Holding the bone knife, Xu Xin got busy.
Although he had never decomposed animal corpses before, this bone knife was user-friendly; as he grasped the knife, his mind automatically envisioned where to cut. Plus, the knife was incredibly sharp, requiring little effort. Quickly, Xu Xin managed to decompose the bear and the wolf.
[Obtained: Complete Bear Skin (Green) *1, Broken Wolf Skin (White) *1, Bear Meat (Green) 200kg, Wolf Meat (Green) 80kg, Bear Paw (Green) *1, Bear Paw (Blue) *1, Bear Bone (Green) *2, Wolf Bone (Green) *2]
The decomposition material acquisition notice came belatedly.
A blue-grade material made Xu Xin's eyes light up.
Looking at the bear paw, Xu Xin had an introduction appear in his mind.
[Bear Paw (Blue): Premium ingredient, can be cooked into extraordinary delicacy with proper preparation, can slightly and permanently enhance the consumer's strength.]
It's here! A food ingredient to boost strength attributes!
Xu Xin was delighted. He had been insecure about his strength for some time, and in a place , he couldn't afford to use massive energy and effort on fitness; this ingredient was his best choice.
Looking at the remaining materials, a lot—skins, bones, meat—most appeared to be ordinary ingredients. Yet, unfortunately, the bone knife didn't preserve the viscera; those scraps seemed to disappear on their own.
Xu Xin quite liked eating offal like hearts, livers, kidneys, and intestines; both hot pot and stir-fry were delicacies. But now, without chili, these things taste too strong without spices; without it, so be it.
By the way, why isn't there any beast tendon? Could it be that these materials are acquired by chance, and he was unlucky this time?
This feels too bad...
Forget it, the urgent matter now is to make the backpack, as he already possesses bear skin and wolf skin.
The backpack's making requires one beast skin (green), and three ropes (white).
Ropes can be made at the synthesis station; the raw materials are reeds from the lakeside, and Xu Xin possessed a complete bear skin (green), allowing him to make the backpack.
He first twisted the reeds collected from the lakeside into ropes and directly made the backpack.
[Backpack (Green): A backpack with 10 slots, each slot's quantity of materials is determined by material type, and can reduce the materials' weight to 20% of its original weight.]
A small backpack appeared before him, looking very compact, strapped on the back without hindering movement.
Xu Xin tried placing 100 pieces of wood inside, occupying only one slot, and the weight indeed reduced to 20% of the original. One piece of wood had a weight of about one pound, 100 pieces would be 50kg; putting it into the backpack it only felt like 10kg, very light, carrying a girlfriend still weighs a hundred pounds.
"This really feels good!" Having acquired the backpack, Xu Xin suddenly felt a renewed desire to explore all over.
The beasts perished outside in this chaotic battle, certainly in plenty. If he goes down now to collect some corpses, wouldn't he be scoring big? That black bear weighed 200kg, in the backpack it would only be 40kg, still within his carrying capacity.
Looking towards the map, the red dots scattered more on the map compared with the stage of chaotic battle, probably indicating those who died died, the injured injured, and the fled fled, while the small sun in the lake didn't reappear.
He observed the surroundings from the window. Since he only cleared the trees under the tree house canopy, leaving the surrounding trees untouched to prevent his banyan tree from standing out, he could only look below through the gaps of the surrounding poplar leaves.
Considering how the poplar tree canopy wasn't as dense as his banyan's, he could sporadically see the destroyed beast corpses on the ground, most of which had been consumed; each corpse had several living beasts savoring a feast alongside.
Indeed, how could these ravenous beasts let go of a feast already at their doorstep? So if he collected corpses now, they'd only be half-eaten, like the wolf corpse he pulled up; even if decomposed, it would only yield white-quality broken skin and a heap of chewed meat. The chance for items like the bear paw earlier was slim.
He didn't intend to eat the gnawed meat; he couldn't finish 200kg of bear meat by himself, and now had no means of preservation; he could only hang the meat on the trading platform to sell. But the forest wasn't lacking food, regular meat at most attracted the hungry for a taste; without a food shortage crisis, naturally, no one would trade critical materials for meat.
As for those barely finding enough to eat, Xu Xin didn't think anything they could trade would interest him.
So collecting corpses now would only render bones as resources, but he could wait for this wave to pass and pick them up later. These beasts likely wouldn't gnaw on bones, would they?
Furthermore, these corpse locations were beyond the tree house roots' control, even though he currently had higher attack power, without armor he was too vulnerable. He wasn't adept with guns, couldn't wield them like a dragon; uncertain if he'd fare well or end up pinned down.
If the beast tendons had appeared, allowing him to craft a bow and arrow, Xu Xin might be able to retreat to the distance temporarily. But with the current equipment, the return doesn't justify the risk.
Xu Xin looked at the materials he had just procured.
Was the broken wolf skin useless now? Beast skin nonetheless, even being of white grade.
Using materials of higher grade than the blueprint can manufacture superior items; can lower-grade materials create low-grade items?
The backpack requires one beast skin (green), three ropes (white).
Could it be made using broken beast skin (white)?
Xu Xin approached the synthesis station, attempting to use the broken wolf skin.
A luminous orb flickered, as Xu Xin's surprised gaze beheld a backpack produced.
[Repaired Backpack (White): A backpack made using low-grade beast skin, possessing 5 slots, each slot's material quantity determined by material type, reducing materials' weight to 50% of its original weight.]
Goodness, waste utilization!
Although he wouldn't personally use it, he could certainly sell it! Cutting weight in half was pretty decent overall, effectively doubling the burden capacity. At present, few should possess synthesis stations and the ability to slay ferocious beasts amidst beast hordes, right?
Or simply trade advanced stone and iron ore from Li Wenxi would suffice.
Looking at the regional channel, the channel's population at this moment unexpectedly dropped to 8,156; right as he observed, it jumped to 8,155.
Indeed, once the novice protection period ended, reality grew harsh, and barely hours had passed, with nearly 2,000 already dead.
Living in the tall tree house, with a ten-meter distance from the ground, as long as he wasn't reckless, he remained safe, aside from the big snake, he hadn't felt threatened. But upon seeing the remaining numbers, his mood grew heavy.
With the beast tide gradually retreating, the regional channel regained vitality.
"...so many died... First day, and so many already perished. Can we really survive?"
"Above, still over twenty hours left of the first day, it's only the beginning."
"Shut up, won't you!"
"Thanks to Ji Chaoyang's strategy, I made it through!"
"Thanks to Ji Chaoyang +1"
Seeing this repeatedly appeared name; he grew interested.