With every battle that they overcame, the confidence of the 69th Battalion grew.
In the past, they were a mere ragtag group of nobodies who thought that being part of Zion Leventis' group would give them bragging rights.
As the subordinates of the most famous Rookie in the world, they indeed gained the right to tell their family, friends, acquaintances, and random strangers in the streets that they were part of the 69th Battalion.
Some High-Ranking Officers of the Central Government would even refer to the 69th Battalion as the "Mascot Battalion."
In their eyes, Zion Leventis' value was in his ability to make the Central Government an ideal place for freelance Wanderers who were looking for an organization to join.
His name was enough to entice these individuals—that was just how popular Zion was.
To begin with, they never expected anything from him and his subordinates.
The majority also thought of them as a joke, even more so after they started wearing those military uniforms, whose light green color made any soldier unable to look at them directly due to how blinding it was.
Little did they know that these soldiers whom they were looking down on were currently fighting in the Monster-Infested Continent and honing their skills to the limits.
Right now, the 69th Battalion was like a well-oiled killing machine.
Once their Battalion Commander pointed them in a direction, they would head there without fail and accomplish their mission with flying colors.
Thirteen knew that he needed to carefully adjust the danger level of his subordinates' missions so that they wouldn't be overwhelmed by the strength of their enemies.
This gradual growth of experience and teamwork started to stack on top of each other. Soon enough, they had become a cohesive unit that could work as a whole or as a handful of smaller squads, working together in perfect harmony.
Even the representatives of the Dvalinn Federation could only sigh at how much the soldiers had grown in just a short period of time.
In fact, they were so impressed by Thirteen's way of managing his battalion that they were very tempted to ask him to help train their ground troops as well.
The teenage boy never treated his subordinates as mere numbers or tools to attain his goal.
The Zion from six years ago might not bat an eye even if he sent one of these soldiers to die for him.
However, he could no longer do that, especially after what he experienced during his battle with Arundel.
Back then, his Monster Army whom he didn't treat well sacrificed their lives in order to save him.
Since then, he no longer saw his subordinates as disposable tools whom he could send to the most dangerous battlefields as if sending them to buy milk, not caring if they lived or died in the process.
As Thirteen was thinking along these lines, the battle between the 69th Battalion and the Red-Eyed Wolves of the Plains started.
He deemed that his subordinates were fit enough to complete this mission, so he gave them the order to mobilize.
The battle was intense because the Monsters were fast, ferocious, and very deadly.
It was thanks to the battle experience that the soldiers had nurtured during the past weeks that they could overcome this mission.
Just as Thirteen expected, many of his men suffered serious injuries in the battle.
However, none of them died.
In this day and age, it was very possible to regrow a severed limb as long as enough resources were used for it.
Of course, it was much easier to reattach them, which was also one of the things that the 69th Battalion had learned from the best Military Medics in the Central Government.
The Night Wolves, the Avatars of his men, had also become accustomed to their Master's character, allowing them to perform better according to their preferences.
Just as everyone was cleaning up the battlefield, something unexpected happened.
Cristopher's, Colbert's, Alcapone's, Pietro's, and Piper's Chad Skunks all started to evolve into Blaze Skunks, which surprised everyone, including Benedict and the other representatives who always accompanied the 69th Battalion in their expeditions.
"H-How?!" Benedict couldn't believe his eyes because this was the first time he was seeing an Avatar evolve into another variant of its race.
Alcapone laughed out loud and hugged his partner-in-crime who had successfully transformed into one of the strongest versions of a Chad Skunk, which was a Blaze Skunk.
Thirteen had made sure to tell everyone in the 69th Battalion to treat their Avatars as real monsters, not just mere avatars.
He even sold them Pet Food made by the Leventis Group Unlimited, which had his picture plastered on the food packaging.
The food, of course, was soaked in the blood of the Fire Dragon, allowing the Chad Skunks to evolve.
Thirteen made sure that no one would be able to figure out how and why the Chad Skunks evolved.
If someone asked him, he would just say, "Maybe they evolved after fighting every day."
The conditions for the evolution of Monsters and Avatars were a tightly guarded secret by those who managed to discover them.
This was why Benedict and the other representatives started to question Cristopher, Colbert, Alcapone, Pietro, and Piper about how they managed to evolve their Avatars.
Alexis and Paul, who saw these changes, couldn't help but feel envious, especially after seeing the newly evolved Chad Skunks radiate an incredible presence.
From an ordinary Monster, the Rank 4 Chad Skunks had evolved into Sovereigns, making them extremely powerful.
But just as the other members of the 69th Battalion were feeling envious, their Night Wolves also started to undergo a transformation, which made Benedict, and the other representatives of the Dvalinn Federation almost choke blood.
The Night Wolves had not changed into a different type of Monster. However, they had become bigger, and their presence had become stronger, which was a sign that they had evolved into Alpha Monsters.
"J-Just what is going on here?!" Benedict asked his comrades, who also had no idea what was happening.
Soon, this incident would be known in the Dvalinn Federation as the "Day of Awakening."
A day when three hundred monsters all evolved at the same time, making researchers, scientists, and experts in the field of Avatars unable to explain what just happened on that fateful day in the Rigel Continent.