After falling to find an answer during the discussion with Roubaul, Ben decided to go to the location marked on the map. He has a feeling this will be very dangerous, so he needed to prepare himself.

Ben would go there next month because there was a lot he needed to prepare. He starts to train intensely as preparation for this personal mission. Not only that, but he also prepared some magical items that might be useful later.

For a month, Ben kept training his magic and spells. He made some improvements with his magic after reviewing all of his battles so far. Of course, his intense training also raised his stats.

[Name: Ben Cooper

Epithet: Karna (The Sun's Child)

Real Age: 15

Body Age: 15 (halted)

Status: Alive

MP: 170,310/170,310

STR: 230 (halted)

AGI: 230 (halted)

STA: 230 (halted)

INT: 267]

His magic power had increased a lot since he halted his physical growth. It increased more than 15,000 points over these last 3 months. That's because he was focused on his magic and not his physical training. He just trained his physique to keep it in shape.

"15,000 points. In the past, I could only get that number in half a year. But now I got it in 3 months, it's 2 times faster because I focused on my magic. That means I can get 2 times the result from now on. Then I can get 6 years worth of training in only 3 years. That's dope." Ben said excitedly.

2 times seemed small, but it was a lot faster than before. Besides, Ben's progress is very fast already, compared to other mages. Now, he can get stronger even faster, even though it's only in magical stats.

Magic power capacity doesn't always have to be the parameter of a mage's power in the magical aspect. Their mastery and usage of magic are important too. But having higher magic power capacity can help mages use stronger and bigger spells.

Now with his new magic power capacity, Ben is a lot more confident about his mission. He prepared his luggage for this mission that might take a few days because he doesn't know what awaits him there.

Strangely, Ben only prepared his stuff and not Bella's. He decided to go on this mission alone because of the unknown danger level. Taking Bella with him was very dangerous with many unknown factors on this mission.

Bella was mad about it at first, but she finally accepted it after a lengthy discussion. Wendy and Carla also talked to her, making it easier to persuade her. Ben promised to take her and the girls on a vacation after he returned.

"Then, I will go now. Take care of yourselves." Ben told everyone at the village entrance.

"Take care of yourself too." Roubaul said.

The girls hug him and he returned it while rubbing their hair. Ben then got into his car and waved at everyone before leaving. He has a feeling that this will be a journey that is different from the previous ones.

Ben took out the map and looked at the location. It's towards the southwest part of the kingdom of Fiore. That's far away from his village that's located in the northeastern forest area. It's like going from both ends which is far away.

Without his new model car, Ben's travel was very slow. He only covered half the distance after driving for a day. The problem isn't just speed, but magic power usage. This car used magic power as fuel, so he can't keep using it or his magic power will be drained.

Ben set up camp in a forest near the mountain range where he found Smog's soul. It was near the capital Crocus, but he doesn't go there and chose to set up camp. It's been a long time since he set up camp like this, so he wanted to do it again.

The next day, he resumed his journey after having breakfast. Ben went to the capital first to buy a map of the mountainous area to the southwest. The map that he has now is incomplete and the range is small. It will be difficult to find the location without a complete map.

After buying the map, Ben's journey resumed. It took him 8 hours just to reach the mountainous area. He decided to camp out again before trying to find the location tomorrow.

The mountains are full of danger, so he needed to be in great condition. His magic power has been significantly drained after driving the car for 8 hours.

While camping, Ben tried to find his target location using the complete map. He found it easily with A.I Chip's help and then he came up with the best route to go there.

"Hmm, so it's in a valley between Mt. Aires and Mt. Marnia. It's located almost in the middle of this mountainous area. That means the magical creatures there are very wild and strong." Ben said while looking at the map.

The deeper locations always have stronger creatures and the weaker ones live in the outer areas. Ben needed to be careful exploring the inner areas. He doesn't know the number of creatures there or how strong they are.

The next morning, Ben prepared himself and ate before leaving camp. He followed the route that he made last night. He drove through the forest with a difficult track that might break his car's suspension.

While driving, Ben kept using his magic sense to avoid any contact with strong magical creatures. He doesn't want to waste his energy fighting unnecessary battles with those creatures.

Unfortunately, Ben was attacked by a horde of green baboon-like magical creatures called Gobes. They're not strong individually, so Ben ignored them before. He passed through their territory and that angered them, so they attack his car together by throwing stones and wood branches.

"Bastards, this is still my car even if I don't like it. How dare you throw stones at it and dent it." Ben angrily said.

He got out of his car and took out his twin revolvers with Requip. Then he fired shots at the Gobes.

BANG BANG BANG*

"DIE, YOU BASTARDS!" Ben shouted with an angry tone.

Many Gobes were shot and die on the spot. It alerted the other Gobes, so they start to panic and run everywhere. But Ben didn't stop and continued firing his revolvers at them rapidly. He stops after there was no living Gobe in the vicinity.

"Humph, now you know who you're messing with. Tch, a waste of ammunition." Ben said while storing his revolvers again.

Ben resumed his journey and ran into more trouble. He was attacked time after time by groups of weak magical creatures. These creatures are weak, but they're fearless because they live in groups and they're still very wild.

Fortunately, Ben still had his magic revolvers and he kept using them to attack these magical creatures. He also had a lot of ammunition, so he can save his magic power for later.

Some creatures tried to attack him again, so he just fired at them from his car while continuing to drive. The creatures will always get scared and run after he shot and killed some of them. So he just needed to shoot a few times and they'll get scared.

"They're weak, but their number is high and they're very aggressive. I hope the creatures in the deeper areas aren't as aggressive as these guys. But that seems unlikely as stronger creatures are more aggressive." Ben said with a tired expression.

Too bad Ben's hope isn't granted because his bad hunch turned out to be correct. He was attacked again as soon as he entered the inner area. The attackers were a pack of 18 Shadow Wolves. They're high B-Class creatures individually and high A-Class in a group.

"They'll drive me crazy." Ben said tiredly.