Every single hostage he had killed themselves with no exception. His little trick failed to make anyone hesitate, yet he never lost hope of gaining some answers.


    ''Gege, interrogate those dragons for me,'' he said while hanging hisst hope over this.


    The news he got wasn''t that much. Most of his dragons had their memories fuzzy about what happened to their past lives.


    Yet he got two important infos.


    The first was that the base of this group operation was inside a deep mountain, just near the location of the academy.


    That meant he could send out his giants to scout the ce around the academy once reaching there.


    And the second info was regarding their numbers. As Doaf said, they were slightly over two thousand, almost reaching two thousand and half.


    From thest battle alone, this number decreased by over sixty percent, leaving only slightly less than a thousand alive.


    There was other info like the presence of some traitors inside the Locek academy who worked for them. But there were no more details about their IDs.


    He also gained valuable information regarding the contest itself. It seemed these assassins already contacted all the big dark ns in this world, and also summoned others from other worlds to take part in this.


    The main goal here was to make him fail, then try to kill him in the process.


    "They think I''m that push over," he helplessly smiled before adding, "I want to see their faces when I win the entire contest then."


    The march then went peacefully for the rest of the journey. Doad decreased the number of guards to be less than fifty at some point, but nothing enticed the deeply wounded enemies to attack again.


    They walked for days among many regions, crossed many forests, mountains, and wilderness. During this long travel, they trespassed over manynds of other ns and guilds, yet all acted blindly towards them.


    After five more days, good news started toe in batches.


    "We have located the Locek academy base," Doaf suddenly said before adding, "the scouts upfront just delivered this news."


    "How far?" Arthur was exhausted, not only from the travel but from the tension of waiting for something to happen.


    "Only less than four hours march," Doaf said before adding, "they are waiting at the weing party of the academy."


    "Great."


    "There is one more news," Doaf whispered after an hour of silent march, "we have located some bases of the enemies."


    "Some?" Arthur was surprised as during the past days he kept summoning his dragons until they became almost two hundred in number. They never said anything new or different, all repeating the same words from before.


    "Yeah, some went to rest in the wilderness, others went to a small hill, and thest group went towards ake nearby."


    "No mountains?" Arthur asked while waiting for the right answer he waited for.


    "Mountains?" Doaf nced weirdly at him, "only hills out there."


    "No mountain around?" Arthur was surprised to hear that.


    "Only two," Doaf said, "and the two are inside the academy itself."


    Arthur had his eyes shone brightly as he started to link the dots. This response of him alerted Doaf who instantly asked:


    "Is there anything you know and I don''t?"


    Arthurughed as he mysteriously answered:


    "How can I be your young master if I don''t?"


    "Impressive," Doafughed, "you are acting exactly like my grandmaster."


    Arthurughed and during the rest of the march he kept thinking about what he learnt from Doaf.


    ''If so, then the danger lurks inside,'' he muttered to himself.


    ''Don''t worry, you got us,'' the golden dragon confidently said.


    ''Ding! I''ll always keep scouting things around.''


    ''As long as you deliver me someone, I''ll make sure he or she either be your prisoner or self explode.''


    Arthur smiled as he knew they were his main backers, the ones he could depend entirely from.


    ''Listen, I want you to scan the academy once we enter,'' he said to his system, ''I don''t want to be left in the dark while my enemies are getting too near.''


    ''Ding! I might rm some strong individuals though.''


    Arthur was surprised to hear that. ''First time for you to speak about something like that,'' he said.


    ''Ding! It''s not my fault you stayed at a weak ce,'' the systemined before adding, ''Ding! This academy already has many powerhouses. I spotted a couple passing by during the past hour alone.''


    ''Passing by?'' Arthur muttered, ''never felt anything.''


    ''They seem to be like your giant,'' the golden dragon said, ''they are strong beyond this world''s limit. It''s not the issue in your academy, but in your world.''


    ''Anyway just keep an eye over the area around me,'' Arthur wasn''t in mind to think about these issues for now, ''I don''t need anyone toe near me without knowing.''


    ''Ding! As you wish.''


    Arthur wasn''t afraid of stirring up trouble here, after all he had the protection of Doaf and his strong legion.


    When they approached the academy, Arthur saw a giant gate attached to a giant wall up in the distance.


    And when they approached it, the rest of the legion assembled once more around him.


    "Impressive," he went forward to stand with the rest of his team when Omar muttered in surprise. "All of them will take part in thepetition?"


    During the march, the five teams from the academy stuck to their silence. They watched everything that happened, and after the fight they had reached one conclusion.


    It was better for them not to be enemies with Arthur and his team!


    They weren''t stupid to stand on other side than the side of Arthur at this point.


    So when Omar said these words, one of the disciples, who seemed in mid-twentieth, volunteered to say:


    "This is normal, after all this contest is something even external worlds with no recognition from the official tournament would take part as well."


    "Aha," Omar nodded before he started to chat a little with this disciple.