Chapter 67 Deformed Beast

Late winter afternoon.

The cloudy weather that started last night has further deteriorated.

Yu Ke just arrived at the mountain stream, and snowflakes are falling.

In a way, it is actually good news, because Pandora hates strong light, and so do the deformed creatures infected by it, so they will subconsciously avoid the sun and choose to hibernate in sunny weather.

This means that the chance of encountering them on cloudy and snowy days is greater.

‘15:45’

Glancing at the time displayed on the watch, Yu Ke jumped off the back of the frightened deer and walked towards the mountain stream ahead.

Snowflakes fell on his head and ears, and brought a slight chill after melting.

The temperature has dropped significantly, and it can be predicted that tonight will not be easy for people who go deep into the Mirror Lake Forest.

Fortunately, Yu Ke has cold resistance from hunting multi-headed Wendiego not long ago.

This level of low temperature is still within the tolerable range.

Looking at the mountain stream, Yu Ke's eyes are full of surprise.

The low temperature of more than ten degrees below zero seemed to have no effect on the deep forest of Jinghu Lake.

The rushing stream came from a high place in the distance, swallowing up the ice and snow floating all over the sky, hitting the mossy boulders along the way, and the splashing water was like broken jade, splashing everywhere.

Yu Ke took some water samples with a test tube as usual to test and check the pollution in this area.

The result made him frown.

The water quality looked clear as soon as possible, as if it could be drunk directly, but the light yellow light of the indicator light would not lie.

This part of the water quality has been infected, the degree is not deep, but there is a real problem.

"Is it here already?"

Yu Ke whispered to himself, took out a new test tube from his bag, filled it with some soil and grass leaves from the edge of the mountain stream and tested it again.

Unexpectedly, the indicator light emitted a green light this time.

There is only one explanation for the inconsistent test results, the water in this area has just been infected.

Could it be that the mutated beasts polluted the mountain stream upstream?

Recalling the state of the mutated mandrill, Yu Ke suddenly had this speculation in his mind.

He whistled to call back the frightened deer, and he prepared to walk up the mountain stream for a while to try to find the mutated monster.

First, killing it can prevent the environment nearby from being continuously polluted, and second, the [Investigator] profession needs experience to upgrade.

It is about three and a half hours away from here to Jinghu Water Marsh, and it is definitely impossible to get there today.

It is definitely not a good idea to wander deep in the Jinghu Forest at night, and the frightened deer also needs to rest.

If this search does not find anything, Yu Ke will prepare to find a place to rest.

There is a camping site left by the exploration team of the Forest Defense Bureau nearby, which can be reached in about half an hour.

Camping sites like this are relatively safe areas selected after special exploration. The exploration team will leave some supplies in them to reduce the burden on the team members who will explore later.

The Forestry Bureau has been able to explore the depths of the Mirror Lake Forest continuously for several years with this method. The route map in Yu Ke's hand was also drawn based on this. Otherwise, they would have to rely on luck today.

He took out a full-coverage mask from the side of the deer saddle and put it on to block the wind and snow that hit him during the journey.

As he quickly approached upstream along the mountain stream, Yu Ke looked around from time to time to capture traces of abnormal beasts that might remain nearby.

Yo~ Yo~

The frightened deer suddenly screamed a few times, as if it had smelled something.

This is another benefit of taking the frightened deer deep into the Mirror Lake Forest. They are always extremely sensitive to the approach of danger, and its current reaction undoubtedly means that there is a ferocious beast hidden somewhere nearby!

Yu Ke reached out to calm the panicked frightened deer, and at the same time went down to the river bank, holding a sharp-toothed bow and arrow to protect it behind him.

The camera has been turned on in advance, and his eyes are looking around.

In the mountain stream?

The possibility is not high. There are rocks everywhere in the water, the water depth is limited, and the size of the beasts is generally large, so they can't hide.

Between the branches above the head?

The bare branches can hardly provide cover for the deformed monsters hidden in them. The field of vision is empty, and there is no trace of strange birds in the sky.

Just at this moment, the sound of bushes shaking sounded in my ears.

Yu Ke waved his hand to signal the frightened deer to retreat to the side without saying a word, and then shot two arrows into the forest where the sound came from.

The arrows broke through the air, followed by the angry roar of the beast.

A dark green, flat head that looks a bit like a horizontal hammer crashed out of the forest. It is like the land version of the hammerhead shark, but the size is more than seven or eight times larger, with a mouth full of yellow fangs.

The part below its head is a bit like a crocodile, covered with gray-yellow heavy armor.

More importantly, there was an obvious change in the tail of this beast. A huge tumor appeared at the end of the tail, and the surface was full of sharp spikes. If you get hit, you will definitely not be able to escape.

Yu Ke's shots hit its back and left forelimb respectively, easily angering it, which was already mentally chaotic.

Seeing Yu Ke standing by the river, the deformed beast launched a surprise attack without saying a word, and rammed into it like a heavy tank.

The momentum was amazing, but it couldn't scare Yu Ke, whose strength had greatly improved.

Calming down his mind, Yu Ke didn't need to spend any time aiming at the huge size of the deformed beast. He drew out two explosive arrows and shot them directly at the monster's forehead, blowing up its armor.

The deformed monster felt pain, and its two forelimbs suddenly braked, its body turned, and the giant hammer at its tail flew over with the wind and snow.

Unfortunately, Yu Ke had already predicted its move, and lightly backflipped and landed on the boulder on the side, replaced with armor-piercing arrows, and aimed at the monster's eyeballs on both sides.

The left eye failed to hit, and the right eye was directly shot by the armor-piercing arrow, and the juice splashed.

The deformed monster, in a furious state, attacked again regardless of anything, and this time Yu Ke didn't plan to deal with it again. He put away his bow and arrows, and took out the Leviathan Axe instead. At the moment when the monster hit the boulder under his feet, he jumped out and landed directly on its back.

The blue quality power enhancement plus the sharp axe blade, the result is self-evident.

Aiming at the center of the head of the deformed monster, only two or three axes fell, both the armor and the skull were chopped into pieces.

When Yu Ke withdrew, the deformed monster could only twist and struggle on the shore, and soon it completely lost its voice, but the former did not relax at all, and ran quickly to the monster's head again, stepped on the neck, and chopped off its head directly.

This is to prevent it from coming back to life like the human-faced owl.

Although the probability of this situation is not high, this deformed monster should have been in the second stage, but it is better to be careful. Yu Ke does not want to be injured in such a place, or to be injured by such an infected monster.

Now neither he nor the Forest Protection Bureau has a specific medicine to solve this infection.

Deformed beast: a beast infected by Pandora, with abnormal body deformation, and blood and flesh are contagious!

The information of checking for omissions and filling in the gaps emerged. Yu Ke glanced at the monster blood stained on the axe blade, looked around, and did not put it directly into the mountain stream to wash it. Instead, he picked the leaves of ferns nearby and scooped water to wipe it clean.

"It's better not to use an axe if you can solve it with a bow and arrow later."

After a lot of effort to clean it, Yu Ke put away the Leviathan Axe and shook his head.

Originally, the leather of this monster should be able to sell for a lot of money, but unfortunately the corpse of the infected distorted monster has no value, and Yu Ke is too lazy to deal with it.

Fortunately, the trophy characteristics identified it as a special individual and provided an attribute enhancement:

[Main attribute] Defense enhancement (white)

The white quality proves that this distorted monster is indeed a relatively low-level monster, that is, it is barely qualified to climb to the lower level of the wolf after mutation, but the attribute enhancement provided is not bad, which is the type that Yu Ke does not have now.

Looking down at his palm, Yu Ke can clearly feel that the texture of the skin has changed.

Even if it is not invulnerable, the ability to withstand attacks has definitely improved.

Checking the experience gained by [Investigator], 80% has turned into light blue. Killing two or three more deformed monsters should complete the upgrade, while [Forest Ranger] still has a lot of gaps.

Considering that the flesh and blood of the monster in front of him will pollute the nearby environment, it may also be taken away by other hunting groups as free trophies, causing the members of the hunting group to be polluted.

Yu Ke specially tore a piece of bark nearby, wrote the words "Blood and flesh are poisonous, do not touch" and placed it next to it.

If this can't stop the greedy hands of some people, then he can't do anything.

Good words can't persuade the damn ghost!

Riding on the frightened deer again, Yu Ke checked the location of the camping spot he found earlier.

Beep~ Beep~

The watch issued a prompt tone representing a communication request.

Yu Ke took off his helmet, took out a Bluetooth headset from his pocket and put it on, and said,

"This is Yu Ke, the forest ranger."

"Just received news from the research institute. The body of the mutated mandrill you found last night has been dissected. Researchers found that it contains a large number of spores. You can think of them as seeds of those flowers. They are scattered everywhere with the actions of the mutated mandrill. Once they grow out, they will immediately infect the surrounding environment!"

Ansai Li's voice sounded in his ears, with a heavy tone. After a pause, he added,

"Including the mutated mandrill, Pandora is spreading its infection range in this way."

"Is there no way to stop it, such as suppressing the activity of spores or removing infected drugs."

The Mirror Lake Forest has undergone large-scale mutations due to the influence of the Cataclysm Era, which has both advantages and disadvantages for humans.

The appearance of the ferocious beasts has certainly threatened humans, but the resources of the Mirror Lake Forest have indeed cultivated a large number of extraordinary people, allowing humans to have the power to resist various supernatural events.

The effects of the mutation caused by Pandora are completely different. It is like a malignant tumor, constantly spreading in the Mirror Lake Forest, destroying the original ecological environment and creating all kinds of distorted monsters that cannot be used by humans.

"The high temperature and light brought by the flame are fine, but it needs to be prepared in advance. Considering that there are many dead trees and fallen leaves in the forest in winter, it must be used with caution. Where are you now?"

"I'm heading to campsite X133. I don't plan to move at night."

Yu Ke didn't have any fire-starting equipment, but he had more than a dozen explosive arrows prepared in advance, so he wanted to save them.

"It's the right choice. Campsite X133 is located in a thorny bush, which can ensure safety at night, but be careful not to get scratched. The exploration team has opened a specific entrance and exit. If you find anything else, please contact us at any time."

An Saili used to be a member of the exploration team and could find out the specific conditions of each campsite. He reminded her.

"Understood, contact me again!"

After hanging up the call, Yu Ke put away his headphones and looked up at the sky.

It was almost evening, and the sky was getting dark very quickly. He had to speed up.