Endless Winter: My Camp Infinite Upgrades

Chapter 109 Expanding the hunting range and camping capacity [Three in one]

In the valley, the construction of new houses is in full swing.

The 15-meter-high wooden walls on all four sides have been erected, and the internal load-bearing columns are being constructed together with the roof;
One by one, the giant golden lin wood that had been cut was continuously transported to various places in the wooden house for installation;
Countless iron materials were also moved to various locations to assist in the construction...

Ding ding...dong dong...

"Pass me a piece of wood!"

"Old Yuan, here is a hammer, bring it quickly."

"Here they come. We need four more planks over there, seven meters long. Go get some people to bring them over. Quickly."

…………

In the valley, there were crowds of people everywhere, busy figures everywhere, and the clanging sounds of iron and wooden materials and tools being hammered were endless.

The Daxia of today is different from half a year ago. It is no longer a novelty for Xia Hong and others to return with prey. Those who noticed them would just say hello. Most people are still fully committed to the construction work.

After having the cold beast taken away and dealt with, Xia Hong walked into the wooden house alone, found the force measuring pile, and after fiddling with it for a while, his already furrowed brows became even more solemn.

"Over 20,000 jin. It seems that I was right. The cold beast meat I eat now has little effect on my health. What could be the reason..."

In the first month after moving to the valley, Xia Hong's basic strength increased from 13,000 to 15,000;

Five months later, on the day of the groundbreaking ceremony for the new house, he measured the price and it was just over 20,000;

Today is the eleventh day since the construction of the new house started, and the basic strength has only increased by one or two hundred at most.

As the basic strength grows, the improvement speed becomes slower. It is understandable that the growth rate increases by 2,000 in the first month and then decreases every month thereafter.

But the weight loss was so rapid that only about 100 pounds were gained in ten days, which was obviously abnormal.

Looking at the string of cold beast meat hanging next to the stove, Xia Hong's eyes seemed thoughtful.

"The more times I eat cold beast meat, the less heat my body generates, and the extent to which my basic strength improves is also decreasing. According to common sense, even low-level cold beast meat has no effect on me. So, I must now eat medium-level cold beast meat in order to continue to improve?"

This thought popped up in Xia Hong's mind and he immediately shook his head violently.

Not to mention the low-level cold beasts, he has only come into contact with three types so far. Even in the cold beast scroll left by Luo Ming, there are another three types that he has not seen yet.

He had absolutely no idea what a medium-sized cold beast looked like or how strong it was. In this situation, let alone hunting it, it was hard to say whether he could survive if he accidentally ran into it.

"It doesn't necessarily have to be a medium-sized cold beast. The cold beast meat I have eaten so far is only the snow mane, frost wolf, and demon sheep. Maybe my body has already developed antibodies to these three types of cold beast meat. Try other cold beast meat, maybe it will be useful."

Xia Hong thought of the second possibility.

After eating the meat of cold beasts, the body becomes hot.

This symptom actually looks like a sign of poisoning.

Moreover, the meat of the cold beast is azure blue, and its blood is deep green. Combining these two characteristics, it is not difficult to infer that the meat of the cold beast should be somewhat toxic. The human body relies on absorbing its essence to improve basic strength, and there must be an upper limit.

At least the low-level ones, or the three kinds of cold beast meat that Xia Hong came into contact with, were like this.

"There's no point in making random guesses. To be safe, I'll continue to rely on these three kinds of cold beast meat to slowly improve. As long as it works, I'll be able to reach the limit of 30,000 jin sooner or later. It's just a matter of time. To be more adventurous, I'll expand my hunting range and try the other three kinds of meat to see if my guess is right!"

Xia Hong took out the atlas of cold beasts left by Luo Ming, looked at the last three types of cold beasts, thought for a moment, and made a decision.

"According to what is said here, the other three types of cold beasts only have different abilities, but they still belong to the category of low-level cold beasts. As long as we are careful, there shouldn't be any problems. Moreover, the tendons of the Yunwu Tengjiao are an essential material for making bows, and they are also a necessity. If Luo Ming can lead people to hunt successfully, of course I can do it too!"

The importance of bows and arrows cannot be fully highlighted in the hands of humans in the Lumberjack Realm. After all, with the strength of the Lumberjack Realm, even if they hit the cold beast, at most they can only injure it. It is completely impossible to kill it.

But when it fell into the hands of humans in the Digging Realm, it was different.

Arrows shot with a force of ten thousand pounds can cause greater damage to cold beasts. In addition, the Digging Realm already has the strength to confront low-level cold beasts head-on, so the Digging Realm with a bow and arrow in hand will definitely have a higher success rate in hunting.

Especially since the bows and arrows used in the current camp are still made of ordinary iron, not ten-grade iron. When Xia Hong noticed this earlier, he had already made plans in his mind.

With the abundance of iron ore, the standard equipment for members of Daxia's hunting teams in the future will definitely be a broadsword and a set of bows and arrows.

Even though the wood in this world is strong, it cannot withstand the stronger basic strength of humans. If one wants to create a bow and arrow that can be used by both lumberjacks and diggers, both the bow body and arrowhead must be made of pure iron. And because the bowstring has to withstand tension, the most demanding material requirements are placed on it, and it must be made of the spine of the Yunwu Tengjiao.

The atlas of cold beasts left by Luo Ming clearly states that a cloud and mist dragon can extend a spine 30 meters long, which can be used to make at least ten longbows.

"Expand the hunting range, give priority to finding the Cloud and Mist Teng Jiao, and the other two cold beasts can be left to chance. With my current strength, there shouldn't be any accidents with five Digging Realm beasts."

Xia Hong made up his mind and quickly called together Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan and five others.

The five of them were holding weapons, with their upper bodies bare and sweat dripping from their foreheads. It was obvious that they had just been dealt a heavy blow by Xia Hong, and as soon as they came back they threw themselves into mad practice.

Seeing the hard work of the five people, Xia Hong looked slightly relieved.

"Chuan, how much cold beast meat does the camp currently have in stock?"

"176820 pounds."

Xia Chuan gave the number almost without thinking.

Upon hearing this astonishing number, Luo Yuan, Zhao Long and the other three, as well as Xia Hong, all showed no change in expression, as if it was nothing unusual.

Those who were in charge of hunting actually had a rough idea of ​​the number of cold beasts they had killed in the past six months, so they were not surprised to hear this number.

The meat-sharing system seems to be very wasteful, but it is based on insufficient hunting capabilities.

If we calculate carefully, according to the earliest algorithm, the hunting team, logging team, and reserve force consume about 700 kilograms per day, which is 21,000 kilograms per month; plus 2,000 kilograms per month for those under thirteen years old, and finally with Xia Hong as the big guy, the maximum amount would be 25,000 kilograms.

Half a year ago, Xia Hong led the team and hunted three cold beasts on the first night, obtaining a total of 4,200 kilograms of cold beast meat.

Therefore, once the hunting ability improves, the cold beast meat overflows at an extremely fast rate, and the rate at which the reserves increase is also extremely terrifying.

You know, half a year ago, when the meat distribution system was just implemented, more than 10,000 kilograms of cold beast meat overflowed from the camp in the first six days.

Even if we do not consider the subsequent improvement in the hunting team's strength, and calculate it based on 10,000 kilograms of cold beast meat every six days, after half a year, the reserve of cold beast meat will be at least more than 300,000 kilograms.

In fact, if Xia Hong had not spent a lot of time on mining, iron forging, and building new wooden houses, the reserves of cold beast meat would probably be more than 300,000, or even more.

"170,000 jin, that's enough to last the camp for many days, right?"

Hearing this question, Xia Chuan showed a strange look on his face, shook his head and replied: "There are 140 loggers in the camp. Excluding the ten people in the hunting team, the remaining 130 people have joined the gathering team and the logging team. The camp supply station and the craftsman workshop have also taken in a few people. The daily quota for these people is 5 kilograms.

A new batch of reserve forces has been added recently, with a total of 212 people. The daily quota for this part is directly calculated as 2 kilograms; if we add the 372 people under the age of thirteen, they are paid monthly, more than 1800 kilograms per month, an average of 60 kilograms per day.

Including the leader and the five of us, our current daily consumption of cold beast meat is about 1300 kilograms. Based on the current cold beast meat reserves in the camp, even if we don’t hunt for four months, it won’t be a big problem! "

Xia Chuan, the quartermaster, is obviously very competent.

Whether it was the total reserve of cold beast meat or the current consumption in the camp, he knew them all by heart. After a long and eloquent talk, not only Xia Hong, but also Luo Yuan and the other three showed some approval in their eyes.

Xia Hong had a rough idea of ​​the consumption of cold beast meat, but it was not as precise as Xia Chuan said.

Half a year ago, Xia Hong led a hunting team of fifteen loggers and was able to kill three cold beasts in one night, harvesting a total of more than 4200 kilograms of cold beast meat, not to mention now.

But now, the camp's daily consumption of cold beast meat is only 1300 kilograms.

This means that Daxia’s hunting capabilities are already far greater than what the current camp’s population size requires.

"Leader, there is a lot of excess cold beast meat. I think people over 30 years old can also be recruited into the reserve. These people are strong and healthy. As long as they are given a fixed quota of cold beast meat, they can also break through to the logging realm."

"Okay, you can arrange this."

Xia Hong agreed to Xia Chuan's proposal without much thought.

There are less than 200 people over 30 years old in the camp. If they are all included in the reserve force, it will only consume an extra 300 to 400 kilograms every day, which is nothing.

"Find another group of children between the ages of six and thirteen to try and find out the lower age limit for the reserve force. As long as they can eat cold beast meat and practice normally, they can be included in the reserve force in the future."

When Xia Chuan heard the voice, his eyes suddenly lit up and he nodded immediately.

The four people nearby, especially Luo Yuan and Zhao Long, could not help but have their pupils dilated and their faces brightened when they heard this.

The minimum age for the reserve force is thirteen years old. This was previously set based on the number of people rather than the actual age of cultivation. If the requirement is relaxed a bit, the number of reserve forces should be able to increase significantly.

Xia Hong's task of testing out the age limit for eating cold beast meat can be said to be of great strategic significance. Once this experiment is completed, it means that in the future, all children of Da Xia will be able to eat cold beast meat as soon as they reach the age of cultivation.

This is really unusual.

Continuing the family line is one of the simplest and most solid concepts of human beings. It is normal to hope that future generations will have better conditions and live a better life than themselves.

Luo Yuan and Zhao Long are both married and have children, so they reacted so strongly to Xia Hong's words.

Xia Hong didn't think as far as Luo Yuan and others. His original intention was just to consume more cold beast meat.

Although there is no risk of cold beast meat spoiling, if it is left untouched, it will just be a pile of dead stuff no matter how much there is. It can only be put to use when it is taken out and exchanged for strength.

After thinking for a moment, Xia Hong turned to look at Luo Yuan and others and asked:
"Also, Luo Yuan, does anyone among you know the location of Chen Ye and Lu Shang's camps?"

Luo Yuan was stunned for a moment when he heard this, but he reacted immediately. A hint of excitement appeared on his face. He nodded and said, "I know the approximate location. Give me some time and I will find it soon. Leader, are you planning to take in the people from these two camps?"

Xia Hong's expression was calm and he nodded.

The hunting capacity has been far from saturated, and there is so much cold beast meat in excess. It is only natural to increase the population base and expand the scale of the camp.

In fact, he had already considered it three months ago, but at that time there was not too much overflow of cold beast meat, and Daxia had not absorbed the four groups of people for a long time, so the centripetal force was not too strong, so it was delayed for so long.

Today, Daxia has abundant resources. The reserve of cold beast meat is sufficient. Basic food such as crystal fruit is even more abundant.
According to Xia Hong's previous idea, the new residence that is about to be completed will be able to accommodate more than 902 people. Currently, there are only people in the camp.

Not to mention Lu Shang and Chen Ye, the two of them have only a small camp of five or six hundred people in total. Even if there are ten more families, Daxia can afford it and can also provide them with opportunities to practice.

As for whether these two camps would agree to merge into Daxia, it was not within Xia Hong's consideration at all.

Eat well, sleep well, wear warm clothes, a safer and more stable environment, and a large quota of cold beast meat, so that everyone can have the opportunity to practice. As long as the two leaders, Chen Ying and Lu He, are not stupid, they will know how to choose.

"Okay, I'll find some time to go to the north to find Lu He and Chen Ying. The leader is willing to accept the two camps. Once they know about this, they will be ecstatic."

"There are more than 500 people in these two camps combined. Once they are combined, the total population of Daxia will be almost 1,500. It's not far from the standard of a large camp!"

As soon as Luo Yuan finished speaking, Xia Chuan couldn't wait to add another sentence.

When the others heard the words "large camp", their faces became extremely excited.

Even Xia Hong is no exception.

Even the strongest Rogue Camp previously had a population of only thirteen or fourteen hundred at its peak.

There has never been a large camp around Redwood Ridge in decades.

Once Daxia completes this achievement, it will be a historical precedent in the area around Redwood Ridge.

More importantly, such a great achievement was accomplished by the leader Xia Hong in just over a year.

Realizing this, the five brothers Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan, and Zhao Long all turned to look at Xia Hong with moved expressions, not hiding their enthusiasm and admiration in the slightest.

"For the next month, when we go out hunting, I will not take action unless it is necessary. You five will be the main force. I hope you will not let me down and take over the hunting team from me smoothly in a month!"

The five people's faces became solemn when they heard this, and they all nodded heavily.

After thinking for a moment, Xia Hong continued, "If you perform well, next month, I will take the five of you to expand the hunting range and go another 500 meters deeper into Redwood Ridge!"

When they heard that Xia Hong wanted to expand the hunting range, the five people became excited instantly.

Curiosity about the unknown and the desire to explore are the eternal primitive impulses in the human heart. This is true not only for Xia Hong, but also for Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan and others.

The humans in the Ice Abyss are, of course, unfortunate. There are dangers everywhere, crises everywhere, and death is commonplace.
But in a way, they are lucky because there are so many unknown things for them to explore.

Take the Daxia Camp for example. The area 500 meters inside Redwood Ridge is completely unknown to them, not to mention the areas further inside.

Of course, there is more than just Hongmuling. On the map left by Luo Ming, there is the frozen river on the south side of Hongmuling; the arrow bamboo forest on the north side; Pingxiyuan after passing through the arrow bamboo forest path, and so on...

They even had no idea what was in the valley where the Daxia camp lived and on the high mountains on both sides.

Of course, curiosity is curiosity, and no matter how strong his desire to explore is, Xia Hong will not act recklessly. After all, he only has one life, and it is safest to gradually expand the scope of exploration as his strength increases.

The basic strength increase provided by the current cold beast meat is already negligible, so Xia Hong simply gave up practicing temporarily and allocated all his time in the camp to practicing archery and forging swords.

After realizing the role of bows and arrows, Xia Hong made a strict rule that everyone in the Daxia camp must practice archery, and he also appointed Shi Qing as the chief instructor.

Shi Qing finally got a legitimate task, and it was appointed by Xia Hong himself, so he took it very seriously.

Originally there were only eleven bows and arrows in the camp, so he came up with an ingenious idea and asked the people in the workshop to make a batch of imitation bows using wood and cold beast tendons, specifically for those who had not yet broken through to the logging realm to practice with.

The basic strength of the people in the logging realm is too strong, and the imitation bows are not enough. Shi Qing asked Xia Hong to keep one of the hunting team's eleven bows in the camp for people to practice with, and Xia Hong approved it.

There is only one bow in the camp, which is certainly not enough for more than a hundred lumberjacks, but this is the only way for now. There is no other way. Those who want to practice archery can either queue up. If they can't queue up, they can wait until the hunting team is not out, and the ten bows will be idle, so they can practice.

As the leader, Xia Hong naturally had some privileges. Whenever he practiced archery, Shi Qing would accompany him and give him instructions. With this archery master around, Xia Hong's archery skills naturally improved rapidly.

The second thing, forging a sword, is in preparation for the upcoming breakthrough into the Digging Realm.

There are currently six Digging Realm masters in the camp. Including Jinghan in Xia Hong's hand, there are only five ten-forged swords in total. If Xia Chuan did not have the Wooden Puppet Black Sword, he would not have to use the ten-forged swords, and the six of them would not even be able to equip themselves with complete weapons.

The woodcutters have weapons, which at most gives them more ability to protect themselves. But it is different for the digging realm. They are equipped with ten-forged weapons, which can actually break through the defenses of low-level cold beasts. Their strength is greatly improved.

While there is a surplus of iron ore now and there is no other place to use it for the time being, we should prepare a batch of weapons and keep them for the subsequent breakthrough to the digging realm, just in case.

The abnormality of the polished stone is now revealed.

From melting iron, shaping it, hammering out forging patterns to the final sharpening, it does not require too much skill at all. All you need is the strength of the Digging Realm, and the whole process only takes one night.

Now there is not only one Digging Realm expert in the camp, but also the tasks of grinding stones and forging weapons. Xia Hong will naturally not do it himself like before, but hand it over to Xia Chuan, Zhao Long and the other three.

Of course, he still had to supervise the forging.

The camp currently uses standard broadswords, each of which requires six to seven hundred kilograms of iron ore to make. This amount of iron ore is enough for six Digging Realm masters to dig for a whole day, so no waste can be tolerated.

Of course, Xia Hong handed over the forging task not just to be lazy, but mainly because he wanted to see if there was anyone with forging talent in the current digging realm.

It stands to reason that someone like him who knows nothing about forging can easily forge a ten-forged weapon using a grinding stone. If he were replaced by someone with a talent for forging, wouldn't it be even easier? He might even be able to forge a stronger weapon based on the existing foundation.

Unfortunately, after some observation, it was clear that Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan, and the three Zhao brothers were all only interested in weapons, and none of them had any special talent in blacksmithing.

Xia Hong was not discouraged, as talents are built upon the population base.

When more people break through to the Digging Realm, there will definitely be talents with forging talent emerging, there is no doubt about that.

Of course, practicing personal archery and forging weapons with Xia Chuan and the other three were only things Xia Hong found time to do when he stayed in the camp and did not go out.

At present, hunting and mining are still the main tasks of Daxia.

There is no need to talk about mining. Coal and iron are both necessary and scarce materials. Since there is so much cold beast meat overflowing, it is only natural to allocate more time to mining.

Xia Hong had originally intended to leave the hunting to Xia Chuan and others, so when they went out hunting later, in order to train the hunting team, he just watched and did not take action unless it was necessary.

It should be the previous experiment against Snow Mane that almost failed, and the blow and ridicule from Xia Hong worked.

In the following few hunting trips, Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan and the other five became much more cautious. Their hunting techniques became more sophisticated, and their harvests increased. More importantly, there were no more dangerous situations.

Xia Hong saw the rapid improvement of the five people and felt satisfied. At the same time, he relaxed the restrictions on the five people and allowed them to conduct hunting activities according to their own ideas. He just watched from the side to prevent accidents, and did not give any suggestions or issue any orders.

After trying several times and confirming that the five people really had the ability to hunt together, Xia Hong finally felt relieved. He began to intentionally or unintentionally leave the team during subsequent hunting activities and let them hunt independently.

…………

Half a month later, on the north side of the outer perimeter of Redwood Ridge.

boom…………

An adult golden-eyed demon sheep fell to the ground with a loud bang.

There were more than ten sharp arrows stuck in its back; a trap with a diameter of half a meter was dragging on its right leg; its neck was tightly wrapped with white silk thread; and there were seven or eight deep knife wounds on its abdomen, from which dark green blood was oozing out.

The three brothers Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan and Zhao Long were surrounding the corpse of the demon sheep. Although they were breathing heavily, their faces were excited and their pupils were full of excitement, without any sign of fatigue.

Among the three Zhao brothers, Zhao Hu was the most aggressive. After the battle, he immediately rushed to the body of the demon goat and pulled out the sharp arrow stuck in its back. He found that the demon goat's golden eyes were still intact. He became more excited and turned to look at Xia Chuan and the other three:

"Those arrows just now didn't hit the demon goat's golden eyes. So, this demon goat must have been strangled head-on by the five of us, right?"

When the other four heard this, although they did not respond, the excitement on their faces was no less than that of Zhao Hu.

The strength of the Golden Eyed Demon Sheep is definitely above that of the Snow Mane.

Especially the eye on its back, before it suffered fatal damage.

Hiding in a tree and using a bow and arrow to deal with the golden-eyed demon sheep is indeed a tried and tested tactic, but it does not always work. The demon sheep is not a fool and will not stand still and let you shoot.

Moreover, the cold beasts will climb trees. If there is no combat power on the ground to confront the demon sheep head-on, it would be wishful thinking for a few archers to hunt it down.

What's more, no matter how skilled an archer is, he or she may be affected by the environment, climate, wind direction, and even personal factors, which may lead to problems with accuracy.

Coincidentally, tonight, the Golden Lin Tree where the demon sheep was perched was located in a very open area. There were no other suitable big trees nearby for the remaining ten people to hide and set up their bows. They had no choice but to choose a farther location.

It's not that they don't want to stand close by. Yuan Cheng and the other ten people are only at the Lumberjack Realm. If they get too close, once they are targeted by the cold beast, they won't even have time to run away. Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan and the other five at the Digging Realm will not only have to deal with the cold beast, but will also have to distract themselves to protect the ten of them. It's not worth it.

As expected, the accuracy became a problem once the location was far away.

Ten bows, but not a single arrow hit the golden eye on the back of the demon sheep.

In a hurry, Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan and the other four had no choice but to face the situation head-on.

Unexpectedly, the five people joined forces and actually strangled the demon sheep.

Snowmane, Frostwolf, and Demon Sheep, although these three are all low-level cold beasts, the Demon Sheep is definitely the strongest in terms of both size and strength.

The fact that the five people were able to strangle the demon sheep head-on not only proved their strength, but also meant that they really had the ability to take over the hunting team from Xia Hong.

This is why the five of them were so excited.

"Is the leader gone?"

"He left a long time ago. He must have gone to explore the inside again."

Xia Hong did not witness such an iconic scene with his own eyes, and everyone was inevitably disappointed. However, after hearing Xia Chuan's next words, Luo Yuan and the other three became even more excited.

In recent days of hunting, Xia Hong did not follow the hunting team. Instead, he crossed the 500-meter limit alone to explore the terrain inside Redwood Ridge and make preparations in advance to expand the hunting range for the camp.

"Pack up and go back first. Two prey tonight is enough."

Hearing Xia Chuan's words, everyone nodded. They had already hunted a frost wolf before, and with this demon sheep, without Xia Hong leading the team, hunting two cold beasts in one night was already very good.

When Xia Hong comes back and knows that the five of them killed the Golden-Eyed Demon Sheep head-on, he will definitely be very happy. He might even hand over the hunting task to them in advance.

Everyone was excited and quickly put away the traps and the golden-eyed demon sheep on the ground, preparing to return home.

Only Luo Yuan turned his head and looked towards the north. After thinking for a moment, he said to Xia Chuan, "It's still early in the morning. We are not far from Chen Ye's camp. I'm going to find Chen Ying to discuss what the leader said before. You guys go back first!"

When Xia Chuan heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up and he nodded.

Luo Yuan left the team and flew quickly towards the north.

(End of this chapter)