Chapter 97: Progress of the Intelligence System

The next morning, Allen and the remaining Twilight Knights set off on the road back to Wilderness Town. He left Gale behind; the young man had finally returned home to visit his family, so he might as well stay a few more days, and it would be good to keep his grandfather Hank company.

Riding on horseback and pondering the events of yesterday, Allen still felt a dull ache in his head. Although the fruit wine tasted sweet and sour, feeling much like fruit juice, its alcohol content was actually not low, and it was perhaps even slightly stronger than beer.

In his own military camp, Allen had enjoyed himself thoroughly drinking with Hank. By the time dinner ended, there was a large pile of fruit wine bottles on the table. Through slightly hazy eyes, Allen seemed to see a look of reluctance in Gale's gaze.

Under the influence of alcohol, Allen, whose reactions were a bit sluggish, immediately understood in his heart that they might have already consumed a large portion of Hank's stock, and he promptly called an end to this sudden, simple banquet.

However, the old man, already over fifty, was indeed an extremely heavy drinker. When Hank left the tent last night, he didn't even need Gale's support; his tolerance was at least on par with Allen's.

It was a pity that until the banquet ended, Hank never mentioned his future plans again, only chatting about trivial matters. Allen knew the time was not yet right.

After all, these Northmen were not like the Woodland Residents settled near the Misty Mountains and Dol Guldur. Before the Battle of the Lonely Mountain, these Humans, who had suffered under the scourge of dark forces, would naturally want to find a powerful leader to rely on.

And since Allen's reputation could radiate into the surrounding areas, the increase in Wilderness Town's population at that time was a matter of course—a thing that was good for both sides.

But now, the situation had changed somewhat. The environment around the forest was much safer, and the strength of the three Northmen villages had remained decent; Allen would still need to spend some time to absorb them.

At this moment, Allen did not know that in Hank's heart, he had already been identified as the greatest threat to the future life of the three villages, relying on his formidable strength to silently force them to make a choice.

If Allen knew this, he would surely cry out that he was wronged. Even now, he still felt that yesterday's banquet was a good start for both parties.

He believed that as long as he maintained his goodwill, it was only a matter of time before everyone came together.

However, it was indeed a matter of time, but the process was not as beautiful as he had imagined.

The garden meticulously tended by Beorn was a place of evergreen in all four seasons. In spring, the flowers here bloomed more brilliantly and lushly than in summer elsewhere, and when winter came, it was just like spring, with flowers still blooming; even the bees and butterflies living here were more than ten times larger than those outside.

At this time, under Beorn's leadership, over a hundred women were assembling some strange-looking beehives. They were evenly distributed throughout the vast sea of flowers. Some massive bees were flying around, but they did not attack them; instead, they circled around these women, as if waiting for them to build homes for them.

These bees, through Beorn's careful breeding, had acquired basic intelligence and their lifespans had been greatly extended—or rather, these diligent little fellows had completely evolved into another species.

They no longer followed the survival mode where worker bees were responsible for everything in the colony, drones for mating, and the queen for laying eggs.

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Bees with higher intelligence and longer lifespans lived by imitating their breeder, the Skin-changer. Drones would find a favorite queen to form a family, and under the protection of Humans, they would diligently collect honey and raise their offspring reasonably.

Meanwhile, the extra honey produced by their hard work would be collected by the Skin-changer as payment for protecting them.

In this vast garden, there was an inexhaustible source of nectar. As long as these women could take good care of the bees, they would indeed be able to harvest the first batch of honey in the autumn.

In the forest not far from the garden, many wooden houses for birds had been built in the trees. Cress sat at a table under the woods, turning her head from time to time to talk to the bird that had landed on her shoulder.

"Speak slowly, speak slowly. You said you flew for a long time, how long? From sunrise to sunset? That's a whole day then. And then? You saw some pitch-black Great Spiders lurking there? What direction? The direction where the sun rises? That's the East then. Hmm, okay. Xiaohuihui, you did a great job, this is your reward."

As she spoke, Cress reached out and fed a small piece of special food to this extremely intelligent gray swallow, and incidentally stroked its smooth, soft feathers.

In fact, this little girl was not in a particularly good mood.

Cress was certainly happy to chat and play with the birds, but after Allen asked her to write down the information provided by the birds and compile statistics, this job was no longer as happy as it used to be.

Under Allen's urging and the guidance of Yamila and many other companions, Cress had learned to write early on, but she did not like writing.

She was very annoyed by sitting at a table, holding a quill, and writing and drawing on parchment; she preferred to jump and skip, and play as she pleased.

Now, Allen, who had just returned, was sitting opposite Cress, clutching a large pile of slips of paper, waiting for Cress to write down the news brought by the gray swallow.

The large pile of slips in his hand had almost no useful information; most of them were things like: "Xiaobai says there is a furry creature in the forest that is very scary; it actually wanted to jump up and catch it." "Lv'er says that in the direction where the sun rises, there are many people gathered there." "Dabai says it flew for a very, very long time toward the warm direction, where there seems to be a human settlement, and someone even wanted to attack it."

Allen looked over these slips repeatedly, thinking in his mind what these adjectives actually meant.

"A furry creature, it's highly likely a squirrel." "The place where the sun rises? Did this bird fly to the Mirkwood Road side?" "The warm direction, the South? The information about a human settlement is very important, but it flew for a very, very long time—how far is that? This probably can't be found; I can only have this bird lead the way."

This information was too vague, and it also added a layer of Cress's own interpretation, which gave Allen a bit of a headache.

But he had no good method now. As early as last year, Allen had discussed with Beorn whether he could also learn this skill. At that time, Beorn observed Allen up and down for a long time, and finally said with regret that Allen was simply too old.

If he wanted to learn it now, the difficulty was very high, and it would require immense energy and a great deal of time, and Beorn specifically emphasized that he could not guarantee that Allen would definitely be able to learn it in the end.

Hearing this, Allen had no choice but to give up the idea; he really couldn't afford so much time and energy, as there were plenty of things waiting for him to do and think about.

Since he couldn't learn it from Beorn, Allen wondered if he could find a way to handle this matter through the Simulator; after all, being able to understand the language of animals would be of great help to him.

It was just that he didn't have a clue about this yet, and for now, he could only rely on Cress.

But when Allen put down the slips in his hand and picked up the wine glass in front of him, he saw Cress opposite him in a daze.

"Hmm? Why are you zoning out? Are you finished writing?"

While writing, Cress had seen Allen's tightly furrowed brows and knew that Allen was not very satisfied with this information, and she had a little thought in her heart.

However, after hearing Allen's words, the little girl quickly wrote down the information brought by the gray swallow and handed it to Allen.

"Xiaohuihui flew for a whole day and discovered some pitch-black Great Spiders in Mirkwood; the location is in the East."

Allen looked at the content on the paper and nearly spat out the Honey Mead he had just drunk, a large amount of internal complaining appearing in his heart again.

"Hiss~ What is this? Do I not know that there are unresolved spiders in Mirkwood? And how many is 'some'? Ten? Eight? How far is 'flew for a whole day'? Which East is the East? Northeast? Southeast? Due East?"

After reading this information, Allen, with a head full of mush, rubbed his forehead, feeling that this was not a solution. These birds could indeed provide some information, which was very useful at critical moments.

But this information was too vague, and it was indeed difficult to filter out the useful ones from it, let alone take corresponding actions based on the information.

For example, the spiders in Mirkwood—Allen had long known that they were still active in the depths of the forest. These descendants of Ungoliant, previously under the protection of Sauron, had acted extremely rampantly and had raided Allen's subjects more than once.

To clear out these arthropods, Wilderness Town and the Woodland Realm had put in a great deal of effort to barely suppress these guys.

But with Sauron's panicked flight, the spiders, having lost the protection of dark forces, had greatly reduced their range of activity, and it had been almost two months; Allen had never heard of any spider attack incidents.

It was obvious they had hidden deeper into the darker parts of Mirkwood. In this situation, Allen couldn't send soldiers to chase them in and fight them; paying such a huge price would yield no return at all.

However, being able to grasp their movements was good, but this information was a bit difficult.

Allen did not expect these animals to provide very precise information; that was really too much to ask of these birds. He needed to consider adopting other ways to collect and screen information.

For example, letting Cress station herself at the edge of the forest with the birds, and then instructing the birds not to fly around, but to be specifically responsible for scouting a certain area.

In this way, even if there was only a general direction, a relatively precise location could be obtained. As for the numbers and such, that wouldn't be considered; those would require arranging professional personnel to scout, and with the birds leading the way, the efficiency of scouting would also be much higher.

Allen felt that this matter was not urgent; take it slow. Having such results now was already quite good, and in the short term, it was impossible for Sauron to immediately arrange for the Nazgûl to make a comeback; the surrounding environment was still relatively calm.

It was better to wait until later, when Beorn had taught more children, and let Cress and Grim take them together, and then see the results then.

And Cress, sitting on the other side of the table, looked at Allen, who was frowning while holding the slips, and felt a bit nervous; the little girl was worried that she would be scolded again.

In fact, to complete the task Allen had arranged, the little girl had put in a lot of effort, and in recent days, she had even controlled her playful nature, sitting here obediently every day, repeatedly writing down some boring information.

Cress did these things also in the hope that through her own efforts, others would recognize her, and most importantly, that Allen would recognize her.

Watching her former companions one by one begin to take charge of important tasks, the young girl, who was gradually growing up, also felt a sense of urgency in her heart; Cress already understood that play was not everything in life.

It was just that as she looked at Allen's current expression, she always felt that the boss opposite her had no intention of praising her, and she couldn't help but feel a bit dejected; moreover, this dejection quickly transformed into an aggrieved expression that appeared on her face, which carried a hint of heroic spirit—after all, this girl was not someone with much guile.

It was at this very moment that Allen, having put down the note, saw the expression on Cress's face; he was taken aback, then pondered for a moment, and immediately understood the young girl's general thoughts.

"Is this because she thinks I am dissatisfied with the results of her work?"

Thinking of this, Allen felt very gratified, and his furrowed brow gradually softened. This young girl who followed by his side and often made him worry and fret had finally grown up, started to care about others' opinions of her, and knew that she needed to work hard.

Thinking of this, Allen stood up, reached out his right hand, and gently ruffled Cress's hair across the narrow table, saying, "Alright, alright, why such an unhappy look? You did this very well, I am very satisfied. As a reward, I will give this to you in advance."

Subsequently, Allen took an object from his person; it was a Sword and Shield Medal with a velvet ribbon, its pure gold material crafted into a kite-shaped Shield with a Longsword inserted into it, representing the status of a Brave.

Red, white, blue, green, and purple gemstones were evenly inlaid in the center of the Shield, forming a circle; under the sunlight, the slightly swaying Medal emitted a brilliant radiance, and behind it was the Crown Three-Star Flag representing Allen, with Cress's name engraved in three languages beneath the Flag.

In an instant, Cress, a young girl who loved Jewelry, had her gaze captured by the Medal; no longer concerned with feeling aggrieved, she took the Medal from Allen's hand with extreme speed and turned to run away.

Soon, the young girl's cheerful figure stopped, and a crisp "Thank you, Boss" drifted into Allen's ears.

"So happy? She's probably off to show it off to her little friends."

Allen thought helplessly and shook his head.

This Medal was an identity proof Allen had specifically designed for the Cabinet Brave, made of pure gold and gemstones; Fulei had recently crafted a few, so Allen took this opportunity to issue one to Cress.

Originally, Allen had thought about holding a ceremony or something, but later decided against it; it was the busy farming season, so he wouldn't gather everyone for such a small matter, and gathering a large number of people was also quite unsafe—he shouldn't let a good thing turn into a bad thing.

Allen had actually come to Beorn's place this time for other matters as well; he had prepared a gift for his little niece, which was a silver-white Longevity Lock.

The Longevity Lock, crafted from Mithril, had three pendants inlaid with yellow gemstones, while the front was an image pieced together from extremely fine, multi-colored gemstones, featuring a red sun, green trees, and vibrant flowers.

And on its back was a short message.

"Gifted to the lovely Rebecca — Allen."

Besides this, Allen had also sent someone to the Woodland Realm to ask His Majesty Thranduil to cast some Magic on the Longevity Lock; before the effect faded, this Longevity Lock could, to a certain extent, increase an infant's constitution, ensuring that Rebecca could grow up healthy and strong.

It was just that Beorn was busy right now, and it was not convenient for Allen to go visit Marian, who had just given birth, or his own newborn little niece.

Therefore, at this moment, Allen could only drink Honey Mead by himself and wait a little while for Beorn.