Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Preparations Before the Event

Just as he turned around, he noticed a faint blue light coming from another direction not far away.

There are blue-level resources over there.

After observing the surroundings and finding no wild animals nearby, he walked over.

It turned out to be a blue-grade poplar tree.

”What a great harvest! Just when the blue-grade wood was almost used up.” Xu Xin happily chopped down the poplar tree.

After storing the newly harvested wood (blue), Xu Xin looked towards the direction where he previously saw several stone pillars. That area was obscured by the dense jungle, but he could still see faint blue lights mixed in with the green glow.

”Today I’ll skip that for now. It’s more urgent to go back and craft the crossbow and heavy crossbow.” Xu Xin glanced at the pile of materials in his backpack and decided to head back.

This resource area is surrounded by a circle of hills, but there’s an exit on the ground between two of the hills.

Xu Xin glanced at the nearest exit; the map was covered with red dots, indicating it was likely a wild boar habitat.

Forget it, it’s better to climb over the hills; he didn’t want to face the wild boar herd.

There weren’t many wild animals on the hills. Not being within the resource area, the entire hill only had a few scattered green spots, and Xu Xin easily gathered the few green resources available.

Returning to the top of the hill, Xu Xin looked again towards the stone pillars.

”Huh? Did that statue change?” Xu Xin frowned, a bit puzzled.

Although he couldn’t see clearly what the statue was, the shape of it seemed to have changed.

Xu Xin was very curious, but he restrained his restless heart and chose to leave. The Black Bear Cave only emitted a green glow yet housed a black bear; a place emitting a blue glow must be much more dangerous than the Black Bear Cave.

He’d better update his equipment before coming back.

”Sigh, if only I could contract a mount.” Xu Xin sighed as he looked at the long way home.

Keke was still comfortably lying on his shoulder.

”Will you be able to be ridden when you grow up?” Xu Xin patted the little creature’s head.

”Eep eep?” Keke was confused, could it only grow this big?

After nearly an hour of trekking, Xu Xin finally returned to the treehouse. It was already afternoon, and Xu Xin’s stomach was starting to rumble.

He approached the synthesis table to see if there were any tools to extract salt.

As expected, Xu Xin found a metal tool in the crafting list.

[Salt Distillation Extractor (Green): Add salt crystals and water, and fuel below, to obtain pure salt. Requires Iron Blocks (Green) *2, Wood (Green) *5]

”Great!” Xu Xin immediately crafted the extractor.

This was a metal tool, a piece of equipment Xu Xin unlocked after obtaining the gold chest. Currently, only he and Ji Chaoyang could make it, which means even if others found a salt mine, they couldn’t make the extractor to obtain refined salt.

There’s always the possibility that some people could use their own methods to purify salt.

Xu Xin placed the salt crystals and water in the extractor, added a few pieces of white wood as fuel, and let the extractor work. Meanwhile, he crafted a blue-grade backpack.

[Excellent Backpack (Blue): A backpack with 20 slots, where the amount of resources each slot can hold is determined by the type of resource. Can reduce the weight of resources to 10% of their original weight.]

It had ten more slots than the green-grade backpack and halved the weight! This would allow Xu Xin to carry more items.

Continuing to work, Xu Xin also needed to craft both the crossbow and heavy crossbow.

The materials needed for crossbow arrows and bow arrows were quite similar.

[Crossbow Arrow (Green): The arrowhead is iron, the shaft is wood, equipped with feathers – a very standard crossbow arrow for precise strikes! Reusable. Crossbow Arrow (Green) *20 requires Iron Blocks (Green) *2, Wood (White) *2, Feathers (Green) *2]

Crossbow arrows also needed feathers, and he only had four owl feathers picked up after the beast riot, so he could only make 40 crossbow arrows. But since they were reusable, they should be enough for the time being.

Xu Xin used Wood (Green) to make the arrows, which should allow them to be reused more often.

Catching a glimpse, he saw another type of crossbow arrow he could craft.

[Poisoned Crossbow Arrow (Green): By applying poison to crossbow arrows, you get poisoned crossbow arrows. The poison can kill small wild animals. Reusable, but after recovery, they become ordinary crossbow arrows. Poisoned Crossbow Arrow (Green) *20 requires Crossbow Arrow (Green) *20, Poison Sac (Green) *1]

One poison sac could poison 20 crossbow arrows!

Xu Xin immediately crafted 20 poisoned crossbow arrows; a faint green layer covered the arrowheads, making them easily distinguishable from ordinary crossbow arrows. Now he had 20 ordinary and 20 poisoned crossbow arrows.

The crossbow required Wood (Green) *5, Iron Block (Green) *2, Beast Sinew (Green) *1. Based on Xu Xin’s experience, blue-grade tools required a primary material at blue-grade. Lacking blue-grade beast sinew, he could only craft a green-grade crossbow for now.

Despite being a green-grade crossbow, it still had substantial weight when held.

”Finally, I have a means of long-range attack!” Xu Xin exclaimed. He tried fitting a standard crossbow arrow onto the crossbow and found it took quite a bit of effort to load it.

”This probably isn’t how you string it, is it?” Xu Xin observed carefully and noticed a spot on the front end of the crossbow where he could place his foot. He removed the Crossbow Arrow from the crossbow and tried placing the front end on the ground, stepping on it, and pulling the string upward. This time, it was easier to load a Crossbow Arrow than before.

”So you can string it by stepping on it. No wonder it’s so powerful if it’s this hard to string.”

Xu Xin went to the window, aimed at the trunk of a poplar tree outside, and pulled the trigger.

”Whoosh!” ”Crack!”

The Crossbow Arrow precisely hit its target, embedding more than halfway into the trunk, with the arrow tail still slightly quivering.

”Impressive!” Xu Xin was very pleased with the power of the crossbow. He went down to retrieve the arrow he had shot and crafted a small wooden quiver at the crafting table. The quiver could hold 100 arrows, and Xu Xin placed all the Crossbow Arrows into it, hanging it to the side.

Next, it was time to install the heavy crossbow outside the treehouse. The heavy crossbow was directly made from the treehouse construction list. Xu Xin clicked on the [Treehouse Upgrade] option on the screen. A new heavy crossbow had already appeared in the list.

[Iron Automatic Heavy Crossbow (Green): An iron automatic heavy crossbow that can automatically attack hostile units, with greater power and longer range. It can load five shots at once. Requires Fine Wood (Green) *10, Iron Block (Green) *5, Beast Sinew (Green) *2]

[Heavy Crossbow Iron Arrows (Green): Heavy and sharp iron arrows capable of piercing through a beast’s body due to their weight. Reusable, requires Fine Wood (Green) *2, Iron Block (Green) *1]

Compared to the previous wooden weapons, iron weapons were clearly stronger. Xu Xin didn’t hesitate to choose to make the iron heavy crossbow.

[Please select the position of the heavy crossbow.]

A diagram of the treehouse appeared on the screen, showing where the heavy crossbow could be mounted on the inner wall of the treetop.

”Can’t it be mounted lower? Placing it on the wall leaves too many blind spots.” Xu Xin muttered to himself and eventually chose the first level because it was already high enough. Any higher, and he was afraid accuracy would be an issue.

He heard a ”crack” sound from downstairs, indicating the heavy crossbow was installed. Xu Xin crafted five heavy crossbow iron arrows and went down to the first floor.

On the interior wall where the heavy crossbow was located, there was a small window, and below the window was a small round hole slightly larger than the heavy crossbow iron arrow. There was also a simple lever beside the hole.

Looking out the window, Xu Xin saw a heavy crossbow about two meters wide and long mounted under the window. The body was mainly wooden with important parts made of iron, giving a sense of destructive power and safety.

Xu Xin looked at the hole below the window, ”This should be where the arrows are loaded, right?”

He tried pushing a heavy crossbow iron arrow with the tip facing into the hole, meeting significant resistance. He applied more force, and when the iron arrow was fully inserted, the sound of a crossbow arrow being strung came from outside.

Looking at the hole again, it was empty, indicating it could continue to be loaded.

The automatic heavy crossbow could load five shots at once, and Xu Xin pushed all five heavy crossbow arrows in. With the last one, the arrow tail was still visible from the hole, showing it could not load any further.

”How do you fire it? This lever?” Xu Xin held the lever.

[Heavy Crossbow Lever: Controls the direction of the heavy crossbow, pulling outward to shoot, pressing inward for automatic mode.]

His item identification feature was incredibly convenient.

Xu Xin aimed the heavy crossbow at a white-grade poplar tree outside and pulled it outward.

The iron heavy crossbow arrow shot out swiftly and precisely to the spot he aimed for, producing a loud ”crack” as it directly pierced through the trunk of the poplar tree. The tree trunk split apart and fell to the ground in pieces of wood.

”Impressive! At this level of destructive power, most beasts probably can’t withstand it if hit!”

However, the heavy crossbow had a problem: once installed, it couldn’t be moved, meaning its range was limited to this direction only, leaving areas below and behind the treehouse out of range.

To solve this problem, more heavy crossbows would need to be made in the future.

After retrieving and reinstalling the heavy crossbow arrows, Xu Xin did not set the heavy crossbow to automatic mode. If a few small beasts came by, it would be a waste of arrows to shoot them automatically.

Returning to the third floor, fine salt had already crystallized. Xu Xin dipped a bit to taste and found it no different from packaged salt.

”Time to eat!”

”Yip!” Keke, who had been dozing beside him, perked up at the mention of eating and immediately ran over.

”You little fellow.” Xu Xin handed Keke an apple, which it eagerly began to munch on.

Xu Xin couldn’t wait any longer. He cut off a small piece of bear meat he had leftover, and hung the remaining amount, divided into five-kilogram portions, on the trade platform. After all, it’s been over two days; if left any longer, it would spoil.

He hung the Snake Gall in the treehouse window and took out the snake meat, slicing off several pounds. Combined with bear meat, lotus root, and mushrooms, he sprinkled some fine salt and began to grill.

Soon enough, the sizzling sound of oil, accompanied by the rich aroma of cooked meat, even made Keke, who usually didn’t like meat, pause its apple-eating: ”Yip?”

”Want to try some?” Xu Xin asked Keke with a smile.

”Yip!” For the first time, Keke showed interest in meat.

Sharing some of the grilled meat with Keke, Xu Xin eagerly took a bite.

”Mmm, this is amazing~” Xu Xin felt an overwhelming sense of satisfaction as the salt lifted the flavor of the grilled meat to new heights. This was real barbecue! He couldn’t imagine living without salt anymore!

Keke was also tearing into the grilled meat with its small mouth, making satisfied ”yip” sounds every now and then, clearly enjoying the taste.

”With salt secured, meat available, and vegetables ready, the next step is to find staple crops like rice and wheat and other seasonings like chili peppers.” Satisfied and licking his lips, Xu Xin was already moving beyond basic survival to seeking food quality while others were still struggling to survive.