Chapter 76: Logging

In the depths of the forest, Charles stood to the side, his tone indifferent as he instructed, “Begin.”

A towering twin-headed behemoth, over six meters tall, emitted a deep, guttural roar. Its two scaly forepaws were sheathed in massive iron gauntlets. With ease, it seized a great tree, the iron claws digging deeply into the bark. Its stocky arms flexed with sudden strength, causing the tree—so thick it would take several men to encircle it—to shake violently. Yet, despite the tremendous force, the tree did not fall.

With a furious bellow, the giant beast charged, its brute force slamming the tree until it finally toppled with a crash. Then, as if it weighed nothing, the creature grabbed the roots and dragged the fallen trunk aside.

Once its labor was done, it crouched down beside Charles. Both of its heads lolled their tongues out, as if vying for his praise.

But Charles frowned. “Far too slow. Five minutes for a single tree? At this rate, clearing a path will take far too long.”

The stretch from the thinning edge of the woods to the iron mine was several kilometers, with tens of thousands of trees standing in the way. Even a totem beast as evolved as this one could not work endlessly—its stamina had limits. At best, it could uproot a few hundred trees a day, making the task drag on for over half a year.

“What a pity. If only I had an Imperial Crocodile,” Charles sighed in resignation.

The strength of an Imperial Crocodile was more than ten times that of this giant—its tail could sweep down several trees in a single blow, bulldozing open a wide road through the forest with ease. Yet, as he was still only at the first level himself, he could not command such a beast two ranks above him; any attempt would risk disastrous backlash.

“Damn it, that firefly is like a bottomless pit. Nearly a hundred evolution points invested, and it still hasn’t evolved!” The thought of his main totem made Charles’ headache intensify.

The probability of a successful evolution had surpassed forty-five percent, yet he stubbornly failed every attempt. He began to doubt if his future nine-tailed celestial fox could ever truly undergo super-evolution.

With that, he abandoned any further attempts for now, resolving to wait until he could gather the necessary gems.

“Bear One, Bear Two, it’s your turn.” He called out, and from behind him, two massive beasts lumbered forward.

Even on all fours, they stood four meters tall, their bodies stretching over six meters in length—each as massive as a tank, their thick fur bristling and their colossal paws half a meter across. Charles had scoured nearly half the Moonlight Forest to find the strongest brown and black bears, then used evolution points to awaken their latent power.

Their size had tripled, their weight now surpassing even the largest African elephants of his previous life, and their strength multiplied many times over—enough to topple trees with ease.

Working together, the two behemoths would each slam into a tree, then use their enormous paws to drag it aside before moving on to the next. The Komodo dragon, its head wrapped in layers of thick leather, also joined in, repeatedly battering trees.

The three-headed dog, however, could do little more than watch—the structure of its body made such brute tasks impossible.

Together, the four beasts pressed onward, felling over a thousand trees in a single afternoon and carving a path more than a kilometer long through the forest.

As for the destruction of the forest—well, this world had no shortage of forests and wild beasts. Besides, in less than a year, when the Gate of Origin opened and surging origin energy flooded the world, countless creatures would begin to grow and multiply at a terrifying rate, perhaps even giving rise to kingdoms of monstrous treefolk.

If it were up to him, Charles would have gladly cleared all the trees around Shining Gold Town.

The next day, the work continued, though Charles did not remain to supervise. Instead, he summoned the roadwork team—assembled from over a thousand refugees—to fill the path with stones, ensuring it would be passable even after rain.

Everyone who arrived was stunned. No matter how they racked their brains, none could fathom how so many trees had been felled overnight, each trunk marked with terrifying claw prints.

Rumors soon spread throughout the town that the young master could command the lords of the forest. Many began to believe he possessed mysterious powers.

Since he had chosen this path, Charles was prepared for such exposure and had ways to deal with it. The world was still backward, and information spread slowly. With the Maestrin family’s grip on their lands, silencing rumors was effortless. Even if word did leak, it would amount to little more than the odd legend—few would believe it, dismissing it as just another tale from the woods.

With the path being rapidly cleared, no wild beast dared approach. Even snakes and insects fled in terror before the evolving totem beasts, making progress astonishingly smooth.

Deep in the forest, where the beasts labored, two figures stood watching.

“How much longer will you stay here, Charles?” Leslie asked, chewing a stalk of grass in boredom.

“About ten days, I think. I must open a road to the iron mine for the family, to secure additional income,” Charles replied after a moment’s thought.

It was the truth. Five days to clear the trees, another five to drive off the wild beasts near the mine and move the largest boulders.

“That’s far too slow!”

Leslie stretched his limbs, and the suit of armor that had appeared once before now materialized again, transforming him into a fearsome engine of war.

“Let me lend you a hand!”

With a hiss, scarlet light flashed and danced. Trees fell one after another, severed in an instant, and with a casual kick Leslie sent each trunk flying as though it were nothing but a twig. The scene was a display of overwhelming violence.

A smile curved Charles’ lips—this was precisely why he’d brought Leslie along. With a free laborer of such power, why not make use of him?

A warrior who had half-stepped into the third rank, using his totem construct, Leslie’s strength now surpassed most ordinary ultimate forms. For him, felling trees was a trivial matter.

By the time the blood-red light faded, a wide road had been cleared before them—thousands of trees lay felled, and a black hill, previously hidden, now stood exposed in the open.

In other words, Leslie had completed in half an hour what the four giant beasts would have needed five days to accomplish.

“All right, that’s enough—I’m exhausted! Don’t forget to prepare a whole roasted sheep for me!” Rubbing his aching arms and legs, Leslie strode away, mounted a horse, and rode back to the manor.

“Such strength is truly enviable,” Charles murmured, watching him go. With a single thought, he sent the still-startled beasts back to work.

He, too, turned and left, planning to finish everything with one last push the following day.

On his way back, a blur of white crashed into him, razor-sharp claws slashing viciously at his head.

Charles stood calmly, unmoving, and caught his assailant by the throat. “Little one, I’ve been waiting for you.”