.
He took his whip strapped on his waist and lashed towards the tree. Instead of breaking it apart, the whip rolled around the trunk.
Nova jumped from his place, about four meters and sent the tree back to them in a full rotation.
Before he could land, the tree swept the other incoming attacks and knocked down two polar bears at the front.
'Wow, how the hell did I pull that off?' After landing, Nova thought in amazement.
Just after Nova landed, the group marched towards the bears at an insane speed, without giving them any chance to recover.
Throwing away his thoughts, Nova followed them and took his katana. He wanted to exercise his close combat ability after drinking the potion.
Just from the way his body behaved during the previous throwing action made Nova grin widely.
His jumping distance, control over his body, reaction, reflex and finally this thinking speed, everything increased dramatically after taking the potion and he could feel it's still increasing little by little.
Digesting a potion takes a minimum of a month and the upper limit depends on a person's talent. So, Nova would still benefit before he digests the potion completely —albeit very less than the first time.
As soon they reached near them, Archers took position and immediately rained them with shower of arrows.
The members who played tank role blocked the paths of advancing bears and the dealers too attacked with their weapons with tanks helps.
The fight lasted for five minutes and no body got injuries, everything was flawless and without even using any special abilities, they completed the fight without breaking a sweat.
Nova was amazed by the result of the fight. His main concern was everyone would not be able to do their best and lack of understanding. But both of these concerns were unnecessary as no one wanted to die.
The group continued their journey shortly after collecting the spoils, which were only three cores.
Although it wasn't much considering the number of monsters they hunted, they didn't mind it, they simply thought of the cores as a type of reward for their hunt.
On their journey, they encountered two more sloths of bears. The first battle wasn't hard since there were only five polar bears, but the second battle made everyone serious and fight with everything they had.
They faced a total of more than seventy bears. Nobody expected to see such a huge amount of bears gathered in the same location, it was almost like the bears wanted to form a tribe of their own.
Seeing such a huge amount of monsters for the first time, Nova wanted to suggest avoiding them, but after confirming there were no elites among the bears, he didn't say anything.
The battle didn't go smoothly as the previous ones and they struggled a lot since nobody used their special abilities, including Nova and the Shark Team.
After cleaning up the battlefield and collecting the cores, Dave raised his voice. "From this battle, I can see that everyone is cooperating very well and I'm really surprised."
"At first, I thought, it would take a lot of time and effort, but everyone did their job perfectly."
"So, I think we should wrap this up and get ready for tomorrow."
Nova immediately got angry when he heard Dave.
'What do you mean by wrapping this up? We only started a few hours ago and have not learned anything about special abilities. How do you expect us to cooperate, damn it! Use your brains.'
But he didn't say anything, because he knew a certain - soon to be father, would raise his voice.
Like Nova guessed, Rock raised his hand, "Sir, I don't think this is enough," He looked at Dave firmly and continued "We just started this training three hours ago and only got a superficial understanding of the capabilities of others."
"This isn't going to help out during the battle with the King. Without understanding about special abilities and sorcery… I don't think we can win this battle." Rock stated, and he also chose his words very carefully to avoid any misunderstandings.
Nova nodded silently in understanding. He too didn't think this was enough to trust others and put his line on the line. Sure, although their coordination and awareness were simply top notch and everyone did very well and won their previous battle without any major damages, but that wasn't good enough.
Ultimately, their opponents were only a group of common grade monsters without much intelligence. But the King wasn't like these weak creatures, without using their main weapon—special abilities, they wouldn't stand a chance.
If they don't even know the basics of other people's abilities, conflict may arise during the battle that could end their lives.
Hearing Rock's option, Dave didn't reply immediately, instead, he looked at Eric and other members of Watson Aristocracy without much expression. It seems he wanted to consider their opinion in this matter.
To Rock's luck, nobody objected and everyone including Eric nodded towards Dave almost immediately. Just like Nova, they also had the same thoughts.
After seeing this, Dave had a hesitant look on his face, he obviously didn't like this development, placing his hands on his forehead, he began to ponder something.
'Why does he have a problem with this arrangement?'
Seeing this, Nova had a bad feeling in his heart. From his previous interaction with Dave, he knew that Dave wanted everyone to be in peak condition and seemed adamant about that.
But Nova's worry didn't last long as Dave finally answered.
"Okay, we will proceed and learn about our abilities. If there is something you don't want to share with others, you can keep that to yourself."
"Don't try to lie or spread misinformation." He also stressed the last sentence, indicating he was serious about the matter.
Everyone nodded and Nova in particular was happy with Dave's decision. He didn't want others to know about his passive ability, it was his Trump Card or Ace to save his life at critical moments, in case something went wrong.
After the discussion, the group again resumed their journey, but this time their target was stronger foes— a small group of Elite monsters in particular.
Even without using any special abilities, ordinary monsters didn't pose any threat to them. If they used their abilities, it would be an overkill, and would not serve their original purpose.
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