Leo ran the whole day. Of course, he sprinted only for a short while, but then continued to run at his comfortable pace and the longer he ran, the better he felt. In the afternoon it was almost like someone had lifted a huge weight from his shoulders – once again he was free, in the wild, but instead of the Greenland’s poisonous fog he breathed fresh, sweet air.
‘Turns out that all that is needed for a true happiness is for a man to recognize his place in the world!’ Leo happily thought.
Indeed, in the forest he felt like at home. Of course, he didn’t allow himself to touch any wildlife in fear elder Li or someone else might notice, but in few days he should be out of War Academy’s territories and could do as he pleased.
Currently Leo only knew he was in the Savage immortal realm, but he had no clue what exactly and where was that. He decided to approach things like he did in Greenland – travel a bit and then see where the road took him.
With this thought he began to sometimes run through the treetops, then again on the ground and then back through the treetops. He felt like a squirrel that was finally set free, except for he was the predator in these parts since the fact that he was a human put him on the top of the food chain.
Like in the good old days Leo slept in trees and on the second morning continued on his way. After fasting for a day he was hungry and already began to consider if he was far enough from the academy to hunt, when he arrived at a small meadow. It looked just like any other grassy piece of land that one could find in the middle of forests now and then, except there was something that resembled like a dark mound in the middle of it.
‘Hahaha!’ Leo happily laughed to himself, ‘If heavens are clearly offering me a pile of meat, I can’t refuse!’
It was probably some kind of a ranked beast, maybe a rank five bear or even a rank six boar, but Leo wasn’t picky, especially since he was hungry. It was a bummer he left the Cleaver back on the Thirteenth peak, therefore it looked like he’ll have to hunt barehanded. Of course, he had a knife in the amulet, but that’ll be used later, for skinning and cooking.
Leo arrived at the side of the beast in an instant and kicked it as heavily as possible, intending to break its spine, but instead of cracking noise of the beast’s bones breaking, there was a muffled ‘thud’ sound. Before he realized what transpired, a piercing pain from Leo’s right leg registered in his brain – it was clearly broken or at least fractured.
He stared in disbelief at the back of the beast that should’ve been killed in one hit. In fact, even if it was a rock it should’ve been split in halves or broken apart, but the spot where Leo’s kick connected didn’t even have a mark. The thick fur looked nice and glossy … and then the beast slowly moved.
Obviously at this point Leo knew he had made an ‘oopsie’ – he was still in the territories on the War Academy and made a mistake of attacking one of its beasts. Sadly the water was already spilled. The beast slowly sat up and glanced at the youth in annoyance.
“A rat?” Leo blurted out in surprise.
In Leo’s defense he initially intended to politely apologize. By now he knew that the high ranked beasts were no less intelligent that humans, but it was already too late. The beast actually did look like a giant rat, but either it was offended by being called that way or took the earlier kick to the heart – it grabbed Leo’s leg using its tail and began smacking him to the ground left and right like an angry child ‘punishing’ its hated doll.
Leo’s screams of pain and shouts ‘sorry, sorry!’ quickly died down and he was thrown away like a piece of trash, breaking few smaller trees on the way. The beast loudly snorted and slowly walked in the forest without glancing back. Apparently this meadow had lost its charm and it had to find a new one.
Leo didn’t know how long he was out, but when he woke up he was rather surprised the beast let him live. It was hard to tell if it was rank seven or even at the Nascent soul stage, but this time he clearly picked the wrong opponent.
Once again Leo’s body ached all over and he sat up to check the damage. It turned out to be quite bad – his right leg and right hand were broken, a couple of ribs as well in addition to dozens of bone fractures. Without a doubt he had a concussion, but it was not the first one and likely the last one he’ll ever have.
Fortunately Leo’s amulet contained quite a few barrels of water that would last for a long time, thus without another option, he focused and began to cultivate. There was a risk of him being attacked, but with how messed up he was, Leo couldn’t scale a tree. And even if he could – up there he might not be safe if a flying ranked beast found him.
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Two days later Leo was fine enough to limp away. He couldn’t freely run yet, but walking was not an issue. He didn’t have to go far though.
After leaving the meadow and walking for approximately half a mile, he arrived at the side of a lake. It was much larger than ‘usual’, but no matter what Leo instantly knew what the place was and the purple flashes in the distance served as a confirmation.
He didn’t rush to swim to the island that a regular mortal couldn’t clearly see from the shore. First he took a handful of water and savored the burning sensation that he missed since he left the lake in Greenland. Then he slowly walked along the shore, found a couple of wild birds that had carelessly fallen in and got cooked in the lightning waters.
The breakfast was a decent, especially considering the fasting Leo went through, but he much more would’ve preferred an egg from the snake-headed beast. He wasn’t complaining though – what he found was another treasure trove, but this time it belonged to somebody.
Leo quickly realized how severely he underestimated the War Academy. Now it made complete sense that the huge rat didn’t kill him – it surely belonged to the academy. The whole place belonged to the academy and was a garden of sorts. Now that he thought about it, during his run on the first day he noticed quite a few peculiar trees and bushes, but didn’t pay any heed to them. It was highly likely they were some kind of exotic plants, maybe even of heavenly rank.
Good thing he didn’t break anything, apart from his own leg, of course. If this whole place was a garden, then the lake and the island in the middle was part of it as well. And the divine lightning three or trees that were on the island were surely off limits.
But Leo wanted to get there so badly! The place was like oasis in a desert to him!
He spent half a day wondering along the shore, eating ‘chickens’ and thinking until he came up with a plan.
It was actually rather simple. First he would’ve liked to make sure if anyone was watching him. A logical assumption would be that it was impossible for an immortal elder to waste their time on him. Thus the most likely ‘observer’ should be some kind of a beast, but if a high ranked beast wanted to stay hidden, it would be impossible for Leo to find it.
Since there was no guaranteed result with the first part, he had to make sure ‘everyone’ watching him was clear of his harmless intentions and that they will get used to his daily routine. Even if they later found him cultivating on the island, he could apologize and leave, right? The main thing was to not touch or break anything valuable. This principle worked well with his rule number three – in under no circumstances it is allowed to take too much of other people’s stuff, except in this case it would be ‘no stuff at all’.
The next part was rather nostalgic. He gathered branches and bark from the ‘regular’ trees, meticulously making sure he didn’t damage any rare or strange looking ones. Then he began crafting ropes – just like the inhabitants of Greenland did.
This went on for almost a month. Leo got up with the sunrise and crafted ropes till noon. Then he had lunch in form of the cooked birds that fell in the lake and continued with the crafting till the late evening. He meditated through the night and continued in the morning again.
On the sixteenth day Leo got visitors. A beast that closely resembled the rat that abused him, a hamster in a size of a bear and a bird in a size of a large eagle, but from the looks of it it might’ve been a sparrow or a pigeon. To Leo the last one immediately aroused fantasies about cooking it as if it was a large chicken, but knowing how strong the rat was, it clearly had to remain a fantasy, at least for now.
It was not clear if the three beasts were simply local residents or someone tasked to watch over him. Either way it was more comfortable with them around since the feeling of being secretly watched disappeared. The three beasts did nothing but stare at Leo the whole day. They never even went to drink, but usually vanished after dark.
When Leo thought he had enough ropes for a walkway that stretched around the lake, he began to set them up in the treetops, avoiding the trees that he didn’t recognize in case they were some kind of rare spirit plants. Since the new exercise was more dynamic, it aroused some interest in the three beasts, but soon they got bored again after figuring out Leo’s intentions.
The part with crafting the floor of the walkway was the trickiest. There was no way to cut enough branches or trees to meet the standards of Greenlanders, thus something that would be considered ‘half-arsed’ job in Greenland had to suffice.
After Leo was done with approximately one third of the hanging walkway, he finally gathered the courage and after the nightfall rushed to the middle of the lake. Approximately half of the distance he was able to cover while running on the surface of the water and the rest he swam, but the stinging sensation of the lightning waters invigorated him instead of hurting or paralyzing like many years ago.
It didn’t take long for Leo to reach the island that as he guessed was there, but when he stepped on the shore, he was left speechless. Instead of one or three divine tribulation trees, there were at least a couple dozen of those! Judging by the neat rows they were planted in, it was obvious that they were transported here, but it only made sense. After all this was the garden of the War Academy.
Leo couldn’t hold back anymore. He loudly laughed and jumped, and danced … this spot was his shangri-la, his dreamland and if it was an owner-less, wild island, it would become his home for life. Nevertheless, even if he was allowed to stay here for one night, or even half a night, it was an experience he’d never forget.
The youth forced himself to calm down, found a suitable spot in the middle of the island and sat down to meditate.
He guessed it might happen, although wasn’t certain, that the moment he dashed over the lighting waters someone might notice. In fact, the oversized pigeon immediately darted south to inform elder Li while the other two beasts stared at the crazed person in disbelief. Even at their level they didn’t dare to step in the water, to not speak about swimming in it. But when Leo sat down to meditate under the flashes of lighting between branches of the Divine tribulation trees, both the hamster and the rat felt like punching themselves in order to wake up.