Kaden remembered how slow it had been to get from Centralean forest to Corand. Sidon had been dragging along some captured beasts in a carriage and he had weaklings working for him. Compared to an elite military team with relatively light load it had been extremely slow.

With the speed they were going, the time would be at least halved. They weren’t even going at their maximum possible speed. He wondered how fast he could cross distances on higher cultivation stages. Sacronan and Saint Empire were technically relatively close. Perhaps at his current speed a distance from Corand to Grandea, Sacronan’s capital, could technically be crossed in a few weeks. There would obviously be obstacles on the path and he would not be able to go straight. It would likely take much longer.

Verdict moved along the edges of Centralean forest. Kaden found out that there was basically a small fortifications evenly spread along the way. Probably to keep beasts away. Without protection they would soon encroach further into human territory. To Kaden these were nothing more than curiosities. It seemed that the area where that battle had been already a few years ago was still near the front line. The war, at least at that location, was stuck with no side having the advantage. How pointless.

The next move by saints was to try moving further into Sacronan’s territory, but taking a way through Centralean forest. A safe path had to be cut for large number of forces to move through. Kaden wondered for a moment why an elite team would take such missions. Eventually he decided it was probably training for Verdict members.

By the time they were nearing the area, there were far more soldiers. Kaden noticed similarities to his past experiences. There were quite a lot of prisoners from Sacronan’s side. They all had those collars Kaden was very familiar with.

“Guess its common practice”, Kaden thought to himself, but didn’t really care. He wasn’t the one being the bait.

What he cared about was once Verdict finally moved further in after Walden arranged some matters.

The grinding noise! Some high pitched whine mixed in! How irritating!

It was very easy for Kaden to notice where it was coming from. Even specific direction. It was clearly some of those slaves with activated collars. Human’s didn’t hear any of it, but it seemed he did.

Walden noticed Kaden was acting irritated, but said nothing. It didn’t take long for Kaden to find a way to reduce the effect by releasing some mana around him as a shield. He hoped there wouldn’t be any of these baits in the area he would be going to. Otherwise he would have to request a permission to go kill the nearby ones personally.

Luckily it all quieted as Verdict moved deeper into the forest and Kaden sighen in relief. No wonder beasts came to so furiously attack and kill anyone emiting that damn noise, even if some of them could understand it to be danger.

“Kaden”, Walden suddenly said. “This should be the area where you lived, yes?”

“Hmmm, I guess so”, Kaden replied and looked around. The forest changed a bit over time, but looking at landmarks, it should be the case. “Perhaps slightly further. Why?”

“We are already within our area”, Walden said. “Since you stayed here, it is probably better option than any other to make our camp at.”

Kaden guessed it was probably okay. Indeed, if they were going to stay in the area it was best to pick one that was better known.

“I stayed in a cave”, Kaden started explaining. “It is likely a beast has taken over the area. Probably over time it has changed ownership a few times. If we are going to take it, we will have to kill a dire beast most likely.”

Walden nodded. “I will look from the side. The four of you should be able to handle it. If its a weaker one, its probably easy kill for all of you, but if its advanced, you would do best to not let down your guard. Victory should be assured, but in desperation a beast might launch a furious attack before dying.”

The four team members gave each other a look. Kaden did so mostly to see what kind of reactions they had. As far as he knew, this was first time they fight an actual beast. There was some seriousness, but being considered geniuses, they were not showing any actual fear or anxiety. Kaden snorted. Nothing nearby was problem to him. These city children should learn to fight beasts sooner than later. He himself had been involved dealing with beasts since Dashire while they had grown up in relative safety.

Perhaps thats why they had been brought there. To get a feel about fighting something that wasn’t human and wouldn’t even think like human nor give any mercy. It was quite different experience fighting beasts than humans.

The area soon started to look very familiar to Kaden. He noticed places where had stalked prey and also killed some people. He now knew exactly where they were. After notifying Walden of this, he began leading them towards his old territory.

“How nostalgic”, Kaden thought to himself. While it had not been that long since he was there last time, the life in city was completely different and his life style had changed entirely. It might as well be a longer time. They had arrived at his cave. “I will go in first.”

“You lived in that … hole?” Walden said next to Kaden with a helpless smile.

“It was acceptable”, Kaden replied. “Its big enough for even a larger beast and I assure you, even if it is a hole, it is the best one in the area.”

“Sure”, Walden said and then looked at the team. “Do your thing. I will wait here. Something is in there for sure and it has noticed us. I can hear it move.”

“I’ll go in first”, Kaden said. He was the front line fighter so it was expected. With Walden around and the beast likely being too weak, he didn’t expect it to cause any problems, but he still planned on sending it towards Olren. Perhaps he would receive some wounds and die later to something else. The forest was good place to kill the annoying noble.

Thinking that, he jumped in front of the cave. He fearlessly took steps inside. There was no way he would allow some intruder stay in his home, even if he had not been there in quite a while. Soon he could see the beast that had taken residence.

A snake. Not a poisonous one, but one that killed its opponents by constricting them. It was a mid stage dire beast so it was not even a slightest problem. Trying to remember correctly, it was likely a Bonecrusher Snake. Its name was very descriptive of its killing method.

The snake hissed at him. Kaden replied to it by releasing his core slightly. Not too much, but enough to let the Bonecrusher Snake know it was hissing at something that was superior to it. It suddenly stilled and tried to appear small and slowly give up the place for Kaden. To beasts meeting was not always a fight. Weaker one would often give up and neither would bother fight.

Yet, Kaden was planning on fighting. He was aware where Olren was and with speed far exceeding the snake, he grabbed it and simply tossed it out… towards Olren. Not at him, but somewhere close to him. Walden was watching after all.

The snake was in panic and sadly didn’t attack Olren immediately. In fact, it lost its chance to even do anything. The three, Olren, Sari and Hem, performed a well coordinated attack that was well expected from an elite team. Quickly and efficiently the dire beast snake died.

Perhaps before seeing the true strength in Saint Empire, he might have thought this Bonecrusher Snake was strong, but now he knew well it was a weakling. Perhaps the truly strong dire beasts lived much deeper. Centralean Forest wasn’t even a place with the strongest beasts to begin with. Kaden was pretty sure there was limited amount, if any Cari in the entire huge forest covering most of the continent. If any. True beast might was in Frika and no human lived long in there just like no significant beasts lived long in human areas.

Northern parts of Centralean Forest were part of the No Man’s Land. Probably nothing really lived in there. Mana creatures might be found around it and rest of the forest were for beasts and these beasts were regularly hunted by humans due to close proximity to human territories.

World was large and still many ways small. One couldn’t go anywhere they pleased. No matter what you were, your origins or most likely even your strength.

Kaden’s thoughts were interrupted by Walden.

“Good work”, Walden said. “Take the core. Its worth some money. This Bonecrusher Snake is pretty strong for its stage. We’ll dismantle it. Its parts are worth some too.”

“I request we keep the meat!” Kaden said. “Thats how this place works. We kill it, we eat it. Its meat contains mana! I haven’t had a good meal for a while.”

“I guess that is a good idea”, Walden nodded. “While that I’ll take a look of the cave and area.”

Kaden reacted to this with joy and immediately started taking the snake apart. The others joined in quickly too since Kaden’s work was relatively sloppy. He only really wanted the meat.

Other looked weirdly as he took meat and burned it before eating. They had got used to this quirk a long time ago, but they were now watching Kaden actually eat something nearly raw directly, not by Devour. It was messier than usual. They didn’t complain since this distracted Kaden long enough for them to do better dismantling work.

Walden was walking around taking a look at everything. Kaden wondered what was so interesting about the place as he stuffed his mouth full of charred snake meat.

After picking up and giving a look at some rock fragments that Kaden identified to be from his formation training, Walden seemed to have enough.

“Everyone, you can consider this to be part of your training”, Walden finally told everyone. “I will be leaving you here for some time. While I’m gone you are expected to collect some beast cores and generally speaking just survive here with no help for a while. For beasts, we are good cultivation material. Expect them to come. If you can’t deal with this, you are no elites.”

Kaden’s expectations had been correct and, by the looks of it, everyone had realized the purpose of this trip too.

“I will be leaving Olren in charge”, Walden continued.

Olren seemed very happy about this turn of events. No one seemed surprised. Kaden didn’t even want to take that role to begin with so he was entirely okay. While it would have given him ability to control the situation better, it would also restrict him. As for Olren, he wouldn’t be able to mess him in any way that he would care. Hem and Sari were also there to watch.

Walden gave look at everyone for a moment and then nodded. Then without saying anything, he left.

“We should build a camp here”, Olren immediately said.

Kaden took out the tents from his bag. “I assume you won’t care, if I take the cave instead?” He said after doing so.

“Huh? You would rather live in the damp moldy cave?” Olren questioned Kaden’s words. “Fine, sure thing. Beast should live like a beast, yes?”

“A tent will not hide you”, Kaden pointed out. “Nor will it protect you. One entrance is easier to defend. If you are willing to be beast bait, I’m not complaining.”

With that said, Kaden didn’t continue to argue with Olren any longer. Instead he went into the cave and incinerated some trash that had accumulated there over time. There were still some remaining old rocks at back of the cave from his old formation research. By now Kaden could see how pathetic they had been, but one had to start somewhere.

He sat down and cycled his mana system. It was so nice to be back home!