"You must be claustrophobic. You suddenly fainted after entering the cave," Zachary lied effortlessly.

"I fainted? No, I..." Alisa tried to recollect what had happened. "I heard a scream while waiting outside, but I couldn't find you in the cave. Then I heard someone call my name. He said that he was my fiance, and that his name was...Zachary."

"Hmm...It was probably just a hallucination. I was in the cave when I saw you come in. I called your name, but you suddenly started yelling and then fainted. I was startled," he explained believably.

"Really?" She didn't seem satisfied.

"Are you afraid of dark places?" Zachary immediately changed the topic to divert her.

Alisa hesitated for a while and then nodded.

"Well, that is a symptom of claustrophobia. You must have been locked in a very dark place when you were younger, and it may have become a traumatic memory. Ah, it's my fault. I shouldn't have asked you to accompany me here." Zachary shook his head, looking down at his feet, pretending to be guilty of his behavior.

"Never mind. This is my problem. It has nothing to do with you. Did you find the materials you needed?" Alisa asked, dismissing his words with a wave of her hand.

"No, I didn't. It seems I have come to the wrong place. Let's head back," he said, wrapping up their conversation.

"Okay." Alisa glanced sideways at him as he got up to leave. She felt a strange emotion swell inside her when she looked at him, but she couldn't place her finger on it. It was like she had forgotten something important, but she didn't know what it was. And the name, Zachary, created a ripple in her mind.

On the way back, the two of them remained silent, absorbed in their own thoughts.

When they were about to reach the college, Zachary asked, "By the way, you promise to teach me the Beast Merging Skill. You won't go back on your word, will you?"

"I'll find time to teach you. I'm leaving now," she replied and then left immediately. She had so much on her mind and didn't have the energy to entertain him at that moment.

Zachary watched her leave with a solemn look in his eyes and then went back to the Tiger Bamboo Forest. By then, Jay, Tracy and the other

s eyebrows with a smile. However, compared with Marvin, the other dean he knew, Silas seemed to be more decent. But one couldn't judge a book by its cover, and he wouldn't be deceived easily by Silas' appearance.

At that moment, Silas' eyes fell on Zachary, Jay and their companions. He nodded at them with an approachable smile. Then, he looked around and said to the audience, "There are two reasons for summoning you all here today. The first is to present an award to Harley Bai from the Devil Kingdom for his outstanding performance in the Imperial Coliseum. He has won several battles and defeated powerful warriors to enter into the top twenty ranking list of our Crane College. He is the first foreign Imperial Level warrior to do so in the history of our college. For his amazing performance, our college has decided to present him some incentives, in order to show that we cherish talents from all kingdoms equally."

Silas' words naturally caused a commotion among the crowd. Although they knew in advance that the senior leaders of the Crane College were going to award Zachary for his victory against Alloys, they hadn't expected the dean to show up personally to give the award. Usually, even if a warrior at the premium stage of Imperial Level were to receive an award, it would be presented by an elder. The dean had never come forward for such a thing before. This only further proved that the senior leaders of Crane College had their eyes on Zachary.