"Well, let's wrap this up. Your training is officially over. Congrats." Fushigiro smiled. Then his gaze turned to the starry sky as if it could penetrate through the veil of darkness and went on. "Let's go."
As he said this, Fushigiro walked near the edge of the cliff, ready to jump. However, Caleb shook his head.
"I still want to try something. I'll just follow later."
Fushigiro nodded his head. Although he didn't know what Caleb wanted to try. He gave Caleb a last look before jumping to the cliff.
"Well, don't be too late! We will return to the house!"
After Fushigiro left, the silence of the place resumed. Caleb scanned the fog that had grown thicker in some places and the eerie forest just behind him.
'Now that I'm alone. Let's try it.'
With a smirk, Caleb repeated the same movement before. He contracted all his muscles from his calves and he easily did it due to his mind-muscle connection. However, this time, his feet exuded a violet aura.
WOOSH!
Caleb kicked the ground three times in one second. The sound of the kicks bursting through the air resounded in the quiet area and echoed. Unlike before, Caleb instantly reappeared three meters away from his original place. And his breath was steady as mt. tai.
'Hmmm... With the infusion of taboo energy. The effectiveness of Deka Step improved to at least two steps!'
In the end, he wrapped taboo energy on his Odachi, which allowed him to inflict a deep gush on the Octavian Bear's flesh, earning him the ire of the beast. As a result, he got all the aggro of the beast, the damn bastard focused on him and he could only save his life by constantly using Deku Step.
It was a scary experience, being chased by a crazy, powerful four-meter bear. Fortunately, Fushiguro ended the farce with his soft fist.
"Captain, why didn't you intervene a bit earlier?" Caleb couldn't help but feel wronged, which earned him Fushigiro's chuckle. "Well, I just want to see how you would fare alone with an Octavian Bear."
Dunn smiled and nodded. "Don't blame the captain. It was fun while it lasted."
'Darned bastard!'
Caleb gritted his teeth. Athena and Rina had small smiles on their face as they watched the spectacle.
Still, the battle wasn't for nothing. At least, he got a reference on his current strength. With the right circumstances and relying on the taboo energy, he has the ability to injure an Octavian Bear.
...
In just an hour, they got out of the Forest of Death and arrived at the road situated between two mountains towering 14,764 ft. Just as they appeared, they saw a herd of mutated deers rush at them frenzily.
Dunn, Jin, and Miles made quick work out of them while Caleb put small stones infused with taboo energy between the tip of his middle finger and index finger and flicked it lightly to put a hole in their foreheads.
Without other obstacles, they passed the heart of the road smoothly. However, not long after, they saw two familiar silhouettes ten meters from their position.
'What are the two doing here?' Caleb muttered with a deep crease on his forehead.