Despite the doubled training, Otto still persevered; he had no choice but to persist, as the instructor was watching from above.
If it were when he first joined the Dragon Nest Tribe, Otto might have had thoughts of slacking off, but now he absolutely had none. Anyone who dared to slack off would face the brutal disciplinary iron fist of the instructor.
Moreover, according to what Otto had learned during his past weeks living in the Dragon Nest Tribe, their meals as prospective members were actually the lowest in the entire Dragon Nest Tribe.
Currently, the Dragon Nest Tribe is strictly divided into several parts: prospective members like them who have just joined and are still in the bootcamp transformation stage; those with weak constitutions not suited for combat, needing only a daily exercise for production Beastmen; Beastman militiamen with limited daily training but mainly tasked with various productive activities; Beastman soldiers who regularly train and hunt outside, serving as the main force in combat; and the most powerful of all, said to closely surround His Highness Austin, the Dark Dragon Guard and Dragon Vein Attendants.
Previously, only the Dark Elves knew some Breathing Techniques of the Dark World, so the Extraordinary Beastmen that were transferred were mostly Dark Dragon Guard. However, with the fall of the Blood Claw Tribe Branch and some Beastman Transcendents surrendering and swearing allegiance to Austin, contributing their Breathing Techniques, the numbers of the Dark Dragon Guard and Dragon Vein Attendants have now balanced out.
But this is beyond what Otto can know. What he does know and what fuels him with endless motivation are the different food standards among the Dragon Nest Beastmen. Even the lowest-level Beastman producers can have a small piece of meat with every meal.
As for the higher categories of the Dragon Nest Beastmen, he doesn’t have the delusion of reaching that level himself.
Ah, meat. Otto had only ever eaten a piece of bone with minor meat bits long ago, which was a treat given to him by a delighted tribal leader during a feast. That deliciousness was almost unforgettable in his life.
And more importantly, that small piece of meat was just a guaranteed ration norm. Becoming a Beastman producer also offers opportunities for work point rewards due to various diligence. Work points can buy tastier food. As long as there are enough work points, buying a large piece of meat to eat one’s fill is no problem.
If one day he could eat his fill with meat, he would be willing to die.
Precisely because of this, Otto consistently pushed himself. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ɴo(v)elFɪre.ɴet
One must know that within the Beastman Legion, there exists a Ratman scout team. If one day he could join the army due to outstanding performance, that would really be a leap to great status.
As he came to know, those Ratmen predecessors, before joining the Dragon Nest Tribe, were in equally low positions like himself but still went on to become important forces in the army. He may not be incapable of the same.
Harboring a small hope he dared not dream about for the future, Ratman Otto quickly returned to his position and continued the prior training.
During this period, the training regime for these prospective members of the Dragon Nest Tribe has increased significantly.
In fact, all this is not unrelated to the earlier series of wars.
First, there was the battle with the Blood Claw Tribe Branch, followed by the giant beast attack incited by mercenaries. Both battles cost the entire Dragon Nest Tribe heavily, especially with severe losses among the combat personnel.
Had it not been for the Dragon Nest Beastmen’s fanatical loyalty to Austin, they might have already been defeated under such severe casualty rates.
Although the Dragon Nest Beastmen battled bravely, winning both battles, the heavy casualties left the combat troops of the entire Dragon Nest Tribe halved, significantly reducing its strength.
In order to replenish the army’s strength, with the next generation of Dragon Nest Tribe not fully grown yet, these wandering Beastmen and other prospective members who joined became the most vital source for supplementing fresh forces.
Moreover, with the onset of the cold winter halting all forms of production activities, leaving abundant free time, these prospective Beastmen members have naturally been subjected to increased training volumes.
Additionally, the reason for augmenting their training volume wasn’t simply the severe losses suffered by the Dragon Nest Beastman Legion. During this period, the Dragon Nest Tribe also planned a project—a giant beast hunting plan.
"Your Highness, that’s the situation, what do you think?"
Within the Dragon Nest, the Governor of the Dragon Nest Tribe, Vini, was reporting the situation to Austin.
Previously, due to the advent of the cold winter, there had been an influx of wandering Beastmen in the wild, and with the current reputation of the Dragon Nest Tribe striking fear into tribes within a hundred-mile radius, following the spread of its fame, it immediately received plenty of Beastmen coming to pledge allegiance and join the Dragon Nest Tribe. In the ten days leading to the cold winter, more than dozens of wandering Beastmen came to join each day.
Thus, in the two major battles, although the Dragon Nest Tribe suffered many losses in Beastmen, its population growth was not slow. As a result, even though the Dragon Nest Tribe’s food supply was starting to strain, as long as the daily allocation was squeezed a bit, they could naturally make it through the cold winter and last until the next harvest.
However, with the propagation of the Breathing Technique, the cultivation of which required significant energy and consumption, even though Austin didn’t intend to increase the number of Dragon Vein Beastmen for now, the food needed for cultivating the Breathing Technique was still a sizable quantity. Unless Austin wanted the Beastmen to stop cultivating the Breathing Technique, the food supply couldn’t be reduced.
Amidst these circumstances, Vini came up with a solution, which was to hunt the giant beasts.
Long before the mercenary attack, the Dark Elves had led a hunting team to kill a giant beast approaching the Dragon Nest Tribe and dragged its carcass back for food.
At that time, Vini discovered that the life energy within the giant beast seemed quite abundant. Typically, the Extraordinary Beastmen who could eat ten pounds of normal meat at a time were full after eating just two pounds.
Moreover, not only did it fill them up, but after eating giant beast meat, these Extraordinary Beastmen seemed to have been strengthened to some degree.
Although such strengthening wasn’t apparent among the Extraordinary Beastmen, the physical constitution of ordinary Beastman soldiers did indeed improve after eating giant beast meat a few times. Initially, Vini wasn’t too sure about the effects of the giant beast meat, but when mercenaries attacked, drawing in five giant beasts that were eventually slaughtered by Austin along with the Dragon Nest Tribe Beastmen, the corpses became the food for the Dragon Nest Tribe Beastmen.
With the substantial base of giant beast meat, the strengthening effect of the giant beast meat became fully demonstrated, and Vini also discovered that this giant beast meat not only satiated hunger and strengthened Beastman bodies but also considerably facilitated the cultivation of the Breathing Technique.
Due to many such reasons, Vini came before Austin with a plan for hunting giant beasts.