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Chapter 8

A moment later, Leonard sprinted forward. If he wanted to take full advantage of being the first one to enter, he had to go deep into the forest.

Running water is my first priority. Humans could go several weeks without food, but they would die after a week without water. Because he didn’t have any cultivated qi, it would take an even shorter amount of time.

A forest this large has to have a lake or a pond. I haven’t spotted any signs of a river, so that must be the case. A forest this big couldn’t survive off of a few small streams, so his conjecture turned out to be correct.

Every now and then, he sniffed the air to check the humidity and smell for water. Even though Leonard was from a collateral line, he was still a Cardenas. His sense of smell was at least several times stronger than that of an average person’s, and he used this advantage to navigate the forest.

He dashed through the forest, maintaining a consistent speed. Unlike the parade ground’s firm, hard ground, the forest floor was damp and slippery. If he ran like normal without consideration, he would run out of stamina quickly and risk tripping or injuring himself before he could stop.

The instructor tailing him also had this concern.

“Geez, this is easy for him?” remarked the instructor, Colin. His jaw dropped.

Leonard didn’t slip in the slightest, and he put the perfect amount of power behind each step. No tree roots, rocks, or sticky puddles of mud could slow him down. He flew through them as smoothly as a stream. Even his footprints were shallow, which would make him hard to track.

“Sigh. I’d believe it if you told me he was a ranger from the Wickeline family, not a Cardenas swordsman.” Colin wrote this down in his notebook and followed behind Leonard, still astonished.

Direct descendants are born with inherent physical advantages, but that’s it. It takes a lot of time to get used to navigating a new environment like this.

There were abilities that one could attribute to innate talent, but there were some things that could only be attained through experience. This was what Colin had always believed, but now he was starting to doubt himself.

“Oh, Group 5 should be joining soon,” Colin muttered as he checked his pocket watch. He clicked his tongue. “Yeah, it’s over. Even if a few kids band together, they won’t catch No. 25. The direct descendants might have a chance, but if he just runs off, they won’t find him.”

Seeing as how the boy was looking for water, he had to have survival skills. If he also knew how to hunt, he wouldn’t have to fight other trainees to get badges to trade in for supplies.

He really was going to do this alone. He probably knew that joining a bunch of kids who didn’t know what they were doing would only weigh him down.

“He has a poor sense of teamwork… but he has the strength and skills to fend for himself. No points subtracted. We’ll have to keep watching him.”

Colin continued to sprint through the woods.

***

A considerable amount of time had passed. Leonard had run for nearly an hour from the starting point before he had come across the shore of a small lake. If he hadn’t found a small path among the dense thicket, he would have had to cut some trees down. The only reason he’d found it was thanks to his sharp nose and his attention to detail, which had allowed him to sense the change in humidity.

The water… looks safe to drink. There’s also a considerable amount of fish. It’s likely sustained by groundwater circulated by underground tunnels.

He took a sip and sprinkled a bit of the water onto the back of his hand. If his mouth grew itchy or his hand became red, it would not be drinkable.

He waited for about five minutes, but thankfully, nothing happened. Leonard spit out the water he’d been holding in his mouth and drank about half his canteen. He filled the rest with water from the lake.

It would be best to boil it first, but my body should be able to handle this. I’ll make a fishing rod or a harpoon later, too. He could also jump into the lake and catch fish by hand, but then he’d contaminate it with the dirt and filth that covered him. He wasn’t that desperate for food yet.

Stomp! Leonard turned his thoughts away from the lake and stomped on a snake that had slithered up to his foot. Once he had it in place, he bashed the head in with his practice sword.

The trouble with hunting snakes was that they could still bite a person even if the head was cut off from the rest of the body. Therefore, the head had to be either buried or completely crushed.

Leonard inspected the dead snake closely and nodded in satisfaction. It has no venom, and it’s a decent size.

First, he cut off the now unrecognizable head. Then, he reached inside and pulled out its innards. A few small animals that he couldn’t identify, including some birds and field mice, trailed out with its intestines. He tossed them all onto the ground and covered them with dirt. Once he was done with that, he peeled off the scales and skin until he was left with only the flesh.

“I can keep this as emergency rations,” he remarked.

Surprisingly enough, snake tasted like chicken. It had made up the bulk of his diet while he was in Nanman. If a person reached a high enough cultivation level, they would become immune to the poison in non-magical poisonous snakes, so there were even some people who used it as seasoning, claiming the scratching and burning on their tongues made it a delicacy.

Outsiders always called them crazy. It was mostly reasons like this that caused the people of the Central Plains to treat foreigners like savages. However, Nanman’s hot and humid climate made it difficult to find food, so they had to rely on common reptiles and insects. There was nothing more to it.

Leonard shook away thoughts of the past. Let’s focus on this forest right now. I still haven’t found a place to sleep, and I don’t know what other dangers there might be. I also need to gather kindling for a campfire before the sun sets.

He put the snake meat into a pouch. He would leave it here with his knapsack; it would take a very long time for someone to find this lake anyway.

Feeling lighter on his feet, Leonard left the shore to find a good hunting ground.

He didn’t plan to stay by the lake. Novices might want to set up camp beside it, but that wasn’t a good decision. There were always predators and insects roaming around bodies of water, and if he made a campfire at night, it would waste the perfect cover the trees provided.

I need a place that isn’t too far from the lake but is still relatively dry. A place that isn’t out in the open and is hard for others to find.

If they were in a real forest, it would be hard to find a place that satisfied all his requirements. But this one was man-made, created for the purpose of training the youth of the Cardenas family. He expected that there would be areas that were set up with perfect camping conditions.

In the end, he was right.

“Nice. Let’s go with this one.”

He found a small, dark cave. There was a draft coming from somewhere, rustling his hair. It also wasn’t very humid, likely because of the wind, making it the perfect place to sleep. If there was a draft, that meant he wouldn’t suffocate if he created a fire, so he could keep himself warm.

There’s a bit of a foul smell. The only problem was that the wind carried the stench of a beast. It wasn’t the lingering smell of a beast that had come by a day or two ago.

The cave already had an inhabitant.

…Grrrr…

A wolf almost as big as a tiger crept out of the depths as if it had expected Leonard’s arrival. Its fur was so dark that it nearly melted into the darkness, and its thick hide looked as if it would be difficult to pierce with a wooden sword.

“A wolf.”

It was too big and strong for the children to fight. Leonard raised his sword as he assessed the wolf’s capabilities. As it slowly began to circle him, he matched his steps in tandem, the gears in his head turning. This kind of beast wouldn’t be able to just wander into a controlled environment. It’s too big and well-fed, even though I don’t see any remains.

He had the feeling that the wolf was trained by the Cardenas family and placed here on purpose. Above everything else, he saw that the look in its eyes was intelligent, not savage.

He was sure of it. It had been put here to train the children without killing or seriously injuring them.

How disappointing. His fighting spirit dissipated when he realized that their fight wasn’t going to be a life-or-death battle. That, in turn, seemed to provoke the beast’s primal instincts.

Awoooo—!

Any signs of weakness were punished with death.

Such was the law of the jungle.

It was something the wolf was very familiar with. Though it felt threatened by the boy’s presence for some reason, it charged toward its target as soon as it saw an opening.

The giant wolf was closing in on Leonard, running as fast as the wind. It likely weighed several hundred kilograms, and it would only take a tackle to crush his bones. With that momentum, it would only take a swing of its claws to reduce the practice sword to splinters.

But it won’t matter if it doesn’t hit me.

Leonard dropped to the ground right before it flew over his head with a sharp whistle of air. Just as it was about to land, he stood up and thrust his sword.

Unfortunately, the wolf was male, and Leonard had hit its most sensitive parts.

Grrr? Graaa! Graah?

The wolf rolled around the ground, frothing at the mouth. For some reason, it made Leonard feel pity.

“They’re not broken, so just hold on for a bit. And don’t attack me again, okay?”

The beast thrashed about like a rabid animal for nearly ten minutes before it managed to get up onto its feet. However, all four of its legs were still trembling.

Grrr…

The wolf looked upon its attacker, its bright yellow eyes filled with a bloodlust that hadn’t been there before.

Noticing its bloodlust, Colin thought, This is gonna be messy.

Should he jump in and protect the boy from the beast? Or should he leave him to fend for himself? Leonard had managed to attack it once, but he hadn’t weakened it. On the contrary, it was more dangerous now that it had been provoked. Frankly, No. 25 had messed up when he hadn’t finished it off when he had the chance.

At this rate, he was going to die.

“What, you’re actually gonna kill me?”

Just as Colin was about to scramble down to help, Leonard spoke coolly to the wolf.

It was a face-off between man and beast. They kept their eyes fixed on each other.

Krrr… Krr…? Though the wolf was well-trained and intelligent, its primal instincts had resurfaced, allowing it to see the unmistakable killing intent behind the boy’s eyes.

He was taking his time deciding whether he wanted to kill the beast, with no sense of urgency. When a predator with a full belly came across prey, the only choice it had to make was whether to use its claws or its fangs.

The wolf took a step back when it sensed this.

Grr…?!

Animals had better instincts than humans most of the time. When a natural disaster was approaching, wild animals were the first to take off to higher ground or other shelters, even if they could fly. They could sense when death was approaching and avoid it.

The wolf smelled bloodlust so strong that it wondered why it hadn’t noticed it earlier.

That was the final straw.

Woof! Woof! Woof!

It instantly rolled over and showed its stomach, even wagging its tail. It was the greatest sign of submission, something not even its trainers had seen.

“What are you doing?” Leonard chuckled as he watched the wolf. The burning bloodlust in his eyes had dissipated at some point.

Colin didn’t know what to make of it either. From his vantage point in the trees, his head was already starting to hurt as he tried to figure out how he would report this to Bruno.