Chapter 32: Four armed monkeys
Joel couldn’t shake off the feeling that he got from Raze just now. It was a feeling that told him Raze would not hesitate to end him if he didn’t stop prying.
Joel made a mental note to not look into anything about Raze. He wanted to stay alive, and some information was not worth his life at all.
Raze finished cutting up the flesh to the level that his strip could carry. He cleaned his hands on the skin of the beast and stood up.
"This forest should have a stream. We should try to find it. The issue is that the stream is deep inside the forest," Raze said and started walking.
"Why is that an issue? Is it because of the distance?" Joel asked.
"No, because the deeper you go inside, the more beasts we will encounter. You should know that this forest is not really a normal one. It’s a special forest, a controlled environment that the academy created.
So the beasts inside this forest are not all supposed to be here. There is a wide range of beasts here. The academy didn’t care if this was their real habitat. All they wanted was to make sure that they put enough beasts inside.
And most of these beasts choose the inner part of the forest to stay. I know that right now it seems like there are really no beasts inside here, but that’s pretty much because we are still in the outskirts.
When we make it into the inner levels, the number of beasts will rise so rapidly you would not even believe it," Raze explained.
"Then why are we heading deeper inside? Shouldn’t we stay as close to the outskirts as possible? That way, we make it through the survival."
"You see, you didn’t listen to me the first time we came here, because I’m very sure that I told you that I want to hunt beasts. That’s the first reason why I want to head deeper into the forest.
The second reason is that we don’t have a choice. And do you know why we don’t have a choice?"
"No, I don’t see why we would not have the choice of just staying here," Joel said.
"Well, the stream is located at the deepest parts of this forest. Yeah, the place where the beasts reside.
Now, if you have taken a look at the bottle of water that we were given, that bottle would only survive one drink, and if you really push it, it would survive two.
The academy wants us to run out of water, and with the conditions around us, we are forced to be active, and that would make us thirsty again. You would need water.
You could probably hold up for a day without water, but on the second day, it becomes extreme, and you really want water—sorry, I mean really need water at this point.
You then have two choices: continue the survival and head for the stream, or give up and go back to the academy.
So you see, not only are the beasts the problem here, but the elements are also a problem. The academy has made sure that no one can stay in the outskirts past a day.
You either give up or continue to march forward. And as for us, we are marching forward," Raze said.
Joel understood what Raze said. He understood why they needed to go into the deeper regions. Raze was really his only chance of actually surviving, so he might as well trust Raze and follow.
As they walked, Raze suddenly asked Joel a question. "Joel, I’ve not really paid attention, but what type of mage are you?" Raze asked.
"Huh? Oh yeah, I’m actually a dual mage, or I was supposed to be. I had two types of Mana that I was attuned to, but only one could be identified, and that was earth.
As for the second one, even after sixteen years, we have not been able to figure out what exactly that Mana is. The doctors and medical mages that we have met said there is a possibility it will show itself in the future. It’s a fifty-fifty," Joel explained.
"I see. So now you are just an earth mage. That’s useful if you know how to use it. What can you do with yours?" Raze asked.
"Just the basics. I can create some earth out of nothing. I can manipulate the earth we stand on, though it’s nothing special," Joel said.
"I see," Raze said, his voice sounding a little bit disappointed at the fact that that was all Joel could do.
They kept walking, and after close to an hour, they started hearing some sounds coming from the trees—hooting like owls, but louder and from all over.
Raze immediately remembered what he had read. These were coming from a four-armed monkey. The issue was that this beast didn’t stay alone; they stayed in huge packs, and these packs also had a rank-one leader at best.
"Joel, you’ll have to run, and I mean run like your life depended on it. No matter what you do, don’t stop running," Raze said and immediately started running. Joel was confused, but he heeded Raze’s warning and ran after him.
After they started running, the monkeys came out of the trees and started swinging after them, screaming and yelling loudly as they chased.
Joel heard the sounds around him and knew something was chasing them. He pushed himself to run faster, but it was hard for him.
The monkeys swung faster, over fifty of them chasing after Raze and Joel with full vigor. Some came to the ground and started picking up rocks, throwing them at Raze and Joel.
The rocks whistled past their heads with amazing speed. A single one to the back of the head could knock out or kill a person.
Raze began thinking as he ran, trying to find ways to deal with a group of fifty. If he kept running, they would eventually get him, and he couldn’t decide to fight them. He needed a plan—quick.