Chapter 218: In the Mountain Forest at Night

After learning that they were approaching the Bandit Camp capable of luring and driving monsters to launch attacks, Kuaitui Maomao became even more cautious.

Although the task Jier had given it was merely to find the place where these bandits were spending the night, and it could have returned immediately to inform Jier of the intelligence to complete the mission Jier had entrusted to it for this trip,

Maomao did not want to report the intelligence to Jier so simply; it wanted to scout more enemy information to be worthy of the one Gold Coin reward Jier had given it.

This was a conscientious and responsible Maomao.

Thus, it softened its movements, carefully moving through the trees while using its night-vision eyes to peer closely at the situation ahead.

Sure enough, bad guys who could boldly spend the night in an uninhabited Shulin could not possibly lack seasoned field experience. Not far away, a common large tree was wafting the scent of snake-repellent powder; a glance might reveal no abnormalities, but Maomao's nose had already told it that there were people there!

It crept closer, especially by raising its position several meters higher in the Shulin, so that the Human Bandit sentry hiding in the tree branches could not discover it at a higher elevation.

Then, it slowly climbed downward from above the opponent's head without making a single unnecessary movement; only after getting close did Maomao see what was going on with this guy!

It turned out that this bandit responsible for keeping watch had draped several pieces of trimmed, mottled old tree bark over himself. Although this bark was not a tree species that grew nearby, in the middle of the night, one could not tell the difference at all without getting this close to look carefully. Therefore, when this bandit sat astride the tree branch, if not for the scent of the powder on his body betraying him, even an excellent Maomao Warrior like Kuaitui Maomao would have almost failed to discover the opponent.

After discovering the specific location of this sentry, Kuaitui Maomao hesitated for a good while, not knowing whether it should deal with this enemy sentry now, or report the enemy's location later and leave it to Jier to resolve?

After its small brain pondered for a good while, it decided to resolve the enemy right now. After all, this enemy's hiding ability was excellent, and it had been difficult for it to discover them; leaving it to Jier and the others would likely ruin things. After all, even if it returned to the Yingdi later to tell Jier and the others the enemy's general location, it would be very difficult for Jier and the others to find this guy in the pitch-black forest.

By then, whether this enemy sentry reported the enemy in advance to sound an alarm, or snuck away during the battle, it would leave this battle with an imperfect regret.

Having finished thinking, Kuaitui Maomao decided to take action early to resolve this trouble. Thus, it slowly and carefully gripped the tree trunk above the person's head and climbed down backward, not making a single extra sound. Its breathing also slowed down and became long, almost impossible to be perceived by Human hearing.

When Maomao was only one meter away from the opponent, almost completely positioned above the opponent's head, Kuaitui Maomao decided to launch an attack.

At this distance, life, death, and battle only required a single instant.

Clang—Puff!

Draw the sword, stab downward.

The short sound of the weapon entering the brain was blocked by the dense Shulin, and at this moment, Maomao's entire body was sitting on the shoulder of this Bandit sentry.

The sharp Steel Dagger stabbed through the gap in the tree-bark hat on the opponent's head, piercing directly in from the back of the head, instantly taking this Human's life.

The Bandit sentry's mouth opened and closed with a wheezing sound, emitting a difficult gasping noise, but his whole body and limbs trembled, unable to do anything, while Maomao just forcefully stirred the handle of the Steel Dagger, making no further movements.

After a good while, the bandit's breathing stopped, and the whole person just sat astride the branch, slumped forward, with limbs trembling from time to time.

"Hoo—"

Only then did Kuaitui Maomao let out a breath and begin to breathe heavily.

It carefully pulled the Dagger out of the corpse's head, not letting blood splatter on its body. Human blood had a very distinct smell and was not easy to clean off once stained, so it carefully wiped its weapon clean on the opponent's corpse before continuing to climb toward the high treetops.

The fact that this Bandit sentry was resolved did not mean there were no other sentries around; Kuaitui Maomao decided to resolve all the surrounding Bandit sentries, then take a look at the situation in the opponent's Yingdi, and after confirming there were no problems, return to Jier's side immediately.

In the Shulin, a Snake-Hunting Badger was walking along a game trail on the forest floor, swaggering along aimlessly.

It had no intention of concealing its figure at all; after all, even if its Scout action were discovered and seen by someone, it was currently in the guise of an ordinary wild beast, and it was truly normal for such a beast to appear in the mountains and forests.

But this beast, which looked like it was swaggering, was whispering some common Human language in its mouth at this moment. If anyone could eavesdrop, they would find that these words were all complaints.

Suddenly, the Snake-Hunting Badger, which had been muttering to itself in a low voice, stopped in its tracks; its hard nose pointed forward, sniffing carefully to the left and right.

It seemed to have smelled something.

A very faint scent of Human blood was drifting in the air.

It was relatively familiar with this smell; after all, previously in the mountains and forests of southern Sasi County, it had led several companions from the Flower Mushroom Tribe to eat a few Humans one after another.

The taste of Humans fascinated it; especially unlike the useless wild beasts of the mountains and forests, after devouring a Human's brain, it could easily grasp some knowledge and skills possessed by Humans from the Human brain matter.

For example, how to farm, how to dig wells, how to twist Rope, how to weave clothing with coarse hemp, etc. Although none of it was of any use, Ruier'erui always felt it was very interesting and made it feel great! Its strength increased with the mastery of knowledge and skills!

Unlike the stupid kin in the tribe that were split and propagated by it, Ruier'erui had some ambition; it would not be content with being driven out of the rich mountains and forests deep in the Southern Mountains by other powerful kin. It wanted to accumulate strength and power to kill its way back into the rich areas deep in the mountains in the future!

And quickly mastering strength and power through various Human knowledge and skills was something it had been calculating in its heart recently. Of course, directly devouring some powerful Monsters and Magic Beasts through Jier, a Human Knight with formidable strength, to allow it to attempt to transform into the opponent, was also a traditional method of strength improvement for a shapeshifter.

So at this moment, sniffing the scent of fresh Human blood nearby, it could not help but change direction and stroll toward the source of the bloody smell.

Just as before, it swaggered through the grass and bushes, stepping casually on the dry leaves on the forest floor, not worried at all about being discovered.

If it were discovered, so be it; if the opponent saw it and didn't care, that was fine, and if they really wanted to fight it, it wouldn't mind.

Even if its identity as a shapeshifter were exposed, it wouldn't matter; after all, this was an uninhabited mountain forest, right? It was truly normal for some terrifying shapeshifters to appear in the mountains and forests!

Every time it thought of those Humans being frightened by the Human forms they, the shapeshifters, transformed into, it would secretly gloat in its heart.

But its luck was clearly not very good today. Just as it stepped onto the soft, withered leaves on the ground and lifted its foot, it triggered a snare trap, and the entire Snake-Hunting Badger was hung upside down by the suddenly tightened and lifted Rope.

"Dog shit! Dog shit! How embarrassing!"

It complained twice, pretending to be panicked while hanging upside down, swinging its four paws and scratching and clawing wildly.

But after messing around like this for a while, no one came to check; no one cared about its feigned appearance at all.

"So embarrassing, I look like an idiot, just like that stupid guy Kekelifu (a shapeshifter who was previously its subordinate)."

After complaining, the paw of its trapped right hind leg underwent a transformation, changing into a pitch-black snake tail with scales, and with a 'whoosh', it slipped out of the Rope.

After landing, it changed the snake tail back into the paw of a Snake-Hunting Badger. This kind of partial transformation consumed more of its mental energy compared to a full transformation; in battle, it could not use the situation of transforming individual limbs separately. It was only useful for escaping traps like this.

"Bloody smell, hmph, I guess the guy guarding this trap is already dead. No wonder no one came, but it doesn't matter, this master will come to help you collect the corpse!" The Snake-Hunting Badger smiled and followed the bloody smell forward; of course, this time it paid special attention to the traps on the ground.

Believe it or not, it really did find two alarms and traps set on the game trail for hunting.

Finally, the Snake-Hunting Badger arrived under a large tree. Although it couldn't see it, it could smell a small puddle of blood dripping from the tree on the ground, and that unlucky guy who had clearly died not long ago was hanging on the tree.

The shapeshifter Ruier'erui was not a young shapeshifter that had just split off; having mastered the transformations of various Human and animal forms, the time it had spent wandering in the mountains and forests was far longer than the lifespan of an average person, and it naturally had a lot of similar experience.

"Hmph hmph, there are no claw marks from climbing on the tree trunk, only the stench of Human stinky feet rubbing and stepping. The person died in the tree. And the corpse was not taken away; the guy who killed this person was not doing it for predation, but simply to kill this Human. Interesting..."

Because the Snake-Hunting Badger liked to climb trees to hunt snakes, it naturally possessed excellent tree-climbing abilities. Ruier'erui didn't need to change into another form either, directly utilizing the Snake-Hunting Badger's climbing ability to climb up the tree trunk in a few movements.

Soon, a Human Bandit fully covered in the protection of mottled tree bark was discovered by Ruier'erui.

Why could it easily confirm that this person was a bandit? Because this person had a foul stench of not bathing or paying attention to hygiene for a long time. Like those people in the Caravan, whether it was the Shop Assistant or the Steward, including the Warriors under Jier, and those Dwarves, everyone would find an opportunity to bathe and clean themselves on the road if conditions permitted, to ensure they were clean and hygienic.

Moreover, when Merchants went out to do business, if everyone had a stench on them, it was difficult to leave a good impression on others, and naturally, it was difficult to conduct commercial activities.

Ruier'erui had heard all these principles secretly in the Caravan, and it also felt that this method of eavesdropping on others' conversations to master some knowledge, experience, and skills was quite good. After all, eavesdropping carried no risk, and no one would specifically avoid a Huimao Hu Li, right?

At this moment, it used its claws to flip this guy over, pushed aside the mottled old tree bark covering the opponent's body, and immediately followed the source of the dripping blood to find a flat, deep wound on the back of the bandit's head.

"Oh, it was actually killed by a metal weapon. But this person was clearly a sentry; to be secretly killed by someone else, how truly incompetent!"

Cursing aside, faced with the human corpse within easy reach, it did not restrain itself; after looking left and right in the trees to discover no one was spying on it, Ruier'erui specifically enlarged the mouth of the Snake-Hunting Badger and, with one bite, snapped off the man's entire head.

After swallowing the head, it dropped the dead body from the tree branch and, feeling dizzy, lay down in the spot the man had previously occupied, beginning to digest the information of this Bandit. Once it finished digesting the Bandit's head, it would be able to transform into this person's appearance and master some of the memories the person held most deeply, as well as their most proficient skills.

The Shapeshifter completely forgot the task Jier had entrusted to it, happily lay down on the tree, and began to sleep soundly just like that.

Kuaitui Maomao searched around the Bandit Camp and found and killed a total of three sentry Bandits.

Afterward, it confirmed there were no more sentry Bandits nearby who had applied snake-repellent powder, and only then did it crawl even more cautiously to the highest point of the trees, moving toward the Bandit Camp from the tree canopy where it was not easily discovered.

Just as Jier had said before coming with it, the ground of the overnight Yingdi had been simply cleared by the Bandits, a campfire was lit in the middle, and facing the direction Maomao came from, these Bandits had actually set up a large black cloth; the unknowledgeable Maomao could not see what the intention of these Bandits was.

And in the middle of the Yingdi, those Bandits were also very experienced and did not sleep directly on the forest floor, but instead used Rope to weave a kind of sleeping net, hanging both ends on tree trunks off the ground, allowing themselves to be suspended above the ground while sleeping, completely avoiding the harassment and infestation of some snakes, insects, rats, and ants on the ground.

It was already midnight, yet most of the Bandits had not slept, instead sitting around the campfire, gathered together in a depressed atmosphere waiting for something.

Maomao could not understand what they were doing, so after counting the number of people, including the three Bandits killed on the perimeter, it matched the number of Bandits Jier had told it, so it came secretly and left secretly without anyone noticing.

On the way back, Kuaitui Maomao hummed triumphantly, because after the occasional teaching by Jier these past few days, it could already use its fingers to count up to over thirty in one breath.

Count four numbers with the four fingers on the right hand, then extend one finger on the left hand; when all four fingers on the left hand were extended, the number was sixteen! Continue counting, and every time four more numbers passed on the right hand, retract one finger on the left hand; after counting everything, that was thirty-two numbers!

Although it was not much, Kuaitui Maomao already felt it was very amazing; in the past, it actually could not even count to ten, and only their leader, Yongqi Maomao, could keep counting without using fingers.

It believed that as long as Jier taught it to count, it would definitely be more capable than its leader in the future.

Just as Maomao was walking back on the tree canopy, it suddenly discovered a Human on the forest floor below, walking hurriedly from outside the forest toward the camp where the Bandits were spending the night.

The instinct of a Warrior made it realize it could not let this person who returned from the outside join up with the others; just like when they, the Maomao, hunted, they had to let the hunted prey be separated so that each could not grasp effective information about the environment.

So it did not hesitate, dropping directly down from the tree canopy; while still in mid-air, it had already drawn the Steel Dagger carried on its back, and nimbly used its tail to slap the branches it missed while falling to slow down.

Whether it was the sound of the Dagger being drawn in mid-air that alerted this person, the soaking wet Bandit suddenly looked up; although he saw nothing, he still realized the danger, and his whole body turned to the side, dodging Maomao's attack by a hair's breadth.

"What is that?"

Because Maomao's body was small and the surroundings were pitch black, this Bandit could only sense that the attack did not come from a Human, but he had clearly heard the sound of a weapon being unsheathed just now?

He drew a Cleaver from his waist and swung the weapon wildly at the place where the thing that attacked him had landed, but the whistling Cleaver flailing about failed to hit anything.

The next moment, his left ankle was entangled by something furry, and with a hard pull, he screamed in terror and fell to the ground. But this experienced Bandit continued to roll in the direction of his fall, accidentally dodging the strike Maomao stabbed out.

And because of weight factors, although Maomao could suddenly pull this person down, once this person started rolling on the ground, it could not pull the person over with its tail; in fact, it was almost dragged away by the opponent.

Releasing its tail in time, the person rolled away wildly, then scrambled up in a panic, identified the direction, and ran toward the direction of their Yingdi without stopping.

"Meow!!!"

Maomao became anxious, put away the Dagger, got on all fours, and even used its tail to assist in running, urgently chasing the guy fleeing in front.

It must not let him join up with the other Bandits!