The morning hours vanished in a flash, leaving the group of girls—broken down and half-crippled from the relentless conditioning—sprawled across the ground in pools of sweat, groaning in sheer exhaustion.
"My arms... I’m pretty sure my arms belong to someone else now!"
"The Chief is an actual demon. He has zero mercy for girls. I’m going to drop dead right here."
The scorching morning sun pushed temperatures up fast, and with the oppressive heat climbing, many of the girls stripped off their hide vests to cool down, revealing the breezy swimwear underneath.
In a matter of moments, the camp turned into an accidental display of lively color.
"You ungrateful little brats!"
Wang Ke wiped the sweat off her forehead and stepped up to defend Logan.
"The Chief spent all morning drilling us for our own good! When actual enemies kick our door down, are you going to waste breath whining then?"
The moment she spoke up, the surrounding camp fell dead silent for a fraction of a second before erupting into even louder teasing.
"Ooh-ooh-ooh, listen to that! Our little squad leader is already playing bodyguard for the Chief!"
"Wang Ke, you’re acting sus! You used to ignore every guy in class who tried to chat you up, so why are you suddenly riding so hard for the Chief’s orders?"
"Do you even have to ask? She went out on a real raid with the Chief, so our icy beauty’s heart got hooked!"
"Hey Wang Ke, why don’t you sign up for the next wife-selection batch? You can pop out a chunky little junior Chief!"
Sensing fresh gossip in the air, the girls perked up instantly, trading cheeky jokes back and forth.
"Y-You guys are talking garbage!"
Wang Ke’s usually stoic face flushed bright crimson.
Not known for winning verbal sparring matches, she buckled under the relentless teasing, spun on her heel, and refused to look at them—though the fiery red tips of her ears betrayed her completely.
Logan watched the chaotic scene from a distance, the corners of his mouth twitching upward.
Constant pressure and raw tension weren’t healthy; keeping spirits up amidst this brutal survival grind actually helped steady his peace of mind.
He cleared his throat and raised his voice. "Sounds like you lot still have plenty of energy left. Up on your feet—fifty more wood swings, everyone."
"Aw come on—no way, Chief!"
The high-spirited gossip circle scattered like startled sparrows.
With the troublemakers cleared out, Logan moved on to inspect the morning progress.
First up, the perimeter fencing.
Under Teacher Chen’s direction, a wooden palisade stretching several dozen meters had taken basic shape, enclosing roughly a hundred square meters around the shelters.
The scale was tight and manageable—making defense far easier than guarding an oversized footprint.
"Not bad," Logan nodded, walking over to shove one of the posts. It held firm.
Teacher Chen had been remarkably thorough, not only having the girls shore up the base with piled stones, but also weaving thorny vines tightly across the gaps between logs.
The defensive rating ticked up another notch.
Bai Nian crouched beside a small, burning campfire with a stone pot resting over the flames. Inside, a bizarre, bubbling dark-green liquid boiled away, giving off an unidentifiable, acrid reek.
Spotting Logan’s approach, her face lit up. She jumped to her feet and jogged over, presenting a leaf-wrapped parcel like a kid showing off a prized toy.
"Logan, look! I used the toxic mushrooms you brought back, mixed with gecko tails traded from the market and some spider venom legs, to make this!"
Logan took the bundle. It felt soft and pliable in his palm, like an oversized dumpling filled with fluid.
[Simple Acid Bomb]
[Quality: Rare (Green)]
[Effect: Shatters upon impact, splashing targets within a 1-meter radius with medium corrosion damage, along with mild poison and minor paralysis effects.]
Solid loot!
Logan’s eyes brightened. This gear would pull heavy weight during a siege defense!
"Let’s test the damage output."
"Okay!"
Bai Nian nodded eagerly. She led Logan to the camp edge and pointed at a waist-high boulder.
Stepping back a few paces, she took a steady breath and hurled the parcel with all her strength.
*Splat!*
The leaf wrapping shattered against the stone, splashing thick, dark-green sludge across the surface.
*Hiss—*
A harsh chemical hiss tore through the air as thick white smoke plumed off the rock face, the pungent odor intensifying tenfold.
The solid stone began dissolving like wax under a blowtorch, turning pitch black and bubbling away in under thirty seconds to carve out a bowl-sized crater.
"Whoa..."
A collective intake of breath rippled through the onlookers.
If that payload landed directly on a human body... the results weren’t worth picturing.
"Bai Nian, incredible work," Logan praised sincerely. "Make as many of these as you can!"
The compliment brought a proud flush to Bai Nian’s cheeks as she nodded vigorously.
"Mmh! I still have plenty of materials left. Given enough time, I can churn out dozens—a few dozen a day is totally doable!"
Hearing that projection, over half of Logan’s lingering anxieties evaporated instantly!
He had only brought back five giant toxic mushrooms. Used purely as raw-impact projectiles, they would only take out five targets at most. This chapter was copied from novelping . com without permission.
Now, a single mushroom yielded over ten acid bombs!
Hurl dozens of these at once into a charging formation, and forty enemies wouldn’t just be repelled—they wouldn’t make it back alive.
It hammered home just how powerful these specialized crafting classes were once optimized.
Bai Nian’s Witch class functioned like an RPG alchemist, brewing tactical combat buffs and crowd-control payloads.
Not only could they support the tribe, but surplus stock could eventually hit the trading market as high-value currency.
Viewed that way, the Class President was the undisputed MVP of the camp!
Connecting the dots, Lin Bing’s Mechanic class probably carried an equally devastating utility.
Logan walked over, packed a few smoked wolf meat rations and clean water for Bai Nian, and gave her head an affectionate pat to keep her motivated.
Tang Wei’s production output proved equally stellar, turning their battered iron scrap into fully restored gear.
Her blacksmithing level bumped up to Tier 2, unlocking a blueprint for a real [Blacksmith Shop] that only required three hundred stone units to construct.
Meanwhile, Ye Xing’er’s medical squad used the [Wilderness Bestiary & Flora Guide] to comb the treeline and log several new local healing herbs.
Combined with the hemostatic roots, their updated herbal salve doubled the healing output of the previous batches.
The entire camp hummed with frenzied production, everyone losing track of time past lunch.
Logan ended up circulating the camp himself, distributing strips of smoked wolf meat to the workers.
Reaching the base of a large tree, he spotted Su Qingyao perched up in the lower branches like a vigilant cat, abandoning her usual high-society posture entirely.
She caught his movement almost instantly.
Wrapping her arms around the trunk, she slid down with practiced agility.
Realizing her unladylike vantage point had been caught red-handed, a delicate blush dusted Su Qingyao’s pale cheeks.
"I... I was just checking the perimeter lines. High ground gives better visibility," she cleared her throat defensively.
Her expression darkened immediately afterward.
"Though I haven’t spotted anything yet, I have a bad feeling."
That warning brought Logan’s guard back up.
Su Qingyao’s daily divination count was cleared, but her diviner intuition still ran miles sharper than anyone else’s.
Better safe than sorry.
"Grab some food down here. I’ll head up and check."
Logan handed her the rations, then scaled the trunk with hand-over-hand efficiency.
Su Qingyao didn’t argue, as hunger had indeed caught up to her.
She took the wolf meat and nibbled on it in quiet silence.