Chapter 47: beast hills, lone beast

Xu Xin first put Coco into a water basin and gave her a good bath. To his surprise, although Coco had never bathed before, she wasn't dirty at all. On the contrary, she was quite clean. The bathwater after washing her was even cleaner than the water after he bathed.

"How do you manage that, little one?" Xu Xin envied her. If he could always stay clean, he would be too lazy to bathe.

"Enh?" Coco used her classic head-tilting move again.

After washing up and having a full meal and drink,

Xu Xin didn't leave immediately. Instead, he first went to the treehouse and cut down the twenty birch and pine trees that had undergone accelerated growth.

[Round wood (green): Wooden raw materials needed for making interior decorations and exterior defensive facilities of the treehouse.]

[Fine wood (green): Wooden raw materials needed for making exterior weapons and some special weapons for the treehouse.]

Since [Treehouse Renovation] was done on the treehouse screen and didn't require a crafting table or synthesis table, Xu Xin casually crafted a treehouse wooden armor (green) that needed two round wood (green).

Looking at this armor in his hand, which was about one centimeter thick, about one meter high, and looked like half of a hollow cylinder split vertically down the middle, Xu Xin was a bit confused about how to use it.

[Treehouse Wooden Armor (green): Armor installed on the treehouse trunk, can effectively reduce damage to the treehouse from animal attacks.]

He observed it for a moment and understood.

Two [Treehouse Wooden Armor] pieces put together could form a hollow cylinder, just right to enclose the treehouse trunk, protecting about one meter of the trunk's height.

The bottom of Xu Xin's treehouse was ten meters from the ground, so if he wanted to protect the entire trunk, he would need twenty [Treehouse Wooden Armor] pieces, requiring forty round wood.

Xu Xin had cut down ten pine trees and now had fifty round wood in hand. After thinking for a moment, he directly made them and installed them all on the sturdy trunk of the treehouse.

After installation, this wooden armor seemed to blend with the treehouse as one, with its external shape and patterns changing to match the appearance of the treehouse.

After the final fixed form, one couldn't even tell that armor had been installed on the trunk without looking closely.

"Not bad!" Xu Xin nodded with satisfaction.

He went up to put away the remaining materials, then put on that set of blue-grade iron armor, instantly feeling his body filled with strength.

He took his blue-grade stone spear, and at this time, Coco also jumped onto his shoulder.

"You want to come with me too?"

"Enh!"

So Xu Xin and Coco set off towards the northwest.

While going around the lake, Xu Xin carefully noticed that the activity range of the piranhas in the lake had expanded a bit more.

"Need to think of a solution quickly."

However, today's task was to go hunting in the hills full of beasts in the northwest, so Xu Xin didn't stop, continuing to move forward in the northwest direction.

The distance of three kilometers wasn't far, and Xu Xin, who had already made a round trip, arrived in half an hour.

He came to the position of the previous boundary line, where there were even cracks and small holes caused by the vines that had emerged two days ago.

Xu Xin cautiously stretched out one foot.

The system didn't prompt him, no red dots lit up on the map, and no vines emerged from the ground to attack him again. Only then did Xu Xin feel at ease to step over the previous protection line.

Looking at the hills less than a kilometer away and the dense red dots on the map, Xu Xin gripped the stone spear in his hand tightly.

"First, find an isolated beast to try out."

Xu Xin looked at the map and walked towards a lone red dot that was farthest from the beast group.

That red dot was at the very edge of the hilly area, brighter than the previous wolves, and about as bright as the black bear before.

Based on the brightness, Xu Xin could basically judge the strength of the beast. He felt that with his current equipment, he could easily handle a black bear.

Black bears were at most mid-tier in the jungle, barely eating meat a few times a year, mainly surviving on a vegetarian diet. With his current top-tier blue-grade equipment in the entire area, if he couldn't even handle a black bear, he'd probably not even survive one hit from a truly strong beast, and he might as well go home and hide.

That red dot was between two hills. Soon, Xu Xin walked to the vicinity of that location.

"Enh!" Coco called out, pointing her little paw forward.

From quite a distance, he saw that beast. It was inside a cave.

"Not a black bear, but a wild boar?" Xu Xin's eyes narrowed, and he licked his lips.

He seemed to see a big piece of braised pork.

The wild boar was in a cave, its black body looking a size larger than ordinary pigs. It was currently rooting at some white stones on the ground.

Xu Xin glanced at those stones and suddenly widened his eyes.

There were many white protrusions all over the cave floor.

"Could that be… salt ore?" Xu Xin's eyes were almost glowing green.

His mouth had been tasteless for the past two days, and now seeing something that looked like salt ore, he was instantly overwhelmed with excitement.

"Great! The ingredients and seasoning are all ready, huh!" Xu Xin stared intently at the black-haired wild boar in front of him.

Of course, he wouldn't underestimate a wild boar. The destructive power of a wild boar is certainly not less than that of a black bear, especially from a distance. The killing power of a wild boar's accelerated charge is even far greater than that of an ordinary black bear.

It's worth noting that a wild boar's weight can exceed that of a black bear, and those two tusks are no toys!

The ancients said: "One boar, two bears, three tigers." This naturally doesn't refer to combat power, but to the degree of harm to humans.

Wild boars go crazy at the drop of a hat, charging at people on sight. For humans, the danger of wild boars is higher than that of bears and tigers. After all, bears and tigers can still be dealt with by bluffing, but wild boars don't care about anything once they go berserk.

So even wearing iron armor, Xu Xin didn't want to be discovered by the wild boar at this distance at all. Iron armor can protect against wolf claws and bites, but for direct impacts, while the iron armor might withstand it, his body couldn't take it. If it charged straight at him, and he couldn't dodge in time, he would probably be sent flying.

Xu Xin wanted to try to sneak closer without being discovered, slowly approaching, but as he started walking, he remembered an important thing.

That was the drawback of his iron armor.

His iron armor would make metal clashing sounds even when walking normally! The sound wasn't loud, but it was enough for the wild boar to detect from a certain distance.

Sure enough, before Xu Xin could get much closer, the wild boar was attracted by the sound Xu Xin made. It raised its head, and two thick, curved tusks looked extremely ferocious in the darkness of the cave.

Xu Xin stopped in place, gripping the stone spear in his hand tightly.

This big guy definitely weighs over two hundred kilograms! Another heavyweight contender!

Looking at the wild boar staring at him, Xu Xin's heart rate accelerated.

Boar bro, don't get excited, don't get excited, go back to rooting your salt ore!

Murphy from the United States proposed a law: If there's a possibility for things to go wrong, no matter how small that possibility is, it will happen. This law perfectly fits the current situation.

Only to see that black wild boar let out an extremely loud snort, raised its tusks in Xu Xin's direction, then stamped its hind legs, lowered its head, and suddenly charged towards Xu Xin!

"Damn! This crazy pig!"