Chapter 35: Expanding the Bee Swarm

Before they departed, James suddenly made a suggestion: "Brother, let's take a detour here." 

He pointed towards a dense cluster of red dots within the forest. 

Luke quickly grasped his intention: "For the bee swarm? Sure, this swarm seems small, about less than three thousand in number. It could be a good addition for you."

Altering their route slightly, they headed deeper into the forest. Along the way, James discovered a patch of high-quality birch wood, though it was scarce. He marked the location and continued forward.

Soon, they reached a deeper part of the forest and found scattered bees that seemed lethargic, probably due to the weather. These bees resembled the tree bees, small in size with yellow and black bodies, not very aggressive, and mainly living off nectar.

This was a relief for James. If they were 3,000 Black Tiger Bees, it would have been a different story. His own swarm of over 1,000 tree bees wouldn't stand a chance against them, and he might have ended up being beaten himself.

Approaching the large tree where the hive was located, they finally got a clear view of the swarm. A huge beehive hung on a tree dozens of meters high, with dense bees swarming around it. This swarm seemed larger than the previous tree hollow swarm but likely not as strong.

To save time, James decided not to let the two swarms fight each other but to use fire instead. They gathered burnable material around the tree. 

Due to the recent snow, it took a while to find enough dry wood. 

This time, the plan was not just to smoke them out but to set the whole tree on fire.

The fire was lit at the base of the tree, and it quickly spread up the trunk. As the bark was dry and flammable, but the inner wood was moist, the fire spread slowly inside. Soon, the flames reached the upper part of the tree, engulfing many bees that were too slow to escape.

James's goal was simple: to force the queen bee out. Before long, a fist-sized bee emerged from the hive – the queen.

"There it is!" James's eyes lit up, and he immediately instructed the Black Tiger Bee Queen to lead his swarm towards the tree bee queen. 

He had expected an easy capture, but an unexpected challenge arose. 

Among the bees, there were three almost the size of the queen, just slightly smaller. James guessed these three tree bees were likely of high quality as well.

Even though the Black Tiger Bee Queen was powerful, it was difficult to fight against four high-quality bees at once. This made the battle situation suddenly tense.

James frowned, realizing the situation was not good. His swarm was at a numerical disadvantage, and overall weaker than the opposing swarm. 

The strategy had to be a swift decapitation to claim victory. If the battle dragged on, his swarm could be slowly overwhelmed by the larger enemy swarm.

"Brother, looks like I need your help after all."

"Alright, no problem."

Luke promptly took out his bow and arrows. With a 'thwack', an arrow struck one of the high-quality tree bees. Surprisingly, the bee wasn't pierced through but knocked several meters away, falling motionless to the ground.

Luke was shocked. "Even though it's just a regular arrow, it used to pierce through wolves. I didn't expect it to be stopped by a bee. Such a tough shell!"

"That's a high-quality beast for you, the difference from ordinary beasts is astounding!" Luke exclaimed in amazement.

Despite the hard shell, the bee hit by the arrow was probably not far from death. After two more shots, one successful and one missed, another high-quality tree bee fell to the ground.

Now, only one high-quality tree bee and the queen remained. The pressure on the Black Tiger Bee Queen significantly reduced, and it pummeled the tree bee queen, soon subduing it.

The battle between the two swarms ceased after the tree bee queen was captured. Like before, James used the "capture the queen to control the swarm" tactic, temporarily taking control of the tree bees.

To truly dominate the swarm, he needed to wait until returning to the shelter to train a regular tree bee into a queen, a long process. For now, though, the swarm was under James's control.

With the addition of the tree bees, the swarm grew to over 2300, and with the inclusion of a couple of high-quality bees, its strength increased significantly.

As for the two downed tree bees, James was concerned about their strength. Adding two more high-quality bees might make the swarm uncontrollable, so he decided to kill them. Unfortunately, they didn't drop any resource boxes.

After clearing the dead ordinary bees, they only obtained two ordinary resource boxes. James, looking at his enlarged swarm and the resource boxes on the ground, grinned ear to ear.

"Brother, who would have thought hunting could yield such rewards!"

"Well, it's also because there are many small wild animals here, and our strength is relatively strong. Ordinary survivors, without a beast search scroll or a bee swarm, not to mention their weaker individual strength, wouldn't dare to hunt or even wander in the wild. The five emaciated wolves we encountered, despite their weakness, are not something an ordinary person can handle."

Luke seriously explained, emphasizing that hunting required caution and any underestimation could be fatal. He recalled his own experience being attacked by a Black Tiger Bee swarm and how James's healing potion saved him from the venom.

James nodded in agreement. Their dominance in the forest today was a result of their combined strength and good development.

With this in mind, James regained his cautious demeanor and continued forward.

Twenty minutes later, they arrived at a rock wall covered with green vines, behind which was a barely visible cave. They didn't approach rashly but observed from a distance.

Luke, examining the surroundings, led them to a pond. Clearing the snow on the ground, they found several footprints.

"Wild boars!"

Luke and James recognized them simultaneously, their hearts tensing up. They exchanged a glance and silently retreated from the cave area to a safer place.

Luke spoke gravely, "It seems to be a wild boar cave. Wild boars usually live in caves or near rivers. They sleep during the day and forage at night. They should be sleeping now, so we don't have to worry too much. But we still need to discuss whether we should make a move. Those footprints are much larger than ordinary wild boars, indicating these boars are very large and strong."

James furrowed his brow, pondering, and asked, "Brother, based on your experience, how strong are wild boars?"

"If it's an adult male wild boar, it should be... top-tier high-quality level. My current strength is in the upper-middle tier of the high-quality level," Luke thoughtfully responded.

James's heart sank. This meant that even in a one-on-one fight, Luke might not be able to handle a wild boar, let alone four of them.