252 Chapter 252: Inside the Spiritual Road

"That's it?"

After all the hoorah and hype, the students from the various academies gathered in front of what looked like an interdimensional gateway, and were led into an artificial realm that was really just a forest populated by monsters. The teachers in charge gave the usual briefing, and then allowed the student into the realm.

Apparently we were supposed to spend a few months trying to survive here. The rules were simple. Each student was issued a blood token, and we were supposed to steal the blood tokens from each other. Once you had zero blood token, you were automatically kicked out of the realm and lost the game.

If you could call this dangerous training camp a game.

The more blood tokens you obtained, the higher your rank would be, and apparently the more benefits you get. What sort of benefits, I had no idea, but it sure as hell better not be the usual bullshit cultivation resources or spirit pills or martial arts techniques or crystals or whatever nonsense. This wasn't a cultivation novel, and if I saw that word one more time, I swear I will smash my fist through my computer screen (unlike most readers, I don't read Web Novels on my phone, and since I had to write this account, it was easiest for me to do it on a PC).

"What do you intend to do?"

There were five of us from Jing Tian Academy. Harrison Reed, Craig Carlson, Theodore Hammond, Lily Liam and myself. No wonder Dong Fang Yue Chu was so desperate as to try and fight three opponents to gain as many points as possible. He wanted to participate in this training camp together with Lily.

Too bad that plan never came to fruition.

"What do you mean?" Theodore asked when Craig asked the question. The demonic spearman shrugged as if it was obvious.

"Should we work in a team, or should we split up?"

Harrison considered for a moment. "I suggest we stay together." He glanced at the forest, where congregations of students gathered to divide themselves into groups. Naturally students from the same school stuck together. "Being alone is too dangerous. Not only do we have to defend ourselves from monsters inside the forest, we also have to look out for other students attacking us to steal our blood tokens. If we move alone, we'll make ourselves easy targets and end up being picked off one by one. It's necessary for us to watch each other's backs."

"I concur," Theodore agreed seriously. The thought of splitting up and acting independently had never occurred to him, which was why he was puzzled when Craig raised the question. To be honest, I didn't even think about that either. I always assumed we would be cooperating, much like we did during Feng Hai's training camp, and also during the monster invasion of Jing Tian City much later. We had a history of teaming up and working together, so I thought it would be the same here. "Divided, we fall. United, we stand. We'll be much stronger if we stick together."

"I'm fine either way," Craig said indifferently. The spearman was always the maverick, a rogue who did whatever he wanted. But even he saw the benefits of being part of a team. No man was an island, after all.

Even though I believed that, I couldn't believe what I saw when I went through the comments that were popping up in the Web Novel app on my smartphone. Readers were absolutely seething that I chose to party up with my friends. The edge lords in particular were shouting about how they couldn't be trusted, that they would inevitably betray me and try to kill me, and that I should move on my own like every other Mary Sue web novel protagonist out there just so I could hoard whatever treasures I obtained to myself. Never mind I had teamed up with Craig and Theodore before, as well as fought alongside Harrison and Lily during the invasion of Jing Tian City, and we all relied on each other to survive those life-and-death ordeals. I had trusted them back then, and none of them backstabbed me or gave in to treachery. While the situation was somewhat different and we were encouraged to steal each other's blood tokens, I seriously doubted my schoolmates would turn on me this early in the training camp.

Having been through so much, we had forged quite a strong bond. They had given me a lot of reasons to trust them. In contrast, these edge lords ranting about how the world cannot be trusted, how all humans are evil and treacherous, and obsessed with protagonists who could solo everything and claim every treasure for himself and himself alone, were complete strangers on the Internet, randomly spouting edgy and antisocial nonsense without any real understanding of how society or the world worked. granted, I was aware that I couldn't afford to be naïve and overly trusting, but at the same time it was the height of sheer stupidity to give into paranoia, delude yourself into antisocial behavior and lashing out at everyone in the world for no reason other than because it was cool to act all emo, angsty and edgy.

Some readers never thought carefully before they launched into a crusade with their keyboards. The ultimate keyboard warriors, I guess, who thought they understood the "harsh, cruel reality" of the world yet ultimately their battlefield consisted only of online verbal sparring on Internet forums, comment sections and social media. Most of them hadn't even undergone proper military training like I did. Come to think of it, the combat training we received in the magic academies was pretty similar to the military training I underwent back in my previous life.

"It's a pity we don't have Pearl with us," Lily remarked wistfully. The president of the Super Power Society wasn't much of a combatant, so she didn't rack up enough points to qualify for the Spiritual Road Training Camp. However, Pearl Pang's healing magic would undoubtedly be indispensable to us if we wanted to survive. Or prevail.

"Can't be helped. We'll work with who we have. And honestly, I can't think of any better teammates than you guys." Harrison smiled encouragingly. "As long as we work together, we'll be a force to reckon with! Let's start collecting blood tokens as soon as possible!"

Craig grinned. "Now we're talking!"

With that, the five of us went through the interdimensional gate together and were transported right into the forest.

"…"

The five of us glanced around after finding ourselves in a clearing. There was no sign of the other groups, but that was to be expected. After all, it would be no fun if the students immediately got into fights right after being transported into the forest and began eliminating each other within minutes of the start of the training camp.

This wasn't merely to "teach" us, but also for the teachers to watch us come up with tricks and tactics. After all, the whole purpose of the Spiritual Road training camp was for us to obtain information on each other's spells, techniques and magic. What was the point if we begin to launch surprise attacks and start taking out each other before the other party could even react and prepare their magic? The tournament wasn't going to allow such deception, ambush or underhanded tactics.

Moreover, the training camp wasn't solely about pitting students against each other. There was a reason why they bred monsters in the forest we were now transported to.

"Be careful!" I warned the moment I picked up a monstrous presence nearby. It hadn't seemed to notice us yet, and wasn't drawing closer to our direction, but it was still near enough to put me on alert. If we started yelling, we might attract its attention.

However, Craig seemed pretty enthusiastic. Hefting up his spear, he grinned as he proceeded toward the direction of the monster, albeit cautiously. He might be on the reckless side, but he was not an idiot. At least I hoped he wasn't an idiot, but sometimes I doubted it.

"Rank C Fiery Ape," Theodore remarked with a tilt of his head. "I think we can easily handle it."

"Wait," Harrison cautioned. "Don't forget that Fiery Apes always come in swarms. If we attack that Fiery Ape, it will howl and call all of its comrades down upon us. Not to mention, our fighting might attract other enemies."

He was obviously referring to the other students participating in the Spiritual Road camp. They might wait to see if we exhaust ourselves fighting against the Fiery Ape, and then swoop in to take advantage of our momentary vulnerability. Sort of the hunter waiting for two tigers to battle it out and wound each other severely before he dives in and takes both of them out in one fell swoop. Even if we didn't expend all that much mana, we would still be revealing our hand by showing our future opponents what sort of magic or techniques we could use.

"I could kill the Fiery Ape in just one hit before it can call its comrades," Craig said confidently as he twirled his spear almost leisurely.

"But what's the point?" I asked.

"Huh?" Everyone turned toward me. I shrugged.

"What's the point of randomly killing a single monster when it hasn't noticed us? We might as well just avoid it instead of wasting energy. You guys speak of killing so easily, taking away a life as if it's nothing more than a flip of your hand. It's not attacking us at the moment, so what exactly is the point of killing it other than…I don't know? It's not as if we'll be getting any blood token from its corpse?"

Even if the Fiery Ape was a monster, it was still a living, breathing thing. There was no reason to casually take its life just because we could. If it was no threat to us and wasn't bothering us, why should we kill it? Because it was a monster? There was no benefit to killing it other than exposing our position and leaving clues that we had been here.

"Because it's a monster?" Craig replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "All monsters are innately hostile toward humans."

"I don't doubt that, but I'm just pointing out that we can just currently leave it alone instead of exposing our position and leaving behind a trail. If the Fiery Ape's swarm finds its corpse, don't you think they will come after us for revenge? That will put us at a disadvantage, especially if we happen to be engaging one of the other student groups."

Monsters, despite being seemingly not sentient, were extremely cunning. They were known to display an extraordinary amount of intelligence, setting up ambushes, recognizing two different groups of humans and exploiting rivalries to their advantage. Humans were not the only ones who knew of the hunter and two tigers' principle.

"You're saying that they'll figure out who killed their comrade?" Craig asked incredulously.

"Yeah. Monsters are pretty sensitive to mana signatures. They'll detect your mana on the Fiery Ape you killed…especially since it emanates pretty visibly from your spear."

"Richard has a point," Lily agreed. "I've heard of monsters being able to detect specific human mana signatures from up to a mile away and identify particular human targets."

"If they come after us, let them," Craig sneered, tightening his grip on the spear. "I'll slay all of them. They're just rank C monsters."

"That's still a fairly high rank," Harrison pointed out. "Richard has a valid point. We don't want to earn the grudge of the Fiery Apes…not unless we can lure all of them in and wipe out the entire swam in one fell swoop."

"But should we engage in such a large-scale battle so soon?" Theodore asked. "We've to be careful. We don't want to attract the attention of the other student this early in the game and give our magic away."

In any case, the decision was made for us. The Fiery Ape grunted, and glanced to the side before leaving. I sighed in relief, but that feeling was short-lived when someone screamed.

The Fiery Ape bellowed and beat its chest, flames blazing across its crimson fur, before it bounded in the direction of the scream. From that direction, I could hear more roars from other Fiery Apes in the distant. Then the unmistakable sensation of spells being cast in the distance, mana bursts from elemental projectiles launched at the Fiery Apes.

Someone else had run into the Fiery Apes' comrades, and they had called for the entire pack to descend upon the poor dudes.

"What should we do?" I asked.

"I vote we follow them." Craig was grinning. "If we can watch how the other students fight, we'll be able to find out more about their techniques and magic."

"Yeah, that sounds like the best plan. Let's go!" Harrison, taking charge, issued an order, and we all immediately broke into a run, following him.

"Aren't you glad you listened to Richard?" Lily asked Craig as we followed the Fiery Ape while keeping a respectable distance. The black-haired spearman scoffed.

"Well, yeah." He shifted his spear from one hand to another. "I don't like just watching, though."

"If the other students really can't fight the Fiery Apes off, we should help them," I suggested. Harrison and Lily looked at me as if I was mad, but Craig laughed.

"I'm with you on that!"

"Me too." Theodore was smiling, probably knowing what sort of person I was by now.

"…well, it makes sense to have somebody in our debt," Harrison reckoned somewhat reluctantly. "And you're right. I probably won't feel comfortable leaving someone to die right in front of me."

With that matter decided, we continued to pursue the grunting Fiery Ape as it lumbered deeper into the forest.