Night of Slaughter

The cave entrance was extremely narrow.

Even slightly overweight adults would have trouble getting through.

But the inside of the cave was spacious, covering at least a hundred square meters.

Unlike the damp climate throughout the marshland.

The cave was very warm and practically free of insects.

With some dry reeds spread out, one could sleep right on the ground.

For living in the wilderness, finding such a shelter was already incredibly lucky.

After all, for most of the past half month, Roger had slept in damp tree hollows, chilly bushes, or on tree trunks crawling with ants.

Back then, he had constantly missed that little bed in Tongma Town.

"Rustle, rustle..."

The Quicksand Lamp swayed slightly, giving off a dense rubbing sound.

Specks of white light slowly brightened, illuminating every corner of the cave.

Roger squatted down, preparing to get himself something to eat.

He did not light a fire.

This was not because of ventilation concerns, but because the heat given off by a campfire could easily be detected by sensitive monsters.

When it came to trouble that could be avoided, Roger always did his best to avoid it.

This meal mainly consisted of smoked meat strips, freshwater, and a plant called "sand yam."

Roger had brought the smoked meat strips from Tongma Town, and only a little remained.

He had obtained the sand yams and freshwater through trade with Dragon Tooth Village.

Roger rather liked eating sand yams.

They looked more like taro, apparently being the tuber of some kind of plant.

They had a crisp, sweet taste and were very filling.

Most importantly, they could be eaten raw and required no complicated processing, making them perfect for a traveler like Roger who lived in the wilderness year-round.

After eating two sand yams, the strength he had nearly exhausted earlier began to slowly return.

He stretched and lay down on the reed mat, pondering the situation at hand.

Since he had decided to intervene in this war, Roger had to make every possible preparation.

From a normal perspective.

The Gray Dwarves advancing with such ferocity were far stronger than the villagers of Dragon Tooth Village.

Everyone Roger had seen in the village was a farmer, and few of them could fight.

If these people encountered Gray Dwarves armed with hand crossbows, they would probably shatter at the first impact.

Not to mention Hanfulan's refugees, who were watching hungrily from the sidelines.

It looked like this would be a one-sided war, but things certainly could not be that simple.

"The people in the village are all farmers? Then where are the fields and farms?"

Roger smiled faintly.

He had actually noticed this issue long ago.

However, at the time, he had been a traveler and simply had not cared about such things.

Looking back now, Dragon Tooth Village's ability to establish itself on Yellowstone Island was itself incredibly strange.

First.

There was hardly any suitable land on Yellowstone Island for farming.

Yet when trading with Roger, the villagers had been able to generously produce something as valuable as sand yams.

This meant that in a world suffering from an extreme food shortage, Dragon Tooth Village did not lack food.

Second.

Dragon Tooth Village was severely lacking in fighters.

Even a half-baked hunter like Eric counted as an expert.

Aside from the mysterious Cindy, only Rachel and her Flying Dragon Beast had any real fighting ability.

So how had they managed to stand firm until now, surrounded by monsters and coveted by the Marshland Refugees?

Third.

Rachel had once said that the Swamp Gray Dwarves were coming for Dragon Tooth Village.

So was there something in the village worth mobilizing so many Gray Dwarves over? Roger thought it over, but could not find anything unusual.

"Sand yams? That really is possible."

Roger did not continue thinking about it.

Without enough information to support his deductions, the deeper his analysis went, the more wildly wrong it might become.

He only needed to establish one thing: "Dragon Tooth Village is not as simple as it appears."

Cindy definitely had some trump card capable of intimidating the Marshland Refugees.

Otherwise, Hanfulan would not have needed to ally with the Gray Dwarves.

As long as Dragon Tooth Village did not lose too quickly, Roger would have plenty of opportunities to hunt.

He stood up and loosened his muscles and bones.

By the faint light of the Quicksand Lamp, Roger began tonight's work--

He carefully began dismantling the heads of the Penetrating Arrows.

These arrowheads were socketed, with a thin, short iron spike behind each one.

This meant that arrow shafts made of suitable material could be fitted with them.

Roger planned to transfer all these arrowheads onto White Feather Arrows.

Although he could also use crossbow bolts, their efficiency was too low and they were prone to letting him down.

Besides, crossbows were far less nimble than Purple Wisp.

Thus, the quiet mountain cave began to ring with tinkling sounds.

Before long, Roger had finished this part of the work.

He had seized a total of 67 Penetrating Arrows from the Gray Dwarves. He kept only seven as spares and dismantled all the rest.

Next, he embedded the arrowheads one by one into the shafts of the White Feather Arrows.

"You have crafted a new arrow. Please name the new arrow!"

"White Feather Arrows combined with Penetrating Arrows... How about..."

After pondering for a moment, Roger finished naming it. "Let's call it the White Feather Piercing Arrow!"

"Successfully crafted White Feather Piercing Arrows. Total White Feather Piercing Arrows crafted: 3."

"Your Life Skill: Bow Maintenance and Crafting (39) has increased."

Just like that, Roger crafted 60 White Feather Piercing Arrows in one go.

His luck was fairly good tonight.

Not one of the 60 attempts had failed, and the points in the related Life Skill increased by five as a result.

When the last arrow completed its balance test, some faint light had already begun to shine down from above the cave.

Dawn was approaching.

Roger yawned and set down his tools.

Only after checking the mechanisms at the cave entrance three times did he lie down to sleep with peace of mind.

At dusk.

Roger slowly woke up.

With his stomach empty, he grabbed two sand yams and gnawed on them.

He instantly felt refreshed.

He did not hurry out. Instead, he patiently waited for a while.

He waited until the sky had gone completely dark.

Only then did he leave his cave fully armed.

During the day, Roger had heard the commotion of the Gray Dwarves marching.

He estimated that there were definitely many more Gray Dwarves on Yellowstone Island now than yesterday.

After a full day, the bodies of the Gray Dwarves he had killed should also have been discovered.

Once the enemy was on guard, it would no longer be easy to use the same feint as yesterday to kill people so effortlessly.

Relying on Ladder Cloud Steps to forcefully kill them would also be dangerous.

Fortunately, he had prepared an entirely new gift for the Gray Dwarves.

Tonight was destined to be a true night of slaughter.