Chapter 9 Preparations Before Setting Out

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[You have built a Farmhand Camp, consuming 40 lumber and 10 food, estimated construction time 10 minutes, 9 minutes 59 seconds remaining]

[You have built a Bloodthirsty Beetle Insect Nest, consuming 20 lumber, 20 stones, 30 fresh Blood Flesh, estimated construction time 10 minutes, 9 minutes 59 seconds remaining]

The farmhand camp is a slanted-roof wooden matchbox about twenty square meters, with only one small window and a door that only one person can pass through.

The insect nest is a cone-shaped structure built with branches on a stone base, with a hole the size of a human head left at the front.

A main road is left in front of the tree hole, and the two buildings are placed on either side of the road.

After building these two structures, Bai Yi's lumber stock has hit rock bottom, counting even the fallen branches on the ground within the territory, leaving only these original 11 units in the trade column.

Now, the visible fallen branches in the territory have disappeared, making it much cleaner.

However, since the two buildings are not yet completed, Bai Yi, feeling idle, decides to also pile up the skeletons in the territory and clear out the camp.

The open space seems large, but since the skeletons are naturally accumulated together, it saves the trouble of searching, and after tidying up these bones, Bai Yi roughly estimated the size of this open space.

"Having this tree here, one doesn't notice, but walking around now you realize this is almost half a sports field in size, thankfully there's tree shade, otherwise it would be scorchingly hot!"

Bai Yi piles the last few ribs beside the giant tree, and the two buildings are just completed at the same time.

[Due to the special materials consumed (Second Tier Giant Boar Pork), your buildings Farmhand Camp and Bloodthirsty Beetle Insect Nest have undergone unknown changes]

"?"

Could the meat of a second-tier creature have some mutation?

[Farmhand Camp (First Tier/White): Can consume food to recruit unit [Farmhand], extra consumption of lumber and stone to upgrade unit equipped with [Stone Hoe] required: Stone*40, Lumber*80, Food*20, Iron*10]

[Bloodthirsty Beetle Insect Nest (First Tier/Green): Can consume fresh Blood Flesh to recruit (breed) unit [Bloodthirsty Beetle], upgrade required: Second Tier Crystal Core*1, Fresh Blood Flesh*100, Beast Bones*100, Beast Skins*10]

The panel doesn't show anything abnormal, but the original units from the two barracks soon walked (flew) out, Bai Yi glanced over the panel and saw the soldier information for the farmhands and bloodthirsty beetles.

[Farmhand] (First Tier/White)

Life Value: 150/150

Magic Power Value: 100/100

Level: lv.10 (First Tier)

Attributes: Strength 12, Spirit 10, Agility 12, Constitution 15

Talent:

(Mutation) Robust Body (Green): Strength +5, Constitution +5

Honest (White): Extremely high loyalty, not prone to betrayal

Skills:

Farming (White): Expert in growing crops like wheat and sorghum.

Cooking (White): Can cook simple meals, at least won't poison anyone.

Wilderness Survival (White): Won't starve when thrown outside, stronger than you.

[A good diet builds a strong body]

…

[Bloodthirsty Beetle] (First Tier/Green)

Life Value: 250/250

Magic Power Value: 60/60

Level: lv.10 (First Tier)

Attributes: Strength 10, Spirit 6, Agility 20, Constitution 15

Talents:

Hard Shell (Green): Insect Shell protects the Bloodthirsty Beetle, reduces 5 points of physical damage

(Mutation) First Tier Tough Life (Blue): Strong life force makes Bloodthirsty Beetle difficult to die, can continue to act before completely dying, Life Value +100

Insect Swarm (Green): The swarm only follows the queen's commands

Skills:

Bloodthirst (Green): After consuming flesh, enters a bloodthirsty state, Strength +20%, Agility +20%

Impact (White): Charges fiercely, dealing (Strength + Agility) points of damage

[A fast-moving ball, believe me, you don't want to encounter it in the wild]

…

Seeing the appearance of these farmhands, Bai Yi understood what "robust body" meant.

"This arm, almost thicker than my thigh…

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"Is Second Tier Blood Flesh that useful?"

The female farmer was broad and muscular, wearing a short-sleeved, grey-white cloth that showed off her powerful arms and thighs.

Bai Yi didn't doubt that they could slap her to death with a single hit.

The insects on the ground seemed unremarkable, dark with a hint of blood-red metallic glow, looking like an inverted, cool large bowl.

Though only the size of a human head, they proved their strength by having attributes not inferior to the muscular farmer.

No, you can't start celebrating too early in the game; have to test the quality.

Bai Yi looked around and spotted a small wild boar she had brought back, which was now sneakily moving out of the territory.

"Attack! Kill it!"

With a wave of Bai Yi's hand, the five Beetles on the ground shot out like cannonballs.

The distance of a hundred meters was covered in a blink, right after Bai Yi's command, the Beetles smashed into the little pig, propelling it five or six meters away.

The following Beetles quickly caught up, their sharp teeth biting into the wild boar.

The five Beetles clung on, frenziedly devouring the pork, but since they dealt no deadly blow, the pig could only feel its flesh being torn, continuously squealing in pain.

"Eeek—"

The brutal scene frightened Bai Yi, but then she immediately became excited.

"Mass produce! Must mass produce!"

With such powerful Beetles guarding, how could her camp be unsafe?

Bai Yi immediately opened her panel, took out 15 units of Blood Flesh from the trade bar, and threw them into the Beetle Nest.

The birth of new Beetles would take another 15 minutes, the panel's timer also helped calm down the excited Bai Yi.

The strong female farmers, not having received any orders, acted autonomously; one started weeding the plot of land while the other went into the nearby woods to collect branches.

Bai Yi watched with great satisfaction, regretting and hoping internally that these two laborers would continue to work diligently.

The squealing wild boar in the distance had quieted down; the five Beetles had begun to cooperate and slowly moved parts of the boar back to the Beetle Nest.

While waiting for new Beetles to birth, Bai Yi wasn't going to rashly charge out with just the five Beetles she currently had. After calming down, she started to worry again.

With just these Beetles, what if they encountered a Mutant Creature that couldn't be taken down instantly? And from the Mutant Creatures encountered today, they didn't seem like something these Beetles could instantly kill.

And if not killed instantly, she'd be in danger!

After much thought, Bai Yi decided to focus on the farmers.

According to the panel description, the farmer camp could recruit farmers armed with stone hoes. Although unsure about the hoe's effectiveness, it could at least be considered a long weapon, and their sturdy build could make them good meat shields.

Most importantly, even if not used for combat, as long as Bai Yi still planned to farm, the hoe would eventually be useful.

Again from the panel, she took out 2 units of meat, along with 1 unit of stone and wood each, and threw them into the farmer camp.

While waiting, Bai Yi decided to take stock of her supplies.

Including the 548 units of pork left in the trade bar, the storage currently held:

Giant Boar Pork*548, Second Tier Crystal Core (Giant Boar)*1, Giant Boar Bones*521, First Tier Beast Bones*871, Second Tier Beast Bones*229, Wood*11, Stone*191, Complete Paddy Rice*1, Iron Knife*1.

Her Talent now also had 4 gene entries: Sensitive Smell, Thick Fat, Oviparous, Iron Feather.

The first two were from a Mutant Dog, the latter two from a Mutant Chicken.

"Iron Feather is currently useless, since there aren't any, uh, feathered creatures in the territory.

Oviparous might be used on the farmers, hiss—

Does oviparous mean it can eliminate the menstrual cycle?

But regularly laying an egg sounds strange, well, no Magic Power anyway, will consider later.

Thick Fat doesn't seem useful at the moment, Beetles can't use it, maybe put it on the farmers?"

Glancing at the strong figure pulling weeds in the distance, imagining her turning into a fat lady, Bai Yi quickly shook her head to dispel that image.

"No, no, but Sensitive Smell seems pretty good, could add it to the Beetles."

Thinking of this, Bai Yi remembered the Endless Moss she had stored, and by now, her Magic Power had recovered to 63 points, enough for one gene extraction.

"So, it seems the Magic Power recovers about one point per minute."

Having roughly calculated the data, Bai Yi took out a glass plate from the storage, used her superpower to probe inside the glass plate.

[You used Skill Gene Extraction, the current target has the following extractable genes: Photosynthesis, Acid Secretion, Infinite Multiplication]

......

Bloodthirsty Beetle: A type of Mutant Insect that lurks in the southern forest wastelands, usually with an Insect Mother as the leader of the group. They are believed to have a special soul link when they spot prey, often attracting a large crowd of their kind to attack the target. They are omnivores with extremely high danger levels.

——"White Poplar City Mutant Creature Compilation"