This is the first time I've camped on the ground since I came to this place.

If I hadn't been unable to deal with those annoying vampires, I wouldn't have chosen to camp on the dangerous ground.

Actually, there's one more thing I haven't mentioned: there are three major types of vampires in the rainforest. One type is the leech that's everywhere on the ground and in the trees, and the other type is the mosquito that has air superiority.

The last remaining type is the jungle vampire bat, which comes out in groups after dark and is the most powerful bloodsucker. They are equipped with infrared heat sensors.

There are three species of vampire bats in the world. Their habitats are mainly distributed in the tropical rainforests of the Americas. Their teeth are highly specialized, with their upper canines as sharp as blades.

When they are sucking blood, they use heat sensing to accurately locate blood vessels, bite them open with their sharp upper canines, and then lie on the victim's body to lick the blood.

Like mosquitoes, bats are superhosts for various viruses, the most famous of which are Ebola and rabies.

These bats are not very large; the largest individuals are no more than nine centimeters long and weigh between twenty and forty grams.

But the vampire bats here seem to be deliberately trying to antagonize me. They are half again as big as regular vampire bats, and a single feeding session would probably require two or three tablespoons of blood.

Since entering this jungle two days ago, I have been ravaged by the three vampire giants. I can feel that my face must be pale right now, and I also have some symptoms such as a low-grade fever.

Fortunately, there was some dry grass here that could be used as kindling.

I took out some tinder from my basket. This tinder had also been treated with nitric acid, so now it was like nitrocellulose, and could be ignited instantly with just a spark.

I held the machete and tinder together, with some hay I had gathered underneath. I tapped the back of the machete with basalt, and sparks immediately ignited the haystack.

I quickly put some dry twigs on it, and the flames slowly rose and crackled.

Feeling the warmth of the firelight, I felt like I had come back to life. At that moment, Top jumped out of the basket, squatted by the fire, and stretched out his little hands to warm them.

The rain didn't stop for long. I had just picked up some wet wood from outside when it started pouring rain again.

Rainwater gathered into channels and slid down the rocky ledge above my head, forming a small waterfall.

Since we can't go hunting now, I have some palm heart and dried fish that I collected in my basket. I can roast them over a fire and have a meal.

I took a small pickaxe from my basket and began digging beneath the rock ledge. Since we were going to spend the night here, some safety precautions were necessary.

First, I need to dig out some more soil under the rock shelf so that there is more space for me to further tidy up the ground.

I dug another half meter deeper. The soil here was sandy, and it was easy to dig out with the help of a pickaxe.

The space inside is much larger now. At night, all you need to do is light a fire on the edge of the rock shelf, and the entire interior space will become warm.

To prevent air from leaking out from the left and right sides of the rock shelf, I found some stones and branches to block both sides, leaving only one entrance for burning firewood.

I've already packaged the lard from the pigskin in banana leaves, and now the empty pigskin is perfect for making a moisture-proof mat.

After leveling the ground with a pickaxe, I laid some palm leaves on the ground and then covered the palm leaves with pigskin.

After Top and I ate something, I lay on the pigskin mat and started thinking about how to deal with those annoying vampires.

If we want to spend the night, we can surround the area like we are now, leaving only a fire pit. Those three bloodsucking animals are afraid of fire and dare not come over.

But if I wanted to travel during the day, I had to face them. Looking at the burning fire in front of me, I already had a way to deal with the leeches.

Leeches, these mollusks, have a weakness: they are susceptible to salt and alkali. Their body structure is similar to that of slugs, and salt and alkali can damage their cellular structure, causing them to dehydrate and die.

So, if I want to avoid being bitten by leeches, all I need to do is collect alkaline wood ash and apply it to my fur coat.

The leeches will fall off naturally once they touch the wood ash. I just need to walk a bit and then apply it again.

As for mosquitoes, that's easy to deal with. My fur coat already covers most of my body.

Mosquitoes have limited proboscis length, and the thickness of a fur coat can completely block them. So as long as I don't take off my clothes, the only places mosquitoes can attack are my neck, face, and palms.

I plan to cover these unprotected areas with a thick layer of mud. Once the mud dries, it will become a good layer of armor to protect against mosquito bites.

The last and most troublesome creature is the one that's most formidable. It's impervious to plant ash, and ordinary defenses are ineffective against it; its sharp canines can still gnaw through even the toughest leather.

Its only fear is probably fire, but traveling by torch during the day isn't a long-term solution. Plus, it rains frequently in the jungle, so the torch method probably won't work either.

After much thought, I still couldn't come up with a good solution. Fortunately, vampire bats are rarely out in the rainforest during the day, so the only feasible approach for now is to stay away from this area.

Bats have limited ranges of activity; once you leave their area of ​​activity, the probability of encountering vampire bats will be greatly reduced.

Thinking about this, I feel that this is the only way for now. I'll get ready tomorrow and leave this awful place as soon as possible.

The next morning, I collected all the ashes left over from burning the wood the night before, coated them on my body inside and out, and then wrapped the rest tightly in a banana leaf and put them in my basket.

The effect of using wood ash was indeed quite good; those leeches that were visibly stretching their necks and trying to crawl onto me disappeared.

When they came into contact with the wood ash on the surface of my fur coat, their bodies reacted as if they had been electrocuted, and their protruding mouthparts immediately retracted.

I cursed inwardly, "Come on, keep sucking my blood!"

Aside from their annoying buzzing, mosquitoes haven't really been able to do anything to me yet.

Now I'm wearing a one-piece leather coat, and my face and hands are covered in a thick layer of mud, making me look like a clay figure. They can't even get a bite out of me, so they can only buzz helplessly.

Just when I thought everything was finally getting better, I found that the bites on my neck and arms were not only not getting better, but were getting bigger every day.

This discovery made me a little panicked. Could it be that I've been infected with some kind of virus?

The scariest thing is that recently when I scratched those lumps because of the itching, I actually felt something like worms wriggling inside my body!