Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 112: Chapter 112: The Magical Mutated Beast Meat and Saltpeter

Returning to the treehouse, the three beasts inside were playing around.

Yesterday, Xu Xin placed the [Contaminated Radiation Stone (Blue)] obtained from the dungeon next to the beast statue. Influenced by this stone, the powers of Silver King and Mimi could slowly increase even inside the treehouse.

Half the day had passed, and it was time to make some food.

”You two,” Xu Xin felt he could hardly afford to feed Silver King and Mimi anymore, due to their enormous appetites, ”how about you go out and hunt for yourselves?”

Hunting the common beasts outside was a piece of cake for these two mutant beasts, with a hundred percent success rate.

”Awoo!” Silver King responded in agreement, and Mimi stood beside Silver King.

Xu Xin took them down from the treehouse, telling them to call him once they returned so he would come down to fetch them, then returned to the treehouse.

Of course, Keke wouldn’t follow the two mutant beasts to hunt. It had long developed the habit of mooching off Xu Xin’s meals, probably because it hadn’t eaten cooked food before. Every time there was roasted meat, it would devour it happily, oils dripping from its mouth.

”We’re having stir-fry today!” Xu Xin patted Keke’s little head.

”Huh?” Keke tilted its head, not knowing what stir-fry was.

Xu Xin first checked the marketplace to see if there were any condiments like green onions, ginger, and garlic. After browsing for a while, he indeed found some shallots and shallot seeds. He promptly bought them and planted the shallot seeds in his rooftop garden.

He arrived at the kitchen. Lighting the stove, he extracted some oil from the beast meat, used the cleaned boning knife to slice lotus root, and cut some wild boar tenderloin slices, Xu Xin began his lotus root stir-fry meat.

He put the tenderloin slices into the pan, stir-frying them to a half-done state, then added chopped shallots to release their aroma, followed by lotus root slices, evenly stir-frying them. Finally, he sprinkled some salt, stirred twice, and served the dish — a simple lotus root stir-fry meat was ready!

Although lacking soy sauce for color, which made the meat appear a bit off, Xu Xin didn’t mind; after all, this was the first stir-fry dish he had eaten since arriving in this world!

Having eaten only roasted meat and fruits each day, he felt like he was regressing to a primitive human.

Drawn by the fragrance, Keke attempted to climb onto the stove to see again and again, but was picked up by Xu Xin repeatedly, afraid it might get burned. Eventually, it climbed onto Xu Xin’s shoulder to witness the birth of this first stir-fry dish.

Setting the lotus root stir-fry meat on the table, he crafted a pair of chopsticks and eagerly picked up a chopstick’s worth to taste it.

The wild boar’s gamey flavor coupled with the lotus root’s freshness, along with the perfect shallot oil aroma and saltiness, made Xu Xin utterly enchanted. If only there were ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and oyster sauce, it would be even better.

”Huh huh huh!” Keke looked at the plate, unsure how to start, noticing Xu Xin already eating, hurriedly tugged at Xu Xin.

A whimsical thought arose in Xu Xin’s mind, and he handed the chopsticks to Keke.

”Huh?” Keke gripped a chopstick in each little claw, tilting its small head.

Just as Xu Xin burst into laughter, intending to take the chopsticks back to feed it, he was amazed to find Keke awkwardly manipulating the chopsticks with both fuzzy paws, delivering the picked-up food to its mouth.

A panda using chopsticks was indeed a peculiar sight, leaving Xu Xin stunned for two seconds.

However, watching Keke eat with relish, Xu Xin chuckled, shook his head, and made another pair of chopsticks while bringing over the grill.

He wanted to eat grilled rat meat!

Indeed, it’s the rat meat obtained from defeating rats in the underground maze. The introduction said it was a rare delicacy.

Since arriving in this world, naturally everything ought to be tried. And most importantly, he hadn’t yet eaten the mutant beast meat, he wanted to see what was different about these edible low-level mutant beast meats compared to ordinary beast meat.

After being dissected, rat meat didn’t actually reveal what kind of meat it was, so there was no psychological barrier. Xu Xin sliced the meat while munching on his lotus root stir-fry meat, grilling the meat on the rack.

Gradually, an incredibly rich aroma spread throughout the treehouse, even Keke, who was fighting with the chopsticks, suspended its actions, looking toward the meat on the grill.

”Does it smell that good?” Xu Xin swallowed a mouthful, ”This fragrance, it’s even better than the Blue-grade bear paw from before!”

On the grill, the meat sizzled and dripped oil, the fat’s aroma was simply irresistible, Xu Xin felt he was uncontrollably salivating.

Unexpectedly, although the meat from intermediate mutant beasts was too contaminated to eat, the meat from low-level mutant beasts turned out to be amazingly delicious!

Xu Xin used chopsticks to pick up a slice of meat still sizzling with oil, blew on it, and placed it in his mouth.

An incredibly rich aroma exploded in his mouth, making Xu Xin feel like all the meat he had eaten in his previous life was rubbish, the plate of lotus root stir-fry wild boar meat instantly lost its appeal.

Moreover, after swallowing the meat, he felt a faint warmth flowing through his limbs. Although very faint compared to the Blue-grade bear paw effect, he still perceived it.

”Low-level mutant beast meat can enhance powers too!” Xu Xin was shocked, this function was simply too strong! You must know, this was Green-grade meat!

Right now, most people have just left the underground city within a day, and the trading platform is flooded with mutated beast meat. This readily available green-level resource can actually enhance strength!

He quickly ate a few more pieces and felt the effect more distinctly this time.

”Whimper!” Keke had been sniffing the aroma of the meat, eagerly waiting, pacing around the grill. Xu Xin shared half with Keke, while he gobbled up the remaining mutated rat meat.

His whole body felt warm and cozy. Although it wasn’t as immediate as bear paws, he felt his body slowly changing. If consumed over a long period, it would surely steadily improve physical fitness!

Suddenly, he regretted not killing that toad and the mutated beasts in the testing ground and bringing them out. Most mutated beasts were left underground, locked in that underground city with the submerged exit.

What a waste, such waste! Xu Xin felt a pang of heartache.

Xu Xin thought of the pig, cow, and sheep herds in the Hilly Resource Zone, and he even started planning to farm them. If he could mutate a few cattle and sheep and keep them tamed, he could directly breed low-level mutated beasts. However, at this stage, it’s not feasible, considering the frequent activities leaving him no time for farming. Perhaps in the future.

But this kind of meat can bring long-lasting benefits to the body, it must be incorporated into the daily diet!

For these three days, there’s no shortage of mutated beast meat; survivors just returned from the underground city and can buy directly on the trading platform. But green-level meat spoils, after three days, if desiring more, one can only hunt new mutated beasts or use mutation potions to create one.

Currently, besides that lake of mutated loaches, Xu Xin hasn’t seen other low-level mutated beasts on the surface, and meat from mid-level mutated beasts summoned from the altar is of gray grade, not edible, only usable for making mutation potions.

I wonder if the loaches are still in the lake or have burrowed back underground.

Even if they’re still in the lake, Xu Xin seems to have no good method to capture them. They can dig through stones, have strong destructive power, trying to make a tool to catch them is impossible, polluted meat is useless, poison doesn’t kill them; perhaps only extinction methods like dynamite or electric fishing can deal with them.

If using mutation potions, one would consume one potion every three days to eat, which is incredibly wasteful.

Sigh, who knows when there’ll be a way to preserve food.

At this moment, his watch vibrated, Xu Xin raised his hand to look; it was a message from Li Wenxi.

”What’s the use of nitrate?”

Xu Xin was still troubled when he saw the message, his eyes instantly widened: ”Holy shit!”

Li Wenxi: ”What’s up, what’s wrong, is nitrate very useful?”

What’s this called? It’s exactly what he’s looking for! Just now, he was thinking about how to store meat long-term, and suddenly nitrate came into play.

No wonder she’s a rich lady with mines at home! She can even find a nitrate mine!

Xu Xin immediately sent a voice message over.

”Did you find a nitrate mine? Is there a lot?” Xu Xin asked directly.

”Uh, well, it’s sufficient.” Li Wenxi ambiguously replied and curiously asked, ”I heard nitrate can be used to make explosives, right?”

Indeed it can make explosives, but the primary sulfur is still missing, explosives can’t be made, and Xu Xin hasn’t seen the recipe for explosives on the crafting list, even with sulfur they can’t be made, trying to mix it himself would pretty much waste valuable time.

But nitrate can be used to make ice, like a refrigerator!

As long as nitrate is dissolved in water, it can cool, and it only needs to be dried to reuse, essentially requiring no replenishment. Just being able to preserve food at low temperatures, its significance is extraordinary.

You know, on Earth, the national standard set by Xu Xin’s country specifies that the freezing period for frozen meat shouldn’t exceed 12 months. That is to say, frozen meat within twelve months may not taste great, but it’s fine.

Frozen meat can be preserved for one year!

Xu Xin explained the function of nitrate to Li Wenxi.

”It can cool? That’s great!” Li Wenxi was pleasantly surprised upon hearing, ”So much meat before could only be preserved for two or three days before rotting, couldn’t trade for good things, now it can finally be stored!”

”Yeah, is the mine near the treehouse?” Xu Xin knew that Li Wenxi lacked immediate trading capability and needed to transport the ores back to the treehouse first, so if it’s far away, it’s inconvenient.

”Very far, next to the black gold mine, I was mining black gold when I accidentally discovered there’s a nitrate mine nearby. Sigh, the mine is too far, each time requires a long trek, it’s really inconvenient, I’ve been carrying ores for more than an hour now and haven’t reached the treehouse, so boring, just came to chat with you.” Li Wenxi said helplessly.

Accidentally discovered a nitrate mine... Yeah, right.

This little rich lady is becoming more and more indiscreet with Xu Xin.

Nonetheless, she probably sees that Xu Xin has already guessed she has some special abilities, hence she’s so nonchalant.