Chapter 384 - 356: Island Five-Week Settlement
"Good job! You did great!"
On the empty stretch of beach before them, a Sea Lizard lay on the sand, its body frozen into an ice sculpture.
Before it, the Little White Dragon stood tall and proud, her chest puffed out.
Compared to four days ago, it had taken her less than ten minutes to hunt a Sea Lizard of a similar size today.
And she hadn’t sustained any injuries.
Her progress was rapid. She had also shot up a little, growing a bit taller.
"You’re progressing quickly, and you’ve gotten bigger too." Qin Ziwen patted her head and gestured with his hand. The Little White Dragon had grown about four centimeters in the past three days.
During her combat training, her appetite had nearly doubled.
Every night when she returned, the first thing she did was lie down in the Giant Beast Breeding Center and sleep from exhaustion. Previously, she’d had endless energy at night, climbing all over Black. These past few days, she just collapsed and was out in a second.
Compared to her physical growth, her combat skills had improved even faster. She had gone from only knowing how to use brute force to now understanding how to use her abilities to wear down her prey.
She used her innate Frost Touch, channeling it through her claws and breath to gradually slow her prey. Once the prey’s body was completely rigid, she would finish it with a single, killing blow.
"So, what do you think? Not a bad performance, right?" Qin Ziwen said like a proud old father, turning his head to look at Mogu behind him.
"She’s a clever little one." A rare hint of gentleness appeared on Mogu’s stern face.
"We only have one week left," Qin Ziwen lamented. Peaceful times always flew by.
The fifth-week settlement would be at midnight tonight.
"Have you gone to check on Black?"
"I have. The progress isn’t significant," Mogu said. "There’s no pressure on him."
"That’s right. Without pressure, it’s not a life-or-death struggle, it’s just play." Qin Ziwen looked down at the Little White Dragon.
The Little White Dragon was different. Every opponent she fought was an even match.
Qin Ziwen looked up. "Did you check the underwater mountain range?"
"I did. The surface of that underwater mountain range is severely damaged. It’s likely related to that monster that appeared on the sea surface during the last rainstorm."
"I suspect they might be related in some way."
"Mm, probably." Qin Ziwen recalled the scene when he had first seen it—the jets of water spraying from its entire body. Then he thought of the dense network of holes on the surface of the underwater mountain range.
Mogu said, "I went to the place where we found the Silver Marrow last time. The marrow inside has been almost completely hollowed out. There are also crawling tracks on the surface. It seems the Silver Bobbit Worms took the opportunity to crawl up and eat it all after the spider and jellyfish were lured away."
Qin Ziwen was stunned for a moment. ’Is that even possible?’
But on second thought, the logic seemed quite sound.
The monster groups in there had formed a kind of ecological balance. Now that the balance was broken, the Silver Bobbit Worms, left without rivals, had naturally swept the board and claimed the Spoils of War.
But the thought of all that remaining Silver Marrow made his heart ache.
"What about those Silver Bobbit Worms?"
Mogu replied, "I only found the three smallest ones from the pool. The larger ones are all gone. They’ve probably hidden somewhere else inside the mountain."
Qin Ziwen frowned, but his brow eventually smoothed.
’Finding three is better than nothing.’
These three "small" ones were only small relative to the other Silver Bobbit Worms in the pool. Out in the open, they were still massive Ten-Meter Level worms.
’I can extract a good amount of Silver Blood from them.’
’This stuff is valuable. It can be used for trade later on. If that doesn’t work, I can use it myself after finding the right way to process it. Worst case, I can sacrifice them. They’re Level 3 Marvels, after all.’
"Is the Fishman Tribe settled in? How are they reacting?" Qin Ziwen asked.
Mogu thought for a moment, then summed it up in two words: "Very obedient."
The day before yesterday, the Fishman Tribe began their great migration.
A large number of Fishmen willing to leave joined Home one after another.
Qin Ziwen was happy to see it. For these Fishmen to join Home, they had to be recruited.
Recruited Fishmen were guaranteed to be loyal, and every new addition was a drop of fresh blood for their community.
Of course, to prevent Home from turning into a Fishman-only settlement, Qin Ziwen also planned to recruit more suitable humans.
But for now, at least, this batch of Fishmen had become a new and rising power within Home.
This was especially true in combat, with the addition of a large number of Fishman Warriors with high physical attributes.
The next map was underground caves. Generally speaking, places like that had a high chance of containing underground rivers, so the Fishman Warriors would still have a role to play.
Home was getting bigger and bigger; there was more than enough room to support more people.
"Let’s go. That’s enough training for today. Let’s head back," Qin Ziwen said, waving the Little White Dragon over.
Mogu didn’t take a boat; he ran directly across the surface of the sea.
The Little White Dragon trotted after Qin Ziwen. Man and dragon waited for the ferry at the dock, and after they boarded, some of the other passengers greeted him.
Qin Ziwen had been taking the Little White Dragon out every day for the past few days, so many of the ferry passengers had grown familiar with them.
One bold person reached out, wanting to pet the pure-white Little White Dragon, but she flicked her tail and leaped away.
When another person tried to approach, her eyes sharpened, and she issued a warning!
The person was startled and didn’t dare get any closer.
The boat docked, and the Little White Dragon happily trotted after her master.
In the Gated Community, the faces of residents everywhere were filled with happiness.
Over the past few days, every household in the Gated Community had stored up a good amount of food.
For people who had known the fear of starvation, food was more important than anything.
Being able to stockpile food meant they had a greater hope of survival on the next map.
Returning to Home, Qin Ziwen summoned the members of the Qin Alliance’s core Hunting Team and told them about the next map.
Cao Biansheng was surprised. "Underground caves? It sounds like there won’t be much food. We’ll need to prepare extra."
"We should also prepare more plants, like trees. We might be short on wood in the next map," Li Yue suggested.
Zhao Pu pushed up his glasses. "The next map specifically mentions survival and cooperation. The difficulty probably won’t be low."
"I’m more concerned about the newcomers we’ll get on the next map. I wonder if they’ll be total newbies, or ’newbies’ who’ve already been through a few maps, like in the tutorial building. After all, in a sense, we’re a ’Newbie Faction’ ourselves," Qin Ziwu said, half-joking.
He had heard some inside information from his older brother. For example, that woman referred to Tuiyuan who had been through fewer than five maps as newbie Tuiyuan.
Jia Liangcai said with a grin, "It doesn’t matter if they’re new or not, as long as they’re obedient."
Qin Ziwen said, "Both are possible. After you go back, you can gradually release the information and let everyone in the Gated Community prepare. We also need to refine fish oil. Lighting will be a major problem in the underground caves, so we need to stockpile more raw materials for torches."
"Yes, Boss!"
...
Night fell. As the clock struck midnight, a voice sounded in his ear.
"You have successfully survived for five weeks on the Gobi Desert and Island map. Current day: Island map, Day 37. Actions: Collected and caught a large amount of seafood, gathered a large number of Fishmen, built ships... Composite Score: 1251"
"Rewards obtained: [Function Card] Level 1 Anchor Chain, [Reward Card] Settlement Rewards Tier +1, [Building Card] Level 1 Quarry x1"
The rewards this time were a bit simple, just three cards in total.
One of them was just a regular Quarry card.
The only truly valuable ones were the Function Card and a Reward Card, a type he had never received before.
In terms of value, the Reward Card was likely on the same tier as the Function Card.
...
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