Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 184: Chapter 175 Little Beauty Sculpture

Next, it’s time to consider how to allocate the augmentation points.

Before that, Xu Xin wants to try an idea he’s had in mind for a while.

Is it possible to exploit a loophole to recuperate the augmentation points? Although the wooden plaques can be replaced only every seven days and augmentation points cannot be reclaimed, what if the room is dismantled or the plaque is destroyed?

His bedroom has a 1% augmentation point, and he plans to test it out. It’s only 1%, so it doesn’t matter if it’s truly wasted.

He certainly wouldn’t dismantle the bedroom; instead, he removed the bedroom door.

A bedroom without a door can no longer be considered a closed space.

[Detected that the room is no longer a closed space, thus bedroom augmentation effect removed.]

Xu Xin looked at the [bedroom wooden plaque] and found that the 1% augmentation was not returned but still displayed on the plaque. His total allocable points also remained unchanged.

...It seems the allocation is directly on the plaque, and even if the room is damaged, the 1% augmentation won’t be reclaimed.

What if he destroys the plaque?

Xu Xin took out the iron axe (blue) and directly struck the plaque.

”Crack!” The plaque was destroyed immediately, and Xu Xin promptly checked the points in the [functional area]. Unfortunately, there was no change.

So where did this 1% augmentation go? Was it simply gone?

Xu Xin reinstalled the door, thought for a moment, and made a [kitchen wooden plaque], hanging it on the wall.

[Cannot designate, this room’s function can be changed after seven days.]

Even destroying the plaque doesn’t work. With no other option, he made another bedroom plaque. The moment he hung it on the wall, the 0% reverted to 1% on the plaque.

A notification sound also rang, indicating that this room was once again designated as a bedroom.

He finally understood the mechanism.

Within seven days, this room can only be a bedroom. Destroying the bedroom plaque turns the room into just an ordinary room, and hanging plaques for other functional areas doesn’t work; only the bedroom plaque can be rehung.

Moreover, the 1% augmentation is conferred to the [bedroom plaque] located in this position. Changing the plaque or the location doesn’t help. Simply put, the plaque attribute is bound to the room position; missing one leads to the augmentation points being consumed entirely.

It seems impossible to exploit a loophole to recuperate augmentation points. Better to consider how to allocate them wisely.

He already has some ideas of his own.

He intends to primarily add augmentation points to the features where he has unique advantages.

First is the art room, which is essential to enhance, as sharpening the axe won’t delay the work of chopping wood. With the art room augmented, his carving speed increases, ensuring he won’t lack decorative appeal in the future.

Next is alchemy. This new ability is indeed powerful, but it’s overly resource-consuming. A single universal alchemy material requires a blue-level iron block and a blue-level black gold, and the alchemy room introduction mentioned increasing success rates, indicating that alchemy can fail.

If it consumes so much material and fails eventually, that would be disastrous. This must be enhanced.

Then there is the planting room. He plans to gradually replace all the soil in the planting room with blue-level fertile soil and plant blue-level vegetation. With the functional area’s growth speed bonus, the planting room will rapidly produce batches of blue-level fruits, allowing him to produce potions that permanently increase abilities with his alchemy skills.

At the same time, based on previous patterns, there’s a small chance for purple-level vegetation to grow in blue-level fertile soil. Once batch planting and accelerated turnover speed up, the chances of growing purple-level vegetation would greatly increase!

Aside from his treehouse, he hasn’t seen other purple-level plants yet. Even purple-level materials, he’s only seen a few scales bitten off by a giant crocodile from a giant anaconda, and the purple-level crystal at the center of a tornado. If he could happen to grow a purple-level fruit tree that continuously produces purple-level fruit, he would make a fortune!

Lastly, the fabrication room also needs augmentation. This will increase the success rate, reduce material consumption, and the numerous workbenches in the fabrication room will benefit most productions.

As for other functional areas... he doesn’t plan to augment them for now.

There’s no need to augment the bedroom; sleep and rest can be completely replaced by blue-level oranges and apricots from the planting area.

The kitchen and dining room already have blue-level stoves, iron pots, and dining tables, and according to the blue-level fruit effect duration estimation, the degree has already exceeded 50%, so no further augmentation is needed for now.

The smelting room is even less necessary. With a little wealthy girl around, why should he enhance the smelting room himself?

Xu Xin arrived at the art room on the third floor and touched the art room plaque.

He intends to allocate 100% directly to the art room, doubling his carving speed!

Where it originally took half an hour to carve a green-level small statue, it now only takes fifteen minutes after doubling the speed!

[Allocate 100% augmentation? Allocation cannot be canceled once made, please consider carefully.]

Xu Xin chose yes.

[Current decorative value: 211.68 (176.4+35.28), total allocable augmentation: 110%]

The numbers on the wooden plaque of the art room, representing the enhancement percentage, have changed from 0% to 100%.

Sitting at the carving and painting tool table, Xu Xin took out a green-grade white crystal, picked up his carving knife, thought for a moment, and began carving on it.

The knife moved with fluidity, incredibly smooth and agile, and soon, a small statue emerged in Xu Xin’s hands.

He planned to give this statue to Li Wenxi as a return gift for the many resources she sent him previously, allowing him to build the alchemy synthesis table, so he put some effort into it.

He carved Li Wenxi wearing the novice two-piece suit, lying on a sofa. Although the crystal was small, the little figure perfectly showcased her lazy demeanor and extraordinary beauty.

[Detected placement of human female white crystal statue (green) in treehouse, treehouse decoration level +10, current treehouse decoration level: 223.68 (186.4 + 37.28)]

Alright, it worked!

Xu Xin immediately glanced at the time. Sure enough, this carving took only fifteen minutes! It’s a qualitative leap!

Suppressing the joy of success inside, Xu Xin sent a video to Li Wenxi.

It took some time for the call to connect.

In the video, Li Wenxi’s face was flushed, wearing the washed out novice two-piece that clung to her body with sweat, outlining her curves, making Xu Xin’s eyelids twitch.

”What’s up? I’m trying out my new smelting room!” Li Wenxi, although somewhat damp, had no visible sweat on her face or forehead, probably wiped before answering his video call.

”How is it working?” Xu Xin was somewhat curious about the relationship between enhancement percentage and material consumption reduction.

”Very good! There are three furnaces in total, and their efficiency has improved greatly, very powerful!”

Li Wenxi’s flushed cheeks carried an excited smile, ”And also, there’s a chance for three times the material output! I added a 50% enhancement to the smelting room, not only speeding up by 50% but also granting a 5% chance for triple output! Meaning, every twenty times, there’ll be one occurrence of triple material!”

Triple output rate?! Indeed, more output with the same raw materials effectively means reduced material consumption. And if it’s blue-grade materials this time, it’ll be very lucrative.

”Is the probability controllable? I mean, is it random, or does it occur every twentieth time?” Xu Xin asked. If controllable, using blue-grade materials on the twentieth time would guarantee three times the output.

”Of course, it’s random. You think there’s a minimum guarantee? I was constantly watching by the furnace for three times output, and the first time directly produced twice in a row!” Li Wenxi rubbed her still reddened cheeks.

No wonder her face was so flushed and sweaty; she was watching by the furnace the whole time.

Random is nice too, favorable to those with good luck, and such a probability could be influenced by the lucky charms he consumed. I wonder if Qin Yunlong’s brothers managed to acquire more lucky charms; I’ll ask later to see if I can obtain one for Li Wenxi.

Li Wenxi’s more smelting means more alchemical materials for him! Iron blocks, black gold blocks... For now, all of Xu Xin’s alchemical materials rely entirely on the wealthy little lady.

”That’s great. By the way, take a look at this.” Xu Xin raised the crystal statue in his hand.

”What is it... Hmm? Eh?? Is that me?” Li Wenxi leaned over the screen, staring wide-eyed at the statue in his hand.

Xu Xin initiated the trade with her.

Li Wenxi immediately accepted it, and the crystal statue instantly appeared in her hand.

Thankfully, statues could be traded via the trading platform. The worry was it might be like soil, not eligible for trade. After the trade, the treehouse’s decoration level promptly reverted to its original points.

”Wow, it really looks like me, just... Eh?? This statue can add 10 points to decoration level!” Li Wenxi’s ears also echoed the sound of increased decoration level, stunning her instantly, ”You have the ability to increase decoration level.”

”I didn’t tell you earlier, but my decoration level is actually over 200.” Xu Xin said with a smile. Having given her the statue, he’s no longer keeping it a secret, laying all cards on the table.

”Two hundred?!” Li Wenxi was consecutively shocked, her gaze shifting back and forth between the statue in her hand and Xu Xin on the screen, ”This... This is just too amazing! Was that ability a reward from before?”

”It’s an ability from the center of the tornado, you haven’t entered the tornado’s center, so you didn’t obtain it.”

”Ah... That’s so powerful! Does this mean you can add decoration level indefinitely? Wow... Um, Xu Xin, hehe...” Li Wenxi suddenly flashed a bright smile at him.

Xu Xin laughed too, mimicking her tone, ”Um, I’ve been quite short on blue-grade iron blocks and black gold blocks lately.”

His universal alchemical materials required these two.

Li Wenxi clapped both hands, ”Got them, I’ll send them to you right now!” She immediately sent five of each to him.

”Haha, don’t worry, you’ll be rewarded.” Xu Xin was very satisfied. Indeed, with this wealthy little lady, a single time meant ten blue-grade metal blocks. He felt that relying on her alone might just be enough to produce the coordinates.

”Then I’m relieved. Oh right, this statue, while quite nice looking,” Li Wenxi suddenly stepped back a few paces, revealing her full body, standing with legs spread and hands on hips, ”My legs are a bit longer than hers!”

... Doesn’t she realize her clothes are sticking to her body?

But indeed, it was Xu Xin’s oversight; Li Wenxi’s head-to-body-to-leg ratio was indeed better than what he carved.

”Next time, I’ll carve one that looks exactly like you.”

”Hehe, sounds good!”