Chapter 368: On the Road North — Fishing, Trapping, and Arrival

Jier thought of a group of Dwarfs sitting on the back of a Crown Moose as big as a carriage, looking like chariots walking through the mountain forest, and he burst out laughing.

Although he had never seen a Dwarf here, he knew from the Bards who frequented the taverns and the Dwarf characters in plays that they were a race of short, alien beings who stood just over a meter tall.

Despite being short, they were sturdy, liked to live by digging burrows and caves in the mountains, and possessed a highly prosperous civilization. They not only had national settlements that spanned the ground and underground outside of Human-controlled lands, but they even had their nations within the territories of many Human Kingdoms.

However, they were all in the mountains, huddled together with other alien races.

They were tenacious and long-lived, so their population had always been small. Their racial temperament was very stubborn; "as stubborn as a Dwarf" referred to their tenacious, obstinate, and awkward personality.

Although Dwarfs were an alien race that often appeared in stories, they rarely appeared in Human territory; only a small number of Dwarfs, represented by technical talents who were outstanding in all aspects, would appear in large Human cities.

Places like Kendall City, although not very far from Dwarf settlements, had never seen a trace of a Dwarf.

Knight Lanisha led everyone to the frozen river. Jier did not know what they were going to do, but the Hunters who often frequented the forest wilderness became excited.

"Looks like our luck is good this time!" someone said lively.

The others did not refute it, and only Jier did not understand what they meant. But he knew that when he didn't understand, he just had to shut up and watch.

"Everyone get down, hurry up!" an old Hunter stopped the carriage on the flat, frozen riverbank and said this to the others.

"Alright, let's see what's in the river." The young Hunters jumped straight off the carriage, and Jier also dismounted, following behind the two young Hunters in front.

Knight Lanisha also flipped off her horse, and she held her Metal Spear, joining in with quite a bit of interest.

Only when Jier came over did he understand what they meant.

It turned out that after a family of Crown Moose finished drinking and left, the river channel, which had been frozen over due to the low temperature, had been broken open by them, creating an opening that led directly to the outside. Large fish from the bottom of the river were opening and closing their mouths wide in the hole in the ice, breathing the fresh outside air.

There were so many fish squeezed together that some smaller ones were even squeezed out of the ice hole by other large fish and were constantly thrashing their fat tails on the ice nearby.

"Grab them quickly!"

Someone shouted, and everyone swarmed up, grabbing fish from the ice hole with their bare hands.

Jier grinned widely, laughing out loud as he rushed up and grabbed a small fish thrashing on the ice. Once the fish in his hand was grabbed by a person, it thrashed its tail even more.

The cold fish tail slapped against Jier's mouth left and right, making Jier, who was unprepared, quite disheveled.

"Haha, Jier! Don't keep holding it, throw it over!" Beside the carriage behind him, after the two old Hunters slowly climbed down from the carriage, they held open a large bag and called out to Jier happily.

He couldn't stand the thrashing of this guy, so he hurriedly threw it toward the old Hunters; the fish drew an arc in the air and landed accurately in the center of the opened bag.

"Very accurate, Jier! Give us another one!" the old Hunters praised.

The two young Hunters nearby were using their four hands together to grab the gills of a very large fish. This fish looked like it weighed over ten pounds, and when it struggled with all its might, it was difficult for the two young men to control it.

Seeing Jier dazed, Knight Lanisha planted her Long Spear on the ground and said to Jier: "What are you still dazed for? Your movements need to be faster. Once they breathe enough air here, they will swim away soon. And the river fish within a certain distance are limited; they will disperse quickly."

Jier originally wanted to ask why she didn't join in, but considering that Knight Lanisha didn't really get involved in these small matters, he stopped worrying about her.

He rolled up the sleeves of both his hands and squatted by the thick ice, eyeing a river fish that wasn't too ridiculously large. He reached out with both hands, grabbed the slippery fish head, and accurately dug into the gills on both sides of the fish head.

This fish was not very big, so Jier lifted his waist and scooped it out. No matter how it thrashed its tail to struggle, Jier held it firmly.

Walking quickly for two steps to leave the ice, Jier stood firm and used force to swing the fish over from the air.

The two young Hunters were still struggling with that big fish on the riverbank, and Jier's second river fish had already fallen into the old Hunters' bag.

"That's the second one, Jier! You're really fast. You two, don't just compete with the fish for strength on the spot, drag it to the bank, drag it over directly!"

"Hey! Coming."

This time, Jier grabbed two river fish the length of his forearm, one in each hand, and caught them directly by their open mouths, pulling the two fish out of the river water.

Swinging one in the air, Jier stood firm and kicked out, sending the fish flying through the air toward the old Hunters.

However, the fish's body was slippery; he had used his strength, but the angle was bad, and it landed outside the bag.

"It's fine, try again." The old Hunter encouraged Jier to get more fish out of the river water.

Jier didn't believe in bad luck, so he tried another kick; this time the fish hit the mouth of the bag perfectly and flew into the bag all at once from the air.

The large fish seemed to have sucked enough air and slipped away early, so what remained were fish that were not so large. Jier grabbed them one in each hand, first scooping them out of the water and tossing them onto the ice nearby.

Indeed, looking at the momentum, the fish would disperse soon; there wasn't much time left.

The fish Jier grabbed from the ice hole were getting smaller and smaller. Once they were smaller than a palm, Jier stopped grabbing them and started using his feet to kick the fish he had scooped out from the edge of the hole onto the bank.

At this moment, Knight Lanisha suddenly pulled her heavy Metal Spear out of the ground and stabbed it into the ice hole in an instant.

The spearhead entered the water without splashing, but under the water, waves were surging. They gushed out from the ice hole in waves.

Knight Lanisha used both hands, stood firmly with her whole body, and after exerting force, lifted the spear from the ice hole. A huge black fish with its head pierced was lifted from the hole.

This was a very large fish; the fish's body was slender, at least 1.5 meters long. If it stood up, counting the tail, it was at least as tall as many people.

Knight Lanisha turned around and slammed the large black fish picked up by the Long Spear down; with a loud boom, she got the tenacious black fish onto the bank.

Thinking it wasn't safe enough, she kicked the large black fish again, kicking it to the side of the carriage.

The three horses were a bit scared when they saw the large black fish and kept neighing; the old Hunters hurriedly put down the fish bags in their hands to soothe them.

"What is this?" Jier asked, dumbfounded, while his hands hadn't forgotten to throw the small fish on the ice toward the fish bag by the carriage.

Knight Lanisha took a piece of fine cloth from the bag at her waist and wiped the head of the Metal Spear with a frown: "This is a type of carnivorous fish that has appeared in recent years. It is huge and eats everything in the water. Very annoying."

An old Hunter who had soothed the horses took over the conversation: "I heard that in recent years, they have not only caused a reduction in the fish catch of Umi Lake, but have also overturned the fishing boats of some Villagers, maiming several people. They were all bitten, losing hands or feet and the like."

Planting the freshly wiped Long Spear, Knight Lanisha said unhappily: "These guys are marking their territory. Although they are animals, they also know they cannot completely anger Humans, so they only injure people, not kill them. Originally, the Villagers used to go to the center of the lake to catch big fish in previous years, but now they can only give up a large area of the lake and have to fish and catch fish near the Cunzi."

Jier scratched his nose, only to smell a fishy odor, so he hurriedly wiped his hands in the snow on the riverbank to rub off the mucus from the fish that had gotten on his hands.

Even so, before the school of fish left, everyone still had a bountiful harvest.

Including the large Umi Lake fish caught by the two young men, Knight Lanisha also killed a large black fish that was said to have very delicious meat. One fish weighed over a hundred pounds; it was estimated that these few people could eat directly for more than half a month.

Jier also caught many river fish that were not too big or too small; this size of fish was the best for roasting by the campfire.

At night, everyone camped in a place with a few large rocks. The rocks were very large and not something animals could climb up, so it was very safe.

With the carriage blocking the entrance, other animals couldn't climb in at all. As for under the carriage, Jier moved a few Wooden Boxes containing Metal Clamps and stuffed them underneath, completely blocking the path.

The old Hunters hadn't seen the power of the Metal Clamps with their own eyes, so after preparing the grilled fish, they took the fish heads and fish Viscera, each carrying two Metal Clamps, and set up four separate traps not far outside the Yingdi.

They first used snow to wipe the metallic smell off the surface of the Metal Clamps, then unfolded the clamps with effort, placed them on a piece of ground where the snow had been cleared, sprinkled the dead leaves under the snow onto the clamps, and then carefully used a wooden stick to move the fish head or fish Viscera to the side of the trigger in the center of the clamp.

This step must never be done by hand, otherwise, if it clamped your hand, that hand would be disabled. Although one could use magical Divine Art at the church to restore wounds and severed limbs, the expensive price was not something ordinary people could afford.

The elderly Hunter did not have that kind of money either.

As for Knight Lanisha, she had stated when hiring the Hunters that she could find someone to use Divine Art to treat injuries sustained while fighting the Wolf Pack, but other injuries had nothing to do with her.

After setting the traps, the old Hunters returned.

Jier, meanwhile, strung the cleaned, headless fish bodies onto dry branches, rubbing them with salt grains while using his Dagger to slice open the thickest parts of the fish meat. Just as he had said before, to prevent harm from parasites in the fish heads and Viscera, Jier had directly processed the river fish he caught. He discarded the fish heads and all the Viscera, leaving only the clean meat of the fish bodies after scraping off the scales.

After rubbing them with salt grains, Jier placed the fish near the campfire to roast. The fish that had overwintered were very fatty; the fat in their bellies would seep out as Grease even with simple roasting.

The aroma of roasting Grease wafted through the air.

As for the other large fish they had caught, because the weather was cold, there was no worry of them spoiling, so they were put directly into fish bags and hung on the front of the carriage to prevent nimble creatures like bobcats or leopards from stealing them.

The huge Stone blocks around them also shielded them from the night wind in the wild, and after Jier and his group arranged the night watch, they ate their fill and slept soundly.

Jier's shift for the night watch was before dawn, so he went to sleep early after eating. He did not participate in the Hunters' nighttime storytelling session.

When he was shaken awake, he learned from the old Hunter that two of the traps set before dinner had already been triggered.

This could be heard from the intermittent, faint whimpering of an animal drifting over from across the rocks.

Adding some firewood to the campfire, Jier held his Long Sword and waited for dawn.

After daybreak, the snow had gradually lessened since the previous night. It was unclear if the days of snowfall had finally stopped or if they had already passed through the snowy region. After everyone got up, Jier rubbed his face with snow to wake himself up, then couldn't wait to go out and see what had been captured the night before.

At the first trap, everyone found nothing had been touched by an animal, so they had to pack up the Metal Clamp.

At the second trap, everyone discovered the carcass of a massive owl had been caught; its entire body had been snapped in two by the clamp, and it looked as if it had died instantly.

Knight Lanisha took a fancy to the owl's feathers and carried the raptor's carcass back to the campfire.

At the third trap, everyone amusingly discovered that the clamp had closed, but the original bait—a fish head—was gone. The old Hunter examined the animal tracks near the clamp and announced that a small, nimble animal had eaten the bait, having seen through the trap and avoided being hurt by it.

Feeling somewhat regretful, the Hunters discussed how to modify this type of Metal Clamp.

Jier proposed a method: the main killing power of the clamp relied on the ring of sharp metal teeth on the outside closing to bite and cut the animal. To prevent this situation, one only needed to add two more circles of smaller sharp teeth inside the outer teeth of the clamp.

This would prevent small animals from stealing the bait without being harmed by the clamp.

At the last bait location, everyone was very satisfied with the final animal, because they discovered it was actually a red fox, larger than a dog and looking somewhat like a wild wolf.

The fox's right hind leg was clamped tightly by the trap, but because it was caught in a thick, fleshy area, the red fox was still alive despite being seriously injured.

Its wide, round eyes stared in terror at Jier and his group, and it let out whimpering pleas for mercy. However, no one was moved by it; including Jier, everyone stood around criticizing the prey that had fallen into the trap.

Finally, Jier used his Dagger to stab through the red fox's eye in one motion, tightly clamping its mouth shut so it couldn't bite anyone, and finished off the red fox instantly.

Some Hunters who believed in the god of Hunting felt that being able to catch a red fox with a trap meant the deity was silently blessing their Hunting trip. And the Metal Clamp was proven to be effective at catching medium-sized canine animals.

Although it had not yet been tested on the large-sized Northern Wolf Pack, the Hunters were still very satisfied.

Fox meat did not taste good and was considered unlucky to eat. So, under the guidance of the old Hunter, Jier carefully skinned the red fox before collecting the Metal Clamp and leaving.

After everyone ate their fill of freshly roasted fish meat at the Yingdi, they left a mark outside this natural rock Yingdi and set off again.

According to the old Hunter's estimation, they should reach the Supply Point Camp established during previous Hunting expeditions by around noon tomorrow.

However, because their starting point was different and they had not set out from Umi Lake Village this time, they were not very familiar with the environment along the way, so if they were lucky, they could find the Supply Point Camp in the general area.

If they were unlucky, they would have to follow the terrain and the river to find Umi Lake, then follow the old route to find the Supply Point Camp.

The next day at noon, despite what had been said before, Knight Lanisha was afraid of wasting time, so she personally rode out to scout around and directly guided everyone to the Supply Point Camp.

The Supply Point Camp was located on a treeless clearing between two stretches of Forest. This clearing was scattered with many round Stone blocks ranging in size up to half a person's height; as soon as Jier saw them, he stated that this was an ancient riverbed left behind by a river from long ago.

Knight Lanisha was somewhat surprised; she had only learned this was an ancient riverbed after consulting a Priest of the Heiliu yu Hubo zhi Zhu and having the powerful Priest perform a Divine Art to communicate with the lake.

She had not expected this young Jier to see the history behind this clearing at a single glance.

"Jier, how did you know?" the female Knight asked, staring at Jier.

Jier then remembered how he should explain it, so he could only say he just saw it at a glance, but as for why he knew, he had amnesia and couldn't remember things from before.

"It seems Jier must have grown up in a scholar's family," someone said.

"I don't think so. Jier looks like a guy with a lot of strength; he's fine for hacking people, but I reckon he can't read books or text," someone else said, unconvinced, pointing at Jier's arms, which were thicker and stronger than theirs.

I really thank you for that, Jier thought with a wry smile.

Amnesia, after all; there was no help for it. Jier couldn't say anything about his life before coming to this world; he didn't have a single shred of memory. So he didn't look like he was faking it at all.

Knight Lanisha stopped questioning him about this and led everyone through the scattered round Stone blocks, finding a path for the carriage to reach the Supply Point Camp.

On the way, there were some small stones that were truly impossible to avoid, so everyone had to borrow the strength of Knight Lanisha's warhorse and Jier's horses to dig out the bottom of the stones and then tie them with Rope to carefully move them away.

After filling in the pits left by the stones and working for half a day, they finally arrived at the base of the Supply Point Camp in the afternoon.

That's right, the base of the building.

Earlier, in order to conveniently deal with the Northern Wolf Pack, Knight Lanisha had specifically mobilized the labor of the Villager in her territory to quickly use local materials during the winter slack season to build this three-story Wooden Watchtower.

This thing looked like a wooden arrow tower in a castle, with a square base, each side fifteen meters long; although it tilted inward and became smaller toward the third floor, the entire Supply Point Camp still had plenty of space.

The wooden door at the bottom was locked from the inside; Knight Lanisha jumped from the ground to the third floor of the camp and climbed in through a reserved window above.

After a while, she opened the large wooden door at the bottom of the camp that was wide enough for a carriage to enter.

"It's getting late today. After unloading the goods, rest for the night and set off early tomorrow morning!" Knight Lanisha said, looking at the rapidly darkening sky and earth outside.

Everyone felt it should be so, so they took out the Lamp Oil stored in the second-floor storage room, filled the lighting Oil Lamp on the first floor with enough Lamp Oil, and lit it.

The entire first floor of the camp became bright.

Jier closed the door that was letting in cold wind, pushed hard to fasten the latch made of wooden stakes, and locked the door tight. He turned around and looked over the Supply Point Camp.

The exterior of the camp was a three-story Wooden Watchtower; the inside of the first floor was completely cleared out, with only some thick tree trunks standing to support the upper structure, and the bottom floor was quite spacious.

In one corner, there was a fire pit surrounded by stones, with a circle of rough stone stools carved from stone around it. This was the place for cooking.

The stairs leading to the second floor were against one wall; after unloading all the supplies from the carriage, while the Hunters were defrosting and butchering the frozen large fish from Umi Lake, Jier told the others and went up to take a curious look.