Grace, Ethan, and Elena simultaneously turned their attention to the three White Spirit Fruits they had collected.
The item information displayed:
[White Spirit Fruit (Excellent): A white fruit that grows deep within the jungle. It grows under extremely harsh conditions and contains a certain amount of spiritual energy.]
"It seems this fruit can improve Talents," Grace said thoughtfully.
She picked up one of the White Spirit Fruits and handed it to Ethan.
"The Tribe only has one SSS-Rank Talent at the moment, and you’re also our only male member. Your growth is directly related to the Tribe’s future. If this fruit can strengthen your Talent, you’ll benefit the entire Tribe more than anyone else."
Ethan accepted the fruit and took a bite.
After he finished eating the entire White Spirit Fruit, its refreshing flesh instantly melted in his mouth.
A warm current spread throughout his body.
He could clearly feel his Talent stirring slightly, and even his physique seemed to improve a little.
"I can feel it," Ethan said in surprise. "My Talent has become slightly stronger, and my body feels lighter than before."
Grace seemed to think of something before immediately handing him the second White Spirit Fruit.
Ethan hesitated. "Chief, maybe one of you should eat it instead."
Grace shook her head. "Not yet. At the moment, your SSS-Rank Talent is our greatest hope. If these fruits can help it grow stronger, then giving them to you will produce the greatest overall benefit."
"When we find more White Spirit Fruits in the future, we’ll distribute them according to everyone’s needs."
Hearing that, Ethan nodded. He ate the second White Spirit Fruit. This time, the sensation was even stronger.
The warm current inside his body became much more intense, and he could clearly feel his Talent approaching another breakthrough.
However... It still seemed to be missing something.
"It feels much closer," Ethan said honestly. "But it still hasn’t broken through."
Grace looked at the last remaining White Spirit Fruit. A trace of hesitation flashed across her face.
Ethan immediately said, "Chief, you should eat the last one."
Grace smiled and shook her head.
"If one fruit wasn’t enough and two fruits still couldn’t complete the breakthrough, then splitting our resources now would only waste the opportunity."
"It’s better to see whether three fruits can push your Talent over the threshold. If they still can’t, we’ll know roughly how much energy is required for the next breakthrough."
Ethan understood her reasoning.
Without refusing again, he swallowed the third White Spirit Fruit in one gulp.
The moment all three fruits’ energy gathered inside his body, Ethan felt his Talent reach its limit.
It was as if an invisible barrier stood before him.
He could clearly sense that he was only one tiny step away from breaking through.
It felt exactly like downloading a movie that had reached 99.99%. Everything was already there. Yet because that final 0.01% was missing, the file simply refused to open.
After waiting for several seconds, the feeling gradually subsided. His Talent still hadn’t advanced.
"How is it?" Grace and Elena asked eagerly.
"Did your Talent improve?"
Ethan nodded truthfully. "It really can improve Talents, but I’m still only at the first tier. I feel like something is restricting me, preventing a breakthrough."
"How could this be?" Elena pondered for a moment before suggesting, "Could it be related to the Tribe level? Maybe the Tribe’s level restricts the Talent levels of its members?"
Grace’s eyes lit up. The girl with the Divination Talent was indeed sharp.
"Very possible!" Ethan said excitedly. "I even feel that once we upgrade the Tribe level, I can immediately break through to the second tier. However, I also sense that an SSS-Rank Talent requires a massive amount of spiritual energy food to advance. An A-Rank Talent improved after eating just one fruit, but I needed three to see any noticeable effect."
Elena shook her head with a gentle smile. "It doesn’t matter. After all, it’s an SSS-Rank Talent. We’ll take it slow."
Having such an attentive and understanding sweetheart by his side felt like a great fortune in life.
Ethan pulled Elena into his arms and kissed her affectionately. "You truly are my good darling."
Grace and Emily, witnessing the sweet moment, blushed and quickly looked away, trying to calm themselves.
Grace cleared her throat and picked up the Tribe Deed, checking the current information:
[Tribe Name: Eden Garden]
[Tribe Level: Level 1 Thatched Hut]
[Tribe Population: 23 / 50]
[Tribe Rating: 689]
[Upgrade Conditions: 200 units of Wood, 100 units of Stone, 50 units of Hemp Rope]
"We have enough wood, but we’re still short on stone and we don’t have a single unit of hemp rope," Grace said with a frown.
Elena suggested, "I’ll check the area channel. Maybe someone is selling hemp rope or stone. We can trade with the resources we have."
She opened the regional chat:
[Freedom Tribe (Level 1): "Wild Boar Meat. Brothers, aren’t we awesome? Just killed an ordinary wild monster!]
[Sleepy Dog (Level 1): "Freedom Tribe is indeed awesome. We’ll have meat tonight! Can you spare some? I’ll trade wild berries.]
[Poor Man’s Garden (Level 1): "Do any of you have food? We’ve only gotten one apple so far; it’s not even enough for everyone to have a bite.]
[Mortal to Immortal (Level 1): "Who has wood? I don’t have a single piece. We seem to have landed in a quarry, it’s all stone material!]
Elena quickly noticed someone asking for wood materials. Since Eden Garden currently had the largest supply of wood and water resources, she immediately sent a private message to the Mortal to Immortal Tribe.
"We have surplus wood materials. We would like to exchange them for your stone materials."
The other party was stunned when they received the private message.
"It’s the Leader of Eden Garden! Sure, sure."
"How about one unit of wood for one unit of stone?"
Elena didn’t dare make the decision on her own and turned to look at Grace.
Grace, in turn, looked at Ethan.
"I remember the system saying that we need lighting at night because great horrors exist in the darkness. That means wood is currently the most important resource," Ethan said slowly. "Exchanging one unit of an important resource for one unit of a less important resource is a bit of a loss, isn’t it?"
Elena nodded in agreement with Ethan’s analysis.
[Eden Garden (Level 1): "At the moment, wood materials are much more valuable than stone materials because we need them for lighting at night. Therefore, our offer is 1 unit of wood for 3 units of stone.]
"Three units?" Even Ethan was surprised. "Darling, you’re too ruthless!"
Elena huffed and replied, "Didn’t they say they spawned in a quarry? They must have plenty of stone materials. But we didn’t spawn in a lumber mill. Our wood resources aren’t unlimited either. Exchanging one unit of wood for three units of stone is already a fair deal."
Grace looked at Elena with surprise and couldn’t help feeling impressed.
She hadn’t expected Elena’s judgment in resource trading to be so sharp.
Unexpectedly, after hesitating for nearly half a minute, the other party agreed.
[Mortal to Immortal Tribe (Level 1): "Agreed, but we have one condition. We want to exchange for 200 units of wood.]
"Damn, they want 200 units of our wood?" Ethan exclaimed in shock as he stood up.
"Sit down," Elena said as she pulled Ethan back down with some effort. "Although it sounds like a lot, don’t forget the Chief’s Talent. We can double the stone after we receive it, turning 600 units into 1,200 units. Then we can use the stone to trade for wood from other Tribes. Even if the exchange rate is 4 units of stone for 1 unit of wood, we would only spend 800 units of stone to obtain 400 units of wood. We’d still have 400 units of stone left over."
Grace looked at Elena with admiration.
"Excellent analysis. You considered not only the immediate trade but also the long-term value of the resources. It seems your judgment is even better than Ethan’s when it comes to managing supplies."
Ethan became embarrassed after hearing Grace’s praise for Elena, while mocking him.
On the other hand, Emily couldn’t help feeling pleased after hearing her niece being complimented.
Seeing the awkward atmosphere, Elena quickly tried to smooth things over.
"Ethan is also very intelligent. He came up with the idea of using the Communication Stone, and he was the first to understand how important the Tribe Deed is."
Grace and Emily looked at each other before nodding with faint smiles.
"Sure."
"Of course."
Although they said so, the expressions on their faces clearly showed that they didn’t really believe it.
Ethan couldn’t help cursing them inwardly.
’Just you wait... When I get the chance, I’ll definitely make you two pay for looking down on me.’
Ultimately, following Elena’s plan, Eden Garden successfully traded for 600 units of Stone.
Grace immediately activated her SS-Rank Talent, Resource Doubling.
In an instant, the 600 units of Stone became 1,200 units.
The pile of stone materials almost filled the entire open area of the Tribe.
[Mortal to Immortal Tribe (Level 1): Leader of Eden Garden is really generous. Let’s trade more in the future. We spent almost the entire afternoon mining these 600 units of Stone. It wasn’t easy.]
[Eden Garden (Level 1): Same here. We spent almost the whole afternoon chopping trees to collect just over 300 units of Wood, and we still have to keep cutting. Wood is really hard to come by.]
Seeing the enormous pile of stone materials, Christy and Sophie fell silent. The Chief’s Talent... It was practically a divine ability.