Chapter 230: Chapter 226: Imitation Snake Structure
The venomous snake that sprung up above did not escape the perception of the White Bear Knight. Although he did not notice it at first, he still sensed the danger when the snake launched its attack.
However, just as the White Bear Knight planned to seize the snake, a sudden shout of "Watch out!" came, and a dart flew from afar, striking the snake and sending it flying.
Seeing the snake being knocked away, the White Bear Knight didn’t bother to look at who threw the dart. He quickly jumped up from the snow and dashed over to check if the snake was dead.
He saw the snake had curled up on the ground but didn’t appear to be dead, still energetically wriggling. He felt somewhat relieved, hurriedly grabbed the snake, and put it into a cloth bag.
Yet, the person who threw the dart felt dissatisfied with the White Bear Knight’s action and rushed over to question him: "What is wrong with you? You nearly got bitten by the venomous snake, shouldn’t you care about yourself first instead of worrying about the snake?"
"My orders are to catch snakes, and I was almost happy to encounter one. However, thank you for your help; had I been bitten, it would indeed be troublesome for me as well." The White Bear Knight now had a moment to look at the person who saved him, seeing in front of him a young girl adorned in indigenous attire with horse mane decorations. She held the dart used to save his life.
The White Bear Knight recognized this type of dart, a throwing weapon used by local indigenous people. Due to its unique structure, it can fly back after being thrown, making it a very peculiar weapon.
Clearly, it was this young girl who used such a weapon to knock away the snake, thereby saving him.
But facing the gratitude from the White Bear Knight, the girl looked displeased and criticized: "You white people always do this, exploiting resources from the forest beyond survival needs; it will eventually lead to retribution from the spirits of nature."
The White Bear Knight was not angry at the girl’s accusation.
On one hand, the girl had just saved him; such criticism was not enough to make him upset.
On the other hand, the White Bear Knight did not really understand the girl’s mixed language, which contained local dialects in Victory language.
This is one reason why the Empire’s locals look down on colonial people; they think the Victory language spoken by colonial people is full of slang and indigenous dialect, not quite standard.
It’s akin to the world Perfikot visited before his travels, where people once looked down on those who spoke dialects, considering them rustic.
Yet, the White Bear Knight did not mind the girl’s imperfect Victory language. He simply told her, "I caught this snake because my lord requires it, not to satisfy my hunger.
You have your ways of survival; we have ours, there’s no difference.
No matter how it’s said, I appreciate you saving me today. I’m Charlie of the White Bear Knight Order; this is for you, as a token of remembrance."
The White Bear Knight named Charlie said this and handed his dagger to the girl as a gesture of gratitude.
Immediately, Charlie prepared to return to the territory with the captured snake.
Though the snake had been struck, his inspection showed it was still quite lively, with no issues.
Based on Charlie’s experience, usually, a region won’t have two snakes unless it’s mating season, so there likely aren’t any more snakes around.
If he wanted to catch another one, it might not be possible by nightfall, so it was wise to return early.
Nights in the Northern Territory are not only extremely cold and deadly but also harbor dangerous animals that remain active even in winter, posing lethal threats even to an Extraordinary Knight like him.
So unless necessary, no one would willingly spend the night outdoors, even the local indigenous people wouldn’t.
The girl hesitated a bit upon receiving the dagger from Charlie but eventually took it, then said to him, "I’m Lili from the Wild Mane Tribe. If you truly want to thank me, then in the future, try to avoid unnecessary killings in the forest, white warrior."
After speaking, the girl turned and left as well.
Charlie soon returned to Eagle’s Beak Cliff with the captured snake and presented it to Perfikot.
Perfikot showed a strong interest in the snake Charlie captured; though the snake seemed slightly off due to the hit, a life potion and alchemy treatment from the Alchemy Master quickly restored its health, making it vibrant and lively.
Perfikot had people feed the snake some food and then began studying the snake’s motion.
Serpent’s forward movement primarily relies on the friction of abdominal scales with the ground, achieved through different muscle contraction techniques, allowing for four distinct movement patterns: linear compression, lateral undulation, side winding, and serpentine.
These four movement patterns are formed through the unique skeletal structure and muscle distribution of snakes, along with the combined action of scales on their abdomen and sides.
For example, in linear compression, snakes utilize simultaneous contraction and relaxation of all muscles to stretch and compress their bodies. During contraction, frontal abdominal scales anchor to the ground, pulling the rear body forward.
In relaxation, rear abdominal scales anchor to the ground, stretching the front part forward as much as possible, achieving linear advancement.
This movement method is similar to annelid locomotion, albeit annelids rely on setae for friction, unlike snakes using scales.
During side winding, snakes use lateral scales on their abdomen to provide friction, manipulating side scales to open or close through different contraction and relaxation, offering friction in contraction, reducing it in relaxation, providing forward thrust through asynchronous grounding.
This motion and body structure greatly inspired Perfikot, and she quickly designed a mechanical device simulating a snake’s physical structure, crafting a model.
This model effectively simulated snake-like motion patterns, easily achieving Perfikot’s desired curvilinear and even spiral movement.
However, Perfikot soon discovered a problem: snakes inherently struggle to move backward, their body structure significantly hampers their retreat speed compared to forward advances.
But Perfikot was not daunted; she reanalyzed the characteristics of snake anatomy, creating a structure mimicking snake abdominal scales that could pivot 180°, thus solving this issue.