The polar tundra full of flowers in summer is a stunning sight. Unfortunately, the two knights who were fleeing in a hurry had no time to appreciate the scenery, no matter how beautiful it was.
They rode white horses and wore bright silver armor. When they first entered the polar region, only the swords on their waists were stained with blood, but now, their entire bodies, including the horses they were riding, were covered in blood.
The blood contained both the monsters' and their companions' blood.
Their team of ten knights separated from the other teams and headed towards the polar regions. Except for one knight who had experience in hunting in the polar regions, the rest of the team was entering the polar regions for the first time.
After a winter of training in hunting monsters, these proud young knights no longer take this polar region, which is said to be the monster's lair, seriously.
All the young knights thought that hunting monsters in the polar regions was the same as killing monsters in winter—now, they have paid the price of their lives for this arrogant idea.
On the first day they entered the polar region, they encountered a monster with skin as hard as stone that could stand up like a giant ape.
"Hey, what kind of monster is this? I haven't seen it before. Let me kill it and take a closer look!"
"Don't compete with me for the first prey, let me get it first!"
When they encountered the monster, the two knights were still laughing and joking as they rushed forward. They both thought that their blessed swords were strong enough to pierce the monster's skin, and that the speed they had trained for many years would not allow the monster to escape.
As a result, the necks of the two men and their horses were torn apart by the monster.
The moment the two heads flew out along with the red fountain, the other knights behind them had not yet recovered from their shock. It was not until the monster began to eat and bit off the arm of a knight that they realized what had happened in just a blink of an eye.
The power of this monster is too strong. Compared with the monsters they killed in winter, it doesn't seem to be on the same level.
As the monster regarded them, the humanoid gaze was assessing and critical of a hunter.
All the knights felt a chill down their spines and dared not underestimate it anymore. The leader who failed to rescue the people in time was not very experienced, and only then did he guess based on its strength that they had encountered an intermediate-level monster.
He quickly asked the other knights to cooperate, wanting to besiege the beast and then work together to defeat it.
But the mid-level monsters are not just one level higher than the low-level monsters. Their power has undergone a qualitative change. This panicked team cannot kill it.
In the end, two of the ten escaped, the two youngest, most panicked knights who were lucky enough to be standing on the outermost edge.
They were terrified by this unusual monster. The scene of their companions being ripped open and having their internal organs eaten by the monster kept appearing in their minds. They were so scared that they could only run forward.
However, how could the monster give up when it encountered its prey? It ate the most delicious part of the prey and then caught up with the two fleeing knights.
In just a moment, the sound of galloping horses disappeared from the tundra full of flowers, and was replaced by the sound of wild beasts eating and tearing flesh.
After the monster left, the remaining meat on the ground was divided up by other small monsters that had hidden themselves. Finally, the wild beasts also came to search the area, and soon only some bloodstains were left scattered among the flowers.
Such hunting scenes are very common in the polar regions and occur countless times every day.
There were other knight squads that suffered the same fate as this knight squad that was completely wiped out.
After experiencing a bloody lesson, this group of naive young people realized that polar hunting is completely different from their winter hunting of monsters. Even though they are facing the same monsters, the differences between them are huge.
Most of the monsters they encountered in winter were low-level monsters that were violent and had lost their minds. It was easy to kill them when they were outnumbered.
Now, they have to face not only low-level magical beasts, but also extremely difficult to deal with intermediate-level magical beasts.
Every knight who was lucky enough to survive, as long as he was not scared crazy, grew up rapidly because of witnessing the death of his companions. After only three days, these glamorous teams became extremely embarrassed and suffered heavy losses.
In the darkness of night, a team of knights, with only five men left, gathered around a fire, silently and vigilantly devouring their food.
The food came from the monster they hunted today. The monster ate their three companions, and was killed and eaten by them in turn.
During the short break after eating, the leader knight of this team frowned and discussed with his companions: "This year, there are too many intermediate monsters appearing in the periphery. I remember that this situation happened several years ago. It's because the summer is too long, the ice and snow in the central polar region melted, and the intermediate monsters whose habitats were flooded migrated out. This situation is a bit tricky. Should we notify other knight teams, redistribute the number of people, and let those inexperienced knights go back?"
The deputy leader who was resting beside him with his arms folded and leaning against a stone had a cold expression on his face. "This is our test. We are the Knights of the Holy Temple. It is our mission to kill the monsters. We cannot be afraid just because the monsters are too powerful. It is not a pity for those knights who died. Their death means that they were not qualified knights yet. Only knights who have experienced bloody battles and desperate situations of life and death are the true knights of the Holy Temple."
The leader smiled bitterly and sighed, "But this year, we have too many young knights. They have no experience in dealing with mid-level monsters. I don't know how many people will die..."
Before he finished speaking, the deputy leader, who was folding his arms, suddenly jumped up, and slashed the ground with his long sword, cutting off a long and thin tongue. He shouted a warning: "Monster sneak attack!"
The others also quickly stood up, picked up the weapons at hand and looked around.
I saw a dark shadow lying on the ground a few meters away. It had human-like limbs and a long tail swinging on the ground. Beyond the light of the fire, the green eyes of the monster emitted a faint light.
"It's a mid-level magical beast! Watch out for its tongue!" the leader shouted.
The tongue of this monster is particularly powerful. It is slender and flexible, and can shoot out a distance of five meters. It is covered with mucus and poison, and the body will feel numb if it comes into contact with it. He had encountered such monsters when he went hunting in the polar regions before, and he would lose teammates every time.
Now he is an experienced knight, but facing this small monster, he is still not sure whether he can protect his teammates behind him.
The cunning long-tailed monster surrounded them with a fierce look in its eyes, then disappeared into the darkness after a moment, without confronting them head-on.
It waited patiently for a whole night, and when these knights were most tired, it suddenly stuck out its long tongue and swept away a distracted young knight.
The leader and the deputy leader chased after him at the same time, but suddenly a long tongue emerged from behind them and swept away another knight.
There are actually two intermediate long-tailed monsters lurking here!
They couldn't split up at once, so they had to give up one of them and concentrate on rescuing the other. The leader stabbed the long-tailed monster hard with a sword, and the deputy leader fiercely cut off the tongue that was wrapped around the knight.
Although the people were rescued, the injured long-tailed monster ran away.
Five people became four. The knight who was rescued had red and swollen hands, and couldn't even hold the sword. He suddenly cried out and was kicked hard by the deputy leader.
"Why are you crying? There are still many monsters here staring at us! If you keep crying, you will only be fed to the monsters! Take your weapons and get up!"
"It would be nice if I had a rope." Mary looked at the dozen chickens on the ground in distress. She was practicing archery in the forest and found a cave. She was lucky enough to catch a dozen chickens in the cave. She planned to take them away as her next meal, but it was difficult to carry them.
It would be much easier to lift them if there was a rope to tie them all together.
Meili was looking through the small package she brought to see if there was anything suitable for making a rope. Murray thought for a moment, then suddenly grabbed her waist and lifted her up, "I know where there is a rope."
After saying this, he ran around the area, and under Mary's puzzled gaze, he found what he was looking for - a long-tailed monster hiding in the shadow of a tree root.
When the monster saw Muri rushing over, it immediately lay on the ground and tried to run away, but Muri grabbed its tail and dragged it back. The long-tailed monster sizzled, turned its head and opened its mouth to spit out its tongue to attack, but Muri stepped on its open mouth with his foot.
Soon, he killed the monster, reached into its mouth, and pulled out a red "rope". He took it to a nearby puddle to wash it clean, and gave it to Mary with a sweet big bear smile, "This rope is pretty strong."
Meili: "… Really?" This isn't a rope, is it? Is this a tongue
But it is really useful.
She silently tied up a dozen chickens with a "red rope" and followed Muri, who was carrying the long-tailed monster, out of the basin.
They brought their own food and headed to the next basin where the terrain was gentler.
There are no coniferous forests here, only a few sparse coniferous trees that are not growing well. There is a very wide lake next to it, and the area near the shore is clear and clean green. Standing on the shore, you can see the water grass under the water nearby, as well as the small fish and shrimps swimming in the water grass.
Muri took her for a walk around the lake, and made sure there were no dangerous monsters nearby, just like patrolling the territory. Then he let her go and let her squat by the lake to look at the water plants underneath.
"Can these water plants be eaten?" After coming to live in the polar regions, Mary has become a complete carnivore, which means that now when she sees green plants, her first thought is whether they are edible.
Murray didn't like to eat vegetarian food at all, he only liked to eat meat, but facing Meili's trusting eyes, he walked into the water without hesitation, plucked a handful of fat water plants, picked one and put it in his mouth to chew, and gave the answer, "It's edible."
Meili smiled and said, "Great, let's stay here for a few more days."
She really wants to eat some vegetarian food.
Before she was about to walk into the lake, Muri paused in chewing the water plants. He put one hand on Mary's chest to stop her from going forward, and turned his head to stare at the calm lake.
He discovered that there was a magical beast hiding in the water, looking to hunt.
"Muri?"
Muri stared at the lake and began to take off his clothes.
He took off his clothes and gave them to Mary, then instantly changed into his original form and rushed into the center of the lake by stepping on the water.
After being discovered by him, the monster in the lake no longer hid, stretched out a black head, and roared at him with a big mouth full of sharp teeth. Mary could not see clearly standing by the lake, but she could vaguely see that there was a monster with a shell in the lake.
The majestic big bear fought fiercely with the monster in the water. Finally, it stepped on the monster's shell to declare victory, took out the monster's head hidden in the shell, and dragged it back to the shore.
When Mary saw the huge, hard shell of the monster, her first reaction was: if this shell were hollowed out, it would become a natural little house where she could hide and sleep.
Since she had a request, Murray would of course satisfy her.
A big bear sat next to the shelled monster, stretched out its claws and dug into the shell, pulling out a bunch of indescribable things. In addition to the food that had not been fully digested, there were even silver armor fragments, silver knives with scabbards, and so on. Some of the things were relatively new, while some looked old and partially corroded.
When Muri had finished removing the shells, he washed his hands and face in the lake, while Merry was beside him, washing the little bits and pieces of human flesh she had found.