Chapter ~ 08
Meanwhile, after entering the forest, Leonard was amazed.
‘The concentration of qi is completely different from outside…! If even an artificially created forest has this much qi, just how incredible must the places known as spiritually blessed lands be?’
Every time he inhaled and exhaled, the stagnant energy within his body was washed away. His body already had almost no blocked meridians, but if he lived in this place for only a few weeks, even the finest capillaries throughout his entire body would be completely opened.
His amazement lasted only a moment before Leonard began running.
To make full use of the advantage he had gained by being the first to enter, he needed to advance deep into the forest.
‘Securing a water source comes first.’
A person could remain active even after going without food for several weeks, but once drinking water ran out, they would dry up and die within a week.
And since he currently had no internal energy, that time limit would probably be even shorter.
‘A forest this dense must have a lake or pond. I didn’t find any waterway large enough to become a river on the way here, so there has to be one somewhere.’
There was no way a forest of this size could be maintained with watering cans, so his guess was correct.
Leonard’s nose occasionally twitched as he checked the humidity.
He was smelling for water.
Although he wasn’t at the level of the direct bloodline, Leonard’s body still carried the blood of the Cardenas family. His senses, several times sharper than an ordinary person’s—perhaps even more than that—swept through the forest.
Tap-tap, tap. Tap-tap.
He continued sprinting at a steady pace.
The flat, hard ground of the training field was completely different from the damp and slippery earth of this forest. If he ran carelessly as he normally would, he could unknowingly waste his stamina, lose his footing, and suffer a serious injury from the momentum of his run.
The instructor following Leonard like a shadow had been worried about exactly that.
“…What the hell? Why is he running so well?”
The instructor’s jaw dropped when he saw that Leonard’s footsteps didn’t slip even once and that he was controlling his strength with perfect precision.
Exposed tree roots and rocks jutting out of the ground, muddy earth soaked through with moisture—
Number 25 slipped through all of them as smoothly as flowing water, without losing his sense of direction even once. He had even left shallow footprints, making it difficult for anyone following him to track his path.
“Ha. I’d believe it if you told me he wasn’t a Cardenas knight but a descendant of the Wickline rangers.”
The instructor wrote that assessment down in the notebook he had pulled from inside his clothes, then immediately followed after Leonard, shaking his head in disbelief.
‘Even the direct descendants overcame things through their innate strength and physical abilities, but it took them quite some time to adapt to environmental factors…’
There were gaps that could be overcome through talent, and there were abilities that could only be acquired through experience.
The instructor had always believed that.
Now, however, he had to start questioning his own common sense.
“Ah, Group Five should be entering soon.”
The instructor checked his pocket watch and clicked his tongue for no particular reason.
“It’s over. Completely over. No matter how many of the other kids group together, they won’t be able to catch Number 25 in this forest. The direct descendants have at least a slight chance, but if he simply runs away, they won’t be able to pursue him.”
Judging from the fact that Leonard had gone looking for water first, he clearly possessed knowledge about survival. If he could hunt as well, he wouldn’t even need to use his badge to purchase food or tools.
There was no reason for him to deliberately engage in a confrontation.
There was a reason he had chosen to act alone.
He must have known that bringing along children who knew nothing would only hold him back.
“His teamwork is lacking, but… if he has enough strength and skill that he doesn’t need cooperation, then it was the correct judgment. No deduction. I’ll have to keep watching him.”
Colin, the instructor assigned to Number 25, launched himself from the tree branch.
A long while later.
It wasn’t until Leonard had run for nearly an hour from the starting point that he finally discovered a small lakeside.
If he hadn’t found a path running between the densely packed trees, he would have had to cut his way through the forest.
Even that discovery had been possible thanks to his keen sense of smell and concentration, which allowed him to immediately notice the change in humidity in the air.
‘The water seems… fine. There are quite a few fish, too. Perhaps it circulates through an underground waterway.’
Leonard scooped up a mouthful of water and held it in his mouth, then dropped a few drops onto the back of his hand.
If his mouth began to sting or his skin swelled up bright red, the lake water would be unusable.
He waited for about five minutes.
Fortunately, there was no problem.
Leonard spat out the water he had been holding in his mouth, then drank about half of the water in his canteen. He filled the empty half with water from the lake.
‘It would be better to boil it before drinking, but this body should be fine. I’ll start fishing after I make a harpoon or fishing rod.’
He could have jumped directly into the lake and caught fish, but that would contaminate the water he needed to drink.
Even if it didn’t cause any major problems, he’d end up drinking dirt and waste that had come off his own body.
There was no need to rush his food supply just yet.
Crunch!
Having reached that conclusion, Leonard moved his foot and stomped down on the neck of a snake that had crawled up to his feet.
He subdued it completely, then finished the job by crushing its head with his wooden sword.
One thing to be careful of when hunting snakes was that even after their necks were severed, the head could remain alive and continue moving and biting. Therefore, after cutting off a snake’s head, it was necessary to bury the head in the ground or crush it completely.
Leonard carefully examined the dead snake and nodded.
‘No venom glands. Its body is a decent size, too.’
First, Leonard removed the head, which had been crushed beyond recognition. He then reached inside and pulled out its organs.
The stomach and intestines came out in a long string, containing the remains of an unidentified bird and something resembling a field mouse.
He threw the organs onto the ground, covered them thoroughly with dirt, and then separately stored only the meat after removing its scales and skin.
“I can save some of my preserved food.”
Snake meat surprisingly tasted similar to chicken.
Leonard had eaten plenty of snakes when he was active in the Southern Wilderness.
Once one’s internal energy reached a certain level, the venom of ordinary snakes—those that weren’t spiritual creatures—had almost no effect. There were even people who used the venom glands as seasoning.
Apparently, the tingling and numbing sensation on the tongue was considered quite a delicacy.
‘To people who didn’t know any better, we must have looked like complete lunatics.’
That was one of the main reasons outsiders were treated as barbarians and vicious criminals in the Central Plains.
The Southern Wilderness was so hot and humid that preserving food was difficult, so they had simply eaten readily available reptiles and insects.
Leonard shook his head as the old memories came back to him.
‘Focus on this forest for now. I still haven’t found a place to sleep, and I don’t know what other threats might be lurking around. I also need to gather firewood for a campfire before sunset.’
He put down both the bag containing the snake meat and his backpack.
It would take anyone quite a while to reach this lakeside anyway.
With his body considerably lighter, Leonard left the lakeside and began searching for a suitable campsite.
He had no intention of eating or sleeping here.
People unfamiliar with survival might choose to stay beside the lake, but that was not a good choice. Animals and insects were always drawn to areas near water, and if he lit a campfire here at night, the advantage of being concealed by the trees would become meaningless.
‘Not too far from the lake, low humidity, enough open space, and somewhere difficult for others to find.’
In a naturally formed forest, finding a place that satisfied all these conditions would be difficult.
But this forest had been artificially created by the Cardenas family specifically to train children.
There was nothing strange about them having prepared campsites that met all the ideal conditions.
As it turned out, Leonard’s guess was correct.
“Good. This will do.”
It was a small, dark cave.
Apparently, there was even a ventilation hole somewhere inside, because the wind blowing through the cave ruffled his hair.
It was not very humid.
The constant circulation of air probably kept it from becoming damp. It was an ideal place to sleep.
And if there was a ventilation hole, he could maintain a campfire inside without suffocating from the smoke, allowing him to keep warm throughout the night.
‘It smells a little like a wild animal.’
There was one problem.
The wind coming from inside the cave carried the smell of a beast.
It wasn’t the kind of smell that would remain simply because something had stayed there for a day or two.
This cave probably already had an owner.
“…Grrrrr…”
As though it had sensed Leonard’s approach, a wolf almost as large as a tiger strode out of the cave.
Its black fur looked as though it could melt into the darkness, while its thick hide appeared difficult to pierce even with a real sword.
“A wolf.”
It was far too large and powerful for something that had supposedly been left here for children to capture.
After gauging the beast’s strength, Leonard raised his wooden sword.
As the wolf slowly began circling to his side, Leonard rotated with it, continuing to think.
‘This isn’t something that should be living in a forest with such a limited ecosystem. It’s too big. And yet it isn’t emaciated, nor are there any bones or organs from prey scattered nearby.’
It felt like something the Cardenas family had raised, trained, and deliberately placed here.
More than anything, there was one clear piece of evidence.
There was intelligence in its eyes rather than pure wildness.
It had undoubtedly been thoroughly trained to fight children without inflicting fatal injuries or killing them.
‘What a letdown.’
The realization that this wasn’t going to be a life-or-death battle caused Leonard’s fighting spirit to suddenly sink, which in turn provoked the beast’s instincts.
GRAAAAAAWR—!
If you showed weakness, you died.
That was the law of the wild.
The wolf knew that law well, and it didn’t miss the opening created by its opponent, who seemed strangely reluctant to attack.
The enormous wolf, as large as a house, charged like a gust of wind.
A mass weighing hundreds of kilograms could crush an opponent’s bones simply by colliding with them, while the claws carrying that momentum could turn a mere wooden sword into sawdust.
‘All I have to do is not get hit.’
The moment Leonard lowered his body as though dropping into a crouch, a chilling sound of air being torn apart rang out above his head.
At the same time, he rose and swung his wooden sword once.
Unfortunately, this wolf was male, and the part struck by the wooden sword happened to be its most vulnerable and fatal weak point.
“Yelp?! Yip! YAAOW?!”
The wolf rolled across the ground, foaming at the mouth.
Seeing it, Leonard felt strangely sorry for the beast and said,
“It isn’t broken, so just suffer for a little while. And don’t attack me again.”
The wolf thrashed around as though it had rabies, and it took nearly ten minutes before it was finally able to stand.
Even then, all four of its legs were trembling.
“Grrrr…”
Knowing exactly who had caused it pain, killing intent that hadn’t been there before filled the wolf’s bright yellow eyes.
‘This is troublesome.’
Instructor Colin noticed it and hesitated for a moment.
Should he stop the wolf?
Or should he leave it alone?
Leonard had successfully landed one attack, but the wolf’s combat ability had suffered little damage.
Instead, by provoking its wild instincts, Leonard was now facing it in an even stronger and more dangerous state.
Judging the situation coldly, Leonard’s mistake had been failing to finish the beast when he had the chance.
At this rate, Number 25 would most likely die.
“What the hell? Is he seriously going to do this?”
It was at that moment.
Before Colin could intervene, Leonard, sensing the wolf’s killing intent, calmly turned around.
Man and beast.
Their eyes met.
“Grrr… r…?”
Because the wolf had been intelligently trained, and because it had regained at least some of its wild instincts, it could see it.
The murderous intent reflected in Leonard’s eyes, so clear that they almost seemed transparent.
Eyes that were deciding whether to kill or not without hunger or any sense of danger.
It was the look of a well-fed predator facing prey that was foolishly provoking it without fear—the look of something deciding whether to bare its fangs or swing its claws.
The wolf realized what it was looking at and took a step backward.
“Yip…!?”
An animal’s instincts were actually superior to those of humans in many ways.
When natural disasters struck, it was common to see birds and wild animals flee to higher ground before humans even realized what was happening.
The ability of a living creature to sense approaching death and escape from it.
A thick smell of blood pierced the wolf’s nose—so strong that it was almost baffling that the beast hadn’t noticed it until now.
That was the decisive blow.
“Yip! Yip-yip! Yip!”
Without hesitation, the wolf flipped onto its back right where it stood, exposing its belly and even wagging the tail tucked between its legs.
A posture of absolute submission.
It was an attitude the wolf had never even shown its trainer.
“…What the hell are you doing?”
Leonard snorted with amusement at the sight.
The murderous glint that had been shining in the wolf’s eyes had disappeared somewhere along the way.
Colin, who had been watching from a tree, was just as dumbfounded by the situation.
He was already developing a headache at the thought of how, exactly, he was supposed to report this to the senior instructor.
