Ita Era

Chapter 77 The Primitive Era (12)

The return trip was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. The three carefully traversed the rocky terrain and returned to the initial forest, which Su Su named the Su Zero Forest. It was only two hours away from their camp.

Following the marks left by Su Su, the three of them walked through the forest. Su Su continued to talk quietly, talking about the forest, the animals, and the mammoths.

Ding Shi was the first to notice something was wrong.

"Stop." Ding Shi asked, "Su Su, how many minutes ago did we pass the last marker?"

“Five minutes.” Su Su realized, “No, every two minutes, I’ll poke a mark with a stick.”

Wang Meng asked, "Have you noticed that the Su Ling Forest is different from the forests near our camp?"

Ding Shi asked, "What's different?"

Wang Meng replied, "We can't see any wild beasts, nor have we spotted any small animals. Also, please keep an eye on the trees nearby."

Upon hearing Wang Meng's words, Ding Shi also noticed that while there were various types of trees in the forest, one particular type was relatively abundant. Unlike traditional trees with a single trunk growing from the ground, this tree had multiple thin trunks growing from the ground, resembling an octopus with its tentacles extending deep into the soil.

When Su Su patted Ding Shi, she pointed to an octopus-shaped tree in front of them. The tree trunk swayed and slowly turned around. This process lasted for five minutes, but it was indeed turning around.

"What the hell?" Wang Meng asked in surprise.

"Ignorance is truly terrifying." Ding Shi had a friend who dared to go to the Amazon rainforest to die. Upon seeing such a strange tree, he immediately thought of the XX tree his friend had mentioned. He couldn't remember the name, but its unique features left a deep impression on Ding Shi.

Ding Shi said, "These are called walking trees. They move slowly. I suppose these species are prehistoric trees, which move relatively quickly."

Wang Meng said, "This is the first time I've ever heard of such an unappealing tree name in the world."

Ding Shi: "Don't worry about the name of the tree, we need to worry about the tree itself."

Wang Meng: "Okay, then there are two questions. First, we got lost because of the moving walking tree, how do we solve that? Second, why are there no small animals?"

As the three stood talking, tree roots suddenly emerged from the ground and trapped Ding Shi's left leg. The roots were buried very shallowly, dragging Ding Shi towards the direction of the walking tree.

The three of them were completely dumbfounded. For a tree to be able to move was already excessive, but to be able to move so fast was beyond their imagination. As they approached the walking tree, multiple roots burst out of the ground and bound Ding Shi's hands and feet, as if they were tied up tightly, sucking Ding Shi to the tree trunk a meter above the ground.

Wang Meng asked in confusion, "What does this mean?"

Su Su: "Are we going to use animal carcasses to nourish the land?"

Ding Shi, who was stuck to the tree, narrowed his eyes, then his eyes lit up, and he shouted angrily, "Still chatting? Save him!"

The two then stepped forward, one with a stone axe and the other with a stone knife, to cut the roots. The process was simple, and Ding Shi was easily rescued.

Ding examined the body and found that the skin where it was bound was broken and there were tiny root-like things attached to the skin. He could not feel anything when he touched them, so he guessed that the roots had a certain anesthetic effect.

Ding Shi crumpled the roots and grime into a ball of mud and flicked it away, saying, "Without external help, I might not be able to break free from its control. This isn't a walking tree, it's a tree demon!"

Wang Meng reached out and picked up the severed root, pulling hard to break it off: "Sorry, I used external force."

Ding Shi remained silent, his face pale: "Let's go."

Wang Meng asked, "Do you know how to get there?"

Ding Shi said, "Let's head in the direction where tree demons are less common."

Su Su said, "If prehistoric plants are this strange, don't you think prehistoric animals would be even stranger?" Ding Shi replied, "Weren't dozens of rhinoceroses attacking the camp last night strange enough?"

SuSu: "What I mean is, we can understand rhinos attacking camps, but we can't understand walking trees attacking people. It can't be that the dungeon suddenly changes its art style from realistic to fantasy, right?"

Ding Shi replied, "Can you understand tardigrades? Before seeing the walking tree, who could understand that trees can move? Think about it, there are all sorts of strange and wonderful plants and animals on Earth. Before we see them, we can't understand them. For example, can you imagine that there are birds as vicious as cuckoos? They lay their eggs in other people's nests, let others incubate and raise them, and then destroy other people's eggs so that others can better raise their own children."

Su Su thought for a while and asked in return, "Is it that vicious? Isn't it quite common in society? There are many men who raise other people's children, especially in Europe, where it's everywhere."

Ding Shi was speechless: "Little girl, don't say everything."

Su Su disagreed: "This is a common social phenomenon, why can't we talk about it?"

Wang Meng: "Shut up, my head hurts, focus on finding the way." Can't you be quiet for a few minutes? Everything you're saying is utter nonsense.

Although they lost one marker, they hadn't been lost for long. Relying on the sun to determine their direction, the three of them spread out and searched for a while. Half an hour later, they found another marker.

It was already 2 p.m. when we returned to the camp. The camp had been cleaned up, and everyone dug a large pit and buried their companion's body together.

After listening to Captain Su Su's report, Yu Yuan fell into deep thought. Should he stay another night? The lingering stench of blood in the camp was thick and unsettling; who knew what else might visit tonight? Should he set off for the new camp now? Even if the rope problem wasn't solved, they wouldn't reach the cliff waterfall until dark.

Yu Yuan said, "We must stay another night."

Wang Meng said, "If the rhinoceros comes, we can put out the fire; without fire, we can't fight off the wolf pack."

Yu Yuan said, "Cut down tree branches to cover the cave entrance and prevent the firelight from escaping. Prepare plenty of firewood to deal with the wolf pack."

Xiao Long said, "We can live in the trees, and we won't be afraid of rhinoceroses or wolf packs."

They looked at each other and felt there was no problem, but their intuition told them something was wrong. There was nothing they could do; all the wilderness survival experts had died last night, leaving only newbies who only knew theory.

Ding Shi raised his hand and said, "Based on my understanding of the system's behavior, there shouldn't be any wild beasts visiting tonight. It's probably time for the weather to cause trouble."

Yu Yuan asked, "Will it get colder tonight?"

Ding Shi said, "I suspect there will be a downpour. The downpour will knock down the unpicked fruit, and we will be trapped in the cave. We will lack fuel, food, and materials to make tools. We will have to work in the rain, start to get sick, and our work efficiency will decrease."

Yu Yuan asked, "Who knows how to make ropes?" If Ding Shi's jinx was true, they had to take a gamble today and move to the new camp.

Aunt Zhang said, "I can weave rattan, but 120 meters is just too high. It would take several days to finish it."

Su Su suggested, "Let's move to Su Ling Forest. There are walking trees there, and their roots attack animals. You can't even see small animals in that area."

Wang Meng said, "I suggest we move to Su Yi Forest. Giant apes live in Su Yi Forest, and we can use them to protect ourselves."

Ding Shi asked, "Is it possible that the giant ape and the wolf pack are attacking us together?"

Wang Meng said, "If they see us as prey, the two hunters will definitely fight first. If it really rains heavily, neither the wolf pack nor the giant ape will leave their habitat, so we can build shelters or treehouses."

Each suggestion had some merit, but none were very feasible. It required not only dealing with harsh weather and protecting against wild beasts like wolves, but also taking into account venomous snakes and insects, diseases, cold, food, and fire.

The main mission is to maintain the campfire for five days. Although the rhino attack extinguished the campfire, they had a small, regular fire that could last 24 hours, so they've only managed to keep it going for a full day.

Lacking tools and weapons, current professional skills are basically a joke. What should we do?

(End of this chapter)