Chapter 701: Soul Astra

"Hmm... Looks weak." Leo muttered after checking out the Evergrove Sovereign Academy's stronghold.

But still, the stronghold was well built, and Leo could clearly see that almost every student from their team was alive and patrolling the territory and surroundings.

Somehow, though, Leo felt the base was quite weak. They used the earth element minimally, and most of the buildings were made of wood and vines. Way too flammable, considering a particular group of students from a particular Empire only knew how to breathe fire.

If Leo were the judge, he would literally give them 0 points in defence.

"They must be confident in their manpower in case an attack occurs," Leo muttered and continued along his path without attacking.

His instructions clearly said that no matter how badly a base was built, it wasn't supposed to be attacked, and of course, he should follow them.

Not to mention, keeping these weak academies intact would give them way less trouble in future phases. He just needed to make sure that nobody else destroyed their beacons before them—and that could be easily done when their strongholds were only 400 Kilometres apart.

Though Aurelius Beast Academy's stronghold was barely bothered by their presence, this was quite the opposite for the students of Evergrove Sovereign Academy.

"Aiden! There's a stronghold in that stormy region!"

"Didn't you say it must be some kind of natural phenomenon?"

Aiden, the leader of this elven academy, narrowed his eyes at the stormy clouds that had appeared once again. He couldn't help but feel a bad premonition.

"What the hell... Don't tell me some person is behind that storm..." he muttered. Another person beside him looked just as troubled.

"You've got to be joking. Which student can maintain that raging storm for so many days? That area must be some beast's lair. As for that stronghold, I think some surviving member of some attacked academy somehow hid in there."

"Should we send a scout to check things? The storm also seemed to be calmer than before."

"Huh? What was that?" another elf asked, looking up at the sky.

"I swear I saw something..."

It was at this time that Leo was flying in the distance, but nobody noticed him due to his stealth.

And even though his stealth was working at the lowest efficiency possible because no shadow was present in the sky, the presence suppression and slightly reduced visibility were enough to keep him from being noticed at a casual glance.

In no time, Leo had already reached a speed that was creating low-sounding sonic booms in the air. The sound would have been extremely loud if not for the needle-like, long stretching wind barrier in front of him, which gradually elongated to cover his body, letting the air part easily.

His path had only 4 beacons to cover if he ignored the beacons in the central mountain, one of which he had already checked. Right now, he was crossing through another well-built stronghold—well-built meant well-built.

Set on a hill almost 1 kilometre high above the forest floor, it had high walls, watchtowers, and even heavy artillery of wood, metal, and stone, still being worked on to improve their efficiency.

"Is that Velerath Grand Academy?" Leo muttered. The symbol on the students' clothes was a roaring lion.

Suddenly, a person with deep crimson, long, flowing hair who was giving out commands looked toward Leo. To Leo's surprise, that person spotted him in an instant as he tilted his head and tapped one finger against his forehead, making a huge magic circle flare into existence.

This seemed to be some sort of vision-enhancement magic, though a lot better and more intricate than that of Kaelion's.

The person's lips curved into a smile when he saw the dress of the person in flight.

"Aurelius Beast Academy... So you still survive till now. This must be that 1st ranker who surpassed my crippled big bro... Leo."

Leo also recognised the man.

The 1st ranker of Velerath Grand Academy, Darren.

Both looked at each other from a distance, after which Leo simply changed his path toward the next beam.

"Must be looking for those 0-point academies to score points," Darren muttered.

"Tsk, too bad. If I could fly, I would have gone myself too." He looked at his fellow teammates.

"Don't have someone like Uraan too."

With that, he ignored Leo and went back to commanding his team.

Leo kept travelling until he found it.

But he needed to be quick because, apparently, he could see some flying dragons on their way to the location in the great distance. And they seemed to be coming from the direction of Central Mountain.

Leo quickly started descending toward the location that didn't have a single building in sight and was covered with huge trees.

Though, just to be sure he wouldn't walk right into a trap, Leo landed a few kilometres away and went into perfect stealth due to the cover of the large tree shadows before bolting toward the direction while keeping his [Spiritual Sense] active.

"...3." Leo muttered.

That was the number of people he sensed. All seemed to be close to the point at which the beacon beam was shooting up.

Leo still remained careful and even checked with [Geo-Resonance Sense] in case something was wrong on the ground. He even made a round around the location.

Nothing.

He acted quickly; the dragons would be here at any time.

When Leo reached the spot while in stealth, he spotted a human with a palm symbol on his dress.

"Soul Astra Academy." Leo recognised them—the 7th-ranked human academy. This academy wasn't filled with unique kinds of talents or beast masters. It mostly attracted talentless people with high soul ranks.

Many talents with physical enhancement abilities also liked going here because it conducted excellent research on soul techniques, mantras (incantations) and arts.

Seeing that no one was there, Leo dropped his stealth and calmly started walking toward them.

"Who goes there?!" One man immediately sensed Leo's presence and shouted, alerting the other two.

Leo wasn't bothered; their strength was no greater than Mid 2-star. In fact, these might as well be the strongest of the academy in the 1st term, and Leo was capable of taking all 25 of them at once if the situation arose.

What Leo wanted was to understand their situation and learn how people who studied soul arts and techniques fought.

And in case dragons arrived amidst all this, Leo would promptly destroy the beacon that was literally in front of his eyes, deep inside the tree bark, as if they couldn't find a better place.

As for dragons trailing him after destruction, it was not possible when Leo was capable of reaching a flight speed of Mach 5.

The moment Leo appeared, he was met with 4 punches aimed across his body.

Actually, it was 3 punches, but something made one of them look like two.