Competition on the Food Chain

Watching the back of their leader charging forward with the 'fire spear', the panting Fei Que completely collapsed onto the ground.

Earlier, a brother from the tribe had suddenly arrived at the outskirts with the leader's orders to confirm the situation. Upon learning that the giant spider had broken out, he immediately followed the command and ran to the tribe to get fire.

Carrying two torches, he rushed as fast as he could and finally managed to catch up.

The tribe member who had been caught by the spider silk was clearly at his limit. Zhou Xu didn't have time to think and directly threw one of the torches at it.

As a polearm, the Bone Spear inherently had the advantage of attack range. With a torch tied to the tip of the Bone Spear, the attack range became even longer, giving Zhou Xu a significant boost in confidence.

Upon charging forward, he immediately swung the fire spear in his hand.

This giant spider was indeed afraid of fire. Just sensing the heat, it began to retreat in a panic.

Seizing the opportunity, Zhou Xu directly used the fire spear to burn through the spider silk that had grabbed his tribe member. Then, he poked and prodded the giant spider with the fire.

The giant spider, afraid of fire, didn't dare to engage. Following its primal instincts, its massive body turned, and it fled directly.

Its speed was so great that it immediately put distance between them, and Zhou Xu couldn't catch up even if he wanted to.

During this, Dashan was clearly unwilling to let the giant spider escape just like that. After two explosive steps, he fiercely threw the stone axe in his hand.

The power of the flying stone axe was clearly incomparable to a stone projectile.

The moment it hit the giant spider's main body, Zhou Xu clearly saw a string of greenish liquid splash out!

This sight invigorated him.

It proved that the giant spider's defense was not as strong as he had anticipated.

"Alright, no more chasing."

Seeing Dashan still wanting to pursue, Zhou Xu quickly called a halt. The giant spider's speed was superior to theirs; once it ran, they couldn't catch up.

Moreover, although the giant spider feared fire, it didn't fear them.

He could scare it away with a torch, but it would be difficult to kill it. The reason remained the same: its speed was too great, and it was too agile.

Just as Zhou Xu was thinking this, the tribe member who had narrowly escaped death rushed to him and immediately knelt down to pay homage.

Besides this, he couldn't think of any other way to express his gratitude.

This situation stunned Zhou Xu, who had just snapped back to reality. He then subconsciously looked at the others around him.

At this moment, he clearly noticed that the eyes of the surrounding tribe members, including Dashan, had changed significantly.

If, at first, the tribe members had merely worshipped him like a 'Deity', then now, their eyes held a new emotion: 'respect'.

The image of Zhou Xu charging at the spider monster with the 'fire spear' and forcing it to retreat had been deeply imprinted in their hearts.

Honestly, facing such a monster, none of them had dared to charge forward at that moment.

Even Dashan had been inspired by Zhou Xu to take action later.

"Alright, send someone to keep an eye on that giant spider. We might need to change our plan."

Zhou Xu said as he helped up the tribe member kneeling on the ground.

"Let's head back to the camp first."

In his original plan, the sling, as a ranged weapon, undoubtedly held a crucial position. But now, the situation was clear: the power of stone projectiles was insufficient.

This time, they had returned earlier than ever before, making Butterfly and the others who stayed at the tribe inevitably curious.

Due to the recent experience, the team members, still shaken, seized the opportunity to recount their tale, their words painting a vivid picture.

Unknowingly, they drew the attention of everyone in the tribe, making them speak with even more vigor.

At the exciting parts, they even began to boast about their leader's bravery, causing the tribe members' gazes towards Zhou Xu to shift again and again.

As the protagonist of all this, Zhou Xu, currently sitting by the campfire, had no time to pay attention to their chatter. He was completely lost in thought.

The first question in his mind was...

[Why did the giant spider come out?]

Just as he had analyzed earlier, spiders primarily hunt by waiting in ambush. Why did the giant spider suddenly come out?

With this question, after much thought, Zhou Xu came up with a possibility.

It was because of food!

This Black Forest was, to put it bluntly, a desolate place where nothing thrived, and food resources were extremely scarce.

As far as he knew, the animals inhabiting this place, besides rats and insects that ate anything and had strong survival skills, were only the giant spiders that fed on rats and insects!

Under these circumstances, they, as outsiders, settled here, also fed on insects and rats, and demonstrated good hunting efficiency.

Simply put, in a limited space, by competing for food resources, they directly became competitors in this food chain.

The reduction in food and the increase in hunting difficulty forced the giant spider, which had always stayed deep in the Black Forest, setting up its web to wait in ambush and disliked roaming around, to take the initiative.

Regardless, around this Black Forest, an extreme situation of "either you or I exist" had formed between them and the giant spider.

[To deal with the giant spider, the first thing is to find a way to curb its speed and dig traps?]

This was the first thought that flashed through Zhou Xu's mind.

[No, no, the giant spider is so large, how big and deep would a trap need to be to make it fall in? We don't have that kind of strength now. Besides, with those eight spider legs, it could easily climb out of a pit trap.]

As a modern person, Zhou Xu had a very open mind and could think of many different methods.

However, considering the current situation and the conditions at hand, there weren't many methods he could actually implement smoothly, which forced him into deep Meditation.

During this process, their hunting expeditions naturally had to continue, as they would have no food if they stopped.

Under this premise, to ensure the safety of the tribe members, each small team now assigned one member to carry a fire source, and every member carried a torch.

The weapons in their hands were also switched back from the original stone axes to bone spears.

If they encountered a giant spider, they would immediately bind it into a 'fire spear' to force the opponent back!

But during this period, the frequency of giant spider attacks became increasingly high, and even with the 'fire spear' at their disposal, it couldn't guarantee their safety one hundred percent.

The invisible pressure forced Zhou Xu to launch his plan ahead of schedule after a week!