Chapter 96

"Going out?"

Wowen's heel was next to Cloudy, looking like she wanted to stop Cloudy from going out but didn't have the courage to do so because Cloudy was now a highly respected mother in the settlement. She usually had to obey Cloudy's orders: "Mistress, before, I hope you stay inside the settlement."

Cloudy shrugged the bag on her shoulder, feeling a bit annoyed by Wowen's urgency. She deliberately got up early to prepare to go out, only to meet Wowen and other mothers transporting materials halfway: "I'm just near the settlement, won't go far, will be back in the afternoon. No problem."

The hunters left the settlement two days ago, and she figured it was about time to go out and check the traps Titus left along the way. For this, she specially prepared a sturdy animal skin drawstring bag, with two layers and a stronger rope closure. If a trap caught a suitable wild animal, she would use this bag to kidnap it back.

In addition to being more secure, she also placed a lot of calming hay in the drawstring bag. Cloudy had previously experimented with Titus and herself, placing fragments of this yellow-brown hay with a scent similar to mint under the pillow. Titus wouldn't move around too much at night, and the number of dreams she had and the feeling of panic upon waking up decreased.

She hoped this scented hay would have the same effect on panicked wild animals. Besides the bag for transporting animals, she also brought a brand new weapon... this was a treasure she obtained from crazy late nights and Titus constantly rubbing vines and animal tendons - a bow and arrows.

The bow was made from the most flexible and sturdy wood found outside the settlement's material factory. Cloudy applied several layers of melted fat to the stripped wood core, dried it, and wrapped non-slip tree leaves around the middle as a grip. Bone blades were used to carve string grooves at both ends.

The bow seemed perfect to Cloudy, but the bowstring was a bit inferior. She had Titus tear apart various vines at hand, selecting the most flexible ones and mixing them with the animal tendons obtained from previous hunts, barely forming an elastic rope. Although the bowstring was of poor quality, when strung on the bow and paired with wooden arrows, it had a range of about 50 meters, which was sufficient for Cloudy. Moreover, the wooden arrows shot could pierce into the soil, burying about 5 centimeters.

It was more than enough to kill some small birds or insects. Besides checking the traps, this time going out was also to test her new weapon. She prepared a total of 10 wooden arrows and 5 bone spikes for the bow and arrows.

Animal skin bag, bow and arrows, wooden spears, two days' worth of rations just in case, and a pre-prepared tree leaf cloak. Cloudy checked the equipment on her body. Looking at it this way, it's no wonder Wowen was worried. She didn't seem like she would be back in the afternoon but rather like she was going to leave the settlement forever!

Wowen followed her all the way to the settlement gate, and Cloudy couldn't help but drive her away forcibly.
Escape. Next, following the map Titus gave her, she headed north... because the map Titus carved on the stone slab was too heavy, she simplified it and drew it on a leaf.

At this moment, the entire rainforest was still shrouded in morning mist. The outer forest, not dense enough, was illuminated by strands of light. Deeper in the forest, it was dim, with occasional streaks of white light piercing through the canopy. The soil and undergrowth felt soft, moist, and spongy, as if just pulled out of water.

Cloudy took a deep breath of the earthy and grassy-scented air, the rich air clearing her mind significantly.

Alright, Titus must be working hard at this moment, and she was about to start too! She lifted one end of the leaf cloak over her head, took the wooden spear, and strode briskly towards the northern rainforest.

At this moment, Cloudy was still unaware that as the temperature suddenly increased... the first kind of activity in the rainforest would intensify, and there would be a large number of breeding things...

"..."

About six hundred steps into the auxiliary hunting activity, Cloudy's face turned pale and she froze, unable to move. It was indescribable in words, but if she had to say... it was like showing a 6-year-old child a movie with excessive blood, incomprehensible but frightening.

The first thing that appeared before Cloudy's eyes was a visibly diseased common rainforest tree, with its top withered and most leaves stripped off. However, what mattered was the insects clinging to the trunk like scales. Soft-bodied insects with hard head casings and wings longer than their bodies. The insect colony didn't sparsely cover a part of the tree, but tightly wrapped the entire trunk like skin, with the insects wriggling and breathing, making the trunk seem to move under the sunlight.

At the base of the trunk lay several decaying bodies of small animals, their bodies merging with the insect colony, occasionally twitching. Cloudy guessed the insects were still gnawing on the carcasses. Upon closer inspection, the insect colony, like skin, occasionally had unnatural bulges, possibly wrapping more animal bodies underneath.

She wished she could burn it all down.

The insects averaged half the size of a forearm, but their sheer number was overwhelming; if they all swarmed her, she probably wouldn't be able to escape. She could only quietly move away from here... But things got worse. After the initial shock, Cloudy realized that there were four more of these "insect trees" nearby; she seemed to have unknowingly stepped into the insects' lair.

Titus and the others could safely pass through because of their speed; as long as they ran past quickly, the insects wouldn't even have time to react. But she didn't have that kind of speed! And who knows, if Titus and the others were in a good mood, they might just strip all the insects off and eat them as rations. So, to Titus, these insects posed no threat; there was no need to warn her...

Cloudy tried hard to calm herself down. How long had it been? Just a group... a large group of insects, she must get used to their presence in this environment. Besides, even
The dinosaurs have encountered a large group of insects, so what's the big deal?

Along the way, how many dangers has she overcome? Having battled two large insects, a mere swarm of bugs is nothing but...

With grand ideas in mind, she is actually stepping back continuously. Cloudy is swiftly retreating, planning to bypass this route; although the map shows it this way, perhaps cutting through a bit to the east and rejoining the mapped route isn't a bad idea! It might be safer!

With this in mind, Cloudy quickens her pace, determined to fiercely bite into the forehead of that foolish wildling when Titus returns from his hunt. And her newly made bow and arrows are completely useless in such a situation; are insects really that unbeatable in any era...!

Cloudy snarls, tightly wrapping herself in a cloak of leaves, and flees towards the eastern woods.