While Laden moved through the forest, he made sure to pay extra attention due to the experience he just had not too long ago.

"Am I supposed to actively look for beasts to hunt, or just wait till I am attacked?" Laden wondered.

"I am not one who waits for enemies; let’s go look for more stupid evil beasts to hunt," Prime urged.

"You don’t actually expect me to do that, do you," Laden responded.

"Hmph, weakling."

After Laden had decided against actively looking for opponents, Prime went quiet, and now there was nothing for Laden to do.

"I guess I can rest for now," Laden said while resting on a tree.

Despite appearing relaxed, he was actually in an extremely attentive state, listening to any sound that was coming from his surroundings.

But to Laden’s shock, even after he waited for a bit, nothing happened. The only sounds in the surrounding areas were the sounds of the rustling leaves and the wind.

"Nothing is coming uhh," he thought to himself.

As if he jinxed it again the second time, Laden suddenly heard the sound of rustling leaves not too far behind him.

"You could have just not said anything, you know, but that’s good; now we have something to fight for," Prime said excitedly.

Laden strained his ears, hoping to catch the sound of movement again, and he did.

"Something is coming," he said while rushing to his feet.

The previous resting state had been completely shed; Prime had also appeared beside him, ready to delve into his body at a moment’s notice.

The two of them waited in their spot, their guard upped to the extreme, waiting for the impending danger.

But instead of a beast or an opponent, from the rustling bush came a pair of legs.

"Legs," Laden said with a confused face while taking a step backwards.

"Look up," Prime said disgustedly.

Following Prime’s direction, Laden trailed the legs with his eyes, and slowly a human figure came to view the higher he raised his head.

The instant Laden’s eyes met with the slightly glowing green eyes that were staring down at him.

"What the hell," Laden said while taking another step back.

"Is that a humanoid beast?" he thought.

"Wait, wait, don’t run," a very soft voice came from the shadowed figure.

"What the hell," Laden shouted.

He noticed the legs move forward, further away from the darkness and closer into the light.

With the body more visible Laden could now fully observe the figure.

Towering above him was a green-haired, green-eyed youth, or even giant.

Laden had to raise his head extremely high to even see the guy.

"Is he even human?" Laden said in shock.

From his knowledge of anatomy as a whole, Laden found it difficult to believe that someone that small could leave normally.

"Yes, yes, I am human... I think," the green-haired boy responded.

"My name is Caleb; I am a student like you undergoing the test," the green-haired boy continued.

"Caleb? That sounds like a soft name; he should be named something like Gigantus," Prime said from the Nascent Space.

"What the hell, Gigantus. Just keep quiet if you have nothing productive to say," Laden mistakenly said out loud.

Hearing Laden’s words, a slight frown mixed with confusion appeared on Caleb’s face, which Laden also noticed.

"Oh, sorry, sorry. I wasn’t talking to you. What were you doing in the bush?" Laden said, hoping to change the topic.

"Ohhh, I was just looking at some cool plants," Caleb said while scratching his head.

"Cool plants? So plants can be cool; that’s some weird interest," Laden said in an extremely low voice, making sure Caleb didn’t hear what he said.

"Aren’t you worried about the dangers in the surroundings while you were looking at the plants?" Laden asked.

"Uhmmm, nothing has really attacked me since I got here, so I don’t think this place is that scary," Caleb responded.

"But judging by your face and neck, it seems I was wrong," he rushed to add.

"Lucky giant, I got attacked the moment I got here."

"Uhmm, again, I am a human, not a giant, and also, do you need help?" Caleb said while pointing at the injuries on Laden’s face.

Laden wanted to say yes so badly, but since he didn’t really know Caleb, he couldn’t just let himself go and allow someone to use an ability he knew nothing about.

"No -" he was cut off when he noticed a large green plant fluttering appear beside Caleb before diving into his body.

Laden was too distracted trying to look for the changes merging with his brought to Caleb that he didn’t notice when a green burst of energy headed towards him extremely swiftly.

Baaam!

The energy blast hit Laden on the face, sending him flying backwards by quite a bit.

"What the he-," Laden was about to curse out loudly when he noticed something.

The constant stinging and itchy feeling on his face and neck had completely vanished. Now he felt fully healed and invigorated.

"So sorry, I can’t really control that energy blast causing the person to fly backwards every time it hits," Caleb apologized.

"You need to send people flying before you can heal them?" Laden asked.

"Thank you though; I feel much more invigorated now," he said with his eyes locked on Caleb.

Caleb didn’t respond; he only nodded gently, and after that moment, a strange silence pervaded the environment.

"Ha-ha, finally found it," Laden suddenly shouted while pointing at the small leaves that were growing behind Caleb’s ears.

"Haaa, yes, leaves grow on my ears anytime I merge with my summon," Caleb said with a soft chuckle.

Then again, awkward silence pervaded the air, none of the two having any idea what to say to the other.

"I will be leaving now; thanks for the help again," Laden said while grabbing his bag and leaving.

Caleb also nodded and watched Laden move deeper into the forest until he was out of sight.

About ten minutes later, while he walked, Laden’s mind was occupied by thoughts of his recent meeting. But he was still alert, allowing him to hear the rustling sounds that had been following him for a while.

"At the count of three Prime, we merge and charge towards that side," Laden said.

"One. Two. Three," he counted, and then blue fur sprouted out of his body while he charged at his new assailant.