Tenacious Physique

On a hillside bathed in moonlight.

A group of stout shadows approached menacingly.

Half of them carried crossbows, while the rest had switched to sharp hand axes and round shields.

This patrol of Gray Dwarves appeared to be in high spirits.

Their eyeballs darted around, and their ears twitched occasionally, giving them an air of being aware of everything around them.

Roger remained hidden in the darkness, watching the Gray Dwarf patrol team leave.

Compared to last night, things had indeed changed.

First, the numbers.

Last night, the Gray Dwarf teams were organized into groups of six. Today, they were in groups of eleven—

No! Actually, it was twelve.

It wasn't until the patrol team was far away that Roger noticed the Gray Dwarf stealthily following behind them.

Was he trying to sneak?

Although his movements were a bit clumsy, he was undoubtedly a member of the patrol team and was diligently carrying out his orders.

"Is this to ensure that if they encounter a large-scale enemy attack, not a single survivor is left behind?"

Roger speculated.

Secondly, the weapons equipped by the Gray Dwarves had also changed.

Perhaps the gruesome state of the few sentries yesterday had made them no longer trust hand crossbows.

Tonight, at least half of the Gray Dwarves were using a combination of hand axes and small round shields.

Such a flexible and rapid adjustment made it difficult to imagine that this was an army composed of low-intelligence monsters.

Roger felt a flicker of curiosity about the Gray Dwarves' commander.

However, the reason he didn't make a move wasn't due to these changes, but because the location was wrong.

It was too close to his cave.

Taking action near his cave would be fine for a day or two.

But over time, it could lead to trouble.

After letting this patrol of Gray Dwarves go, Roger walked another two kilometers east and encountered the second patrol team.

Like the previous team, this patrol also had an "11+1" personnel configuration.

Qi Divination Technique was the first to lock onto the lone Gray Dwarf.

Roger easily completed an assassination.

Then he grabbed the Purple Bindweed, took a few steps forward, estimated the distance, and decisively drew his bow and shot! Whoosh! The White Feather Piercing Arrow tore through the back of the neck of the last Gray Dwarf in the patrol.

The remaining Gray Dwarves reacted to the sound.

But before they could clearly see the direction of the enemy, another arrow tore through the air!

The second arrow took the life of another Gray Dwarf.

By this time, they could finally see Roger's position.

The Gray Dwarves holding short crossbows cursed furiously. After a brief aim, they pulled the triggers.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh! Six bolts shot out rapidly.

But Roger remained unfazed. He stayed in place, aiming at the Gray Dwarves without round shields.

Nock arrow, draw bow! His movements were fluid and smooth, and two more arrows took the lives of two more Gray Dwarves.

And those bolts couldn't harm him at all—

The distance between them was too great, exceeding the range of the short crossbows! The remaining two Gray Dwarves holding short crossbows cursed violently.

Unfortunately, Roger couldn't understand them.

He was quite satisfied with eliminating four Gray Dwarves using the range advantage of the Purple Bindweed.

Seeing the shield-bearing Gray Dwarves charging forward, Roger didn't hesitate and bolted!

His escape infuriated the Gray Dwarves.

They had short legs and couldn't keep up!

With "Ladder Cloud Steps" and "Treading on the Moon," anyone who used them knew how effective they were! In a short while, Roger had disappeared.

In contrast, the Gray Dwarves were panting from exhaustion.

Unable to catch sight of Roger, several Gray Dwarves bumped into each other and roughly shoved one another.

However, just then, two more arrows shot out unexpectedly from the nearby reeds! With a combination of kiting and shooting, Roger cleanly wiped out a 12-man Gray Dwarf patrol.

"As expected, low intelligence is a fatal flaw."

Roger was very pleased with his hunting performance.

He scanned the area with Qi Divination Technique.

Tonight, Yellowstone Island was swarming with these Gray Dwarf patrols.

They seemed to be conducting a large-scale purge of Yellowstone Island.

On Lettuce Avenue alone, Roger discovered seven human corpses.

Their bodies were impaled and set up as road markers in the center of Lettuce Avenue.

Several of them appeared to be vagrants.

It seemed the Gray Dwarves' dictionary didn't include the word "ally."

Taking advantage of the terrain and utilizing Ladder Cloud Steps for kiting.

Roger eliminated six Gray Dwarf patrols in one night.

The following day, Roger was woken up several times by passing Gray Dwarves while he was sleeping.

They seemed furious, as if they wanted to dig three feet into the ground to find Roger.

Their numbers had also increased to an unimaginable degree.

Several times, they had almost discovered the entrance to his cave.

The closest instance, Roger, groggy from sleep, was already preparing to activate the mechanisms he had set up at the cave entrance.

But in the end, his luck prevailed, and the Gray Dwarves failed to find his hiding place.

The next night, Roger, who hadn't slept well during the day, decided to go on the offensive.

He wiped out nine Gray Dwarf patrols in one go.

The reason he couldn't kill more was that he had run out of White Feather Piercing Arrows.

After this night, the Gray Dwarves changed their strategy and began to bunker down.

This puzzled Roger, but at least he could finally get a good night's sleep during the day.

At dusk on the third day, Roger woke up as scheduled.

He wasn't surprised by the Gray Dwarves' change in behavior; he had spotted the beginnings of several camps from afar the previous night.

At that time, dense formations of Gray Dwarves were engaged in fervent construction.

They intended to establish formal camps on Yellowstone Island!

In terms of a protracted war, Roger wasn't afraid at all.

However, this cave would eventually be discovered, and then he wouldn't have such a comfortable place to sleep.

Before setting out, he took stock of his equipment.

Including the batch of arrows he had confiscated last night, he only had a little over thirty White Feather Piercing Arrows left.

The Gray Dwarf commander had keenly realized that crossbow bolts were ineffective against Roger, and more and more Gray Dwarves were opting for the shield axe combination.

This greatly limited the effectiveness of Purple Bindweed.

Roger decided to try Purple Bindweed for one more night.

If he confirmed that this method of killing by controlling range wasn't working, he would switch to a different approach—

The best hunter must constantly update their hunting methods.

While the Gray Dwarf commander was undoubtedly intelligent, if he continued to be led around by Roger, he would likely never even touch Roger's clothes in his lifetime.

"Hmm?"

"The number of Gray Dwarves required seems much less than for Magic Explosion Frogs."

While checking his own stats, Roger suddenly noticed that the progress bar under Sin Mark had reached 2%!

He pulled up the combat logs from the previous night that he had missed and discovered he had acquired a new ability.

"You have killed 1 Swamp Gray Dwarf, accumulating a total of 200 Swamp Gray Dwarves killed."

"You have gained 10 XP."

"Your 'Tenacity' has received a slight increase."

"Your 'Tenacity' has accumulated to 10%, granting you 'Tenacious Physique'."

"'Tenacious Physique': Your resistance to diseases, plagues, and poisons increases by 10%;

Your endurance for hunger, thirst, and pain increases by 20%;

Your resistance to knockback, charges, and kiting increases by 10%."

"A very comprehensive ability."

Ten percent of Tenacity already had this effect, which made Roger very satisfied.

Based on the current data estimation, it might take ten thousand Gray Dwarves to max out Tenacity.

Compared to one hundred sixty thousand Magic Explosion Frogs, that was truly a drop in the bucket.

Of course, the combat power of Gray Dwarves was not something Magic Explosion Frogs could compare to.

After inventorying his equipment and confirming his status.

Roger skillfully jumped out of the cave and began his hunt for the night.

But after walking for a long time, he hadn't even seen a single Gray Dwarf patrol.

"Could they have already made their move?"

Roger realized something was wrong and began to head towards Dragon Tooth Village.

He was still half a li away from Dragon Tooth Village.

He then saw the plumes of fire rising into the sky and heard the sounds of tragic wailing.