Chapter 43: Prying Eyes Outside the Camp

Morning.

Cana crawled out of his tent.

He stretched his limbs against the morning breeze.

I must say, camping in the wild is far inferior to resting comfortably in a small town.

Yet, it is still much better than the arduous journey of fleeing all the way here when he first transmigrated.

The camp was already a scene of bustling activity.

The dozens of recruited laborers had already been assigned to the surrounding area to begin felling trees.

Suitable logs were set aside for constructing large rafts, while the imperfect scrap pieces were used to build a wooden perimeter wall around the camp and erect two watchtowers.

Cana checked his mana reserves, which had fully recovered.

Unable to contain his eagerness, he retrieved the alchemical shield from his spatial pouch.

Staring at the small round shield in his hand, he directly initiated the digitization process.

Mana instantly surged from within his body, coursing through his palms to blanket the surface of the round shield.

"Hmm, the consumption has doubled?"

Cana sensed that the mana depletion inside his body was twice as much as his previous digitizations.

Based on his earlier hypothesis, it was basically confirmed that the alchemical round shield in his hands was a piece of equipment superior to ordinary tier items.

Once the digitization was complete, his remaining mana was pitifully down to just two meager points.

However, the mana concentration here was relatively high, so he should be able to fully recover by tomorrow—provided he didn't use any mana today.

He shifted his attention back to the shield.

[Transformable Alchemical Shield]
[Silver Shield - Shield - Magic]
[Attributes: Tough, Lightweight, Magic-Resistant]
[Special Effects: Transformation, Shock Deflection.]
[Transformation: By channeling mana, the user can alter the shape of the shield's surface to their will.]
[Shock Deflection: By channeling mana, the user can deflect incoming attacks with a shockwave. Higher attack force requires more mana, up to a limit.]
[Evaluation: An ancient alchemical product. While quite good, it is an antique after all. Its value may lie more in collection than in actual battle.]

Cana automatically ignored the evaluation; practicality was what he needed right now.

Furthermore, as he had anticipated, this piece of equipment was indeed a magical item, one tier higher than ordinary equipment.

It had directly doubled the mana cost required for his digitization.

Cana strapped the shield onto his left arm, and the structure at the base of the shield instantly and automatically contracted, locking firmly onto his arm.

Controlling his mana, he channeled it into the shield.

The surface of the shield immediately underwent a transformation, shifting from a round shield into a diamond-shaped one, and finally elongating to cover his entire arm.

Cana was exceptionally satisfied. One should not underestimate this transformation capability.

Similar equipment existed in video games, which of course were far superior to the antique in Cana's hands.

Yet, the essence remained the same.

Shifting according to his will, a portion of it extended outward from the back of Cana's hand to form a sharp, protruding spike.

It could even serve temporarily as a weapon.

Naturally, the true utilization lay in the second skill—the parry mechanic so frequently used and deeply familiar to players.

Moreover, it was a shock deflection parry. When an enemy's weapon struck and mana was channeled with the correct parry technique, the resulting shock could potentially knock the enemy's weapon straight out of their hands, disarming them.

Additionally, this shield possessed another function inherent to the new entry in its attribute list:

Magic-Resistant. The metal used in its creation possessed a certain degree of magic-resistant efficacy, capable of effectively defending against some low-level elemental magic.

Regardless of how one looked at it, this shield was undoubtedly a mid-to-high tier existence within the same grade, making it exceptionally practical.

Cana originally intended to spend more mana on digitizing the spherical puppet, but it seemed impossible for today.

He raised his head to look around.

He spotted Alirys and Bobot not far away.

Bobot appeared to be studying the surrounding vegetation, occasionally chatting with Alirys about something.

Seeing this, Cana did not interrupt. He retrieved the experimental manual from his spatial pouch and began working out around the camp while reading.

He was only thirty experience points shy of reaching level three. With a bit of effort, he should be able to break through today or tomorrow.

By then, he would directly gain five attribute points—it simply couldn't get any better.

At the same time, studying the experimental manual would grant him a new skill. Otherwise, it would be terribly awkward if he digitized the spherical puppet later only to find he couldn't control it.

Regarding the Crown Prince's bizarre behavior, the surrounding soldiers and townspeople merely glanced his way, exchanged a few eccentric remarks, and dismissed it.

...

In the afternoon, Cana was by the river, giving himself a simple wash to rinse away the sweat from his rigorous workout.

Alirys and George hurried over.

"What is it?" Cana stood up, shaking the water droplets from his hands.

George said anxiously, "Some creature is spying on the camp."

Hearing this, Cana frowned. "What kind of creature?"

To his surprise, George shook his head. "We spotted its traces, catching a glimpse of its vague figure from afar, but we didn't get a clear look at what kind of creature it was. It might be some sort of animal."

George possessed a strong learning spirit. Through yesterday's conversations, he knew this region might differ from the forest where he frequently hunted.

In the words of that big white rat, this place was far more dangerous and filled with many strange creatures.

In the past, George would have naturally assumed it was just some animal, but having now witnessed rat-men and the like, he no longer dared to make such guarantees.

"Has Bobot been to check it out?"

Compared to their limited perspectives, Bobot, who had traveled widely on foot across various lands, understood far more.

Alirys chimed in, "Bobot has already gone to take a look."

Cana nodded, stood up, and motioned for the two of them to lead the way.

When they entered the forest and hadn't walked far, they spotted several soldiers and Bobot walking back.

Noticing Bobot's furrowed brow, Cana asked, "Did you find anything?"

Bobot raised his head, looked at the approaching Cana, and nodded. "Yes. We can basically confirm it is certainly not an ordinary animal, nor is it likely to be some magical beast. Although the mana concentration here has recovered quite a bit, it is still a bit too barren for those magical beasts. It's likely some sort of evil creature from the forest."

"An evil creature?" Cana frowned.

That definition was far too broad.

A vast majority of dangerous creatures in the wild could be categorized under this heading.

For instance, kobolds, goblins, forest sprites, harpies... and so on.

Most of them were regular guests in fantasy worlds.

Due to the world's Creation Stones, virtually any bizarre thing could exist here.

"The scope is too broad."

Bobot acknowledged this and narrowed down the possibilities. "We can confirm it is some kind of short, bipedal creature roughly around my height. It is definitely heavier than a rat, and they reported seeing glowing green eyes with what looked like camouflage made of leaves worn on its body."

Hearing Bobot's summarized intelligence, Cana furrowed his brow in brief contemplation. He had a rough idea of the possibilities.

Combining this with the region's characteristics and his own understanding of it, he could basically arrive at a conclusion.

"Barring any accidents, it should be a goblin."

"A goblin?" Bobot asked, somewhat perplexed.

The surrounding people all wore curious expressions; they had never heard of such a designation.

"You don't know?" Cana was slightly surprised. It seemed unlikely that Bobot wouldn't know of such things.

"I know of them, but I haven't seen many. Besides, aren't their eyes supposed to not be green?" Bobot voiced his doubt.

Only then did Cana recall that Bobot was not a native of this continent and had only recently arrived here.

Although goblins were distributed across every continent, they were primarily concentrated on the very continent beneath their feet.

They belonged to the category of wild monsters frequently encountered in the wilderness of this specific land.

The defining characteristic of the goblins on their continent was precisely their glowing green eyes.