Chapter 215: Offensive Strategy

Row Ning and his group observed from behind the hill all afternoon.

Even as the sun sank below the horizon and dusk settled in, not a single suspicious creature emerged from the cave.

To be honest, he had grown drowsy from waiting.

Fortunately, just as the sun vanished completely and night descended, a glow flickered within the cave, followed by shifting shadows.

“There!” Row Ning whispered a warning.

Every heart tightened—after half a day of waiting, the enemy had finally appeared.

Soon, a small patrol emerged from the cave.

The last time Ridal had seen them, there were only three; now, their number had tripled—to twelve.

Presumably, Ridal’s earlier intrusion had raised their alertness, prompting them to increase their patrols.

Under the moonlight, the group divided into four teams of three, each heading toward one of the four cardinal directions to begin their patrol.

One team moved directly toward Row Ning’s position.

According to Ridal’s intelligence, these creatures possessed an exceptionally keen sense of smell; that night, despite having hidden in advance, they had been exposed by their scent.

Row Ning sensed the wind blowing from the southwest—carrying their scent away from the valley below.

Moreover, the valley lay two or three hundred meters beneath them; even if their noses were as sharp as hounds’, the likelihood of detecting their odor was exceedingly low.

Row Ning’s concern seemed unnecessary.

The patrol showed no intention of ascending the hill—they merely circled the valley floor, back and forth.

If the flat expanse of the valley were imagined as a rectangle, these four teams moved like clockwork along its four sides.

They appeared to be guarding a boundary, preventing any outsider or object from entering the valley.

“Is their perimeter this small?”

Ridal and Macken exchanged puzzled glances.

If they were responsible for defense here, they would have established watchposts on the hillside and stationed sentries.

Why would twelve men be needed to guard this barren, flat valley? Three or four would suffice.

Time passed slowly—half an hour, an hour…

Row Ning watched them move, like programmed NPCs in a game, endlessly repeating the same path.

The group’s tension gradually gave way to confusion, then to boredom.

“My lord, what shall we do?” Ridal whispered.

They had prepared contingency plans for conflict, but never anticipated this eerie, coexistent silence.

“Observe further. Learn their habits. Then see if we can isolate and extract one of them quietly.”

This observation lasted three days.

Through this period of intelligence gathering, Row Ning and his companions confirmed two things.

First: the people inside the cave never emerged during daylight.

Each morning, as the sun rose, the patrol returned to the cave.

Each evening, as night fell, they emerged again.

They repeated the same routine daily—like machines programmed without fatigue or boredom.

Row Ning couldn’t fathom it: did they lack food and water?

Was there an abundance of both inside the cave?

Second: combining Ridal’s combat observations from that night with their attire over the past two days, they roughly assessed the patrol’s strength.

This twelve-man unit was likely led by a Bronze-rank knight, supported by two Senior Knights, with the rest presumably Junior and Intermediate Knights—their overall power was not formidable.

Another night arrived.

After observing for a while, Row Ning and his group silently descended the hill and returned to their temporary camp a mile away.

“There’s no need to observe any longer.”

These cave-dwellers defied logic; further watching yielded no new intelligence, only wasted time.

At these words from their lord, the group stirred with sudden alertness—they were finally preparing to act!

“Tomorrow morning, gather as much dry firewood as you can. At noon, rest as usual to recover strength and spirit. In the afternoon, we take the wood to the cave entrance and set it ablaze.”

“Are you planning to smoke them out with fire?”

“A brilliant idea!”

“If they’re trapped inside a sealed cave, smoke will force them out!”

Some were puzzled; others had already grasped Row Ning’s intent.

“I’ve been pondering one question these past two days: why don’t they leave the cave during the day?”

Row Ning asked himself, then answered.

“After much thought, I’ve arrived at one possibility—they dislike daylight. Or perhaps… they fear the sun.”

Beings that shun sunlight are rarely recorded in this world, but before his transmigration, Row Ning had read of many such creatures in books.

Vampires in countless films and tales, for instance—terrified of sunlight, some disintegrating into ash at its touch.

On Earth, such things were fiction. But in a world where supernatural abilities existed, could such creatures not be real?

“If they won’t come out, we’ll force them out.”

They could detect scent—meaning they breathed.

When Row Ning filled the sealed cave with smoke, it would be like fumigating a field mouse burrow—their occupants, unable to bear it, would inevitably try to escape.

And once they emerged into the sunlight, Row Ning would hold the advantage.

Even if they weren’t afraid of sunlight, he still needed to lure them out of the cave to confront them.

After all, this was their territory—there might be traps, mechanisms, hidden dangers.

Knowing these risks, to storm in blindly without accounting for their terrain would be like walking into a net, like sheep entering a wolf’s den.

He had no intention of learning from Viggins on the battlefield.

Then, Row Ning conferred with his men on tomorrow’s assault plan, until midnight, when each retreated to their own cave to sleep, leaving Tom and others on rotating watch.

As the first hour of dawn passed, familiar text appeared:

“April has ended. Today is May 1st.”

Time flew. In the blink of an eye, eight days had passed since he left Black Soil Village—it was time to sound the charge.

He longed to see what strange thing lay hidden within that cave.

Row Ning allocated all his attribute points to himself, then slowly closed his eyes and rested.

No one spoke through the night.

At dawn the next day, everyone began gathering dry firewood in the forest.

One bundle. Two bundles. Three bundles…

Luo Ning had gathered an enormous pile inside his space ring.

The knights were strong—each could carry several bundles on their backs. Since those creatures never showed themselves by day, they simply hauled all the collected firewood straight to the flat ground at the valley’s mouth.

Time passed swiftly; before they knew it, afternoon had arrived.

Luo Ning rose to his feet, gazing at the silent mouth of the cave. “The time to attack has come!” (End of Chapter)