Chapter 391: Rock Mountain Jiedian — Two Plans and Jier's Analysis

A large pile of wolf skins, each frozen stiff, lay there; Jier had been feeling unwell in his throat these past few days, so he simply went to rest. Before sleeping, he drew his Long Sword and found a rope to hang it on a wall inside the Jiedian that faced the sky.

This time he was careful, not daring to stick the Long Sword that absorbed the sun's power in a high place, but instead just placed it somewhere in the camp.

The old Hunters led the young Hunters to simply clean the wolf skins they had managed to bring back one by one; the main task was to use a Dagger to scrape off the fat layer on the inside of the skins, then find a Wooden Bowl to heat some of the wolf fat by the fire, and finally use a wooden stick to apply the slightly melted wolf oil to the surface of the wolf fur to prevent the fur from being damaged and falling out.

Finally, they stacked the frozen wolf skins neatly together.

As for Knight Lanisha, after returning and resting for a day, she rode her warhorse out to exercise it. The other horses preferred to huddle together in the Jiedian during this cold winter and did not like to move.

But Knight Lanisha's warhorse would throw a tantrum and get moody if it didn't get to run and exercise for a day.

Besides processing the wolf skins, the Hunters also needed a day to rest. Thus, after they had all been recuperating in the Jiedian for several days, everyone recovered from their fatigue and injuries.

Jier's own Agricultural God Badge had also dimmed significantly in radiance, as a small portion of the power contained within it had been used to heal the burns in his throat. At this moment, they were in the vast, uninhabited Forest, so it was naturally difficult to restore power to this object.

During the time spent resting, Jier also performed some simple repairs on his armor. The main body of the Hard Cowhide Full-Coverage Armor had not suffered any damage from the previous high temperatures, but some of the leather straps used for connections had been baked by the heat and lost their flexibility and strength. They had become dry and brittle, and could no longer serve to connect the armor components.

For this, Jier found Knight Lanisha and asked for her approval to take the fur from several young wolf tails to repair the armor's connecting straps.

The Knight agreed immediately; not to mention Jier's bravery in previous battles, even just considering the maintenance of Jier's combat capability, a part of it still relied on this suit of armor.

Jier had watched how Craftsman Ganna tinkered with those connecting straps. Although they were in the wilderness and lacked the various tools that were easy to use in a craftsman's workshop, Jier felt that the fur from the tails of the Northern Wolf pups would have better performance than the original straps.

He cut off the stiff young wolf tail fur, then heated it near the fire; once it softened, he used his Dagger to cut the peeled fur into small strips, then moistened and kneaded them with the remaining wolf oil. After the properties of the fur changed, he dismantled the original hardened and brittle strap components, removed the metal parts, used his Dagger to drill holes in the wolf-fur straps, and embedded the metal parts to lock them in place.

After finishing, Jier tested the strength of the new straps and pulled on them; it required a great deal of force to break them. Although they were not as sturdy as the previous straps, they were sufficient to handle the upcoming battles.

After replacing the damaged connecting straps on the armor, there were still several deep pits and damages left by the bites of adult Northern Wolves on the armor; Jier barely managed to wrap the outside of the damaged areas with the remaining wolf-skin straps, which counted as a makeshift repair.

Once everything was done and everyone was prepared, they left one old Hunter behind to watch the house, while the others prepared to follow Knight Lanisha out to look for clues about the Northern Wolves.

Just as the Hunters, including Jier, were all packed and waiting for the female Knight to return from her morning horse exercise, Knight Lanisha rode her warhorse all the way from the Rock Passage to the entrance of the Jiedian. After opening the gate with one hand from the outside, she threw the horse's Jiansheng aside and said to the waiting team: "Everyone. It seems we don't need to go out and look for any traces of the Northern Wolves anymore. They can no longer endure it, humph, and have taken the initiative to come to us."

"My Lady, what do you mean?" someone asked.

Knight Lanisha flicked her finger toward the forest at the foot of the mountain: "We previously crushed and killed two Northern Wolf dens; they cannot afford any more losses. When I went down to exercise the horse just now, I discovered that in the surrounding forest snow, there appeared teams of scattered Northern Wolves sent out to scout. Those guys ran away early the moment they saw me."

Regarding this situation, the old Hunters discussed it and felt that it was highly likely their battle with the Northern Wolves would begin in the near future.

In fact, it was much the same in previous years; the Knight and Hunters would enter the Forest to find and strike at the Northern Wolf packs that did not hibernate, and with the Knight leading, they held the upper hand. Thus, when the Northern Wolves could no longer afford the losses, they would gather together under the leadership of the Wolf King, attempting to wipe them out in one fell swoop.

That was also the final stage where they could inflict massive casualties on the Northern Wolves.

Although Knight Lanisha was never in the upper hand during the process of fighting the powerful Northern Wolf King, her situation was changing rapidly along with the quick progress of her Knight Technique.

And the Hunters would inflict heavy casualties on the Northern Wolves, force the Northern Wolves to retreat as a whole, and then participate in the battle between the Knight and the Wolf King from a distance.

Although they only shot Arrows from afar, in a battle where the strength of both sides was evenly matched, even the slightest outside help from one side would greatly influence the final result.

By this time, Knight Lanisha's advantage would become very large; although she still could not severely wound the Wolf King, she would beat it back to fight again the following year.

This was also the basis for Knight Lanisha's confidence that she could completely kill the Wolf King this year after Jier joined. Of course, those Metal Clamps that could heavily injure, delay, and deter the Northern Wolves were also a part of her calculations.

Everyone gathered by the fire, set aside their previous plans, and discussed how to proceed.

The old Hunters were more inclined to take advantage of the terrain of Rock Mountain to entangle and fight the Northern Wolves here. They had brought a lot of food last time, and if they didn't count the food for the horses, their group could hold out here for at most about a month. If they could take the opportunity while the large Northern Wolf packs had not yet assembled to specifically collect the withered grass on the grassland under the snow near Rock Mountain, it should be enough for the horses' consumption for half a month.

In such a long time, relying on the terrain to fight would certainly inflict huge casualties on the Northern Wolves as a whole; perhaps they could easily defeat the ordinary Northern Wolves, and then everyone together could defeat the Northern Wolf King, completely breaking the Northern Wolves apart as a whole and making them unable to threaten the life and production of the people in the northern part of Kendall County ever again.

Although the old Hunters' plan seemed okay, blindly holding out in the Jiedian and letting the Northern Wolves assemble to fight the entire Northern Wolf pack was something that had never happened in previous years.

Their winter campaigns in previous years were always as quick as possible. For one thing, the supply point was far outside the Forest, and the food and supplies they each carried were not enough to support everyone for a long battle. For another, the total number of Northern Wolves still far exceeded their group.

Although the powerful Knight and professional Hunters allowed them to defeat any single Northern Wolf pack, everyone, including Knight Lanisha, lacked confidence in whether they could overcome all the Northern Wolves gathered together.

It couldn't be said that they lacked confidence; everyone actually knew the outcome, but they couldn't possibly admit to being weaker than those beasts in words.

The others in the team were not in a position to express opinions on the old Hunters' plan, but Knight Lanisha did not like it.

Compared to a long, protracted war, she preferred intense battles that were decided quickly. The fact that the Northern Wolves could assemble early under the Wolf King's command and prepare to fight them under the Wolf King's lead was actually what she preferred.

After all, compared to the ordinary Northern Wolves, that Wolf King was the true purpose of Knight Lanisha's crusade.

That was a private revenge; she did not believe that the powerful Wolf King had nothing to do with her father who went missing in the Forest many years ago.

Although she did not believe her father was inferior to a Northern Wolf King, the Wolf King that she herself had failed to defeat many times was clearly the culprit behind her father's death and disappearance.

So this was a revenge. It was not only about the blood feud for her father but also a roar against the chain reaction that all of this had caused her.

She had a younger brother; although he was young, he was healthy and strong and would certainly be able to shoulder her father's title and strength in the future. But her father's disappearance many years ago forced her to interrupt her studies at the Province Capital and disrupted her arrangements for her own life. Slender arms and delicate fingers had to pick up cold, solid weapons, and the heavy armor had bent her waist more than once.

If it weren't for the expectations and preparations her father had made for her when she was a child, she would have long been crushed by the bitter and painful Knight Training.

So this was a revenge.

If she really felt that the Northern Wolves affected the development and production of the entire northern part of Kendall, why didn't she persuade the Kendall Baron to let all the Knights kill their way into the Forest with her and wipe out the Northern Wolves?

Why didn't she strive to persuade the Baron and Knight Kela to lead hundreds of Militia and all the people of River Mouth Town and Umi Lake Village to launch a clearing operation together and kill all the Northern Wolves in the entire Forest?

This was a private revenge. The responsibilities and pressures of the family, the complaints and rumors of the people in the territory, and the gazes of fellow Knights all pressed down on her, leaving her at most able to call upon some unrelated Hunter warriors to lead the way for her in the Forest and search for the traces of the Northern Wolves.

Over the years, she had also been forced by these pressures to think of various ways. Besides training her Knight Technique more diligently, she spent money to forge a large number of Metal Clamps to kill animals, and invited Jier, who could improve the overall strength of the Hunter team.

But she would not open her mouth to the Kendall Baron to ask the Baron to mobilize Knights or a large number of Militia.

Because this was a private revenge.

Knight Lanisha proposed a direct strike, just like the previous few battles; the Wolf King was looking to surround them, and they were also looking for the Wolf King. By attacking or startling those scouting Northern Wolves, finding the Wolf King, and then using all of everyone's respective means, they would definitely be able to defeat and kill that Northern Wolf King this time, given that the wolf pack as a whole was weakened last year.

This was completely contrary to the old Hunters' plan, but because it was proposed by the Knight, the four old Hunters found it hard to object, and the young Hunters felt both were fine, so they had no stance and didn't care.

Jier narrowed his eyes.

He felt that the old Hunters' plan was a bit too conservative; although it seemed safe, could bring the effect of the Metal Clamps into play, and could also utilize the geographical advantage of Rock Mountain to reduce the pressure when fighting a large group of Northern Wolves.

But there were also problems with it. For one thing, long-term defense inevitably leads to failure; relying solely on Rock Mountain was equivalent to handing the initiative of the entire battle over to the Northern Wolves and the Wolf King, allowing those guys to safely gather all the Northern Wolf packs that lived scattered throughout.

No one knew how many Northern Wolves were actually in this Forest; perhaps there were only so many, and the slaughter of two wolf dens was enough to make the Wolf King unable to sit still and gather all its strength to strike them, or perhaps it exceeded their imagination, and the appearance of unusual, strange Northern Wolves one after another might also indicate that the scale and the degree of escalation of the Northern Wolves could not be underestimated.

But Knight Lanisha's plan also had a path dependency, which was also a kind of alternative conservatism; it seemed aggressive and full of offensive spirit, but it relied entirely on previous experience and considerations. Not only did it fail to bring into play the advantages of the changes on their side this time, but it also greatly ignored the changes in the Northern Wolves.

Those cunning and cruel beasts would not sit and wait for death; under the strikes of Knights and Hunters year after year, they would not let their own clans be buried under the snow and mud of the Forest, or be crushed and digested in the mouths of other animals.

The fact that there were more young wolves than Knight Lanisha had previously estimated was one thing, and the strange Northern Wolves that greatly exceeded ordinary animals and ordinary Northern Wolves was the second.

Those strange Northern Wolves exceeded ordinary Monsters, yet were much weaker than the Magic Beast they had encountered before. What was worrying was that they did not know the specific number of these strange Northern Wolves.

If every Northern Wolf pack had one of these guys, then the old Hunters' plan would only be sitting and waiting for death, seeking their own destruction.

And Knight Lanisha's plan also had many variables.

After coughing a few times, Jier attracted everyone's attention and then spoke of all the considerations he had just had. Now that he was also in the team, he could not remain silent in the face of major decision-making differences and their potential outcomes.

After all, if he did not speak up and the team ended up with a bad outcome later, Jier might regret his decision at this moment.

"So, you oppose both plans?" Knight Lanisha did not get angry or upset; she had recruited the team herself, and every role played by everyone in the team at this moment was providing her with assistance, even if it was raising objections to her plan, which was also a beneficial thing.

In fact, reading and studying for many years during her girlhood had allowed her to develop many good habits, and not resorting to violence against people lightly was one of them.

Jier looked at everyone and saw that they were all sitting by the campfire, just looking at him in silence; the anger and arguments he had anticipated did not appear. He smacked his lips, feeling that the other world was still very different from his original world.

The original world was peaceful yet full of conflicts over interests. People mostly connected with each other for their own respective interests, and in the face of various potential interests between people, simple arguments were very minor behaviors. Everyone would only be polite and interact with each other with ease when faced with greater interests.

There were people and things that acted purely without involving interests, but they would actually appear in the media as a topic of conversation or news.

It was simply absurd.

A world far removed from struggle and at peace made people forget that, compared to shallow interests, every person's own life was the most important root of interest.

When Jier understood this point, he smiled, scratched his golden-brown hair, and stated his own plan.

Jier's plan was not complicated; it was mainly a comprehensive plan that brought out the advantages of both the old Hunter and the female Knight while discarding their disadvantages as much as possible.

Yanshi Shan Judian had abundant supplies, which could support them in holding their ground for a certain period of time.

But the Northland Wolves could not.

Why did the Northland Wolves living in the Forest live scattered? The reason was very simple: it was because the herbivores in one place could hardly satisfy the survival needs of an excessive number of carnivorous Northland Wolves.

Even if the Northland Wolves were ferocious and intelligent, they were, after all, animals. Without human wisdom and organization, it was impossible for them to develop the habit of storing food needed for war. In such matters, they were not even as good as some rodents and forest monkeys.

Fighting was different from daily survival. As a part of the Forest, the Northland Wolves usually needed to spend a lot of time Hunting; if they could not catch prey, they would have to go hungry.

And the Wolf King gathering all the Northland Wolves together seemed to strengthen their power, and in terms of numbers, it would certainly exceed the advantage they could handle. But it would also bring great hidden dangers; as animals that lived by hunting, once they gathered in large numbers, the herbivores in this area would be killed or flee.

In less than half a day, there would not be a single other animal left in the place where those Northland Wolves gathered.

What would they eat?

Therefore, if they held their ground at Yanshi Shan Judian, perhaps the most dangerous time would be the first few days when the Northland Wolves were gathered by the Wolf King. Afterward, a large number of Northland Wolves would still leave this place, either returning to the wolf den to take care of the wolf pups or scattering in large numbers to attack other animals that had fled.

But it was also hard to say whether they could survive the first two or three days.

After all, although Yanshi Shan Judian had the advantage of terrain, it was another matter whether these terrain advantages could remain undestroyed by their battle once the Wolf King and Knight Lanisha started fighting.

Hearing Jier say this, Knight Lanisha awkwardly looked at the patterns on her arm armor, because she also thought that when she fought the Wolf King before, the battlefield was often destroyed into a mess.

The old Hunters and the young Hunters who had participated in past battles also had faces full of lingering fear; if the battlefield were really placed here, the situation at that time would be very hard to say.

But this did not mean that it was bad to place the battle here; on the contrary, to deal with a certain number of Northland Wolves, the terrain here was actually the most suitable.

Jier then began to analyze.