Chapter 374: Camp Watchtower — Knight's Return and Identification

Just as Jier and his companion were leisurely digging for rabbits at the edge of the Forest, a sharp whistle suddenly rang out from the direction of the camp watchtower.

Jier gave a start and hurriedly pulled up his companion, who was lying on the ground: "A whistle! Forget about the rabbits, let's go, quickly." After saying this, Jier dragged him along as they sprinted toward the camp.

Before they went out to fell trees, the old hunters had already made it clear to the four of them that as long as they heard a whistle, regardless of whether there was any discovery or danger, all four young men had to return immediately.

None of them wanted to end up like Bolu, so they had all nodded heavily at the time.

The companion happened to be holding a newly caught rabbit in his hand; he snapped the little rabbit's neck, shoved it into his bosom, and followed closely in Jier's footsteps.

On the way back, they ran into two other companions who were leading three horses back.

"Everyone get on a horse! Riding is faster!" Jier shouted loudly.

He jumped onto the horse he usually rode, reached out, and pulled one of the hunter companions onto the horse's back. There were no Muan or Jiansheng on the horse's back, making it very difficult to sit steadily. Jier had to grab the horse's mane and guide it close to the other two horses.

While on horseback, Jier helped his companions lie flat on the horses' backs, then patted the horses' rumps to make the other two horses follow him.

Although the place was covered in stones of all sizes, and they were all hidden by snow, making it dangerous to ride, fortunately, they had already scouted a safe path back and forth when they came, so there was no need to worry about breaking a horse's leg.

Quickly rushing back to the watchtower, Jier and his companions jumped off their horses in a panic, then opened a gap in the gate and squeezed in one by one.

As soon as he entered, he asked the companion guarding the entrance of the camp: "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Something is approaching in the forest on the south side. We can't see clearly what it is, so for safety's sake, we had you come back first," an old hunter said as he walked down from the second-floor wooden ladder.

He continued: "Everyone arm yourselves. Hunters, go to the third floor, open the wooden windows, and each of you watch one window. Jier, get ready, stay right here at the main gate and stay alert!"

"Understood," Jier replied hurriedly.

He went to his room on the second floor, grabbed his combat weapons, and returned to the first floor to prepare for battle.

His companions had all gone to the third floor, leaving him alone to guard this spot; there was nothing to be done about that.

After waiting for a good while, a burst of cheers suddenly erupted from upstairs, leaving Jier somewhat confused. Although he didn't know the situation, since everyone was cheering, it meant it was a good thing after all.

Soon, following the *thud-thud-thud* of footsteps, a young hunter ran down the wooden ladder quickly and said to Jier: "It's the Knight! She has brought the villagers back!"

"Whew." Jier let out a sigh of relief; it was good that they were their own people.

"Should we open the gate for them now?" Jier went to the door and asked his companion.

To his surprise, the companion waved his hand: "No, Knight Lanisha has requested repeatedly that the camp gate cannot be left open, not even to welcome her. Wait a moment; wait until they come over and call for the door, then you can open it for them."

"I see, so that's how it is. It's because you're afraid the cunning Northern Wolf Pack might suddenly charge in, right?"

"That's about the gist of it, I suppose? I'm not entirely sure either, but that's what the Knight requested. We just follow orders." After saying this, the companion didn't go back up, but instead started cutting food on a wooden stump by the fire pit in the corner of the first floor.

Seeing Jier looking at him curiously, the companion explained: "They walked here, and it's so late, they must be very hungry. We have to get the food ready first."

Jier nodded and leaned against the inside of the main gate, waiting.

After a while, voices could be heard outside, along with the heavy footsteps of Knight Lanisha's warhorse. Jier was already very familiar with this sound, so when he heard the female Knight outside ask the people inside to open the wooden door, he pulled the bolt and swung the wooden door open.

"Everyone come in! It's freezing outside. Jier, how is the situation on your end? Any problems?" Knight Lanisha jumped off her horse, landed with a *thud*, and walked over to ask.

Jier lifted the Faceplate of his Helmet and scratched his nose awkwardly: "Overall, it went smoothly. It's just that when we were returning to the Yingdi at the end, we encountered an ambush by the Northern Wolf Pack. Although the old hunter saw through their attack in advance, Bolu was still injured."

The female Knight removed her Knight Helmet, frowned, and nodded. She knew this wasn't the time to talk and that the priority was to let the villagers come in and rest.

There were seven villagers called by Knight Ranisha this time, all of whom were able-bodied villagers who had participated in Militia training in previous years. In addition, Mr. Wofu, who was respected in the village, had also come along.

Mr. Wofu was responsible for some management work and dealing with the Knight Family in the village, so when the villagers were summoned by the Knight, he had to come along as well.

One reason was to be responsible for management after the Knight and the hunters left the Yingdi. The second was that this Mr. Wofu was also a very capable Warrior before settling in Umi Lake Cunzi, or so he claimed.

Regardless of whether he truly had combat strength, Knight Ranisha didn't feel that having fewer people was better. If it weren't for the fact that large numbers were ineffective when fighting the Northern Wolf Pack in the Forest, she would have long ago summoned all the men in the village to follow her into the mountains and forests to suppress the Wolf Pack.

The Northern Wolf Pack is very cunning; if you are very strong and numerous, they will actively avoid you. You could wander in the Forest all winter and never encounter a single Northern Wolf.

To fight them, you at least cannot let them feel that you are not worth a fight.

The Knight told the villagers to sit down and rest first, then had them go around the watchtower Yingdi in pairs to familiarize themselves with what was on each floor. The others rested on the open ground of the first floor, waiting to eat in a while.

After removing the horse armor from her warhorse, Knight Ranisha fed and watered her horse, then carried her Helmet and went upstairs.

Jier followed her upstairs, but he wasn't going to participate in the conversation between the Knight and the old hunters; he returned to his own room to take off his gear and organize his things. Since the villagers had arrived today, they would have to set off tomorrow.

At the same time, Jier remembered to take out the lizard tail, head, and claws he had obtained after defeating the white-scaled lizard, preparing to have the Knight identify for him whether these things were edible and what effects they might have on people after consumption.

After a while, everyone, including the hunters and villagers, was eating by the fire pit on the first floor. Everyone was served a piece of roasted fish and a thick soup made from fish bones, vegetables, and Bread.

The villagers clearly weren't very enthusiastic about the fish, but instead really liked the thick soup, which seemed like a paste because of the added Bread.

Jier and Mr. Wofu had met once before, so after identifying himself to the other party, they were considered acquainted. He asked Mr. Wofu why the villagers, including Mr. Wofu himself, preferred the thick soup over the fish.

"In our village, what man doesn't know how to fish? We've been eating this stuff since we were kids and are sick of it. Even migrants like me who settled here when I was young have been eating fish for many years; we've long been sick of eating that stuff. However, there isn't much farmland in the village, so grain is very precious. If it weren't for the Northern Wolf Pack causing such a ruckus these years, how could we have thought of using grain to hide the dried fish being transported to Kendall City? Right?" As he spoke, he used a spoon to shovel the thick soup into his mouth and chewed. It seemed that being able to have a full meal of plant-based grain made them all very satisfied.

Jier found it funny; was this a reverse version of the 'why don't they eat meat porridge' saying? Having eaten too much fish, they instead found ordinary grain rare.

It was interesting to note that south of Umi Lake Cunzi, across a large Forest with gradually decreasing terrain, was a large village in the county that mainly produced grain like wheat.

Jier half-jokingly suggested to Mr. Wofu that since their village had plenty of fish and little grain, while Doraerlin Cunzi had plenty of grain and little meat, the two villages could organize a Caravan to exchange basic supplies.

Although this proposal was correct, it was rejected by the villagers.

"The Wolf Pack in the wild is causing such a ruckus, who would dare to go out with few people? It's not like there haven't been bold guys in the village over the years, but in the end, they all lost their lives to the wolves, and we could only find some bones eaten by the pack. Even the Caravan doesn't like to come to our village much anymore."

"Who's to say otherwise? At first, there were small Caravans willing to come, but as there were occasional casualties and losses, they gradually didn't dare to come anymore."

"Only a few large Merchant Guilds still dare to come. Otherwise, the village wouldn't even have enough tools; how could we have survived?"

The villagers of Umi Lake spoke up about these matters one after another.

However, Jier proposed a whimsical idea: since the area west of the Umi River had a serious wolf problem, why not find a way to build a small path through the Forest far to the east of the village, leading directly to Doraerlin Cunzi.

"Jier, you're overthinking it. Those Northern Wolves have amazing stamina; they have no problem swimming across rivers and lakes, let alone opening another road east of the village. In autumn and winter, sometimes the entire village is surrounded by Northern Wolves at night," Mr. Wofu said helplessly, patting Jier on the shoulder.

Jier shrugged. It seemed that in a situation of power imbalance, unless the Wolf Pack was wiped out, Umi Lake Cunzi couldn't do anything, no matter what they tried.

On the other side, Knight Ranisha was talking to the old hunters. The injured Bolu was also sitting to one side, and the bandage on his arm was being unwound by Knight Ranisha for inspection.

A faint layer of Life Energy emanated from her hands as she gently touched Bolu's arm with her fingers. The mangled and crisscrossed arm muscles were completely wrapped in a thick, scabbed Ointment; the blackened, hardened Ointment looked like a puddle of dry, foul-smelling mud, and it smelled quite like it too.

Originally, the Ointment had emitted a fresh scent of grass, but after mixing with a large amount of blood, it had somehow turned into the smell of foul mud.

"How does it feel? Does it hurt?" The female Knight sat cross-legged by the fire pit, asking Bolu.

Bolu twitched the corner of his mouth as the Knight tapped his arm: "It just hurts a lot, *hiss*. It doesn't have that numbing, itchy feeling I usually get after an injury."

"It was like that to begin with; you brat, with such a heavy wound, did you think it was just a small scratch?" An old Hunter beside him slapped Bolu on the head, scolding him in a tone of frustration that he wouldn't improve.

The two had a master-apprentice relationship as Hunters, so the tone was even harsher. Bolu dared not retort, so he could only twitch the corners of his mouth.

"Pain is a good thing; right now, I'm actually afraid of the wound healing too quickly. If the Church Priests' Divine Magic Healing is used after a wound has already healed, they are powerless. So, before returning to the town, it is best to maintain a state of being almost healed but not quite."

Seeing the others looking troubled, Knight Lanisha didn't think much of it: "Rest assured, for a wound of this degree, although he is a young man, it would take no less than two months to heal on its own. So Bolu, after the wound has initially healed—that is, when it stops bleeding—do not apply any more Ointment. That way, after returning to Kendall City, you can find a Church Pastor to treat it quickly."

She paused: "Besides, it is winter now, so there is no need to worry about the wound festering; go to the third-floor window to walk around when you have nothing to do, don't just stay in the room."

"Yes! I understand." Bolu was both happy and worried. He was happy because he knew his arm could receive Divine Magic Healing from a Priest after returning to the city, which made him heave a sigh of relief. He was worried because this unbearable pain would have to be maintained until this Hunting expedition ended.

Seeing that they had temporarily finished their conversation, Jier leaned over and took out the previous spoils of war to show Knight Lanisha. He first explained the course of the battle at that time, and then took out the lizard tail, which could still twitch even after several days had passed.

He would not take out the other lizard head; Jier had truly been given a fright by it upstairs earlier.

That thing was still alive.

When Jier took it out of the bag, it even blinked its eyes while staring at Jier, its mouth wide open, tongue flicking about wildly, wanting to use this thing to disgust Jier.

Jier was not disgusted, but he was startled by the vitality of this thing.

The cross-section of the head he had severed no longer showed the original flesh and blood tissue, but instead had an extra layer of milky-white covering formed by congealed blood.

The lizard's claws were also very full of life; if one moved them, it would even tighten its grip.

Beside the fire pit, Knight Lanisha took the tail with fine white scales that Jier handed over, looking at the thing in confusion: "Has this thing really been severed by you for several days?"

"Really! Feike can testify; we indeed encountered it a few days ago on the way to River Mouth Town. At the time, it even wanted to attack us." Jier pulled Feike over to testify, and Feike nodded incessantly.

Knight Lanisha held the lizard tail in front of her, then closed her eyes and looked carefully at the thing in front of her.

In the middle of this, while still keeping her eyes closed, she glanced toward Jier's side several times, though no one noticed.

After a while, she opened her eyes and said to everyone: "This thing indeed has a very thick reaction of Magic Power, but it is different from the Magic Power of a Magic Beast; it is very strange."

The female Knight seemed to be puzzled by something; she took off the thick Glove on her hand and used her calloused fingers to forcefully pick away the substance covering the flesh of the tail's stump.

She looked at the spot she had picked away and even sniffed it carefully. Then, she put some of the congealed lizard blood she had picked off her finger into her mouth and licked it with her tongue.

As soon as Knight Lanisha licked it, she suddenly shivered and took the thing out of her mouth.

"Very strange, it is actually ice-cold?" the female Knight said in confusion.

Ice-cold? How is that possible.

Everyone touched the lizard tail curiously and found it was not cold, but the same temperature as the room.

"It is not felt by touching it like that, but its Magic Power feels ice-cold."

"Magic Power feels?" This new term left everyone confused; many people didn't even know how to read, let alone understand mysterious Magic Power. Even so, everyone still crowded around, carefully wanting to know more about these strange and bizarre things.

After considering for a while, Knight Lanisha still put the bit of substance from her finger into her mouth to chew. Her expression was not very good; both the taste and the peculiar sensation made her feel uncomfortable.

After swallowing, she finally spoke: "This thing can be eaten, but it cannot be eaten directly; once it is eaten directly into the mouth and stomach, you will die."

"Ah, if eating it causes death, how can it still be edible?" Jier felt strange.

She rolled her eyes: "I mean, it cannot be processed and eaten simply; it must go through some methods before it can be consumed by people."

Seeing what Jier wanted to say, Knight Lanisha continued: "Put it in a pile of snow and hang it outside to freeze. After returning to Kendall City, go to 'Worton's Full Belly' and find the head chef there; he has a way to handle this thing."

"Are there benefits to eating it?" Feike said excitedly.

"Nonsense!" Knight Lanisha said with a smile.