The next second, the otter still couldn't escape its tragic fate. The monster's huge mouth closed in mid-air, and at that moment I seemed to hear the cracking sound of bones being bitten.

Another splash rose from the water, and the enormous creature, as large as a water buffalo, returned to the water. After a ripple, the lake returned to calm.

The snowflakes continued to drift and fall in the sky, but the beautiful scene had been replaced by a chilling cold.

I stared blankly at what was happening before my eyes, completely dumbfounded. I hadn't expected the monster in the lake to be so cunning; after its first failure, it hadn't left but had instead remained underwater to monitor the otters' movements.

Then, when the otters are off guard and come to the lakeside, they launch a sneak attack. Their ruthless and vicious nature is even more terrifying than the jackals I've encountered.

Fortunately, I moved away from the lake in time, otherwise it might not have minded making me its next target.

This monster has scales like a crocodile and strong limbs, so it should also be an amphibian like a crocodile.

However, one thing doesn't make sense: most amphibians are cold-blooded, and in such frigid weather, they would have difficulty even moving, let alone hunting.

Cold-blooded animals usually hibernate during this season, so could this thing be a warm-blooded, endothermic animal?

I carefully recalled all the animals of recent times, and there was no animal that matched this appearance. This must be a species that has not yet been discovered.

Judging from its peculiar physical characteristics, this creature might be a prehistoric animal that has survived from millions of years ago.

If they were in such a completely isolated environment, it is not impossible that they could evolve into warm-blooded animals and develop some unique survival skills over millions of years, provided they do not go extinct.

The accident involving the otter has made me lose the desire to continue walking along the lake. Thinking back to how I used to fish in this area and often stroll around here, I feel a wave of fear.

I wrapped my fur coat around myself and started walking back. I should try to avoid coming here as much as possible in the future. As for fishing and such, I should be extra careful next time.

When the weather is warm, these animals probably find it easy to find food on the resource-rich island. But in winter, when all kinds of animals hide away, hunting becomes difficult, so they expand their range.

Last time Top screamed in fright by the lake, maybe he saw this kind of animal.

On the way back, I walked while calculating whether the weapons I had could effectively damage the water monster.

For long-range attacks, I only have blowguns. While they're quite powerful, they're fine against ordinary flesh and blood. But against someone wearing heavy armor like today, the arrows aren't so effective.

Some crocodiles have shells that can even stop handgun bullets. I don't know how hard their shells are, but one thing is for sure: the thing I have in my hand will have a hard time doing any real damage to it.

Previously, I had always viewed this region through the lens of my own worldview and experience. I thought the dangers were limited to ferocious beasts like tigers, never imagining that unfamiliar enemies might appear in this strange place.

With the near-thousand-pound monster in the water as a warning, I'm now starting to doubt the safety of land. It's the frozen season now, and many animals will expand their hunting range.

Perhaps we will meet someday.

I was lucky today, encountering the apex predator of the water. But what if next time I encounter a prehistoric monster on land, even more powerful than a tiger or leopard? Would I still be able to fight back?

A sense of crisis made me realize that I needed to expand my arsenal. I could make use of the sulfur spring I discovered earlier to create something.

I don't want any more trouble to happen in the last few days before the Lunar New Year.

After I got back, I started working on it. First, I made several more large gold vats to store water.

I've come up with a way to transport the sulfurous spring water. Using gold containers would be too much trouble, so I plan to connect extended bamboo tubes near the spring to bring the water to my shed.

This is a huge undertaking. I did a rough calculation of the distance. At a normal person's speed of 5,000 meters per hour, that's 83 meters per minute.

Twenty minutes is at least 1,660 meters. Even excluding the distance from my residence to the shed, it's probably still around 1,600 meters.

Those bamboos do grow very tall; the maximum usable height should be around seven or eight meters.

My plan is to cut the bamboo in half, then remove all the nodes and connect the ends to make a water pipe.

Assuming each bamboo stalk is eight meters long, I estimate that at least one hundred bamboo stalks would need to be cut down to make the pipes, and then another ten or so would need to be cut down to make supports for the pipes along the way.

In winter, the weather becomes dry. The moisture content of both bamboo and trees drops significantly, which greatly reduces the workload of moving them.

In this season, I can easily carry five bamboo stalks, already prepared for pipe installation, all at once. Cutting the bamboo doesn't take long, but transporting it is a huge undertaking.

To save as much time as possible, I placed the processed bamboo I had carried over near the shed. It took me two whole days to cut all the bamboo.

Then I started carrying a bundle of bamboo strips for binding, and transported the bamboo to the spring in five places, laying it out along the mountain path.

Because a certain elevation difference is needed for the water to be channeled to the vicinity of my residence, I adopted a method of finding low-lying areas based on the direction of the water flow.

Along the way, I cut off a section of some suitable shrubs and then tied half of the bamboo directly to these shrubs.

This reduces a lot of the hassle of driving posts, and the cut shrubs will regrow new branches in the spring, making them last longer than posts driven into the ground.

Five days have passed in the blink of an eye. All the pipeline systems have been laid, and a sulfur spring flows down the bamboo pipe into the large golden vat I had prepared beforehand.

I lit the stove fire and began to slowly simmer the sulfur water containing sulfides.

This process will take a long time, and I feel I can use the time at hand to make some other weapons.

I brought back some old bamboo when I went to cut bamboo before. The toughness and elasticity of this bamboo are quite good, so it should be no problem to make a crossbow.

I rummaged through the woodpile and finally found a suitable piece of wood. Most of the wood here had been broken by the wind. Having used so much wood over the years, I have the greatest experience in identifying which wood is the most sturdy and durable.