"Knife Wind...... ...... the rain"

Mu You silently recited two new terms in the text.

There are two kinds of natural disasters, and the effect is quite bluffing, but Mu You has never experienced it, and there is no real feeling at this time.

The bigger problem for him now is that the soul-attracting lamp is gone.

This means that he can't die again on the next journey, otherwise he will be teleported back to the entrance of the second floor and start all over again.

"I can only try to be careful......"

Mu You shook his head, except for the two natural disasters on this spar, there was no strategy about the third layer written on it, indicating that the three Fool Ancestors were probably all killed in the process of exploring the third layer, and everything else could only be explored by himself.

"Let's wander around the periphery first, look for the relics left by the mechanic, and see if we can strengthen the Black Angel......"

Mu You silently calculated the action plan in his heart, according to the failure speed of the parts on the black angel's body, it can still be held on this layer, but when it comes to the next layer, it is difficult to say whether it can be used normally, and a replacement must be found as soon as possible.

After clearing his thoughts, Mu You was about to control the characters to set off.

An unexpected prompt pops up.

[The air flow in the air suddenly became disordered, and the whistling sound of a gust of wind came from far away from the direction of the deep forest, as if thousands of troops and horses were galloping......]

"The wind is blowing?"

Mu You's heart was on the ground.

As soon as he finished reading the introduction of the two natural disasters, the wind started to blow up immediately after him...... It can't be such a coincidence, right?

[The whistling sound in the forest is coming in the blink of an eye......]

[A strong wind suddenly swept across your cheeks, leaving a faint line of blood on your face......]

[More and more strong winds are coming from all directions, you only feel pain in your cheeks, and subconsciously reach out to cover it, but you feel that your arms also begin to sting violently. 】

[Looking down, you found that the back of your hand and arm were pierced by several shards as thin as needles, piercing deep into your flesh, and blood flowed out......]

“emmm……”

Mu You has completely confirmed it now, and it is really the legendary 'knife wind'.

Before he had time to think about it, he hurriedly gave the character an order to dodge.

【…… Dark clouds rolled in the sky, and the wind howled in the jungle, carrying a large number of tiny crystals in the wind. 】

[These hedrons are as sharp as blades, flying around, easily breaking the tranquility of the forest......]

[You pull out the spikes from your arm, but immediately more and larger crystal thorns attack, quickly blurring the flesh of your exposed skin piercing......]

[In a clanging sound, the silver angel's wings rolled up, covering your body, helping you block most of the damage, but there were still many unprotected positions, pierced by small crystal needles......]

[Under the protection of the black angel, you try to shrink your body into a ball so as not to be swept away by the wind, so you run away and find a low-lying shelter nearby......]

[However, there are loose grass and trees all around, and you soon find that there is nowhere to hide, because these winds do not come from a fixed direction, but from all directions, and no matter where you hide, these blade-like crystals are like eyes, chasing after them, constantly breaking through the gaps in the Black Angel's armor, piercing your clothes and skin......]

[You feel a hot pain all over your body, blood beads drip down the wound, and soon stain your placket red......]

"It's amazing......"

Now Mu You has personally experienced the power of this natural disaster, no wonder a wind and rain made the Fool Ancestor's expedition run out of food.

Fortunately, the text of the spar mentions the countermeasures: after encountering the knife wind, you have to go to those dead ring wood, the surface of this dead ring wood will become fragile and can be destroyed, and the inside of the ring wood is hollow, just dig a hole in the surface of the dead wood, and after people get into it, and then plug the hole, you can temporarily get a safe refuge.

["Fifty meters away in front of the left, a dry ring tree was found. ”】

[Ava's prompt rings in time, and you hurriedly follow its instructions, and sure enough, you see a dead tree.] 】

[Compared with the thick and round ring wood around it, the diameter of this ring wood has shrunk significantly, and the surface has become wrinkled and covered with dry cracked bark. 】

[You walked quickly to the bottom of the ring wood, and danced the blade of death in your hand, bringing up a faint sword qi and bombarding the dry bark. 】

[A series of chopping marks were formed on the trunk of the tree, and in the flying sawdust, the trunk was quickly cut open, revealing the hollow space inside. 】

[Regardless of the consumption, you swung the knife harder, and soon expanded the gap to the size that could be passed by one person. 】

[You bring a black rock crystal from nearby, burrow into the tree hole, and then block the entrance with black crystal. 】

[The murderous wind of ghosts crying wolves in the outside world has finally been temporarily isolated by you. 】

[You're safe!] 】

Mu You breathed a sigh of relief, a little glad that he had taken the divine power of slaying the gods at the beginning, otherwise relying on ordinary means, he would not be able to cut a gap in the ring wood so quickly at this time.

There was a high probability that those fool ancestors died like this before, and when they slowly dug the hole in the tree, the people basically died in the sword wind.

[Being in a safe space gives you time to observe your surroundings. 】

[The inside of this tree hole is about dozens of square meters, on the inner wall of the trunk, there are some soft small animals climbing, and there are some white flying insects in the upper space, buzzing and making a sound similar to mosquitoes, all of which are small animals that hide in and take refuge like you. 】

[You look up, the tree hole extends all the way up to a thousand meters high, but there is no canopy at the top, like a chimney directly exposed to the air, the reason why there is no wind from the top of the tree is because the tree is tall enough, and the top of the tree is higher than the range of the knife wind. 】

"It looks like it won't be over for a while......"

According to the previous text, the knife wind will last for more than five hours, and it will not be possible to go out during this period.

Mu You was about to hang up and take a break, but at this time, Ava's prompt popped up again.

["Warning, sensing a pulse signal of the same type, continuously coming from an area three thousand meters away in front of the right."] ”】

"Oh?" Mu You was happy, and said that he was lucky, he just found a shelter, and then found the signal location of the mechanic, and he was happy.

As a result, Ava's next sentence made him unable to laugh.

["The signal is constantly moving, and is about to leave the sensing range, is it immediately tracked?"] ”】

“？？？”

Mu You was dazed, what the hell is moving? Isn't this signal supposed to be carved into the moonstone in the moon well?

Could it be that the mechanic is still alive?

Or was the moonstone obtained by someone else?

Mu You couldn't be sure for a while, he shouldn't have gone out at this time, at least when the sword wind stopped.

However, things are on the move, and if you don't look for them now, you're likely to pass by him......

The red text was still flashing, and there was no time to hesitate.

Mu You thought about it for a while and decisively decided: go and find it!

There's no way, the ring forest is too big, and one miss is likely to be a lifelong miss.

[You push away the rock outside the tree hole, drill out of the hole, and face the sword wind again......]

Next, Mu You braved the knife wind and began to search for the signal along Ava's guidance.

The corpses of various small animals can be seen everywhere along the road, and they are basically too late to dodge, and they are pierced by crystal thorns and die.

The scope of the sword wind covered the entire ring forest, raging in all directions and from multiple angles, except for those large animals with rough skin and thick flesh, ordinary creatures were exposed to the air and absolutely could not withstand this kind of damage.

At this time, most critters either have the ability to dig in the ground and hide deep in underground caves, or they have the ability to fly, which can fly above the canopy of the ring wood and avoid the range of the knife wind.

But there are still many small and medium-sized creatures like humans, who have neither the ability to make holes nor the ability to fly, and Mu You is very curious about how these creatures usually survive the knife wind.

[The sword wind seems to be more violent than before, sharp shards of hedron continue to cut your skin, blood flows, and your life slides at a speed visible to the naked eye......]

Mu You glanced at the panel, in this harsh environment, if he was exposed to the air for more than ten minutes, he would die.

Fortunately, the location of the signal is not too far, and Mu You ran all the way against the wind after going out, and the distance of three thousand meters was in a blink of an eye.

[You see that in the woodland in front of you, there is a giant snail with a body length of tens of meters, the body of this snail is transparent, like a wriggling jelly, it is crawling slowly in the knife wind, and the hard carapace on its back defends it from all the crystal thorns that attack in the air. 】

[A large number of small animals came from all directions, gathered in front of the giant snail, and seemed to want to take refuge in its body. 】

[The snail does not refuse, opens its mouth, forming a soft passage directly to the abdominal cavity, and the small animals line up, crawling into the snail's mouth in an orderly manner, and entering its abdominal space to take refuge......]

[According to Ava's instructions, the pulse signal is coming from the snail's belly, do you want to search for it?] 】

"......" Mu You's face was strange, the signal was actually in the belly of this snail, and depending on the situation, this snail seemed to have become a refuge for these small animals in the knife wind...... Mu You vaguely understood what was going on.

"Yes."

[You quickly approached the giant snail, followed the small animals around you, and stepped into the snail's mouth. 】

The fact that these native critters all dared to burrow into the snail's belly so directly indicates that the snail is likely to be a harmless creature.

[Stepping through the soft and slippery esophagus, you finally come to the belly of a snail.] 】

[This is a spacious and warm biological abdominal cavity, and at this moment there are already a large number of small creatures gathered in the space, they have temporarily put aside the fighting and predatory behavior at the level of the external biological chain, and snuggled up to each other, close together to warm and rest. 】

Mu You didn't expect that there was such a 'virgin' animal in the ring forest, selflessly using his body as a refuge in natural disasters to shelter the small animals from the wind and rain.

On Earth, this behavior of taking advantage of environmental changes to attract other animals into the body is to eat these animals, and the outside creatures will be digested by strong stomach acid as soon as they enter.

But this snail is not, it does not secrete any dangerous substances in its belly, it just provides a safe space.

Moreover, because there are all kinds of small animals that come in, many of them have fangs and claws, and they walk on the fragile flesh and blood of the snail, and unknowingly cause many wounds that are difficult to heal to its internal organs.

So Mu You is very curious about what is the purpose of this snail, and would rather endure his own injuries than accept and protect other species? In normal biological evolution, there should theoretically not be such a complete 'altruistic' behavior.

Not to mention this, entering the snail's body at this moment, Mu You followed Ava's guidance for the first time and found the source of the pulse signal - a white large-mouthed duck.

Looking at the text description, the duck looks a bit like a pelican, and the signal is coming from its belly.

[You walk up to the Billbill and take out the Healing Blade.] 】

[The large-mouthed duck trembled with fright when he saw the bright blade in your hand, and hurriedly wanted to escape, but was forcibly held down by you. 】

[In the midst of the loud-mouthed duck's terrible screams, you cut open its belly with the healing blade, groped in it, and soon found a piece of bluestone. 】

[You have obtained the 'Moon Stone with Information'*1.] 】

[As the bluestone is removed, the wound of the large-billed duck that was cut will heal automatically.] The loud-billed duck's scream stopped abruptly, and he looked blankly at his intact belly, then looked up at you in fear, and hurriedly fled to the other end of the abdomen, hiding in a pile of small animals. 】

[You connect the bluestone to the heart of the machine, and a recording automatically plays in your head.] 】

["My research has progressed! The first thing in the recording was the excited voice of the mechanic. 】

["In the third layer, I encountered a creature called 'Red Ape', this ape will grow a layer of detachable fur on its body when it becomes an adult, this fur has a variety of functions such as waterproofing, warmth, and impact mitigation, which can not only be worn by itself, but also used to protect its cubs after giving birth. ”】

["This instantly inspired me: my design for warframes has always been in the direction of being more robust and versatile, but overly strong warframes often mean bloated, heavy, and clumsy. ”】

["What we really need at the moment is a light and compact battle armor, just like the red ape, which can be directly covered on the human epidermis like a layer of clothing, and at the same time does not affect people's actions, it also has defensive power and resistance comparable to the skin of the ancestors! ”】

["As long as I can make this kind of armor like underwear, I will definitely be able to save my people and avoid the parasitism of that kind of ghostly thing! ”】

["I have a strong hunch that this is the right direction! This warframe may well be the final form of mechanics. I'm going to continue my research in this direction and look forward to my results......"]

There was a pause in the recording, and after dozens of seconds, a re-recorded voice popped up again.

[Oh, by the way, I buried three battle mechs under this moon well, all of which were temporarily remade with the local materials of the Ring Forest, the time is limited, and the function is relatively rough, but it should be enough to protect you through the third and fourth floors. ”】

"Uh......"

Mu You was a little speechless, you buried the battle armor under the moon well, but now the moon stone used as a transmitter has been taken away by the animal, I don't know how many hands have been transferred, it must have long been far from the original position, there is no positioning, where can he find it?

[In the raging wind, the giant snail is still crawling hard against the wind, taking in the animals that have fallen along the road. 】

[More and more small animals are crowded into the belly of the snail, and the abdominal cavity quickly becomes crowded.] 】

[Suddenly, you hear a howl of pain coming from above your head.] 】

[Looking up, through the transparent body of the snail, you can directly see the black carapace on the outer layer of the snail, which is being bombarded by dense crystal thorns. 】

[Not all crystal spikes will be bounced off by the carapace.] As the wind grows stronger, the crystal thorns carried in the wind also get bigger and bigger, and occasionally there will be some large sharp crystal thorns, like javelins, with huge kinetic energy deep into the carapace, and even pierce the carapace, directly to the flesh of the snail. 】

[Soon, the carapace of the giant snail was pierced like a hedgehog, and the snail's screams became more and more frequent. 】

[Through the transparent body tissues of the snail, you find that under the stimulation of these crystal thorns, the snail actually begins to ovulate slowly. 】

[Transparent egg balls the size of marbles continue to roll down the abdominal cavity of the snail, and each egg ball will be quickly picked up by a small animal and carefully protected in its arms. 】

[With the expulsion of the egg balls, you perceive that the snail's life force seems to be running out quickly......]

"Ovulation?"

Mu You was stunned for a moment, and suddenly understood the purpose of this snail to take in small animals.

This giant snail actually relies on the stimulation of the knife wind to ovulate, so it will deliberately crawl everywhere in the knife wind. After ovulation, its body will die quickly, and then these discharged egg balls need to be transported by small animals to those suitable places in the ring forest, and then re-hatch into newborn snails.

In short, it's a symbiotic relationship: the snail helps the critter survive the knife wind, and the critter helps it hatch its offspring and take care of its offspring until it grows up to become a new giant snail and shelter more critters in the future. (End of chapter)