Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Ji Chaoyang’s first sentence didn’t catch Xu Xin’s attention, but the second one made his eyes light up.

"Almost forgot, Keke was attracted to the red berries being carried in a pocket back then. Those beasts would naturally be interested in these blue-grade fruits as well."

Xu Xin thought for a moment and decided to share a bit of information in the group.

"Blue-grade fruits won’t attract beasts before harvesting, only after we survivors pick them do they gain quality and attraction. So, everyone doesn’t need to worry about blue-grade ingredients being eaten by beasts. But be careful when picking them in the wild and put them in your backpack quickly; otherwise, they will attract powerful beasts.

Of course, you can also use the reaction of nearby beasts to judge whether the fruit is of blue-grade."

Ji Chaoyang chimed in: "That I truly didn’t know, but now that you mention it, I remember another piece of information. The beast’s carcass must be cut using the skinning knife made by the treehouse. I tried cutting it myself yesterday, and the meat and skin I cut out had no grade.

The beast skin can’t be used for making backpacks and armor, and the meat can’t be traded on the platform; it’s just ordinary meat and skin. The meat is fine for personal consumption, but although you can make a beast skin backpack, it won’t have the treehouse backpack’s storage and weight reduction features.

So, everyone, don’t choose self-cutting because you save on the skinning knife, what’s cut out is useless."

"Oh?" Xu Xin squinted his eyes and started to ponder.

He recalled the introduction of the blue-grade skinning knife.

[Skinning Knife (Blue): A delicate knife that can quickly decompose beast carcasses, with a chance to obtain blue-level and below materials.]

Using this skinning knife, there is a chance to obtain blue-grade materials. In other words, the reason for obtaining blue-grade materials isn’t the beast carcass’s original grade but because of this knife.

This also explains why the 200-kilograms wild boar Xu Xin painstakingly hunted didn’t produce blue-grade materials, while a snake he accidentally crushed did.

The beast’s carcass affects the type of material received, and the skinning knife’s grade influences the material’s grade. Perhaps the chance of high-grade materials appearing is higher with strong beast carcasses.

The reason might be similar to Xu Xin’s previous theory about why red berries don’t attract beasts before harvesting.

These so-called attributes are given by this survival game. The original beasts didn’t have grades, and he couldn’t see the green, blue, purple glows on them with his ability, only differently bright red dots on the map.

The skinning knife imbued the materials cut from beast carcasses with attributes, enabling them to participate in treehouse construction.

This guess further proves that these so-called green, blue, purple resource grades aren’t things originally possessed by this world; they are given by this survival game.

A mysterious hand is manipulating this world and these outsider survivors.

Shaking his head, Xu Xin suppressed these thoughts down in his heart. This wasn’t the time to consider these issues.

He sent a private message to Ji Chaoyang: "Did you notice any strange structures while hunting yesterday?"

Ji Chaoyang took a while to reply: "Indeed, where beasts gathered, there were several stone pillars. From a distance, they looked unclear, but they felt a bit like an altar."

An altar? Xu Xin pondered, the few stone pillars in position do suggest a square’s four corner spots, much like the corners of an altar.

"Hmm, same as what I saw, planning to check them out today."

"Be cautious, the beasts around there are tough, not something we can handle right now."

"Okay."

After hanging up the voice call, Xu Xin turned to look at Silver King and Keke. These two were already acquainted well, with Silver King lying on the ground and Keke lying on Silver King’s neck, grabbing wolf fur with its little paws and burying its head, appearing very comfortable.

"Alright, we need to go out and hunt beasts."

Xu Xin checked the map and found many red dots around the treehouse, none brighter than the brightness akin to a black bear, and not many beasts gathered in groups; the previous wolf pack had moved far away.

Loading a regular bolt into the crossbow, Xu Xin went to the first floor, activating the automatic shooting mode of the heavy crossbow. Perhaps he’d have a surprise gain upon returning.

Xu Xin took Silver King and Keke to the ground.

Riding a wolf for the first time, Xu Xin felt a bit excited.

As though sensing Xu Xin’s intent, Silver King directly lowered its body.

"Quite obedient." Xu Xin patted Silver King’s head and mounted the wolf’s back directly.

After Xu Xin sat securely, Silver King stood up. Xu Xin tightly gripped the wolf’s sides with his legs and held the fur on the wolf’s back with both hands, slightly nervous.

He had been to the grassland of Inner Mongolia, riding the entertainment horses trained there, grasping the horse’s reins tightly and running several laps around the arena, leaving his arms nearly exhausted afterward. So he dared not recklessly let Silver King run.

It’s impossible for someone untrained to directly ride a horse.

Keke climbed onto his shoulder at this moment.

Xu Xin let Silver King run a few steps and was amazed to find that, although not equipped with saddle-like devices, he felt seemingly integrated with Silver King effortlessly and freely, even without holding onto the wolf’s fur, he wouldn’t be thrown off.

Seems this is the ability of the pact.

A convenient ability.

"Silver King, run in that direction." Xu Xin directed Silver King to an area with darker red dots, intending to test his crossbow.

Silver King howled once and swiftly ran towards the direction Xu Xin pointed.

"Whoa! Haha!" Xu Xin experienced the thrill of riding the Wolf King through the woods, each time feeling he would crash into the poplar trees ahead, but Silver King always managed to evade skillfully without losing speed, truly exhilarating.

"Eek eek eek!" Keke also appeared quite excited, possibly never having experienced such speed, squealing in the wind.

"Stop!" Seeing the map’s red dots very close, Xu Xin commanded Silver King to halt.

Silver King brake abruptly, but Xu Xin didn’t feel much, and Keke on his shoulder almost flew off.

"Eek!" Keke jumped onto Silver King’s head, stomping it once.

"Oo?"

"You two, quiet!" Xu Xin scolded softly, and the two quieted down.

Xu Xin soon spotted those beasts, not anything dangerous, just a few spotted deer. They were quite far and hadn’t noticed the spotted deer.

Xu Xin didn’t ride the wolf forward, knowing wolves generally can’t outrun deer, especially carrying him.

After pondering, Xu Xin dismounted Silver King, switching to poison arrows on the crossbow.

He wanted to test the effect of poison arrows, saying they could be lethal to small beasts, but are spotted deer considered small beasts?

He aimed at a spotted deer’s body, steadied his hands, and shot a bolt.

"Whoosh!" The bolt precisely hit the deer’s body, embedded halfway, and the startled deer leapt up, sending other grazing spotted deer fleeing.

Xu Xin quickly loaded another regular arrow, raised his hand, and shot at a fleeing deer.

Nevertheless, he missed, as the deer galloped quickly, vanishing in the forest.

Xu Xin shook his head helplessly; his archery skills still needed improvement.

That deer struck by his poison arrow only managed to run several meters before stiffening and collapsing on the ground, convulsing endlessly.

Xu Xin walked over, the convulsions of the deer on the ground diminishing gradually, eventually ceasing completely.

[Hunted spotted deer, gained points: 10.]