Tenacious Physique

On the moonlit hillside.

A group of short, stocky figures came striding over menacingly.

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

These Gray Dwarf night patrols looked full of energy.

Their eyes darted around, and their ears twitched from time to time, giving them the air of people who kept watch in every direction and listened for everything.

Roger hid in the darkness and watched the Gray Dwarf patrol leave.

Things had indeed changed compared with last night.

First was the number of people.

Last night, the Gray Dwarf patrols had been organized in groups of six. Today, they had changed to groups of eleven—

No! There were actually twelve.

It was not until the patrol had gone some distance that Roger noticed the Gray Dwarf sneaking along behind it.

Was he trying to infiltrate?

Although his movements were somewhat clumsy, there was no doubt that he was also a member of the patrol and was seriously carrying out his orders.

"Is this to prevent them from being completely wiped out if they encounter a large-scale enemy attack?"

That was Roger's guess.

Second, the weapons the Gray Dwarves carried had also changed.

Perhaps the miserable state of those sentries yesterday had made them stop placing blind faith in hand crossbows.

At least half of the Gray Dwarves tonight 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 made up of low-intelligence monsters.

Roger grew slightly curious about the Gray Dwarf commander.

However, the reason he had not made a move was not because of these changes, but because the location was unsuitable.

This place was too close to his cave.

Making a move near the cave would be fine for a day or two.

But if he kept it up for too long, something could easily go wrong.

After letting this patrol go, Roger headed another two kilometers east and ran into a second patrol.

Like the previous group, this patrol also had an "11+1" formation.

Qi Divination Technique locked onto the lone Gray Dwarf first.

Roger easily completed an assassination.

Then he grabbed Purple Wisp and followed a few steps forward. After estimating the distance, he decisively drew his bow and fired!

Whoosh!

White Feather Piercing Arrow tore through the back of the last Gray Dwarf's neck.

The other Gray Dwarves sprang into action.

But before they could even see the enemy's direction, another sharp arrow came slicing through the air!

The second arrow claimed another Gray Dwarf's life.

Only then did they finally see Roger's position.

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

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Six crossbow bolts shot out at high speed.

But Roger remained unmoved. He continued standing where he was, aiming at the Gray Dwarves without round shields.

He nocked an arrow and drew the string!

He drew the bow and fired!

His movements were smooth and fluid. Two more arrows claimed the lives of two Gray Dwarves.

The crossbow bolts, meanwhile, could not hurt him at all—

The distance between them was too great, beyond the range of the short crossbows!

The two remaining Gray Dwarves holding short crossbows spat out curses in a frenzy.

Unfortunately, Roger could not understand them.

Using Purple Wisp's range advantage to instantly kill four Gray Dwarves, he was already quite satisfied.

Seeing that the shield-bearing Gray Dwarves had charged over, Roger turned and ran without hesitation!

This dash left the Gray Dwarves utterly furious.

Their legs were too short. They could not keep up!

"Treading on the Moon" combined with "Ladder Cloud Steps"—anyone who used them would understand!

Before long, Roger had vanished into the distance.

The Gray Dwarves, on the other hand, were left panting heavily from exhaustion.

Unable to catch sight of Roger, several Gray Dwarves crashed into one another and actually began shoving each other roughly.

Just then, two arrows suddenly shot out from the reeds beside them!

By alternating between kiting and shooting, Roger cleanly wiped out a twelve-member Gray Dwarf patrol.

"Sure enough, low intelligence is a fatal flaw."

Roger was very satisfied with his hunting performance.

He made a rough sweep with Qi Divination Technique.

Tonight, the entirety of Yellowstone Island was filled with Gray Dwarf patrols like these.

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

On Lettuce Avenue alone, Roger had discovered seven human corpses.

Their bodies had been impaled and planted in the middle of Lettuce Avenue like signposts.

Several of them were dressed like refugees.

It seemed that the Gray Dwarves' dictionary might not contain the word "ally."

Taking advantage of the terrain and using Ladder Cloud Steps to kite them,

Roger wiped out six Gray Dwarf patrols in one night.

During the following day, Roger was woken several times by passing Gray Dwarves while he slept.

They looked extremely furious, as though they wanted to dig three feet into the ground to find Roger.

Their numbers had also increased to an unimaginable degree.

Several times, they nearly discovered the cave entrance.

The closest time, Roger, still half-asleep, had already been preparing to activate the mechanism he had set at the cave entrance.

But in the end, his luck had still won out. The Gray Dwarves failed to discover his shelter.

The next night, Roger, who had not slept enough during the day, chose to strike with overwhelming force.

He took out nine Gray Dwarf patrols in one go.

The reason he had not killed more was that he had run out of White Feather Piercing Arrows.

After that night, the Gray Dwarves changed their strategy and actually began hiding in their camps instead of coming out.

This left Roger puzzled, but it finally allowed him to get a good sleep during the day.

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

He was not surprised by the Gray Dwarves' change. The previous night, he had already seen the rough outlines of several camps from a distance.

At the time, densely packed Gray Dwarves had been working feverishly on construction.

They intended to establish proper camps on Yellowstone Island!

As far as a war of attrition was concerned, Roger was not afraid at all.

It was only that this cave would be discovered sooner or later. Once that happened, he would no longer have such a comfortable place to sleep.

Before setting out, he took stock of his equipment.

Including the arrowheads he had confiscated the previous night, he had only 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 had chosen the combination of shields and axes.

This greatly limited Purple Wisp's usefulness.

Roger decided to use Purple Wisp for one more night.

If he confirmed that this method of killing by exploiting range no longer worked, he would switch to another approach—

The best hunters had to keep updating their hunting methods like this.

The Gray Dwarf commander was certainly clever.

But if he allowed himself to be led around by the nose by Roger, he probably would not even touch the hem of Roger's clothes in his entire life.

"Hmm?"

"The number required for Gray Dwarves seems to be much lower than for Magic Explosion Frogs."

While checking his own data, Roger suddenly discovered that the progress bar beneath Sin Mark had already reached 2%!

He pulled up the battle records he had missed the previous night and found that he had also obtained a new ability.

"You killed 1 Swamp Gray Dwarf, bringing your total Swamp Gray Dwarf kills to 200"

"You gained 10 XP"

"Your 'Toughness' increased slightly"

"Your accumulated 'Toughness' reached 10%. You gained 'Tenacious Physique'"

"Tenacious Physique: Your resistance to disease, plagues, and toxins increased by 10%;

Your ability to endure hunger, thirst, and pain increased by 20%;

Your resistance to being knocked away, collisions, and kiting increased by 10%"

"Such a well-rounded ability."

Ten percent Toughness already had this kind of effect, which left Roger extremely satisfied.

Based on the current data, perhaps ten thousand Gray Dwarves would be enough to max out his Toughness.

Compared with the 160,000 Magic Explosion Frogs, that was a world of difference.

Of course, the Gray Dwarves' combat power was also something Magic Explosion Frogs could not compare with.

After finishing his equipment check and confirming his condition,

Roger skillfully leaped out of the cave and began tonight's hunt.

But after walking for a long time, he did not see a single Gray Dwarf patrol.

"Have they already made their move?"

Roger realized something was wrong and began hurrying toward Dragon Tooth Village.

Half a kilometer from Dragon Tooth Village,

he saw balls of fire rising into the sky and heard wave after wave of desperate wailing.