Chapter 60
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Chapter 60: Judgment and Advantage
Having personally experienced the effectiveness of garlic, the reconnaissance soldier’s gaze towards the head of garlic in his hand clearly changed, and his mood also became a bit conflicted.
Seeing this, Luo Ji chuckled a couple of times.
“That garlic is for you. Consider it a reward for this mission.”
“Really? Thank you, Chief!”
The reconnaissance soldier was overjoyed with this reward.
Imagine, when he was out on a mission, frozen stiff all over, if he could pop a clove of garlic into his mouth…
However, before he could finish his thought, Luo Ji, seemingly realizing something else, quickly spoke again.
“Oh right, just a reminder, when you’re on a mission, you absolutely must not eat this.”
“Ah? Why?”
He had just been imagining something quite nice.
Yet, in the blink of an eye, the chief reminded him never to eat it while on a mission.
This couldn’t help but make him a bit confused.
Luo Ji had just said it casually, not expecting to actually hit the mark.
He also felt a mix of exasperation and amusement.
“Just breathe out and smell for yourself, and you’ll know.”
Following Luo Ji’s words, he casually breathed out and smelled.
Afterwards, his entire face instantly turned ghastly pale.
“Ugh, this smell…”
“Understand now? The smell is too strong.”
Seeing that the other party was mostly rested, Luo Ji quickly shifted the topic to the main business.
The reconnaissance soldier quickly unfolded the map he carried with him, and then pointed to a mark somewhere on the map.
Clearly, when he discovered the location of the other tribe, he had already found an opportunity to mark it on the map.
“This location…”
Looking at the location the other party pointed to, Luo Ji’s frown deepened.
“The outskirts of the western forest?”
“Yes.”
The reconnaissance soldier nodded.
“Starting from the tribe, with familiarity with the terrain, it takes about half a day’s journey. We had explored that area before, and there was no tribe stationed there at that time. The other party probably migrated over after that.”
“What about the population? Did you find that out?”
Luo Ji pressed on.
This location was a bit subtle.
To be honest, it already felt like they would interfere with each other a bit.
Although they had just taken in over thirty newcomers, if it was a small tribe, Luo Ji had already decided to forcibly annex them.
“Based on the tents in the camp, there are probably forty or fifty people…”
Speaking of this, the reconnaissance soldier’s voice paused slightly.
“And, I also saw that some members of that tribe were holding stone axes and stone spears.”
Luo Ji’s pupils visibly contracted upon hearing this news.
“Is it the tribe we forcibly drove away last time?”
“Probably not.”
The reconnaissance soldier shook his head.
“I didn’t see any familiar faces in the other tribe.”
Luo Ji’s heart sank.
To be honest, this answer was worse.
The previous tribe, considering the strength of that young chieftain, was naturally not easy to deal with, but at least the other party already knew their prowess.
If they were intimidated, they might just leave obediently without a fight, after all, why seek trouble if they knew they couldn’t win?
But this situation gave Luo Ji a piece of news he didn’t want to know at all.
That was, stone axes and stone spears had completely spread in this area.
He hadn’t expected it to be so fast.
The source was their Mirror Tribe, but the spread was likely due to that tribe they had driven away initially.
This situation meant that the combat power of the barbarians in this ancient era was rising.
Although Luo Ji had already created the sling, a great killing weapon, to continuously maintain his weapon and equipment advantage, to be honest, the difficulty of making a sling was not high at all.
That is to say, after seeing it a few times, it was very likely that the other party would learn it…
Thinking of this, a wave of pressure suddenly arose.
For Luo Ji at this moment, the tribe on the outskirts was not a significant threat.
What made him feel threatened was this entire situation.
After his advantage in weapons and equipment completely vanished, could he still maintain his winning streak?
On this question, Luo Ji could only put a question mark on it, because weapon advantage was his biggest reliance at the moment!
“No, I must create weapons that these natives cannot imitate in a short time to maintain a long-term advantage…”
With this thought, the first thing Luo Ji thought of was the bow and arrow, which he had temporarily set aside due to research setbacks.
Compared to the sling, the bow and arrow clearly had higher accuracy and a longer range.
Moreover, the slender arrows were much lighter to carry than those baskets of heavy stone bullets, basically not affecting marching efficiency.
At the same time, the most important point was that bows and arrows were difficult for natives of other barbarian tribes to learn in a short time.
Although they looked simple, they actually required very particular craftsmanship and material selection.
They were definitely not something that could be learned by just watching a few times.
As long as he could successfully manufacture bows and arrows, it would be enough for Luo Ji to maintain his weapon advantage for a long time!
Besides that, armor also had potential for research.
That animal hide armor, which only focused on warmth, clearly could not be called armor.
However, he would have to slowly figure out these things later.
Signaling the reconnaissance soldier to return to his tent to rest first.
After that, Luo Ji called over Luo Yong and Zhao Pan, instructing them to pay special attention to the western area when arranging patrols, and making it clear that another tribe resided there.
Luo Yong was eager to try upon hearing this.
“Chieftain, should we make a move?”
“There’s no rush.”
Luo Ji waved his hand.
“We just took in over thirty people and haven’t had time to settle them yet.”
“Going to fight this tribe now would be too unwise.”
“First, focus on defending against them and give it some time.”
“As long as the other party doesn’t cross the line and doesn’t actively provoke us, just leave them alone for now.”
“Also, be careful to hide the slingers. After all, they’re our trump card.”
“We will definitely have to fight that tribe later.”
“Having an extra trump card increases the chance of victory.”
Luo Ji’s decision made Luo Yong slightly depressed.
On the contrary, Zhao Pan, who also focused more on tactics and the overall situation, nodded in understanding.
“Alright, that’s all I have to say.”
“You two continue with your training.”
After watching Luo Yong and Zhao Pan leave, Luo Ji made another trip to the military equipment department, instructing them to continue researching bows and arrows.
He wondered if the Level 1 Military Equipment Research he had upgraded would come in handy.
Then, Luo Ji returned to his tent and quickly pulled out a sheet of animal hide, planning to carefully figure out the issue of armor.
The first thing he thought of was obviously leather armor.
What they were currently wearing, although it was animal hide, was worlds apart from leather armor.
It simply offered no defensive capability to speak of.
If he remembered correctly, it seemed to require some kind of hardening process…
