Chapter 192. Demons and Monsters (16) Silver Wolf: “*Lord, SOS!*”

     On her second outing, Ye Mo purposefully chose a direction based on the information provided by Flying Tiger.

     She encountered a moderate number of half-demons along the way, but the number of half-demons rescued was zero.

     She encountered a moderate number of half-demons along the way, though none needed rescuing this time. Strategically, she planted false recruitment notices and used mental illusions to make it appear as if two or three fabricated half-demons were following her, in order to enhance the reputation of the half-demon base.

     During her travels, she found some special plants that could substitute for the magical plant liquid used to inscribe magic arrays, as well as several types of metal ore and an unexpectedly obtained spirit tree.

     By the time Ye Mo returned to the base, the feline half-demons had already completely processed the prey.

     In addition to this, more than half of the half-demons had learned to count from 1 to 100, including the Arabic numerals that could be recorded on carriers, although they didn’t know what ‘Arabic’ meant.

     Among them, unsurprisingly, the white-tailed mermaid fry showed exceptional sensitivity to numbers and spatial reasoning. The wind-type tiger demon’s talent was mediocre (Ye Mo’s evaluation standards were quite high), but its strengths lay in diligence, strong self-control, and perseverance.

     These two half-demons could continue to learn array formations from Ye Mo, while others who genuinely wanted to learn could quietly listen in their spare time and learn from them in the future.

     Ye Mo’s teaching style is simple and direct. The first lesson covers the core principles and extensions of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, with one example of a magic circle formula and two examples of mechanism arrays.

     Course tools:

     Recording stone, which can be replayed after class.

     Homework:

     One basic wood-element magic array diagram, and a 1000-word essay recorded on the recording stone about what you’ve learned/gained.

     It sounds a bit like forced growth.

     In reality, those with high innate abilities like the little stone monster, white-tailed mermaid, gold-element tiger half-demon, and wind-element tiger half-demon have direct practical experience with metal, wood, water, fire, and earth elemental abilities. Ye Mo herself is more like someone who only knows theory.

The most difficult part is absorbing knowledge of magic theory and mechanism arithmetic after using their abilities.

     …

     In the busy and fulfilling study, the white-tailed mermaid’s talent is obviously higher than others, which has somewhat impacted the three views of the cat half-demons.

     The wind tiger demon among them began to ponder the balance between strength and intellect. They also started to not regard the other half-demons cubs as mere ants, although their attitude wasn’t particularly good, after all, the overall survival rule of “the strong are respected” in this world would never change.

     After forty minutes of class, Ye Mo drank two cups of water and then purposefully assigned various tasks. They could have time for sleep and rest, but she had to treat time as gold.

     On the third outing, they rescued a dying fire-element bear-rabbit half-demons. It had already formed its inner core and was stronger than the flying tiger. Unfortunately, this bear-rabbit’s companion had died.

     To survive, the half-demon base gains another member.  

     On the fourth outing, while returning, Ye Mo encountered a half-demon who actively sought to join them—a peculiar plant-mouse with strange abilities. Unlike the usual rescue cases, this one came pleading for shelter.  

     The plant-mouse had a disheveled, weed-like upper body, possessing innate regenerative abilities akin to wild grass and cultivation powers through photosynthesis. Its most bizarre and deadly feature lay in its roots—a fist-sized mouse body that had awakened earth-based supernatural abilities.  

     Ye Mo suspected it might also have a burst-type speed ability.  

     The plant-mouse’s weakness was that, unlike rodent-type demons, it couldn’t live underground indefinitely. An important reason for seeking help was its impending core formation, requiring a safe environment to survive.  

     Ye Mo welcomed the plant-mouse into the base. Its talent for sensing minerals was no less than the little stone monster’s, and its strength and lifespan far surpassed the little stone monster’s. It also had extensive knowledge of the endless forest’s underground and the distribution of many clans.  

     Just as the plant-mouse stepped into the half-demon base, the system’s voice rang in Ye Mo’s ears.

  【Congratulations to survivor Ye Mo for successfully establishing the “Half-demons Base” in the ‘Demons and Monsters’ dungeon. Rewarding +12 attribute points to each attribute and +9 free attribute points.】

   【Main Quest 2: Rescue your fellow beings (13/10000).】

     Indeed, the survivor app wouldn’t lead people into a dead end. Joining the Half-demons base also counted as rescuing fellow beings. By the same logic, leaving the base would most likely cause the number to decrease.

     Ye Mo began to enjoy the joy of harvest.

     The reputation of the Half-demons base gradually grew, and more and more half-demons came attracted by its name. The plant rat’s joining seemed to have created an opening, and many half-demons with needs proactively appeared, requesting to join.

     Spectacled monkeys, apricot goats, jumping fish, lizard lions, careless tigers, thorny pythons… they were like a collection of bizarre creatures from nature. Some of the yāojīng (monsters) even had characteristics of aquatic, terrestrial, and aerial plants, such as a frog-like monster with both golden wings and hedgehog armor.

     The half-demons weren’t necessarily very strong, but the vast majority possessed strange and peculiar life-saving skills, such as an invisibility technique that could even deceive psychic abilities.

     Listening to the dinging notifications from the system, Ye Mo happily welcomed all who came.

      …

     The expansion of the base brought resources and half-demons, but also brought more and more troubles.

     First, more monster nearby paid attention to the base. Different tribes had different attitudes towards the half-demon base, but many of them were negative effects.

     Rejection, defense, hatred…

     Even though Ye Mo had already subdued the captive Raven demon for her own use, the Raven demon had already been rejected by his own tribe, and the current communication progress with the demons and monsters of other tribes was zero, or even negative.

     The second step of enticement was too late to start a war, and a life-and-death fight had already begun. It was a long way to go to break the relationship between the Half-Demon Base and other tribes, let alone a deal.

     The Half-Demon Base even faced a joint attack by demons of three different species and power levels.

     They won in the end, but it consumed a lot of energy, and the defense arrays had to be repaired, patched up, and innovatively improved.

     These monsters also posed a certain threat to the half-demons traveling to the base. It was difficult for them to ambush Ye Mo, but hunting down exposed and scattered demi-humans was still possible.

     Ye Mo’s response was to establish a base support team. Due to various reasons, the selection process was rigorous, and the first support team had fewer than 10 half-demons, initially led by her personally.

     Few but excellent.

     Cultivating the team’s coordination cost Ye Mo a lot of effort, as well as promoting the spirit of camaraderie. Despite some friction and setbacks, it also made the demi-humans realize the terrifying power of combining different talents, where 1+1 is far greater than 2.

     It was precisely the immense progress and remarkable power of the support team, along with the other yāojīng – (monsters)’s relentless extermination, that caused the half-demons and small half-demon groups within a few hundred miles to either relocate or move entirely to the half-demon base.

     Secondly, half-demons are not machines, they are intelligent beings. And where there are intelligent beings, there will inevitably be a society with its own dynamics—disputes, contempt, hatred, and ambition exist, as do friendship, love, and kinship.

     Regarding the above, Ye Mo was very grateful that she still possessed considerable leadership skills and experience. To reduce her countless tasks, she promoted several half-demon assistants, including the wind tiger half-demon.

     Due to their limited experience and perspective, their ways and means of expressing emotions were relatively direct and simple. Ye Mo was able to use her strength, ideological education, and the establishment of rules to govern the growing number of half-demons.

     Strength is paramount. Currently, she was still the strongest half-demon in the half-demon base.

     Ideological education is very important.

     Ye Mo didn’t treat the half-demons as puppets, nor did she promote philosophical ideas that she herself didn’t fully understand. She simply began to continuously advocate the idea of the half-demon base as a homeland once the number of half-demons exceeded thirty, as well as praising noble spirits and camaraderie. Certain half-demons were openly and secretly responsible for this.

     This wasn’t just shouting slogans.

     Through battles with other races, mutual learning among the half-demons, details of daily life, the grace of saving lives, and so on, they could directly or indirectly feel and have their own understanding of it.

     Ye Mo’s goal was simple: to build a base united by something other than blood ties as much as possible.

     Core rules of the base:

     Internal fighting and killing are prohibited.

     Energy is distributed according to labor.

     Leaders are chosen based on merit.

     The number of half-demons who died or left the half-demon base due to violating the rules wasn’t zero. They proved that both leaving and dying would decrease the system’s half-demon count.

     Labor ≈ tasks.

     Initially, Ye Mo assigned tasks one by one. Later, these tasks formed their own system, gradually with suggestions from the half-demons themselves, which she then slowly refined.

     The tasks in the half-demon base were all related to the base’s future and to learning and construction.

     Ye Mo: “Check the main quest.”

 

   【Main Quest 2: Rescue your fellow beings (471/10000).】

 

     If Ye Mo’s sole purpose was Main Quest 2, rescuing 10,000 might have been simpler than it was now. However, she had chosen an extremely difficult path for herself, which was to consider the future of the base and therefore teach the half-demons the skills to survive as much as possible.

     Barbecue-based cuisine, array formations, weapon crafting, mining, mechanisms, team combat…

     If safety was the reason the half-demons came to the base, then learning knowledge and having companions were important reasons for them to stay, and also the core pillars of the base’s formation.

     Those magical weapons that could enhance attributes and even add one or more attack abilities, defense and killing mechanism arrays, energy-gathering spirit convergence arrays, energy-seeking detectors, and thousands of years of accumulated group combat experience… all dazzled the half-demons.

     There were always some half-demons who sought comfort, but another part of them understood the importance of improving their own strength through Ye Mo’s teachings. They gradually find the most suitable path for themselves little by little in the exploration and stick to it.

     In fact, there can be more courses in the half-demons base.

     Unfortunately, Ye Mo cannot leave the half-demons base now. Unlike the previous dungeon, the main task of this dungeon fixed her in one place.

     There is no news about Watson yet, but the map of large lakes and rivers has been drawn, and the reputation of the half-demons base is spreading among the water monsters little by little.

     The human base where Wang Xue lives has already had an exact address. Wang Xue also knows Ye Mo’s location through hunting activities, and the two have contacted once or twice through markings.

     Ye Mo forged a variety of beast-style weapons for the half-demons, but the most popular were still defensive ones, while others required time for experimentation and custom crafting.  

     When it came to weaponry, humans would have been the ideal partners. Unfortunately, they were also the most defensive, perhaps this has something to do with average intelligence.

     Ye Mo didn’t wait for Wang Xue’s clear reply. Instead, she encountered a hundred silver wolves with varying degrees of injuries.

    The leader of the pack looked all too familiar—it was the second-ranked survivor, Pushkin. Though not the strongest among the silver wolves physically, he had somehow become the leader of this wounded pack.  

     Perched on a distant tree branch, he flashed a grin, his two sharp fangs glinting in the sunlight, radiating shameless familiarity: 

     “*Lord, SOS*!”