Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 82: Chapter 82: Mutant Creatures in the Maze

Xu Xin discovered something different from the rat’s name.

The rabbits and cats that jumped out from the altar’s stone carvings earlier all had a prefix: ”Polluted.”

The Blood Pattern Rabbit was a [Polluted Mutated Hare], and the Blood Patterned Cat was a [Polluted Mutated Wildcat], but this time, the rat’s name had no mention of being polluted, simply called [Mutated Rat].

Is it not completely tainted by the blood patterns?

Looking at the rat meat in his hand, Xu Xin noticed that there were no patterns on the meat, only on the rat skin were there blood-red patterns. Previously, with the rabbit and cat meat, those blood-red patterns were deeply embedded into the flesh, even reaching the bones.

It seems so. These rats are just low-level mutated creatures, not yet completely eroded by the bizarre blood patterns, only tainting their fur. Hence, the material grade is relatively low. While stronger than ordinary rats, they are much weaker compared to fully corrupted altar mutated beasts.

Xu Xin held up a piece of mutated rat meat in front of Keke. ”Keke, do you want to eat this rat meat?”

Keke pushed the meat away with its paws, looking a bit disdainful. Not like the craze for rabbit meat or cat meat, nor the aversion to the tiger meat from a tiger that died eating polluted mutated meat, just simple disdain because it was rat meat.

It seems this meat should be fine. He can try it when he gets back; he hasn’t tasted rat meat before.

Packing the dissected materials of the two mutated rats into his backpack, Xu Xin placed Keke on his shoulder and continued forward.

Soon, Xu Xin arrived at another fork. He marked it again and continued to move forward.

Just like that, he passed several forks without encountering any danger again.

As he continued to explore forward in the narrow space, suddenly, he heard the sound of rocks cracking beneath his foot, then his footing dropped, and his body fell!

”Oh shit!”

Fortunately, the passage was narrow, and his sideways body slammed upright, getting stuck in the crevice, preventing further fall.

”Meow!” Keke, on his shoulder, was startled.

Xu Xin, with a racing heart, took a step back: ”There’s even a trap here!”

Looking at the place he had just stepped on, Xu Xin couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

It turned out to be just a thin layer of rock surface, which collapsed under his foot, revealing a hole larger than his foot. Looking down through the hole, it was incredibly deep, as if it led straight to Hell.

Even though he had night vision, he still couldn’t see anything below, only darkness.

”Is there another underground world down there?”

Picking up a nearby piece of rock, Xu Xin forcefully threw it below. After a long wait, he didn’t hear the sound he expected.

”How deep is this!” Xu Xin looked at the road ahead, not daring to proceed, and took a stone from his backpack, throwing it forcefully to the unexplored area ahead.

”Crack!” The road surface in the narrow crevice shattered into a large piece.

This section of the road was like a ground fissure formed after an earthquake.

”Looks like this path is a dead end.” Xu Xin slowly retreated and sent a message to Li Wenxi: ”Be careful, the ground might collapse, and you might fall down.”

Li Wenxi quickly replied: ”I just encountered that; I’m sitting on the ground calming down now, almost fell!”

”Did you encounter any other dangers?” Xu Xin asked.

”Uh... not really, just a few rats, almost falling this time, but nothing else dangerous, though getting lost is sure annoying.”

”Leave marks and don’t walk the same route repeatedly. That way, you won’t easily go in circles. I’ll ask the group about their situation.”

”Alright, alright.”

Xu Xin retreated to the previous intersection and marked an X at the crevice to indicate that it shouldn’t be explored again, then he didn’t rush forward but asked in [Explorer’s]: ”Have you found the entrance?”

Within a few seconds, several replies appeared in the group.

Zhao Xiaochuan: ”Found it, a small crevice with strange noises!”

Wang Lei: ”I found it too, right in the cave.”

Wen Guixin: ”This crevice is too small; it gets tighter as you go in, and there are rats!”

Qin Yunlong: ”Are you all in a labyrinth? How should we get out of here? Has anyone gotten out?”

Qi Xuefei: ”I encountered a giant centipede. If you kill a centipede, you can sell it to me; it can be used in medicine.”

Even Qin Yunhu, who usually doesn’t speak, chimed in.

Qin Yunhu: ”I just killed a centipede; it’s huge, like a snake.”

Li Wenxi: ”Be careful; some parts of the ground here are unstable. I nearly fell down just now! It’s so deep below!”

Zhao Xiaochuan: ”Could be unstable?! We really need to be careful; I was rushing just now, almost courting death...”

Centipede?

”Did the centipede you encountered have blood-red patterns on its body?” Xu Xin asked.

Qi Xuefei: ”Yes, strange patterns, probably a special species. Did you encounter a centipede too?”

Wen Guixin: ”That dead rat also had red patterns, looks creepy. Points are decent, 20 points for each, called mutated rat.”

It seems everyone is encountering similar creatures, at least they are all mutated beings.

”Has anyone gotten out of the maze yet?” Ji Chaoyang suddenly asked.

”I haven’t, still wandering.” ”I haven’t either.” ”Just got in.”

Looks like, everyone’s still trying to figure out the maze pattern; they’ll have to explore on their own for now.

Xu Xin continued exploring in the untraveled direction, marking each turn he made on the wall in that direction.

He encountered several rat attacks along the way, but he handled them easily.

Soon, he saw the mark he had made earlier at an intersection.

”Did I circle back?” Xu Xin frowned.

There was no choice, Xu Xin had to take another crevice, entering it sideways.

”Meow!” Just a few steps in, Keke perched on his shoulder, suddenly called out again. Each time they encountered a mutated rat before, Keke would notify Xu Xin in advance.

”Another danger!” Xu Xin tightened the string of the crossbow in his left hand, his sword tightly held in his right.

”Meow!” Keke pointed to the corner about ten meters ahead.

”There’s danger there... is something waiting to ambush me at the corner?” Xu Xin approached the corner slowly, his crossbow always aimed there.

The closer he got, the more he felt a sense of danger, a premonition he had about threats. This hadn’t happened with mutated rats, possibly because they were too weak.

This implies that whatever lurked around the corner was at least stronger than a mutated rat.

Xu Xin decided to test. He stopped about eight meters from the corner and tossed a stone in that direction.

As the stone flew into the corner, a thin, bright red tongue shot out suddenly from the corner, wrapping the stone and pulling it into the corner.

”Meow!” Keke weakly whimpered.

”What was that?” Xu was also startled, stopping in his tracks.

Was that... a tongue?

Maybe realizing it was discovered, from the corner, appeared a figure as wide as the passage itself. Its bulky body squeezed the passage edges, with a bumpy, grotesque skin that gave an uncomfortable sight, and its crimson eyes emitted a bizarre glow.

It was a toad!

Most notably, its dull green, dust-covered toad body was covered in blood-red patterns!

Blood-Striped Toad! Another mutated creature!