Bai Yi waited for a response, but Wang Ziyi didn't message back.
He didn't mind. After sending a quick "Keep in touch," he put down the journal and began his daily workout.
All ten Exquisite Stone Pickaxes had been sold during the chat, just enough to exchange for 1,200 units of stone.
However, due to the lack of water in the shelter to mix the mud, the shelter upgrade would have to wait until the next morning. For now, Bai Yi decided to focus on his training.
During his workout, an idea struck him: what if he trained at an intensity even higher than the maximum after activating his talent? What would the effects be?
Unfortunately, his talent had already been used, but it didn't matter; he could try it tomorrow.
After finishing his workout, Bai Yi was drenched in sweat. He collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep.
...
[Weather: Heavy Rain
Location: Mistland
Time: Morning
Temperature: 10-13°C]
"Achoo! Achoo!"
Bai Yi sneezed twice, waking himself from sleep. "Is someone thinking about me?"
Mumbling, he got out of bed, roasted a small piece of meat to fill his stomach, and did some basic warm-up exercises.
Then, he opened his personal panel:
[Bai Yi: Healthy]
[Age: 30]
[Strength: 4.2]
[Spirit: 9.1]
[Constitution: 4.2]
[Sanity: 100/100]
[Talent: Steel-Spine Will]
"Strength and Constitution increased by 0.2? Is it because of the workout? Or something else?"
Bai Yi was pleased with the increased stats and began pondering the cause.
"It shouldn't be the workout. The effects are usually stable, with a 0.1 increase each time. Could it be the wolf meat?"
He suddenly remembered the warm sensation throughout his body after eating the meat yesterday. That must be it. He picked up the journal to search.
"Indeed!"
A forum post analyzed that consuming the flesh of this world's animals could gradually enhance physical attributes.
Although the post was a featured article, not many players could hunt independently, so it wasn't very popular. Bai Yi gave it a thumbs-up and exited the forum.
"Huh? It's raining outside?"
As Bai Yi prepared to go out, he noticed through the window that it was drizzling outside.
"The rain isn't heavy; I can go out."
[Shepherd's Mercy (Damaged), Durability: 5/5], the revolver's bullets were already replenished.
Bai Yi held the gun in his left hand, a Stone Axe in his right, with the journal tucked at his waist.
The Stone Axe was battered, with a wooden handle stained with dark red blood that wouldn't come off, and the axe blade was pitted from overuse.
"Let's go!"
Bai Yi planned to check the site of the previous wolf carcass. If the bodies were still there, he would drag them back, though he wasn't holding out much hope.
Relying on memory, Bai Yi reached the previous battle site, but the six wolf carcasses were gone. Deep drag marks stained with wolf blood were left on the ground.
"Something dragged the bodies away."
At this time, he was in peak condition, with the revolver unused and his talent cooled down. Even if ten more wolves appeared, Bai Yi was confident he could take them all down.
Following the trail for about seven or eight hundred meters, Bai Yi saw a massive stone wall with a stone cave at the bottom. He was nearly two kilometers from the shelter now.
At the cave entrance, a giant black bear was dragging a wolf carcass inside.
Bai Yi felt a surge of excitement; he wanted to hunt this bear.
"I can't go inside the cave; it's too dark. Who knows who would kill whom? Besides, I don't know if the bear will come out again. The safest method..."
At that moment, the black bear was happily dragging the carcass, walking through the forest. It had stumbled upon a feast of bodies.
Now, it just wanted to hurry back and enjoy the meal.
Suddenly, its ears twitched; there was a faint noise from the bushes behind it.
It immediately became alert, stood up, and looked back. Nothing?
"Roar—"
The black bear let out a warning roar, accompanied by a rapid clacking of its teeth.
The bushes shook more violently, and a strange-looking creature stumbled out, running away. In its panic, it tripped and fell, then clumsily got back up.
Fresh food delivered for free?
The black bear got excited. Although the feast was free, it wasn't very fresh. Now, with fresh prey delivered, today was truly a lucky day!
Without much thought, it charged at the prey.
The creature was clumsy, unable to run properly, tripping every few steps. Was it too scared?
The black bear quickly caught up. The creature faced it, sitting on the ground, scooting backward while making strange noises.
The black bear smelled it—fear. It didn't rush to bite the prey but stood on its hind legs to display its powerful and terrifying size.
But as it stood up, it noticed the prey stopped making noise and pulled out something aimed at it.
"Bang! Bang!"
The black bear's head and chest were instantly blown open with two large holes. The body collapsed powerlessly.
"Is the black bear really that stupid? Afraid I'd only shoot the head, it stood up so I could hit both the head and heart."
Bai Yi was a bit surprised, but the result was good. He couldn't deny that the bear was huge; it must have been three meters tall when it stood up.
As he marveled, Bai Yi dragged the bear to the cave entrance, intending to take a look inside.
The cave entrance was large, and as he stepped inside, a strong stench hit him.
"Ugh—"
Bai Yi dry-heaved a few times, suppressing his nausea as he ventured further.
The stone cave wasn't deep; after a few meters, it ended. The cave wasn't large, with five wolf carcasses piled to one side. Three had been half-eaten, while the remaining two were intact but slightly decayed.
Beside the bodies was a pile of bones. Bai Yi kicked them a few times and discovered something.
He quickly cleared the bones away; it was a book.
Bai Yi picked up the book and casually flipped through it. Most pages were damaged and illegible. He searched and found only half a page that was relatively clear, with faintly discernible text.
Holding it up to the light, Bai Yi tried to decipher the content: "ΘΝΣΑΘΝΣ..."
"What is this?"
He was sure it wasn't a human language. "Could there have been another civilization here?"
Unable to understand, Bai Yi didn't dwell on it and scanned it with the journal.
[Tang Saber Blueprint (Damaged)]
[Quality: Good]
[Durability: 3/3]
[Description: 1 Wood, 5 Crude Iron. This is a tool forging book that encapsulates the essence of an entire civilization. Unfortunately, only half a page remains.]
"A great find!"
"Too bad this book is damaged. I can't imagine how high the quality would be if it were intact!"
After a moment of reflection, Bai Yi stopped thinking about it and eagerly began searching the cave. He searched thoroughly, almost turning the cave upside down, but found nothing else.
"I've already hit the jackpot, time to go."
Bai Yi consoled himself as he started moving the bodies.
He struggled to drag the black bear back to the shelter's courtyard, then made another trip to bring back the three wolf carcasses.
"Phew! I'm exhausted!"
Panting, Bai Yi sat at the shelter's entrance. But he couldn't rest long, as the rain was gradually intensifying.
Following the usual steps, Bai Yi began to butcher the black bear. Before dismembering, he took a photo of the bear.
Due to its massive size, the black bear yielded 200 units of meat, which Bai Yi processed into jerky.
With this, his rooftop was filled, hoarding food like a hamster.
The wolf carcasses, being decayed, were thrown into the well for a gamble. As for what he drew out, it was decent.
[Large Plastic Barrel]
[Iron Water Bottle]
[Wood 1]
[Gray Wolf Exchange Attempts: 2/5]
The items weren't precious but very useful. Bai Yi, before the rain turned into a downpour, filled the barrel and bottle with fresh water.
By the time everything was done, it was noon. Bai Yi looked at the increasingly heavy rain outside and murmured, "Looks like I can't go out this afternoon."
He placed the water bottle on the fireplace to heat it, while roasting bear meat and picking up the journal.
World Channel:
"It's raining heavily here; I can't go out now."
"It's raining here too!"
"I was halfway through chopping a tree when the rain drove me back. What about my shelter upgrade? I have to chop trees in the rain."
"Don't, you'll catch a cold, and a few trees won't cure that."
...
The World Channel was abuzz with discussions about the sudden heavy rain.
"Looks like it's not just raining here!"
Bai Yi talked to himself, suddenly noticing a forum post rapidly gaining traction. The title was the content:
"Tested: Rain-soaked mud can be used for shelter upgrades. Go collect it!"
"Right, how did I forget that?"
Bai Yi slapped his thigh. He had planned to mix the mud with collected water, but now there was a ready supply. He had to gather it quickly.
He hastily finished the half-cooked bear meat and immediately got up to find tools.
Looking around, Bai Yi awkwardly stopped. His entire possessions consisted of jerky, a battered Stone Axe, a gun, a bed, a plastic barrel, a water bottle, a stone pickaxe, and Tang Saber blueprints. Oh, and the 1,200 units of stone outside.
He had been busy upgrading the shelter, with no extra resources to build a bedroom or bathroom, and lacked common tools like a shovel.
After some thought, Bai Yi took out the stone pickaxe blueprint and materials.
[Exquisite Stone Pickaxe Blueprint]
[Quality: Fine Quality]
[Durability: 3/20]
[Using Exquisite Stone Pickaxe Blueprint, Durability -1, Crafting Countdown: 00:59]
Once crafted, he opened the Trading Plaza, edited the content, and sent it:
[Fine Quality Stone Pickaxe ×1 for Common Quality Stone Axe ×2 + Common Quality Shovel ×1]