Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

Standing in a large room, Kairen stared at the familiar shiny lines drawn on the ground. The teleportation circle was giving out light that brightened the underground room. In front of the circle, stood team leader Dains. He looked at his unit's members one by one before starting to talk.

"Good morning everyone."

"Good morning."

"Morning."

"Hello, sir."

Team leader Dains just nodded his head at their answers and went straight to the point.

"I've told you before about the mission. There aren't many details about it. We'll visit three locations and examine them for any unnatural and suspicious things or activities. Even though this is just some investigation, make sure to never lower your guards and follow the orders. Understood?"

"YES, sir." "YES." "YES." "YES."

Team leader Dains nodded his head at the unit's members' stern answers again and turned towards the teleportation circle.

'We will teleport there?'

Kairen was surprised to know that they would teleport, and not use some kind of vehicle. After all, the rules regarding the usage of teleportation circles were so strict that most people couldn't even think of using one.

'This SMF sure has a lot of authority...'

Team leader Dains stepped into the circle. Everyone else followed suit and stepped into it. Once all of the unit members were inside the circle, team leader Dains waved his hand at a mage standing outside the lines.

The mage started to move his mana as soon as he saw the team leader's signal. The shining circle shone even more and started to vibrate.

Kairen closed his eyes at the sensation of space twisting around him. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, it was a feeling that was hard to describe. He thought that he would feel nausea if he kept his eyes open, so he would close them shut every time he used a teleportation circle. Once he reopened his eyes, he found himself in the middle of a wast plain.

There was a mountain range in the south of Celinden, named the Stlinct Mountains. On the eastern side of the said mountain range, a vast dry land was located. There was no civilization in this place, maybe because it was quite far away from water resources.

Kairen looked around. All he could see was dry soil and rock. The sun seemed too bright and the weather was extremely hot. The place wasn't a desert, but it was void of any plant and tree.

"Why is it so hut here? Where is the ruin we were supposed to investigate?"

Asa fanned herself with her hand while looking around. As she said, there was nothing like a ruin or even a building there.

"We have to walk for a while to reach that place. I told the mage to teleport us to a little bit of distance from the ruin for safety reasons."

Team leader Dains took out a device from his backpack as he said that. It was a circular device like a compass, but it worked with mana instead of detecting the magnetic field.

He examined the directions and pointed at a place on the right side.

"We'll have to walk for a while in that direction."

Everyone started to walk towards the place where the team leader had pointed to. Kairen used his hand as a canopy, narrowed his eyes, and stared at where they were walking to, but he couldn't see anything special. The land before his eyes was the ordinary flat ground and some rocks.

'Maybe it is too far away...'

It was really hot. Walking around in such weather was unbearable. He wished that they would arrive at their destination soon. Kairen didn't think he could keep walking like this for long.

'Maybe I should've exercised a bit...'

He had been training a lot these days, but his training had nothing to do with his physical condition. He has even gotten weaker compared to when he lived on earth because he didn't really move around and was stuck in his room, reading books and learning magic formulas.

But it wasn't only Kairen who wasn't happy with the situation, he could see the distorted faces of the other members as well.

Asa was dragging her feet on the ground forcefully and moving forward while staggering as if she was about to dry up and die at any moment. It hadn't even been that long since they had started moving, such an action seemed kinda weird to Kairen.

On the other side was Darren, who too had a distorted face. He didn't seem to have any problems with walking or the weather, he was obviously displeased by the whole mission thing.

Elsie, the female support mage, also seemed unwilling to walk. She didn't say anything or nag, but her face revealed her unhappiness. She was walking forward, before suddenly stopping and turning back.

"Rai, do something please!"

Everyone turned to Rai after her words all at once as if they had just remembered something.

"Ah! Right!"

Rai also gasped, before nodding his head obediently.

"Don't waste your energy unnecessarily."

Team leader Dains commented nonchalantly without even turning his head.

"No, it's fine."

Rai said that and raised his hands.

swoosh

A gentle breeze swept through everyone as he did that. The cool air circulated around the group, making the hot weather a lot more bearable.

"Thank you, man!"

"I was literally vaporizing!"

Rai's ability was air. An attribute user that had complete control over the air. He could freely move and create the air as if it was nothing. His ability was useful no matter how you used it, be it on offense, defense, or support. He didn't seem to, but Rai was quite strong.

This made Kairen think about the things that he had learned in the academy. Didn't they say that attribute users were really rare? How come he saw these people wherever he went these days? Look, he was even living in the same house with one of those rare human beings!

"It is much better now."

"Yeah."

Rai smiled after seeing the others' sudden boost of energy and continued to circulate the air around them as they moved.

Serria stopped for a moment, for the walking Rai to arrive beside her. She then leaned forward and whispered to his ear.

"Dude, these people are using you as a fan!"

Rai chuckled at her words. He gave an answer while shaking his head.

"It's okay. It doesn't bother me."

"Tsk."

Serria clicked her tongue with a disappointed face and walked back towards Kairen and Reyan.

"I can't! He is just too naive."

She looked back at Rai with a pitting gaze and mumbled those words under her lips.

"We've just met him yesterday, how can you say that so confidently?"

Serria lowered her voice and answered Kairen as quietly as she could.

"I can tell that! He is not pretending to be a kind person, he really is. He is naive! He is even worse than you, Kairen!"

"I'm not naive though..."

"You are not naive, but... Um... Anyway, we weren't talking about you."

"...."

Kairen felt like he would have a painful conversation again if he insisted on knowing what she meant by those words.

The flashbacks of yesterday's conversation with Reyan passed through his eyes. His heart still hurt whenever he remembered that. Kairen decided to ignore Serria in order to avoid any possible painful conversations.

"Tsk."

Serria clicked her tongue again.. She was feeling pity for their living fan.