26: Black Panther and Tasman

On the way back, the Dragon King and I almost ran into a massive beast.

Not far from my Wizard Shack, near the east, my stealth skill just happened to fail, and I tumbled out of the shadows.

Just then, from behind a tall tree a few meters away, a giant black panther, taller than a man, suddenly emerged.

The pure black, tall panther strode forward elegantly, and its golden-yellow vertical pupils seemed to freeze for a moment when they saw me.

Then, it actually tilted its head and gazed towards the Shack, its nostrils flaring, and it disappeared again.

I was a bit stunned at the time, and even the Dragon King hadn't detected it beforehand.

I was so nervous I almost drew my twin blades, but the black panther vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

The Dragon King remained silently hovering by my ear.

Following its gaze, I saw faint, giant paw prints on the surface of the grass, turning eastward and fading into the distance.

A magical creature? It can also stealth like me?

It didn't attack me proactively; was it because it wasn't hungry?

With a head full of questions, I returned to the vicinity of the Shack.

After checking that the Shack and Sphere Professor were safe and sound, I continued to cut down trees and build a fence around the area.

"Thump, thump, thump…"

Perhaps the seabirds gradually got used to the sound of my woodcutting, as fewer and fewer birds were startled into flight.

At dusk, when my yard was almost half-built, the ever-vigilant Dragon King discovered a group of creatures, a group of creatures carrying weapons, appearing again deep in the eastern forest.

Soon after, I also saw this group of human-like beasts.

They moved in a crouching posture, their backs of their hands occasionally touching the ground.

Their skin was glossy green, thinly covered with coarse black fur. Their eyes were golden, very similar to a cat's eyes.

Most of these creatures held a long spear in one hand.

Soon after, I learned from Sphere Professor that the scientific name for this creature is Tass Creature, a humanoid animal with long arms, long legs, and a flat head.

People often hear their voices at night; their speaking voices are high and thin.

Tass Creatures can speak their own language, as well as the language of monkeys and apes.

About 5% of them have learned the rough common language they frequently use in trade.

I wonder if the sound of my tree felling attracted them.

I hid back inside the Shack and, after communicating with Sphere Professor, he did not agree to let me put him into the system space, only agreeing to temporarily shut up.

At the same time, he held a short sword with Mage Hand, preparing to fight the invading Tass Creatures.

I arranged the Dragon King on top of the Shack, hidden behind a wooden pillar, secretly observing the movements of the Tass Creatures.

I, myself, closed the Shack door tightly and observed the outside movements from the gap in the door curtain.

Their speed was not slow; in about less than ten minutes, they had reached the spot where I had just cut trees.

None of them looked towards the Shack, but instead searched the small grove several times, then followed the scent on the grass towards the Shack door.

One of the Tass Creatures pressed its nose to the ground, sniffing continuously.

I guessed it was sniffing my scent, so I stepped back, hiding my entire body in the shadows behind the door curtain, which was also within the Shack's protective force field.

That's right, I could indeed feel the boundary of the protective force field, and it felt consistent with the system energy in the system space.

Before long, this Tass Creature led the others, finding their way to the Shack door.

My scent should have been cut off by the protective force field at the door.

They circled the Shack a few times, and several Tass Creatures stepped into the Hunter Traps I had set, yelping in pain.

The small traps I could temporarily set up were fine for catching small animals, but against these human-like large animals, their effect was not significant.

Several of the Tass Creatures began to hit and strike the walls and wooden door of the Shack with their long spears or arms.

The wooden door and wall planks vibrated slightly, but they seemed much sturdier than they looked.

The Tass Creatures outside the Shack chattered and squawked something.

Then, one of the Tass Creatures retreated about ten steps, then accelerated into a run, and when it was one or two steps away from the Shack, it crouched down and exerted force, suddenly leaping into the air.

Its long black fur swayed and flew behind it.

My heart seemed to leap into my throat; its movements were continuously slowed down in my eyes.

"Can the protective force field work?"

I squatted behind the door, my eyes wide, concentrating intently on the trajectory of this green-skinned creature's movements.

At the same time, I had the Dragon King enter through the hole in the top, temporarily retreating inside the Shack.

The circular hole at the top of the Shack was the largest opening on the entire Shack's surface.

By size, the Tass Creature couldn't get in, but I wanted to know if, as the system said, in places without solid objects, like this hole, the protective force field was weaker, and external destructive force instantly exceeding 0.5 tons could break through the force field's defense.

The true effectiveness of the protective force field, this was the first on-site verification, and I couldn't help but be nervous.

"Clang!"

This green-skinned creature jumped onto the Shack roof, and a spear plunged into the invisible protective force field.

"Clang…"

It was like a spear plunging into bulletproof glass.

My suspended heart finally dropped.

With the protective force field, this Shack was my exclusive safe haven!

Plus the once-every-ten-day system space skill, my chances of survival in this world have greatly increased.

However, a protective force of only 0.5 tons can defend against small and medium-sized animals; if a large beast had attacked the protective force field just now, this invisible force field ceiling might not have held up.

Fortunately, the area of this hole was not large.

With a flurry of chattering and squawking, I noticed the Tass Creature that jumped off the Shack roof exchanged a few words with its companions.

Then, they seemed to give up on this place and walked out of the half-circle courtyard I had just built.

I sent the Dragon King out to discreetly follow them for a distance.

This group of creatures seemed to be following the route I had taken to the river earlier that morning.

"Their sense of smell is too keen! If I encounter them in the forest in the future, it might be difficult to shake them off," I thought to myself.

This was also completely different from any creature on the Blue Planet; they could even use weapons.

Even more terrifying, they could speak, clearly a mature, systematic language.

They felt like a creature somewhere between a civilized being and a wild beast.

This world was more dangerous than I had imagined.

I secretly resolved to be even more careful and cautious from now on.

Suddenly, I noticed that the base of the Shack, on one side, was somewhat loose!

Unstable foundation! The Shack I built was just stuck into the ground, without a proper foundation.

If the Tass Creatures had all pushed my Shack in one direction just now, wouldn't it have been overturned by them?

Too dangerous! A layer of cold sweat couldn't help but break out on my back.

I must find a way to strengthen the foundation construction as soon as possible!