Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 482: Chapter 338 The Secret Hidden in the Treasure Chest

A purple-ranked key!

A key that can control the treasure chest monster!

At the moment Xu Xin got the key, the location of the treasure chest monster on the map changed immediately from a red dot to a green light spot.

Great.

The treasure chest monster is now part of our team.

Silver King and Mimi felt the change in the treasure chest monster too, their tense bodies slowly relaxing, no longer in attack stance.

The vines surrounding the chest, always poised to strike at the treasure chest monster, no longer have any intent to attack, and slowly retreat back below the ground.

Lou Fei’Er, somewhat puzzled, lowered the dagger she’d been holding in front of her: ”I can’t sense any hostility or danger from this chest anymore, has it surrendered?”

Xu Xin shook the key in his hand, smiling: ”It’s part of our group now... no, it’s part of our chest.”

”I get it,” Li Wenxi looked at the key in Xu Xin’s hand, guessed, ”The person with the key is its master, right? You’re the master of this treasure chest monster now.”

”Exactly.” Xu Xin nodded and stepped beside the treasure chest monster.

Before Xu Xin approached, the treasure chest monster opened itself, revealing a large bloodthirsty mouth, mutated vines stretching from its throat and dangling outside the chest.

Hmm, just like a dog sticking out its tongue in a friendly gesture.

”What do you have inside your belly, spit it all out for me to see.” Xu Xin said to the completely submissive treasure chest monster.

The treasure chest monster responded by retracting the vine that had been hanging out like a tongue and then closed up.

It remained motionless, not opening on its own, as if waiting for Xu Xin to open it.

”This is...”

Xu Xin reached out and touched the treasure chest monster, discovering its previously somewhat soft, seemingly fleshy body had now turned cold and hard, exactly like the feel of real metal.

He reached to lift the lid of the chest.

The chest was not locked and didn’t require the key Xu Xin held to open it; though the lid was heavy, Xu Xin could easily flip it open with his current strength.

Inside, were still those dazzling gold and silver jewels.

He seemed to understand a bit more.

This treasure chest monster must have two forms.

The first form is the one with the big open mouth.

In this form, the treasure chest monster can chew food with its large mouth, similar to how it chewed the vines earlier. Additionally, it can spit out mutated vines from its mouth to attack, belonging to an active attack form.

The second form is the current form, the chest form.

In this form, the treasure chest monster’s inside is no longer that massive mouth, but a real treasure chest interior. According to the key’s introduction, it stores all kinds of things it previously consumed. Those that couldn’t be digested are retained.

However, this second form of the treasure chest monster probably can’t open or close or act on its own.

The chest is large, survivors can only reach a small portion of the treasure inside when they open it manually.

To see and access all the treasures within, one must reach deeply inside.

At this moment, the treasure chest monster can instantly switch to its man-eating form, close immediately, and swallow the survivor who reaches inside!

... What a terrifying tactic!

Even Xu Xin, upon seeing the thick layer of gold and silver jewels inside, can’t help wanting to check if there’s something else buried beneath the jewels.

If it were just a regular chest, he would certainly search through for the treasures inside.

However, it shouldn’t only be these things inside, right?

”Can’t you just spit out the treasures yourself?” Xu Xin asked.

The chest shivered slightly and then showed no response.

Apparently not, he had to find them on his own.

Xu Xin reached his hand out toward the interior of the chest, but was immediately grabbed by two hands.

One was Li Wenxi’s hand, the other was Lou Fei’Er’s hand.

”Even if you got the key, isn’t that too dangerous?” Li Wenxi recalled the scene where vines were cut by the closed chest, a bit frightened, ”Aren’t you afraid of getting your hand crushed, and besides, it doesn’t look like there’s anything worthwhile inside...”

The treasure chest monster seemed to understand Li Wenxi’s words and protested against her distrust and belittling of its treasures with two trembling motions in this immobile form.

”Let me, let me see what’s inside, I’m fast enough that even if it tries to close, it won’t catch me.” Lou Fei’Er didn’t want Xu Xin to take risks, so she said.

”...” Xu Xin shook his head helplessly.

The two girls couldn’t see the green dots on the map, unaware that the treasure chest monster was already on their side.

”Alright, then you can check out what’s beneath these gold and silver jewels.” Xu Xin didn’t insist. With someone to do the work, he was happy to relax.

With permission granted, Lou Fei’Er quickly grabbed the wall of the chest and jumped up, leaning her entire body against the edge, and began to search through.

She’s roughly 1.65 meters tall, while the chest was 1.5 meters high, the body at the level of her mouth and nose, so she had to jump up to reach inside.

Watching Lou Fei’Er’s stance, Xu Xin was somewhat speechless.