Chapter 35: The Gnoll Tribe
There is nothing much to say about the first day of march.
There were no alien gathering places near the Mentor's Castle, only some wild beasts and the occasional ferocious beast.
Most of the wild beasts are small creatures in the forest, such as foxes, deer, monkeys, and squirrels. Although they have become ferocious due to the influence of the chaotic energy, their size poses limited threat.
Ferocious wild beasts are predatory beasts such as wolves, wild boars, black bears, and leopards. After becoming ferocious, they become larger and more aggressive.
Although these ferocious beasts are cruel and bloodthirsty, most of them have instincts and will not rush forward to die when they see a large army.
But since they are the majority, it means there are still a few brainless ones.
It’s just that I didn’t encounter these brainless people on the first day, so the journey was relatively quiet.
After marching for about five hours, Li Qing estimated that he was about fifteen kilometers away from the mentor's castle. He said to Long Shou beside him:
"Let's prepare to set up camp!"
Long Shou took out a small trumpet, puffed up his cheeks and blew it hard, and the clear sound of the trumpet spread.
An Yi Qiu, who was only about a hundred meters away from the central army, heard the horn and immediately ordered the troops to stop.
Four or five minutes later, the central army joined the vanguard , and Li Qing waved his hand:
"Prepare to set up camp!"
An Yishou immediately ordered the ten vanguards to split into two groups, one on the left and one on the right, to stand guard separately, while Long Shou commanded the central army to start clearing the weeds nearby.
While the three Xie brothers were shocked, Li Qing took out the sections of wooden fences that he had prepared long ago from the space in his palm and asked his subordinates to move them to the edge and arrange them in a large circle.
The frame of this thing has long been made, with a sharp wooden stake at the bottom in the middle. After taking it out, use a sledgehammer to hammer the sharp wooden stake into the soil, and let the supports on both sides also be inserted into the soil, and a simple camp fence is built.
It certainly cannot stop the army, but it can stop the wild beasts and provide some buffer so that the troops in the camp can prepare for defense.
"Mr. Li Qing, what are you doing..."
Li Qing replied casually:
"As you can see, this is a space relic that can be decorated with something."
“This is so convenient!”
Xie Zhu exclaimed in praise.
Although having the Divine Realm allows one to carry his subordinates with him, opening and closing the door to the Divine Realm is troublesome. It cannot be opened at will, and there is a certain buffer between opening and closing the Divine Realm. It cannot be opened and closed frequently in a short period of time.
What’s more important is safety. Once the divine domain is opened, enemies can also rush in and cause destruction.
Therefore, if you are facing a dangerous enemy, you cannot rashly open the divine realm at this time.
At this time, the advantages of space-related relics such as lightness and convenience are highlighted .
After the fence was nailed and the troops were in place, Li Qing summoned the Gate of Divine Realm. Laborers carried tables and chairs out of the Gate of Divine Realm, followed by a group of laborers carrying cooked rice and vegetables.
While others need to bury the pot and cook when setting up camp, Li Qing only needs to ask his men in the divine realm to prepare the meal in advance, and then they can just bring out the food and eat it after setting up the camp.
There are even tables and stools.
When the three Xie brothers saw this scene, they were extremely envious of the fact that they, with less than ten soldiers, needed almost twice as much logistics, and had to take care of everything while going out for training, as well as protect the logistics supplies.
After the meal, they took a short break and moved all the tables and chairs back. Li Qing pulled out the fence again and put it into the space in his palm, and the troops continued their journey.
There was nothing left on the spot except some food residue and messy footprints.
"Roar!"
A four-meter-long ferocious beast with a dark body, bulging muscles and smooth skin like a lion suddenly rushed out from behind a black bush and knocked a senior infantryman to the ground with his shield. It opened its palm as big as a normal person's head, and stretched out its sharp nails like daggers to slap him down fiercely.
"boom!"
The thick wooden shield pressed hard on the veteran infantryman's chest, and the sharp pointed fingers pressed directly into the wooden shield. The ferocious beast opened its mouth wide, revealing sharp fangs and bit towards the infantryman's neck.
At the critical moment, An Yi Qiu, who had the fastest reaction, directly activated the heroic skill Charge. The whole person was wrapped in an invisible wind, like a galloping carriage, hitting the shoulder of the ferocious beast at an extremely fast speed.
There was a dull crashing sound, and the four-meter-long ferocious beast was knocked to one side, missing the bite it made.
At the same time, the other infantrymen who had reacted formed a long snake formation and approached in unison, and the two closest infantrymen raised their shields and chopped down.
The ferocious beast twisted its agile body to avoid the two knives, and pressed its other claw towards the senior infantryman. Its sharp claws directly penetrated into the rings of the chain mail. It pulled the soldier up, jumped and dragged the soldier back two meters, opened its mouth and bit the infantryman's shoulder, and bit its fangs into the chain ring to lock him as he was about to retreat.
An Erqiu roared, and an invisible wave exploded.
Hero Skill - Shocking Roar: The warrior lets out an angry roar, shocking the surrounding enemies. If their will is not strong enough, they will be frightened.
After being converted into a hero skill, the skill priority was strengthened once. Through the enhancement of the hero's expertise, the shock priority of this skill is very high. Even such a strong and ferocious beast cannot be exempted and will be stunned on the spot.
An Erqiu and the surrounding infantry immediately rushed forward and prepared to keep him.
But at this moment, a sharp howl suddenly came from their ears. The next second they only felt a streak of light flying from a distance, and then the ferocious beast was shocked and its whole body suddenly leaned back, and then it let out a shrill scream and jumped several meters high.
Looking closely, I saw that a steel arrow as thick as a finger was inserted between the shoulder and chest of the ferocious beast.
The arrow was so powerful that it went straight into the beast's shoulder and chest, with only less than five centimeters of feathers showing.
Li Qing looked at Xie Zhu who had put down the arrow beside him with surprise, and raised a finger:
"sharp!"
Xie Zhu smiled and said nothing, but directly shared his attribute panel.
Hero Skill: Charged attack, charging for 1-5 seconds, +50% extra power for each second of charging, up to an additional 250% extra damage, with a certain chance of triggering penetration, armor breaking, and critical strike depending on the weapon and enemy tier and defense.
First-level hero expertise enhancement: +10% additional power for each second of charging.
Second-level hero expertise enhancement: +20% additional power for each second of charging.
Hero Skill: Sniper (Rare), Passive skill, Increases range by 100%.
After looking at the attribute panel, Li Qing was surprised:
"fierce!"
There is nothing else to say. The combination of these two heroes' skills is extremely powerful. The burst of power after five seconds of charging is simply explosive, making them a BOSS killer.
Xie Zhu used all of his hero expertise points from the two upgrades to increase the power of the charged attack. According to the rank-increasing mechanism, if he still uses the hero expertise points when he is upgraded to the third, fourth, and fifth ranks, the power of this move will reach an abnormal level.
It is worth mentioning that not all ranged heroes can go this way.
There are four sources of hero skills that destiny heroes like them can choose from.
One is to convert the ordinary skills you have learned into hero skills. Most heroes are of this type.
One is related to one’s own bloodline. If one’s bloodline has not been awakened, there is naturally no choice.
One is related to one's own experience. Occasionally, when selecting hero skills, some hero skills related to recent behavior will be refreshed. For example, Xie Zhu's second passive skill, sniper, cannot be learned. It can only be refreshed when he has an experience that meets the conditions and has luck comparable to that of a European emperor.
Another way is to inherit hero skills.
As we all know, there are two types of heroes. One is the normal hero, who relies on himself for all his hero skills.
The other type is called a heritage hero, who has a complete set of powerful hero skills inherited from the profession. There are no weak heritage heroes, and they are at least four or five stars.
The hero skill "Charge Attack" is not difficult to obtain, and more than 50% of the archer heroes can obtain it.
Mainly because the second sniper's passive hero skill is rare.
A charged attack plus the sniper's 100% extra range is really powerful.
Moreover, the sniper's rare passive skill can also be enhanced with heroic expertise. If it is enhanced one or twice to increase the range to two or three times, it becomes a real sniper.
If you have a good bow and can snipe someone from one or two kilometers away, that would be truly outrageous.
Xie Zhu's powerful attack directly crippled the ferocious beast. When Li Qing arrived, An Yi Qiu and his men had already subdued it.
Only when you look at it up close can you feel how ferocious this beast is. The length of four meters may not seem impressive at first glance, but when you consider that a second-floor building is less than three meters long, you can imagine how big this thing is.
Xie Zhu gathered his strength and struck it in the vitals. It was now lying on the ground twitching, with blood flowing out of the wound.
Li Qing observed from a distance and signaled An Yi Qiu to finish him off.
There is no hope of taming ferocious beasts.
It’s not that he can’t do it, but it’s too difficult, takes too long, and is extremely unstable. He doesn’t have the time for it.
An Yi Qiu gathered his strength and slashed the ferocious beast's neck with his sword, causing blood to spurt out.
After confirming that the person was completely dead, Li Qing used the space in his palm to collect the body.
However, it was not refined directly, but the chaotic energy in the flesh and blood was purified first, so that the flesh and blood could be eaten normally.
After simply bandaging the injured infantryman, the team continued to move forward.
As time passed, they unknowingly entered the deeper part of the plane fragment. The surrounding trees became denser and more lush, and they encountered more and more unknown creatures. However, most of them did not show up after seeing their numbers. Only a few brainless ones dared to rush in, and all of them became their trophies.
Li Qing planned to go north first, to the northernmost end of the plane fragment, to take a look at the super-large plane fragment that the northern mentor mentioned, and then turn right and return.
About fifteen hours after they set out, the team passed through an extremely dense primeval jungle. Suddenly, the view in front of them became clear and a half-dried river valley appeared in front of them.
The river valley is about thirty to forty meters wide, and most of it is dry gravel. Only in the center of the river there is a small stream less than one meter deep that meanders into the distance.
The team entered the valley and startled several unknown dark figures who were drinking water.
A few night crows flapped their wings and flew over their heads.
"Look, there's a fire!"
Li Qing followed the direction pointed by An Yi Qiu, which was exactly on the far right side of the valley. On the right side of the valley, which was on their side, there were several groups of flames of varying sizes flashing.
“Is there a foreign tribe here?”
Li Qing immediately came to his senses, thought for a moment, and said to Xie Zhu beside him:
"Are you good at field reconnaissance?"
Xie Zhu shook his head and said:
"I'm not good at it, but my brother can do it."
A warrior who had been standing beside him and was wearing leather armor and holding two short swords stood up and said:
"I follow the path of an agile warrior, and usually work part-time as a scout in our team."
Li Qing looked at him and nodded:
"Thank you for your help."
"a piece of cake!"
Xie Jin held the dagger in reverse, turned around and reached towards the river valley.
Li Qing found that after he turned around, his steps became lighter and his figure quickly became blurred and difficult to detect under the cover of night. He guessed that it was some kind of skill to hide his whereabouts.
However, although the figure could no longer be seen, Li Qing's powerful soul gave him super perception, and he could vaguely sense a figure in the darkness ahead.
"We still need a professional reconnaissance hero!"
Although Xie Jin's ability is strong, he cannot hide from powerful beings of a higher rank than him.
However, if the stealth skill can be transformed into a hero skill, the effect will be greatly enhanced. Even beings two levels higher in rank will be difficult to detect. If the perception is not high, even beings three or four levels higher may not be able to detect it.
But this is a plan for the future. At this stage, Xie Jin’s ability is completely sufficient.
After resting there for nearly half an hour, Li Qing suddenly felt something and turned to look in a certain direction. He suddenly stretched out his hand and pointed. A ball of white light condensed more than 20 meters away from him, slowly rising and illuminating the surroundings, and also illuminating the distorted outline of a human figure in the darkness.
The figure that was slowly approaching paused, and then became blurred and disappeared. It was Xie Jin.
He asked in surprise:
"Sir Li Qing, can you sense me from such a distance?"
Li Qing shook his head:
"I didn't sense you. I just had a sudden impulse and felt that there seemed to be something over there, so I used the light spell to shine a light on it."
Xie Jin exclaimed:
“This is better than perception.”
"Yeah……"
He waved his hand and did not dwell on the question, but asked:
"Did you find anything when you went there just now?"
Xie Jin took the kettle handed over by his brother Xie Heng, took a sip, wiped his mouth and said:
"There is indeed a large alien group over there. They are forest gnolls, and they also have some dog-headed servants. It's quite large. I looked around and found that there are fifty or sixty large tents that can accommodate more than a dozen people. There are also more than a dozen larger wooden houses inside. There is a stone temple at the innermost part, which should be where the leader lives."
"so much?"
Li Qing pinched his chin in thought.
According to Xie Jin's reconnaissance, if the place is fully occupied, the total number of gnolls and kobolds would probably be hundreds or even thousands.
This is even more powerful than the more than 4,000 skeletons that challenged the fifth level before.
All the skeletons are level zero, and there are definitely quite a few level one or two among these gnolls and gnolls, and there are definitely wild monsters and heroes, so the chances of winning a head-on wild battle are slim.
But it’s not a big problem. If I can’t win head-on, I can just cheat!
Thinking of this, Li Qing took out a piece of paper and a pen and handed them to Xie Jin:
"Come, draw a topographical map around where the gnolls gather."
Xie Jin was stunned for a moment:
"The surrounding terrain? What about inside?"
"Yes, the surrounding terrain, the more detailed the better, don't worry about the inside."
"Uh, okay."
Although he was a little confused, he still picked up the pen and started drawing.
