When they arrived back at the college, all students were required to write a report on what occurred during the field assessment.
Kain made sure to explain his findings regarding the area in the forest draining life-attribute energy as well as the rapid decomposition.
However, even after a couple of weeks he was not requested for further questioning so he could assume that all of the information he provided was already known by the school—as expected.
Although the school did not address the changes in the forest directly to the students, Kain did notice them take action in different ways.
The map for the surrounding wilderness had huge changes in the territories of the more threatening beasts.
Additionally, students were cautioned against taking missions solo and instead encouraged to always leave the city in groups.
Queen and Eve had fully saturated their spiritual power and were in Kain's star space in the midst of breaking through to orange-grade. As silver-quality creatures the success of their breakthroughs were pretty much guaranteed, so Kain had no worries regarding their success.
Kain and Bea were unfortunately still quite a distance away from their own breakthroughs.
Although a beast-tamer's contract can be up to one level higher than themselves, this had several disadvantages.
For one, Kain's star space would only have red-grade spiritual power, therefore the benefits and quality of spiritual power provided to Queen and Bea would be miniscule compared to before their breakthrough.
Additionally, the restraint of the contract on the spiritual creature will diminish. If the spiritual creature was willing to pay the price of long-term damage to their and their owner's soul, they could unilaterally break the contract. Even worse, because the contractor's star space had already been modified for that specific contract, they'd be unlikely to bind another.
Star spaces are unique to each creature, even within the same species. They are fine-tuned to meet every aspect of the bound spiritual creatures needs, including personality needs. Therefore, even if a contractor binds another creature of the same species, they'd probably be less than thrilled at the prospect of a second-hand space not tailored to them.
While a contract with a completely different species would be impossible.
Additionally, the damage to a beast-tamer's soul from a broken contract due to the spiritual creature's death or leaving would make it difficult for future contracts or progress in cultivation to even be made. At least not without the use of incredibly rare and expensive materials. Materials that even the most powerful individuals in the country would have a hard time getting their hands on.
Thankfully though, Kain was confident in his relationship with Queen and Eve. Therefore, he did not prevent them from continuing to break through. Even if it meant he'd be down to only one spiritual creature for approximately a week.
However, soon Kain was regretting that decision.
'Why now of all times?!'
To Kain's cell phone he received an encrypted message from the school. It was finally time to complete his Black Mission.
The mission offered no other details, aside from demanding that he be at the teleportation gate within 6 hours, whose coordinates were provided in the message, and to tell no one of his departure.
The Empire was so large that travelling on land took several days. Flying using a powerful spiritual creature may also take hours or days depending on the distance. Therefore, in emergency situations, teleportation portals may be activated. However, even for the ultra-wealthy, it was unusual to activate the portals for non-urgent matters. Each activation costing a huge amount of expensive resources.
Additionally, despite it being a Wednesday morning Kain didn't have to worry about explaining his absence from his classes. All lessons this week had been cancelled as the professors across the college were all summoned for a reason undisclosed to the students.
However, Kain was willing to bet that it was to finally address the situation within the forest.
Kain packed his space ring with clothes, and his usual spear and armour.
He wished he had more details regarding the mission to help with planning what to bring, but he could only stuff the space with a variety of other random goods he felt may come in handy.
Making sure to be there at least 20 minutes early, Kain had stealthily arrived at the scene of the teleportation gate. It was noticeably empty of any staff, likely because even the usual workers here had not been informed that it'd be activated today.
When he entered further into the building until he arrived before the inactivated gate, Kain couldn't help but call out to see if anyone was there.
It's not as though he knew how to work this damn thing himself.
Fortunately, next to the gate was an envelope that finally cleared his confusion.
Nobody else would be arriving.
To keep the identity of himself safe, the coordinates that he'd be arriving at had already been set and the gate would be automatically activated at exactly 6 o'clock. All he needed to do was step through it.
'I appreciate the thought, I guess…after all the less people that can place me at the scene of a soon-to-occur murder the better'
According to the message in the envelope, further details and all resources necessary to gain access to the mission target will be at the next location in a safe accessed by using the 6 digit pin in the envelop.
Kain put the paper into his space ring and then prepared to wait the 15 remaining minutes until the gate activated.
Suddenly the sigils carved into the gate began to glow a faint silver. At its center, a swirling vortex of electric blue and violet energy formed while emitting an faint buzz.
Honestly, the prospect of stepping into it terrified Kain. What if an important body part didn't travel with him to his destination?
However, he already knew that he had no choice. From the moment he accepted the Black mission, it was mandatory that he complete it or die trying.
With that thought, Kain put aside his hesitation and stepped forward.
Soon the room was once again empty, dark and silent.