'Finally!' Ramon thought as soon as he stepped foot into the wilderness.
Since he was alone without a pair, he entered the wild alone. Looking around him, he only saw a thick wilderness for as far as his eyes could see.
For the second time, Ramon experienced a familiar feeling again.
The feeling he last felt on the day he met Joel's crew for the first time.
It was the feeling he felt on being abandoned in the Swamp Forest.
But this time, it was not a forest, it was something even more dangerous and more notorious, it was the Wheat Trye Wilderness.
Ramon looked around himself and he felt wild, he felt free.
He was no longer a 5-year-old that would fold in fear when left in a forest. He was now an 11-year-old equipped to face the dangers of the wild alone.
"Hehe, this is the joy of an astral traveler that the Fate Destroying Emperor spoke of". He grinned. "The joy of being free and wild".
"The joy of flexing your power in the wild".
"This is what living means!"
Despite Ramon's excitement, he was grounded in reality. Afterall, he did not want to die, he wanted to survive and savor the feeling of being wild.
His first year in Centerpoint Astral Academy was not in vain.
All his wildlife classes throughout his first year prepared him for this moment, and Ramon was ready for it. He crosschecked his preparations.
Mr. Patrick gave every one of the over 500 students some basic necessities to survive in the wild. Apart from their space rings, every student had a leather backpack containing antibiotics, basic first aid tools, and 4 meat jerky.
'Backpack, check'.
'Meat jerky, check'.
'Antibiotics, check'.
'Cloth bandages, check'.
Ramon no longer hesitated, he stepped deeper into this forest even as he started formulating his hunt strategy in his head.
At the moment, he was only a mid-tier Legionnaire Stage warrior and like Mr. Patrick said, there was the possibility of higher realm beasts straying here.
This was the reason why Ramon did not rush into tracking down beasts.
First, he needed to guarantee his safety by finding a hideout.
These were all basic hunting tips in the wild that he was taught during his first year, they already became instinctual reactions to Ramon.
For over an hour, Ramon went round this periphery of the Wheat Trye Wilderness, scouting for the perfect hideout as he encountered a lot of small low-tier Legionnaire Stage Beasts that he refused to engage with in combat.
With his power, he was able to evade these beasts without fighting them.
This was when he noticed something. 'Their sense of smell is very keen'.
His own sense of smell was also keen, one of his many amplified gifts as an Evolver and being Ramon, yet he could not hold a candle to the beasts.
Throughout all this time, he was yet to find a good hideout.
'I need to find something to mask my scent!'
In the wilderness, Ramon acted completely on instinct. As soon as he thought of it, he remembered a lecture. 'The Equinox flower!'
Mr. Patrick's voice replayed in his head.
'There are many ways to mask your human scent in the wild. You can take the filthy route, drenching your body in fox or raccoon urine, or other natural vices like acorn trees, pines, apples, cedar, and other earthy smells'.
'A bath in local fresh water using the mud in the water you use as soap can also work great in masking your body odor'.
'Or the Equinox flower'.
'It's a common plant in the Wheat Trye Wilderness and its flower, the Equinox's nectar is capable of completely blending your scent with the wild'.
Ramon found an Equinox flower in just 5 minutes and did the deed, not after already attracting attention though.
Rustle! Rustle!
Ramon heard it, and instantly, his hair stood on end.
He could not tell which beast it was yet but his instincts already told him that it was stronger than him, this was because he felt threatened by its presence.
Squatting on all fours, Ramon went completely still and waited.
As he waited, he thought in frustration. 'There's no perfect hideout in the wild, I'll have to do with a makeshift hideout'.
He looked up. 'A tree!'
Ramon climbed the tree the next moment.
2 minutes of silence later…
Snap!
A tree branch nearby snapped, attracting Ramon's attention. Looking over, he finally found the astral beast that detected his scent.
It was a Wildebeest.
This astral beast was no bigger than a normal Wildebeest, spreading at over a meter long and almost a meter tall. The only difference was its skin and its horn, its skin looked far thicker than normal and its curving horns were black like metal.
This was a mid-tier Legionnaire Stage Astral Beast.
Most astral beasts of the same level were stronger than astral warriors of the same level since they had a natural advantage of gaining more strengthening from the world's astral energy, this was why Ramon felt threatened by it.
At this moment, the Wildebeest was bewildered, having lost the scent of prey that it detected just a few minutes ago.
Wildebeests were hefty to be taken on by a boy but a certain boy didn't care.
Ramon saw his chance, and he didn't think.
Whoosh!
Diving down from his tree, the Wildebeest noticed but it was already too late as the boy's golden astral energy erupted, engulfing his legs.
Shing!
Ramon dived down head-first as unsheathing his sword, he stabbed it into the back of the Wildebeest's neck, dodging its desperate horn ram while trapping his energy-engulfed legs on its body to stabilize himself.
His legs were too short to wrap round the beast's body.
Ramon pulled but his sword was stuck, the Wildebeest's muscles were too dense for his little muscles to pull his sword out.
With his sword stuck in its thick flesh, what seemed like black mist started oozing out of the Wildebeest's horn the next moment as it prepared for an attack. Ramon's instincts warned him of the danger.
Seeing this, Ramon improvised immediately.
Pushing his body forward, close to the position where his sword stabbed into the Wildebeest and closer to its deadly horns, he wrapped his legs around its neck.
Compared to its body, its neck was thinner, his leg went round it.
And with his legs as the foundation, Ramon swung his body hard even as he applied more astral energy to his legs to swing and to his hands to pull his sword.
Whoosh!
Ramon went on a 360-degree swing round the Wildebeest's neck before it could unleash its dangerous attack.
The Wildebeest's head was cleanly separated from its body despite the lesser strength of the boy as he took advantage of the momentum of the swing.
Ramon landed on the ground, standing the next moment as he held its head.
Blood splattered across the ground.
Then with a plop, the Wildebeest's body collapsed on the ground.
Ramon wiped blood away from his face, then he grinned. "My first kill".
He didn't feel any complicated feelings about his first astral beast kill. 'It's just like slaughtering a fowl when I was younger, no love lost'.
'No love lost? What does it mean? I think I heard an instructor say it'. Ramon scratched his head.
'Like Mr. Patrick said, if I don't kill it, it will kill me'.
Ramon stored his first astral beast kill into his space ring.
…
For the next few hours in the wilderness, after setting his kill principle which was to only attack astral beasts who were of his tier or stronger to increase his chances of getting more contribution points, he went on a hunting spree.
A space ring was a special artifact created with space affinity.
Inside it was not affected by time which meant that everything that was kept inside the space ring would not decompose, this applied to Ramon's kills.
Ramon soon noticed that the most common beasts in this region of the wilderness were some low-tier Legionnaire Stage Red Fox.
They were everywhere, almost like a pest and everyone feast on them.
Ramon built his strategy around them, using them as bait to attract his real prey. He already killed 3 mid-tier Legionnaire Stage Beasts during this time and finally, he encountered one of the dangerous beasts that they were warned about.
Meeting a high-tier Legionnaire Stage Iron-Horned Rhino, Ramon did not back down from the fight, stalking and ambushing this predator.
After a deadly battle that lasted 2 minutes, he came out victoriously but not unscathed, Ramon finally suffered his first injury.
The Iron-Horned Rhino's deadly horn grazed his stomach, inflicting a terrible injury that bled and Ramon was forced to retreat to his hideout, the pine tree.
There, he applied alcohol as an antibiotic before bandaging it.
Despite the pain, Ramon grinned. "I wonder how much a high-tier Iron-Horned Rhino is worth in contribution points".
On top the tree, Ramon focused and started cultivating.
As the energy in his sea of consciousness caused waves, increasing steadily, Ramon suddenly felt something and his eyes widened.
"ROAR…!" A soul-shaking roar reverberated throughout the wilderness.
Opening his eyes, Ramon was alarmed as he became wide awake.
'What was that?'
The next moment, he understood after hearing a familiar voice.
"All students, retreat back to the starting line!"
"The expedition is over!"
"There's a Commander Stage Beast stomping on this territory!"
BOOM!
With the sound, what felt like an earthquake erupted as dozens of trees fell not far away from where Ramon hid on top a tree.
The location of this beast was close to him.
The next moment, the countless sounds of beasts roaring and yelping in fear reverberated as the helpless weak beasts started escaping.
This part of the wilderness became chaotic instantly.
Ramon's eyes widened. "I need to escape!"