It seemed like I was the one thieving the eggs and not grand elder.

As soon as he reached the next he put all of the eggs into his bag in a lightning fast movement.

Then he instantly flash stepped several times away.

It would seem flash step was his fastest technique for running away.

He was even begging to learn to flash step in between obstacles.

Eventually, he might really become the ghost of the forest.

I couldn't hear it but the glasses vibrated for a minute.

A soundwave struck the nest that had just been looted.

Apparently, the tortoise had some way of knowing when the eggs left the nest.

Because it looked like it had rushed back the second grand elder scooped up the eggs.

The mama tortoise was about the size of one of the wagons that traded with our outpost.

Its scarlet eyes scanned the boulder field looking for the looter.

Eventually, it caught sight of one of the grand elders after image.

With a snort, it shot a soundwave at it.

The afterimage shattered but grand elder had already made it to safety. Out of the tortoise's visions.

Looks like id be eating good tomorrow I thought to myself with a smile.

The rest of the day passed with me theory-crafting people's potential ability rings and reading.

I was excited about the looter squad I had promised.

Eventually though as the night came my excitement turned into weariness and I passed out on my bed.

The next morning came it was time to tune into elders adventure.

I could gain combat ideas just by watching the way he moved.

And I could understand how to overlay ability rings because he regularly overlayed ten on top of each other.

I watched for a while but it seemed like yesterday had spooked him because he didn't venture too far from the base.

So with nothing interesting on I decided to go get my meal from the cafeteria.

When I opened it up it was titled treasure turtle soup.

I gulped it all down, it was delicious I had never tasted something so good in my life!

It made the blood in my veins glow red for at least a minute.

My body got upgraded again. I should be able to get a second ability ring now. I was sturdy enough to support it.

Apparently, they were far-sighted and were trying to upgrade my mana generation from the ground up.

By getting me another ability ring instead of just feeding me mana regen food.

I wanted to test my strength so I headed to the training forest.

As soon as I got there I picked up a wooden sword and challenged one of the new arrivals to a duel. Although he greatly surpassed me in skill my body could take a beating.

I eventually won just by enduring all of his hits and protecting my vitals.

Thus I became the training dummy for the entire group of new recruits.

They were all better than me with there weapons but I simply wouldn't fall.

This was the difference of nature and why the strong would always be strong.

After resting and recovering my injuries I approached the two strongest of the group.

"Do you want to form a team and test out the training forest?"

"We will go with you if your strong enough to take all those hits even if there's a newly evolved heart beast we can at least escape."

I would get mad at them for saying that but after witnessing grand elder.

I could only marvel at there good decision making.

After all, in the forest, there were no second chances.

"Alright let's go"

As we plunged into the forest one of my more knowledgeable comrades started talking about the history of the training forest.

"When the base was first constructed this area was not cleared but fenced in. That's why newbies are able to find 10 yeas fruit and other valuable resources. Because the valuable plants and minerals were left to grow."

"This place really is a poison jar," I said as I hit a piece of bamboo but it didn't break. Apparently, he was correct about the plants being old or my fist would have snapped that bamboo in half.

"Whats a poison jar?"

My teammate asked me I responded with "Its something my father used to tell me about. Basically, you throw a bunch of poisonous creatures int a jar and leave it. When you come back only the strongest and most poisonous has survived by eating all the others."

They all got quiet for a while.

Apparently up ahead was a heartbeasts that couldn't evolve no matter how hard it tried so the academy had left it to train the newbies of the outpost.

"Here we go were approaching the tame lizard.

I could see a small cave up ahead in a rocky outcropping.

Sunbathing in front of it was a chameleon looking creature with a snapped horn.

My teammate activated his ability and shot a mana spear towards it.