Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 100: Chapter 100: The Possibility of Silver King Mutation

Once the dust settled, the side effects of Xu Xin’s full-speed run began to appear.

”Ugh...” He lay on the ground, retching continuously, feeling somewhat dizzy. He had exerted all his energy in running and climbing stairs, and even his body, which had been strengthened multiple times, couldn’t withstand it.

Eventually, he couldn’t vomit anything since his stomach was already empty.

”Whimper...” Keke stood beside Xu Xin, looking at him with concern.

Xu Xin reached out to pat Keke’s head and smiled, ”Don’t worry, I’m fine.”

After all, the effects of the apricot are still active, and his stamina is slowly recovering. Soon, he felt that he was perfectly fine, which made him very satisfied with his current physique. If he were his old self, even jogging a thousand meters would have drained him for hours.

As soon as he stood up, he was embraced tightly. The hard body made Xu Xin a bit uncomfortable, but he didn’t push away.

The one hugging him was the Chang Yin.

”Thank you... thank you...” Chang Yin’s voice choked a little; his stone eyes couldn’t shed tears, but Xu Xin could still feel his excitement and gratitude.

Meanwhile, Xue Lan, the little boy, and the maid were hugging each other, and the sound of their sobbing echoed constantly.

Even though a group of statues hugging each other was a bizarre scene, Xu Xin still felt happy for them. After all, they had been underground for a full forty-nine years.

It took a while for Chang Yin’s emotions to settle down. He released Xu Xin, a bit embarrassed, ”Sorry, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the sun, too excited.”

He then took off the backpack from his back and handed it to Xu Xin, ”Returning it to you.”

Xu Xin took the backpack and asked the question he had been wanting to, ”What do you plan to do now? Do you have a place to go? If not, you can temporarily stay at my place.”

Xu Xin wanted to keep this family in his tree house. This journey had given him enough materials to renovate the tree house from inside out. His tree house was large enough to remodel a few rooms for the four of them to live in without any issues.

Their ability to control stones and their superb defensive powers were definitely strong abilities. Moreover, Chang Yin could create [Mutant Beast Contracts], and keeping them in the tree house would surely be a great asset.

”We came out this time for a certain matter as well.” At this moment, Xue Lan also walked to Xu Xin’s side and returned the backpack she had in her hand to him, ”If things go smoothly, it should be resolved within a few days. We can visit you then.”

The little boy statue ran over to hug Xu Xin’s leg, looked up at him, and said: ”Uncle really brought us out, Uncle is amazing! I want to go to Uncle’s house to play!”

”Be good, Xiaohong, once we’ve settled our affairs, we’ll go to uncle’s house to play, okay?”

Well, has his title of ’uncle’ been solidified now? Oh well, he’s on the same level as Chang Yin, so it’s not inappropriate for the little boy statue to call him uncle. Still, it’s the first time he’s heard the boy’s name, turns out it’s... Xiaohong?

”What are you going to do?” Xu Xin asked, ”Can you tell me about it? I might be able to help you. You’ve been down here for nearly fifty years, and you’re unfamiliar with the outside world, so let me assist you.”

Chang Yin shook his head, ”This matter can only be resolved by ourselves. If you intervene, it might end in failure, so don’t ask about it. If the matter goes well, and you’re still willing to take us in, we’ll come looking for you after it’s done, which shouldn’t take long.”

Well, at least they wouldn’t never meet again. Xu Xin really couldn’t bear to part with their abilities, and after experiencing life and death together, their bond had deepened considerably. Not seeing each other again would be somewhat sad.

”Why don’t we first go look at my place, so when you come five days later, you won’t have trouble finding it,” Xu Xin suggested.

”Alright, let’s stop by your place first. Our matter isn’t that urgent anyway,” Chang Yin said.

”But...” Xue Lan hesitated.

”You’ve waited fifty years, a few more hours won’t matter. Let’s relax a bit after just seeing the outside world,” Chang Yin said, wrapping his arm around Xue Lan’s shoulder, persuading her. It seemed that he was curious about Xu Xin’s dwelling as well.

”Madam, there’s no need to rush that matter, going now wouldn’t be useful, we can wait until it’s dark to set out,” the middle-aged maid spoke up, drawing Xu Xin’s attention—what could be the task that’s possible only at night?

”Well... okay, since Aunt Ling said so, let’s visit Xu Xin’s place first,” three votes to one, Xue Lan finally relented.

”Yay! Going to uncle’s house to play!” Xiaohong happily spun around Xu Xin.

Seeing they had made their decision, Xu Xin also smiled.

He had just observed his position on the map and saw that he was relatively close to his starting point on the first day. This area was a place he had never visited before; his previous hunting activities were always in the northwestern Hilly Resource Zone, while he was now in the southwestern direction.

But now, the first task was to return to the Black Bear Cave and bring out the Silver King. He didn’t know if it was still waiting at the crevice entrance. Xu Xin had left enough food for it, so he wasn’t worried it would wander off.

”Then follow me, I’ll lead the way.”

”Whimper!” Keke, who had been watching them silently, climbed onto Xu Xin’s shoulder after hearing this.

Before leaving, Xu Xin glanced at the lake that had just been filled by the underground water surge.

This lake, which was dry until recently, now had its water extending to the shore and had stopped rising. Unlike the lake by Xu Xin’s treehouse, the water here was very murky, and from time to time, you could see blood-striped loaches swimming inside.

If it wasn’t for the experiments done with the bat group showing that polluted meat wouldn’t poison mutant creatures to death, Xu Xin would’ve already thrown poisoned meat down to kill them all. With so many loaches, even if each only gave a little point, Xu Xin could still make a killing.

Should find some time to look for things like sulfur and saltpeter to see if the bomb recipe can be unlocked, then come here directly to fish with explosives, that would definitely be a blast.

At this time, the cheetah running around also returned to Xu Xin’s side, but because it had been running for a long time, it was somewhat limp, lying on the ground, obviously exhausted.

Xu Xin again tried to collect the exhausted cheetah into the ring, only to be dodged again without surprise.

”Alright. Since you don’t want to go in to rest, make sure to keep up from behind.” Xu Xin said to the cheetah, which raised its head and let out a weak cry, then got back up.

Took the Chang Yin Family along for a walk and arrived at the small creek familiar to Xu Xin. As long as you walked downstream along the creek, you would pass by the Black Bear Cave and return to the treehouse.

The Chang Yin Family was very curious about everything on the ground. After all, having been underground for nearly fifty years, everything above ground had changed dramatically.

”Oh, right, Xu Xin, you should return that ring to Xue Lan, and I’ll give you a stronger one.” Walking by the creek, Chang Yin said to Xu Xin. He then, from who knows where, pulled out a bracelet and handed it to Xu Xin.

”This is...” Xu Xin accepted the bracelet.

[Mutant Beast Bracelet (Blue): Can store ten tamed low-level mutant beasts, remember, it can only store mutant beasts! Don’t forget to feed them, or the mutant beasts will starve to death inside.]

Xu Xin raised his eyebrows. This bracelet could store ten mutant beasts! The ring he was wearing could only store five.

Xu Xin immediately took off the ring from his hand, released the bats inside it, put them into the bracelet, and then handed the ring back to Xue Lan.

”This ring was the first gift I gave to Xue Lan after I turned into a statue, it holds significant meaning, can’t just leave it on your hand all the time.” Chang Yin explained with a smile, then handed Xu Xin a hand-held windmill.

The little windmill Xu Xin got before had long been returned to Xiaohong, and this windmill was a circle larger than Xiaohong’s.

”This thing can attract the attention of mutant beasts, equivalent to a taunting tool, depends on how you use it.”

Xu Xin packed the windmill into his backpack, ”Did you make all these things?”

”Of course, but now I don’t have the raw materials, even if I want to, I can’t make them anymore.”

”What are the raw materials? I can help you find them.”

”Better not, they’re not something you can handle, I only got them by chance myself.”

Soon, Xu Xin arrived at the entrance of the Black Bear Cave, the inside was very quiet.

He shouted into the cave, ”Silver King, are you in there?”

Immediately, a howl echoed from inside the cave, and a large silver-grey wolf ran out, and upon seeing Xu Xin, it ran directly to his side, rubbing its head against him.

”Yip!” Upon seeing Silver King, Keke was also very happy, jumping down from Xu Xin’s shoulder to Silver King’s back.

”Oh, this wolf of yours isn’t a mutant beast, is it? How can it be this large?” Chang Yin was taken aback by Silver King’s size, not expecting a wolf to grow so big.

Xu Xin no longer wanted to walk, he directly mounted on Silver King’s back and said with a smile, ”Silver King was once the Wolf King of a pack, quite majestic, right, Silver King?”

”Awooo——” Silver King let out a howl, indeed very imposing.

Chang Yin observed Silver King, clicking his tongue in admiration, ”This wolf is really remarkable, you have a mutant potion synthesizer, you can use mutant potions on it.”

”Hm... better not, didn’t you say that the use of potions would likely not maintain the original will?” Xu Xin shook his head. He needed an obedient steed, not a crazy dog running everywhere.

”Most wouldn’t maintain their will, but there are a few exceptions.” Chang Yin pointed to the cheetah following behind, ”Isn’t it an exception?”

”You mean...” Xu Xin’s eyes lit up.

”Indeed, in all our experiment subjects, there were only three exceptions, and without exception, these exceptions were all abnormally large within their species, just like this grey wolf.” Chang Yin pointed again to Silver King beneath Xu Xin, ”They should have undergone mutation themselves, thus having a much higher tolerance to mutant potions.”

Xu Xin petted Silver King’s head, lost in thought. If he could use mutant potions to make Silver King stronger without losing its will, that would indeed be great.