The disaster beast that resembled a real frog had skin like withered tree bark—pitted and uneven. It hid within the dead forest, making it extremely difficult for the human eye to distinguish. It was easy to unknowingly walk straight into its mouth and walk to one’s own death.
Jiang Li once again felt the danger of this world.
Aside from the cockroach beast she had seen before, there were also these disaster beasts that were good at camouflage—completely unexpected.
If Jiang Li were not a player, but just an ordinary villager, she would likely have already become food for the beast.
She took a deep breath, forcefully calming the violently beating heart in her chest.
‘What a pity I can’t eat it right now.’
Jiang Li swallowed, looking regretfully at the dead disaster beast in front of her.
A line of information about it appeared before her eyes.
[Withered Leaping Frog (Tier 1): Its skin color and texture resemble the surrounding environment. A natural master of camouflage, it often likes to lie on tree trunks and, when someone passes by, uses its tongue to wrap them up and swallow them into its stomach.]
Disaster beasts were also infected by the gray mist, but unlike fragile humans, they could coexist with it. Their powerful life force allowed them to resist the erosion of gray-mist sickness.
This also meant their flesh contained varying amounts of gray-mist toxins.
The dried cockroach meat Jiang Li received daily had been purified by the system, so it was edible. But the Withered Leaping Frog she had just killed could not be eaten.
Unless she had purification mushrooms—only by using their juice to cleanse the gray mist toxins in the frog meat could it be made edible.
However, she did not necessarily need mushroom seeds to truly hunt and eat disaster beast meat.
Jiang Li had once seen purification mushrooms listed in a trade station’s supply sheet.
Most mushrooms were not expensive, since they grew quickly and continuously, making them cheaper than disaster beast meat.
‘Recover stamina first.’
Just dealing with a single Withered Leaping Frog had already exhausted her.
She quickly took out a bag of dried mushrooms from her pack and, without caring about savoring them, wolfed them down.
After eating three pieces, she barely recovered.
Without staying any longer, she twisted dried grass into a rope, tied up the frog’s limbs, and dragged it forward quickly.
If she wanted to become stronger, she needed meditation—but meditation consumed a great deal of food.
So she could not let this Withered Leaping Frog go.
With the earlier encounter in mind, Jiang Li kept her distance from thick dead trees along the way. She did not know how many more of these frogs were hidden in the dead forest, so caution was best.
Fortunately, she did not encounter another disaster beast and safely returned to her shelter.
The sky had not yet been covered in crimson. Taking advantage of her full stomach, Jiang Li did not rest and instead moved logs and stones around the shelter.
‘Time is really too precious.’
Even though she was exhausted to the point of wanting to collapse and sleep immediately, something inside her kept pushing her forward.
If she didn’t grind in the early stage, she wouldn’t even have the chance to grind later.
This was Jiang Li’s long-standing survival-game experience.
She did not relax at all. Only when the crimson dusk approached did she return to the shelter and glance at the blood-dyed sky, her mood instead becoming calmer.
The three-day newbie protection period had, in the blink of an eye, only one night left.
Starting tomorrow, the gray mist would break through the shelter and come for her.
However, Jiang Li had already bought an oil lamp that could disperse the gray mist. One lamp lasted three days, two lamps six days—at least for now, she did not need to worry about the mist.
With that thought, she began taking stock of her storage.
The result of about an hour and a half of hauling materials:
[Storage: 39 wood, 9 stone, 1 charcoal, 3 mud]
Wood increased by ten units, stone by eight.
Not much, but Jiang Li was still satisfied.
Today she definitely could not upgrade the shelter; that would have to wait until tomorrow.
With her skill, she could still complete work at the mine later.
Her personal deadline was tomorrow at the latest.
Without newbie protection, nights in the shelter would be dangerous. Upgrading it would make her feel more secure.
……
There was still time left.
Jiang Li first went to the back of the cave to check the planting pots.
After a day and night of growth, the mushrooms were thriving.
One “eggplant mushroom” had a rhombus-shaped stem, six to seven pairs of leaves, and oblong leaf blades—resembling potatoes from reality.
The other “pumpkin mushroom” had sprouted vines that crawled along the planting pot and wound up the cave wall, with palmate leaves like pumpkins in reality.
Worried that the pumpkin mushroom vine needed support and might not grow well, Jiang Li found a dead branch and inserted it into the pot, letting the green vine climb onto it.
Since the two types of mushrooms could only be judged by their leaves and stems before fruiting, and did not necessarily correspond to potatoes or other known crops, Jiang Li was very satisfied with their results.
Both potatoes and pumpkins were filling foods, enough to get her through the hardest early stage.
Happily, she left and returned to the front, taking out a small iron pot from her backpack. It was about 16 cm wide, a flat-bottomed pot with a capacity of about 1.5 liters.
For her alone, it was more than enough for daily drinking water needs.
‘Let’s boil water first.’
She poured most of the filtered water from the previous night into the pot and placed it on the fireplace.
The simple hearth had two spots for pots. With the fire, the water would soon boil.
While waiting, Jiang Li processed the Withered Leaping Frog.
The disaster beast, about the size of a medium dog, weighed over thirty jin (about 15+ kg). After removing bones and organs, there were still more than ten jin of meat—enough to support her meditation for a long time.
Her eyes lit up as she used a stone knife to cut the meat.
Although nighttime temperatures were low, it would still spoil if left too long.
She could not eat it yet, so she could only strip all the meat first and place it at the back of the cave, waiting until tomorrow when she obtained purification mushrooms to remove the toxins.
She did not take the internal organs. Not only would cleaning them waste too much water, but they also contained the highest concentration of toxins. She would not waste purification mushrooms on them just for eating organs.
Just over ten jin of meat already satisfied her greatly.
By the time she finished, an hour had passed and the water had boiled multiple times.
She made a clean wooden bucket, placed the meat inside, and set it at the back of the cave.
After that, she squatted by the fireplace, poured filtered water into a bamboo tube, and drank. Even though it had cooled for a while, it was still slightly hot in her mouth.
The taste was the same as system-provided water—something she had already grown used to. She drank until satisfied and let out a relieved breath.
‘This is what living like a human feels like.’
In the past few days, she had to ration water carefully, calculating every sip, always afraid of running out. Now she truly had water freedom.
There was still half a bucket of unboiled filtered water left, which she planned to use for cleaning herself.
Ever since waking up in the mass grave, a rotten stench had clung to her body. Combined with meditation, hauling wood and stone, and mining “Flame Star Stone” at the mine, she had been drenched in sweat and smelled like something fermented.
She had endured it before, but now that water was abundant, she could no longer tolerate it.
Without soap or body wash, Jiang Li could only burn dried grass into ash, mixing it with plant ash, and carefully clean her body.
With the fireplace burning nearby, bathing in the cave was not cold.
The main issue was her hair.
Her long hair was yellowed, dry, and tangled. Without conditioner, no matter how she tried, she could not untangle it.
Without hesitation, Jiang Li picked up a stone knife and directly cut her hair off.