Hey guys. I know that I said that the chapter would be out on monday. But the reason why it came out today is because I couldn't find a point to stop the chapter and it just kept going. This chapter is 2 times the size of my normal chapters and then some. I usually aim for 1200-1500 words a chapter. This chapter is almost

3100 WORDS!!! It's unbelievable. Anyway enough of me, Enjoy the Chapter!!!

A lone figure could be seen resting against a tree. This person was high up in the branches of the tree. He was panting, sweat could be seen all over his body. Ryu had been scouting the forest for the last couple hours. He had run into a couple magical beasts. Luckily, they were weaker than he was and he was able to escape. However, he had later run into a pack of low level magic beasts, Rabid Dogs. Although he was stronger than even the leader of the Rabid Dog pack, their sheer numbers caused him to flee. Ryu had eventually shook them off his trail and escaped. This long chase and evasion was what had caused this exhaustion. As Ryu sat there recovering, he began to rewind his experiences and made a list of what he had learnt.

This place is not in the Northern Continent.

There are a huge amount of magic beasts in this place.

There are signs of civilisation or some kind of settlement by intelligent creatures. Although it’s not at the city level, signs point that the civilisation is at the village level of construction.

He probably has to traverse the whole length of this place to find the exit. Also, the exit should be in the side of a mountain much like the place he emerged from.

Most importantly, he must stay vigilant always as anything could kill him if he makes a single mistake.

As Ryu went over these points, he took out his canteen and drank some water. As he recovered some strength, Ryu once again stood up and prepared to head out. He jumped through the trees and wandered about looking for any other signs of civilised life that he had found before. Previously, he had found some houses grouped together in a clearing, about 20 houses. Another time he had found a broken down cart that was usually pulled by a group of oxen type magical beasts. Now these were the type of signs that he was looking for.

Suddenly he heard a sharp shrill sound. It sounded like something was screaming for help. Ryu immediately changed directions and headed towards the sound. He ran quickly and arrived at the scene. He found the pack of Rabid Dogs surrounding a nest. In the nest there was a chick left and just as Ryu arrived he could see the mother bird flying off with a chick in each foot. Ryu looked down and came to the conclusion that the mother bird only had time to get 2 of her 3 chicks to safety. As he watched, Ryu grew angrier by the second.

The Rabid Dogs were not only eating the chick, but the were also toying with it. The single chick would not be enough for the entire pack or even a single one of them. However, they were toying with the chick by rolling it around and smacking it down whenever it tried to run away. As Ryu watched this scene, he grew angrier.

What gave the Rabid Dogs the right to torture the little chick? They had the right to hunt it but not to torture the poor thing. As Ryu grew furious, anger clouded his mind. Without thinking, he suddenly dropped down and using his dagger stabbed the pack leader in the head, instantly killing it. The rest of the pack turned towards him. Seeing him on top of their dead leader they howled in anger and charged towards him. Ryu quickly drew his sword and started hacking and slashing. With every blow, a dog fell to it’s death. Seeing the carnage, the rest of the pack ran away. However, the few minutes had resulted in a devastating loss for the Rabid Dogs. Out of their original 50 members, only about 30 remained. In about 2 minutes, Ryu had killed about 20 of the Rabid Dogs, including their leader.

As Ryu saw the Rabid Dogs running away, he relaxed, his body aching everywhere. He was covered in cuts, from head to toe. His victory had not come for free, rather it had come at quite an expensive cost. As Ryu was about to leave, he turned around and spied the injured chick lying down, fainted. Ryu slowly walked over to the chick and picked it up.

The chick was about the size of his hand. It was a dim yellow colour, its feathers speckled in a light brown colour. Its’ beak was slightly curved, just like a raptor’s beak. It’s beak was a black colour in contrast to it’s yellow feathers. The chick had barely gotten feathers, it still had a coat of down(the fur like thing baby birds have before feathers. Think what baby chickens have). It had tiny wings, still growing, that had a pattern that wasn’t easily discernible.

Ryu gently picked up the chick and slowly climbed a nearby tree. Once he got to a high enough vantage point, he scouted the landscape. He quickly found a suitable hiding spot and rushed towards it. About 10 minutes late he was on a branch of a tree with a large hollow. Although it was not apparent at first, once one took a closer look, one could see that there was an entrance in the tree trunk. Ryu climbed back down and went into the hollow at the base of the tree.

The tree was huge, about 25 feet in diameter at the base and the tree was about 75 feet tall. Although this tree seemed huge in comparison to the trees from Ryu’s hometown, it was actually only slight bigger than average in comparison to the other trees in this place.

Ryu walked inside and found a giant room like empty space. The first thing he did was to place the chick on his bag which he placed on the ground. Then he took a piece of bark that was on the ground and blacked the entrance. Then he came back and saw that the bird was injured and still bleeding. So he gathered some mana at his hand and attempted to transfer it to heal the bird. However, he did not have a dantian yet, so he couldn’t yet control mana outside his body.

As he started to panic, his hands hit his satchel. A clinking noise could be heard in the bag. Ryu suddenly lifted his head and searched his satchel. Pulling his hand out from the satchel, he held a vial in his hand. He uncorked the vial and slowly dripped a couple drops onto the chick’s injuries. Suddenly there was a glow and the chick suddenly screeched in pain. Luckily, the tree’s bark was very thick and stopped the screech from being heard by something else outside the tree.

A few minutes later, the chick stopped screeching and the glow faded away. The wounds on its body had disappeared and it was healthy once again. Ryu sighed in relief as he noticed that the chick had healed. After gently setting it down, Ryu quickly headed out of the tree. He barricaded the entrance and rushed into the forest. He quickly jumped through the trees and arrived back at the location of the battle. It had hardly been 15 minutes since the battle and it looked like no other beast had arrived yet. Ryu quickly pulled out his dagger and began skinning the fur of the dogs. He also collected their fangs and claws as he could sell them for a high price back at his homeland. Also he could use them as materials for weapons here. Like for arrows or spears.

After Ryu finished collecting all of the materials, he quickly jumped into the trees and ran away from the scene. He ran around a bit and then ran into a small stream on his way back. He quickly ran through it, ridding himself of any scent for other beasts to track him. After washing himself and the materials, Ryu quickly jumped straight up and ran away on the branches.

About 10 minutes after Ryu had left the stream, a magic beast appeared at the stream. It raised it’s head and sniffed. Not finding a trace of Ryu’s scent, it growled in frustration and paced around. The beast looked like a large housecat with pointed ears. This was the Novice Ranked magic beast, Jade Lynx. It primarily hunted by ambushes and rarely fought head on. After pacing a while, the Jade Lynx also departed and fortunately for Ryu, left in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile Ryu had arrived back at the tree and he removed all of the barriers and walked inside. Once inside he once again barricaded the entrance. As he sat there he looked at the chick. It’s tiny chest moved up and down steadily, indicating that it was sound asleep. Ryu looked down and saw that his multiple injuries had begun healing, he was no longer bleeding.

He sat down and began cultivating. In the process, he had to circulate vast amounts of mana around his body, which led to his wounds being healed at a much quicker pace. After a few hours, Ryu felt that he was approaching some sort of limit and he slowly began to stop cultivating. As he opened his eyes, he suddenly saw two small eyes gazing into his. The face of the chick was about only 2 inches away from his face.

As he sat there staring at the bird, he realized that the bird must be deciding if he is hostile or not. As he was thinking this, the chick jumped of his chest and ran into his bag. As he was feeling relieved that it was no longer so close, he suddenly realized that the bird had run into the bag with all the materials he had harvested from the Rabid Dogs. He quickly opened the bag and found that the chick was eating. As it sensed him, it turned around and stared at Ryu, a piece of meat dangling from it’s beak. As it stared, Ryu felt uncomfortable once again and he sighed deeply.

Ryu: Fine, you can eat.

Hearing this, the bird began to voraciously stuff it’s face. Ryu seeing this, interrupted.

Ryu: But you know, if I cooked the meat, it would taste way better.

The bird suddenly stopped and turned towards Ryu.

Ryu: Haaaah. Why am I telling you this anyway? It’s not like you can under-

As he was speaking, he suddenly became silent. The bird had dragged a chunk of meat to Ryu, left it there, and was now staring at him as if forcing him to cook the meat. Ryu was stumped at it’s human like behaviour. Sighing, he picked up the meat that the bird had dragged over to him. He turned around and searched around the ground in the interior of the tree. After some time, he finally found a piece of stone that fit his needs. He used some oil that he found on the goblin mages and the fat from the Rabid Dogs and some dry branches from the tree to start a fire. He used the piece of stone to hit one of the metal ingots that he had and it created sparks on around his 10th try.

Lighting the wood, Ryu skewered the meat and roasted it. He kept adding branches to the fire to keep it going. Ryu also got more meat from his bag and began to roast them as well. The bird could not tear it’s gaze away from the roasting meat and Ryu could swear he saw saliva dripping from the chick’s beak. Although he shook his head and when he looked again it was gone, so he convinced himself that it was just an illusion. About 15 minutes later, the meat finished cooking.

Ryu took the meat down and cut the large chunks into bite size portions. He placed them all on a clean leaf and placed it in between him and the chick. The bird stared hungrily at the meat. However, it did not immediately start eating. Instead it looked at Ryu as if asking for permission. Seeing this Ryu chuckled, "Haha, you don’t need to look at me like that. Just go ahead and start eating. You are hungry after all."

Hearing this, the bird had no more inhibitions. It tore through the meat like a hurricane. Watching this scene, Ryu smiled and he also began to eat. As he ate he began to think about this baby bird/chick. It was an energetic little bird and he suspected that the pool water had something to do with this. Although he had his suspicions, there was no evidence for him to work with. Ryu also had no idea what to do with this little bird. Should he go back and return it to it’s parents? Should he just release it into the forest? He had no idea. As he was thinking, the bird sensed that he was staring at it and the chick stared back at Ryu, with a questioning look. Amused by this, Ryu decided to leave it up to the chick. It could obviously understand him, something which amazed him. So he asked the chick what it wanted to do, "Do you want me to return you to your nest?"

The bird shook its head.

Ryu asked again, "Then do you want to search for your parents?"

The bird once again shook its head. But this time, Ryu was able to detect a hint of sadness in its eyes. Ryu asked, "Then what do you want to do?"

Hearing this, the bird looked up at him. Before Ryu could understand it’s intention, it jumped on him and climbed into his shirt pocket. It climbed inside and began to make itself comfortable.

Ryu was making sure, "Do you want to stay with me?"

Hearing this, the chick’s eyes brightened and it nodded furiously. Seeing this Ryu smiled, "Fine then, you can stay with me as long as you want."

Hearing this, the chick chirped in joy. After a while the exhaustion caught up to it and it fell asleep in Ryu’s front shirt pocket. Ryu stopped the fire and cleaned up the mess they had made. While cleaning up, he remembered the little bird’s antics and he smiled. The little one could stay with him as long as it wanted. Smiling, Ryu lay down on a pile of leaves and fell asleep.

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The Entity was watching Ryu when he was saving the chick, "Hahaha, this one is such a nice and gentle little person. He’d better be introduced to the horrors of the martial world quickly otherwise he will die quickly with that naïve mindset of his."

As the Entity was contemplating this he watched as Ryu slaughter a bunch of Rabid Dogs, "Hmmm. It seems he can really be ruthless when he wants to. However he really has to thank the 1st trial for that, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to even kill anything and would definitely fail the test."

As the Entity was analyzing Ryu, Ryu had already returned back to the chick and the lunch scene commenced. Seeing the actions of the bird, the Entity chuckled, "What a strange little bird. I wonder what it is."

As he was saying so he probed the bird and tried to find out it’s origins, "Hmmm. Hmmmm? I can’t find any of its details? ME! HAHAHAHA!!!! How long has it been since something was hidden from me? Far too long indeed. HAHAHA. Let see if they can still hide from me."

As he said this, a terrifying aura burst from the Entity. Everything that was too close(too close = within a few galaxies near the entity) was instantly vaporised. Or it would have been vaporised if the entity hadn’t been in a special dimension preventing mass destruction and death.

The Entity laughed, "Hahaha. Done. Let’s see what this stupid bird really is. So it is---- No-- No way………….. This bird is……..is…...HELL NO. I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT SHE BEAT ME TO THE PUNCH. I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE FIRST TO GIFT HIM WITH AN AMAZING POWER OR MAGICAL BEAST!!!!! ARGHHHHHHH!!!"

The Entity threw a little tantrum. Sometime later.

The Entity frowned, "Humph. Well Since the person who gifted him was my darling little wife, I guess that I can overlook this. HAAAAAAAAA. But why did she have to give him a magical beast. I was going to give him one but now I can’t because he can’t possibly have two right now. Hmp. Since all of you want to play that way then I shall gift that boy with THAT. HUHUHUHUHU. Let’s see how you deal with him then. FUFUFUFU. "

The maniacal laughter resounded through space even though no one could hear in that dimension.

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The first figure woke up and said, "Do the rest of you sense that? It seems like that one came here to watch the trials."

The second figure asked in annoyance, "Can’t we keep it away by using pesticide or something?"

The first figure said plainly, "No."

The third figure also asked, "Can’t we just kill it and be done with it?"

The second figure turned and looked at the third figure, "Kill that thing? I knew that you were stupid but are you really that much of a dumbass?"

The third figure said, "You know that I can kill you anytime right?"

The second figure chuckled, "Heh You can try, DUMBASS!!!"

The third figure shouted, "HEY!!!! THAT’S IT. OUTSIDE NOW. I’M GONNA KICK YOUR SORRY ASS AROUND A COUPLE TIMES!!!"

Suddenly an ancient presence could be felt. All 3 of the figures, stopped and stood straight.

The ancient one said, "That’s enough. Let that one watch. It’s not like we can do something to him anyway. Besides, he’s been watching every single one of the candidates so far."

The third figure respectfully asked, "Is that true Big Brother?"

The ancient one turned to the first figure and said, "Yes. Brother, given your power you should have sensed him too. "

The first figure nodded, "Indeed I had. However I knew that these two would have made a fuss so I didn’t tell. Plus it wasn’t doing any harm, so I didn’t interfere."

The ancient one simply acknowledged this and gave out an order, "Is that so. Anyway the child is still at the 2nd stage. Let us all meet again when he passes the final stage"

Saying this the presence faded away.

The first figure said, "You heard him. Stop messing around."

Leaving behind a little warning the first figure vanished. The second and third figures just stared at each other. They snorted and they too disappeared.