Chapter 282: Chapter 282: Camp building, the baron’s additional talents and interests

It was not until the 100th kill that Theo started getting sluggish. He had done a great job in getting himself surrounded from everywhere, and the speed at which he had to defeat the crawlers had become so fast that he was losing double his stamina every minute.

Soon enough, it was the first time Theo had been attacked by these things, and it was because of his blind spot at the back, where he hadn’t looked for a few seconds.

The crawler came and dug its teeth into his calf, making Theo panic and move his leg around in a hurry.

Until he realized there was no time, he jumped after taking two steps to not get attacked by any other crawlers.

When Theo was out of the situation of being surrounded, he quickly sliced the head off the crawler attached to his leg like a leech.

It had encircled its worm- and snake-like body around the leg, making it attach firmly.

When the notification came of its death, Theo quickly smacked at the head that was still attached to his leg two to three times before it came off with a ’POP’ sound.

Theo ran back to Clara and the baron, where his colony was present.

’Ant Queen, paralyze as many crawlers as you can,’ he gave the command.

Yet the baron just smiled. "You bit more than you could chew, but you still did a great job." He spoke while casually moving forward toward the worms moving toward them in such numbers that they were on top of each other.

The baron closed his eyes only for a moment and opened them with intensity.

They felt the air change instantly around the baron. It felt pressuring to take a breath, but it was not as bad as when they were usually in the office.

All the crawlers made sounds of shrieking for the first time and scattered away, some far away, while some dug into the ground.

Elias, the ape, Clara, and Theo looked at the situation with their mouths open in dumbfoundedness.

Theo got a message from the ant queen stating that its paralysis had already broken, and the crawlers fled.

"You... could do that from the get-go?" Theo asked, dropping the formalities in this shock.

"It won’t be training if I made things easy, will it?" The baron spoke after closing his eyes and opening them again in a calm manner.

"My aura is still lingering around a few tens of meters in diameter. I am not going to go full burst, as it will only attract the bigger ones," the baron spoke.

Theo didn’t even want to know what the bigger ones were. He quickly sat down but realized the crawlers came from the ground itself.

It was as if the baron would tell directly what he was thinking about when he said, "My aura spans a few meters in the ground too. Nothing will come up to the surface where I am at." He said after starting to look forward.

Theo looked at Clara and then forward. He sighed in relief, thinking it was finally time to rest a little.

Clara looked down at his leg, tried to spot any holes in the Lesser Dragon armor, only to nod in appreciation.

"I got a lot of EXP right now, even the mantis," Theo muttered. "What about you, boar and the pup?" Theo asked.

With the pup’s name, it came forward toward Theo, asking for some pats.

It had grown to an adult silverwolf’s size, making it half the size of Theo now. It was ready for combat.

"We all got a lot of EXP, young master." She spoke until she looked at Elias. Theo did too.

"Even the ape got a lot of EXP, and we were really late to the party," Elias explained, making Theo nod.

"Enough chit-chat, we will be making camp now. Come here, everyone." The baron spoke. Theo saw him touch the trees around with some metal object he had in his hand.

"What are you doing, father?" He asked.

"Rule number two, while you’re traveling in a gate or any other adventure." The baron spoke with a cheeky grin. "You need this thing to check if there is any poison in the things you will be using from the forest or any place, just like this one," he muttered.

He touched the small metal object again on the tree from a different angle, which had its trunk coming out, making space for him to check deeper.

When he got it out, the object’s tip turned green.

"Green means no poison, red means light poison. Dark red means normal poison, and purple means deadly poison." The baron explained. Theo nodded.

"These trees are okay to use, everyone. Let’s get to work." He stated after getting the spatial box out and taking four shiny axes out of it like it was nothing.

Theo could see the space distortion while he was taking it outside the box.

’How does this work? And should I keep looking at it to get some epiphany and find another evolution option?’ Theo thought to himself but didn’t speak it out.

For now, all that mattered was to settle in this place.

"Should I start cooking, my lord? Young master?" Clara asked while nodding toward Elias, who took the backpack off and started taking out packed meat and spices.

"Not right now, we will first chop this wood and make a camp." The baron spoke after passing each axe to everyone and keeping one for himself.

He steadied himself to hit, making Elias panic. "My lord! You don’t have to do this too. Clara and I will do it." He said with haste, making the baron sigh.

"Look, kid. I come from a very proud ancestry of lumberjacks." The baron spoke and frowned. "No work is small for anyone. You just have to do what you can."

"Now get those axes and start hitting the trees. I should see a tree falling every five minutes, got it?" He spoke, making the attendants nod and Theo go to the nearest tree to chop it.

He readied himself to make the first hit with a smile. This was the kind of menial task that he always wanted to do but didn’t need to. Now that he did, he was happy.

BANNGGGG!

CREEAAAKKK

Everyone jumped in surprise and looked back at the sound.

When Theo saw the situation, he couldn’t help but laugh or cry.

The baron had chopped a tree down with a single strike, making the tree fall slowly