Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 113: Chapter 113: Refrigerator? No, Ice Cellar!

”When you get back to the treehouse, I’ve got something for you that will spare you from walking to the mines each time.” Xu Xin didn’t want to ask how she discovered the nitrate mine. He planned to give Li Wenxi a bottle of mutation potion and a mutant beast contract to enhance her efficiency a bit.

”Huh? A means of transportation? For me? Wow, you’re too kind!” Li Wenxi’s voice was full of excitement; this was her biggest trouble at the moment, and she didn’t expect Xu Xin could solve it for her.

”Not so much, not so much. Let me give you the items first, and then I’ll explain. Oh, by the way, do you have mutant beast meat?” Xu Xin asked.

”I have quite a lot, all green-grade meat. I haven’t dared to eat it, fearing issues. Do you want it? I can give it to you.” It seems Xu Xin’s help with her transportation problem was very welcome, so she was ready to offer him the meat without questioning the reason.

”You should keep it; this meat can improve your physique over the long term and is extremely delicious.”

”You ate it? The introduction only mentioned it was edible meat; it actually has such effects!”

”Yes, eating it gives a slight feeling of enhanced strength, though very subtle.”

”Oh, I get it. You intend to use nitrate to preserve mutant beast meat, right? Currently, everyone has just come out of the dungeon, and they all have quite a bit of mutant beast meat. They lack preservation skills, so it’s the perfect opportunity for us to capitalize!” Li Wenxi grew eager. ”I’m almost there; I’ll give you the nitrate when I get back!”

After hanging up the call, Xu Xin took out a mutant beast contract and went downstairs to the synthesis station to make a bottle of mutation potion. He intended to give these to Li Wenxi in exchange for her nitrate.

With their current strength, they could forcibly administer the mutation potion to a wild boar or cow and, once mutated, use the mutant beast contract to bind it.

The mutant beast contract isn’t specifically for mounts, so it definitely won’t be like Xu Xin riding the Silver King—fast but steady as Mount Tai without being thrown off—but ordinary riding is still doable.

And even if not ridden, using it to carry multiple bags for transport is very suitable; this method is extremely fitting for Li Wenxi. Otherwise, she would have to travel long distances each time and carry things herself, wasting time and effort. With time now being extremely precious and labor costs so high, Xu Xin felt a bit embarrassed to bargain with her.

With nitrate that can cool, Xu Xin planned to make several large freezers to store some mutant beast meat as reserve provisions.

As Li Wenxi mentioned, he could directly buy some mutant beast meat from the platform, considering there are over eighteen hundred people returning from the dungeon. Currently, the market is flooded with mutant meat, and prices are quite low because everyone thinks they can’t consume all the meat within three days.

Soon, Li Wenxi called Xu Xin with a video.

Connecting the video, Li Wenxi appeared a bit excited on the other side: ”What are you going to give me? I’ve got the nitrate prepared.”

Xu Xin sent Li Wenxi the attributes of the mutant potion and mutant beast contract.

”This... You can actually create mutant beasts!” Li Wenxi was very surprised, especially when she saw the mutant beast contract, instantly understanding Xu Xin’s idea. She clapped her hands, ”You want me to use the mutant potion to create a mutant beast and contract it?”

”That’s right.” Xu Xin nodded, ”It’s best to choose cattle or pigs capable of carrying loads for maximum help to you.”

”Um... If I really have to choose one, then it’s cattle. Riding a pig is too weird!” Li Wenxi imagined herself riding a pig and instantly shook her head as if trying to shake off the image from her mind.

Xu Xin informed her of some considerations regarding the contracts and potion, like ensuring the mutant beast has a willingness to submit before using the contract.

”Understood, let’s trade!” Li Wenxi directly initiated a trade with Xu Xin.

[The other party initiated a trade with you, mutant beast contract (green) *1, mutation potion (blue) *1 for nitrate (blue) *2]

Blue-grade nitrate?!

The screen showed Li Wenxi playing with a crystal-like block of nitrate in her hand: ”I just got back and identified them. Among all this nitrate, there are four blue-grade ones. I’ll give you two; the introduction seems to say, blue-grade nitrate’s functions are much stronger than green-grade.”

Xu Xin immediately clicked agree, and two palm-sized blue-grade nitrate blocks appeared in his hand.

[Nitrate (blue): High-grade nitrate, which absorbs enormous amounts of heat when dissolved in water, with an ultra-strong effect! Only one block is needed to make blue-grade explosives.]

Xu Xin saw explosives in the introduction, causing his heart to skip a beat. It can indeed be used to make explosives, though unfortunately, he doesn’t have the method to create them.

However, the phrase ”absorbs enormous” heat accelerated his heartbeat. Could it be the cooling effect is extremely strong?

”Have you tried the functions of blue-grade nitrate?”

”Yes, I just casually tossed a block into the basin, and it instantly froze, with the surrounding temperature dropping by several degrees!” Li Wenxi pointed to a basin of ice next to her, ”I even feel a bit cold in my legs now.”

So strong!

It’s important to note that regular nitrate requires a large amount to freeze, nearly one-to-one, and the freezing process is slow, taking half an hour to solidify. But this blue-grade nitrate block instantly froze and even lowered the surrounding temperature!

”Alright, I can’t wait to sign the mutant beast contract. I have to finish it before tomorrow’s event. I’m heading out first, you study the niter. I’ll copy your homework when I get back, hehe.”

”Okay, by the way, the ice directly made from niter is not edible. Don’t use that ice to make any slushies. If you want to eat ice, make it through a bucket.”

”Of course I know that! I’m not that dumb!”

Ending the video call, Xu Xin was also eagerly eager to try it out. He filled a basin with water and placed the blue-grade niter in it. Instantly, the water began to freeze at a speed visible to the naked eye. Simultaneously, a chill spread out, and the temperature around him dropped instantly, causing Xu Xin to shiver.

The niter was thus frozen within the ice, without any change in shape.

”This... this is too powerful!” Xu Xin was a bit shocked.

He immediately changed his previous idea of making a refrigerator.

What’s the point of making a refrigerator? He could completely use these two pieces of niter to create an ice cellar! With an ice cellar, he could store large amounts of mutant beast meat and other foodstuffs, equivalent to a small grain storage!

He quickly began planning the ice cellar in his mind.

To build an ice cellar, you first need to lower the temperature inside, then place the ice within it.

Ancient ice cellars were actually quite simple. In winter, large chunks of ice were chiseled and placed in cellars underground. Because the cellars were underground, they had excellent temperature retention abilities. By summer, the ice hardly melted, maintaining a low temperature in the cellar continuously, thus creating the ice cellar.

But now it’s the height of summer; there’s no natural ice for him to use, so he requires niter to cool and create ice. Ordinary niter finds this hard to achieve. After all, cooling the surrounding area and producing large quantities of ice requires an enormous amount of resources. But his two blue-grade niters can completely meet the demand.

What he needed to consider now was where to make an ice cellar. Generally, ice cellars are set underground because they aren’t ventilated, have no sunlight, and very little heat can be conducted in, allowing ice to be preserved for a long time.

If it was set underground, he would have to go down from the treehouse every time to get something, and it would be troublesome if he couldn’t leave the treehouse in certain situations, or if a flood were to submerge the cellar.

So Xu Xin decided to build the ice cellar on the first floor of the treehouse.

Not just for convenience, but he actually realized long ago that the treehouse’s floor had heat insulation capabilities.

His furnace was placed in the corner of the second floor of the treehouse. Every time he used the furnace, it emitted intense heat due to the high-temperature flames inside. It’s worth noting that the flames for melting iron blocks are above fifteen hundred degrees. Whenever the furnace was running, unless he went to get materials, he would try to stay away from the furnace as much as possible.

While using the furnace for long periods to smelt ore sand on the second floor, the temperature near the furnace was extraordinarily high. Given the ambient temperature wasn’t low, the entire second floor felt like a high-temperature sauna room.

Logically, the third floor should also feel like a steamer. But it didn’t; the third floor’s floor was even still cool, except for areas near the stairwell, which were slightly affected.

Therefore, considering the treehouse’s floor and walls had heat insulation abilities, using the first floor of the treehouse as an ice cellar was completely feasible.

Xu Xin immediately began modifying the first floor of the treehouse.

The ice cellar didn’t need to be as large as an entire floor. It wasn’t necessary, so Xu Xin divided the first floor into two parts, partitioning off one half for the ice cellar.

He covered the windows with wooden shutters to block sunlight, turning the entire room into a dark, enclosed, heat-insulated environment.

Xu Xin filled a giant wooden barrel with water and placed it in the soon-to-be ice cellar room, tossing a piece of blue niter into it.

As soon as the niter hit the water surface, there was a cracking sound, and it instantly froze. The niter was frozen near the water surface, while the water in the barrel gradually turned into ice, exuding a bone-chilling cold.

”Crack!” The expanding ice in the frozen barrel burst it apart, scattering wooden shards everywhere. At the same time, within half a minute, Xu Xin could feel the temperature drop sharply in the entire room, plummeting from thirty degrees to just a few degrees, reaching the chilling temperature of a refrigerator’s cold storage.

”This blue-grade niter’s heat absorption ability is incredible, and it hasn’t even been consumed!” Xu Xin looked at the niter frozen atop the ice, pulled out his pickaxe, and chiseled it out. The blue-grade niter retained its original form, seemingly only dissolved by an invisible, thin layer.

Even if it was entirely dissolved, it could be extracted and reused. This blue-grade niter is truly convenient!

Continuing to repeat this process, by the time the third bucket of water was frozen, the temperature within the ice cellar had become extremely frigid, at least below ten degrees below zero. Combined with these three blocks of lower temperature ice made from blue niter maintaining the temperature, the entire ice cellar was basically completed.

Xu Xin was getting quite cold, so he quickly stepped out. As soon as he opened the door, a wave of heat hit him, the drastic temperature difference making him feel extreme discomfort. Luckily, his physique had been enhanced; otherwise, this might have even given him a minor illness.

He quickly shut the door again, preventing any more cold air from escaping.

Next, it’s time to enrich the ice cellar’s contents! He was going to build a small grain storage within the treehouse!