---Tatsuki's POV---
'Finally, here, I thought I could encounter some action while traveling but Caroline is like a bug repellent, scaring people who thought of robbing me.'
While having weird thoughts, I saw people looking at me a distance away, so I guess that's my queue, so I steeped forward leisurely as always and my hands are hanging on the belt by the thump and half-closed eyes as if I'm sleepy. Even though I was told I can't use my personal sword in the trial I'm still carrying it on my back for security.
As people kept staring at me for some reason I thought they are waiting for my introduction, so I just raised my palm as a greeting and introduced myself.
"Yo, I'm Tatsuki Zen" is what I said, but it seems it wasn't a greeting they wanted because now they are looking at me like I'm some exotic animal in a Zoo, especially the kids.
"Tatsuki you are finally here, leave the sword on your back and pick a new one over there," Gozuki said to end this awkward mood while pointing at a rack filled with old weapons, that seems to have been used a lot before.
When I picked my choice of weapon and gave my old one to Caroline, I looked around for a bit, looking at some of the kids trying to discern if there's something special about them and I managed to spot a few, like a boy with spiky blond hair and golden eyes but looking a little lazy. A pair of girls hugging each other with black hair, that seems to be sisters, while the older one looks to have a tremendous amount of backbone and will to protect the little sister. The last look I took was at a kid with glasses and black hair beaming with intelligence.
"Ok we are starting now," said a man looking like an important military man. Do I need to look like that and have that attitude too when I enlist in the military? I hope not! He didn't even greet me back, guess our Zen family is only seen as a sword to serve the Empire by the look in his eyes, which makes me even more determined to find out the purpose of this new special unit.
While we were being led into the forest a voice came from my subconscious.
-----------------------------
[Gigigi, it seems we are about to have fun, let's unlock this skill when we are at it,] said my subconscious.
[Body Manipulations]
-[Dead Bone Pulse Lvl 1 (Connects and heals broken bones within a timeframe, varying by the number and size of bones broken) ]
-[Dead Bone Pulse Lvl 2]
-[Dead Bone Pulse Lvl 3]
'Oh, that's the new route that got added to the Skill Tree while training with Gozuki, at that one time we spared where he showed no mercy, almost breaking one of my ribs with his Imperial Fist. But do you expect me to just go out there and pick a fight with a Danger Beast?'
[Of course, you should do just that, gigigi]
'Hmm ok, but I'm not just letting some random Danger Beast attack me if it's weak.' after thinking about it, it sounds feasible and I don't want a human breaking any of my bones, that would be even more humiliating than a Danger Beast.
[Gigigi, of course just kill all those insects without mercy.]
-----------------------------
After leading the 100 kids and me into the middle of Gifnora Forest in a group, a subordinate blew a horn to frighten us, and attract Danger Beasts to our location.
After some seconds of quick thinking, I came up with a lot of different plans, like stealthy follow someone and use him to test the waters, literally use them as shields or go my way entirely.
'Tch, I won't kill innocent kids for my survival.' so before anyone could move I did.
I jumped out of the group and took off, choosing to go through the forest where the trees aren't so close to each other, and my reason for that is I'm looking for an animal-type Danger Beast, and not a plant-type.
After studying Danger Beasts at home, I'm pretty familiar with the types and classes of Danger Beasts, which is divided up from weakest to strongest as:
-Class 4.
-Class 3.
-Class 2.
-Class 1.
-Special Class.
-Super Class.
And what's special about plant-type Danger Beasts is their hunting method. They blend into their soundings and most often lure their prey into its range only to kill it swiftly, some of the most fearsome of them is poisonous to boot, so that's my reason for avoiding them.
I ran for some time to get away from the group before stopping, so they can't follow and use me as bait, but I never let my guard down. In fact, I'm resting a hand on the shitty sword I took from the rack, ready for any sneak attacks.
In front of me is some footprints at the size of a head, they look like hooves of a boar or so I speculate. As I plan to find a worthy Danger Beast to fight, I, of course, followed its trail and there it is.
'Damn it's bigger than I thought,' the boar is right about the same size as an elephant, grinding its tusks against a tree, and I saw that as a chance to attack it off guard, but before I could make a move, I felt killing intent from my back.