Discovery, Hunting

Over the next few days, Green asked the castle steward, Basel, to gather some poisons for him. Basel naturally had no reason to refuse Green's request and promised to find the poisons for him as quickly as possible.

Since Green only had to wait to complete his promotion to Formal Knight, he did not engage in meaningless training. Instead, he intended to awaken his original profession. In his previous life, Green himself had been an extremely radical scientist.

After arriving in this world, he had first chosen to pursue strength because he lacked power of his own. Now that he possessed enough strength to protect himself, Green naturally had to begin pursuing the essence of power—to know not only what something was, but why it was so.

With Green's status in the castle, he could naturally enter and leave the castle library at will.

With the Truth Chip, Green quickly entered all the castle's books into the chip. Relying on its analytical abilities, he began conducting an in-depth analysis of every book.

Inside the guest room, Green sat before the desk. Although he appeared to be reading the book in his hands, he was actually operating the chip's interface.

[Most of the books entered from the library are historical works. A small portion are knightly legends resembling novels, and there are very few books on basic education. Most are literary works. It seems this world's control over knowledge is extremely strict. If I had not encountered Old Green, then even if I had managed to survive, I probably would have been completely illiterate.]

Most of the books obtained from the castle were useless to Green. Only a small portion could expand his understanding of the entire continent.

But there were three books that Green cared about deeply.

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

[Legend of Wizards], [Mysterious Continent], and [Mind Ascension].

In terms of content, they seemed like novels. They generally described the troubles and trials encountered by a group of humans with special talents as they constantly pursued the truth. At first, Green had not paid much attention to the contents of these books. He had only entered them into the chip to broaden his knowledge.

But the chip's analysis soon revealed that these three books contained some kind of hidden code. According to the chip's analysis, after useless content was removed, the coded messages carried within the three books revealed their true nature.

[Unknown book analysis progress: 77%]

Seeing that the analysis still needed some time to finish, Green's expression turned solemn. The Truth Chip possessed unimaginable advantages in conventional computation, and brute-force decryption was precisely what it excelled at. Three days had already passed since it began deciphering the books' contents, yet the encryption strength was simply astonishing.

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

At the thought of this, Green's heart began to beat faster despite himself. He drew a deep breath and suppressed the excitement surging within him.

After glancing at the decryption progress, Green began working on something else.

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

Deeply aware of his lack of real combat experience, Green wanted to increase his combat experience through actual battles.

However, Green's physical abilities were simply too powerful. Even at the apprentice stage, he already possessed the mighty body of a Formal Knight. Only Baron Klow and the guards' captain, Os, could train with him head-on. But in order to hide his trump cards, Green presented himself publicly as merely an ordinary apprentice.

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

"Lord Green, are you going hunting again?" The castle gate guard had seen Green dressed like this several times over the past few days. Since he brought back prey every time, the guard naturally knew what Green was doing.

"Mm." Green nodded in response to the guard.

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

The Baron's castle Dormitory District had no armory. The nearest storehouse stood beside the inner wall of the city walls, and Green had to come here for arrows whenever he went hunting.

Following the castle wall, Green slowly made his way into the forest. To avoid encountering Saladin's people, he deliberately chose the opposite side of the mountain range. Green had not wanted to take the risk, but real combat experience could only be obtained through real combat. The risk was still small now; if he did not act, then regretting it only when he faced a true battle later would be too late for regret.

Most of the snow in the forest had already disappeared. All kinds of fierce beasts had appeared in the forest to hunt, perfectly satisfying Green's needs.

As Green walked through the forest, the chip monitored the surrounding environment in every direction.

[Chip, search for traces of large prey.]

With the chip's assistance, red arrows appeared in Green's vision. They pointed toward the places where large prey was most likely to be found according to the chip's analysis. Green followed the direction of the arrows and quickly moved toward the designated area.

"Roar!!" Before Green even arrived, a tremendous roar rang out from the direction indicated by the arrow. Green immediately quickened his pace, rushing toward the source of the sound as fast as possible.

Seeing the distance to his target growing shorter and shorter, Green slowed his steps, doing his best to reduce the noise he made while walking.

"Snort, snort!!"

"Roar!!"

Two different sounds reached Green's ears.

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

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

What entered Green's view was a boar and a bear facing off.

The two opposing sides consisted of a wild boar as large as a small mountain. Its enormous body was covered in bristles, along with a thick layer of mud, making it look exceptionally well-defended. Its huge tusks were capable of piercing any creature; if they impaled someone, they would certainly skewer them clean through. Its hind legs kept stamping against the ground, as though it were storing up power. On the other side, the black bear kept circling the boar, searching for an opening. Its four-meter-long body, thick limbs, and sharp claws on its paws all displayed immense strength and tremendous 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 are the Barros Black Boar and Mountain Berserker Bear facing off?] The chip instantly analyzed the boar and bear before him.

[The Barros Black Boar and Mountain Berserker Bear are both creatures with an extremely strong sense of territory. They would never easily leave their territories, much less fight another overlord-level creature.] Beasts were different from humans. The risks of injury were extremely serious for them, so beasts rarely fought one another to the death unless they were starving.

[The situation is abnormal. Watch for a while.] Green had no intention of taking both of them in one go.

[The Barros Black Boar has the advantage in every aspect except speed. The black bear is no simple creature either. It is exploiting the boar's weakness—that turning around requires it to mobilize its entire body—and constantly harassing the Barros Black Boar.]

The Mountain Berserker Bear kept circling the Barros Black Boar, distracting it and draining its attention. As it moved, the distance between the two creatures continued to shrink.

As the distance grew shorter and shorter, the Barros Black Boar also sensed that something was wrong. It charged directly at the Mountain Berserker Bear. The bear had already achieved its purpose: the distance between them had been compressed to an extremely short range. At such a distance, the Barros Black Boar could not accelerate fully, giving the Mountain Berserker Bear time to react.

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

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 abdomen, the Mountain Berserker Bear roared and slammed its paw directly into the boar's belly. One blow followed another without pause. After its weak point was attacked, the Barros Black Boar let out only two cries of pain before falling still.

Seeing that the Barros Black Boar was dead, the Mountain Berserker Bear began to enjoy the fruits of its victory.

[Legend says that Mountain Berserker Bears can use traps. It seems their intelligence really is quite high.] Green sighed after witnessing the entire battle.

Green looked at the longsword and metal bow in his hands. After struggling with the decision for a long time, he ultimately chose the longsword.

He had to make up for his close-combat abilities. Otherwise, if he were caught in close quarters during future battles, he would be in danger. This weakness absolutely had to be eliminated.

The Mountain Berserker Bear was also a suitable opponent. Although its strength and constitution were far inferior to his, his speed completely overwhelmed it. As long as he controlled the pace and avoided confronting it head-on, the risk would be very low.

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

The Mountain Berserker Bear had been eating when the stone struck it. It immediately turned around and assumed a guarded stance.

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

[Combat assistance activated.]

Rows of blue data appeared in Green's vision. Predictions of the Mountain Berserker Bear's movements were synchronized onto his retina by the chip.

Seeing the Mountain Berserker Bear rapidly approaching, Green, who had been prepared for this, charged toward it with his greater speed. The instant he drew near, he lowered his body and leaped toward the front right while the longsword in his hand slashed toward the bear's left forelimb.

"Slash!" The sound of flesh being torn rang out as the Mountain Berserker Bear's left forelimb was cut open by Green.

After being wounded, the Mountain Berserker Bear immediately entered a berserk state. It roared again and waited for Green to charge once more.

In the Mountain Berserker Bear's eyes, the creature that usually fled the moment it saw the bear had now injured it. This was an unforgivable sin.

[It has a little intelligence, but not much.] Green gave this assessment as he watched the berserk Mountain Berserker Bear.

Relying on his greater speed, Green constantly harried the Mountain Berserker Bear. With the chip's assistance, every one of his movements was as efficient and direct as possible. The Mountain Berserker Bear's tremendous strength was completely useless.

Every one of Green's sword strikes targeted the Mountain Berserker Bear's blind spots. The Mountain Berserker Bear could only watch helplessly, unable to produce any meaningful response. It was like a wooden stake, forced to let Green attack it at will.

"Roar!" Like a final wail, the Mountain Berserker Bear collapsed unwillingly after letting out that roar. By then, its body was covered in dozens of slashes. No matter how formidable its constitution was, the constant loss of blood eventually led it toward the end of its life.

Seeing the Mountain Berserker Bear lying on the ground, Green did not approach recklessly. Bears were particularly good at pretending to be dead before launching a sneak attack. Besides, Green had a cheat on his side. In the chip's field of vision, the Mountain Berserker Bear's heartbeat had not stopped.

He immediately took out the metal bow on his back, drew the string, and fired a sharp arrow straight at the Mountain Berserker Bear.

"Roar!" The Mountain Berserker Bear, which had still been lying on the ground, launched its final frenzied charge at Green after taking the arrow.

"Whoosh!"

"Thud!"

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

A white-feathered arrow stood rigidly embedded in the Mountain Berserker Bear's head, half of it already buried inside its skull.

[Target heartbeat stopped. Blood energy beginning to disperse. Confirmed deceased.]

With the chip's announcement, the Mountain Berserker Bear's official death was declared.

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

The flesh of creatures at Knight Level was enormously beneficial to ordinary people. However, ordinary Knight Level individuals would find it extremely difficult to kill such creatures one-on-one in a frontal battle. Green could hunt them so easily because of his own strength, the chip's assistance in sealing off the beasts' escape routes, and his almost cheat-like archery.

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

Before long, the guards drove a carriage over to Green.

"Hiss..." Waves of sharp inhalations rose one after another. These ordinary guards had never seen prey this large before.

"These are a Barros Black Boar and a Mountain Berserker Bear. They're Knight Level creatures. Lord Green actually managed to hunt them!" There were knowledgeable people among the guards, and they quickly identified the species of the boar and bear.

The guards' gazes toward Green grew increasingly respectful. Some even looked at him with admiration.

"Quickly transport these two creatures back to the castle. Tell the cooks to turn them into food as soon as possible. Don't waste the power contained in their flesh. Leave the finest parts for me and Old Green, and distribute the rest among everyone in the castle." Green looked at the guards loading the carcasses and spoke directly to their leader.

Upon hearing this, the guards' hands moved even faster, as though they wished to transport the boar and bear back to the castle immediately.

The news that Green had hunted two Knight Level creatures quickly spread throughout the entire castle. Although the wounds suggested that the boar and bear had most likely fought each other first, allowing Green to benefit from the aftermath, the final fatal blow to the bear had come from an arrow. The wounds on the bear's body also showed that Green had indeed clashed with 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.