After Cane leapt through the window, he quickly realised his folly.
Cane... was quite high up. And there was a long fall down. All that time killing people had made Cane feel a sense of invincibility, but he quickly remembered that he wasn't even a full rank Combatant, let alone an Apprentice Warrior like Noelle was.
Cane spread out his arms wide, using the Omnitool to latch the corners of his cloak to his hands and feet. He hoped that it'd act somewhat similarly to a parachute, allowing Cane's fall to slow down.
Then, as he began falling, something strange happened.
Thunk!
"... What?" Cane stood up in bewilderment. He... stood on the air. Is this some type of glass? Why is it so clear, and who put this layer of glass here?
Cane knelt down to feel at the invisible substance. He decided not to think too hard about it, and shrugged briefly. Cane then sat down on the invisible glass, which was slightly slanted. He began to slide his way down to the ground. As he slid, the slope gradually steepened, forcing him to adopt his previous strategy.
Boom!
Cane hit the ground, feeling his bones rattle and slightly crack at the impact. As the dust cleared, he turned to stare at the invisible dome. Indeed, the glass's shape was a dome, Cane gathered. Inside the dome was a vast expanse of forest, which Cane had the pleasure of viewing on his trip down to ground floor.
Cane walked forward and knocked on the invisible wall.
"Hello? What's with this barrier?" Cane spoke, but of course no one answered.
For the next half an hour, he continued trying different ways to enter the barrier, but to no avail. Finally, after pushing against the border, he accidently stumbled through. Catching himself, he looked around in the forest.
I wonder where this is. Clearly, these forests are purposefully cultivated by the Inner City, but what do they use them for? And what was the purpose of that barrier? Cane began to head deeper inside the forest, looking around curiously.
After all, it was the first time he'd seen so many plants.
...
Instructor Lucian opened the gate to their school's hunting grounds.
The Hunting Grounds was a carefully cultivated area, filled with monsters and wildlife - from rank 1 all the way to rank 3. It was made specifically for their school's young prodigies and geniuses to go and train, for real live combat.
The monsters were sourced directly from the Empty Districts, a wasteland which had long been run through by monsters and currently inhabited many different species. It happened during an incident over 40 years back, when a rank 5 monster managed to drill through the base of Central Cities, entering the area. After that, it settled down and went to sleep, but other monsters of lower ranks entered through the hole it'd created.
To this day, the Empty Districts remained a cesspool of breeding, multiplying monsters. Only periodically could Masters and higher ranked awakened enter the Empty Districts and clean it - to a limited extent.
That's where the schools came in. More specifically, it was the Combat Schools. They were responsible for training new Masters, undergoing special techniques and resources to help create more Master ranks. They simulated the environments of the Empty Districts, using this special forest.
As Instructor Lucian watched the young prodigies and geniuses enter The Hunting Grounds, he wondered how they'd fare. There were five people in total, each at the Combatant rank.
Hopefully nothing goes wrong...
In the distance, a flying parrot was caught by a giant frog. As it got slowly consumed, it began to shriek in a garbled way, saying a totally random mixture of words..
"It will definitely go wrong! THERE'S SOMEONE ELSE IN HERE."
"What the f*ck? That's... creepy as." Lucian couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. Was that foreshadowing?
His shadow seemed to move slightly forward, indicating that it was indeed a foreshadow.
...
Sizzle... sizzle...
A meaty-looking rabbit was getting cooked over a fire, with Cane occasionally turning the spit in order to evenly roast it. He sat on a dead crocodile, which had feathers in-between its scales.
Although Cane didn't know where he was, that didn't matter too much. He'd had enough of humans for a while - it was time to sit back, relax, and enjoy nature. He turned the rabbit meat once more, before checking it over.
"Finally, it's done! I wonder what rank 2 meat tastes like?" Cane began to dig into the meat, ripping the durable muscles apart using his teeth. Instantly, Cane felt something shocking.
What the... what is THIS? Cane felt his strength greatly increase. First, it was his physique. Next, he somehow felt the proficiency of his different skills rise - despite the fact that he hadn't used them just then. Cane fell into a silence.
All his life, Cane had only eaten mortal foods. Even the monsters killed at the Borders were shipped off to some government storage facility, somewhere out there. Thus, he'd never gotten the chance to taste awakened flesh. As he felt his skills continue to increase in proficiency, he had an epiphany.
Could it be, that eating monsters is a way to level up? Faster than actually practising the skills themselves? As Cane thought of this, he also realised why Noelle had somehow become an Apprentice Warrior at such a young age. Noelle, being from a wealthy family, must've had the chance to eat plenty of monster meat from a young age.
"Still... I think the strength increase will still depend on your talent and understanding. Otherwise, it'd probably just go into increasing your physique." Cane couldn't help but notice that the increase to his skill proficiency wasn't nearly as much as his physique.
Furthermore, Cane could somehow tell that the increase to his skill proficiency wasn't infinitely repeatable. Instead, he naturally gained an understanding whilst eating the meat - as long as he continued to practise his skills, he could enjoy extra benefits from eating awakened meat.
Cane suddenly stood up. Then, he turned and stared at the dead crocodile before him.
"Hmm. I've never eaten crocodile before, have I?"
...
The five prodigies slowly travelled through the forest, their eyes wary and alert.
The most promising, Cassidy, stood at the front of the team. She had the rare ability Teleport, although it was only for short distances. Furthermore, it was somewhat slow acting and glitchy. Her second ability was Nightmare, which allowed her to induce fear, hallucinations and mental pain within her target.
Frytz stood at the side, working as a scout. He had a rare physique buffing skill, Rush. It allowed him to double his speed for about 10 seconds. His second skill was Hook, an ability which allowed him to choose a target within 50 metres and automatically move towards the target.
Indeed, skills which increased the physique of an awakener were very rare. Most of them were conditional, and almost none of them could be maintained forever. Thus, Frytz was a rare prodigy who'd surely become powerful one day.
As long as no one killed him, that is. But surely, it was too rare for someone to have a physique buffing skill which could be activated permanently, right? Thus, Frytz was safe. Probably.
Well, rarity was kind of useless when referring to this group of prodigies. That was because the person on the right of Cassidy also had a physique buffing skill.
Jeremy acted as a tank, or main damage dealer within the team. His skill, Desperation, allowed his strength to increase with the more wounds he took. He also had a relatively useless skill, Conceal. All it did was blur out a part of his body, blending it with the surroundings.
While it might've sounded impressive, it was clearly built for the long run. After all, he could only Conceal his face.
Gabriel stood behind them. He had two powerful support skills. One was called Battle Song, which boosted the strength of anyone within a certain range of himself while he sung. His second skill was Blind, which would, as the name suggest, make his targets unable to see.
Finally, Susie was the last, standing with Gabriel. She had the rare ability - Heal - and almost no one had this skill. Although it wasn't super powerful at the moment, it'd get better as she grew stronger. Her second ability was Summon, which allowed her to create a phantom rank 1 dog, using it for scouting, self-defence, tracking and many more.
Thus, one could see that this was a powerful lineup. They were the future Monster Cleansing Team which the Combat Schools had prepared, and their first time getting battle experience with monsters couldn't be interfered with by anyone.
No one could follow them secretly, no one could monitor them either. If the Combat School did do this, then the feeling of real danger would disappear.
Unfortunately, it also meant that if some monster of a man found them, they'd be unable to defend themselves against him.
Suddenly, Cassidy called the team to a halt.
"There's smoke up ahead. Be alert - we're supposed to be alone in this forest, which means someone else managed to get in." Cassidy turned around. "Frytz, go scout. If you encounter any danger, use Rush and head back immediately. Susie, send your phantom dog to go with him and tell us what you see from here."
While the team was somewhat wary, they were still quite naive. If they actually knew who they were spying on and what he'd done, they'd do their best to run.
But now, it was too late. The only question was -
Is Cane too far gone, or is he still good enough to not kill everyone he meets?