There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

But as the sun rises and the mist dissipates, the river mud gradually dries and hardens into a solid shell, retaining the shape it had the night before.

Therefore, the damp river mud perfectly and vividly reproduced every detail of the footprint.

I saw that the footprint was very deep, so much so that there was a full 30 centimeters between the part that was stuck in the mud and the edge.

I stepped into a damp spot on the riverbank and could only sink about five centimeters.

The jay guessed that a giant beast weighing more than six times its own weight, nearly 360 kilograms, was drinking water by the river last night!

But I'm absolutely certain that this isn't the rhinoceros-like behemoth she described!

The reason I'm so sure isn't because the townspeople all told me with absolute certainty that there are no wild animals larger than goats on this mountain.

It was not because of that one terrified glance I gave him!

I could clearly see that the footprint on the ground was separated into three parts, each with obvious knuckle marks, and had a sharp hooked toe digging into the ground.

Therefore, it is definitely the mark of an animal and not something else. But between the three separated joints, there is clearly a membrane with skin texture!

Some aquatic animals, or animals with aquatic habits, have a membrane between their toes that they use for paddling; this membrane is called webbed feet. For example, amphibians such as frogs and toads, reptiles such as turtles and soft-shelled turtles, birds such as geese, ducks, and gulls, and mammals such as beavers, otters, sea otters, and platypuses all have webbed feet of varying degrees of development.

So what I saw was clearly webbed feet, a feature unique to aquatic animals!

Could there be a crocodile weighing over 300 kilograms in this lake? Aren't those crocodiles supposed to live in the tropics?

Even more strangely, I found something wrong with this webbed footprint...

"Jay, do you think there's anything wrong with this footprint?"

I stood there calmly and asked the outdoor expert next to me.

The jay, dressed in animal skin, lay on the ground, carefully examining the footprint.

She lives in a semi-arid region and may not be able to guess what webbed structures look like due to her unfamiliarity with the ocean and amphibians, but as a tribeswoman in the wilderness, her knowledge of wild animals must be far greater than mine.

After examining the footprints, the jay also looked around with a strange expression, muttering, "Strange...it shouldn't be like this..."

I quickly pressed, "Did you also notice anything amiss?"

The jay explained to me earnestly: "Although our Brownpool tribe doesn't hunt much, I have tracked wild animals' tracks in the wild. Running animals leave deep footprints at the beginning and shallow at the end, while wary animals leave shallow footprints at the beginning and deep at the end. Bird tracks are delicate, rodent tracks are light, and human tracks are distributed in linear patterns..."

“This is a footprint we often see, but this one seems too isolated. How could it appear all alone by the lake without any similar footprints nearby…”

"It does resemble a lame dire wolf I've seen before. Could it be a wild beast with three legs...? Wouldn't that mean it's hopping on one leg? What am I thinking...?"

The jay's words reminded me of something that had been bothering me: this footprint stood alone!

The footprints were distributed along the shore, with a small area in front of them in the water, and nearly three meters behind them on the soft soil of the lake shore. There was no reason not to leave other footprints.

Could this amphibian, weighing over 300 kilograms, leap more than three meters like a tiger, using only one leg for support?

I was pondering by the lake, my eyes fixed on the surface rippling in the breeze. Suddenly, the ripples on the lake subsided, revealing a momentarily calm and still surface.

Through the momentarily calm surface of the lake, I discovered an equally enormous footprint on the bottom of the clear water, a series of imprints...

That string of huge footprints, like a broken pearl necklace, lay quietly at the bottom of this idyllic mountain lake.

"Jay, no need to look anymore, let's go!"

I acted immediately and called out to the jay, telling her to leave right away.

At that moment, the jay still felt a tingling sensation in its beak and was rinsing its mouth with water by the lake. When I shouted, it almost lost its footing and fell into the water. It quickly regained its balance and asked me reproachfully, "Why were you shouting so loudly? You almost fell in!"

I stared at the lake, which had been so enchanting just moments before, my face grim, my heart filled with nothing but boundless fear.

"There's definitely something wrong with this mountain. I'll definitely find out what happened here next time... Gotz must have known something last time..."

The trail of footprints I just saw has revealed the clues I had previously overlooked, completing the final piece of this puzzle.

I'm beginning to agree with the idea in the Sebala story that ignorance is God's last act of kindness towards humanity. The jay's ignorance allowed her to complete her climb to her heart's content, while such leisurely sentimentality had long since vanished from my mind.

At that moment, a bizarre image filled my mind.

...Yesterday, on that dark and windy night, ripples spread across the lake, and the stars in the sky were like countless treasures scattered on the surface of the lake, creating shimmering waves.

Just then, a gust of wind slid down from Mount Mades and crashed into the forest, stirring up an endless rustling of pines.

A dark shadow moved slowly and sluggishly, dripping slime from its body. Its breath emitted a foul stench, like the sulfurous vomit of a blazing demon from hell, spreading wantonly through the air.

Its movements were sluggish and stiff, its face contorted and dull, like a malfunctioning machine that was numbly repeating a pre-programmed sequence, moving forward step by step.

That is definitely not an animal, because animals would not exhibit such an ugly behavior that violates the principles of natural harmony, nor would they walk upright on two legs like humans!

The footprints were not like those of a wild animal, with its front and hind feet moving in alternating steps by swaying its spine... but rather like those of a human, maintaining a stable center of gravity, taking steps in sequence, and having a clear axis of movement!

And in the direction where the footprints disappeared, my slightly dilated pupils seemed to see the nightmarish scene from last night.

...The ugly behemoth stubbornly continued its steps, revealing a contemptuous smile to the ancient moonlight, as if mocking all that is perfect and pure in the world.

The water gradually submerged its twisted knees, leaving a layer of water stains on its bulging muscles. The giant beast let out a long, joyful roar, playing a clumsy melody that sounded like a hastily composed and poorly performed piece of music.

The giant beast had forgotten the existence of anything in the world.

In its heart lies only that filthy, swampy, and sunless lair hidden deep at the bottom of the lake, a place likely filled with bones, severed limbs, and haunted by pitiful and wronged souls.

Its eternal and warm home.

Chapter 87 The Power of the Yak

Although Jay doesn't understand why I stopped the climb, she's not your average brat.

Her twelve years of survival in the wilderness taught her one thing: to listen to other people's opinions.

Blindly following others' experiences is certainly not advisable, but arbitrarily going against others' survival experience and being careless at crucial moments is definitely a path to death.

Throughout human evolution, victory has never been determined by physical strength. When humans were still in the ape stage, hunting was nonexistent; instead, they were prey for various jungle cats. That fear of the dark forest may have been ingrained in the human psyche from that time onward.

The ancient apes that arrived on the plains could only rely on gathering wild fruits and catching small insects and mammals for food, and had to avoid all large prey. In hand-to-hand combat, the human's fragile waist and abdomen, which contain all the body's vital organs, simply could not withstand serious injury.

Therefore, early human hunting methods relied on endurance surpassing that of all mammals to surround, drive away, and intimidate animals such as antelopes and bison, exhausting them before they could be eaten.

The tribe to which the jay lived lacked advanced weapons, such as wooden guns, clubs, and bows and arrows, which prevented them from supporting large-scale hunting activities. As a result, they simply abandoned this practice and focused on nomadic life.

Therefore, when encountering dangers such as wild animals, her subconscious behavior is to protect herself first, retreating until she has confirmed the details of the danger before she begins to use her thirst for knowledge to study it slowly.

For example, at this point, having reached the bottom of the mountain, the jay, which had been behaving like a well-behaved child the whole way, suddenly transformed into a walking encyclopedia of questions, frantically asking about the animal.

"Marcus, do you really not know what kind of animal that is?"

“I have absolutely no idea. Given the size of that thing, I don’t think a high-altitude lake could provide it with enough food. I’ve also never heard anyone in town mention that there’s such a large creature in there.”

"With so many plants on the mountain, do you think the animal might be a herbivore?"

“Amphibians living in cold pools not only need to swim to find food, but also need to maintain their body temperature over a long period of time. A vegetarian diet is simply not enough to maintain its size. I have a feeling that this creature is a fierce predator.”

"Wouldn't that be too dangerous? Why don't you come back to the tribe with me? You can be a fire-keeper just like me!"

"Haha, are you trying to poach my people? Don't worry, I'm able to establish myself here because I have enough confidence. Otherwise, do you think I would be so bold as to settle down in town?"

The jay huffed and puffed, "Hmph, I was just trying to be helpful, the tribe doesn't need you."

Looking at the petite tribal girl beside me, I felt that she was truly kind-hearted and always thinking of me. This was not only because I could offer help to her Brown Pool tribe, but also because I was someone who shared similar aspirations with them, and we could be considered like-minded.

To avoid worrying her, I still plan to demonstrate my strength and let her know that I, as an ally, am not someone to be trifled with.

"Lend me your shortbow, I'll show you what I'm capable of."

She always carried the short bow on her back; its length was just right for a slightly malnourished 12-year-old girl. The twenty featherless arrows were also hidden in her magical beast skin pouch.

Upon hearing my request, she carefully instructed, "You must take good care of it, don't break it."

I smiled slightly, picked up the short bow, and then took three arrows. I held the bow horizontally in my hand. The bow was about the length of an arm for an adult like me, and it crossed my elbow. I easily lifted it up.

"Select command: Shoot trees *3".

When the jay saw me draw the bow to its fullest extent, it was about to stop me out of concern when it saw the arrow fly away as fast as lightning, becoming a blur as it flew into the woods by the roadside.

"Marcus! You need to be careful!"

The jay was still heartbroken, but as soon as she finished speaking, two more arrows were nocked and flew into the woods one after the other.

"Jay, go take a look. Go five meters ahead and count to the sixth tree."

I confidently put my hands behind my back and spoke to the jay with an air of superiority.

The tribal girl looked at me suspiciously, wondering what I was up to. I just casually drew my bow and fired a few arrows haphazardly, skipping the aiming step. What was the point?

But when she followed my instructions and went into the woods, and found the sixth tree five meters away...

"One, two, three, four, five, six... We're here!"

The jays entered the dense forest, where even the midday light seemed dim, and the forest path was barely discernible; everything seemed to be covered by a filter.

"How is this possible!"

The sudden cry of the jay echoed through the forest, almost startling even me, who was standing outside the trees posing like a wise man.

All she saw was three featherless arrows embedded deep in the wood of the tree's rough trunk, arranged in an equilateral triangle, and impossible to pull out.

In this dark, dense forest, even people with good eyesight could not see clearly what was happening inside, let alone Marcus standing five meters away and casually firing an arrow.

Featherless arrows are very unreliable; even if they happen to be lucky enough to dodge tree branches and leaves and hit the target tree, how did the other two arrows manage to hit their targets without fail?

Even the most skilled warrior chief in the tribe is only at this level!

"Was there something wrong with the arrow? Or did he pre-nail it?"

The jay still harbored some doubts, but could not find any evidence to prove that I had forged it, so it could only laboriously pull out the three arrows and return.

"Do you believe me now? I'm incredibly strong!"

Seeing her return with three arrows and a conflicted look on her face, I knew that the colonist system was still as effective as ever. As long as a target was selected, there was a 99% chance of hitting it within five meters.

The jay nodded and said, "Your arrows are indeed very powerful! But when there's no time to shoot, you still can't fight back."

I understood immediately and said to her, "Do you see this stone?"

I walked to the roadside and gently stroked a huge rock that weighed about two hundred kilograms. This rock had probably been exposed to the wind and sun here for decades. When the road was being built, it was too big to be moved, but was simply pried up and moved to the roadside. A thick layer of moss and vines had accumulated on it.

I gripped the edge of the boulder with one hand and rested my other hand on its surface. With a slight effort, I easily lifted it above my head, walked up to her, and asked, "Do you think I'm capable of protecting myself?"

I even walked back and forth for nearly five meters, as if to show off, before returning to the original location of the boulder and putting it down again.

"Boom!"

A loud thud as a stone hit the ground startled the stunned jays awake, but their eyes still lacked any semblance of sanity.