Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 142: Chapter 141: The Art of Painting

After finishing the carving last night, he was exhausted and fell asleep immediately.

With Keke’s small sculpture completed, the treehouse decoration level has increased to 96.4, just a bit short of reaching the 100 mark.

Although it’s uncertain whether a decoration level of 100 has any effect, 96.4 is quite bothersome, so he should hurry back to enhance the decoration level.

Within a few minutes, Xu Xin was back at the base of the treehouse.

Underneath his treehouse, there was still a patch of blue-grade fertile soil without any plants, the same soil where an apple tree was previously planted.

After the rainy season ended, a blue-grade poplar grew from this soil, which he chopped down in the morning.

Xu Xin attempted to plant a redwood seed in this blue-grade soil, but it had no effect. It seems that growing redwood requires more special conditions.

He didn’t move this soil to the plantation on the fourth level of the treehouse. The plantation can only accommodate relatively low plants; taller trees need to be planted beneath the treehouse.

After some thought, Xu Xin planted a pine seed in this soil.

The kitchen and bathroom tools he needed required round timber to make, and upgrading these tools with blue-grade timber might yield unexpected results.

Although there weren’t any beasts around, Xu Xin still placed a protective fence around this patch of soil.

Returning to the treehouse, it was already past noon, and Silver King and Mimi were lazily sprawled in the living room.

”Do you guys want anything to eat?” Xu Xin asked Silver King and Mimi. These two might be about to advance to mid-level mutated beasts, so eating more would be good.

However, both beasts shook their heads. It seemed their hearty breakfast had satisfied them temporarily.

Xu Xin took Keke to the cold storage to get some pieces of mutant beast meat, half for stir-frying and half for roasting.

While eating, a gentle warmth flowed through Xu Xin’s body, prompting him to ponder just how strong he is now. In the morning, while moving boulders, he easily lifted a rock nearly the same size as himself.

Of course, this was due to the effects of the scale armor he wore, and the humanoid sculpture in the treehouse also contributed.

He felt that even without using weapons, confronting a black bear with his bare hands should not be much of a problem now.

After the meal, Keke curled up on the sofa for a nap, while Xu Xin rested and contemplated his tasks for the afternoon.

This time, he planned not to carve but to paint.

His [Artist] contract not only endowed him with sculpting skills but also high-level painting expertise.

However, before starting, he needed to make painting tools.

[Brush (Green): Dip in water to create desired ink paintings, capable of producing green-grade artworks. Requires Wood (Green) *1, Beast Hair (Green) *1]

The brush requires wood and beast hair; he had plenty of blue-grade wood but had never obtained beast hair.

Perhaps this resource cannot be extracted with the bone knife?

Xu Xin looked at Silver King, who was dozing in the corner.

Isn’t there wolf hair readily available? Moreover, it’s the fur of the Mutated Wolf King!

Xu Xin smiled as he walked toward Silver King, his gaze fixed on its silver-red tail.

Wolf hair is not actually tail hair, but the hair from a weasel’s tail. Nonetheless, using Silver King’s tail hair should work just fine.

Silver King had already opened its silver eyes as Xu Xin approached, sensing that something unpleasant might happen.

”Awoo—”

The bats hanging under the treehouse were startled by Silver King’s howl, dropping down before flapping their wings to fly to the window and peek inside.

Xu Xin held some silver-red fur in his hands while Silver King pressed its tail between its legs, looking at Xu Xin pitifully. Upon closer inspection, there was a small bald patch on its tail.

[Mutated Wolf King’s Tail Hair (Blue): Fur from the tip of the Mutated Wolf King’s tail, suitable for brush making.]

Wonderful, it’s even a blue-grade resource!

Xu Xin’s eyes lit up as he looked at Silver King’s fur coat, causing Silver King to dash to Mimi’s side in fear.

Eventually, Xu Xin plucked a few more tufts of fur from it; after all, this creature sheds a lot, so plucking fur doesn’t show much anyway.

Yet, to Xu Xin’s disappointment, only the fur from the tail tip was blue-grade; the bits he plucked from the body weren’t even considered resources, not even white-grade.

Alright, it seems only tail tip fur can be used for brush making.

The next time he needs it, he’ll have to wait until Silver King’s tail tip fur grows back.

Xu Xin immediately used the blue-grade beast hair to make a brush, which resulted in a brush with alternating silver and red colors due to using Silver King’s fur.

[Wolf Hair Brush (Blue): Dip in water to create desired ink paintings, capable of producing blue-grade artworks.]

Beautiful, it can directly create blue-grade artworks!

The brush was ready; next was the paper.

Xu Xin perused the crafting list and found two types of paper.

One type was made from reeds, and the other from redwood.

Xu Xin focused on the paper made from redwood.

[Redwood Paper (Green): Paper made by extracting redwood essence, suitable for use as drawing paper, requires Redwood *1]

Paper that can be used for drawing.

However...

One sheet of paper actually requires an entire piece of redwood!

A tree only produces two pieces of redwood, and one piece of paper uses one piece, which means a tree can only make two sheets of paper!

This redwood paper is so precious...

Xu Xin originally thought about whether to use a piece of blue-level redwood to make a stack of blue-level paper for standby, but now it seems, where’s a stack? There’s only one sheet!

Forget it, better practice with green-level paper first.

Xu Xin immediately made a sheet of redwood paper (green).

The paper was large, just a bit smaller than the carving and painting workbench, perfectly fitting on the table.

A brush only needs to dip in water to paint. Xu Xin prepared a small saucer of water and picked up the brush.

As soon as he picked up the brush, he felt the sense of immersion he experienced when picking up the carving knife before.

The tip of the brush lightly dipped in water.

The fur on the tip was originally silver-red interwoven, but after dipping in water, it turned black, as if soaked in ink.

Xu Xin lifted the brush in thought, what should he draw...

Hmm, just draw the Silver King, after all, it sacrificed quite a bit for Xu Xin’s painting career, even the tip of its tail went bald.

Ink painting is unlike carving which is intricate, it didn’t need the Silver King to pose as a model. Xu Xin wielded the brush and started making bold strokes on the redwood paper.

Even just a brush dipped in water, under Xu Xin’s hand, could produce varying shades of gray and black, sketching wild lines on the redwood paper.

Xu Xin was completely immersed in painting.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, the Silver King on the redwood paper and the jungle behind it were becoming increasingly complete, nearly done, but his mind was struggling.

Like a student falling asleep in class, his head drooped, almost hitting the table.

...The exhaustion of Spiritual Power was too great, even more than carving.

Because he wanted to compare the consumption of Spiritual Power between painting and carving, Xu Xin didn’t eat a blue-level orange that could maintain his spirit before painting, not expecting the painting to consume so much.

Forcing himself not to collapse onto the table, he quickly took out an orange and ate it.

After eating the orange, Xu Xin’s spirit instantly rejuvenated, the difference was like receiving an adrenaline shot.

Wonderful! The artist’s talent paired with an orange, simply perfect!

Looking at the watch, nearly two hours had passed since he started painting.

Time passes so quickly?!

He swung the brush boldly, feeling like he was painting quickly, didn’t expect it to take so long.

Taking advantage of the orange’s effect duration, Xu Xin continued painting.

The painting quickly concluded. With the last stroke, Xu Xin let out a long breath.

On the paper, a wolf was running towards him. Although it was an ink painting and not too realistic, it couldn’t quite depict the Silver King, but the tension was palpable, as if the wolf would leap out of the paper.

The effect didn’t trigger. Xu Xin thought for a moment, made a wooden frame, mounted the ink Silver King in it, and hung it on the bedroom wall.

[Detected framed painting of Wolf King Charging (green) in the treehouse, decor score +10, current treehouse decor score: 106.4]

The tip of increased decor score appeared.

It was a painting with its own name at green-level. As to why it was green-level and not blue-level, it should be because of the paper. The paper was green-level, so no matter how well painted, it could only function at green-level.

However, even a green-level painting added ten points to the decor score, pushing the treehouse’s decor score over a hundred.

But it seems nothing special happened.

Xu Xin checked the content in the [Decor Score] option and found no changes.

Is the decor score insufficient, or is there some effect he needs to discover himself?

Perhaps because the second phase hasn’t begun, so the decor score doesn’t have an effect yet.

Since there’s nothing much happening now, let’s continue.

Xu Xin took out a piece of red crystal, one of the blue-level crystals he obtained from the wooden box in the vortex.

He wanted to try carving the blue-level crystal, after all, his carving knife was blue-level, capable of carving blue-level crystals.

Just as he fixed the crystal on the table, Xu Xin’s treehouse watch vibrated.

It was Li Wenxi calling him.

Upon connection, he saw Li Wenxi sitting leisurely on the back of Aniu.

The little beauty was very relaxed at that moment, even imitating a shepherdess with a stem of dogtail grass in her mouth.

”Were you just finished mining?”

”Yeah, heading back now, Aniu loaded a lot for me, this trip is worth several previous trips.” Li Wenxi said, spitting out the grass, sticking her tongue out, and frowning, ”This grass is really bitter...”

”Bored on the road, chatting with me?” Xu Xin put down the carving knife, smiled, and said.

”Ah, what’s wrong with chatting for a bit.” Li Wenxi leaned back on Aniu, the camera turned to her face, her voice becoming much more languid, ”Honestly not just chatting, I found something strange in the mine.”

Something strange in the mine?

Xu Xin became instantly interested.