Chapter 126: The Treant Guardian

To obtain enough wood to trade for the Pig King's equipment, Qin Fei led Xie Nainai, his pigman sidekick, and Big Nose out to the meadow beyond the village.

The meadow was dotted with scattered evergreen trees. Qin Fei sought out a young-looking evergreen, gathered his strength, and struck the trunk with his palm. A faint handprint appeared on the bark, but the tree itself remained completely unmoved. Qin Fei was secretly startled. After the enhancements from his "Primary Physique Upgrade" and "Strength Enhancement Module," his body was six times stronger than an ordinary person's. Combined with the mutations caused by the Teck serum, he couldn't even knock down a four-meter-tall evergreen with a full-force blow.

Without a metal axe, he lacked the proper tools for logging. Perhaps because the world of *Don't Starve* was a low-magic plane, not only were the creatures absurdly strong, but the trees were far harder than he had imagined. He could manage to snap off a few branches for a fire with brute force, but felling an entire tree by hand seemed like a daunting task.

However, Qin Fei came up with a crude plan: find a flat stone and repeatedly bash the trunk, slowly grinding it down until the tree fell. It would be time-consuming and exhausting. Just as he was looking resigned, his pigman sidekick suddenly rushed to the tree and punched the trunk with all its might.

"Bad tree! Hit you!"

Qin Fei could see the pigman was putting everything into its punches, as if it harbored some deep-seated grudge against the tree.

"I'm stunned," Xie Nainai said, her eyes wide as she watched the pigman. "This pig is actually stronger than you..."

"Indeed, I didn't expect that either." Qin Fei was equally surprised. It followed the game mechanics a bit too closely. He had assumed that while the pigman was willing to follow him, it wouldn't necessarily do manual labor. After all, reality often differed from the game. He hadn't expected the pigman to be so loyal after eating his honey-glazed frog legs that it would jump in to help without a second thought.

Most importantly, the pigman was incredibly strong; every time it struck, Qin Fei could clearly see the entire evergreen shaking. Before long, the tree crashed to the ground. Seeing the pigman working so hard, Qin Fei felt a bit embarrassed. He took his remaining dried meat from the crystal storage space and handed it over. "Good brother, this is for you. You're great!"

The pigman looked delighted. It glanced at Qin Fei, took the meat, and tossed it into its mouth. *Chomp, chomp.* It chewed with gusto, its expression one of pure enjoyment. Seeing how much it liked the food, Qin Fei pulled a can of beer from his backpack and offered it. "Here, have a drink of this. It's got quite a kick."

The beer was high in calories—one can was equivalent to one or two bowls of rice—and, crucially, it granted a 300% boost to unarmed melee damage.

"Delicious! I love friend!" After finishing the beer, the pigman flexed its arms and legs in a standard bodybuilding pose. For a pigman, such high-calorie drinks were a delicacy. It was clearly having a blast. Elated, the pigman began acting like a brother to Qin Fei. Given its strength, high intelligence, and ability to communicate, Qin Fei decided to hire the pigman long-term with meat.

To make communication easier, he asked for its name. It turned out to be called "Caesar." This was common; in the world of *Don't Starve*, many pigmen bore the names of ancient Roman emperors—Augustus, Nero, Romulus—and Caesars were a dime a dozen. Qin Fei decided to call this one "Caesar Pig" to distinguish it from his teammate, Caesar.

With the 300% damage boost from the beer, the pigman spent half an hour felling five evergreens. Qin Fei estimated that each two-to-four-meter tree provided about 50kg of wood; five trees would be enough to trade for all the gear from the Pig King. He strapped two trees to Big Nose’s back, while he, Xie Nainai, and Caesar Pig each shouldered one. They prepared to head back to the village.

After walking a few paces, Xie Nainai stopped and turned to Qin Fei. "Hey... do you feel the ground shaking?"

"It seems so..." Qin Fei felt the tremors as well. His expression grew grim as he scanned the surroundings. As the vibrations intensified, a giant Treeguard—a bipedal creature nearly ten meters tall—emerged from the forest!

Damn it! Qin Fei cursed inwardly. He hadn't expected that cutting down a few trees would summon a Treeguard. These were boss-level creatures that hid within evergreen forests. Generally, there was a 1% chance for nearby trees to transform into a Treeguard when others were cut down. Having felled only five trees, he had triggered a 5% chance and drawn out the beast. Talk about bad luck!

The Treeguard was beyond their current capabilities. If Qin Fei struggled to push over a tree, he had no hope of defeating a ten-meter-tall monster. The Treeguard charged toward them. Qin Fei immediately dropped his tree and urged his companion and the two pigs to run.

They fled toward the swamp. Qin Fei's plan was simple: he couldn't fight the Treeguard, but if he could make it back to the pigman village, the sheer number of pigmen there would be enough to beat the creature down. The Treeguard wasn't particularly fast; despite its height, its top speed was roughly equal to theirs. They soon reached the edge of the swamp.

"Hey, you know..." Xie Nainai started, but Qin Fei interrupted her. "Don't say a word!"

The situation was already dire enough. He was terrified that if she kept talking, she might summon more monsters. But Xie Nainai didn't even need to speak; she could summon trouble just by thinking about it.

They hadn't taken many steps into the swamp before four massive, dark-purple tentacles burst from the ground.