Chapter 24 The Screaming Marmot

"What a pity. I didn't even get to say hello and ask if they had eaten."

Watching the other party leave, Leo had no intention of taking the risk of following. He stood in place for a while, then turned around with regret and returned the way he came, ending this day's reconnaissance.

Just like a fierce tiger whose territory has been invaded by a lone wolf, there's no need for verbal communication. A single cold glare is enough to convey one's will clearly.

As the master of this territory, the Wild Folk Hunter emanating a fierce beast's aura also conveyed his meaning to Leo with just one look.

You can call it quits right here.

Next time, it won't be this friendly.

Leo had no intention of provoking the other party. Growing up among half-savages, he had an intuition beyond ordinary people's and could even sense the other party's danger.

In the vast forests and grasslands of the Wolf-Driving Plain, there are various foreign races and large fierce beasts, and even magical beasts appear from time to time. It's impossible for a Wild Folk tribe to survive here without sufficient military strength.

Every member of the Wild Folk tribe is a jungle hunter proficient at both close and long-range attacks. Those who dare to patrol alone are the top dogs.

Not to mention anything else, just the two-meter-long forest yew bow on his back and the thick heavy arrows as thick as a finger are weapons capable of killing brown bears.

The shield that Leo stole from Ulyan, which is oak-covered with leather, is an inch thick. Its craftsmanship and defense reach the standard of the imperial regular infantry's standard equipment. However, it couldn't withstand the close-range shooting of such a powerful bow and heavy arrows.

In the following days, besides training the militiamen, Leo spent the rest of his time patrolling and scouting near the upper reaches of the river, getting familiar with the terrain here and guarding against the invasion of foreign races or wild beasts into the settlement camp. But he never crossed the huge boulder where the Wild Folk Hunter had appeared, for fear of getting shot for no good reason.

As the scope of reconnaissance continued to expand, Leo's footprints gradually penetrated deeper into the forest on the other side of the river.

The environment here is more complex than that near the River Bend Territory. Not only are there more and more wild animals, but also some footprints that Leo has never seen before have emerged one after another.

"This should be a wild boar, right? Do wild boars have flat feet? Are the Wild Folk chasing a wild boar?"

Squatting on the ground, while looking at the deep footprints in the soft humus of the forest, Leo muttered to himself while writing them down.

It doesn't matter if he hasn't seen them. There's also Ulyan at home who has seen a great deal. He can just draw them when he gets back and ask one by one.

"What's this again?" As he followed the footprints cautiously all the way, Leo was stunned in front of a huge paw print.

What came into his sight was a huge paw print. It looked like a human palm but had sharp claws, which were altogether a full foot long, looking extremely terrifying.

Leo wisely stopped moving forward and prepared to return to the settlement camp to inform Ulyan.

Despite his strong build and well-trained skills, being able to beat the militiamen under him as easily as he beats his son, in fact, in the wild, without any preparation, he might not even be able to defeat an adult brown bear.

This unknown creature that looks far more terrifying than a snow bear just judging from the footprints is not something that Leo can provoke. He can only go back and round up some people, and then figure out a way to drive it away.

Just as he turned around, Leo felt a slight ground vibration, and the sound of shaking trees came from the forest in the distance.

Without hesitation, Leo climbed a big tree. He climbed more than ten meters before looking down.

As the tremors on the ground grew more intense, even the pine trees so thick that two people were needed to hug around them began to shake. A huge creature dashed out from the forest.

It was a brownish-yellow giant bear over three meters long. It looked somewhat familiar yet strange. It staggered past the tree where Leo was. Just the thick rump rubbing against the tree made the whole tree shake violently, almost knocking Leo off the tree.

Behind it, four wild boars with single horns like those of rhinoceroses on their heads huffed and puffed as they closely trailed, chasing after it with great effort.

"Damn it! Turn around and fight them! The combined weight of the four wild boars is even less than yours!"

Leo watched them run past under his feet and couldn't help but feel a bit speechless. Although the four single-horned wild boars, resembling small rhinoceroses, were much larger than the wild boars he remembered, in front of this minivan-sized giant bear, they still looked like a bunch of piglets trailing behind a sow.

Leo simply couldn't figure out what the giant bear was afraid of.

After staying in the tree for a minute, when the beasts had run far away, Leo saw four burly humanoid creatures rushing over. They quickly followed the footprints left by the giant bear.

These humanoid creatures were about 1.78 meters in height. They had extremely muscular builds, were slightly hunched, and the skin exposed outside their simple fur armor was covered with short, curly black hair. On their heads and backs, there was a tuft of mane resembling sharp thorns.

They carried bone spears or large stone hammers in their hands and also had simple crossbows on their backs.

When one of them passed by the tree, it looked up warily and sniffed around, enabling Leo in the tree to clearly see its face.

Wild Boar Man!

A big, fat guy weighing over two hundred jin, with swarthy, hairy skin, short and thick limbs, and a wild boar's head.

Leo held his breath and watched quietly as the Wild Boar Man walked away. This was the second alien race Leo had seen after the Kobolds.

However, they were much more dangerous than the kobolds. Whether it was their heavy primitive weapons, the simple crossbows, or even the hideous tusks on their pig snouts, they were all more terrifying than the kobolds' throwing spears and stones and could easily cause him harm.

After waiting for a few more minutes to make sure the danger had passed, Leo was about to climb down the tree.

But just as one of his feet touched the ground, there was another tremor from the forest in the distance. The giant bear, with the single-horned wild boars, ran back after making a circle.

"I'm convinced. You guys fight among yourselves. Can you just die somewhere far away!" Leo nimbly jumped up the tree again. Sitting on a tree branch, he watched the giant bear running around in a hurry below, leading the hunters on a wild goose chase in the forest.

Estimating the distance to another pine tree in front, Leo took two quick steps on the branches of the pine tree and gently leaped onto another tree.

Repeating this operation, Leo moved forward on the branches like Tarzan.

After leaping onto more than a dozen trees in a row, the trees became sparser and Leo's vision became broader.

Dozens of meters ahead, the panicked giant bear was cornered at the foot of a small earthen slope.

This earthen slope wasn't very steep and was only about seven or eight meters high. However, the soft ground couldn't bear the giant bear's terrifying weight. It slipped down three times in a row as it tried to climb up.

The giant bear's four legs dug quickly like an excavator, but its body remained in place. The mud it dug out almost buried it.

Watching the four one-horned wild boars and their master drawing near, the giant bear reared up on its hind legs, with its back pressed tightly against the small earthen slope. It flailed its front paws around a few times randomly, then opened its mouth and let out a scream.

"Don't come any closer!"

Hearing this shrill voice with a childlike tone, Leo finally understood why he thought this giant bear looked familiar and strange!

Because this wasn't a giant bear at all. It was a marmot!

It was just that its body was extremely huge and plump, so it looked almost indistinguishable from a giant bear on the outside. But when it stood up on its hind legs, spread its claws, and showed those two huge front teeth, the characteristics of a marmot were beyond doubt.

It was The Screaming Marmot!

And it could even speak human language!

After traveling to this world, Leo finally felt that the atmosphere was turning fantastical.