25 Forest of Gloom

Forest of Gloom

"I must also mention something. The beast bag's power is hard to deploy and control. Only the one with the greatest willpower would be able to do that. So if you kill a hundred beasts and can't suck them into the beast bag, it best you be a farmer. You are not fit to be a god" the man said.

Huuuu!

Everyone took a deep breath.

The military academy was this tough?

"I have spoken enough. You can go" he said. Then he left them behind.

Rmmmm!

A mechanism was activated and the gate to the forest of gloom sprung open.

The student looked and could see a massive forest. It was really dark in there as there were many tall trees everywhere. These trees had vast canopies that hid the sun.

Sunlight couldn't penetrate through. So it was dark.

"How are we going to see?" this question flashed in the minds of everyone.

To make things worse, they could hear echoing cries and howls of beasts in the distance.

Quickly, Bai Chen's roommates came to his side. Some people also rushed to his side.

Like that, everyone formed groups but Bai Chen's group was the largest.

Bai Chen saw this and became unhappy. If it were just his roommates, he wouldn't have any issue. As he fed off them like a leech, he had to be of value too.

Also, he could help them kill some beasts and put into their beast bags if they couldn't. He couldn't loose the kids that gave him silver coins.

But these amounts of people? And he didn't want to chase them off, or that kind of action would look filthy in the eyes of the senior instructor who held him in high regards.

He scratched his head. "Well, what can I do?"

'Since they have silently agreed to make me their leader, well, what can I do?' He asked inwardly.

Then he made up his mind to act as a leader and assist them.

But, they would owe him FAVOURS. And these favours were that, they would pay him large sums of silvers coins for the help that he rendered to them.

He smiled and nodded his head blissfully when he thought in this direction.

'Money! Haha' He thought and grinned within.

"I am about to set off. If you are ready, March forward with me." He said, now emitting the aura of a leader.

Then he walked into the forest with the rest quickly walking in with him.

The other groups saw this and then marched too into the forest.

"Master, see why I said you should cultivate profound solar energy? If you had cultivated it, you would utilize the luminous body technique. You would be like the sun emitting light in all directions. The darkness would disappear in an instant." Solaris said.

Bai Chen smiled and shook his head.

Solaris would always take every opportunity to praise her master's techniques. He wished he could get another sentient soul energy or more that would argue it out with Solaris.

But anyway, he could see the importance of profound solar energy.

He employed a technique in the sword methodology he studied. He cut a small branch off a tree. Then he channelled profound solar energy from his energyhouse to the tree.

Being a luminous world energy that produced heat, it was much more greater than fire. The tree branch caught fire in an instant and began to to burn.

Then he used the light emanating from the fire burning on the small tree branch to see around him.

People who cultivated fire had the same thing in mind. They cut off small branches with the sharp instruments they wielded and set fire to it.

Then they marched into the forests with full alertness.

With weapons in their hands, ready to hack and slash, they looked around to see the bold creature which walked on it forelimbs that would dare leap at them.

The forest was very large. So, many groups head off in different directions.

....

An hour later, Bai Chen's group hadn't come across any beasts.

They didn't know whether to be happy or to be sad. They were happy that no beast had come to attack them and they were sad because once it was time and they did not meet up to the minimum number stipulated. They should kiss the military academy goodbye.

Bai Chen too was worried.

Seeing that the direction he was walking in wouldn't yield fruits, which were beasts, he told everyone that he wanted to head off to another direction.

They agreed with him.

So they changed directions.

Before they were walking towards the south. But now, they had changed their direction to the east.

Still, there was no sign of beasts.

This is strange..

Then he recalled, beasts, which have powerful senses of smell, should be able to detect the scent of blood from a far distance much more better than the smells exuding from their bodies.

Then he told everyone to cut themselves in the hands.

They were surprised why he told them so. But they still did it anyways.

They cut themselves and let the blood drip to the ground.

However, not everyone did this. Especially the girls. None of them did so. Even the boys too. So, only few of them did that.

Then Bai Chen told them to rest at the spot that they all stood at.

They were taken aback by what Bai Chen said. He had been telling them to do weird things.

But they answered him anyway, as he was the leader of the group they were in. They all sat in the cross-legged position on the ground and began to cultivate.

But they were still at alert. Once they hear anything, they would instantly jump to their feet. They placed their weapons in front of them so they could easily reach it.

Some which sat on the ground didn't cultivate. Instead, they tried to stop the bleeding.

Bai Chen as the leader was on his feet and employed his sense of hearing to the maximum.

He knew how dangerous these beasts could be. Especially the crawling ones like serpents back on earth. They could deliver a very fast and deadly attack.

They were silent killers. So he was on the alert. He couldn't have anyone dying on him in here or his enemies would rejoice in his misfortune.

...

Not only Bai Chen's group was having this issue. The other groups too had no beasts coming their way.

They were surprised by this.

'What the actual fuck is going on?' They couldn't help but ask inwardly.

They also camped at someplace to cultivate. They still had time. So they would use this time to cultivate too as they searched for beasts.

Roaaarr!!!

Where Bai Chen's group camped, they suddenly heard ear-splitting roars of beasts in the distance.

The roar seemed to be coming close to them. They quickly sprung to their feet and got ready to attack.