Chapter 13: Capturing the Chocobo
The grilled fish he had for breakfast left Jia Zhengjin with a lingering sense of satisfaction.
Although coconuts could fill him up, having fruit for all three meals every day felt somehow difficult. It was only after eating real meat that he felt his strength truly return!
"This is the same type of centipede as before!" He held his shield in his left hand and spear in his right, following the trail of slime left by the centipedes. He eventually found a cave, where he could see countless giant centipedes crawling in and out, emitting bone-chilling hisses.
Jia Zhengjin instantly lost his courage. He could barely win in a one-on-one fight, let alone against a whole nest of giant centipedes! He estimated that if each centipede spat out a mouthful of poison, he would be completely submerged.
However, he still wanted to use the centipedes' poison sacs for fishing or hunting. The only option now seemed to be setting traps!
After roughly calculating the distance, he took out his stone shovel, found an open area, and dug several trap pits on the spot. This time, he filled the pits with sharp wooden spikes – any centipede falling in would be impaled!
The traps were set, but how to lure the centipedes over was a problem. The one from last night had probably stumbled into his home's area by accident, unluckily stepping on the wooden spikes.
He couldn't use himself as bait. If these centipedes discovered him, he'd have no chance of escape!
Jia Zhengjin sat cross-legged, pressing his middle fingers to his temple, and closed his eyes in deep thought. Suddenly, inspiration struck, and he quickly returned the way he came.
He dug up the fish entrails he had buried by the river that morning and brought them back, throwing them into several of the traps. Then he quickly retreated, hiding behind a large boulder on a nearby hillock.
The stench of the entrails indeed attracted the centipedes. They crawled towards the traps one after another, ready to enjoy a feast. However, the sharp wooden spikes instantly pierced through the first centipedes to arrive. These unfortunate creatures struggled desperately, only to have their companions pressing down on them from behind, creating a perfect kill assist!
The fastest centipedes to arrive became cannon fodder, their lives claimed mercilessly by the traps and their own companions. The luckier centipedes, protected by the bodies of their comrades, found out that the wooden spikes were no longer a threat to them and left satisfied after eating the fish entrails.
After observing for a long time and waiting until the centipedes that had enjoyed the fish entrails had all left, Jia Zhengjin carefully crept over to check his traps.
The traps had killed a total of nine giant centipedes. Although he gained no experience, they yielded nine precious poison sacs and 9 units of strange silk.
Jia Zhengjin decided to quit while he was ahead, especially since he had used up all of today's fish entrails.
"With these poison sacs, fishing and hunting will be no problem!" He happily smeared poison on his stone spear, glancing at the distant centipede cave. From now on, this would be his poison sac collection base. Whenever he ran out of poison sacs, he could come here to get more – he felt that his life was full of joy now at this realization!
He also applied poison to his arrows, deciding it was time for a proper meal with meat.
Fish was meat too, but it was still different.
The forest had no shortage of various otherworldly creatures, and right now, Jia Zhengjin had set his sights on a lone small deer.
He wasn't sure if it was actually a deer, as it only resembled one in shape. Its antlers weren't separated into left and right but instead were clustered together like coral, it was quite peculiar. Moreover, this strange deer had black and white patterns on its body – if one weren't paying attention, one might think it was a zebra!
At this moment, this zebra-striped, coral-antlered otherworldly creature was lowering its head and grazing contentedly, completely unaware of Jia Zhengjin hiding in the grass, trying not to make a sound as he slowly approached.
"This is the spot!" Jia Zhengjin chose the most suitable attacking position, then slowly stood up, revealing his bright mushroom headdress. Beneath the mushroom headdress, he nocked an arrow and aimed at his prey.
"Hoo~~" He took a deep breath and held it, steadying his hands from the tremors caused by his irregular breathing. His right eye confirmed the trajectory toward the strange animal.
"Whoosh!" After pulling the bowstring to its maximum, he released it with force. The poisoned arrow instantly flew!
"Lulu~~" The zebra-striped strange deer leaped up and quickly disappeared from view.
Jia Zhengjin rushed over, only to find the arrow sticking straight up from the head of a very plump, bird-like creature.
"Gah~~" A flock of creatures similar to this strange bird fled in panic. Their wings were too small to fly, but their legs were extremely developed, allowing them to run as fast as headless ostriches.
"Ahem! I was aiming for this one from the start... That's right! that's it exactly!" Jia Zhengjin blinked, unsure if he was reassuring himself or explaining to some non-existent person in the air in front of him.
[Message]: You have killed a Chocobo, gaining 15 experience points!
So this plump, neckless ostrich-like creature was called a Chocobo? To be honest, he hadn't even noticed these fellows earlier, only seeing the deer.
Despite their large size, they managed to hide in the bushes without being detected, mainly due to their green feathers that blended in with the environment, as well as the particularly lush bushes of this otherworld.
Such a large Chocobo would provide enough meat for Jia Zhengjin to eat well for several days! And its feathers were exactly what he needed to make arrows.
you might ask, Isn't it too big to carry? No way!
Jia Zhengjin took out his dagger and easily used his skills to break down the Chocobo's carcass into a large amount of bird meat and feathers. Of course, he also stored the entrails in his virtual backpack to take with him – these were important items for hunting centipedes to obtain poison sacs.
As for the remaining Chocobo bones, Jia Zhengjin dug a hole and buried them to avoid attracting dangerous carnivores. He had finally found a relatively safe place to build his home, and it would be truly unacceptable if large, terrifying carnivores appeared nearby!
The food problem was now solved. With bird meat, coconuts, and the ability to fish anytime, he could say he was now free from worries about food and clothing. So next, he needed to gather resources more diligently every day to advance his skills!
At his current gathering speed, the iron ore he collected in a day was only enough to make one iron tool.
And these iron tools that he could make with his gathering speed already only required a low quantity of ores! Keep in mind that, iron armor with decent defense required thirty iron ingots plus ten iron chains. The most economical piece of armor, the iron bracers, still needed fifteen iron ingots!
However, iron armor first required a crafting table or a blacksmith's forge. The blacksmith's forge, needless to say, not only required a lot of materials but also needed a blueprint or skill points to unlock it.
A crafting table was slightly simpler, requiring one iron hammer plus fifty iron ingots, thirty copper ingots, and one hundred logs!
At Jia Zhengjin's speed, it would take at least over a week to craft a crafting table. But he couldn't not make one, because many more useful items could only be crafted through a crafting table!
Time to mine!
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