Chapter 52: A Sudden Windfall
Countless inferior materials vanished, transformed into countless ordinary materials, and then into countless excellent materials! Before Ye Da’s eyes, the white jade stones multiplied, eventually piling into a small mountain of white jade.
“Collect!” In the blink of an eye, Ye Da’s backpack was more than half full. Over a hundred pieces of fine stone—more than enough to upgrade his stone house to the highest level. All he needed now were some other materials.
Wait. What else was required to upgrade the stone house?
Since the upgrade required many materials, Ye Da couldn’t recall them all at once. So he simply opened the tree house upgrade requirements and glanced at them.
[Top-level Stone House Upgrade: Excellent Stone 116/100 units, Excellent Wood 0/10, Premium Mud 0/1, Glass 0/20. Can be upgraded to top-level stone house (after upgrading, can build fireplace, basic workbench, smelting furnace, potion table, etc.)]
Excellent stone—check. Though he didn’t have excellent wood in his backpack, Ye Da had stashed over a hundred units in the banana grove. Once he retrieved them, upgrading the tree house would be easy.
Mud—none here.
So all that remained was glass!
Ye Da set his gaze on the pile of inferior crystal ore. He had originally dreaded that glass, like nails, would only be found in treasure chests. But now it seemed... glass was also a synthesized material. He would not be shy, then.
[Synthesize!]
[Synthesize! Synthesize...]
Another round of frantic synthesis ensued. Ye Da immediately acquired sixteen units of glass. The remaining crystal ore wasn’t enough to synthesize another unit, so he stopped.
His storage backpack was now occupying seven slots, leaving just three spaces for materials. This plunged Ye Da into a new dilemma: should he fill those last three slots with ingots like iron and steel, or reserve them for food and pelts?
After a moment of deliberation...
Ye Da decided to abandon the latter two materials. Food could always be hunted, bananas picked, fruit gathered—there were plenty of ways to obtain it. But acquiring such a massive haul of materials again would be far more difficult.
So, Ye Da turned to the iron and silver mines and began a fresh wave of synthesis.
In the end...
Ye Da packed his storage backpack to the brim: 116 units of premium stone, 16 units of glass, 35 steel ingots, 7 silver ingots. A veritable windfall!
Ye Da emptied the largest warehouse of the man-eaters, spending over two hours in total. It was nearly five o’clock.
He needed to leave—fast.
After leaving the mine, Ye Da glanced at the cannibals’ food warehouse. He wanted to go, but curiosity got the better of him—what food did these cannibals keep? Perhaps there were special foods, like plant seeds.
Ye Da lacked little else, but he was short on vegetables and certain fruits (bananas excluded). So he decided to make a quick trip, hoping to snatch some plant seeds to bring back and sow in his tree house.
“Woof!” “Woof woof...” As Ye Da entered the food warehouse, the two wolf pups seemed to grow excited. They rushed ahead, more eager than Ye Da himself, darting into the depths of the cave.
The cave was narrow and deep. The resin torch in Ye Da’s hand, burned for so long, was now dim. Just two steps ahead was already swallowed in darkness.
Of course... this was after Ye Da had replaced the torch three times; otherwise, it would have burned out during the synthesis in the main warehouse. But this was his last torch. If it burned out before he left...
He’d be forced to grope his way out in the dark once more.
“Woof woof!” “Woof woof woof!!” Upon entering the cannibals’ food warehouse, Ye Da nearly vomited. A stench of rot, like the breath of someone who hadn’t brushed their teeth in ten years, assaulted him.
Not only the stench, but a swarm of flies, disturbed by his entry, buzzed out from deep in the cave, circling around Ye Da’s face with a maddening hum. Some even collided with his face and mouth, nearly making him retch.
Just imagining what the flies’ feet had touched, what their mouths had sampled, was intolerable.
At that moment...
Ye Da finally understood why the wolf pups were barking so frantically. He also understood the relationship between goblins and cannibals—and why these creatures were called cannibals.
Because...
The wolf pups bore a grudge against the food inside the warehouse.
Goblins were hung from the stone cave ceiling, like pigs in a slaughterhouse—some gutted, others skinned of their green hide. Around the cave walls were heaps of goblin bones, some still clinging with flesh, others already reduced to pale skeletons.
The cannibals’ food...
Was goblins!
They slaughtered goblins—creatures resembling humans—brought them into the cave, butchered them, and hung them from the ceiling to cure.
Ye Da turned and fled the nauseating cave.
But as Ye Da and the two wolf pups reached the entrance, he was confronted with a long-absent red alert.
[❗️❗️❗️]
“What’s going on?” Ye Da’s heart leapt. Before he could use his analysis goggles to figure it out, he heard the jabbering voices and loud laughter outside.
The sound made Ye Da’s heart race.
The cannibals were back?! So soon?
Ye Da listened intently—many footsteps, a sizable group.
He didn’t regret his detour to the food warehouse; rather, he was grateful. If he had left right after emptying the main warehouse, he would have run right into the cannibals.
But now, departure was even less advisable.
Ye Da quickly scanned the surrounding caves. Since escape was impossible, he had to hide. But where?
Not the cannibals’ lair, nor the warehouse—both were dead ends, and if he were trapped inside, it would be dangerous.
That left only two routes.
One led to the treasure cave, but small stone golems guarded it.
The other led to the second level.
To provoke the stone golems now was too risky. So, in truth, Ye Da had only one choice.
“Whimper~” The two wolf pups sensed the danger outside, issuing warning growls.
Ye Da hastily placed a finger to his lips. “Shh!”
Thankfully, his wolf pups understood human speech. At his cue, they quieted down.
Quickly...
Ye Da, before the cannibals entered, slipped with his wolf pups into the deep tunnel leading to the second level. To avoid detection, he extinguished his torch, relying only on the dim glow of his screen for light as he crept deeper into the cave.