'These don't look like players. Could they be so kind of Ability User? No — that doesn't fit either. Ability Users don't have the clear-headed intelligence to construct that many sophisticated traps. And while these beings look like primitives or barbarians, they're not actually primitive at all. Look at that bow — the craftsmanship is at least Three-Star, and it might well be an enchanted longbow.'
'Also, among the traps I found earlier, so clearly weren't handmade. They looked more like industrial production — signs of a manufacturing process, and designed to be recovered and reused.'
'On that point alone, the civilization behind these people has at least the productive capacity of an age of exploration.'
'And while they look like Neanderthals, head to toe they radiate the kind of healthy, vital life energy that only normal humans have. These are absolutely not Magic Zombies.'
Li Wei turned it over in his mind. A word surfaced unbidden: Northern Barbarians.
He couldn't help it. The Weir City Duke was fighting the Northern Barbarians. Night Owl had been reassigned to guard Thorns Pass — also against the Northern Barbarians.
And now this group of apparent savages was being so cautious and low-profile — in an abandoned camp, in a remote mountain forest — acting as if they were thieves in the night. Were they infiltrating this world?
Or, more strikingly — were these Neanderthals also players, but from a different faction entirely?
He stopped himself from going further down that line of thinking.
Li Wei hesitated for a mont. Dawn was coming. He made a decisive choice and withdrew along his original route.
Not out of cowardice — but because this camp held twenty-four Neanderthals, with at least five of them likely Five-Star. He wasn't confident he could win that fight.
And this was a first encounter. He didn't know their capabilities at all. What would he be fighting for?
If he made a mistake and died here, he doubted he'd even get the chance to return to Earth as a vegetable.
Neanderthals — the ancient enemies of humanity's ancestors. Maybe in their dinsion, they had won. Maybe it was humanity's ancestors who had been hunted to extinction.
Half an hour later, Li Wei erased every trace of his passage and slipped out of the trap periter without incident. He retreated seven or eight kiloters before stopping on a ridge. He needed to observe and understand. No rash moves.
Dawn broke fully. No sunlight — layers of grey cloud had moved in. A weather change was coming. This was the transition between winter and spring. Normal enough.
The problem was that if it snowed, moving silently through the mountain forest the way he had last night would beco much harder. Any tracks he left would be spotted.
These people had excellent hunters. Experienced ones.
As Li Wei was thinking this, fourteen of the Neanderthal-like figures erged from the hidden valley camp. Among them were the two visible sentries from the night before, as well as four Neanderthals in strange heavy armor. They moved south, cutting through the mountains and forest, and disappeared.
Clearly they had a specific objective.
Ten Neanderthals remained. Three of them headed north toward the river — fishing, apparently. Two hunter-types split off: one going east, one going west.
Both hunters, once clear of the trap periter, imdiately summoned their hunting pets. The eastern hunter had a small bird. The western hunter, unfortunately, had a hunting hound the size of a calf.
That was a problem.
Li Wei analyzed quickly. By the look of things, this group had arrived recently — no more than two weeks, judging by the freshness of the trap construction. They had also likely conducted initial reconnaissance of the surrounding terrain and had probably already located both Riverside Fortress and the main base.
But why hadn't they attacked?
Were they avoiding exposure? Unable to break through? Or waiting for sothing else?
Li Wei watched the western hunter and his hound pass two or three kiloters away and continue west.
Interestingly, whether by habit or design, the hunter moved only through valleys and ravines — taking longer routes to avoid high ground, staying in the deepest vegetation at all tis. As if afraid of being spotted from the sky.
"Wait — has this group already identified Adai's presence?"
The realization hit Li Wei. That explained why Adai had never picked up any trace of them. They had already developed counterasures.
And fortunately for Li Wei, that was also why his own search the night before — moving along ridgelines and high ground, going wherever was most visible — had worked. He wasn't worried about Adai spotting him. His approach had been the exact opposite of the enemy's scouting pattern.
Otherwise, the hunting hound would have caught his scent by now.
He imdiately began tracking the western hunter, following at a distance of ten or more kiloters, maintaining a loose sense of the target's position. He lost the trail frequently, but always found it again within an hour.
Because this mountain forest had beco a map in Li Wei's mind. And the hunter's destination was obvious — Riverside Fortress.
By midday, the Neanderthal hunter had settled into a thicket of thorns less than two kiloters south of Riverside Fortress. From there, with sharp enough eyes, you could track the movent of people inside the fortress.
This clearly wasn't the first reconnaissance visit. The ultimate goal was presumably an attack — though the timing was unclear.
These Neanderthals were cautious. What were they waiting for?
Reinforcents?
From where?
Li Wei frowned. He considered whether to take out the hunter now.
In the end, he held back. No rush. Killing the hunter might trigger unpredictable changes.
Because these Neanderthals were frighteningly strong. The weakest was Four-Star. Several were almost certainly Five-Star. Li Wei even wondered if they were on a Cross-Border Mission.
He waited two more hours. The hunter finally withdrew silently. During that ti, Javier had led over a hundred Freen out to work — the weather was warming, and many tasks needed doing: quarrying stone, burning li, manufacturing siege crossbows and bolts.
Training continued as well, of course.
"The eastern hunter went toward the main base. But the terrain around there is open — no concealnt for kiloters in any direction. Hard to scout effectively."
Li Wei followed the western hunter at a distance of over a hundred kiloters, tracking him until he confird the hunter had returned to the Neanderthal camp. Only then did Li Wei turn back. By now it was dark. Snow had begun to fall.
He moved decisively. But on the way back, he detoured through the town he had spotted earlier — slipping in under cover of darkness, descending into the central underground lair, and killing the Level 5 mutant creature inside.
Then, ignoring the heavy snowfall and the darkened sky, he continued scouting the outer periter. He was confident that with this kind of snow, the cautious Neanderthal hunters wouldn't be moving for several days — any tracks left would be visible to Adai.
The deterrent value of a Five-Star hunting pet was finally being felt.
This was Li Wei's window. Build strength as fast as possible. Prepare for the inevitable confrontation.
He wasn't going to abandon Riverside Fortress.
The heavy snow lasted two full days. Li Wei spent those two days ranging through the southwest, with modest results — three Level 5 mutant creatures killed, three Five-Star Universal Gold Cards obtained. The first went to pay off the debt from establishing the Riverside Knights. The remaining two were used to upgrade and strengthen the Riverside Knights.
The result: the Riverside Knights' total knight count could now expand to seven. And all Riverside Knights received the enhanced title bonus — Life 60, Stamina 60, Strength 6, Agility 6, Defense 6.
Explosive. Javier, Seth, Benjamin, Santiago, and Grant all effectively stepped into the Four-Star tier. Benjamin in particular — already Four-Star — had now closed the gap with Zhao Guozhu.
That was the advantage of a knightly order.
Li Wei returned to Riverside Fortress and imdiately selected two Three-Star soldiers from Javier's roster — the ones who had excelled in winter training, particularly in fortress defense.
He invested them as Riverside Knights on the spot.
Ti was short. He couldn't afford to delay.
Especially now that the heavy snow had cut off the road again, severing any support from the main base.
"Starting now — full combat readiness. A few days ago I discovered a hostile group. They may launch an attack on Riverside Fortress in the near future. This will be the most dangerous mont we've faced. We must give everything we have."
Li Wei didn't hide much. He told Thomas, Javier, Seth, and the others directly.
"Our greatest advantage is this bastion. If the enemy can't break through quickly, we win. So the key question is: how do we maximize enemy casualties during the defense while minimizing our own losses?"
"Javier — you, Seth, Paul, and Jocelyn are the four best perforrs from winter training. You're also the best defensive commanders. The four of you, together with Thomas, are the soul of this fortress's defense. Thomas — you handle daily alert status. Javier — you four each select your own soldiers. Don't pick from the new recruits. Pick from the winter training veterans. This will be a brutal fight that demands high skill. The enemy is stronger than you might expect."
"We must make every opportunity count. Every bolt counts. We use our knowledge of this fortress to build our greatest advantage."
After the brief war briefing, Li Wei rested for a short while. When he woke, he imdiately set to work — shaping crossbow bolts, arrow shafts, and wooden spears.
All of it needed for the defense ahead.
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