BLURGH.
They arrived in the Earth base, which resembled a large castle that had an open centre.
Looking around, Lex saw mighty and towering black and golden walls enclosing them and copious watchtowers rising up high, intimidating him and displaying menacing fully armoured purple archer guards stationed above them.
As a miserable child that ought to take the most simplistic method of transportation,, Lex had never been through a portal, like the greatest of the people with him, who were from affluent and dominant families that had extraordinary ranked abilities inherited from their fathers and ancestors.
Lex and a few others, that were of inferior status puked, as he felt his organs curdle after being warped.
Seeing this the seniors and other students couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.
A gorgeous young girl, with a very powerful yet cold aura enveloping her and her running silver hair, hypnotized Lex and the rest of the men.
Nevertheless, Lex soon regained a calm state of mind, remembering his desire to grow stronger.
However, he still couldn't get rid of the thought of having such a beautiful and talented wife to come home to, protect and love.
Glancing at the crowd of rookies, she noticed one not so peculiar man and instantly smiled.
She was looking at Lex, with a heart full of love and longing, of course, oblivious to Lex who was trying to suppress the thoughts within his mind.
"I am Ella, you're senior, and am the current disciple of the principle and the leader of the earth base in this Mortal Beast Dimension. Currently, I am LVL 92 and will be your course leader until I leave this dimension to ascend," she declared, stunning all the newbies even more.
[She doesn't seem much older than me, yet she has reached LVL 92. Looks like I won't be the only one with great potential, I will work harder and surpass her soon].
Lex was stunned by both her beauty and strength.
After her introduction, all the newbies stared at her in awe, but Lex didn't pay attention to her, and focused on himself.
"You all will be given a room denoted by the number provided by the academy and this fortress is respected as a safe zone. Nevertheless, once you leave this fortress there exist no rules, apart from one, the survival of the fittest. Staying in the safe zone is not free just like everything in this universe, and you must provide 10 beast cores of at least LVL 5 or 1,000 spirit coins, otherwise, you will have to sleep out in the dangerous wilderness, without being allowed to return to the fortress unless you pay," she declared.
Understanding this, Lex was determined to strengthen himself and for that, he was going to hunt, hunt until there was nothing left in the world to be hunted.
"You may do as you please while you are here, you may get your watch checked and go to your rooms assigned to you and can leave and return as you please as long as you pay your rent which is used to protect you," she said.
This Academy wasn't a usual one and was one that focused on independence and experiencing the real world.
In such a cruel world, thou must rely upon only thy self.
[With no restrictions, I shall go out and hunt].
Most of the crowd went to their rooms to plan and prepare, whereas Lex who had rested last night and had everything he needed to survive in the wilderness with him in the inventory, unlike hundreds of others, left straight away excited to explore and hunt.
Lex walked out of the large castle-like structure, that had an open market and numerous apartments with rookies' rooms along the sides and a medieval-styled gate.
The gate was black and purple in colour made of dark stone and obsidian that stood as an entryway to the fortress and had 4 guards stationed outside.
Lex left without a word, wanting to never waste time with the opportunities he was given.
Seeing him, Ella wasn't surprised in the slightest.
"Lex, just like the old days, always in a hurry" mumbled Ella sweetly as she headed back into her apartment.
But secretly, Ella sent out a bird and used her ability to control it in the same way you would use a drone with cameras
Walking out Lex, had already memorized all beastpedia available on Skynet, and he also had the system with him, so he could recognize all beasts and their appropriate strengths, abilities, and weaknesses, which gave him the confidence to leave immediately.
[System can you brief me on the ecosystem around me].
{Ding, currently there are 4 main human fortresses around you from the planets Aria, Rona, Gama, and Oswal, there are also 4 main ecosystem areas near them: the desert ecosystem, the rainforest ecosystem, the arctic ecosystem, and the marine ecosystem, with the rainforest ecosystem being the closest to this fortress and the host}
Now with a rough idea of the area, Lex decided he would hunt in the rainforest ecosystem.
"Which direction is the Rainforest ecosystem, System?"
{Ding, Head south-west for the rainforest ecosystem host}
Forming the board, he always used with his weapon creation, he hopped on the board controlling it with his Telekinetic Control Eye, and bolted towards the south-west, soon reaching the large wilderness.
Lex felt that it was easier to form and control the board as he felt his Telekinetic Control Eye becoming stronger and able to withstand more strain the more he used it.
After gliding for around 10 minutes, he noticed the trees becoming denser and reaching a height of 100m, almost completely blocking out the sun.
{Ding, the host has entered the rainforest ecosystem} the system announced.
Slightly lifting his body, he climbed up onto a large tree.
Scouting Eye
Surveying the surrounding area, from what he could see the beasts varied from LVL 1-10 in the outer jungle.
Lex was hoping that he could get a beast power, that were ranked from E, D, C, B, A, S, and depended on the rank of the dimension they were taken from.
For example, a B rank beast power is usually a B Rank Mortal Beast Power from the Mortal Beast Dimension.
[Currently, I am in a Mortal ranked beast dimension, so the beasts vary from LVL 1-100 in mortal rank]
From what he was told by the system there was a huge black wasp nest 10 KM away from him so, he decided to avoid that area unless he wanted to die.
He also knew that there were giant centipedes crawling 5 KM away, who were probably the boss of that area, so he would avoid that too, and knew of the giant ant village 2 KM away from the outer jungle and would be the first thing that he would hunt.
Using the Weapon Creation Skill, he made twenty throwing knives and silently waited 500 metres away from the ant colony, waiting for some ants to leave and go out of the colony zone.
After waiting several hours and yet to see any ants wander away, he had already disabled the Weapon creation skill long ago, as it drained his energy massively.
The entire time, Lex didn't use Telekinetic Control Eye as he was using the Scouting Eye, which he felt was more helpful for accuracy, and in such a dense wilderness like the one he was in, where he could be sneak attacked, it was much more important for him to be able to see his surroundings.
Before being blessed with the system, he was extremely weak and had to rely on battle tactics and skills to get by in the dangerous area he lived in, and in the slums with all the spare time he had, would practice throwing stones and swordsmanship with planks of wood, using free manuals he found on Skynet.
Just as he was about to leave, as none of the ants wandered out of their colony, he suddenly changed his mind and decided to stay.
He heard the sudden roar of thunder and found a few droplets of water slowly pouring down.
His steps halted, he looked up and saw the beautiful scenery of trees dancing as the rain poured.
While the beasts in the area began scurrying to find shelter.
[Looking at the rain, it looks to be quite heavy, this means that the ants are going to surface with their eggs, and there has to be some that wander off to search for a dry place. This is my chance] he thought to himself excitedly.
Jumping from tree to tree, drenched, he ran after the colony of the ants which resurfaced and was numbered in thousands, and saw groups of twenty ant scouts wandering off away from the rest of the giant ants.
Lex smiled in joy as he saw another a group of ants heading to the north-west, happy that it was in the direction of the fortress.
He followed after them and soon after they were 1KM away from the rest of the giant ant beasts.
He materialized his twenty or so throwing blades and with exquisite perception and accuracy, he flung the blades towards the giant ant beasts he was pursuing.
Aiming at the weakest link in their armour while they were sniffing, he used his Telekinetic eye to control the blades.
The LVL 4 giant ant using its antenna sensed a fluctuation in the trees, but before it could even send a message to its fellow ants, a blade pierced in its abdomen, instantly dealing it a fatal blow and killing it within seconds.
It happened the same way with the 5 or so ants of the twenty ants, but the other attacks hit the armour or hit the flesh, but weren't able to kill them in a single strike.
The 15 or so ants left went crazy after seeing their dead companions and after spotting the location from whence it came, they ran towards the tree-like raging bulls.
Seeing this Lex chuckled nervously.
He jumped onto the next tree when he noticed an ant had almost reached the top of the tree he stood on.
When it was on edge, Lex threw another blade and was able to instantly kill it, striking it down from above.
[Bull's eye] said Lex in his mind.
Using the fact that the ants were climbing and weren't able to manoeuvre, he threw another 5-7 blades continuously, instantly killing 3 more and injuring the others.
The giant ants had a 2.5 to 3 metre long bodoes with a pitch-silver armour and two antennae sticking out of their heads.
They have 3 main armour capsules, the head and two main bodies, with 6 skinny legs.
Seeing the last ant fall down the tree while screaming, Lex's heart was beating rapidly as he felt as though his heart would leap out of his chest.
It was his first battle with a beast at the age of 14 and it was an enormous ant beast.
Who wouldn't be nervous in his position?
He launched another throwing blade into the gap between the armour of another screaming ant, that was calling for reinforcement and struck the mushy insides of the giant ant.
Rushing forward at it before the reinforcements got there, he got a blade from his belt and slid in front of it, while cutting both its antennae, so it could no longer sense its surroundings.
Striking the gap between the armour as he slid past and twisting his dagger to cause the giant ant to die quicker and lose more blood, Lex was desperate to kill it quickly and escape.
Trying over and over again to place the giant ant into his inventory, it finally succeeded after it died, as no living beings could be placed into the inventory, but before he could turn to leave, he was surrounded by dozens of furious giant ants.