“Alright, you're dismissed.”
“The ten people who participated in today's 'training' will each receive five catties of wild boar meat; those who successfully 'transferred professions' will receive an additional five catties of silver bear meat!”
“From now on, after completing training each day, an extra portion of meat will be distributed per person.”
Xia Tian shifted his gaze from the Lord's chat channel and addressed the ten soldiers who had completed their training.
“Long live our Lord!”
“Thank you, Lord.”
A chorus of cheers erupted.
Because the world had shattered so quickly, they hadn't had time to bring much food when they fled.
Although they no longer had to worry about shelter upon reaching the territory, Xia Tian, to prevent the refugees from becoming idle, specifically required everyone to earn their food through labor.
Aside from the first time he cooked the purple-striped tiger meat into a bonfire feast for everyone, any remaining wild boar or silver bear meat required a significant amount of labor to obtain; usually, they ate miscellaneous grains from the territory's warehouse.
Therefore, this extra reward of food was a considerable fortune to them!
“Sigh, the number of residents is still a bit low,” Xia Tian muttered, looking at the vast but empty training ground as the soldiers happily went back to cook their meat.
The first batch of residents in the territory was too small; the able-bodied men, at most, numbered only thirty. Even if all of them underwent “rapid training,” they would only gain thirty soldiers.
Moreover, the ten selected today already possessed higher willpower and physical quality. Subsequent individuals, even if they participated in the Trapped Formation Camp training, would likely have very few who could successfully “transfer professions”!
For a territory, this small military force was clearly far from enough.
“Strange, if I remember correctly, the effect of that 'Miniature Refugee Summoning Scroll' was to 'summon' 100 unaligned refugees within a certain range around the territory, bringing them to one's own territory.”
“However, so far, apart from Wu Song and his seventy-three companions, the remaining refugees have not reported in.”
“Is it because there's no hero like Wu Song leading the group, making it impossible for them to reach the territory, or is it because there truly were only this one group of refugees within the scroll's effective range?”
Xia Tian was puzzled.
Of course, there might also be the worst-case scenario: the other refugees encountered a flock of Ghost Vultures in the wilderness yesterday and were completely wiped out before they could reach his territory!
In short, while his territory's location was rich in resources, it was extremely unfriendly for acquiring population. Even with an initial advantage, developing it in the future would likely be quite difficult...
And just as smoke curled up from Xia Tian's territory and the aroma of cooking meat wafted from every household...
At this moment, not too far from the outskirts of his territory, beside the mountain gully Wu Song and his group once traversed, a group of people in a cave were using stones to block the entrance, nervously peering outside through the gaps in the rocks!
“Are those grey-skinned, sharp-toothed monsters in armor still outside?”
Inside the cave, a woman in red with a very delicate face asked a man beside her, who held an embroidered spring saber and had a long, narrow face.
“Still there. It looks like they don't want to let us leave... It's alright, if they dare to attack again, I'll kill them all!”
The man with the embroidered spring saber forced a smile, clearly feigning bravery. Especially the wound on his arm, bandaged with a red cloth, made the woman in red look worried.
“By the way, how is the sick woman? Is she feeling better?”
Seeing the woman in red's worried expression, the man with the embroidered spring saber proactively changed the subject.
“She drank some water and is much better; her fever has mostly subsided. But she's still unconscious, mumbling 'Master Bao' in her delirium. It seems she's also a woman heartbroken by love!”
The woman in red said softly.
“According to what was said in our minds, we are no longer in our original world. I'm afraid she won't see her 'Master Bao' again. With time, she'll naturally forget.”
The man with the embroidered spring saber said.
However, these were just comforting words.
In fact, he himself didn't know if he would survive this jungle.
After he and the woman in red suddenly fell into this jungle yesterday, they encountered several ferocious beasts they had never seen before.
Later, hearing the voice in their minds, they encountered others, including the girl named Qingwen, while on their way to the “territory.”
Since they all had the same goal, they traveled together. With more people, the journey became safer; most monsters would actively avoid them. Unfortunately, due to the long distance to the “territory,” they couldn't reach it by the first night. Luckily, there was a cave here, so the group temporarily settled in.
They spent a night in fear, even witnessing the terrifying scene of a “hundred ghosts' night parade” firsthand!
After daybreak, they originally thought they could successfully reach the protective “territory.” However, they discovered that sometime during the night, a group of monsters had arrived outside the cave entrance. They were about a foot and a half tall, wore mud-stained silver-grey armor, carried rusty knives, and shouted “Orcs.”
After discovering them, they launched an attack.
If it weren't for the small entrance of this cave, and his own seven-tier rating and considerable strength, repelling the enemy's invasions several times with his embroidered spring saber, the people inside the cave might have already become a meal for these “Orcs.”
However, this situation couldn't last much longer.
After a day, the meager food they carried had long been eaten up.
Although the cave provided rest and they could collect some clear water from the rock walls to quench their thirst, without food replenishment, their ability to sustain combat was bound to be limited.
Someone had even tried to eat the corpses of the Orc monsters before, but after peeling off their hide armor, the exposed bodies were utterly disgusting. Even the strongest-willed person couldn't stomach it, and they feared getting poisoned.
After all, in this situation, temporary hunger was bearable, but getting poisoned or falling ill like the girl named Qingwen would truly be incurable.
“The voice that appeared in our minds said that the 'territory' could provide food and shelter, and it should also have medicine for illnesses. If she can hold on, she might get better,” the woman in red said gently.
“Perhaps,” the man with the embroidered spring saber said noncommittally.
In fact, he had already decided that after tonight, when dawn approached tomorrow, he would take the woman in red and break through first.
As for the others, they would have to stay in the cave for now.
“According to the information in our minds, that territory is not too far from here anymore.”
Once they reached the so-called “territory,” they might be able to find people to come to their rescue.
Buzz!
What he didn't notice was a bee, roughly the size of a baby's fist and appearing as if carved from gold, fluttering its wings as it flew from afar into the valley. It landed on a colorful flower beside the cave, preparing to collect pollen to make honey, its jewel-like eyes perfectly reflecting the figures inside the cave!