It was noon, and the bright sunshine dispelled some of the early winter chill.
Cana slowly walked towards the training ground.
Ezreal was busy moving back and forth in the open space of the training ground, surrounded by a pile of monster corpses.
Among them, the Ravens that had attacked them before were the most numerous, roughly counting several hundred.
Next were a hundred or so large green Lizards; although their scales were green, they shimmered with rainbow light under the sun.
The rest included a pile of strange monster corpses: pythons emitting black mist, giant black wolves, black bats, red bats...
"Is that Cana?"
Footsteps tapped, but Ezreal didn't turn his head. His hand rested on a green Lizard corpse, and a faint green mist rose from his palm; he was exploring something.
"You look a bit evil like this," Cana said, looking at Ezreal amidst a pile of corpses, unable to resist commenting.
"Thanks for the compliment. How much did we get this time?" Ezreal chuckled without turning his head. With a slight effort from his left hand, he tore through flesh and pulled out a fist-sized, irregularly shaped green crystal from the Lizard's chest.
Ezreal didn't care about the dark red, foul-smelling blood on his hand. He casually flicked it twice, then held up the magic crystal to the sun, examining it carefully.
Under the sunlight, the green crystal, stained with a bit of blood, emitted a faint glow.
"121 adult Ravens. The Evil Crow King said these were the last Ravens they could find. To avoid the entire Raven species being wiped out, some Ravens were left behind," Cana said.
As Cana spoke, a card appeared at her fingertips, and she flicked it towards Ezreal.
Ezreal's ears twitched, and he caught the card firmly in his right hand.
"Thank you for your hard work. This should be enough Ravens."
Ezreal shook his hand, channeling magic into the card. A flash of white light, the card vanished, and 121 black Raven corpses dropped to the ground.
"What do we need to catch next?" Cana asked softly.
Ezreal looked at the pile of corpses, nodded, then turned to Cana.
"I'll have to trouble you again. Please bring back some Evil Ghost Bats. Your Evil Crow King is more convenient for night combat than others, and with the Frost Spirit's Ice Magic, the task of catching Evil Ghost Bats is perfect for you."
Cana rolled her eyes. "That's a bit too much flattery."
"Hey, EZ, I'm back! Oh, Cana is here too," Marcus's cheerful voice came from above the training ground.
A large cloud of gold sand moved rapidly in the air, and Marcus stood on the sand cloud, smiling and waving at the two.
The sand cloud was a new flying magic Marcus had recently mastered. It could carry people, and its flying speed was decent, not slower than a Crimson Feathered Demon Wolf's normal speed.
The sand cloud descended, and Marcus dropped two cards.
"About 60 Night Wolves, and over 100 Bloodsucking Bats. I didn't count them precisely."
Ezreal steadily caught the two cards. White light flashed in his hand again, the cards dissipated, and another large pile of black wild wolf and human-head-sized red bat corpses appeared.
Dark red blood flowed everywhere, standing out especially on the clean magic-sealing stone floor tiles.
The foul smell from the large amount of flowing blood mixed with the scent of the corpses themselves, making it nauseating.
Ezreal frowned slightly, a golden light appearing within him. His feet lifted from the ground, and he floated back a distance, moving away from the area with the most corpses.
Cana covered her nose and greeted Marcus, "Hi, Marcus, you're quite efficient too."
"Thank you for your hard work. Keep catching these; two more batches should be enough," Ezreal said, smiling and waving at Marcus.
"No problem, leave it to me!" Marcus smiled at Cana, then awkwardly scratched his head. He gave Ezreal a thumbs-up, held his breath, and controlled the sand cloud to rise again, his figure disappearing in less than two seconds.
"I'm leaving too. You can stay here and smell it yourself; I can't take it anymore." Cana pinched her nose and quickly ran away with tapping footsteps.
She felt that if she stayed any longer, her breakfast and lunch would be saying goodbye to her stomach.
Ezreal didn't speak, just waved at Cana.
He also couldn't quite stand the smell.
With a large pile of corpses together, and monsters not being particularly clean, their body odor was already strong. Plus, with a large amount of blood flowing out, the smell was truly pungent.
If it weren't for the low winter temperatures, these corpses wouldn't have started to rot yet, otherwise, the smell would be even worse.
Ezreal began to pace around the large pile of corpses. His eyes were unfocused, and he was lost in thought, muttering to himself.
"Ravens, Undead Magic, the Demon Eye with its control effect, and most importantly, the Ghost Body skill."
"Night Wolves, Dark Magic..."
"Chameleon Lizards, their chameleon ability and self-healing ability are enough. Plant Magic isn't important. Let's see if I can fuse the magic crystal with the Night Wolf's magic crystal to master some new Dark Magic."
"The Blood Magic of Bloodsucking Bats and the Gluttony Magic of Swallow Snakes can work together. Bloodsucking and large consumption can quickly restore injuries, combined with the Chameleon Lizard's self-healing ability..."
"The Dark Magic of Evil Ghost Bats and their innate Sound Magic are also quite good, and the compatibility is high."
"I still feel like something is missing. Dark Magic plus Blood Magic plus Sound Magic is a good combination, but if I'm countered by an attribute, it's still a bit tricky..."
"I have physical recovery speed, but magic power recovery is a problem. There doesn't seem to be a good solution for now."
"My physical strength isn't quite enough either. If I add some Light Magic to change attributes, it would probably explode."
"If I can't find other ways to restore magic power in combat, do I still have to..."
"Dragon Slayer Magic, I remember, can also restore magic power by eating corresponding attribute magic, right?"
"What were the names of those Dragon Slayer Magic users..."
Ezreal was thinking when a card silently embedded itself in the ground in front of his feet.
A silvery-white light flashed, the card disappeared, and dozens of large Chameleon Lizard corpses appeared on the ground.
"Light Magic and Summoning Magic are fine, but this kind of magic that uses corpses doesn't really seem like something a good person would use."
"If Cana and Marcus weren't genuinely easy to get along with, I'd really start to wonder if Fairy Tail is a legitimate guild," a light female voice said from behind Ezreal.
Ikaruga was still dressed in her white kimono, wearing traditional wooden clogs, but this time, a katana in a red sheath hung at her waist.
"It's not necessarily that legitimate. Anyway, you'll find out when we go back."
Ezreal shrugged, thinking of Natsu the destroyer, Gray the stripper, and Loki always flirting with girls.
"Besides, we're on a mission now. Cana isn't drinking. If you see Cana drinking back at the guild, it might completely change your impression of her," Ezreal ruthlessly teased Cana, then patted his chest, very proudly.
"Someone like me is a rare normal person in the guild."