Discovery, Hunting

Over the next few days, Green asked Basel, the castle steward, to gather some poisons for him. Naturally, Basel did not refuse Green's request and promised to find the poisons for him as quickly as possible.

With his advancement to a formal knight requiring nothing more than time, Green did not waste effort on meaningless training. Instead, he intended to return to his original profession. In his previous life, Green had been an extremely aggressive scientist.

After arriving in this world, his lack of strength had forced him to pursue power first. Now that he possessed the ability to protect himself, Green naturally began pursuing the essence of power—to know not only what it was, but why it was so.

Given Green's status within the castle, he could naturally enter and leave the castle library as he pleased.

With the chip, Green swiftly entered the castle's books into it and began conducting an in-depth analysis of all the books using its analytical abilities.

In the guest room, Green sat before his desk, apparently reading the book in his hands while actually operating the chip's interface.

Most of the books entered from the library were historical works, with a small number of knightly legends similar to novels. There were very few basic educational books, and most were literary works. It seemed this world controlled knowledge very strictly. If he had not encountered Old Green, even if he had managed to survive, he probably would not have known a single word.

Most of the books obtained from the castle were of little use to Green. Only a small portion could broaden his understanding of the continent as a whole.

However, there were three books that Green cared about greatly.

After entering the library's information, Green had the chip conduct an in-depth analysis. To his surprise, it discovered hidden secrets within three novels.

[Legend of Wizards]

[Mysterious Continent]

[Mind Ascension]

Although their contents resembled novels, they generally described a group of humans with special talents encountering troubles and trials while constantly seeking truth. At first, Green had not paid much attention to their contents and had merely entered them to expand his knowledge.

But after the chip's analysis, it soon discovered that the three books contained some sort of hidden code. According to the chip's analysis, the codes and information carried within them, once the useless material was removed, revealed the books' true nature.

[Unknown book analysis progress: 77%]

Seeing that the analysis would still take some time to complete, Green's expression turned solemn. The Truth Chip possessed unimaginable advantages in conventional computation, and brute-force decryption was precisely what it did best. Three days had already passed since it began cracking the books' contents, yet the encryption strength was simply unimaginable.

Based on Green's understanding of this world, its mathematics and cryptography could absolutely not have reached such a level on the surface. This world likely concealed unknown secrets.

At that thought, Green's heart could not help but race. He took a deep breath and suppressed the excitement in his heart.

After glancing at the decryption progress, Green began another task.

He walked to the side, picked up his longsword and metal bow, and headed straight outside the castle.

Keenly aware of his lack of real combat experience, Green wanted to increase his combat experience through actual battle training.

However, Green's physical abilities were far too powerful. Even at the apprentice stage, he already possessed the formidable body of a formal knight. Only Baron Kluo and Os, the captain of the guards, could spar with him head-on. Yet in order to conceal his trump card, Green only presented himself to others as an ordinary apprentice.

To gain experience, Green chose hunting. By killing powerful beasts, he could hone his abilities.

"Lord Green, are you going hunting again?" The guards at the castle gate had often seen Green dressed like this over the past few days, and since he brought back prey every time, they naturally knew what he was doing.

"Mm." Green nodded in response.

Seeing that Green was unwilling to say more, the guard did not dare ask further. He respectfully took a quiver full of arrows from the side and handed it to Green.

There was no armory in the residential area of the baron's castle. The nearest storage room stood beside the inner side of the city wall. Green had to come here to collect arrows every time he went hunting.

Following the castle wall, Green slowly made his way into the forest. To avoid encountering Saladin's men, he deliberately chose the mountain range on the other side. Green had originally not wanted to take risks, but real combat experience could only be gained through real combat. The risks were still small now; if he did not do it and only regretted it when he truly faced battle later, it would be far too late.

Most of the snow in the forest had already melted, and all kinds of fierce beasts had emerged to hunt, fully satisfying Green's needs.

Green walked through the forest, using the chip to monitor the surrounding environment from every angle.

[Chip, search for traces of large prey.]

Under the chip's effects, red arrows appeared in Green's vision. According to the chip's analysis, these were the places most likely to contain large prey. Looking at the arrow's direction, Green quickly moved toward the designated location.

"Roar!!" Before Green even arrived, a massive roar rang out from the direction indicated by the arrow. Green immediately quickened his pace and rushed toward the source at top speed.

As he drew closer and closer to the target location, Green slowed his steps, trying to minimize the noise he made while walking.

"Snort, snort!!"

"Roar!!"

Two different sounds entered Green's ears.

Are two creatures confronting each other? Green thought as he listened to the two sounds.

Green lowered his body and carefully parted the bushes before him.

What entered Green's sight was a boar and a bear confronting each other.

The boar was as large as a small mountain. Its enormous body was covered in bristles and a thick layer of mud, making its defenses look exceptional. Its huge tusks were enough to pierce any creature; if one were struck by them, it would surely be skewered straight through. Its hind legs continuously scraped against the ground as if gathering strength. On the other side, the black bear kept circling the boar, searching for an opening. Its four-meter-long body, powerful limbs, and sharp claws on its paws all displayed immense strength and terrifying lethality.

[Mountain Berserker Bear]

[Strength: 3.1–3.2]

[Speed: 2.1–2.2]

[Constitution: 3.5–3.7]

[Barros Black Boar]

[Strength: 3.3–3.5]

[Speed: 1.9–2.1]

[Constitution: 3.6–3.8]

Why were a Barros Black Boar and a Mountain Berserker Bear confronting each other? Looking at the boar and bear before him, the chip instantly began its analysis.

[Both the Barros Black Boar and Mountain Berserker Bear possess an extremely strong sense of territory. They would never easily leave their own territories, much less fight another apex creature.]

Beasts were different from humans. The risks after being injured were enormous, so beasts rarely fought to the death unless they were starving.

Something is wrong. I'll observe for a while. Green did not intend to catch both sides in one sweep.

[Aside from speed, the Barros Black Boar holds an overall advantage. However, the black bear is no simple creature either. It is taking advantage of the boar's need to move its entire body when turning, tightly circling the Barros Black Boar in guerrilla tactics.]

The Mountain Berserker Bear continued moving around the Barros Black Boar, drawing away its attention. As it circled, the distance between the Mountain Berserker Bear and the Barros Black Boar steadily decreased.

As the distance between them grew shorter and shorter, the Barros Black Boar sensed that something was wrong and charged directly at the Mountain Berserker Bear. The bear had already achieved its goal. The distance between them had been compressed to a very short range, and the Barros Black Boar could not accelerate in such a short charge. The Mountain Berserker Bear had time to react.

Just as the two were about to collide, the Mountain Berserker Bear suddenly stood up like a human. It twisted aside and dodged the Barros Black Boar's charge, then raised its forelimb and slammed it viciously into the black boar's body.

Under the Mountain Berserker Bear's attack, the Barros Black Boar lost its balance and toppled to the side.

Seeing the Barros Black Boar expose its belly, the Mountain Berserker Bear roared and fiercely slapped its paw down onto the boar's abdomen. Blow after blow followed without pause. After only two mournful cries, the Barros Black Boar, struck repeatedly in its weak point, stopped moving.

Looking at the dead Barros Black Boar, the Mountain Berserker Bear began enjoying the fruits of its victory.

Legend says Mountain Berserker Bears know how to use traps. It seems their intelligence really isn't low. Green sighed as he watched the entire battle.

Green looked at the longsword and metal bow in his hands. After weighing his options for a long time, he ultimately decided to use the longsword. His close-combat ability had to be improved; otherwise, facing enemies would be far too dangerous. The Mountain Berserker Bear was also a suitable opponent. Although Green's strength and constitution were completely inferior to its, his speed crushed the bear's. As long as he controlled the tempo and did not confront it head-on, the risk would be low.

Green picked up a stone and hurled it at the Mountain Berserker Bear.

The Mountain Berserker Bear, which was feeding, was struck by the stone and immediately turned around, assuming an alert stance.

The instant it saw Green, the Mountain Berserker Bear let out an angry roar and charged straight at him.

[Combat assistance activated.]

Rows of blue data appeared in Green's vision. The chip had already synchronized its predictions of the Mountain Berserker Bear's movement trajectory to Green's retina.

Watching the rapidly approaching Mountain Berserker Bear, the prepared Green charged toward it with his superior speed. The instant he drew near, he lowered his body and leaped toward the front right, while the longsword in his hand slashed at the Mountain Berserker Bear's left forelimb.

"Rip." The sound of flesh tearing rang out as Green's sword cut the Mountain Berserker Bear's left forelimb.

The injured Mountain Berserker Bear immediately entered a berserk state. It roared again and waited for Green to charge at it.

In the Mountain Berserker Bear's eyes, a creature that would normally flee the moment it saw it had actually injured it. This was an unforgivable offense.

It has some intelligence, but not much. Green gave this evaluation as he watched the berserk Mountain Berserker Bear.

Relying on his superior speed, Green continuously circled the Mountain Berserker Bear with guerrilla tactics. With the chip's assistance, every one of Green's movements was the most efficient and direct possible. The Mountain Berserker Bear's immense strength was completely useless.

Every one of Green's strikes targeted the Mountain Berserker Bear's blind spots. The bear could only watch, unable to make any meaningful response. Like a wooden post, it could only allow Green to attack it.

"Roar!" Like a final wail, the Mountain Berserker Bear let out that roar before collapsing unwillingly to the ground. Its body was already covered in dozens of cuts. No matter how strong its constitution was, the continuous loss of blood eventually brought it to the end of its life.

Looking at the fallen Mountain Berserker Bear, Green did not rashly approach. Bears were especially good at playing dead to launch surprise attacks. Besides, Green had his cheat. In the chip's vision, the Mountain Berserker Bear's heart had not stopped beating.

He directly took out the metal bow from his back, drew it, nocked an arrow, and fired the sharp arrow straight at the Mountain Berserker Bear.

"Roar!" The Mountain Berserker Bear, which had been lying on the ground, went mad after being struck by Green's arrow and launched one final charge at him.

"Whoosh."

"Thud."

One was the sound of an arrow flying through the air; the other was the sound of the bear collapsing.

A white-feathered arrow stood straight out of the Mountain Berserker Bear's head, with half of it already buried inside its skull.

[Target heartbeat has stopped. Blood energy is beginning to dissipate. Death confirmed.]

With the chip's announcement, the Mountain Berserker Bear's death was officially confirmed.

Green took out the rope he had prepared in advance, tied the Mountain Berserker Bear and Barros Black Boar together, and slowly dragged them both back to the castle.

For ordinary people, the flesh and blood of knight-level creatures offered tremendous benefits. However, ordinary knights found it difficult to kill such creatures in a one-on-one frontal battle. Green could hunt these beasts so easily because of his own strength, the chip's assistance in locking down their escape routes, and his nearly cheat-like archery.

"Lord Green is back!" Seeing Green emerge from the forest, the guard atop the castle wall shouted to the guards at the gate. "Wait, Lord Green's prey is huge! It's a bear and a boar! Hurry and prepare a carriage to help Lord Green transport those prey back!"

The guards quickly drove a carriage over to Green.

"Gasp..." Waves of sharp breaths sounded one after another. These ordinary guards had never seen prey this large.

"That is a Barros Black Boar and a Mountain Berserker Bear. Those are knight-level creatures! Lord Green actually managed to hunt such creatures!" There were knowledgeable people among the guards, and they quickly identified the boar and bear.

The gazes all the guards directed at Green became increasingly respectful. Some even held admiration.

"Hurry and transport these two creatures back to the castle. Tell the cooks to turn them into food as soon as possible. Do not waste the power in their flesh and blood. Keep the essence for Old Green and me, and distribute the rest among everyone in the castle," Green said directly to the leader of the guards who were loading the prey.

Hearing this, the guards immediately moved faster, wishing they could transport the boar and bear back to the castle at once.

News that Green had hunted two knight-level creatures swiftly spread throughout the castle. Although the wounds suggested that the boar and bear had likely fought each other before Green took advantage of the situation, the final fatal blow to the bear had been an arrow. The wounds on its body also showed that Green had indeed confronted the Mountain Berserker Bear head-on and successfully killed it. This proved that, at the very least, Green's combat talent far surpassed that of ordinary people.