It was time to take the Survival Test, and through it prepare for the Dao Test.

The Survival Test was, in premise, very simple. Each and every person would be taken by magic beast to a random location in the forest, where they would have to survive on their own for a week. The time period was made to be long enough to allow for many things to happen, but short enough that no one would die from starvation or dehydration. The forest was completely lacking in magic beast as well; at best the forest had monsters, creatures that failed to make it to being a magic beast. As long as one did not have all of their luck against them anyone could survive this test.

The test proctors began to call people over so that they could be taken to the forest. In less than an hour every person taking the test, including Shiga, had been abandoned in the forest.

After the magic beast had left with the proctor, Shiga began to look around his surroundings. The forest was large and ancient, but it was still flourishing with flowers, shrubs, and other plants. Not seeing anything that stood out Shiga began to walk around, his shoes leaving light depressions in the rich earth behind him. As Shiga walked he could hear the sounds of birds and small animals in the trees. As Shiga was walking, he came into a small clearing. There was a small cliff, no taller than a few meters, but perched above it was a huge tree with roots that seemed to cascade over the ledge like a wooden waterfall. The tree seemed as if it would require four or five men to reach around its base. The tree had a huge canopy that dominated over the nearby trees, creating the small clearing.

Under the shade of this great tree Shiga began to make himself a camp. Using the roots that went over the ledge as a roof, Shiga hollowed out a small space from the soft dirt. When he had been preparing for the apocalypse, he had also prepared for the eventuality that he would someday be stuck in the wilderness.

One method that Shiga had found, was to tie a long stick to a tree leaving one end on the ground. Then using leaves and sticks turn it into a tent with a triangular entrance. Instead of doing that though, Shiga had decided to use the roots that naturally went over the ledge as a roof and hollowed out a space underneath. He grabbed some of the harmless looking shrubs and covered the top of roots with them. This blocked both light from entering, and heat from escaping as easily, making this a workable sleeping area.

Excited to finally be putting all of his research to use, Shiga began to search for a source of water. After searching for most of the day, Shiga found a decently sized brook a few miles away. He also found animal prints at the water’s edge, meaning that he had found a decent hunting spot. On his way back, he grabbed any berries or plants that he recognized to be edible. By the time he had returned to the great tree, Shiga had picked up some wild strawberries and a couple of medicinal plants that he had learned about at home.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

The sun was beginning to set at this point, so Shiga just ate the strawberries as they were. After finishing up his meager dinner, Shiga crawled into the space he had hollowed out. He was pretty happy with how the day had turned out. He had a camp and he had a source of water and potentially food. The test was going well so far, but Shiga knew better than to expect everything to work out because of that. He drifted of into a light sleep as the bugs and frogs began to wake up with the moon’s rising.

The next morning, Shiga rose with the sun as the birds began to sing their songs. He crawled out of the hole, and began to do some stretches. Shiga had slept well and was filled with energy and excitement for the day to come. The first thing he did was pick up a rock from the cliff edge and with it he began to knap a decent sized piece of flint that he picked up at the brook. The knapping process was slow going, but by a few hours before midday, shiga had managed to create  a decent point and with it he carved out an atlatl. He set himself up, and began to practice with the atlatl until noon. By then, Shiga was getting thirsty as well as hungry, so he quickly made his way back to the brook.

After satisfying his thirst, Shiga hid in a tree and waited for an animal to come. After about an hour of waiting, a deer came to drink at the brook. Shiga launched his atlatl at the creature and he managed to hit it in the torso. The sudden blow staggered the deer and before it could recover Shiga ran over to it. He quickly pulled the atlatl out of the deer’s flank causing it to collapse again. He quickly cut the deer’s neck ending its misery. Before the blood could completely leave the body however, Shiga dragged it as far as he could downstream. While standing in the flowing river, Shiga did his best to let out the rest of the blood in the body as well as removing the internal organs and throwing them as far away as he could. He did this to distract any predators and monsters that might be nearby and have smelled the blood. After washing himself, Shiga took the deer and ran back to his camp.

With only about a quarter of the day remaining, Shiga skinned the deer and set up a fire to cook and smoke as much of the meat as he could. He didn’t need to worry too much about the meat going bad, but the smell of decomposition might attract monsters or scavengers. Shiga continued smoking the meat until after the sun had set. He ate a decent meal of meat and more strawberries, before wrapping as the remaining meat in large leaves and putting it in the branches of the tree. Satisfied with his work, Shiga crawled back into his hole and fell into a peaceful sleep. Only 4 days were still remaining.

~~Author Notes~~

Alright, Here is a new chapter. I will definitely be posting on most weekends, but I will also try to get chapters out during the middle of the week as well. I listened to your criticisms so this chapter is twice as long as the others. Also, for the people who wanted more detail, this was 2 paragraphs when I originally wrote it.

Enjoy, and please do comment. I am sure that I have lots of room to grow.