Chapter 95: First Batch of Hunting Team Members [95

Xia Chuan's strength is definitely not weak among all the Woodcutting Realm members in the camp.

Not only is he not weak, but without considering combat experience, he is even highly likely to be the strongest one.

Yet even so, he could only last thirty-nine breaths against an adult snow-mane.

Only the Earth-Digging Realm has hunting capability; this is truly not an empty statement.

The impact force and speed generated when a snow-mane bursts with full power are things the Woodcutting Realm cannot match, not to mention the long tongue in its mouth, which always catches people off guard at critical moments.

In a life-and-death battle, the Woodcutting Realm is simply not enough to look at in front of a snow-mane; even ironware cannot bridge this gap.

Although Xia Chuan didn't use a great blade or bow and arrow, the black blade and white thread in his hands were much more powerful than ironware, yet even so, he only lasted thirty-nine breaths.

Luo Yuan and the others who were watching, after the wooden dummy reported Xia Chuan's score, all had much more solemn expressions; clearly, they were all very uncertain in their hearts.

"Alright, Xia Chuan will be responsible for the next selection. Just tell me the results when they're out later!"

The score of thirty-nine breaths left Xia Hong with no interest in continuing to watch. He instructed Xia Chuan to be responsible for the selection, while he himself carried a goat-horn chisel and walked alone toward a small cave on the south side of the valley.

On the edge of the cave entrance grew a large patch of strange black plants.

The plants were only the size of a finger and pitch-black all over. Although they only had a single root stem, they grew at least twenty or thirty tiny leaves, which were feather-shaped and distributed evenly on both sides.

Pure black plants were already rare, let alone such a large patch.

"By the way, I wonder if this black caltrop can be used as medicine. I'll use the decoction pot to identify it later and try."

Xia Hong's mind stirred slightly; he picked a black caltrop and then walked into the cave.

The cave was not deep, only about five meters, and the passageway was simply supported by thick wood. The rock body of the inner wall at the deepest part was clearly different in color from the passageway and the perimeter; not only did it glow with a layer of pitch-black luster, but when touched, it also had an ice-cold, bone-chilling texture.

This cave was naturally the iron mine of the Luo Ge camp that had not yet been fully mined.

Busy with relocation and hunting these past few days, plus there was still a surplus of iron ore, Xia Hong hadn't come to look. Today, having finally found some free time, he naturally had to come and see.

A single animal trap consumed more iron ore than a great blade. Even without counting the needs for system building upgrades, in the future, as the number of people in the camp's Earth-Digging Realm increased, the demand for iron ore for hunting alone would surely be extremely terrifying.

Not to mention, there were many other tools and equipment that could use it.

Xia Hong groped and checked inside the cave for a while, found a suitable location for mining, gathered his spirit and Qi, raised the goat-horn chisel, and fiercely chiseled at the rock wall.

Clang...

The goat-horn chisel collided with the rock wall, emitting a loud noise, and sparks flew in all directions instantly.

Xia Hong stepped forward, looked at the shallow white mark on the rock wall, and didn't feel discouraged; he just took a breath and continued to chisel at the original position, one strike after another.

Clang... Clang... Clang... Clang...

Like the process of forging iron, Xia Hong's continuous chiseling caused sparks to fly everywhere in the cave. The shallow white mark on the original rock body continuously deepened and expanded until two hours later, it finally fractured completely.

Clatter...

As a fist-sized piece of iron ore rolled to the ground and made a sound, Xia Hong, who was already soaked through, could no longer bear the soreness in his arms and fiercely threw away the goat-horn chisel.

Xia Hong walked up panting, picked up the iron ore, roughly weighed it, and couldn't help but shake his head repeatedly.

"Forty-plus jin, this mining difficulty is simply nightmare-level!"

The difficulty of iron mining was high; although he had been mentally prepared before, only after truly experiencing it did Xia Hong realize just how difficult it was.

When he chiseled the first time just now, he realized that, just like when forging ironware, unrefined iron ore also had extremely strong rebound force. Without a base strength of over ten thousand jin, even with a goat-horn chisel, it simply couldn't be chiseled.

Secondly, there was the growth pattern of iron ore; just like the black caltrop, it was dozens of pieces of iron ore of varying sizes growing along a main stem. That main stem was also iron ore, but because it was too large, its hardness far exceeded the branches.

Therefore, chiseling those iron ores of varying sizes off one by one along the edge of the main stem was the most labor-saving and time-saving mining method.

"Two hours, forty-plus jin; with this mining intensity, I can at most come twice a day. That is to say, I can at most mine about one hundred jin of iron ore a day!"

Only now did Xia Hong understand why the Luo Ge camp hadn't been able to popularize ironware for so many years, and even ten-forged weapons hadn't been fully popularized.

They only had five Earth-Digging Realm experts in total before; it was impossible for them to come and mine every day. Moreover, after mining iron ore, coal was needed for smelting, and mining coal was another terrifyingly physical job.

"I heard before that an Earth-Digging Realm expert could only mine two hundred jin of coal a day and didn't quite believe it. Now it seems that mining two hundred jin of coal a day is probably not that easy."

Hu...

Xia Hong took a deep breath, picked up the iron ore on the ground, and walked straight out of the cave. Currently, there were still 420 points of iron resources in the system, which would definitely be enough for the short term, so he wasn't in a hurry to mine.

In fact, for the current camp, the most cost-effective way to use iron ore was to forge ten-forged weapons.

But the problem was that Woodcutting Realm members like Luo Yuan and Xia Chuan, even if equipped with weapons, had greatly improved strength, but it was still not enough to let them hunt in coordination. Just like the attempt by the Big Stone camp some time ago, the risk remained very high.

Therefore, five great blades and eleven bows and arrows were definitely enough for now.

As for the ordinary people in the camp, having three iron blades and five hammers was enough for them to make some wooden tools; there was no need to add new ones in the short term.

When he walked out of the cave entrance, the sky was already showing light, and there was no one outside the wooden house. Not seeing the wooden dummy, he knew the selection had ended. Sensing that the chill outside was becoming increasingly heavy, Xia Hong walked quickly back to the wooden house.

Entering the wooden house, Xia Hong saw the fifteen people standing by the iron-melting furnace at a glance. As he approached, Xia Chuan also reported the names of the fifteen people one by one.

"Leader, the selection has ended. The fifteen people selected are: Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan, Huang Yong, Zhao Long, Hong Gang, Zhao Hu, Zhao Bao, Li Yun, Li Pingkai, Ying Xuan, Yuan Cheng, Yue Feng, Zou Yuankai, Qiu Peng, and Zhu Shun; the one who lasted the longest was me, thirty-nine breaths, and the shortest was Zhu Shun, seventeen breaths."

Following the names reported by Xia Chuan, Xia Hong also carefully looked at everyone.

The Luo Ge camp had a good foundation; he wasn't surprised that Luo Yuan and the other eight were selected.

Huang Yong and Hong Gang were the leaders of the two previous camps and had rich experience in fighting and the wilderness, so it wasn't strange that they were selected. That person named Zhu Shun, standing next to Huang Yong, should be a Woodcutting Realm member who merged in from Huang Zhao's camp.

However, Xia Hong was truly surprised that Yuan Cheng, Yue Feng, and Qiu Peng were also selected. The time these three broke through to the Woodcutting Realm was similar to Xia Chuan's, but they didn't have Xia Chuan's luck to obtain the means of the wooden puppet ghost.

That the three could be selected for the hunting team showed that they had also put in a lot of hard work in their cultivation during this period.

"Alright, then you fifteen are the members of Does Da Xia's first hunting team. Starting from Xia Chuan, according to the ranking order, everyone choose one weapon; great blades and bows and arrows, choose as you please."

Xia Chuan nodded upon hearing this and walked to the side of the great blades.

Seeing this, the crowd's expressions suddenly became somewhat nervous. There were only four great blades; according to the method Xia Hong said, the first few would definitely choose blades.

Then those behind could only choose bows and arrows...

However, to everyone's surprise, Xia Chuan didn't choose a blade but picked a longbow, turned his head, and smiled at the crowd: "My black blade is much stronger than this great blade; leave the blades for you all to use!"

Everyone was stunned upon hearing this, and immediately afterward, they all revealed a trace of shame.

Xia Chuan's black blade was indeed strong, but that wasn't the reason he didn't choose a blade.

They, these Woodcutting Realm members, didn't have the ability to hunt in the first place. Now going out was nothing more than assisting Xia Hong and helping out; the safety of holding a great blade was clearly much stronger than a bow.

Xia Chuan choosing a bow instead of a blade was clearly out of humility; how could they not know?

Sure enough, starting from Luo Yuan, the crowd didn't stare at the great blades anymore but combined their own abilities to choose weapons suitable for themselves.

Seeing this scene, Xia Hong nodded slightly, feeling some gratification in his heart.

A team that is too selfish is destined not to go far, especially in this extremely harsh environment. If everyone only focuses on the small gains in front of them, then falling apart is only a matter of time.

That Does Da Xia, just merged from four groups, could reach this point was already a great improvement.

(End of chapter)