As usual they took turns in the night, so they wouldn't be surprised by the predators that hunted in the night. The next day, they got up early clearly excited because they would finally leave this forest behind.
Leo didn't want to hamper their mood by saying that they might have to avoid the ocean if it harbors more danger than the forest. They all knew that already anyway since he had told them when he voiced out the idea of going there.
It wasn't like Leo wasn't excited to go to the ocean and see something else besides trees and bushes. He was also optimistic of finding a harbor, since it would make sense for one to build one if there wasn't any danger, right? Civilization always had flourished near water.
They would be able to sell seafood to the inhabitants and they could sail out with ships from there to explore new lands. Of course, that would be ideal for a world that wasn't explored.
It was also obvious that this world hadn't experienced any massive invasion. Probably because the beasts seemed to be stronger by a large margin and no government had announced any mass drafts to the public, additionally the tests were so difficult that even humans at the peak of athleticism seemed to regularly fail.
A select few of the entire world were invited to this new world. Every time Leo thought about it, he grew more excited and had a child's curiosity rise inside of him.
As if to reflect their mood and a bright future the sky was cloudless. They made their way down the decline towards the ocean. After walking for 3 hours, they decided to take a break and eat something.
As Leo was finishing his third strip, he realized something that he hadn't before. Three strips of meat from that boar were enough to fill him up.
It was weird how he hadn't realized it yet. Although, meat was dense in nutrients, he shouldn't be satisfied with just this. He had eaten large amounts of food since he was little. His calorie intake was a lot higher than normal athletes.
He pushed himself mentally and physically every day to sharpen himself, which results in him eating a disgusting amount of food. Shunlei and Laura were also above the norm, of course on a lesser degree compared to his intake, but still substantially more than the average athlete. Sarah was the only one that ate a normal healthy amount.
It didn't make sense that barely 100 grams of meat would satisfy their hunger. And it wasn't like he just had barely enough to eat, no, he was stuffed. Maybe he could force himself to eat another strip but that was already pushing it.
They also drank less water he realized…
"Did any of you relieved yourself in the last few days?" He asked them suddenly.
"Leo! You can't ask that a girl!" Sarah proclaimed only for Leo to clarify that he didn't mean it in a naughty way.
"I- No I didn't. I think?" Laura was the first to answer as she recalled the last few days. "It's not like we eat much anyway…" She tried to reason but that only raised the same question Leo had asked himself.
"No, we didn't even though we should have. We were treading through difficult terrain, have battled against a boar the size of a small car, while being highly alert because of the sounds we hear in the last days.
Our stress level is definitely higher than normal and our need for nutrition should higher than it used to be as well. Whenever we relaxed, our body should have made any signs of exhaustions and need for food known."
"We were also all sufficiently rested each morning, even though we wake up at least once to take on night duty." Shunlei added as she contemplated what that means for them.
"I think it has to do with the food and the water. Maybe something in the air making our bodies more efficient. Maybe some mysterious energy replacing most of the needed energy that we are used to, which in turn means less waste." Leo concluded for them.
He had read a lot of novels and something similar used to happen all the time, cultivators not needing any food because they just take the energy of heaven and earth or something. Food usually was a luxury that gave you a boost if the ingredients were right.
He couldn't help himself and grin at that prospect. If it is what he thinks it is, he would soon kill buddha, the gods, demons, and devils alike. That was the usual saying that protagonist so shamelessly said out loud, right?
It had been a while, so he wasn't sure if he got that right but that wasn't the important thing. It would the gist of those stories were that the protagonists would become godlike beings.
Enthusiastically, he made his way towards the ocean with his group as he shared his thoughts on the matter. They were already used to his vivid imagination and his borderline crazy ideas like going into closed door meditation for weeks without eating, dual-cultivation, astral projections, superpowers, etc.
Sometimes they felt like he didn't even come up with all this stuff by himself, but he had to. They had searched the internet for anything resembling his ideas and the pages turned up blank. Some ideas he even implemented into his training, making them and Mang Tou concerned that he might have stolen some training technique from another school.
He told them that most of his ideas were backed by science, even though no study came up when they wanted to read more about it. Some ideas that weren't 'backed up by science' had worked after he had implemented them despite himself not being sure if they would work.
So, if any of the ideas he sputtered out right now were even remotely true than this would open a whole new world of possibilities. They also made sure that he wouldn't disclose his ideas to anybody so casually as they started to walk through the forest again.
"I know! It's not like I would ever just tell anyone!" He defended. However, he had the inclination to share his knowledge as if it weren't something important, something that everyone had access to.
"Oh! Yeah, that reminds me. We probably shouldn't share all our food if we meet someone. The boar was probably a spirit beast with precious energy stored in its meat. There is also the possibility that we won't be able to get something to eat if there aren't any fishes, we are able to hunt. So, hoard it and first share our rations that we brought from the other side."
"Spirit beast? I-I don't even want to ask, but yeah, I agree nonetheless." Shunlei said bewildered before jumping over a giant root sticking out of the ground like it was nothing. Sarah grunted in frustration as she would have to walk around it.
Sarah yelped in surprise when Leo just picked her up in a princess carry and jumped after the other two. They continued onwards for another two hours until they stood atop a drop of 5 meters.
Down the drop, sand could be seen touching the incoming waves. They quickly climbed down and officially exited the forest as their feet touched the sand of the vacation like beach, several screams could be heard behind them.
They couldn't help but look back at the forest from which countless screams could be heard coming out of. It was like the entire forest came to life along the drop that seemed to separate the beach from the forest.
After ten or so seconds the screaming stopped abruptly. It was like a goodbye choir expressing their reluctances to see them leave.
"Fuck you forest!" Laura screamed as she showed her middle finger towards the forest before turning around and throwing off her shoes to let her feet sink into the sand as she smiled contentedly.
Leo couldn't help but chuckle at that which turned into a full-blown laugh that was quickly followed by the others.
The girls too took their shoes off and walked towards the ocean together. They let their toes touch the water coming from the ocean while Leo took out a blanket for them to lie on.
When they lied on the blanket together, unfelt tension left their bodies and for the first time they truly relaxed as if nothing could worry them.
Leo looked out the calm ocean and just relaxed for a while. They had a quick snack again and cuddled together in the sand of a beach under the sun of a different world.
They laid there and relaxed for a moment before Leo had to break their moment of peace. They couldn't lay there lazily for the entire day they had some preparation to do if they didn't want to go back into the forest at night.
The winds at the beach could be very cold at night, even if the temperature currently under the sun indicated that it would be warm enough to sleep peacefully.
They needed shelter if it suddenly rained so they could protect their meat from getting wet and it was also better if they didn't get all sandy from sleeping at the beach.
So, with a heavy heart Leo had to be the one to stand up and started to move the others to prepare with him and they reluctantly did. If they had to stay there for a long duration without seeing civilization, they should at least have everything in order.
They got up and walked a bit at the beach wanting to search for a cozy and partially sheltered area they could use to inhabit for the moment. It was still in the middle of the day, so they should have enough time to set everything up.
As they leisurely walked around in search for a place to sleep at, they saw something unusual in the distance. It looked like a stone platform a bit out of the ocean standing on some rocks.
It was obvious that it wasn't anything natural as the platform was perfectly even. They shared a look and silently decided to check it out.
Leo looked at the forest that seemed to be darker now that they were out of it, but he didn't notice anything unusual. After a few minutes they reached it.
It had stairs leading up to it while it was surrounded by stones laying in the shallow water. They climbed the stairs to find that the surface of the stone platform was carved into. If Leo had to describe it, he would just call it some kind of witchcraft.
"At least, there aren't any burning candles or a sacrifice altar." Leo muttered but his unknown references were lost to the others.
They looked at the platform and although the carves looked to be somewhat mythical, they all surrounded an open triangle that was angled towards the ocean. It wasn't perfectly angled straight ahead and kind of ruined the symmetry that the symbols had going for them.
Leo tried to figure something out from the symbols, but it wasn't something he had seen before. He did research some ancient history in his search for the supernatural and there was some resemblance to some symbols, but their meaning was lost to him.
The only thing that they could recognize as something was the handprint that they saw under the triangle. Leo put his hand on top of the handprint, but nothing happened.
"We should build our shelter close by. Maybe we will figure something out or it is used as a landmark for others. It would make it more likely for someone to visit the place." Leo finally said after having checked out the entire platform.
"Probably, but let's hide ourselves offsite. I don't want a tribe to randomly ambush us like that one tribe of that isolated island back home." Sarah argued.
"Seems fair. I guess we could take roots over there. It's, what, 500 meters from here? Under the drop of the forest. It has a bit of an overhang. We can use that as cover. Let's cut some trees down and then build something resembling a shack, we can tie it up with my wires." Leo instructed and they soon got to work.