"Shot it, shot it, someone shot down that damn animal..... We are definitely going to be rich if we manage to kill it"
Within a deep forest, Joshua kept on shouting excitedly towards the group of armed men beside him as they stood before a two and a half meters tall white furred ape.
As a wildlife hunter who has been in this line of business for the past ten years, one look was all it took for Joshua to determine the true worth of this rare animal that currently stood before him.
If not for the huge broken tree branch been held and swung at random by this angry white ape, he would have taken matters into his own hands by personally slaying it with a dagger in order to prevent damaging it's expensive fur with bullet holes.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Roar...!!!
A few bullet wounds were just added to the white ape already existing injuries when it suddenly went berserk and roared loudly before throwing itself towards one of the armed men and whacked him on the head causing it to burst like smashed watermelon.
Instantly, fear creep into the mind of all the remaining men as the watch the body of their friend who was still alive and kicking only a couple of seconds ago fall to the ground lifelessly.
One of them couldn't take it anymore and shouted as he fled "Not good, I didn't sign up for this, I don't wanna die....!!!"
Watching one of them flee, the berserk white ape slowly turned it's attention towards the remaining group causing a lot of them to become more frighten and also flee for their lives.
Leaving Joshua with just two or three additional people.
However, Joshua who's eyes had already turned red because of his burning desire didn't notice any of this as he kept on staring intensively at the white ape.
Thanks to this, he was able to instantly discover that he was now the white ape next target.
Confidently stepping aside to evade the incoming attack of the beserk white ape, Joshua had just taken a deep breath when he suddenly caught sight of a huge white fist aiming at him from an angle impossible to evade from or even block.
Joshua decisively took out a dagger strapped to the back of his waist and threw at the bloodshot eyes of the attacking white ape.
Fist and dagger flew pass each other in mid-air as the former soon landed on Joshua's chest while the latter got imbeded into the left eye of the white ape.
Tud! Bam!
The sound of a sharp object penetrating into the flesh was immediately followed by that of a heavy impact.
Joshua who bore the full force of the beserk white ape punch was tossed back over ten meters before crashing on the ground with a broken chest bone which caused him to vomit blood as he slowly lost consciousness but not before watching the white ape fall to the ground death since the dagger had also pierced it's brain in the process.
******
After who knows how long, Joshua finally regained consciousness as the overwhelming headache and body pains he was experiencing slowly faded away.
Forcefully opening his eyes, what he first caught sight of was a clear blue sky illuminated by a bright yellow sun and some faintly visible clouds.
Situated at the edge of his vision were towering trees with huge branches and leaves capable of blocking a large portion of the sun's rays which in turn gave the entire forest an ancient feeling.
Hiss.....!!! Joshua sucked in a deep breath of air as he wondered inwardly "where? where the hell am I? what kind of trees are those"
Bam! The sound of an explosion was suddenly heard by Joshua while he was standing up from the ground causing him to turn and stare in shock at it's source.
There he saw a middle aged man seated on top a three meters tall and over five meters long lion covered in gold coloured fur.
The golden fur lion steadily walked out of the forest while constantly growling at the top of a tree just a few meters away from where Joshua currently stood.
The leaves on the tree rustled as a three meters long brown cobra looking snake with body the size of a bowl shot out from within the branches and aimed for the shocked Joshua.
"Humph...."
The middle aged man harrumphed as he pointed his index finger forward and shouted "Get rid of that weakling"
At that very moment, the golden furred lion under the middle aged man roared and pounced towards the brown cobra and clawed at it.
To Joshua's amazement, he saw three nearly transparent claw marks fly out of the loin attacking paw and sliced the brown cobra into three five pirces.
After which the middle aged man turned his attention to Joshua and scolded with a harsh tone "You fool, what the hell were you thinking when you seperated from the rest of the group. That you could survive within this Low Grade Wildzone all by yourself just because you were finally able to become a Rank One Beast Apprentice.
"Mind you, any Common Grade Beast of the of the same rank can easily make a meal out of you like this Rank One Vanishing Serpent"
While the middle aged man was busy scolding him, Joshua who couldn't make head or tail about what had just happened suddenly saw a group of young men and women walk out from within the forest behind the middle aged man with expressions of disgust and disdain on their faces whenever the glance at him.
Joshua, however, turned a blind eye to their behaviour as he felt it was stupid since he didn't know any of them. Rather, he carefully observed their strange dress pattern for a few seconds before returning his attention back to the middle aged man only to hear his finishing words.
"You know what, just forget about it. Why am I even wasting my time advising a fool like you"
Not taking the words of the middle aged man to heart, Joshua contemplated for a little while before coming to a bold speculation "It seems I had died on Earth and transmigrated into a different world"
Only then did he notice the existence of additional memories within his mind, memories which formally weren't there and didn't belong to him.
Just as Joshua was about to go through them, the next words of the middle aged man graped his attention.
"Listen up people because I am about to announce the result of your final test as a students of Tree Village Intermediate Beast Apprentice Academy before your graduation exams"
"David Benson, a Rank Four Beast Apprentice. Hunted two Rank Three Common Grade Wildcats and haversted one stalk of Low Rank Common Grade Spirit Lily"
"William Johnson, a Rank Three Beast Apprentice. Hunted a Rank Three Common Grade Willow Tree Demon"
"Mary Benson, a Rank Five Beast Apprentice. Hunted two Rank Four Common Grade Forest Boars and harvested one stalk of Mid Rank Common Grade Dusk Flowers"
"Oliva Helios, a Rank Seven Beast Apprentice. Hunted a Rank Eight Blood Bear and harvested two stalk of High Rank Common Grade Hundred Years Old Blood Ginseng"
"What the heck?" "Unbelivable, that's a rank higher than her's, how did she do that" "I always knew Miss Olivia was strong but I had no Idea by how much" "How can she a girl be stronger than a boy like me, I refuse to accept this". Waves of discussion rose from among the crowd as the all stared at a beautiful looking girl standing in a corner.
Even Joshua too couldn't help but take a few glance at this eighteen years old girl with a short brown hair and eyes, a height which wouldn't lose out to that of any male, firm breast and ass that looks just right for her age.
Although her skin was far from being smooth and fair, it was also a good proof of how much effort she spends training and this in turn gave her a somewhat heroic presence.
Not until Joshua had heard his name did he manage to peel his eyes of her and return his attention back to the middle aged man.
Of course, he had failed to notice that Olivia was also silently observing him all this while.
"Joshua Norman, a Rank One Beast Apprentice. Hunted nothing but nearly lost his life due to his seperation from the group."
Upon hearing such words, Joshua could help but feel embarrassed despite how thick his skin was while everyone else bursted into laughter.