Chapter 36

Augustus and Red Socks crouched behind an oak tree at the edge of the woods, observing the movements by the stream.

"Hey... that bear should be dead, right?"

Red Socks, somewhat hesitant, stared at the large earth bear lying on the riverbank, took a deep breath, and said to Augustus.

"With such severe injuries, its intestines are spilling out, it should be dead!"

Augustus was a bit uncertain, but facing this overly timid companion, he felt he should give him some encouragement, so he said,

"Oh!"

Red Socks looked at the stream, and the large bear skin seemed to be stumbling towards him. He wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth.

For a third-class infantryman in the heavy infantry, finding the skin of an earth bear was like a dream come true.

The two crouched behind the tree, chatting in low voices, and even though they saw the blood-soaked riverbank, they didn't dare to approach.

...

He Boqiang stood on a branch of a large tree in the woods, on guard for any demons that might suddenly emerge from the depths of the forest.

Although he didn't know why demons appeared here, the team members needed to clean up the area as quickly as possible before other demons discovered them.

Touching the bodies of these demons indeed carried great risks, but such a large windfall couldn't be left by the stream. So, after consulting with all the team members, Suldak decided to go and collect the bodies.

After Augustus initially confirmed that everything was normal in the woods, the second squad quickly ran to the forest by the river.

He Boqiang gave Suldak a thumbs-up, indicating that everything was normal in the depths of the forest, and Suldak finally relaxed.

The soldiers dragged the six demon bodies near the riverbank to a clearing in the forest. Suldak took out a small skinning knife and carefully cut the skin with magical patterns from the long-horned demon, which he was most skilled at.

Unfortunately, the other five demons had no skin, only a thin layer of fascia covering their muscles, with red muscle fibers clearly visible, which looked quite eerie.

Unable to collect the black-patterned magic skin from the demons, Suldak was slightly disappointed.

However, this wasn't all bad. At least the time spent collecting the bodies was greatly reduced. They just needed to cut the black-patterned magic skin from the long-horned demon, clean up the battlefield, and quickly leave. Who knew when other demons might appear.

The roar of the earth bear might also attract other beasts living nearby.

Among the six demons, three of their heads were crushed by the earth bear, leaving only some scattered bones and remains on the ground. The other three heads were relatively intact.

The true value of the demon heads lay in the blackened magic core inside.

This magic core could produce a precious black magic crystal, different from the magic crystals produced by beasts. According to the military merit standards of the Green Empire, a black magic crystal was worth ten gold coins and could be exchanged for a large amount of military merit in the barracks.

Military merit meant a significant fortune for ordinary civilian soldiers, and for nobles, accumulating enough military merit meant a chance for a promotion.

The second squad found two blackened magic cores on the riverbank, and the three demon heads were placed in a linen bag, which Suldak had Red Socks carry.

Red Socks frowned and unceremoniously threw the bloody bag to a new recruit, telling him to carry it carefully and not to lose it.

The new recruit could only meekly take the bag from Red Socks.

After extracting the last bit of value from the demon bodies, Suldak stood up and said to everyone,

"These demons are much weaker than the demon warriors in the demon army."

Augustus took the opportunity to step forward, kicked the body of a skinless demon, and said,

"Why don't they have skin?"

The bearded Kager said indifferently,

"Who knows!"

Augustus, who liked adventure, licked his lips, stared at the earth bear lying on the riverbank, and asked Suldak,

"Should we go over and skin the earth bear?"

Suldak didn't respond. He looked at He Boqiang and asked,

"Do you think it's really dead?"

Before He Boqiang could make a 'not dead' gesture, Augustus quickly said,

"Look... it's been lying there motionless for a while, it must be dead! Even if it's not, it's probably just barely alive. We can go over and kill it with one sword."

Red Socks, who was about to go over, stopped and asked Augustus,

"Is it really dead?"

Augustus chuckled and said,

"What's the point of worrying about this now? We can just go and see! Are we going to leave this bear skin here for someone else to pick up?"

He rubbed his hands and prepared to go over to check the earth bear. Just as he was about to step forward, He Boqiang pulled him back.

He Boqiang then made a 'withdraw' gesture to everyone. Under their watchful eyes, he walked straight to the earth bear lying on the riverbank next to two cubs.

Although he didn't know if the earth bear was still breathing, he could sense a faint earth magic aura around it.

The earth bear was not completely dead.

He walked step by step to the massive body of the earth bear.

Even so, the earth bear still lay motionless, its wounds no longer bleeding but still severe.

There was a nearly two-foot-long wound on the earth bear's abdomen, with a section of fatty intestines protruding, and tearing wounds on its chest and back.

He Boqiang bravely approached the earth bear's chest and clearly felt a faint heartbeat.

He made a 'still alive' gesture to Suldak, who was hiding in the woods. Seeing He Boqiang's gesture, Suldak immediately waved him to quickly withdraw.

He Boqiang pretended not to see Suldak's gesture. Although he felt the earth bear's aura was extremely weak, it seemed to have a very strong life force.

The earth bear's tightly closed eyes trembled slightly, as if it was about to wake from a deep coma.

He Boqiang, driven by some inexplicable force, reached out and placed his hand on the earth bear's head, and a warm current slowly flowed from his arm into the earth bear's body.

He felt the two stars on his shoulder become extremely hot and looked at his hand in surprise, not quite understanding what was happening to him.

He Boqiang helped the earth bear push its intestines back into its abdomen, then ran back to Suldak, took some needles and thread from Red Socks, and ran back to the earth bear. In the astonished gaze of the second squad, he sewed up the earth bear's belly and quietly returned.

He Boqiang didn't know that after he turned around, the earth bear slightly opened its eyes and then slowly closed them again.