Roman readily activated the [Gold Search Token] that he had been aching to use.
As soon as he did so, a mini-map popped up in the periphery of his vision with an arrow in the middle indicating his position on the map, and a red dot at the fringe directing him towards his first Gold Ranked beast egg.
With that, Roman entered the mountain path.
The mountain range held unprecedented difficulty for someone like Roman, but with his resilience coupled with the system, Roman set his sights on the gray, rocky hills and the scarce bushes that grew along the cliffs.
According to the map, Roman wasn't too terribly far from his objective. It looked like it would be a three and a half hour climb to his point of interest.
After a few of hours, Roman slowed his place as he tried to pin point the location of the egg that showed up on his map.
Roman did significantly over the past few hours than he had done in front of the forest. He managed to avoid ambushes from the Sandy Scythe Badger groups that chanced upon him, and each time he got an inkling that he was about to enter the domain range of an Ice Stag group or Dire Wolf pack, he would take measures to avoid it while covering his tracks.
As a result, Roman arrived at his destination relatively unscathed.
To be quite honest, Roman had done quite a bit of soul searching after the fight with the Red Ash Fox. Roman's life was in deep danger and he had almost perished at the paws of a basic level beast at the bronze level before he had the opportunity to achieve his goals.
As a result, Roman had altered the way he traveled, taking greater precautions. However, as Roman reflected upon these things, he believed that he had ultimately not solved the core of his problems.
He had tried to play the bigger man, living by his mother's principles of honor and truth but ultimately this world didn't have room for this. He couldn't give up these basic principles, but he could at least adopt new ones on top of them.
People who treated him well deserved to be honored, deserved to know the truth, and deserved to be treated kindly. However, people who treated him poor, no matter the reason, deserved firm judgment, no matter how long it took.
But first, Roman would have to build up three primary components: (1) himself, (2) his future beast(s), and (3) his team. This was the primary reason as to why Roman took immense precaution when trekking towards the egg.
He could not afford to fall in such an insignificant place.
With that, Roman continued to search the nearby rocks and crevaces for obvious nesting grounds, hoping to acquire his egg as quickly as possible before heading home to end his Egg Hunt.
---
"It's already been a few hours, Boss. Matty isn't back yet." Robert, one of Crid's members, reminded him.
It was true that Matthew had been gone for a much longer period of time than anticipated and had yet to return.
Crid frowned at the thought. He knew that Matthew was incompetent, but , in his opinion, not nearly as incompetent as Roman.
"Right. Once he gets back he'll have to pay for holding up our plans."
Crid quipped immediately.
"Wait, boss. What if, you know… He ran into some trouble?" Robert cautiously asked.
*Bam!* Robert's face hit the mud of the damn forest floor.
"Say that again!?" Crid's face flushed red as he incensedly shouted.
"Do you actually believe that Matthew would lose to that weakling?" Crid ground his teeth and added after sucker punching Robert.
The last member of the group could only shake his head at Robert's misery. He brought it upon himself.
"No, boss… that's not what I'm trying to say." Robert did not dare to get up or turn to face Crid as he was raging.
Crid had a knack for bullying his subordinates too. Although they were in the same group as Crid, his boys knew not to interfere or talk back when Crid was enraged. There was no changing this habit. All they could do was faithfully obey or them and their families might face consequences where Crid's brother got wind of this.
"I don't care what you think! Since you doubt my words so much, then you go look for Matthew! Come find us when you've got him." Crid dismissed Robert before trudging forward to his destination.
In fact, Crid was quite a careful individual during important moments like these. He belived that he would achieve the same heights as his older brother. However, he needed some insurance.
He decided to first attain a good bronze ranked egg in the forest before trying his luck at the outer rim of the mountains.
That way, he could reevaluate which beast he would like to rear as his first companion and hand over the one he didn't want to one of the boys.
While Crid was hurriedly trying to make the deadline for the Egg Hunt, he didn't expect Matthew not to return promptly and for Robert to doubt his judgement on the matter.
Naturally, it was all a misunderstanding, but Crid couldn't be reasoned.
Robert turned his head only to see Crid and the last member of the crew head deeper into the forest as he picked himself up, wiped off the mud stains from his body and clothes as best as he could, and firmly decided to follow Crid's instructions.
---
Roman searched the area for a good half hour but still could not figure out where the egg was.
Instead, he had found nests of copper ranked beasts, but didn't even bother with those.
The map pointed to the edge of a cliff where there was sufficient underbrush and rock crevaces for the beasts to occupy.
Roman continued to comb the area when he chanced upon a small cave hidden by a large boulder. It would have been easily missed if he hadn't been paying extra attention.
He made a firm decision to explore the cave. Roman believed that the egg lay at the heart of the cave and the trials that awaited him in the cave were plentiful.
After squeezing himself through the thin slot behind the boulder, Roman realized how drastically different the cave looked from the rest of the mountains that he had explored prior to this.
The mountains were littered with gray, craggy rocks of all shapes and sizes. Except for the occasional plant that grew well in resource scarce environments, everything looked relatively dull and dry.
In contrast, the entrance of the cave had moss and vines growing at the entrance. The ground was not hard rock but instead dark brown, almost black, soil. This was indication of fertile land.
Roman only knew this from one of Carl's drunken rants when he insisted that Roman learned a thing or two about the agricultural profession.
Roman bended his back forwards to get a feel for the soil. Often times, the temperature and the tactile features of the soil revealed much about its environment and history.
For example, from how the soil felt, an experienced farmer would be able to discern if there was presence of external interference like pests or even the moisture of the area.
Roman realized that the soil was relatively damp, indicating that it had access to adequate water supply.
If a farmer decided to set up a plot at the entrance of the cave, the farmer probably would not have to be too concerned with irrigation.
Roman understood from the soil that this place was probably a lush environment for plants which would give rise to a number of herbivorous beasts, and in turn, create a population of prey for predators who specialized in cave combat.
Roman made all these checks before entering the cavern before him just to be sure. He needed to fully comprehend the risks of such an adventure.
"Looks like I'm in for an interesting afternoon," Roman thought to himself.