บท 112: Chapter 112 - Oh, how I wish to hunt a boar!
Warmth, safety, water, food, habitat — all of these were important, and Xin's task wasn't just choosing what to prioritize, but also to optimize his routes in such a way that he was taking care of several of these at once, not wasting a minute.
Initially, Xin considered just clearing out the insides of the fallen tree and living there, but it was filled with bugs and would be almost impossible to fully clear, so he chose to invest his time into building at least a basic shelter.
Xin chopped a bunch of small trees using the Woodcutter's Downswing, then crafted a sloped roofing out of them, tying the logs and branches together with young bark and fiber. He then placed this roofing between the fallen tree and the big rock, creating a roof tall enough to stand slightly slouched. The work was tedious and he considered manifesting some vines to serve as fibers, but decided against it. Would be quite wasteful in terms of qi.
Need to focus on the campfire now. The wind is cold and nasty…
Xin understood that he needed a fireplace to survive, so he gathered some rocks and placed them under his lair's shoddy roof, to serve as a foundation of a future campfire. He also gathered a lot of firewood and left it to dry. Judging by the birds' behaviour, there could be rain tomorrow, and the air felt heavier than when Xin arrived, reinforcing this theory. In such conditions, dry wood would become a valuable resource and needed to be prepared in advance.
Xin was constantly bitten by small mosquitos, and there were other small bugs crawling on his body as he traversed the woods. Unlike building a shelter and hunting, which felt trivial given his experience and qi abilities, this seemed like a serious problem.
Just as Xin was brainstorming how to solve this issue, another one popped up. Xin realised that he was so caught up in his work that he completely ignored his acute thirst. Damn, the water source is twenty minutes of walking away from here! And I have no water flask, what a joke…
Luckily, Xin had thought about this issue before and prepared a list of solutions in advance. Still, he had to pick the most optimal one. If he had no means to transport water around, he'd have to waste around two hours a day just to drink properly. Suboptimal.
I could try and find some wild gourds, then clean their insides to hold water? They aren't very big, so I'd need at least two for a daily supply of liquid. They are also quite rare, so I can't waste my time seeking them out specifically. No.
Bamboo with its bottom sealed off? A decent option, but a bit hard to fill with water. This is not a bamboo forest, too, but if I stumble onto a bamboo grove, I should use it to my advantage.
Large leaves, connected together? Hard to store, complicated to craft, the bottom leaks too often. And such leaves are rare in this type of forest. A backup option, but that's not it.
Animal bladders? That's a good option, but I'll have to kill larger animals if I want to store more water. A boar's bladder should stretch well, and store enough water for two days, but I need to be extremely careful, such a flask is quite fragile.
Using tree bark to create an improvised jar? Sounds hard, never done it before. Awkward to carry, awkward to place. Not my option, I think.
Animal leather. An optimal choice, made harder by not being able to use instruments for tanning. Still, with my Resonance Palms and qi infusions, it sounds like a good solution, as long as I set up a tanning station.
Seems that both of the better options involve hunting a bigger animal. Not a big deal, I can kill a boar. I can take its charge head on with the Iron Lung technique, and my rank one Resonance Palms will make short work of it. It's tracking and ambushing it that's the issue…
Xin sighed as he walked towards the water source, his feet constantly stabbed by little needles and branches, mindful of not stepping on any insects. At least there are no scorpions here, it seems.
Xin noticed a startled rabbit run away when he approached the watering hole. The wildlife here is used to being hunted, the courtesy of poachers. The birds are also quite alert and easy to spook. No wonder, there was a drought last year, people probably went overboard with illegal hunting. Still, the animal activity around the watering hole is the exact reason I have to settle some distance away from it, it might become a reliable hunting spot in the future.
As Xin walked, he paid attention to every mushroom cluster, bush with berries and little flower meadow. All of these would be useful in the future. He was also making a list of every single creature he saw the signs of, be it a mammal, a reptile, bird or an insect. Understanding the interactions between species would help with painting a clear picture of the forest's life, and make hunting easier.
Xin approached the water and drank several mouthfuls, and then several more, until he could no longer drink. He then took a pause and drank even more, until his belly was full. He'd rather fill himself in advance than have to walk a second time. Now, he had to decide on his course of actions.
The eve was fast approaching, and Xin knew it would be freezing at night. He could forage for food, come back to his camp and set up a campfire, cooking some mushrooms for dinner. This way, he'd be relatively warm and fed. It was a safer option, but it certainly wasn't the most time effective.
If I am to physically cultivate, I need a steady supply of meat. And if I am to hunt all the time, I've got to optimise my time consumption. Killing a boar would get me leather and a bladder to use as a waterskin, freeing me up to do other things. If I was a regular human, I wouldn't be able to reliably hunt for boars, but with my enhanced senses and dao shards I can track and kill animals without issue. Hm.
The boar is a nocturnal creature, roaming the forests in an endless search of food, consuming everything nutritious it stumbles upon. A wide profile like that could make it harder to narrow down its hunting grounds, but a boar is a messy creature and leaves a lot of tracks, not even speaking about the smell.
But how do I kill it? Usually, the best way to kill one is to sneak up on it and throw a spear at its side, piercing its heart. Even if you miss the heart, which you most likely will, you just run the wounded animal down and finish it off. But without a proper ranged method, it's quite tricky. The best bet would be to entangle it from behind with a snakevine dao shard, then finish it off by stabbing its neck with a steel sting.
But what if the boar detects me and chooses "fight" instead of "flight"? An adult male boar is oft heavier than I am, and much stronger. Well, I have to take its charge head on using my Iron Lung, then stab it with my steel sting dao shard or Resonance Palms. And if it injures me, I've got the healing seed. It's good that I took the endurance bracer and mercury greaves off, otherwise my soul foundation wouldn't be able to hold all these shards and the totem.
Xin decided to hunt in the watering hole's area. Since this zone didn't have an apex predator just yet, large animals like boars wouldn't avoid it, and there was a huge chance he'd stumble on a boar roaming at night. It was also clear that it would rain by morning now, which Xin found alarming.
Xin felt weird. He had to spend extra effort to not mumble and say anything under his nose, and it seriously annoyed him. He was also more tired than usual, since he was so filled with water and wasn't wearing his endurance bracer. His body was covered in mosquito bites, and he walked past a poisonous bush by accident, so there was also a nasty rash on his shoulder. Nothing too dangerous, but still annoying. Now is not the time to gather healing herbs.
Totem, grant me your smell powers! Granted. Xin sniffed the air and wiped his snotty nose.
He carefully examined the watering hole, and found several traces of animals he didn't notice before. A subtle source of smell came from a part of grassland near the water's entrance, and Xin found a small patch of fur between its withered stems. Smells musky. An adult wolf, somewhat old, is shedding. Interesting. There's also some lizards crawling under a tree nearby, but I'm not hungry enough to eat them. Xin kept searching.
Wait, what's that smell?
Xin picked up a small patch of mud near the water's edge and sniffed it thoroughly. A boar bathed here, but it's not a fresh trail. Two or three days ago, it seems. The smell is not overbearing, so I assume it's a female. It probably shook its body after taking a bath, and this small piece of mud got stuck on a tree root, under an angle that prevented it from being washed away by the light rain yesterday. Fine, but what does it mean for me? Well, it means it makes sense to hunt for boars in this particular part of the forest. I should start roaming.
Xin went around the forest, his enhanced sense of smell helping him find trails to follow. He was also very mindful of the sounds the forest was making, every alerted bird or rodent could be an important sign.
He spent an hour wandering around as the night set in. It was getting chilly, and Xin's body wasn't exactly used to being naked in the open air. He had no choice but to endure. He roamed some more, his throat aching lightly from cold and his nose snotty, trying to preserve energy, refusing to chase after rabbits or other smaller prey. There's plenty of them around, I won't go hungry. I need a boar.
"Hoot! Hoot!" An owl was alerted in the distance. What does this mean? Xin had a few guesses, but decided to investigate. As he walked, he analysed the situation.
An owl is a nocturnal hunter, hunting live prey. They'll scavenge for food, if it's available. Why would it hoot, though? They are territorial, but this hooting didn't feel aggressive, at least to me. Their mating seasons last till late summer, but the autumn's in full bloom. Or full decay, if one considers a different perspective…
Xin walked confidently, his internal dialogue giving way to intuitive thinking, flashing thoughts formlessly mingling in his head, producing conclusions with no explanation. Somehow, his hunter's intuition reached a conclusion — this owl wanted to scavenge, but found it risky, and it signalled its neighbours to come check out what's going on.
Ten minutes later, Xin arrived in the area he heard the sound come from. He sniffed the air again.
Pungent body odour smell, but not too musky. Earthy undertone, pheromones imperceivable to the human nose, a hint of urine — that's a boar! There can be no doubts. Xin picked up a trail and sneaked further.
Several minutes of slinking later, the trail became strong enough that Xin didn't even need to concentrate on it, following it like one would follow an open road. He carefully crossed a bushy area, where the boar had passed just recently. He then walked some more and found feces on the ground. Fresh. Ten minutes at most. Good.
Xin walked, his hunter's heart beating in anticipation. The thrill of the hunt was exacerbated by the tiger totem's excitement, making it overwhelming. Xin had to stop and exhale just to calm himself down, then resumed sneaking.
That's it. A minute of walking later, Xin noticed a boar in the distance, eating mushrooms from a cluster growing under a rock. A female adult, around 140 jin in weight (Author's note:~70kg). Perfect. But... it looks alert?
The boar's body language was nervous, and it looked like it was about to run away at the first sight of danger. Did something spook it? Is there a monster living in this forest? Well, the boar is also eating, so it's not running away from immediate danger. Interesting, how do I kill it?
Xin carefully evaluated the situation.
Can't use my ambush ring, it will flicker when I move and spook the beast. My only options are sneaking up and confronting the beast. Can't sneak up well enough to get into melee range, I assume. I'll fight it. How do I make sure it doesn't run away? Xin had an idea.
He got on all fours, carefully exited his hiding spot and called out to the beast in a calm, neutral voice. The beast jumped up and started backing away, nonetheless.
What the fuck are you doing? Go for a kill. Slit its throat. Overwhelm! Fill your mouth with the boar's warm blood!
Stupid totem, you'll get me killed. Shut up.
Xin ignored the totem's pleading and followed his original plan.
"Aw?" Xin produced a high moan in an awkward voice. The boar stopped and looked him up and down, trying to understand the creature in front of it. It's a human. Naked, no weapons. Looks weak and smells tired. Not dangerous.
"Aw!" Xin made another weak sound, this time louder, all while sitting on the ground in a crouched pose, exposing his weak stance. The boar started breathing faster and looked irritated, but didn't attack just yet.
Good, its initial flight response is calmed down, now I need to trigger the "fight" or I'll have to run after it throughout the forest, and who knows what happens then.
"Hiss! Hiss!" Xin acted more like a tiger now, but was keeping a hint of his nervous performance, sounding like a rejected cat during a mating season. He also waved his arms around chaotically, making the boar even more irritated.
Come on! Xin felt his heart beat even faster. Charge!
A moment later, the beast snorted, pawed at the ground and tensed its muscles. The fight is on!
Tealstone getting trampled by the giant boar flashed in front of his eyes. Then once again, by his own allies' siege machines. He chased these thoughts away.
Need to avoid using qi for now. Let it come closer.
The beast lunged forward, speeding up every moment. Once it reaches its top speed, I need to use my Resonance Palms.
Fifteen steps. Ten. Five.
Resonance Palms!
Iron Lung! The boar buried its tusk into Xin's shin, hoping to trample him. Instead, he leaned forward with his knee and took the blow head on.
Vine style infusion! Xin was almost sent away by the impact, but reinforced his supporting leg with wood qi, springing forward in a perfect timing.
Woodcutter's Downswing! The boar had nowhere to dodge, still recovering from the impact. Xin's palm buried itself into its skull, and cracked it right open, penetrating into the brain. But the beast pressed on, not disabled completely. Boars are durable creatures!
Stab. Xin buried his other arm under the boar's neck, and threw it over his hip. Stab. He stabbed the prone creature's brain again to finish it off with minimal suffering.
Roar! Xin announced his triumph for the whole forest to hear. Overwhelmed with sensation, he felt like a king of the forest!
Good, boy! Now bury your teeth into its neck, let's drink some blood!
Wait. I'm injured. Fuck...
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง