Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 154: Chapter 153: A New Crisis

They didn’t have any special resources, so Xu Xin took some symbolic blue-level fruit wood, and these straightaway went to Li Wenxi, no problem for him.

Zhao Xiaochuan: ”Thanks Boss Xu! I’m off to gallop beneath the tree!”

Wang Lei: ”Boss Xu basically just gave it for free, love you!”

”Can you stop calling me Boss Xu, it sounds awkward.” Xu Xin wanted to draw closer to them, starting with the form of address was one of the best approaches.

Zhao Xiaochuan: ”Brother Xin!”

Wang Lei: ”Yes, just call him Brother Xin!”

Xu Xin, speechless: ”I’m not necessarily older than you guys.”

Wang Lei: ”Brother doesn’t mean age; it means status!”

The Blood Patterned Vine caused no damage to the treehouse for now, so instead of clearing the vines, the group started chatting.

Qi Xuefei: ”Xu Xin, how old are you? You’re definitely not older than me.”

Qi Xuefei had previously told them that she’s about to graduate with a PhD, having spent eight years in medicine for her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral studies, so she’s roughly 26 years old.

”Well, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree last year, studied at home for a year, just passed the entrance for my master’s, and waiting to start, then I ended up here.”

Wen Guixin: ”What? You’re actually younger than me, I’m a second-year graduate student.”

Wang Lei: ”...They’re all highly educated big shots, I’m quitting the group, a work-for-three-years vocational degree wage slave has no human rights in this group.”

Qin Yunlong: ”...Do we really need to talk about education, then I’ll quit the group too.”

Qin Yunhu: ”I’m not quitting, I have a bachelor’s degree, and I think it’s okay.”

Zhao Xiaochuan: ”I’m also an undergraduate! I’m currently in my third year, are we the same age, brother?”

Qin Yunhu: ”Oh, I’ve been working for nearly eight years, turning thirty this year.”

Zhao Xiaochuan: ”...Brother Hu!”

Li Wenxi: ”You’re all older than me, I’m only in my second year, I’m actually the youngest!”

This was the first time in [Explorers] that they talked about age, bringing them a bit closer.

Currently, it seems Li Wenxi is the youngest, around eighteen or nineteen, not yet twenty. Qin Yunlong and Qin Yunhu are the oldest brothers, already thirty. Their team really occupies the full 18-30 age range.

However, Ji Chaoyang was silent the whole time, which made Xu Xin curious. What was this guy doing now?

Zhao Xiaochuan: ”Hey, hey, hey, let’s not talk about this. In any case, Brother Xin is awesome, I’m off to shoot vines!”

Wang Lei: ”I’ve been out for a while, I’m hanging under the treehouse chatting with you...”

The group returned to silence, and Xu Xin handed over all the other resources gathered from trading to Li Wenxi.

Looking outside the window and confirming nothing unusual, he said to the uncomfortable bat lying on the windowsill, moving occasionally: ”If you want to go down, just go down, it’s safe now, call me if you need anything.”

The bat let out a sharp sound and flapped its wings, flying under the tree crown to hang upside down. Compared to lying inside the treehouse, it really preferred hanging beneath it.

Silver King and Mimi were sound asleep, while Keke followed Xu Xin to the study.

”Why are you following me?” Xu Xin sat down at the carving and painting workbench, looking at Keke who curled into a ball on his leg, ”You can stay here, but I’m going to carve, you better not move.”

”Meep!” Keke raised its head and responded, lying still on his leg.

This little guy, why suddenly so clingy?

Nonetheless, Xu Xin didn’t overthink, he petted Keke’s little head and was eager to try carving.

With the enhancement of the Deep Sea Pearl, he was already an entry-level artist. Since he was already entry-level, could he process blue-level crystal and create blue-level sculptures?

As it turns out, he was overthinking it—holding the carving knife, Xu Xin stared at the crystal, etched with a few scratches, in front of him for a long time.

Still didn’t have that feeling of getting into state the moment the carving knife was raised, still that feeling of having no clue how to start.

Sighing, Xu Xin put away the crystal. It seemed that blue-level carving required a higher level of artistic skill.

He then took out a piece of green-level crystal and picked up the carving knife again. This time, the familiar feeling came, countless inspirations bubbled up in his mind, and the carving knife in his hand began to carve rapidly.

He could clearly feel that his speed and precision were faster and more accurate than before, his movements were more fluid.

This was the entry-level feeling.

”Whew...” Not knowing how long had passed, Xu Xin let out a breath, ceased his actions, and placed the carving knife and the freshly made sculpture on the desk.

This time it was Afu’s small sculpture, depicting Afu with its wings spread, flying. The tiny sculpture was vivid, as if it might soar up directly the next moment.

[Detected bat blue crystal sculpture (green) placed in treehouse, treehouse decoration +10, current treehouse decoration: 146.4]

Xu Xin reached out and took down the first small Keke sculpture from the redwood cabinet, comparing it with this time’s small Afu sculpture, some details on the Afu sculpture were more detailed than on the Keke sculpture.

Detail for sure, aside from improved technique, his random ability today, enhanced vision, also provided significant help during the carving, the crystal was small, but under his microscope-like eyes, it was completely exposed.

However, this more detailed Afu sculpture still only added 10 points to the decoration, perhaps 10 points was the maximum decoration a green-level sculpture could add.

However, the advantage of improved technique is quite significant. This time, the consumption of Spiritual Power for carving was much less than before.

Xu Xin used his index finger to rub his temples and squinted his somewhat dry eyes. Although he felt slightly fatigued, it was far more manageable than the previous sensation of wanting to fall asleep immediately.

Looking at the time, he was pleasantly surprised to find that only half an hour had passed since he started carving! Previously, a carving would take two hours!

Efficiency has directly increased fourfold!

Is this what a beginner-level artist is like!

The treehouse has yet to complete its upgrade, and the role of decorative achievements is unknown, but judging from his rewards, the functions provided by the decorative achievements will definitely not be too poor.

If the artist’s level continues to rise, the time required for him to make carvings will become shorter and shorter. When it shrinks to just a dozen minutes or a few minutes per carving, he will be able to sell sculptures, provide carvings for others, and increase decorative achievements.

With satisfaction, Xu Xin nodded his head and placed the small statues of Keke and Afu on the bookshelf.

His bookshelf was not filled with books; instead, it resembled a display cabinet, displaying his sculptures of Keke, Mimi, Afu, and a shimmering white deep-water pearl.

It was still missing a small sculpture of the Silver King.

Although he had already drawn a portrait of the Silver King, the portrait was a traditional ink painting, depicting only the shape of a wolf, which was a bit of a stretch to call it the Silver King.

He then took out a piece of crystal, picked up the carving knife, and once again immersed himself in the carving state.

Soon, the carving of the Silver King was completed.

[Detected that the Wolf King white crystal statue (green) is placed in the treehouse, treehouse decorative achievements +10, current treehouse decorative achievements: 156.4]

He placed the small sculpture of the Silver King on the same level as the previous three sculptures on the mahogany bookshelf, with the four different-colored small sculptures lined up, creating a visual delight.

Keke, who was originally lying on Xu Xin’s lap, noticed that he was no longer carving, got up, spotted the four small sculptures lined up on the mahogany bookshelf, and widened its eyes, letting out a ”Veem” sound.

”How about it, isn’t it lifelike?” Xu Xin was somewhat proud; a few days ago, he was still an outsider to carving, and now he could easily carve such vivid small sculptures.

”Veem!” Keke nodded vigorously, even mimicking the pose of the Keke small sculpture.

”Haha.” Xu Xin petted Keke’s furry tail, just about to say something, when suddenly Keke turned its head to look out the window.

”Veem!” It freed itself from Xu Xin’s hand, jumped to the window, and looked outside.

At the same moment, outside the treehouse came the high-pitched screech of bats, and the sound of something breaking through the ground.

Even the floor of the treehouse was vibrating continuously.

Xu Xin’s expression changed.

Something is wrong!

He stood up from his seat, feeling a weight on his head.

Carving two green-level sculptures consecutively had not been a small burden on his spirit. He immediately ate an orange, restoring his Spiritual Power to its peak, and quickly walked to the window to look outside.

”Hiss—” Xu Xin gasped.

He saw that underneath his treehouse and all around it, which he had previously cleared, had grown dense Blood Patterned Vine far thicker than before!

Why are there so many Blood Patterned Vine emerging for no reason?

But what allowed him to temporarily breathe a sigh of relief were those blood-patterned vines not attacking the treehouse, rather gently swaying their branches in the breeze beneath the treehouse.

Xu Xin narrowed his eyes. This sensation is very strong, almost like...

Almost like the swinging vines in the Red Mist last night.

Those vines seemed to be restricted by some rules or watched by something powerful, not daring to attack easily, only swaying to ease the urge to attack.

But once they make a move, it would be a catastrophic blow filled with immense power!

The local conflicts between the Blood Patterned Vine and the Blood Thorn Vine that erupted from time to time last night astonished him, as they refrained from taking action until they did so with piercing force or sweeping destruction.

Are these Blood Thorn Vines the same as last night?

And how did they appear, did they grow from seeds or emerge from the underground?

Looking at the map, he unexpectedly found that there were red dots only beneath and around his treehouse, completely surrounding it, while no other places had any red dots.

These Blood Thorn Vines are entirely aimed at his treehouse!

”Afu, come up, don’t stay below!” Xu Xin called out. Just because the Blood Patterned Vines wouldn’t attack above five meters doesn’t mean these Blood Thorn Vines would behave similarly.

Afu heard the call and flew from the study’s window into the room.

Seeing the vines weren’t attacking, Keke wasn’t tense anymore, pulling Afu to look at Xu Xin’s sculptures with him.

Xu Xin eyed the Blood Thorn Vine below, his hands itching.

Since you’re not attacking, let me give it a try.

Ordinary crossbow bolts might not be effective against these Blood Thorn Vines, but he has explosive crossbow bolts!