Kitayuu woke up relatively early that morning since the incident between Raiden and Keqing forced everyone to sleep early. Ge went to the bathroom and noticed that Bennet wasn't on his bed or anywhere in the dormitory. "That's odd," he said to himself. Kitayuu saw that Bennet's bags were already packed and thought it was a good idea that he started packing as well. A few minutes passed by when Bennet returned to the dormitory. "There you are. What were you doing out there?" Kitayuu asked him curiously. Bennet chuckled, and a sly grin formed on his face. "I snuck outside Diluc's office and eavesdropped on them." He giggled, trying to contain himself from bursting out. Kitayuu couldn't help but find it amusing. "You sneaky bastard, why didn't you bring me with?" Bennet smirked, "Well it looked like you were enjoying your beauty rest." Kitayuu stood up from his crouch and stood face to face with Bennet, "Excuse me?" Bennet backed away with his hands up. "Hey, hey, I'm messing with you, but anyyywaaayyssss... wanna hear what I heard, hehe." Kitayuu's mind raced back to the topic, "Yeah I wanna know what happened to them. Especially Raiden!"

Bennet cleared his throat, "So basically, during the time we have off, both Raiden and Keqing are not allowed to leave the academy grounds like we are. Instead, they will be monitored in the library while they study or read. Oh, but here's where things take a turn. You see, that's all the punishment Keqing got, but since Raiden initiated the fight, he got something more... and a whole lot worse! You see, Raiden has to do all the dirty work such as mopping floors, taking out trash, and even cooking for second and third year students. Oh boy, then on Saturday, Diluc will escort him to an old age nursing home near the academy where he has to feed and take care of the elderly the entire day!" Kitayuu burst out laughing. He thought how it must be so embarrassing for someone, especially Raiden, to do all of this. "Oh, and it doesn't end there..." Bennet tried his hardest, containing his laughter. "I telling Barbara and Noelle about the story in their room when suddenly w-we s-saw, ha- s-sorry!" Tears started rolling down Bennet's eyes as he was gasping for air, trying to control his laughter. "Oh, come on, just say it!" Kitayuu screamed. "WE SAW RAIDEN IN A MAID SUIT OUT THE WINDOW HAHAHA."

Kitayuu and Bennet burst out laughing for the next few minutes. Kitayuu could just imagine how Raiden would look in a maid costume along with what facial expressions he'd have from the humiliation. Bennet looked at the clock just as it hit half past seven in the morning. "Monstadt is around a three hour walk away from here, so we better hurry before the heat in the afternoon picks up." Kitayuu noticed that they were slightly behind schedule and decided to squeeze the rest of his belongings in his bag. "Alright, I'm ready." He said, stuffing a piece of bread in his mouth. Bennet picked his bags up as well, "Okay, just follow me, I know the path to Monstadt. After information Diluc of their departure, they set off outside the walls of the academy into the grassy fields of the Monstadt region. Soon, the academy could not be seen, and the temperature started rising as afternoon drew nearer. All Kitayuu could do was trust Bennet as he led them both along the dirt path. Every now and again, they would come across farm areas or small houses, but it was mostly just a bare grassland with some trees and hills.

At around the two hour mark, they both spotted a trader selling some goods. Bennet slowed down and suggested to Kitayuu that they should see what he had to offer, "Hey you got some Mora on you? Let's see if this guy has anything interesting for us." Kitayuu nodded in agreement. After a few minutes of checking the carriage, they settled on a few apples as well as a stamina potion they were going to share between them. "That will be 1700 Mora." The young trader said as he gave them his price. Bennet and Kitayuu agreed to split the payment and sat under a nearby tree just to snack for a bit. "Bennet, you know I'm actually pretty excited for this whole weapon license." Bennet grunted, "Hah! I always knew you were secretly a nerd. Who on Teyvat is excited for an examination?" Kitayuu looked at him rather irritated. "No! I meant obtaining the license. Of course, I'm not excited about the exam. Only a weirdo like Xingqiu would be." Bennet chuckled. "I'm just playing with yah, but you know, once we get it, we will also be able to take on commissions from the adventurers guild. That means we can start earning Mora by doing various tasks, but of course, sometimes we may be assigned to a specific task with no choice. Kitayuu took a bite out of his apple, "Yeah, i'm aware of that. I just thought maybe it would be a good idea to start saving up some Mora."

Whilst the two boys chatted away under the tree, just as they were ready to continue their walk, Kitayuu spotted something rather odd. "Hey Bennet, follow me quietly." Bennet was rather confused agreed to do it out of curiosity. As they got closer, he noticed it was like a small tribe settlement. Bennet took hold of Kitayuu's arm and pulled him back. "Wait, don't go further. It's a hilichurl camp." From the designs of the wood and bone watchtowers tied together with rope, Kitayuu also noticed it. Bennet went in front and took a closer peep. "I wonder if they are with the Abyss Order." Kitayuu replied rather confused, "What?" Bennet turned back and explained, "You didn't know? Many hilichurls, well not all of them follow the Abyss Orders commands. No one really knows what the hilichurls' true intentions are, but we do know that they are unintelligent and also share the same dislike of Teyvat being ruled by humans and Archons." At this point, they were both just a few meters away from the camp. Bennet suddenly had a very risky idea in mind. "Hey Kitayuu," He whispered and tapped his shoulder. "It doesn't look like there are any Abyss forces here, so how about we wipe out this hilichurl camp." Kitayuu smiled, "You don't have to ask me twice!" Without warning, he jumped from the bush that they were hiding from and slashed one of the hilichurls in the face with an electro attack he seemed to learn from Keqing.
The hilichurls charged in alarmed. Kitayuu continued knocking then out one by one. Whilst all the commotion was going on, a hilichurl atop a watchtower had his crossbow aimed at Kitayuu. Bennet swooped in immediately, knocking him off. "You're careless, you know that?" Kitayuu grinned at him, but it wasn't long until his grin disappeared when he noticed a large shadow slowly swallow him up. Kitayuu slowly turned around. A big hilichurl standing just over 3 meters tall stood behind Kitayuu with an axe and wooden shield ready.

Bennet yelled, "Shit a Mitachurl."

He jumped off the tower and sprinted across to it.

Kitayuu's electro slash attack didn't seem to do anything to it as the Mitachurl easily blocked him with his shield. At this point, Kitayuu could feel the fatigue catching up with him.

"Flaming Fist of Fate!"

Out of nowhere, Bennet jumped from behind Kitayuu and hit the shield with the full force of his punch, damaging it, with leftover flames to finish the job. The creature caught Bennet whilst still midair and threw him towards the tower.

"Bennet!" Kitayuu started to scream.

The Mitachurl threw his axe towards him and missed just by a few inches. Although Bennet was lucky, he was stuck with the axe handle pinning him to the wall.

The Mitachurl lift its foot trying to step on Kitayuu. Kitayuu dodged and rolled to the side where the Mitachurl charged in. In panic, he put his hands on the ground and used dendro to try to restrain the creature with vines growing out the ground. However, the Mitachurl easily broke free, and Kitayuu splashed water in its masks, blinding it for a few seconds.

The mix of the two elements created what looked like a glowing green fruit, and that's when Kitayuu remembered what Raiden said during that one class:

"Electro, Hydro and Dendro creates a reaction known as Hyperbloom. If not controlled correctly it can hurt someone badly. He wouldn't have told us if he didn't know it was dangerous you genius."

"That's right I can't try that!"

When the Mitachurl turned around, Kitayuu hit the dendro core with a small bolt of lightning. The Mitachurl then caught Kitayuu and pinned him to the ground with one arm and raised the other for a punch. Suddenly, the dendro core flew like a rocket, penetrating the creature from behind, and blood started flowing from the other end.

Kitayuu quickly moved out the way as it fell down and stared at the corpse. "Damn, no wonder why Diluc didn't want us to experiment with this."

"Ahem" Bennet made a noise to remind Kitayuu that he was still stuck under the axe handle.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot."

Kitayuu went over to Bennet and helped him take the massive axe out of the wall that pinned Bennet.

"I see that you used that reaction Diluc mentioned that we shouldn't experiment with."

Kitayuu looked back at the corpse for a moment and replied,

"Well, I don't blame him for being worried. Raiden wasn't kidding. That reaction is dangerous."

Bennet; "Yeah, and there's another move similar as well. You use the same reaction with dendro and hydro to make a core, but what's different is instead of electro, you hit it with pyro, which causes a reaction I believe is called burgeon. It creates a small explosion in the area."

Kitayuu slowly nodded "Interesting."

Bennet; "Burgeon is good for clearing a large amount of weak enemies whilst hyperbloom is for tougher enemies but is more single target."

After resting for a few minutes, the boys both continued their walk. Not long after, they were greeted by the view of Monstadt from the distance. They have finally arrived.