People love stories.

Children and adults, uneducated peasants and aristocrats with free access to knowledge.

The form may be poetry, it may be words, or it may be accompanied by pictures. But the essence of them is the same – to tell a story, to convey certain values, to popularize certain knowledge.

And in the stories that have been passed down through the thousands of years of history of Rigal and Crescent, the topic of humans fighting some dangerous behemoths has endured.

The high society of the Padrosi Empire loved this kind of story, the story of the brave knight fighting the dragon, and the peasants of Crescent Continent loved it, the story of the clever Orion fighting the man-eating tiger.

The two seem to be homogeneous, but the core ideas are very different. The tales of the nobles of the empire were often heroic and courageous in defeating dragons, and such stories often featured humble commoners or money-hungry mercenary adventurers. As an opposition, the role of a knight is always upright and noble.

In contrast, the peasants of the Land of the Moon enjoyed stories similar to those of Rigal's lower classes. It is often the people who use some kind of cleverness and wisdom to defeat this evil man-eating beast.

People love stories, and stories must be written for those who like them. Therefore, the heroic and fearless knights of the empire were able to defeat their opponents with a single blood, which met the needs of the upper-class people, who considered themselves the chosen ones to be naturally much nobler than the pathetic untouchables, and the cleverness of the peasants satisfied the psychology of not being willing to be ordinary and self-professing to be unique.

But stories are just stories.

It will not be knights or hunters who will fight monsters, nor will it be a man of blood and noble character or a clever man who will be able to defeat them.

It's a lot of experience, a solid plan, and a lot of preparation.

— in other words.

You need an expert.

"Hemp rope. Henry held out his hand, and Kaleva handed him a large bundle of rope gathered from the village. The sky had gradually begun to darken, but under the orderly command, the preparations were almost half completed.

"You can't do this, you have to tie the fisherman's knot, or it will fall apart. The girl from Luo'an was also directing Aya to work: "Like this, I'll teach you." "In line with the principle that there is strength in numbers, everyone is not idle. Although the missionaries and especially Edgey were disgusted by this and wanted to flee immediately instead of leaving behind for a fight, the sage coldly retorted, "Can you outrun that thing?" and he shut his mouth in understanding.

With the materials collected in the village and the right terrain, with the professional guidance of the sages and the assistance of Luoan Maiden and Lulu, they planned an entire area in the middle of the mountain forest, and prepared non-stop.

The villagers had saved a lot of time by piling up ready-made materials, and although it seemed terrible to make a noble unicorn sleigh pull goods on a sleigh, thankfully the little human creature didn't have a shelf. "No, add more. Henry shook his head, and a panting Galeva glanced to the side, dragging his tired body back on. Several huge pieces of wood, which were supposed to be used as pillars for the beams, had been transported here several times by carts, and the sage was directing the coolie Kaleva to make the most classic and simple trap - falling logs.

"The basic principle of a gravimetric trap is that it must be 3 times the weight of the target creature. Henry shrugged his shoulders as he spoke, "But since there is nothing heavy enough and no trees here that can withstand this weight, we can only do as much as we can, and win by quantity." ”

The wood, which was quite heavy for a human, was fastened with a knot, and then the other end of the long rope was tied with a weight, and then it was held in his hand and spun and accelerated, and finally he had a chance to let go of his hand and toss it over the branch of the high target.

Several others did the same, but it took several attempts, including Miss Luoan, to succeed because of the heavy rope being rather cumbersome.

There are a total of 3 falling wood traps, all of which are fixed on top of the thickest old trees. Once they are pulled up, the most important trigger setting is the Sage's own hands.

Because other people have little experience with this, even Lulu, who is a hunter, actually doesn't have much experience with oversized creatures.

Hunters hunt for their own survival, and when they encounter oversized creatures that threaten them, they often choose to retreat. In addition, Crescent Island itself does not have much of a life, not only the common large mammals such as elephants, but even dragons are almost extinct here. Perhaps due to the gap between the vast Rigalo Sea and the Great East Sea, the biological form here is very different from that of Rigal.

The key triggers are all done by the sages. Considering the height and size of the giant creature, the thick hemp rope trigger structure was set in the middle of the two large trees, and was about 1.5 meters tall, roughly equivalent to the collarbones of some of the male members of the team.

The taller men had to bend down when they ran over, but because the Sage controlled the force needed to release it with precision, even if he accidentally bumped into it, he would not release the trap, causing casualties to friendly troops before he could actually deal with the monsters.

There is a lot of truth in the saying that slow is steady, steady is fast, and even though it will soon be dark, he still carefully took the time to take this insurance measure.

The large baby fish formed by the fusion of dozens of villagers has a length of more than ten meters from head to tail, and because of its wide body, it is almost comparable to the size of the earth dragon. But to deal with it, it may be more troublesome than the earth dragon.

Wurms are creatures of great intelligence, similar to humans, who can think and assess the threat before them. Fighting off a wurm is akin to facing a fully armed and confident knight. All you need to know is the weakness of the armor and have the skills and the right weapon, constantly threaten his weaknesses such as the joints and the observation openings - armpits and stomach in the case of dragons, so that the opponent realizes that this is not delicious fat but a steel plate that will knock out teeth, and it will leave in search of an easier target.

Repelling and killing are two different concepts, and for the tenacious dragon species, injuries are commonplace. Often, they leave because they don't think it's worth fighting, rather than because you actually have crushing combat.

This is one of the reasons why the Sage has been able to win in his past encounters with them, making the intelligent creature realize that it has a thorny poison that is difficult to target, and it will give up on other options.

And if an earth dragon is hell-bent on killing you, you'll face endless nightmares as long as it doesn't lose its mind due to some circumstance.

It will feign death, it will hide the movement of its huge body in a way that feels unbelievable to you, and it will approach you when you lose your vigilance. It will make it difficult for you to sleep through harassment and ranting, and it will make you feel less judgmental. Dragons are long-lived creatures, so they are very patient and will tease you like a cunning human. The moment you relax when you feel that you have won a bloody battle, it is often when you die.

This is also quite similar to the struggle between human beings.

The strongest, fastest runner will not necessarily win the battle. It is often the one who is the most persistent and the smartest to win.

So this time to deal with this monster, Henry did not bravely rush single-handedly like he had encountered the earth dragon before, but chose to spend time to maximize the strength of the team and be prepared.

The large monsters also weigh the same weight, so the trap can be enlarged to ensure that the human strength cannot be easily triggered. This will prevent those in the team who are not adventurers from triggering traps and causing casualties to allies in the event of sudden chaos.

In addition to falling logs, they also prepared a lot of traps, but with so much to do in a tight time, it was naturally impossible to dig a pit large enough. As a result, these traps serve more of a thwarting effect, preventing the person who introduced the creature into the trap from being caught up due to lack of foot strength.

Despite the clear division of labor and the rapid acceleration of the work, when all this was completed, the short period of daylight in winter came to an end.

The final part of the preparation was to set up the trap that would be the killer trick and fix the torches in various places in the forest.

The importance of lighting is extremely high, and while our Sage himself has night vision thanks to the druid runes tattooed under his skin with Mithril ink, others, including the Roan Maiden, are affected by the night. No matter how strong Henry was, he didn't have a whole circle of eyes around his head, and there were not as many eyes as eight pairs of eyes that could be observed. Placing personnel in all directions and hiding them, keeping an eye on all aspects of the movement, is the only way to ensure that targets are spotted in time.

The snow does not stop blowing until the night, and candles are certainly useless in such weather, and only large torches soaked in oil and large enough can not be blown out in the cold wind.

Still, the flickering light of the fire in the snowflake wind, combined with the silence of the forest and the cold air at night, made many people's hearts beat faster.

Their dry eyes widened, their lips chapped by the wind, and they tried their best to cover their cloaks or robes, but they still felt a chill begin to run at the ends of their limbs.

And the slightest movement, perhaps from a companion or the wind, would make these people look back nervously.

A high level of mental state is not a good thing, because it doesn't last long, and after the excitement has passed, endless exhaustion will hit.

For dinner, there was only the dry food they carried, and the attack of the samurai and the appearance of the monsters were somewhat sudden, and the richer tastes were left in the mountain hut. They cooked the bland and tasteless cereal paste over a campfire, but the other four were not very appetizing, except for Henry, Mira, Kaleva, and Lulu.

The clerical missionary trio, as well as Miss Doctor, were all clear that they had not recovered at this point, they had been through so much in this short period of time. The mental pressure made the four people who were born as clerks a little stunned. When I was helping with the work before, I often stopped in a daze, like a marionette, and Henry or Mira shouted before moving.

This is a common occurrence for people who have not experienced much of the big picture, who are at a loss as to how to deal with the situation at hand, and thus become more dependent on those who are assertive and calm. Sometimes it can even evolve into a situation where you don't know what to do without someone else's order.

Aya is a relatively good one, as she at least knows how to use the Great Bow of the Moon Country, and her tactics against monsters are also based on her idea of ecological cycles. But theory is theory, and it is really close to actual combat, and she can't help but get nervous when she feels the invisible pressure.

Henry fiddled with the carbon blocks in the campfire, then checked the crossbow and the bows Lulu and Aya.

"Click—" He suddenly remembered something, so he picked up a bow, then drew the knife from his waist, and slashed at the tip of the knife by the light of the fire, and immediately a scratch appeared, and the tip of the knife was undamaged.

"Forget about this stubble. The sage frowned, "This arrow is not hard enough. ”

"It's supposed to be steel, but I don't know how much carbon it contains. ”

"The teacher is worried that he may not be able to ejaculate?" The Luo An girl was keenly aware of what the sage was worried about, and he nodded: "The pull is not enough, the hardness is to make up." Both of them are just hunting bows, not war bows, and their skin is quite thick, and without a good arrow, it is estimated that it will not even be able to make it painful. ”

"Bring the water, make do with it. The sage said as he plucked the arrow with his hand and threw it into the campfire's charcoal heap, and flicked the charcoal with his stick to cover the arrowhead.

"There might be some scrap in doing so. Mira was a little worried, and Caleva obediently ran to the side to bring the bucket with the water.

"One can penetrate better than ten, and if you shoot it, you will bounce off. Henry quickly threw most of the arrows in, and then picked up two small twigs and clamped them beside him. The night became a good helper in judging the heat, and when he saw that the arrowhead was burned bright enough, he decisively picked it up with a twig and threw it into the barrel.

The sound of "zizi-" sounded, and after repeating the practice several times, Henry waited until the water in the barrel cooled down, and fished out the arrow with his hands.

"Bang-bang-" The friction used as a hardness test with a knife made a different sound, proving that the steel used for these arrows was not bad. However, because it is a temporary batch quenching, the hardness has increased to a sufficient degree only about forty percent.

"It's better than nothing, mark the high-hardness armor-piercing arrows. Henry said back.

Time passed slowly, and after all the preparations were made, they waited quite a long time.

"How can you be sure that it will come. Perhaps a little uncontrollable, or perhaps uneasy, Miss Doctor asked the sage this question.

"Is there anything else to eat here besides us?" the sage shrugged, and as soon as he finished speaking, the group heard a loud roar not far away.

"Kaleva. The sage stood up.

"Light the campfire in front of you and lure this guy over. He shouted loudly.

The wind has been blowing for a long time.

Stopped.