"Brother James, your shelter is quite impressive! You even have a basement."
The cheerful voice came even before the person was seen.
Luke, a tall man with short stubble, was wrapped in thick clothes and a grey-black beast fur coat, looking quite wild.
"Brother Luke, welcome!"
James greeted with a smile.
"No need for thanks, and thank you for the breakfast. Katrina hasn't had a hot meal in a long time. She was so happy eating noodles today!" Luke said joyfully, finding a chair to sit on.
"If she likes it, take some flour back with you when you leave," James said with a smile.
"Hahaha, too kind, I don't know how to make these things..."
The two of them were very happy to see each other and exchanged pleasantries before getting down to business.
"Brother, with today's weather, is it still possible to go hunting?"
James looked at the snow outside and asked with some concern.
Luke frowned, "If the snow doesn't get heavier, we can still go out. The danger is if it keeps snowing heavily and blocks the road back to the shelter."
James nodded, thinking for a moment, "Since the system said the cold wave would arrive in seven days, today we should still be able to travel. We'll see the specific situation when the day fully begins."
"Alright."
There was less than an hour until daylight.
During this time, James prepared the tools needed for the journey and consulted Luke on the use of a machete and some exercise-related issues.
With Luke's professional guidance, James corrected some minor flaws in his exercise routine and became more proficient with the machete.
40 minutes later.
The snow outside the window stopped, and the sun even appeared, brightening the world with its yellow-white light reflecting off the snow.
"It seems we were right, we can still go out today!" James said with a beaming smile.
The chat channel was also excited at this moment.
"Great, I thought we couldn't go out today!"
"Hurry up, considering yesterday's situation, this cold wave is really frightening!"
"I slipped and fell outside, the ground is so slippery."
"Are you all going out to work? It's so cold, it's better to stay home and sleep. Why go out?"
"Bro, just stay at home, don't starve in the shelter."
"Can someone lend me a coat? It's too cold to go out. If I find food, I'll share it with you, so who can lend me a coat?"
"What are you thinking? There's no guarantee, why would anyone lend it to you?"
The last day of exploration was cherished by everyone, braving the cold to go out.
After a week of hardships, those who survived were intelligent and had mostly given up lazy habits, otherwise, they wouldn't have made it this far.
[Today's Weather]
Sunny but cold. Be sure to stay warm when going out.
Daylight duration: 4 hours
Weather: Clear
Temperature: -8 to 0°C
Climate trend: The last day before the cold wave arrives!
Clear! 4 hours!
"Brother, let's set off quickly, we don't have much time today."
After checking the weather, James turned to Luke.
"Okay," Luke replied, taking out a beast exploration scroll and starting to search for information about beasts.
The scroll displayed a radar-like map, illuminating a 20-mile radius around the shelter.
Numerous red dots appeared on the scroll, along with the nearby terrain.
This was James's first time seeing it, as well as the situation within 20 miles of the shelter. He was immediately attracted by the displayed information.
He found that the forest where he was located was much larger than he had imagined; 20 miles was not enough to show its full extent, and his shelter was just on the outskirts of the forest.
This was a relief for James; such a vast forest meant abundant resources and great exploration value, with no need to worry about resource depletion later.
However, in such a large forest, the number of powerful beasts was also not small, increasing the danger significantly.
Like now, the scroll showed thousands of densely packed red dots, enough to make anyone apprehensive.
"Brother Luke, are there so many beasts around my shelter?" James gasped in disbelief.
Luke looked at the scroll and replied, "Not as many as you think. The beast search scroll doesn't distinguish between strong and weak, showing all signs of life.
So it shows not only large beasts like wolves and tigers but also small animals like ants, mosquitoes, rabbits, and mice, making it seem like there are many.
But don't worry, we can actually determine the types of beasts by the distribution of red dots."
As he spoke, Luke pointed to a cluster of red dots, "For example, this cluster is gathered on dry yellow soil, and the dots are overlapping a lot, likely ants.
And this dot, near a rocky mountain, and with no other animals around, is likely a large beast living in a cave.
And these, in the forest, densely clustered in the middle and dispersing around, are likely a bee swarm.
If we follow these patterns, we can find large beasts."
James squinted his eyes, roughly understanding Luke's point.
Although this method had some drawbacks, the risk was still within a manageable range.
"Okay, let's go," Luke said after explaining, "Let's head to a solitary, non-moving red dot."
James nodded in agreement, but then remembered something and said, "Wait, brother, let me bring a helper."
"A helper?"
Luke paused, looking back in confusion, and then saw a figure he greatly disliked.
A black bee with a large, wiggling behind!
It was the Black Tiger Bee Queen!
"James, this is…" Luke looked at the large bee, recalling his own miserable experience, and was instantly speechless.
James caught the Black Tiger Bee Queen and said, "This is the bee queen you gave me last time. I tamed it with a special scroll..."
At that moment, James saw Luke's hateful gaze on the Black Tiger Bee Queen and recalled their past unpleasantness, saying awkwardly, "Brother, do you want to beat it up again? It won't fight back now."
Luke waved his hand helplessly, "Never mind, since you've tamed it, it's one of us now.
This little guy is quite powerful. Without healing potions, my body might not have been able to withstand its toxin."
James heard Luke mention the strength of the Black Tiger Bee Queen for the first time and realized its power.
"With the help of this bee queen, our action should be smoother," Luke said, then asked, "How's the recovery of its bee swarm? Can it form a significant group?"
James shook his head, "Not many, only over 100. But I supplemented it with other types of bees, so the number is considerable."
Currently, the Black Tiger Bee Swarm had over 150, and the Tree Bee Swarm about 800. Under normal circumstances, a beehive should have over 5,000 bees.
So, both bee swarms were in a severely weakened state.