Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 81: Chapter 81: Cave Maze

This is not just a choice, it’s a maze!

”Haven’t you encountered any danger so far?” Xu Xin asked Li Wenxi.

”Uh... Does a rat count as dangerous? It’s as big as a kitten, with red patterns on its body, glowing red eyes, and it bites me on sight. But I’m in full blue-grade iron armor, it couldn’t bite through me, so I just speared it to death with one shot,” Li Wenxi said casually.

”... You really have a big heart.” Xu Xin was speechless, how is this even possible?

With blood-red patterns on its body, glowing red eyes, isn’t that the kind of polluted mutant beast Xu Xin had killed earlier?

Indeed, mutant beasts have started appearing in this event. In the last event, mutant beasts could only be summoned through sacrificial altars. This time, they appear directly and start attacking survivors.

”Let me tell you, you can actually earn points now, I killed a strange big rat like this and got a full 20 points!” Li Wenxi’s tone became excited, ”I knew there were still ways to earn points!”

points? Judging from the previous reduction of wild cat points from 5 to 1 point, if it were during a hunting event, this Blood Patterned Rat Li Wenxi killed should be worth 100 points.

And both the Blood Pattern Rabbit and Blood Patterned Cat are worth 500 points, indicating there is still a strength gap.

Actually, from Li Wenxi’s description, one can sense the disparity. The Blood Pattern Rabbit directly pierced through his blue-grade armor, whereas the rat couldn’t break Li Wenxi’s defense.

Perhaps, the mutant beasts summoned from the altar are somewhat special.

”Haven’t you found the entrance yet? Look in the cave, I found one in a cave, so chances are the entrance is in a cave too.” Seeing Xu Xin silent for a while, Li Wenxi thought he hadn’t found the entrance and was a bit downhearted, quickly reassuring him.

”Already found it, just wanted to ask you what’s going on before going in.”

”Oh, then you should go in quickly, I’ll continue to wander around and see if I can find a way out.”

After hanging up, Xu Xin felt his fear of the unknown ease slightly. Compared to him who knows about the underground creatures, the oblivious Li Wenxi seemed bolder.

Xu Xin chose the left path, deciding to try walking down one path first.

Using an iron sword, he carved a deep mark on the edge of the left crevice as a sign, then sidled into the crevice.

According to Li Wenxi, there are indeed dangers inside, but the danger shouldn’t be too great since this is just the entrance.

Perhaps he was too cautious before.

Keke followed him into the passage, but Xu Xin still picked it up from the ground and placed it on his shoulder.

There are mutant rats and such mutant beasts here, usually, a part of their body is enhanced, and some skill is particularly strong, so this little guy is safer on his shoulder.

The cave was very silent, as he wore light armor, Xu Xin could only hear the faint sound of his armor rubbing against the stone wall, pebbles falling off the wall, and his own breathing and heartbeat.

Slowly advancing, Xu Xin kept a firm grip on the iron sword, alert to any possible danger.

But until he reached the next fork, he hadn’t encountered any danger, and nothing appeared as red dots on the map either.

Xu Xin doubted whether his map still worked within this passage.

To make an analogy, it felt like he was in a dungeon now, and the map was a larger overworld map.

At this point, he was definitely below the surface, considering how far he had already walked.

He was underground, but the map could only show the surface terrain and enemy units.

It seemed he couldn’t rely on his map exploit in this so-called dungeon; the map didn’t show the structure of the dungeon or even enemy units.

At this moment, Xu Xin longed for that voice, the one which unlocked creator privileges. But that voice wouldn’t chime in timely, he would have to rely on himself.

Leaving a mark in one direction, Xu Xin continued forward.

”Yip!” Halfway while sidling in the crevice, Keke on his shoulder suddenly cried out.

”Monsters are coming!”

With a tight grip on the iron sword, Xu Xin tensed up in the narrow stone gap, advancing slowly, he reached the corner of the gap, back to the corner, this way he could see both left and right without turning his head.

In the limited space, Xu Xin took out the crossbow that had already been loaded, securing the trigger with his left hand and holding the iron sword with his right.

Before long, he heard squeaking sounds coming from both directions.

Habitually looking at the map, there were no red dots displayed.

”Failing me at the crucial moment!” Although he had anticipated it, he couldn’t help but gripe.

As the squeaks grew nearer, two large rats covered in blood-red patterns appeared, darting towards Xu Xin from both sides!

They were just like Li Wenxi described, as big as a cat, no, even bigger than a cat, cats are slender while these similarly sized rats are much heftier than a cat!

Without hesitation, Xu Xin pulled the trigger on the crossbow towards the Blood Patterned Rat on his left.

The bolt flew with incredible speed and force, in this confined space, the cat-sized Blood Patterned Rat had no room to dodge, and with a shrill scream, it was nailed to the ground by the bolt, struggling and screeching madly.

”Yip!” Keke jumped off Xu Xin’s shoulder towards the rat pinned on the ground.

Meanwhile, the rat on the right had already leapt at him, Xu Xin swung his sword and slashed at the fat mutant rat, the sharp iron sword cleaving it cleanly in half.

[Killed Mutant Rat, Points Earned: 20]

This weak?

Xu Xin couldn’t quite believe it, this mutant rat was surprisingly weak?

Of course, it was because he reacted early thanks to Keke’s warning, found a tactical position for attack, and used two blue-grade iron weapons, that he managed to kill them so easily. For most people, it wouldn’t be so effortless.

But... compared to those summoned from the altar, these were rather underwhelming.

The Blood Patterned Rat pinned by the bolt was still struggling madly, extremely tenacious, while Keke occasionally slapped at it but to no effect, instead spurring it into more frantic struggles.

Xu Xin ended its misery with a single sword stroke.

[Killed Mutant Rat, Points Earned: 20]

The notification sounded again, Xu Xin easily racked up 40 points.

These points are quite easy to earn, given this, he could go back and spend points to accelerate the growth of some pine trees, obtaining timber to refurbish the treehouse, and build a planting chamber for blue-grade plants.

Xu Xin took out a boning knife, intending to dissect the mutant rat’s body to see what materials he could get.

[Obtained Mutant Rat Skin (Blue) *1, Mutant Rat Tail (Green) *1, Mutant Rat Meat (Green) *8kg]

Wow, a full 8 kilograms of rat meat, this mutant rat was quite fat. However, only the skin was blue-grade, the tail and meat were green-grade.

Xu Xin knew the use of the rat skin, and then looked at the tail and meat.

[Mutant Rat Tail (Green): If you’re not bothered by its source, it’s surprisingly delicious and can be used to make soup!]

[Mutant Rat Meat (Green): Meat developed after mutation, firm and fatty without any off-flavor, a barbecue essential!]

Hmm?

Edible? Why is it edible?

Isn’t it poisonous?