As dawn approached, or perhaps because the monsters had eaten their fill, they gradually headed towards the forest at the foot of the mountain.
They left their foraging grounds on the other side of the river before sunrise.
Looking at the haphazardly grazing bushes and grasslands on the opposite bank of the river, Linde led a few soldiers and decided to go and investigate.
Upon reaching the other side, one sees a messy ground where the once lush bushes have been eaten away, leaving only bare stalks.
Scattered around were numerous pieces of armor shed by magical beasts.
"Sir, these armor plates seem different from the ones we captured before."
Astaire picked up a piece, rubbed it a couple of times, and immediately noticed something unusual.
"Although this armor plate looks the same as the previous one, its texture is not hard enough; it's just like normal thick leather."
Upon hearing this, Linde also picked up a piece, and indeed, as Astaire had said, it was flexible but not hard enough.
Just then, dawn broke, the sun revealed its true face, and sunlight shone on the fields.
Under the sunlight, the flesh-colored nail plate in Linde's hand underwent a change, quickly hardening and turning pale yellow.
Seeing this, Linde quickly covered a piece of armor on the ground with his robe and picked it up while keeping it away from the sunlight.
He was surprised to find that these armor plates would not harden as long as they were not exposed to direct sunlight.
This delighted Lind, because it meant that these armor plates, if properly preserved, would be highly malleable and could be made into various styles of armor and chainmail. Even scraps could be used to make consumables such as arrowheads.
This would greatly reduce Linde's reliance on iron, at least preventing him from being completely helpless without iron ore in his territory.
Linde immediately ordered all the armor plates to be collected and brought back to the camp; he needed to test their strength.
Previously, because the amount of seized stock was not large, Linde had not used it for testing. Now that he had a source, he decided to give it a try.
"By the way, Astaire, are there any soldiers who are good at reconnaissance or tracking?"
Linde suddenly realized that the armor plates of these magical beasts would harden during the day due to sunlight exposure, so they either hid in dense forests or dug burrows underground to avoid direct sunlight.
Based on their nighttime activity patterns, these monsters are clearly nocturnal creatures. They roll on the ground to wear away the excess armor plates, so theoretically, there should be even more remaining armor plates in their habitat.
"Yes, sir, I'll find it for you right away."
Astaire seemed to understand what Lind wanted to do, and turned to call over a lean young man from among the soldiers.
"My lord, this is him. His name is Weeks, a Bronze Warrior."
The young man knelt on one knee and shouted in a strong voice, "Greetings, my lord! I am willing to serve you like a dog!"
"Alright! Weeks, I have a task for you now. You'll be heading out to find the habitat of the magical beasts we discovered this morning. All you need to do is locate the exact location and survey the surrounding area. Is that too difficult for you?"
"No!"
"Okay, then I'll wait for your good news. Don't let me down."
Weeks stood up, pounded his chest with one hand, and took the marching suit that Astaire handed him.
It contained three days' worth of dry rations and drinking water, as well as necessary tools such as ropes and knives.
Without looking back, the young man chased after the monster in the direction it had left.
Last night, Linde used his Activated Vision to examine these large magical beasts. The white Activated Light was mixed with a bit of yellow light. Judging from the size of the light, the strength of an adult beast would not exceed the Silver level.
Therefore, as long as this young man isn't surrounded by monsters, he can definitely escape by running away, so there's no need to worry too much about his safety.
After the surrounding soldiers finished packing up, Linde and his group prepared to return to the camp to test the strength of the armor plates.
The group brought the armor plates to the open space in front of the camp, selected a relatively large one, and fixed it to a wooden stake with a rope.
Soldiers from the surrounding camps, hearing that their lord had come up with something new, all came to watch and see what was going on.
"Isn't this the same leather armor we seized from the trolls a couple of days ago? How come there are so many all of them now?"
"I heard that the commotion last night was caused by the owner of this thing. Everyone was woken up because they found this group of monsters."
"It's said that this thing is ridiculously hard; even Astaire couldn't cut through it..."
"Really? Then this thing can defend against gold-level attacks..."
For a time, opinions varied widely.
Linde seized the opportunity, grabbed one of the loudest bronze warriors, and said:
"You, come here, go and test the strength. You can pierce with a spear or slash with a longsword, just remember, use your full strength!"
The loud-voiced bronze warrior responded and took a sturdy spear from the weapon rack beside him.
After gripping it tightly, get into position and charge towards the armored wooden stake.
The strength of a Bronze-ranked person is already much greater than that of an ordinary person, but under this violent thrust, the spear was sliced open from one side, leaving only a small scratch on the armor plate.
This scene caused a burst of laughter from those around, and the surrounding soldiers booed.
Are you sure you can handle it?
"You haven't even called it out yet? Didn't you eat breakfast?"
This infuriated the loud-voiced soldier, whose face turned red with anger.
But he dared not retaliate because Linde was present, so he could only take another standard longsword from the weapon rack.
This longsword has a thick spine and is very durable, making it quite lethal in the hands of bronze warriors.
With a loud roar, he raised his longsword and began hacking wildly at the wooden stake, sending sparks flying from the armor plates.
The final, powerful downward slash struck the thickest part of the armor plate, and with a loud "bang," the sword tip snapped off.
The sword tip spun out and landed on the field.
As the sword fell, the entire arena fell silent, the lively and laughing scene from moments before completely gone.
Everyone stared intently at the standard longsword, which had been riddled with cuts and slashes just moments before. The sword, which had been incredibly sharp and seemed capable of cutting through metal, was now completely destroyed.
Linde stepped forward, took the standard longsword from the loudmouth's hand, looked at it, and then walked to the wooden stake, removed the armor plate, and examined it closely.
Apart from a few scratches, the nail plate was found to be almost intact.
The loud-voiced soldier returned to the ranks with his head held high, and no one booed him anymore; instead, they patted him on the shoulder with serious expressions.
Then Linde ordered someone to bring over a larger piece of armor and tie it to the wooden stake.
Then he took his enchanted javelin from Astaire and stood twenty meters away.
Linde estimated that with his bronze-level strength, the effect of the enchanted javelin, and the full amplification from the activating aura, he could barely reach the level of a silver warrior's full-force attack.
Linde gathers the aura effect, grips the javelin tightly, assumes a stance, and prepares for a full-force strike.
Aster, standing beside him, clearly sensed the change in Linde's aura and was secretly alarmed. "My lord is truly formidable," he thought. "Back in the Earl's territory, I thought it was just my imagination. I never imagined your strength had already approached the Silver rank?"
Linde gathered his strength and then unleashed his most powerful attack to date.
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