Chapter 57: The Explosive Fruit

"I have quality materials, thank you," Ye Da replied. He now had a whole backpack full of quality materials, so many that he had no place to put them. He wasn’t about to owe Lin Zhi a favor for a few scraps.

After all…

In this world, the hardest debt to repay is a favor.

"You do? Don't tell me it's just quality wood? That’s not worth much," Lin Zhi seemed surprised, but she didn’t insist. She quickly put away the pelts she had just taken out and added, "Still, you should use what you have sparingly. These quality materials are easier to find in the Newcomer Forest, but once you reach the Sinkhole World, they're much harder to come by—except for quality wood. After all, once you upgrade a wooden house to stone, wood isn’t very useful except for firewood."

"How about quality stone?" Ye Da asked, considering that if stone wasn’t good enough, he also had glass and steel ingots. He even had a few silver ingots.

"Quality stone? Of course!" Lin Zhi’s eyes lit up. "Aside from metal and glass, it’s the most valuable currency! So many people need to upgrade their stone houses. Especially the village chief—if he wants to expand the village, he’ll need a huge amount of quality stone. If you have a lot, you could live in our Chang’an Village for a long time!"

"What do you mean…" Ye Da was taken aback. He glanced around at the village, which spanned several thousand square meters, and asked incredulously, "This entire village was built by the chief alone? How is that possible? From what I know, the highest upgrade for a stone house is a mobile stone house. Can it go beyond that?"

"It’s not about upgrading the house itself, but once you’ve upgraded it as far as it can go, you can start building a village," Lin Zhi raised an eyebrow, as if there was nothing to be surprised about. "Anyway, knowing this now won’t help you. Get your stone house upgraded first!"

"We’re here." Lin Zhi suddenly stopped, gesturing toward a courtyard-style stone house built alongside a massive boulder. "You can go in on your own. I have things to do, so I’ll take my leave."

"Thank you, Sister Lin Zhi." Ye Da took out a piece of glass and handed it to her. "This is for you."

"Glass?!" Lin Zhi’s eyes sparkled. "So you’re a little rich man after all! One piece of glass is worth ten pieces of quality stone. I actually need glass right now—thanks!"

"You’re welcome," Ye Da replied. He looked up at the wooden sign hanging above the courtyard’s entrance, which bore the name "The Inn Between." Without further ado, he was about to step inside. "I’ll be going then."

"Wait," Lin Zhi called him back.

Ye Da turned around to see her hurrying over. She slapped three purplish-red fruits into his hand. "I don’t like taking advantage of others. These are Boom Berries. If you’re ever in danger, just throw one to draw monsters’ attention!"

"Remember, throw it as far as you can. The explosion is powerful—almost as strong as a grenade, but with shrapnel. When it detonates, its seeds scatter everywhere like a shotgun blast."

"I suspect these plants evolved this way for survival. We use them as grenades—a well-timed throw can save your life."

"I’ll trade these for your glass."

"Thank you," Ye Da cupped his hands in gratitude.

He hadn’t expected such a generous return for a simple favor.

…

Inside the inn.

Though called an inn, it was really just a farmhouse courtyard.

Passing through the main gate, he entered a large, empty yard. A water jar stood in the center, planted with greenery—some kind of aquatic plant resembling a lotus, though the leaves were triangular and small white flowers bloomed from them.

Crossing the yard, he saw that the farmhouse was built with three wings; the side buildings were single-story, but the main hall in the center had almost two floors and was likely the main lodging area.

The main entrance stood wide open, and scattered inside the hall were several sets of unfinished wooden tables and chairs.

By the door sat a little old man with dark glasses and a thin mustache behind a wooden counter.

When someone entered, the old man lazily asked, "Staying the night or just here for a meal?"

"One night," Ye Da replied, slapping a steel ingot on the counter. "And bring me some food and drink."

"Steel ingot!" The old man pushed up his shades to examine the ingot in surprise. It was hard to believe that a mere first-tier Black Iron Warrior like Ye Da could casually produce such a thing.

After all, one unit of steel ingot required a hundred units of iron ore to forge. Unless you were a third-tier Black Iron Warrior, and a combat specialist at that, most players could only mine twenty or thirty pieces of iron ore a day at best.

For a player to obtain a steel ingot, it would take at least three days—a rare and valuable material.

If Ye Da had paid with quality wood or quality pelt, it would have matched the old man’s expectations for a newcomer.

But for a newcomer to produce such a precious material was truly shocking!

"Is it not enough?" Ye Da was puzzled by the old man’s long silence. He’d heard Lin Zhi say that any quality material aside from wood could be used as currency here. At first, he’d planned to use quality stone, but worried it might crush the old wooden counter, and since he needed stone for upgrading his house, he chose to use the steel ingot instead.

"It’s more than enough!" The old man waved his hand, hastily sweeping away the steel ingot. "More than enough! Please, have a seat wherever you like. I’ll bring you food and drink, and arrange a room for you right away."