Chapter 78: Half-Deer, Half-Human New Monsters, Supply Changes, and Camp Establishment

Just as Jier was directing the construction of the supply camp, terrified shouts and roars erupted from the warriors logging in the mountain forest behind him.

Jier was startled and quickly turned to run toward his men. While running, he shouted to the warriors at the camp, "Prepare for battle! Everyone enter combat status! Drivers, get the carriages moving and put some distance between you and this place for now; come back in a while."

After shouting, he didn't care how Aoni was directing the warriors at the camp and charged toward the mountain forest ahead with swift, flying strides.

From a distance, he saw the warriors holding logging axes fighting several humanoid monsters over two meters tall.

These monsters were something new; their upper bodies were sturdy deer bodies, while their lower bodies were human. At a glance, Jier thought they were some kind of exotic race from the mountain forest!

But upon getting closer, he saw that they were actually just parasitic monsters that had crudely connected the two halves of a Forest Deer and a human body at the waist using vines.

This discovery made him laugh in frustration: "Using your imagination here, are you? Everyone, maintain formation and fall back. Let me see what kind of strength they have."

Although these parasitic monsters had deer upper bodies and no palms on their 'arms'—only hooves—the Parasitic Vine Monster extended small vines from the hooves to act like hands, wielding massive Wooden Clubs and swinging them wildly against the backdrop of the surrounding Flesh Trees.

At the same time, unlike other parasitic monsters that fought very quietly, these deer-bodied, human-legged humanoid monsters kept emitting loud "me-me-me" calls from their deer mouths, which was very unsettling to the human mind.

At least some of the bold warriors in the front row were intimidated by this thing.

Jier swung his Long Sword, smashing the Wooden Club the opponent swung at him with a single strike, but he had to admit that compared to the simple human-form parasitic monsters, this monster was much stronger.

Without using Life Energy, Jier's normal strength at this moment was actually evenly matched with the opponent.

"Hey, but you don't train your legs while working out, you're as clumsy as a ghost. Take this!" Jier leaned forward and dashed past the monster's right side.

The monster's right leg was severed directly at the knee joint by his sword. Even though vines extended from the stump to try and replace the lost leg, it was useless. The monster was top-heavy with a small base, and its body proportions and weight distribution were extremely uncoordinated; it couldn't stand at all after losing a leg.

The fallen half-human, half-deer monster was struck down by Jier with a single turn of his sword, severing its massive deer head.

But Jier had clearly forgotten that, apart from the flowering monsters, ordinary Parasitic Vine Monsters were not afraid of decapitation, so the monster simply lay on the ground and swung its massive Wooden Club at Jier.

Jier stepped back and dodged the opponent's attack.

The monster then simply let go of its weapon and threw it directly at Jier.

Jier dodged to the side and even caught the flying giant club with his free hand. He didn't even use his Hunting Sword; he lifted the meter-long, tens-of-kilograms-heavy giant Wooden Club with both hands and, with a Heavy Cleave, smashed the body of the fallen half-human, half-deer monster to pieces in one blow.

The thing was killed instantly; even if the Parasitic Human-faced Core wasn't destroyed, the monster body it parasitized was smashed, making it impossible to use for combat anymore.

"Although a bit cumbersome, this kind of exaggerated Double-handed Heavy Weapon is still useful. It's a pity that I didn't think to bring the similar weapons I got from the Dwarfs this time!" Jier said with annoyance.

He hadn't actually left those newly acquired Dwarf Double-handed Heavy Weapons in Yemei Town; he had kept them in the Lady's dream. But for this counter-attack plan, he didn't have the cover of his own carriage, and he couldn't just conjure heavy weapons out of thin air, could he?

Even if his warriors were stupid, they would notice something was wrong.

Therefore, Jier had to continue using the 'weapon' he had just seized, taking the initiative in the battle with movement and dodging more agile than these new monsters, and finished off the new monsters that had emerged in a few moves.

"Everyone come back! It looks like there are no more monsters around, everyone come out and log!" Jier shouted loudly.

"Ah? My Lord, we still have to log?" the warriors complained.

Jier smiled: "Well, these big trees won't automatically turn into useful firewood for everyone to use. Why not take advantage of the time before the next batch of monsters appears to work harder? Once we finish building the supply camp early, we can start heading toward the monsters' lair sooner."

Speaking of this, Jier slapped his forehead and shouted loudly toward the camp: "Aoni, after the carriages return, wake up the Maomaos and let them spread out into the mountain forest to scout!"

Aoni seemed to respond, but the surrounding environment was noisy, so it wasn't very clear.

The warriors holding logging axes curiously approached the new monster Jier had smashed flat. The monster was half-human and half-deer, with a strong deer upper body and a pitifully thin human waist, hips, and legs.

Anyone with a sharp eye could see that the monster's weakness was its legs; as long as one leg was broken, it was very difficult for the monster to move.

The facts were indeed so.

After a simple dissection, everyone discovered that there were actually two Parasitic Human-faced Cores inside the deer body of this monster. Most of Jier's previous attacks had destroyed the two cores inside them, but some lucky ones only had one destroyed, while the other hid, appearing to wait for a chance to sneak away when no one was paying attention.

Jier was a bit annoyed and fiercely crushed the core human faces that hadn't died in the battle, and he didn't waste the pale purple plant sap after crushing them, collecting it instead.

He arranged for two people to specifically extract the useful monster plant sap from the monster's body, while the others continued logging.

The Maomaos braved the scorching sun they disliked and walked into the forest, swaying as they went.

Don't say, although they were dizzy from the sun just now, as soon as they entered the mountain forest, they became spirited, stretching their limbs, moving their hands, feet, and tails, looking like they were about to do a big job.

Jier specially prepared some copper coins and, after giving them to the Maomaos, let them move around to scout for approaching monsters in advance, but told them not to go too far.

Clearly, Yongqi Maomao also understood something from the strange monster body smashed on the ground; it nodded heavily to accept the task and immediately let its subordinates spread out, while it specifically ran to a clean big tree nearby to direct.

The Maomaos could emit some short, sharp calls. This kind of call was easy to spread, and in the not-too-dense mountain forest area, an effective transmission range of fifty to one hundred meters was possible.

This was also the largest organizational range for a hunting team of Maomaos. Within this range, the Maomao acting as the squad leader could grasp the situation of other Maomao warriors through constant calling.

With the help of the Maomaos, the warriors didn't need to worry about being suddenly attacked by monsters anymore, so they worked with peace of mind, logging quickly in groups of a few, clearing the branches and leaves of the big trees.

And Jier also transferred to become a human tractor, dragging the heavy tree trunks that required a dozen people to move, easily dragging them away alone and returning them to the camp.

By evening, several more waves of monsters intending to head to the Sasi County plains area appeared in the mountain forest here.

With the Maomaos' secret scouting, those monsters had to face the warriors waiting in full battle array before they even got close.

However, even when facing a small number of parasitic monsters, the warriors fought in groups of a few. Why? Because logging was heavy physical labor. The warriors wore their Plate Armor and got quite hot after working for a while. After asking Jier, they took off their armor and worked shirtless.

Therefore, when they fought, they had to be much more careful, striving to defeat the enemy without loss through the cooperation of their companions.

Fortunately, except for the new enemies that appeared the first time, the rest of the monsters everyone encountered were ordinary parasitic human vine monsters.

The logging team had monster problems, and the warriors building the camp here also had their problems.

The weather was too hot!

The logging warriors could at least have some tree shade to block the scorching sun overhead, but the other warriors building the camp outside the mountain forest could only face the big sun, covered in sweat. As soon as the sweat emerged from their bodies, it was baked dry by the hot sunlight.

Jier had to let the carriages return and then open them up to supply drinking water and temporary shade for everyone.

Of course, like the logging warriors, the warriors working here also took off their heavy Plate Armor, and some even only carried a Dagger for self-defense, not even bringing Shields or Long Swords. Holding an Iron Shovel, they panted and stuck out their tongues, shoveling away the dry, flammable grass and turf on the ground.

The surface soil was also dry and lacked water. Every time the warriors shoveled, it was all dry, hardened clods of earth or grass roots that had shrunk from water loss.

Jier noticed that after these grass roots dried and shrank, the root systems almost curled into a small ball, looking like they had prepared for the shrinkage rather than completely drying out and dying.

He picked up a withered grass, scooped a little water with his hand, and soaked the root system that had curled into a small ball. In almost no time, the small pool of water in Jier's palm was absorbed by the grass roots.

The originally shriveled, ball-like plant root system immediately absorbed enough water and spread out, and the withered yellow appearance of the grass stems and leaves returned to green in just over a minute.

A very powerful kind of plant.

Jier dropped the small grass in his hand and looked at the vast, infinite wasteland spreading to the edge of his vision, feeling some emotion in his heart.

It seemed that all things were in jeopardy under the continuous scorching sun, but in fact, they had their own way of survival. Only waiting for a heavy rain, the earth should quickly regain its vitality.

Plants turn green again, and insects and animals all become active once more.

It is not like now, where the vegetation is withered and yellow, and on the dry ground there are no Caoshu, no butterflies, no birds, no snakes or insects, nothing at all. All the animals have either migrated to mountain forests with water, or are hiding deep underground, waiting in parched hunger for the arrival of rain.

But will there be rain this year?

Jier cannot understand why the climate in this Southern Province is so strange.

He has asked every Warrior from the Southern Province under his command, and none of them can explain it. To them, fleeing their hometowns was partly because local lords led troops away to fight, leaving local security unmanaged, and partly because, in order to raise military funds, the lords everywhere were constantly increasing taxes; no one knew if the war went poorly, whether those terrible taxes would be increased even further.

The final and most critical reason is that since the beginning of last winter, most of the entire Southern Province, except for the mountainous regions, has not had a single drop of rain. This is a severe drought that any Farmer's child could foresee, and the resulting agricultural decline is almost a certainty.

Unless it is a place like Sasi County, which is a perennial grain-producing region and has groundwater in its wells, allowing the Farmers to endure this situation for a year or two. Other places simply cannot manage; grain prices will only rise to the point where a large number of people starve to death.

Fortunately, many of them met Jier, and Jier led them through multiple difficulties to find a safe place.

Compared to other places, the Babotali Valley where New Hope Town is located is situated within the mountains, so although the rainfall has decreased, it is not absent, and cold alpine meltwater flows continuously from the mountains on both sides, so there is no shortage of water for agricultural use.

"Messenger!" Jier watched everyone working slowly, and after helping out a few times himself, he called over the messenger used for communication.

"My lord, what message do you need me to convey?" The messenger in his twenties walked over quickly, leading his horse.

Jier brought him to the wooden barrels used for storing water: "You see, no matter what we do in this weather, the water consumption will not be small. You go to Celebration Village now, or Yemei Town, and notify the Merchant Guild transporting supplies to increase, um..."

Jier calculated for a moment, then spoke: "Increase the drinking water supply by three times. In addition, increase the salt supply needed for food by one time. In this weather, no matter what you do, you will sweat a lot, and sweating leads to a salt deficiency; without salt replenishment, even the most capable Warriors won't have the strength to act."

The messenger repeated Jier's order loudly: "Understood, my lord. I will notify the Merchant Guild responsible for supplies in Celebration Village or Yemei Town that your team and Young Master Bell's team need three times the drinking water supply and an additional one time the salt supply."

Seeing that the other party had memorized it, Jier let the messenger depart immediately, because changing the supply of materials inevitably requires a certain amount of preparation time, and giving the Merchant Guilds responsible for logistics more time is naturally a better thing.

The thing to fear most is delay; a little delay here, a little delay there, and things that originally looked like they could be completed end up failing due to the delay in time.

After the person departed, Jier continued to personally pitch in, assisting the Warriors in setting up the wooden fence for the Yingdi.

This thing is a bit crude, but they didn't have many hands to begin with, so just making do for temporary use is fine; there is no need to make it too good.

When the tree trunks were mostly used up at the Yingdi, Jier went to help at the place where they were logging in the mountain forest, dragging and moving the processed large tree trunks to the Yingdi.

Just as Jier expected, shortly before dark, a semicircular Yingdi with a diameter of more than thirty meters was established.

The defensive capability of this Yingdi is average, but its greatest feature is that the ground is entirely dry soil; all the dry vegetation that was originally on the ground was shoveled away by the Warriors along with the top layer of soil to a distance, piling it up into a larger circle outside the perimeter of the Yingdi.

The entire Yingdi has only one path for entry and exit, blocked by a makeshift obstacle made of Iron Nail and Rope.

At the same time, in order to provide a location for the supplies arriving tomorrow morning, Jier also led people to stand a large tree trunk in the middle of the Yingdi, with his Hunting Sword stuck into the top.

The soft white light emitted from the blade of the Hunting Sword could be clearly seen from several kilometers away, providing guidance for the supply wagons coming from afar.

It is just a pity for his Sword, which needs to temporarily serve as a guiding lighthouse for a period of time during these days.

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