Waking up in the afternoon, John and Yuna began exploring, hunting, and training.
By the time night descended, John's Xhal Drops reached 2659.
The duo explored the night to find Luminis Nightveil Fairy but didn't find it.
John encountered some interesting Monsters and Variants, but interesting didn't mean impressive, so he didn't capture any.
Day 6
Fen was a bit dangerous to travel on, especially because it was a bit magical with how it recovered and plopped fast due to the watery underground, often by the amphibious Monsters who could ambush and attack, but flying on Pymon's back at low altitude was a good way to remain safe and explore.
Yuna and John found two Bronze-ranked resources and one Silver-ranked resource.
They also clashed with a group of three students, but they quickly gave up after losing the first batch of their Monsters. They would rather not get eliminated and survive longer, so giving up and escaping was a better option.
And once again, their search in the night didn't bear any fruitful results, as Luminis Nightveil Fairy was nowhere.
Day 7
John decided to train Pymon extensively on this day using the Silver-rank resource he had found. The plant had both Lightning and Water attributes.
Yuna still felt it was dangerous and didn't want to attempt crazy training like John did with Alfred in the cavern.
However, John went ahead with his plan, feeding the plant to Pymon while also hugging him as he received a shock and got electrocuted alongside Pymon.
Of course, John also had a hidden motive, which he didn't tell Yuna—Pymon's evolution pathway that he had decided. According to his skill Evolution Pathways, he needed two more resources that were not available in this forest and some Geno Points that he had in his Geno Pocket.
Having been at the peak of Bronze-rank for a long time, Pymon's stats were already at 43 STR | 47 SPD | 37 DEF.
After enduring the harsh training by ingesting that Lightning/Water plant and lingering at death's door with John, Pymon's stats reached 49 STR | 52 SPD | 43 DEF.
The potency of a Silver-rank resource being used on a Bronze-rank Monster was as rewarding as dangerous.
Meanwhile, the other two Bronze-rank resources were both pure water-attributed, and Yuna fed them to Doku since Abyssal Darkwind Eagles were of water/wind attributes and it was safe to eat those.
Doku's stats also increased a bit, reaching 42 STR | 45 SPD | 38 DEF. Naturally, he was weaker than Pymon, his father.
As the day passed and night arrived, John's Xhal Drops reached 3193. It was lower than yesterday since he didn't hunt much because of getting messed up by electricity shocks enhanced by water conductivity. He only hunted at night when he recovered after several hours.
While the duo went on to search for Luminis Nightveil Fairy and returned with another pang of disappointment, Max was snoring in their camp with Maxon, Blazeboy, and Pyroshade Boar.
Starry and her children had all reached Prime-stage by now, so they were in charge of defending the camp, but since Max was familiar, they let him in.
After waking him up, Max took out the three resources to evolve Blazeborn Stalker.
He wanted John's input in the process, so he didn't use the resources on his own.
John helped him prepare by recalling the "evolution recipe" he had read somewhere, and Blazeborn Stalker was soon wrapped up in a ghastly orange cocoon with black patterns.
Day 8
Max had woken up way earlier since he had plenty of sleep while Yuna and John were exploring during the night.
He had finished training with Maxon, the usual fighting training, and also released Pyroshade Boar into the wild as he had decided to capture his third Pet. He had also gathered meat and some food by the time Yuna and John woke in the afternoon around 2 p.m., as usual.
Everyone prepared food and began eating after Yuna and John had freshened up.
"We need to get clear water from the Fen. The well's almost empty," Yuna said.
"Mhmm," John said while chewing roasted meat wrapped in a leaf that tasted spicy and salty from a type of tree that grew abundantly in this area.
"We only have today and then two more days, peeps," Max said before burping and leaning back with his palms on the ground. "We need to capture a third Monster, a good one, and train it. Though I think we will be selected by the ruling sects, what do you say?"
"John will for sure. Don't know about you," Yuna snickered.
"Tsk, I will get selected. Just watch. Anyway, it seems the search for your Luminis Nightveil Fairy isn't going well."
"Yeah, I don't think we'll find that Monster," John shook his head before taking another bite.
"One more night searching for it. If we can't find it, we'll capture some other Monsters," Yuna said. "Though if I get selected by a ruling sect, I am going to change it. The sect will provide an opportunity to acquire a rare and powerful monster, so if I can grasp it, I'll take it as my third pet monster."
"Of course, that is if I get selected, but I must get selected!" Yuna clenched her jaws before opening her mouth and taking a big bite. 'I am training and working hard. We also got a rare Monster like Abyssal Darkwind Eagle, and my Rayray is very powerful. We defeated many students already in the past two days, and I improved thanks to John as well… Please, let me get selected.'
She also hoped to get selected in the same sect as John. 'John will definitely get options…if he chooses the same sect that selects me…'
Glancing at him, she wondered if he would do that. But the answer she got in her heart was no because she had never seen him show interest in her.
'Should I tell him?' Yuna felt conflicted and postponed it again while also making a firm decision. 'I will tell him on the last day.'
After everyone finished eating, they resumed exploring. Most of the resources were gone as students had collected them, but some still grew.
With the increasing appearance of Silver-rank Monsters and the overall number of Monsters increasing while the number of students decreased, John's Xhal Drops also reached 4592 halfway through the night.
It was 2:34 a.m. Still, there was no sight of Luminis Nightveil.
While the duo was exploring, Max was sleeping, and his pets and Starry and her eagles were defending the camp, the bloodthirsty Monsters had finally arrived at the barrier in the west; twelve arrived at the Black Mist Woods area's barrier-border, while twenty-nine arrived at the Moonveil Fen area's barrier-border.
Moreover, Azelis was sleeping, as it wasn't her shift to observe. But Lainey was observing both areas attentively and saw them.
'What?! Their number increased…they bred with other monsters?' Lainey almost wanted to send her Emperor-rank Pet down, but that would expose her.
Before other Emperor-rank Tamers on the airship noticed those monsters at the barrier's borders, she had to quickly deal with them!
The ruling sects had competition against each other, rather fierce, so if this experiment was exposed, there was a high chance she would get abandoned by the Spiritveil Sect on top of getting punished.
Without further ado, the first thing she did was wake up Azelis by sending her Pet to her room.
A small, palm-sized bird with a colorful feather crown on its head appeared and left.
King-rank and above Monsters could change their size at will, but there was a limit to their minimum and maximum size, which varied according to the Monsters.
'No…don't go yet,' Lainey sweated and felt antsy as she saw those Monsters sniffing the barrier and trying to go past, but getting confused at the mysterious wall blocking them.
But it wouldn't be long before they just decided to go underground.
'Hurry up, Azelis. Please.'
But she didn't know that five Monsters had actually gone past the barrier through underground traveling and entered the Moonveil Fen area.
Among those five Monsters were three very peculiar Monsters of the new generation, birthed from the ones that got experimented on, and…these five monsters were about to encounter John and Yuna, who were exploring the area.