Aside from the two pieces of short wood used to build the campfire, Xia Qiu only had two pieces of long wood left sitting in her territory. Her backpack was completely full, so she had to leave the long wood there for now. Since it was her private territory and there didn’t seem to be any other players around, she figured no one would come to steal her wood.
For fuel during the latter half of the night, Xia Qiu strictly used emptied pinecones. In addition to the two she already had, she put her arm strength to work and shook out five more. After tossing the empty pinecones into the campfire, she gained an extra two hundred pine nuts. If she saved up a bit more, she could figure out a way to roast them.
With the combined benefits of her territory and the campfire, the night was exceptionally peaceful. Xia Qiu wasn’t bothered by the "Restless" status effect again. Furthermore, when she woke up in the morning, aside from the two pieces of charcoal produced by the campfire, her status bar still displayed the delightful "Dancing with Trees" buff.
Xia Qiu left the charcoal, rope, and stones on the workbench, and placed the two pieces of long wood in a corner of her territory. She even took out the Hero’s Badge, whose purpose she had yet to figure out, and pinned it to her undershirt.
After thinking for a moment, Xia Qiu bit the bullet and forced down the roasted river fish for breakfast. Since her Spirit Value was currently full, the fish’s special recovery effect was wasted, but the upside was that it freed up an empty slot in her backpack.
With only half a day left in the novice period, no one knew what would happen next. Xia Qiu’s goal for the day was to accelerate her resource gathering.
Xia Qiu vaulted over the fence and took a few quick steps to peer down the slope. The river flowed gently below, but the herd of cows she had been hoping to see was nowhere to be found. Sure enough, even Neutral Creatures were treated as a type of resource that would refresh and despawn in this game.
However, Xia Qiu didn’t feel too disappointed. With her current capabilities, domesticating a cow was highly unlikely, and killing one for beef was entirely out of the question. She feared that the moment she even thought about killing one, she would be impaled by horns as long as her forearms. Since they were a resource she couldn’t temporarily claim anyway, their disappearance wasn’t something to mourn over. Get faster updates on novelping.com.
The advantage of her camp being close to the river was that she could use the flowing water to wash up in the morning. Though it was only a simple scrub, it was much better than looking like a grubby mess.
Xia Qiu scratched her head and tied her long hair tightly behind her head again. She still didn’t have any utensils for boiling water, and she had less than a liter of drinking water left. If she couldn’t find suitable cooking tools today, she would have to trade for drinking water on the world channel. Proper hair washing and bathing would just have to wait.
Unsure if resources left inside her camp would despawn, Xia Qiu gritted her teeth and only freed up five empty slots in her backpack.
Today, she needed to make another trip to the dense forest, primarily to collect more long wood. Right now, all players were at the critical juncture of building their initial camps. The most sought-after resource in the world was long wood. Furthermore, short wood couldn’t substitute for long wood in many crafting recipes, which meant trading for long wood required paying a much higher price in materials.
After a day and two nights, Xia Qiu had roughly figured out that almost all players had been dropped into different maps. Not everyone had access to long wood. This was much like how Xia Qiu had only seen tiny fry in the river yesterday, with none of the large fish needed to make delicious roasted river fish. Since different players had access to different types of resources, trading materials was absolutely necessary. Follow the newest chapters on novelping.com.
Her camp was less than twenty minutes away from the dense forest, and since terrain wouldn’t despawn, that forest was her most important source of resources. There were no rocky mountains nearby to mine large stones, so her camp could only be built using wood—at least for now.
Xia Qiu hadn’t forgotten the system monologue she heard when she first woke up. The Desolate Continent was currently in autumn. If this place was like Blue Star, winter would be next. In all survival games, winter was the most difficult season to endure, with the scarcest resources. Besides, it was unknown how long autumn on the Desolate Continent would last. Regardless, she had to prepare enough food and build a shelter capable of withstanding the wind and snow before winter arrived.
Gripping her handaxe, Xia Qiu marched purposefully into the Dark Forest.
Then, she stopped beside a few trees on the very outskirts... Well, although the trees on the periphery didn’t look too thick, they would generally suffice. It was better not to push her luck by venturing into the center.
Before chopping, Xia Qiu carefully read the handaxe’s description.
[Crude Stone Axe: The most basic logging tool, though it can occasionally chop other things too. (2000 Durability points. Consumes 50 Durability points per use. Consumption doubles when chopping overly hard objects.)]