The Beastmen were completely annihilated. Lin Rui gave a grand wave of his hand, and thirteen Little Fishmen lined up in a formation, surging into the Beastmen's camp, searching everywhere.
[Ding, the Explorer's summoned creature found 10 pieces of unidentified jerky]
[Ding, the Explorer's summoned creature found 17 pieces of wood]
[Ding, the Explorer's summoned creature found 6 sharp beast horns]
[Ding, the Explorer's summoned creature found 13 inferior-grade weapons (gray) Undead Short Bows and 200 consumable Bone Arrows]
Watching the system prompts scrolling by, Lin Rui felt calm and unaffected. He had come, he had arrived. In such a terrifying world, how could the Undead Catastrophe be absent?
Various worthless materials from nooks and crannies were collected by the Little Fishmen, and finally, the system prompt showed the content Lin Rui had been waiting to see.
[Ding, the Explorer's summoned creature found 5 tied-up civilians]
[Ding, the Explorer's summoned creature found 8 tied-up beasts]
[Ding, the Explorer's summoned creature found 25 scattered skeleton frames]
A Little Fishman that discovered this bounty gave out a joyous burst of noise, dancing around in the pile of skeletons, only to accidentally fall into the nearby boiling pot.
Six or seven other Little Fishmen were jumping around beside the pot of rising white steam, ecstatic, their intelligence questionable. They thought their companion had found a new swimming spot, diving with bones, rotten meat, and entrails. Look how high and excited they were calling out!
By the time Lin Rui got closer, the pot had turned into a genuine pot of simmering Little Fishman soup, with the Little Fishman's head steamed to mush. The bones of the skeleton were floating on the surface, without a trace of meat left. It was evident that even in death, the undead had no dignity, ending up in a pot for a swim and eventually becoming the Beastmen's food.
In this terrifying world, even the undead can't have peace.
Lin Rui then looked at the various tied-up Beastmen spoils. The faces of the five civilians were filled with the joy of survival after disaster.
The eight beasts included wolves, snakes, and battle pigs, all of which were strong-bodied wild monsters. The battle pig was already level ten, about to advance.
The 25 skeleton frames were scattered but not dead; the Soul Fire within the skulls was still burning.
This led Lin Rui to speculate, could it be that when the Beastmen eat the undead, they prefer them fresh? Does the undead become putrid when the Soul Fire is extinguished?
Unable to figure it out, Lin Rui waved his hand and had the knights slay all the wild monsters.
Perhaps the Goddess of Fortune disapproved of Lin Rui's despicable slaughter, as the drop rate for the 33 wild monsters was pitiful.
"Only" 176 Realm Coins, 286 units of meat, 5 pieces of ordinary-level equipment, 12 pieces of inferior-grade equipment, and some miscellaneous materials dropped. Not a single piece of green equipment.
It seems his lovely little wife was getting increasingly outrageous, actually skimping on her man's pocket money!
Lance cut the ropes binding the five human civilians, and they immediately knelt before Lin Rui, saying, "Honorable Lord, your iron-blooded slaughter of the Beastman Warband saved our lives. We request to become your loyal subjects, to offer our meager strength to you and your domain."
[Ding, five wandering civilians admire your strength and request to join your domain. Do you accept? Agreeing to their request will make the five civilians your subjects. Refusing them will turn the five civilians into wild wanderers.]
What to do?
Originally, Lin Rui was ready to accept them. But after reading the introduction, he inexplicably wanted to decline, to see if he could coerce them into becoming wild monsters. If that were possible, he could look for wild wanderers later to fleece them.
But in the end, Lin Rui didn't take the risk and chose to accept. At worst, he would try it directly next time he saw wild wanderers. If coercion was impossible, he would have wasted these five civilians. Seeing their impoverished state, with pockets cleaner than their faces, even if they killed monsters and treasures dropped, nothing of value would come out.
Among the five civilians, three had ordinary talent, being featureless civilians.
But there was a talented father-son duo.
[Hunter: Kurt]
[Age: 48]
[Talent: Good]
[Loyalty: 60]
[Level: 7]
[Physique: 14]
[Intelligence: 6]
[Charm: 1]
[Will: 2]
[Soul: 3]
[Commander: 0]
[Luck: 0]
[Life Value: 140]
[Spiritual Energy: 0]
[Trait: None]
[Skill: Wilderness Solo Travel lv10: Years of wilderness survival experience enable them to notice every subtle resource, +30% gathering and hunting efficiency (No one is more suited to managing a Hunter's Lodge in a domain than him)]
In fact, there is someone more suitable to manage the Hunter's Lodge, his son, Kaobo.
This little guy is 16 years old but has excellent talent. His physique is already at 13 points. In another year or two, after becoming an adult, he will immediately be a better hunter than his father, with a physique possibly approaching 20.
Although the world's forest is treacherous, it is also very resource-rich. Hunters also need to enter and hunt.
A qualified Lord regularly conducts forest expeditions and doesn't encounter Beastmen warbands just a few miles into the forest.
So hunters usually hunt wild animals on the forest's edge and gather mushrooms and berries.
That's right, gathering berries!
This is the mainstay of wilderness survival, the main source of food for the domain's hunters.
Killing beasts? That's just extra. Like buying scratch cards at a lottery shop. Losing is the norm; if you win... if you win, you continue paying off the mortgage.
Of course, hunters also do not wish to hit the jackpot. Magical beasts have high value indeed, but truly encountering such a high-value wild monster means they also need to survive to kill it. Hitting the jackpot means they have an eighty percent chance of becoming the magical beast's poop.