Reincarnated as a bamboo rat, it begins its extreme survival struggle.

If Bell hadn't discovered more and more human traces after walking for a day, he probably would have been furious and cursing.

"These new humans I've encountered don't give me that same overwhelming sense of oppression. It seems the terrifying humans I encountered before were just isolated cases."

At first, Bell was very afraid of encountering these newly discovered humans, fearing that if he wasn't careful, he would enter their senses and be killed on the spot.

But as time went on, after observing these humans several times, Beldor's fear gradually diminished.

Knowing that he wouldn't just casually cut it off, he became bolder and even appeared near these humans multiple times, observing them in the bamboo forest.

"Actually, these humans aren't much different from the humans I remember. They all have noses and eyes, some are pretty and some are ugly."

In terms of appearance, these humans are no different from the humans that Bell knew.

However, in terms of strength, the humans in this world are quite different from the Earthlings in Bell's memories.

The people Bell encountered afterward, while not as strong as those he met the first time, still possessed exceptionally powerful physical bodies.

With a casual leap, they could cover a distance of two or three meters, wielding various weapons with impressive skill and flair.

"These humans came to this bamboo forest to hunt magical beasts. Each of them is skilled in material decomposition and can extract various materials from animal carcasses."

Bell, who was hiding near humans to gather information, witnessed many monsters being dismantled by humans.

Watching humans dismember these monsters didn't evoke fear or disgust in Bell; he simply found it very relaxing.

"It feels similar to watching videos of fish slaughtering or horseshoeing. As long as the person doing the work moves smoothly, it's very comfortable to watch."

Bell, who was hiding to watch the dismantling of monster corpses, often thought that if he had a bag of sunflower seeds, he could stay by these humans' side and watch them from beginning to end.

This idea made Bell feel like a lazy college student standing by the roadside watching excavators work, or an old man by the river watching fishermen.

Of course, Bell didn't learn nothing from watching humans dismantle monster corpses.

When humans dismantle the corpses of magical beasts, they categorize the materials into two main types: useful and useless.

Useful materials can be further subdivided according to their value.

After observing the material breakdown for a long time, Bell also discovered that from a human perspective, the parts of a magical beast that are related to magic are always the most valuable parts of the beast.

By killing the Ironboar, humans can harvest its bristles and hide. By capturing the Phantom Bird, humans can remove its shimmering tail feathers…

As for common yet rare animals like bamboo monkeys, humans capture them alive, and then...

Judging from the expressions of enjoyment on the faces of those people who pried open the skulls to eat the raw brains, Bell must have found bamboo monkey brains quite delicious.

(Here's a rather interesting tidbit of gossip: according to what the author, Old Man Jun, witnessed in his early years, live monkeys used to be sold in wildlife markets, with people eating their brains, supposedly a delicacy. The method involved putting the monkey in a small cage, securing its head, drilling a hole in the brain with an electric drill, inserting a straw, and sucking it out. Rumor has it that it tasted like soft tofu.)

Of course, among the various monster corpses dismantled by humans, Bell did not see the Fire-Chewing Hyena.

After all, they are the top predators in the food chain of this bamboo forest, and they are also social creatures.

Ordinary adventure groups don't have the courage to provoke them; it's already extremely difficult to coexist peacefully with these troublesome fire-chewing hyenas.

"Speaking of which, these adventure groups probably only want to make money. They are very cautious when hunting in the bamboo forest, and they will run away as soon as they encounter a powerful magical beast."

As Bell continued onward, he saw several adventure groups that, after clashing with the Fire-Chewing Hyenas, were all fighting and retreating. If they could avoid fighting, they would never fight the Fire-Chewing Hyenas to the bitter end.

However, compared to normal creatures, the fire-chewing hyena is a more intelligent and territorial beast. It understands that when humans hunt other beasts in the bamboo forest, they are competing with them for resources.

Therefore, in the clashes between humans and fire-chewing hyenas, Bell often saw fire-chewing hyenas willing to endure several attacks themselves in order to forcibly kill those humans who were retreating and fleeing.

In the conflict that Bell witnessed, two humans have already died from the fireballs chewed by the fire hyenas.

"Unfortunately, humans still value the death of their companions very much, and they will snatch the body from the fire-chewing hyenas. Otherwise, I could set the human's body on fire and try to extract information from the corpse."

After acquiring the skill [Fire-Loving Wisdom], Bell never stopped developing it.

During his exploration of the outer edge of the bamboo forest, he also hunted small animals such as lizards and toads, partly to test his skills and partly to have a treat.

Bell discovers that after burning the body, he can see some information left in the body's memory within the flames.

However, since he killed small animals with little intelligence, Bell couldn't know whether the information he obtained came from the animals' memories of their previous lives or from their physical instincts.

After all, those fragmented pieces of information about running, jumping, and eating are really not very valuable.

Having watched a human dismantle a monster's corpse, Bell set off on his journey with a cheerful heart, continuing in the direction he had chosen.

But after traveling for about half an hour, Bell's little ears twitched slightly.

He heard an extremely unusual sound, which made Bell stop in his tracks and listen intently to the direction from which the sound came.

"Help me... Everyone who hears my voice, please come and help me..."

Bell heard human voices. Since the number of human traces around him increased, he would hear human conversations from time to time, which was not unusual.

But the reason this voice made Bell stop and focus was clearly not because it was a human voice.

What really made Bell stop was that he understood the meaning of those words.

"I clearly don't understand the human language of this world, so why did I understand this sentence? And..."

Upon hearing the sound, Bell's body involuntarily wanted to run towards the direction from which the sound came.

Chapter 18 Beast Language

"Everyone around here, please come and save me..."

The cry for help still echoed in Bell's ears. He took small steps, concealing himself, and ran towards the direction from which the sound came.

But around Bell, a large number of wild beasts of different sizes and species were rushing toward the source of the sound.

"Upon hearing this voice, I would involuntarily want to obey its words. Judging from the animals running around me, I am not the only one affected; they are more deeply affected than I am."

During this not-so-long stretch of road, all the animals Bell encountered seemed to be in heat, running incredibly fast.

This made Bell very curious about what the place where the distress call came from was like.

As thoughts raced through his mind, Bell quickened his pace, quietly passing the large animals ahead and arriving at the top of a slope.

Looking down from the top of the slope, in the valley below, there was a standoff between humans, and the cries for help came from one of them.

"Edu, kid, if you hand over this shipment obediently, you might be able to save your own life. If you don't listen to reason, you'll have to suffer the consequences—"

The people in the ravine were divided into two rows. On one side was a boy who looked about twelve or thirteen years old and was still growing. He was leading an old donkey and his face looked very unwell.

On the other side were three bald thugs, each wielding a long-handled hammer, who blocked the boy from the front and back.

"You think you can steal my goods? You're not quite there yet. If you leave now, I can pretend this never happened."

Although cornered in a ravine by three ill-intentioned individuals, the young man did not surrender.

The cries for help echoing through the mountains and forests were from him.

"It seems that this little guy can make sounds that only animals can hear, and use them to make ordinary animals do things for him. I just don't know how strong his ability to control animals is."

Standing on the hillside, Bell observed and analyzed the situation below.

At the same time, [Information Insight] also relayed the intelligence about the people below to Bell.

[Ordinary Adventurer]

Type: Human

grade:

Health:

Mental strength:

magic:

Skill: [Combo Attack]

The three humans who formed an encirclement had similar physical attributes and skills, and it was clear that they had received similar skill training.

In terms of physical attributes, their bodies are much stronger than Bell's, at least to the point where they could easily kill Bell.

It is worth mentioning that these humans are only at level four in terms of life level, but their physical abilities are far superior to those of Bell, who is at level five.

"Compared to normal humans, the only thing I can boast about is my 21 points of mental strength, but my mental strength can't be converted into immediate combat power, and I don't think there are any humans with higher mental strength than me."

Comparing his own physical attributes to those of the three strong, middle-aged humans below, Bell sighed, expressing his helplessness.

As a small animal like a bamboo rat, its physical body is far too weak compared to a medium to large, powerful creature like a human.

Don't underestimate the human template, which is a horizontal comparison unit when selecting the initial template. This does not mean that the human template is weak.

in contrast,

This actually indicates that the human template has fairly balanced attributes in all aspects, placing it in the middle range among all templates.

It may not be as good as the best, but it is certainly better than the worst.

Coincidentally, Bell is the "lower" in the phrase "better than the lower."

Although I was very unhappy, I couldn't find any reason to refute it.

"Compared to these three ordinary humans, this guy who keeps calling for help in the mountains is more interesting; he's not even a pure human."

Reaching out to stroke the flame-shaped ahoge (cowlick) on his head, Bell was quite interested in this young man.

The Young Adventurer

Type: Hybrid Demi-human (bloodline deterioration)

grade: