by Lazy Bird
chapter 11
“Burp—— I’m so full.”
Li Siwen sat on the hill, allowing the comfortable and warm sunlight to shine on his body. It was extremely pleasant, especially when his stamina was gradually rising up again. There was nothing more delightful than this.
The flooding river water had subsided considerably. Some ponds formed in the low-lying areas were full of big fishes flopping about. EXP, sparkling EXP.
It was a pity that there weren’t any handy weapons. Expending six Stamina points to kill a big fish was really too bad a deal.
And even if he had already eaten and drank his fill, it would require at least two hours before his physical strength points returned to a full bar.
He glanced at the sky, the time was probably about four or five in the afternoon. The layers of dark clouds on the horizon showed signs of spreading out. It could perhaps be another heavy fall of rain tonight.
As for the four farmers in the most critical condition, even under the casting of the warm sunlight, they continued to burn with a fever that was accompanied by chills and delirious talk. Only the two farmers holding each other were doing slightly better. Mm, only slightly better.
“If the Feudal Lord does not return today, the six of them would be dead men. Of course, even if he does return, those four were sure to die too. By then, I would be the only energetic and spirited person left. Even a fool would be able to tell that there’s something wrong.”
At this thought, Li Siwen took some small pieces of fish and brought them to the two farmers who’d more or less returned to their senses. They did not question why and simply gobbled them up.
“Thank——thank you.”
A slightly older farmer tried hard to force out a stiff smile.
Hearing him, Li Siwen was a little surprised. This was unlike an NPC farmer who could only make vague small talk.
But he said nothing, only sitting down aside. Meanwhile, the younger farmer glanced at him and suddenly revealed an equally stiff smile. He lowered his voice and said brokenly, “You, you are not, you are not Wang Er. I know. We grew, grew up together from a young age.”
Upon hearing this, Li Siwen was truly startled. The strong sense of crisis was like a bayonet, stabbed coldly on his chest, yet on the surface, he looked as if he hadn’t understood what was said. He only watched that young farmer confusedly, listening to the rest of what he had to say.
Some hint of smugness surfaced on the young farmer’s pale face. He pointed into the distance with his finger.
“Go——go catch more, and we won’t—won’t say anything.”
“What——”
Hearing these words, the older farmer hurriedly berated him, but before he could finish, Li Siwen had leaped up agilely like a leopard and tackled that young farmer who was so frail that he barely had a bit of strength left to the ground. The piece of rock in his hand slammed down ruthlessly.
Three seconds later, Li Siwen turned to look at the older farmer, his gaze ice-cold.
Meanwhile, that farmer was already speechless with terror.
“Sorry!”
—
Three minutes after, Li Siwen sat on the sunny hill. His back appeared a little lonely while he wore an even gloomier look, and in his heart, he was already feeling so depressed like he’d had 10 screw-ups.
All plans were disrupted by this accident.
Without doubt, since this dumb fellow had seen through him, then this matter was like a malignant tumor, the earlier it was split open, the better, especially in the circumstances that the situation was completely under his control.
However, Li Siwen was really unwilling to accept that he was being forced to go solo before he’d accumulated his first pot of gold.
Of course, he did not regret it either. Since that dumb fellow dared to blackmail and threaten him at this time, he would only go even further henceforth. If he didn’t kill him right away, what else was he waiting for?
Moreover, he’d recalled a detail from the evening of the day before yesterday. At that point, the Feudal Lord had distributed a small strip of roast meat to every person. Only, this stupid rascal had suddenly walked towards the feudal lord for some unknown reason. In the end, before he’d barely covered a few meters, he was rebuked by a militiaman and fled in a panic like a rat.
Then, Li Siwen merely thought that this fellow was too happy about unexpectedly receiving roast meat that he’d become delirious with joy.
Now it seemed, the idiot had clearly been thinking of selling him out at that point.
“I need to calm down. Right now, this matter is already irrevocable, unless the Feudal Lord is dead! Will the Feudal Lord die? The chances are, even if there was a heavy downpour today and they happen to meet an extraordinary torrential flood. Alright, perhaps there really is a possibility of the whole troop being wiped out!”
Li Siwen pondered in his heart. He wasn’t hoping against hope, but it was because he knew that after the Feudal Lord had staked his all and hunted a Dire Bear yesterday, he had promoted another four regular senior soldiers. It was a period where he was feeling complacent.
Then in such a situation, given that the Feudal Lord was such a reckless and unyielding man, if they did not pull some big moves during the hunt today, would he still be the magnificent and mighty man riding the horse1?
They might have traveled 25km out to hunt yesterday, and that would perhaps be 50km today. This was decided according to the territorial boundaries of the Dire Bears, supposing that the boorish feudal lord still wishes to hunt another huge high-quality sacrificial offering.
Say, this was the sorrow of being a high-ranking puppet.
50km, such a complicated and unfamiliar world, and happening to just get caught in such a heavy downpour. Oh yes, the direction where the Feudal Lord and company were hunting was at the downstream of the huge river!
Even the river water upstream was rising to such an extent, the situation downstream could be imagined.
Perhaps even a flash flood wouldn’t be able to drown the boorish Feudal Lord, but it should at least delay their return!
When they wanted to return, they would definitely have to take a detour because of the flood. With this detour, they might just encounter formidable wild animals, and then be completely wiped out!
Even if a complete annihilation couldn’t happen; even if the boorish Feudal Lord realized the severity of the problem and chose not to detour, they could only spend the night outside.
Tsk tsk tsk, staying overnight in such a big forest, tsk tsk tsk, were the chances of a complete wipeout increased again?
“So——”
Li Siwen’s eyes gradually lit up. “Even if the Feudal Lord and company would really return safely, the earliest would be tomorrow evening. If they are slightly out of luck, they would only be back the day after tomorrow. Therefore, this is the golden 24 hours or silver 48 hours for me!”
“I can totally make use of the vacancy of the territory’s leadership to lay for myself a foundation that would allow me to go solo, then——”
Li Siwen’s ice-cold gaze landed on those two bodies and he dragged them back into the weeds. There wasn’t even a need to bury them, after tonight, the wild animals would naturally come to clean them up. Even if they couldn’t, by the time the Feudal Lord and his party returned, everything would no longer matter.
And now——
Li Siwen opened up the Attribute Bar and looked at the small yellow orb that had completely lit up with a complicated gaze.
He knew that killing animals granted him Spirit points, and also knew that killing humans did the same. But this double kill today still made him rather uncomfortable at heart. Mm, not nausea and vomiting in the legends. He wasn’t that weak, it was only slight discomfort. Emotionally, not physiologically.
Even one-meter long big fish could provide half a Spirit point, much less two people, though both their souls were gray. Therefore, this yellow little orb was currently many times brig
hter.
When he focused his attention on it, he could see a label of 14/15.
In other words, this small yellow orb could at the most hold 15 Spirit points.
And those two gray souls earlier were at least worth 13 Spirit points or more.
“I’ll save them up for now!”
Li Siwen muttered to himself. Now that the situation was unknown, these Spirit points could not be immediately transformed into survival ability and combat ability. Instead, during the process of developing the spirits, although the first half feels real good, the latter half was truly gross enough. Besides, it would also marginally consume stamina. So, it would be better if he saved them first and add the points when the situation was settled.
It was already about 5 PM in the evening. Dark clouds unrolled in the northwest horizons, and at the downstream of the river, which was also the southern area where the boorish Feudal Lord and company were hunting saw flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder, the dark clouds were thick and heavy. Only this place was still bright and sunny.
After deliberating for a moment, Li Siwen stonily peeled off the torn clothing of all the farmers, folded them up, and placed them close to him. At this point, the remaining four farmers only had one breath left, killing them would be effortless. But he still gave up after some hesitation. This violated his principles.
Just as Li Siwen prepared to go get another big fish, a wolf howl sent all of his hair standing. Several hundred meters away, five gray wolves had appeared at some point in time. But they appeared to be slightly hesitant. Clearly, they knew that there was a super-strong force in this area, but they couldn’t stand the hunger, especially now that they’d caught the smell of blood.
“Run!”
Throwing a glance at the four dying farmers and those two bodies, Li Siwen grabbed his hoe, turned, and fled. Currently, he could not come up with any wonderful idea to repulse the enemy. He only knew that after crossing the stream and traveling another one to two km, he would meet four lumberjacks.
The wolf howls behind him rose and fell. They did not speedily pursue Li Siwen but slowly approached those dying farmers, only pouncing on them like a flash when they were tens of meters away.
Before crossing the stream, Li Siwen turned back for a look and heaved a sigh of relief. Very good, the accident had been amended, he did not need to go solo for the time being and even the excuse was ready-made.
chapter 12
Li Siwen had observed the location of the lumber mill long ago. Therefore, even after a storm, he easily found that beaten trail in the weeds.
However, he did not sprint the entire day and instead took a break each time after running for a while. This was because the weeds on this side of the stream were the height of his knees. Other than wild wolves, something else might just jump out.
Fortunately, it was a smooth journey. Around 6 PM, sparse forestry and a logging hut came into sight.
Yes, though lumberjacks and farmers were all commoners of the same level, the logging location of the lumberjacks was two to three km away from the territory and was an area where wild animals were easy encounters.
Therefore, they would usually have two or four militiamen on patrol duty. At the same time, the construction of a sturdy logging hut was necessary to ensure that they could hide inside and await rescue when encountering attacks by wild animals.
The nature of their work was entirely different.
For example, with today’s storm, the four lumberjacks weren’t affected, while the farmers who’d lost their farmers hut were almost entirely wiped out.
Actually, when he saw the logging hut, Li Siwen had felt slightly hesitant. He was afraid that after killing those two farmers, the red name effect would immediately act on him. By right, all average village building orders have such a function, but that statue village building order was indeed odd. Alright, he was making it sound as if he’d seen a normal village building order before.
“It’s all or nothing!”
Li Siwen started running, doing his best to make himself appear very miserable. As a matter of fact, he was already very miserable.
Swiftly, four lumberjacks and one militiaman discovered him. The good news was that even the militiaman who was on guard did not become fierce and murderous after spotting him. He only stood in his spot and waited for the distance between them to be closed to ten meters before he asked with a frown, “Fool, why are you running?”
As he questioned Li Siwen, this militiaman didn’t even look at him, completely disregarding him as a threat.
Upon noticing this detail, Li Siwen was greatly relieved. He shouted with breathlessness and fear right away, “Wolves, there are wolves! Ate everyone, I, I escaped!”
Hearing Li Siwen’s words, the militiaman was instantly on the alert.
“How many?”
“Four, no, five, gray ones, like big dogs!”
“These damn beasts!”
The militiaman cursed, then no longer paid any attention to Li Siwen, moving to call for the other lumberjacks to pack up their belongings and gather. However, Li Siwen noticed that this militiaman kept gazing anxiously towards the depths of the southern forest. Clearly, he was waiting for the Feudal Lord to return. Otherwise, with five wolves, he won’t be able to deal with them alone.
At this thought, Li Siwen stuttered, “It flooded, the waters were so strong. All the wheat fields are flooded.”
“Hmm? The wheat fields are all flooded?”
The militiaman immediately faltered for a moment, seeming to be in thought. As expected, a thought soon struck him. “Doesn’t that mean that even the territory has been flooded?”
Li Siwen did not reply this time. He was a farmer. How would he know about these profound things?
The militiaman evidently grew more restless. It was difficult for him too, having to worry about whether the Feudal Lord could return in time, then also having to worry about the territory being flooded, virtually fretting a person to death.
Only, regardless of how fretful he was, he feared death too. Especially now that the dark clouds were closing in again. He did not even dare to go get information at the wheat field.
“We’ll wait here, perhaps the Feudal Lord will return very soon. You——”
The militiaman finally came to a decision. Then he pointed at Li Siwen, seeming to be pondering over the arrangements for him?
Li Siwen immediately revealed a look where he appeared to be so terrified he was about to burst into tears. “I——I’m willing to fell trees, don’t, don’t chase me away!”
With such a show of cowardliness, even the four lumberjacks were laughing. The militiaman spat a mouthful and mocked, “Then you can go fell trees. Look at your chicken-leg like arms, virtually a waste of food.”
Li Siwen was deeply grateful. At present, a lumberjack even tossed a rusted axe from the hut to him. Although they looked down on Li Siwen’s thin arms, if they could have someone help to fell trees; what was there against it?
And Li Siwen who had gotten the rusted axe was equally delighted at heart. It really hadn’t been easy. He had been coveting such sharp tools for several days. He actually wanted to know if there was a difference in the Vitality Points gained from weeding and feeling.
Though the current sky was dusky, the visibility in the forest remained rather high. The four lumberjacks sat beside the logging hut and chatted while the militiaman continued looking into the depths of the forest. Due to the terrain, this area was free from the flood and these people had been hiding in the logging hut the whole time, hence their understanding of this storm was far less deep than that of Li Siwen. They still had great hopes that the Feudal Lord could return today.
Li Siwen found a big tree as thick as a bucket by himself. He first studied the marks of the other lumberjacks’ felling, then started swinging the axe, chopping wildly for a while. He had eaten his fill earlier, so his stamina was able to restore continuously. Even right now, it was at ten points, hence, he was
very confident.
Only, once he began with this chop, it lasted until half an hour later. Li Siwen was so exhausted that he was panting hard, covered in sweat. Six points of his Stamina were expended and he’d barely just managed to put this tree down.
The only matter for rejoicing was that this big tree provided him with 0.5 points of Vitality.
But despite so, it was totally not worthwhile.
Because if he was weeding, he only needed nine Stamina points, together with some stamina consumed by the high temperatures, he would be able to save up some Vitality Points in just one morning.
Right now, with felling trees, it meant that he needed to use more than 12 points of stamina before he could earn some Vitality Points. The gains and output were completely disproportionate.
“So is this the difference between these two occupations? But it’s not quite right either. Those four lumberjacks may not have as many Stamina Points as I do but the amount of trees they fell every day is a considerable number.”
Li Siwen pondered, before the boorish Feudal Lord had burned his boats and created trouble, every noon and afternoon, there would be six militiamen who helped to transport the wood back. Counting the wood that the lumberjacks themselves bring back each day, as well as the wood that they specially spend the whole day transporting back every other four days, every lumberjack could fell at least a dozen big trees every day. Given that bit of Stamina they have, and rations that were like pig feed, how were they able to do that?
Just as Li Siwen settled on the tree trunk and deliberated about the key in this, a brawny lumberjack walked over and grinned at him. “Hey, farming rascal, stop pushing yourself. Your strength can’t make it, you won’t be able to fell trees. Look!”
While he spoke, this lumberjack wielded his own axe. With a whoosh breaking through the air, that axe landed on the big tree with a bang. The heavy force even made the big tree shake for a moment.
And this one strike was about equivalent to seven or eight of Li Siwen’s wild chops.
In other words, Li Siwen needed to expend six points of Stamina to fell a tree, but these professional lumberjacks only needed to expend one point of Stamina or even less of that.