After landing on the island, most of the roughly two hundred new recruits chose to travel in groups of three to five. Only a rare few chose to go alone.
Those traveling in groups mocked the ones going alone, believing they were courting death. Not one of them thought those few outliers stood a chance.
Once they had formed their groups, everyone headed into the primeval forest that covered almost the entire island...
When the new recruits first entered, the forest did not make much of an impression on them.
But the farther they went, the more something felt wrong.
The light grew dimmer and the paths narrower, until it almost felt as though there was no path and nowhere to put their feet. Towering trees stood everywhere, their branches intertwining and their shadows overlapping.
A foul, indescribable smell hung in the air, black mist drifted everywhere, and the occasional roar of a monster was enough to make their skin crawl...
Elsewhere, Ages had chosen not to walk. Instead, he leaped into the towering trees and darted between their trunks.
With his experience as a marine in his previous life, Ages felt that, in a dangerous environment at a time like this, he should avoid letting his whereabouts be discovered. On the ground, he could easily be attacked from all sides.
So Ages chose to leap onto the trunks and use the dense foliage to conceal himself, keeping himself out of his prey's sight.
Whoosh... whoosh... whoosh...
Ages released the gravity he constantly maintained on himself. His body instantly became incredibly light, and he darted nimbly between the trunks, observing the forest filled with that strange smell...
"The smell of blood and rotting corpses is really strong in this forest. Looks like joining the Ferocious Beast Training Camp was the right choice. Hehe, I won't be bored anymore," Ages muttered to himself, standing on a thick trunk.
Ages then used a knife to carve a special mark into the trunk, one that only he understood. It was a marker to keep him from getting lost in the forest.
Just then!
"Roar!!!"
"Ah!!! Help!!"
A roar filled with savagery rang out, followed by a scream!
Ages's ears twitched. Hearing the sound, he frowned and said,
"Someone's already in trouble? I'll go take a look."
With that, Ages headed toward the source of the sound...
A boy of about sixteen was being chased by five or six baboons. He was in a sorry state, his pale face covered in dust and marked by bloody scratches from branches as he ran through the dense forest.
The boy looked back in terror at the Human Mimics closing in on him and couldn't help screaming again.
"Ah!! Why?! I was hiding so well, so why could they still find me?!"
Thud!
As soon as the boy finished shouting, his strength utterly depleted from running so hard, his legs gave way and he stumbled to the ground.
"Stay back! Stay back!!"
"Help! Somebody save me!"
Sitting on the ground, the boy gripped a knife tightly in his trembling hands. His pupils widened and his eyes nearly split with terror as he watched the tall, powerfully built Human Mimics charge at him, their mouths full of sharp fangs, foul-smelling drool dripping from their lips from time to time, and their eyes shining with savage bloodlust!
"Ah!!!"
The boy squeezed his eyes shut in despair, his scream piercing the sky...
Roar!!
Four Human Mimics opened their gaping maws and pounced at the boy, ready to bite...
The boy smelled the nauseating stench coming from the Human Mimics' mouths, and his heart filled with despair.
At that critical moment, Ages appeared!
"Hmph!"
With a wave of his hand, Ages exerted a powerful attractive force beneath the four Human Mimics' feet, pinning them in place and preventing them from advancing another inch...
After a long time passed without death coming, the boy slowly opened his eyes.
The boy was stunned!
He stared in disbelief at the scene before him, utterly shocked!
The four Human Mimics that had been so full of life as they chased him were already missing their heads. Blood spurted in streams from the necks of the four headless bodies kneeling on the ground, while the bloodthirsty eyes in the heads that had rolled aside held intense unwillingness and terror.
But what truly shocked the boy wasn't the Human Mimics that had died such gruesome deaths. It was the delicate-featured Ages, standing in front of one of them and prying the badge from its neck with a knife.
"Gulp..."
The boy swallowed and smacked his somewhat dry lips.
"Um... th-those Human Mimics, did... did you... kill them?"
Ages ignored the boy's question. Only after prying off the badge did he turn around and speak.
"I killed them. You should hurry and leave. Also, smear dirt over your wounds to cover up the smell of blood. These baboons have sharp noses."
With that, Ages paid no further attention to the boy standing there in a daze. He leaped onto the trunk of a towering tree and went away.
After listening to Ages, the boy took a long time to come to his senses. Then he murmured,
"So that's what the instructor meant when he said we couldn't bleed."
Ages, now some distance away, looked back at the boy and muttered,
"Explaining what the instructor meant was more than enough kindness. I hope you make it off this island alive."
Ages had no intention of giving the boy one of the badges. Though Ages cared about the weak, he wasn't a saint who had to care about everyone.
Ages felt that anyone who chose to join the Ferocious Beast Training Camp should have been prepared for death from the start, ready to stake their life fighting for a place of their own.
So, from beginning to end, Ages had never intended to give any badges he obtained to those unable to kill a Human Mimic, even though obtaining just one badge was enough to pass the survival test...
Ages continued darting through the primeval forest, muttering inwardly,
I've got a preliminary idea of how strong the Human Mimics are.
Hehe, since I've joined the Ferocious Beast Training Camp, I might as well go big. I need to get the higher-ups to notice me. That's the only way I'll get more cultivation resources.