Chapter 286: The Monster That Devours Fawns and the Traces

In the blurred light cast by the campfire opposite, Zhao Ji saw a pitch-black object slowly descending from above the fire; the thing was about a meter thick and looked cylindrical in shape.

The six-legged fawn struggled incessantly on the spot, but it was too small, and its six legs could not exert enough force to break free from the rope around its neck or the wooden nail pinning the rope to the ground.

"Moo! Moo! Moo-moo!" The fawn shook its head and cried out in panic, but it was to no avail; the thick black shadow above its head continued to slowly approach it from overhead.

Zhao Ji's eyes were wide open, watching everything not far away without moving a muscle.

After the thick black shadow above the fawn's head silently neared the fawn's crown, it opened its lower end—a mouth or something similar—to a width of at least over one hundred and twenty degrees.

This thing silently bit the wailing fawn whole into its mouth, and after finally snapping the rope that had been tied around the fawn's neck, it began to rise slowly.

The fawn's constant wailing disappeared the moment that pitch-black giant mouth closed.

Zhao Ji hesitated over whether to launch a sneak attack from the hidden pit he had dug.

However, just as Zhao Ji was hesitating and considering, that strange thing that had swallowed the six-legged fawn whole did not retract into the mist-like air at a slow speed, but instead swished upward rapidly and vanished into the strange white mist surrounding the area that the campfire could not reach.

Seeing that the thing had disappeared, Zhao Ji also loosened his hand gripping the sword hilt.

No wonder the people before had mysteriously vanished directly; it turned out they had been swallowed whole by that monster in this manner. From what he had just witnessed, the fawn had not made a single sound after being swallowed. Whatever kind of monster this thing was, it at least possessed a very powerful ability for stealthy sneak attacks.

If traveling merchants were careless, it was indeed possible for the people keeping watch to inexplicably and silently disappear.

After all, if Zhao Ji hadn't been hiding here himself, if he had been staying outside just like that fawn, he reckoned it would have been very difficult for him to notice what was happening nearby, especially with this thick layer of white mist all around.

It was clearly below freezing, yet these things that obstructed one's vision still appeared; it was very strange, and no matter how one looked at it, it did not look like something that appeared naturally.

After waiting for a while, Zhao Ji continued to remain still, while the white mist that had been obscuring his vision so greatly began to gradually dissipate, just as mysteriously as it had arrived.

After the white mist dissipated, Zhao Ji was finally able to clearly see everything around him again; the campfire was still burning vigorously, illuminating a range of over twenty meters around it.

But Zhao Ji did not dare to go out. He decided to wait until after daybreak before going out from here to investigate whether any traces had been left behind when the monster appeared earlier.

Judging from that monster's giant mouth, which was over a meter thick, the monster's size was certainly not small. If it could swallow animals and humans in one gulp, its size naturally had to be at least larger than the elephants he had seen in his past life.

But the monster could not be excessively large; after all, if it were any bigger, given that monster's weight, it would be impossible for it to approach without causing intense tremors on the ground.

Yet Zhao Ji, who had been hiding in the dug-out pit, had not felt a single bit of vibration against his body pressed tightly against the pit wall.

Just like that, Zhao Ji carefully unbuckled the armor clasp at his neck, left his helmet where it was, and retreated back into the pitch-black pit to rest.

He did not know if that monster had discovered him, but Zhao Ji could not afford not to rest. He hid himself beside the wheels of the handcart and lay sideways at the bottom of the cold pit he had dug not long ago.

Groping to retrieve his wolf-fur cloak, he wrapped himself in it, kept his hand on the half-drawn long sword at his waist, and drifted off into a hazy sleep.

The next morning, just after dawn, Zhao Ji woke up.

He used the water in his water bag, which was not yet frozen, to wet his hands, then rubbed his cheeks vigorously to wake himself up.

First, he carefully stuck his head back into the armor helmet that was still wedged at the edge of the pit, cautiously checked the situation around him, and even paid special attention to whether there was any giant monster mouth above his head.

After everything around was safe, Zhao Ji then carefully climbed out of the pit he had heavily camouflaged.

The withered wild grass on the ground was covered with a thin layer of ice crystal particles, appearing a silvery white amidst the withered yellow.

He stretched his body slightly and came over to the clearing where the campfire had been lit the night before.

The rope that had bound the fawn was broken on the spot; Zhao Ji walked over and picked it up to examine it closely. He discovered that the rope had been severed by something extremely sharp. Based on his observations from last night, the edges of that monster's giant mouth must have had sharp teeth that could easily cut through sturdy rope, as well as the three hunters who had died here previously.

Now he could confirm that those three hunters were indeed dead. Such a mysterious predator swallowing its prey was not for any other reason than simply feeding.

The campfire, which had been fed a large amount of firewood last night, had long since gone out; because it hadn't been fed fuel bit by bit, the campfire likely extinguished quite early last night.

He poked the campfire ashes with a dry branch; there was still residual heat and embers inside, and as he poked it, it began to burn again.

He did not find any bloodstains where the fawn had been last night; it seemed that the monster did not always leave behind any final traces of its prey after every hunt.

The question now was, what kind of monster was that thing he saw last night?

Zhao Ji did not know much about the monsters of this other world, but from what he had seen, it basically did not deviate from the basic creatures that already existed. So, what kind of animal hunted like that?

Creating white mist, sneaking up on prey from overhead in the night, and swallowing them in one gulp.

Everything happened silently.

Unable to figure it out, Zhao Ji roasted a piece of frozen meat and ate it with some roasted bread, then began to investigate the surroundings.

Regardless, that monster had launched its sneak attack from above the prey; unless that thing could fly, it would certainly have left some traces on the ground nearby.

It had already been some time since that monster swallowed the three hunters, so trying to find traces after so many days was basically impossible.

But when the monster swallowed the fawn last night, it had been less than half a day. There was no wind from other places around, so if there were traces, they should still be there.

Taking the axe from his back and holding it in his hand, Zhao Ji began to search along the edge of the campfire clearing; he searched in circles, gradually expanding the scope of his search.

He did not pay attention to some ordinary broken branches; after all, this was still a road traveled by merchants, although some people no longer dared to take this road due to the recent mysterious disappearance incidents. But after all, the timid starve to death while the bold are stuffed to death; some bold merchants, for the sake of the profit from increased cargo prices due to fewer merchants, still took the risk, traveling non-stop from the fields on the north side outside Kendall City, then running in one breath to Yinyulin Village in the west to sell their goods.

The villagers who could not do without the various goods from Kendall City had no choice but to bear the merchants' price hikes, spending more agricultural products to exchange for the various goods the merchants brought from Kendall City.

The circles Zhao Ji walked were getting larger and larger, and he himself was becoming increasingly unable to believe it. If he still hadn't found a single trace from last night by now, then either that monster was flying in the air and hunting from above, or the body part the monster used to hunt and swallow its prey was very long.

Very, very long!

But if that were the case, how heavy would that monster be? After all, the longer the giant mouth extended to hunt, the heavier its main body would have to be in order to maintain its balance.

Zhao Ji thought, perhaps that monster was a very long giant snake? This conjecture could explain how that monster used that method to hunt.

However, if it really were a very huge giant snake, he would be no match for it. In that case, he would have to return to Kendall City to bring reinforcements.

He wondered if that were the case, could Knight Kela defeat such a monster?

When Zhao Ji's circular search was already at least fifty meters away from the campfire, he gave up on this method of continuing to look for traces left by the monster.

After all, he was already fifty meters away from the campfire; it was impossible for such a large monster to be prowling around without leaving a single trace.

Besides, if that monster really were that big, it certainly wouldn't be enough to fill its stomach by eating just one fawn last night; that fawn's meat could be eaten in one meal by three or five strong men, so it couldn't possibly satisfy a monster of such huge size.

If the opponent wanted to fill its stomach, it would have to attack the village and eat the livestock and humans raised in the village.

But according to what Zhao Ji had inquired about when he set out, no one had disappeared from the village, and there were no reports of missing livestock. It seemed that either the monster spent most of its time active in the Forest, and the travelers and merchants on this road were just occasional snacks for it, or the monster was like a goblin, possessing at least basic intelligence, knowing that attacking people in the wild rarely led to anyone hunting it down, but if it attacked a village, it wouldn't be long before it was finished.

Zhao Ji carried his axe, hesitating over whether to go into the Forest on both sides of the road to look.

Looking at the gloomy and terrifying dark Forest even in the early morning, Zhao Ji twitched the corners of his mouth, and after repeatedly considering it in his heart for a good while, he slowly walked toward the Forest nearest to the north side of the Yingdi.

The most powerful weapon in his hand was this axe, "Water-Crossing Skull"; even the goblin stone statue that looked evil and had astonishing destructive power a few days ago had been defeated by this axe.

So at least when he held this axe in his hand, he felt a sense of peace; if there really was some particularly powerful monster lurking in the Forest, he would definitely let that monster taste his axe before he retreated.

Due to the cold temperature, the ground was actually not too difficult to walk on; the soft ground that should have been deep enough to sink into his Boot was now crunching and cracking underfoot, which was quite interesting.

It felt like walking on a ground paved with layers of potato chips.

The fallen leaves of autumn were originally rich in moisture, and combined with the continuous autumn rains, the ground should have been soft and slippery. But fortunately, it was already winter now; the moisture-rich soil was frozen solid, and the water in the fallen leaves had all frozen as well.

Zhao Ji walking in the Forest was actually no slower than walking on the road. It was not very difficult to walk.

This point made Zhao Ji feel a bit more at ease; at least if there were any accidents later, he could run quickly and stay away from anything that couldn't catch up to him.

He searched carefully near the trees of the Forest closest to the Yingdi, knowing that the Monster should be nocturnal; since it was daytime now, as long as he didn't go deep into the Forest, there shouldn't be any problems.

Resting his axe on the ground, Zhao Ji half-squatted to examine a trace he found somewhat strange.

This was a ball of withered leaves standing on the ground, a bit like the leaf ball he had used to wrap the corpse of the slime Monster back then. But Zhao Ji knew that it was already winter now; even in late autumn, he had already found it difficult to find slime Monsters in the Swamp, let alone now when the air was so cold—before they could even crawl out of the soil where they hid, they would likely have already frozen under the ground. It was even less possible for them to crawl out of the ground and stick a layer of withered leaves onto themselves on the surface of the Shulin floor.

Looking at the surrounding situation, Zhao Ji felt it was a bit unsafe to open this withered leaf ball here; the environment, which became increasingly gloomy the further one went into the Forest, never made him feel safe, and there was a faint sense of danger emanating from the bottom of his heart.

It was as if he were being watched from afar by something.

Was it the little thing that emitted yellow light that he encountered in the Elf Ruins before?

That thing did always watch him secretly near the Elf Ruins and would even play some pranks on him.

However, he didn't have this sense of danger at that time; although that little thing was annoying, it was quite interesting.

Zhao Ji stood up and used his axe to nudge the withered leaf ball all the way out of the Shulin area; only after being shone upon by the sun did he feel safe.

Only then did Zhao Ji start to see what was hidden inside this withered leaf ball.

For safety, he didn't use his armored Glove to touch it, but instead drew his Steel Dagger and used it to cut open the outer layer of withered leaves of the ball. The outer layer of leaves was easy to deal with, but after that, he couldn't cut into it anymore.

Inside was a hard mass of translucent solidified substance. Looking through the translucent solidified material, one could still see many withered leaves wrapped inside. Tapping it a few times with the Dagger only produced a clanking sound, indicating that this thing seemed to be the product of something solidifying, yet it had at least the hardness of steel.

Seeing that this thing was so difficult to deal with, Zhao Ji retracted his Dagger, stood straight, raised his axe high, and chopped down with one blow.

A dull, strange sound of "thud" rang out.

Zhao Ji felt his hands go numb from the vibration transmitted by the axe handle; looking down, he discovered that the place struck by the axe had only slightly cracked with a fissure as large as the axe blade.

The other parts were intact, and even the withered leaves wrapped inside were not shattered by the shock. At the same time, this core solidified substance also sank deeply into the frozen soil on the ground.

"What is this thing? So hard?" Zhao Ji saw that the thing on the ground didn't have much damage, and immediately looked at the damage to his axe with care.

Fortunately, although he didn't know what magical material was added to this axe, its weight and hardness were astonishing. The strange thing on the ground was already hard enough, but his axe seemed to look even harder, and there was no damage to the axe blade.

Since he had discovered this strange thing, although he didn't know what it was, it looked like it had only appeared recently, and might even have appeared just last night.

Zhao Ji lifted the thing up and examined it carefully, feeling that this thing might have been left behind by the Monster.

Very likely.

After all, this area was just an ordinary road and Forest, and the thing most likely related to this was the Monster he encountered last night.

Although he could see it was something left by the Monster, Zhao Ji couldn't judge what it was, so he had to return to the Yingdi, find a piece of Linen Cloth from his Handcart, wrap the thing up, and tie it securely.

If this thing was something like a Monster's egg, then by wrapping it up, he wouldn't have to worry about any accidents.

Returning to the place where he had found the thing before, Zhao Ji discovered that right next to it was a very thick tree; compared to other large trees nearby, this tree was more than twice as thick and looked very sturdy.

Circling the large tree once, Zhao Ji squinted his eyes and looked at the upper part of the tree; he felt there should be some clues up there. His intuition felt that way.

Carrying his axe on his back, Zhao Ji drew his Dagger and dug a small hole in the bark of the large tree with a few strokes, enough for him to insert half a foot or half a palm.

It looked like he dug very deep, but Zhao Ji knew just by feeling that he had only dug a small hole in the withered bark of this large tree that was going to fall off the following year. Judging by the thick trunk of this large tree, he hadn't even reached the bark of the tree itself.

Digging holes bit by bit upwards, Zhao Ji climbed up along these small holes.

When he finally reached out and grabbed the lowest branch, Zhao Ji took out the Rope, tied it to the branch, and created a means for him to get down quickly.

One length of Rope was not enough, so he went down along the rope, returned to the Handcart, and took out a large bundle of rope.

Following the holes he had dug, Zhao Ji continued to climb upward; by noon, he had already climbed halfway up the large tree. If it weren't for the cumbersome armor he was wearing, he would have already climbed to the top of the tree.

However, in this dangerous and unpredictable place, he didn't dare to take off his armor to move.

After he stood at a height of at least thirty meters from the ground, he finally discovered the Monster traces he needed.

Tilting his head back and avoiding the sunlight, he saw that at the top of the large tree, more than ten meters higher than him, there was a large mass of translucent substance clinging to the trunk.

If he hadn't climbed the tree and had only looked up from the ground, it would have been impossible to see those translucent substances clinging to the trunk at a height of about fifty meters from the ground.

Looking at those translucent things, Zhao Ji knew that they were the same unknown thing as the hard mass he had found on the ground.

So, should he continue to climb up and take a closer look?

Zhao Ji considered.