C20 Chapter 20 Hunting

Thirty minutes later, Lake stood on the edge of a "road" opened by a giant beast.

"It should be around here." He rubbed his chin and looked around.

The "Avenue" is full of fallen trees. Some of them were broken and lying on the long grass, and some were crushed together with shrubs and small trees until they were deformed. One after another, the clearly visible footprints of the marching animals continued until they were broken by the trees on both sides. It is completely blocked by the woods, making it impossible to see directly.

There is no pattern in it, and it is no different from the lawn that people trample on at will. It is natural and can't help but make people feel scared from the bottom of their hearts.

It is not difficult to build a similar road. It only takes more than ten days for a dozen lumberjacks and the corresponding tools.

But in fact, no one would think that way.

Because what lies before them is unintentional and pure destruction.

How much mass can it crush trees and level the road just by walking? How big of a body can it easily knock down towering trees and open up a road big enough for two carriages to run parallel to each other?

It's all like a walking disaster.

No bronze level professional would choose to take the initiative to face the source of a disaster, especially if he is a giant beast that may regard you as its next prey at any time.

Seeing this scene, return to the shallow area along the same route.

It is best to leave in the opposite direction to him. This is the first thing that ordinary adventurers and experienced hunters will think of.

Of course Lake wouldn't, and there was no need to.

It wasn't that he didn't feel the same way, at least from the understanding that there was a high probability that the next encounter would not be a cute and fat snowshoe rabbit, but a dangerous giant beast.

He is identical with the former.

After inspecting several broken birch trunks, Lake squatted beside a shallow pit about half the size of a man and lightly picked up a thin layer of soil and sand with his fingertips.

This is a basic tracking method commonly used by scouts.

The soil is plastic, and when something heavy is rolled over it will be thrown out of the lower layer, leaving a mark, and the sand and gravel will sink into it, whether it is the hoof prints of cavalry, the footprints of infantry, or the wheel marks of a carriage.

At the same time, they are often difficult to erase. After all, an army with a considerable number, no matter how secretive it is and how clean it is, cannot restore the lawn under its feet to its original state.

Senior scouts can even deduce the approximate number of tracking enemies, their individual equipment, the number of cavalry, and even the time apart by simply relying on the erased traces.

Of course, Lake couldn't be that exaggerated, but the environment he faced was not that bad, and the demon ape would not erase his whereabouts without any trouble.

The sand dug out by the "footprints" is still wet, and the birch resin has solidified, but it is very new and clean, and does not look like it was left a few days ago.

"It seems I'm looking in the right direction."

Putting away his original looseness, Lake's expression became more serious and cautious, and the long sword that had been put away for the convenience of the journey was unsheathed again.

Lake turned his wrist, skillfully, and simply curled up his sword to move his arms that were a little stiff due to the attack.

A green-blue scroll with faint movement of light on the leather scroll was held in his left hand for emergencies.

He deliberately suppressed the fighting and only relied on his extraordinary physical strength to move forward.

This can make him, at a shallow and rough level, closer to a speeding wild wolf than a human adventurer.

He was traveling at a very slow speed and arrived at the scene of the incident in a few minutes, with a very unnatural turn to the "road".

There was no trace of the demon ape, only incomplete trees and a seemingly indistinguishable row of huge beast footprints.

Lake hid behind the birch tree next to the "Avenue", with his body close to the trunk of the tree, carefully observing all the movements he could see with his eyes.

Most professionals have a limited range of perception, and he is no exception.

"It seems that the other party is not stupid enough to wait here for someone to take the bait. Give me a surprise."

"Slight smell of blood... isn't the injury serious?" With the help of battle breath to strengthen the five senses to a certain extent, Lake made a basic judgment.

Then he thought that his judgment was ridiculous. For a ten-meter-tall monster, how much damage could a few blow dart needles do to it?

Have you been comfortable for too long? Lake laughed dumbly. Ten years is enough to paralyze a soldier and change his agility.

Thinking of the friends who fought side by side in the past, the family members who passed away, and the past selves that have passed away...

For a moment, he didn't know whether he should feel happy that he was gradually coming out of that period of haze, or feel dejected and sad.

After repeated observations and confirming that there was nothing unusual except for the chirping of birds and insects, he slowly walked out, the magic scroll in his left hand having been replaced.

The original intention was to catch him off guard, but now that the preparation was useless, Lake naturally no longer had to hold it in his hand.

You can often do much more with one hand free.

"The smell of blood doesn't just stop here, the road behind it also extends. He didn't treat it immediately..." Retooled frowned, sensing something was wrong.

Almost all mid- to high-level monsters have the ability to cast healing spells. This is an ability they are born with and can be acquired through growth alone. It is also common sense among adventurers at this level.

Putting aside the disadvantage that most of them can only use magic one level lower than their own, their spell casting time is even shorter than that of ordinary magicians.

"Escaped?" A ridiculous thought flashed through Lake's mind.

Of course, he didn't think deeply about that. He was not hunting a first-level monster in the border area, but a seventh-level giant ape. In the mountains that spanned three kingdoms and provinces and extended outside the kingdom, covering an area larger than one province. The number of sighting records of this level of monsters is only thirty.

This kind of monster that once owned a large territory would be so scared that it would run all over the forest because of how many arrows it was hit? If it were such a simple task, it wouldn't be his turn.

But it also gave Lake an idea.

The intelligence of seventh-level monsters is not low. In terms of rationality, they are almost the same as ordinary people.

No matter from the perspective of being the dominant apex predator in the Warcraft Forest, or from the perspective of his strength, running away at all costs is obviously not a choice he would make.

Neither would Lake. Running away would tear open the wound, and not erasing the traces meant that it wouldn't buy any time.

The longer the time goes, the greater the disparity between the status of the fleeing party and the chasing party becomes, just like being stuck in a swamp and constantly struggling.

It is not impossible to pretend to escape and show your weakness to the enemy, but it requires a backup plan and a reliable ambush as a prerequisite.

Hunters and prey are not armies fighting each other on the battlefield. There is no need to put risks and results on the same scale.

Choosing to pursue victory while being cautious and taking into account one's own safety are the first rules for hunters to follow.

The Demon Ape, who has dealt with hunters for many years, knows very well that he himself is the most primitive "hunter" in this forest.

At this point Lake came to his own conclusion.

"The giant ape Moraine knew he was the attacker."

To be precise, it is a human hunter who is similar in strength to him, or higher than him... It is precisely because of his understanding that the Moraine Giant Ape will adopt an unreasonable choice that he thinks is the most effective.

The speed of reaction and the depth of memory are probably the biggest losses I have suffered recently...

This basically confirms Lake and SHU Xi’s judgment.

"If I had known this, maybe it would have been much easier if I pretended to be a passing hunter, quietly gave him two swords from the front, and then both parties let go and beat each other passionately."

Thinking that tonight's bed would most likely be an original earth bed with the fragrance of birds and flowers, Lake couldn't help but put his head on his guard.

He was 70% to 80% sure that he would be able to deal with the seventh-level monster within two contact battles. According to his original plan, this was a task that could be completed in one day...

He was also going to buy some small things, such as one or two magic props and a small cotton doll for Ina.