24

"Done." Ruo Chen breathed out as he slashed the brown rabbit.

This puts made his points reach 475 which was the 347th place and was enough for him to get accepted by the school. There was still around 15 minutes left to the hunt and Ruo Chen wanted to make sure he got his spot so he went for some extra hunting.

Unfortunately for him, as he was trying to avoid being seen by as much people as possible, he found himself in a forbidden area. Ruo Chen remembered Aleksandr saying that these areas were highly dangerous but no barrier was put up as it was a way to test the participants awareness of their surroundings.

Thus Ruo Chen had walked freely into a hidden cave with no obstructions. Aleksandr had also added that one could gain more points from the monsters here but to only try if you know you are capable of handling them as if you needed to be rescued by the instructors, points will be deducted.

Ruo Chen came here as he knew that the top rankers would be here as well so he would not be in danger. He thought about playing dirty by stealing their kills but he stopped himself when reality hit.

These were not ordinary people, these children were monsters that had strength that rivalled adults! If he were in bad terms with one of them, who knew of how they would make his life hell.

"Please let it be Ye Ran here." Ruo Chen prayed in his mind as if Ye Ran was currently in his change, then he might be willing to share points with him.

Ruo Chen sneakily made his way deeper into the cave until he heard the roars of the monsters and the clanging of claws. If he remembered correctly, the type of monsters that were most likely found in caves were rock bats. These bats had hard stone like bodies that were as like as a feather, they were venomous and one had to be extremely careful when dealing with them as a single scratch was able to make you nauseous.

Screeches of the bats where heard followed by the sounds of groaning which Ruo Chen suspected it to be the bats final call. He carefully peeked around the corner and saw something that he never thought he would see here. 

The bats had a bat king that was usually at the back of the cave and it was fed by things brought by the servant bats and when the king still felt hungry after a meal, it would eat its workers. But that level of king bat had to be of a super high rank and thus should not even be allowed in the hunt.

"Xiao Pang, this place is in the hunt right?" Ruo Chen asked Xiao Pang to check and Xiao Pang who was now a little grey rat, nodded its tiny head.

"Tsk, then it must have ranked up in the hunt." Ruo Chen concluded as he turned back around.

That's why no one was here as an instructor was needed to take down a king bat of this level, those high rankers must have sensed its presence outside the cave.

Ruo Chen bit his nails as he thought. He was going to turn to leave when he realized that it had been quite for the past few moments. Xiao Pang was also squealing which translated to, 'Get out now, the king bat has sensed your presence!'

He need not be told twice as he enveloped his feet in energy before sprinting to the exit of the cave. Unfortunately for Ruo Chen, the king bat was not a high rank for nothing as it caught up to him in a flash.

Ruo Chen had predicted this and conjured a barrier around him right before the was about to bite his head off. The king bat was three times the size of him and each flap of its wings made Ruo Chen feel incredibly cold.

The barrier resisted the attack before shattering after which made Ruo Chen cough out some blood.

I'm still not fast enough in preparing so it was incomplete and I suffered a backlash!

Ruo Chen mentally berated himself before he forced himself to pick up the pace. His lungs were burning and his heart felt like it was going to jump up his throat, he could not tell left from right and almost went the wrong way if not for Xiao Pang pulling his hair in the right direction.

He wanted to laugh as he felt like a certain chef in a certain movie but another gush of wind almost threw him off and that woken him up. Ruo Chen told himself to focus on saving his own ass before thinking of useless things.

Crack... Crack...Boom!

Just as Ruo Chen was about to reach the exit, the front part of the cave suddenly collapsed and he was now trapped inside with a gaping maw coming to bite his head off in a few seconds.

He felt his blood run cold, that was not normal behaviour from a cave. When he came in earlier, he had made sure to check the entrance properly and even made a small barrier to prevent it from collapsing even thought it already was quite stable.

Someone is trying to kill me! But who?!

Ruo Chen knew it was not time to think about it as he saw the mouth of the king bat come nearer and nearer.

"Is this it?"

The smell of death came closer and closer and Ruo Chen prepared for his one final attack. 

An all out blast.

This meant expanding all of one's energy which has a high chance of exploding the core itself. This meant that one might lose their core, crippling themselves while suffering tremendous physical injuries.

But so what? If I die, who is going to take care of that brat!

Tears formed at the corner of his eyes as he pushed out all of his reserves. It did not feel at terrible as he thought as it was almost relieving. There was a small burning sensation all around him that made him feel an indescribable warmth, it felt like a warm hug from a loved one. Like a gentle caress from your mother.

This blast had completely exploded open the entrance and blown all the rubble into the air. The king bat was also blown away with its stone skin ripped apart into shreds, leaving only its rock heat intact.

"Huff... huff..." Ruo Chen panted out as he felt his consciousness leaving him.

"My core... didn't shatter... thank god..." 

Though he was exhausted, the fact that he did not die and that his core did not shatter was enough for him to forget about the pain he felt after. The pain only came after he blasted everything out so maybe the warmth was just an illusion he felt.

Xiao Pang slowly came out of Ruo Chen's pocket, with some of his fur blasted off and quickly transformed into snake called the ancient wood snake which could heal people with its bite. It looked like the bark of a tree and its healing powers were best known for their regenerative abilites.

Ruo Chen much needed that as parts of his skin was blown off, leaving exposed muscles and tissue, this sight would cause many grown adults to faint and even Xiao Pang felt uneasy. He hesitantly bit down on a part of his leg that still had a layer of skin left and he felt Ruo Chen twitch.

Xiao Pang almost could not take it anymore before someone suddenly appeared beside the injured Ruo Chen. 

The hunt had ended a few moments ago after the king bat died and the instructors were looking for anyone still left in the ink forest. The top of the cave had been blown off and and the size of the explosion had caused quite a commotion so help arrived first for Ruo Chen.

The person was Aleksandr and he was blue with anger when he saw the injuries of Ruo Chen, exposed muscles everywhere. He could not stand looking at this sight any long and immediately shed his outer robe, covering Ruo Chen in the process. 

Aleksandr had noticed Xiao Pang, the ancient green snake on Ruo Chen's leg and just left him there, he knew of the healing properties of the snake as the head of healing.

Participants did not come as instructors obstructed them in case a monster had went crazy and the instructors soon came after they had gotten everyone out.

"Aleks, what happened?" Mu Yang asked as he looked at the covered body in Aleksandr's arms.

"Investigate the scene here first, check back any recordings if you have to." Aleksandr said with a tone that meant no more questions and disappeared into thin air.

Mu Yang's face turned from one of leisure to one that did not contain any mirth. For Aleksandr to be so serious was not out of the ordinary, but the fact that he had to personally come take care of the kid meant that a terrible accident had happened.

Mu Yang turned to face the other instructors gathered and found it a bit strange. One of the instructors must at all times be near the forbidden area in case of an emergency, so where had the one patrolling gone to?

He shook his head to think about it later as the most important thing now was to figure out what had happened.

At a distance away...

Ye Ran landed on a tree as he watched the instructors talk, he was too late to witness what Aleksandr did and thus was at a lost of what was going on. All he knew was that there was an explosion when the hunt ended and that Ruo Chen has not come up to him yet.

He looked on with a sense of foreboding as he left the area.

Maybe he was just tired and went to the dorms first. 

Ye Ran thought but he found it unlikely. Ruo Chen would always wait or accompany him and there were very few instances where he would leave without informing him. The cold part of him wanted to let it go but the kind part of him pushed him to continue searching.

The two sides fought and after a while Ye Ran decided to search around the forest for a while more when the blue screen appeared in front of him again.

"Congratulations! Congratulations! Participant 244, you have placed 2nd in the hunt!" It announced cheerily but Ye Ran did not pay any mind to it and immediately shut it off.

If only he had scrolled, he would have seen that Ruo Chen was ranked 1st.