On the fourth morning of surviving in the dense forest, after waking up, the team worked together to dismantle the portable tents and pack up the camp.
These three days of adaptive living, through hunting, foraging, and camp maintenance, proved that the team had the ability to survive in the dense wilderness.
Even though they had visited a base once in the middle, it was only to place the collected crab roe into the cold storage warehouse at the port.
The team's next goal was to advance into the depths of the dense forest, towards the activity area of the Apex Peach Boar.
Li Fan tied a large bundle of accumulated crab legs and claws to the side of the tank.
He didn't know how many days the Shield Crab could preserve freshness. If only there was an ice-element monster, a blast of frost could quickly freeze the ingredients.
Over these three days, Li Fan had gained a lot of knowledge about food.
The portable rations sealed in tin cans had a long shelf life, but unfortunately, considering the amount a hunter ate while hunting, even if they bought a large quantity at a high price, it wouldn't be enough to feel full.
The reason was that without mounts to carry supplies, all provisions had to be carried by the hunting team.
The excessive weight of portable rations not only led to physical exertion but also took up space for other supplies, making them suitable only as emergency items to be carried in small quantities.
"Eudora, what methods do the hunting teams you've seen use for preservation?" Li Fan asked.
"The Guild recommends using Ice Crystals, but they are too expensive. So, hunting teams usually use ice-element weapons to freeze and preserve ingredients in the wild, although the Guild does not recommend this," Eudora replied.
"That method sounds good. Why isn't it recommended?"
"The Guild does not recommend using hunting weapons for anything other than hunting monsters," Eudora explained.
Dielu, holding up the bag containing her supplies above her head, stuffed it into the saddlebag on the side of the tank.
She patted her cat paws with satisfaction, dusting them off.
"I'm going to bury my poop, meow."
Dielu said, then took off the green bandana from her neck, folded it into a triangle, and tied it around her nose and mouth.
"Hmm... finish burying it, and don't make any strange descriptions like yesterday," Eudora whispered, tightly gripping the saddlebag.
"Don't worry, meow."
With her bandana tied, Dielu slung the small shovel over her shoulder and walked towards the bushes.
The matter of going to the toilet in the wild was the only oversight Li Fan and Eudora had in their planning.
One was a transmigrator, and the other was a solo hunter; neither had realized the seriousness of the problem.
It wasn't until the day before yesterday that Li Fan noticed his poop disappearing every day on time. When he asked, he found out that Dielu had helped bury it.
Seeing their confusion, Dielu, who called herself a professional, gave them a科普 lecture.
It was normal to go to the toilet near the camp, but it had to be buried in a concentrated manner within a specified time.
Otherwise, the smell could attract monsters to attack the camp.
She also stated that she had been helping to bury their poop before.
Li Fan and Eudora were deeply moved by Dielu's silent dedication. For the safety of the camp and themselves, they immediately designated a unified toilet area.
"Meow meow meow meow! Meow meow meow meow! Meow..."
Dielu hummed a tune as she walked into the bushes, and soon after, she ran back in a panic.
"It's bad, meow!"
"What's wrong, Dielu?" Eudora asked nervously.
"Li Fan's poop has been stolen, meow!"
"Huh? Hehe... that's unlikely. Who would take that kind of thing? Probably... Huh? How did you know it was mine?" Li Fan's expression shifted several times, and he stammered, but quickly realized something was wrong.
"Because it's easy to distinguish, meow... Woo! Woo!" Dielu tried to say more, but Eudora picked her up and covered her mouth.
"We're leaving this place soon. Why bother with this? We should head to the depths of the forest to track the Apex Peach Boar. Otherwise, once the port base closes, leaving the dense forest will be a luxury," Eudora said solemnly.
"That makes sense." Li Fan nodded in agreement.
Under a somewhat eerie atmosphere, the team set off towards the depths of the dense forest.
The first day of travel in the wild was extremely smooth. They reached the outskirts of the Apex Peach Boar's latest sighted activity area in just one day.
As the terrain rose, they also found a rock cave in the mountainside that was very suitable for setting up camp.
The only drawback was that the tank, carrying two people and a cat, was somewhat exhausted from constantly rushing through the dense forest all day.
It lay on the ground, panting with its tongue hanging out, looking completely depleted of energy.
During dinner, Dielu ate heartily, looking at the crab legs and claws simmering in the stew pot.
Li Fan and Eudora, however, didn't have much appetite.
Firstly, the food had been too monotonous lately. Secondly, ever since they arrived in the vicinity, an unknown odor had permeated the air.
If they hadn't undergone olfactory training with Pheromone Bombs, they might not have noticed, but for hunters, it was quite uncomfortable.
However, thinking that they would start tracking and hunting tomorrow, and to maintain sufficient energy, they forced themselves to eat.
The next day, at the crack of dawn.
The team packed their belongings and officially began the hunt for the Apex Peach Boar.
Since they didn't need Pheromone Bombs and could use the strong scent to determine the Apex Peach Boar's location, Li Fan first made combat deployments.
He summoned Shasha and Puff to his side. As there were no suitably sized riding saddles, and both monsters were not very suitable for riding, Li Fan decided to let them fight freely.
After all, the area with the Apex Peach Boar's scent was a natural barrier for both hunters and monsters.
Coupled with the unstable hunting environment in the dense forest, Li Fan felt that the possibility of external interference was very low.
Dielu began tracking, sniffing here and there, not missing any footprints or claw marks they encountered.
After about an hour of tracking, a small pink ape with a hippo-like face appeared on a tree trunk ahead.
"It's a Peach Boar, meow! This means we're getting close," Dielu exclaimed in surprise.
The Apex Peach Boar was a large individual among Peach Boars, belonging to the pack leader.
Based on their gregarious nature, it could be inferred that the Apex Peach Boar was nearby.
"I have a faster way to find the Apex Peach Boar. You all retreat first."
Although they didn't understand what Li Fan was going to do, the team still followed his instructions and retreated.
"You on the tree, what are you looking at? Come down and fight me!" Li Fan shouted loudly, startling the Peach Boar hanging from the treetop with its arms.
Woo! Woo! Woo!.... The Peach Boar called out with its neck raised, and soon two more Peach Boars gathered, swinging from the tree trunk with their arms.
Li Fan ignored this situation and continued to approach.
These Peach Boars were not unfamiliar with human hunters. They could even sense the strength of hunters through the aura emanating from their armor and weapons.
The aura from the materials of the Great Jaggi and Great Wroggi, whose ecological niches were not high, naturally did not intimidate these three Peach Boars.
The invasion of their territory and Li Fan's arrogant provocation quickly ignited the fighting spirit of the three Peach Boars.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
The three Peach Boars landed, propped themselves up on their forelegs, and began to circle Li Fan.
When they stopped simultaneously, they had already formed a triangular pincer formation.
Indeed, when real creatures participate in group combat, they also have tactical arrangements similar to humans.
What was that saying... The lead wolf feigns sleep to lure the enemy.
"Unfortunately, in the face of absolute power, tactics are meaningless!" Li Fan said, then locked onto the Peach Boar in front of him and charged forward with his Great Sword.
As he raised his Great Sword to strike, the Peach Boar, which was propped up on its forelegs, swung its front leg sideways and quickly straightened it.
Its reaction was indeed very fast!
Li Fan sensed the unusual speed of its reaction.
The small Shield Crab also had instinctive reactions.
However, due to the huge difference in species, this ability did not have a significant advantage when facing human hunters.
The ecological niche of the Peach Boar might not be much higher than that of the small Shield Crab.
But when fighting with humans, the advantage became immediately apparent.
Not only did it possess the monster's instinct to react instantly, but its powerful forelimbs could also use its instincts to dodge attacks by shifting its body at the moment of attack.
Ordinary humans were helpless against the instincts of wild beasts.
It was also tricky for hunters to deal with without predicting based on experience or increasing their weapon's attack range.
Fortunately, Foresight smoothed out this difference, and in terms of instantaneous reaction judgment, it could even be faster than monster instincts.
However, when actually using Foresight against the small Shield Crab, Li Fan found that the timing of activating Foresight was crucial.
This was because Foresight could not be activated continuously, and its actual duration was only a fleeting moment, with self-perception time around 2 seconds.
This was with Level 2 Foresight and Li Fan's highly adaptable physique.
If Foresight was activated too early, before the slash was fully formed, at most it could only adjust the body's posture to make the slash smoother.
If Foresight was activated too late, when the body was retracting its strength, then the user could only perceive the monster's movements more keenly and delay for a short time to make subsequent decisions.
As for other evasive maneuvers, Foresight could not be activated at all.
Therefore, Li Fan concluded that the best time to activate Foresight was at the moment when the sword was raised, the power was generated, and the strike was about to be unleashed!
Buzz!
Everything in his vision became distorted and warped.
If the Peach Boar hadn't slowly closed its eyelids in fear as it shifted sideways.
The world in Li Fan's eyes was like a straight line.
A slight turn of the wrist...
Whoosh! The Jawblade Blax, which was originally about to cleave straight down, suddenly shifted slightly as it was powerfully swung.
Thwack! A bloody gash appeared on the Peach Boar's shoulder.
The injured Peach Boar, ignoring the triangular formation, clutched its shoulder and began to flee.
Li Fan had no choice but to chase after this kind of monster that fled after taking one blow, and gave it a hard kick to its backside without sheathing his sword.
The other two Peach Boars tried to attack from behind, but seeing Li Fan turn around alertly and confront them with his sword.
After letting out a few unwilling roars, they slowly retreated from Li Fan and fled up the trees.
"The battle was decided in one blow, meow!" Dielu exclaimed in shock.
She had clearly expected the battle to be very bloody before.
"With its subordinate so badly injured, the Apex Peach Boar will likely arrive soon. Hurry and prepare," Li Fan said, wrapping a damp yellow scarf around his nose and mouth.
Eudora and Dielu did the same.
The framework of this capture plan was significantly different from the capture of Shasha.
The Apex Peach Boar led its pack and naturally had territorial divisions.
Even if it ran away injured, its activity range would still be confined to the surrounding area.
Furthermore, they didn't have to worry about alerting other hunting parties, and the camp was in good condition.
Li Fan was confident that they could start fighting immediately upon encountering it.
Of course, given the unique nature of Peach Boars, he was still unsure what might happen during the process.
Woo! Woo! Woo!.... The calls of countless Peach Boars echoed in the distance of the jungle.
As the trees swayed and trembled, flocks of birds took to the sky, as if something was approaching.
Eudora's expression became solemn. The pressure from a three-star monster was not that great, but the Apex Peach Boar was definitely one of them.
Whoosh!
At the top of a distant large tree, a giant Peach Boar, hugging the trunk, sniffed the air and looked around.
Upon seeing Li Fan and his group, its red eyes seemed to lock onto its target.
The Apex Peach Boar grabbed the tip of the large tree with its two powerful forearms and pulled back forcefully.
When the tree bent to its limit, the Apex Peach Boar released its grip and was flung out with great force.
Thump! Thump!
It landed on the ground with its bulging belly, bounced twice, and then arrived about 20 meters in front of the team.
Creak! Creak!
It reached down and fumbled around its red crotch, revealing several thick, yellow, block-like objects in its rough-skinned palm.
The Apex Peach Boar leaned closer, sniffed with its two large and small nostrils, and nodded affirmatively.
"Ugh... gag..." Eudora let out a dry heave, her eyes unable to look directly at the Apex Peach Boar.
"One nostril is surprisingly large due to injury, it must be him... This smell is quite pungent." Even though Li Fan had been mentally prepared, the surprising nature of the smell exceeded his expectations.
However, it was precisely because of this that he became even more convinced that his choice was correct.
"You... you all go ahead and charge, meow! I'm not afraid," Dielu raised her deodorizing ball. Although her cat paws were trembling, she showed no intention of backing down.
At this moment, Li Fan took two steps forward. Unexpectedly, he didn't draw his sword, a move that surprised the Apex Peach Boar.
"You are the Apex Peach Boar, right? I know that after this battle, there will be some unforgettable experiences imprinted in my mind. Since it cannot be avoided, I can only choose to face it. But I, Li Fan, am not someone who likes to be at a disadvantage, so..."
As Li Fan spoke, he took a material sphere from his shoulder strap.
"Li Fan, isn't it a bit early to use the deodorizing ball now..." Eudora tentatively asked, not seeing the name of the item.
"Whoosh~ This is not a deodorizing ball." Li Fan said resolutely and threw the material sphere with all his might.
The battle-hardened Apex Peach Boar was also confused. Hunters usually threw deodorizing balls at their feet, so what did throwing it mean?
At this moment, Dielu, remembering the lost poop, suddenly realized something.