‘I really hope this isn’t a speed competition. Anyway, what exactly are they doing in this forest? Obviously not hunting since they allowed in a small child like him to take part.’ Alex thought to himself glancing back at his young owner leisurely taking a stroll while curiously looking around.

As soon as they entered woods, Reino put Alex down and let him run freely secretly hoping the small wolf would instinctively find a core or two. Unfortunately the dumb looking pup kept running few steps ahead, then stopping and looking back as if wondering what it should do. Thus Reino had no choice, but to do his best and try to find some beastcores by himself.

Actually he didn’t have to do that. He could just come out of the woods after sunset and reunite with the family. But the heavy token in his pocked didn’t allow that. He wanted to prove himself to the elder of the academy that even before enrolling he was capable of something, even without the help of a spiritbeast.

Ye, a spiritbeast. Why did his wolf behave more like a dog puppy rather than a ranked beast? Did the old couple scam them? It shouldn’t be possible with his father’s expertise and they seemed to be rather friendly as well. Be as it may, he’ll take this opportunity as a practice on how to take care of his real spiritbeast in the future.

Reino walked through the woods already for some time. On their way they met quite a few students who barely spared them any glance, concentrating on their contact with their spiritbeasts while meticulously searching for the cores. Some of the students were already paired in couples and intimately hid themselves from the world in lush bushes as if no one could notice them there.

‘Brother probably also has quickly found the minimum required cores to pass the test and is enjoying Neila’s company.’ Reino grinned, ‘I wounder if I could find more cores than him because of that.’

But up until now he had yet to find one. The woods here were mostly thoroughly searched and it was unlikely to find some easy pickings here. Earlier Reino overheard the main strategies students intended to follow – either rush as fast as possible deeper into the woods to get to the other side of the ruins and look for beastcores there with less competition, or monopolize a smaller spot to meticulously search it and then move on to the next one.

Unfortunately he was neither fast, nor had a real spiritbeast to reliably search for anything.

“Oh? Hahaha! Found one!” Reino suddenly laughed out loud.

Indeed. By a lucky chance he noticed a reflection of a sun on a beastcore hidden on the top of a taller rock formation. Nimbly jumping from rock to rock, Reino quickly got up to the top and then victoriously lifted the core in the air as if showing his success to the world.

‘Damn it! Watch out!’ Alex wanted to shout, but only a weird barking sound came out.

A silvery bird in a lightning speed snatched the beastcore out of Reino’s hand. It landed twenty or so steps away on the shoulder of his owner and passed the core over.

“Bullco!’ Reino shouted fuming with anger.

While in the end he had to give this core away, he did found it and would have had at least something to show when he got back. But now it was extremely unlikely to find another one.

“Sorry, kid! I saw it first, so it technically belongs to me.” Bullco shamelessly said and then with a loud laughter quickly disappeared between trees.

Seeing his little owner clenching his fists with watery eyes Alex though, ‘That is what you get from showing off. Just don’t cry! Since I finally know what everyone is looking for we can try and think of something. Let’s go and find few of those shiny bubbles!’

In the end he tried to make a barking sound to catch Reino’s attention and ran few steps further away showing his intention to continue.

Reino saw that, sighed and slowly climbed down. He was not in the mood to continue and intended to leave, but for some reason his wolf refused to comply and … was calling Reino to follow him deeper in the woods?

At first he tried to persuade his wolf to go back, but after the little guy kept on insisting on going further in, Reino finally gave in. From then on they didn’t walk leisurely anymore, but ran with occasional breaks to catch their breath.

Alex had no clue where they were going, but he was certain they had to find a spot with less people to have a chance to find those shiny bubbles. And since they were already far behind, all they could do was to hope for some stupid stroke of luck or to run until they overtook at least a part of the other students.

Soon Alex understood that the second option was a fool’s dream. On multiple occasions they stumbled upon students who expertly guided their pets in finding shiny bubbles from spots he would never guess to look in. The two of them simply didn’t have the capability. Apparently those other pets were trained in some special way, probably in a similar circus he was from. And there were hundreds of such student-pet pairs! No, if things went on like this, they wouldn’t find anything, no matter how fast or far they ran – he needed to think.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

‘Ok. Let’s analyze. The students are competing in collecting those shiny bubbles. From what I saw, they are not fruits that grow naturally, but were placed by hand in hidden or tricky spots. Probably most of the places are chosen randomly, but there might be some pattern. … hmm … Some on rock formations, some on the trees … Could it all be somehow connected to the ruins we keep seeing on the way? If so, I need a higher vantage point to take a look at all of it!’ Alex’s eyes lit up.

For the first time Reino saw his pet wolf suddenly stop and lie down. Until now the little guy kept charging deeper into the woods as if he had a goal in mind, but then suddenly stopped and looked around in confusion. Reino already wanted to kick himself for putting hopes on a dumb rank two wolf, when it ran to a large, thick tree and began scratching its trunk while looking at Reino as if inviting him over.

“Oh? There is one up on the tree?” Reino exclaimed in delight and immediately began to scale the tree.

For some the wolf below turned increasingly anxious, but the boy said few consoling words and continued to climb. Unfortunately no matter how high he climbed and how carefully he checked the tree and its branches, there was nothing to find.

“I know you tried to help, but there was nothing.” After getting back down, Reino said with a sigh and tried to pet the wolf, only to get his thumb bitten.

It didn’t really hurt, instead was amusing and his spirits were lifted again. The little guy felt his desperation and did his best to help, even though didn’t know what exactly needed to be done. Maybe rank two spiritbeasts weren’t that useless after all?

But when Reino wanted to leave, the wolf continued to scratch the trunk and point upwards with his little black snout.

“Let’s go! I already checked up there, there were no beastcores!” Reino tried to persuade it.

After few more unsuccessful tries, he intended to grab his pet and carry away by force, but only got bitten again – this time quite painfully.

“Alright, alright! Let me show you there are no beastcores up on the tree!” Reino said in annoyance, picked up the little wolf and began to scale the tree once again.

For some reason the beast didn’t bite him anymore, but kept pointing his nose upwards as if encouraging Reino to climb faster. When they reached the very top, it didn’t become content. On contrary, Reino felt as if it was ordering him to show the view in different directions and only after a while pointed down ‘letting’ its master to leave.

‘Ok, this is interesting.’ Alex thought while his owner carried him down, ‘The whole area around us seem to be just a regular forest, but it actually is hiding the ruins of some ancient city, maybe even civilization. The stone formations are not random at all! Together they all form something similar to ‘the Coiling dragon formation’ from Feng shui, except the dragon’s head here is in the very center and the two eyes … hahaha … there has to be something good in the two buildings that once were at the spots of the dragon’s eyes! Kid, you might be in luck!’

Alex had meticulously researched Feng shui formations back when he was tasked to retrieve the oldest Xiangqi – Chinese chess board, in the world, along with the remaining pieces, from Ma Weidu’s private collection.

While at first it seemed to be an easy task, Alex got an insider information, that not only Ma Weidu’s Beijing residence, where his collection was kept, was constructed according to the principles of Feng shui, but the security systems were placed according to the ancient Chinese geomancy science.

While the owner obviously did it because of superstition for the security reasons, Alex didn’t believe a religious hokus-pokus could protect against burglary, but his principle was that irregular security system demanded more in debt research regardless the circumstances. Thus he educated himself enough to become a bit of an expert in Feng shui to successfully complete the task.

Truth to be said, Alex really looked forward to see if there were some things in this world similar to the one in his first life. At least he could apply his knowledge and gain benefits from the remembering his previous reincarnations, even though the benefits would go to the punk that currently was running behind him, obviously out of breath.

Actually Alex was also tired, thirsty and would prefer to have a nap after a sumptuous dinner, but the sun was about to set soon and he figured they most likely will have to leave this place by then.

It was not far from truth. If Reino was a bit less curious about the academy and everything concerning it, he would’ve dragged his pet out of the woods no matter how much it tried to bite. Up until now he did his best to be a nice owner, but he would not be reluctant to grab a stick and ‘school’ the wolf if needed.

Luckily for Alex it didn’t come down to it. They soon arrived at the spot where according to him once should’ve been the building representing the coiling dragon’s right eye. Currently there were only piles of rocks surrounded by lush greenery, but Alex already expected that. He also expected to see some of the students here, but they all appeared to be leaving.

“Reino?” One of them noticed the newcomer and came over.

It was Gustavo, from his brother’s group. He said, “Sorry, kid. We just finished picking this place clean.”

“Sigh, it’s fine.” Reino nodded.

Turned out his wolf had a good idea after all, but they came too late.

“Don’t be sad, you haven’t even joined the academy yet and you managed to find this place anyway. You’ll have good results in the future, I’m pretty sure about it.” Gustavo said, “Actually we’re going back. Do you want to tag along?”

Reino wanted to agree, but noticed his pet observing the rock formations with the same strange look it had when they were up the tree.

“Thanks, I’ll catch up later.”He said, “I’m not sure when I’ll be allowed in here the next time, you know.”

Gustavo knowingly smirked and soon disappeared behind trees along with the rest. Only Reino and the little wolf were left behind, but while the former wondered what they should do, the latter curiously paced around, then jumped on a pile of rocks and fell deep in thoughts.