Chapter 34: Bleeding Pockets?

Chapter 34: Bleeding Pockets? Xu Tao and Pepe worked hard gathering all the Loot Box contents. Though as usual, most of them were empty, with only a few miscellaneous items every now and then. Right around when the pair were picking the last few boxes, Jehanne finally returned. Her clothes were already back to the usual armor she wore. Though there was a bit of discrepancy from the usual. "Jehanne..." "Yes, Sir Tao?" She was all smiles, greeting Xu Tao. But unlike usual, her clothes were covered in monster blood, fluids, and pieces of flesh. To be more specific, her fists were the ones covered with filth the most. ’Did she beat monsters to death with her fist or something?’ Xu Tao wondered but decided not to touch upon that topic. He just felt it wouldn’t end well for him if he did—a cultivator’s hunch. "You’re covered in filth," Xu Tao alerted her. "You should clean up... but unfortunately, we haven’t found a river around here just yet." Right... They did set up base here, but the problems about resources were still not cleared. Although they do get water—tons of it—from loot boxes, it wouldn’t be enough for their daily necessities in the long run. The list of things he had to do, and quickly, was rapidly expanding. "Ah, it’s fine." But Jehanne just smiled before clapping her hands. "I can purify filth whenever I want, after all." As if called forth by her actions, a wave of white, heavenly light washed over her figure. The next moment, not only her armor, but her entire body became clean once more. "Ah, wait..." Xu Tao leaned closer, hand brushing near her cheek, plucking a single piece of leaf out of her hair. "You missed one," he said casually, smiling. "...~!" The next moment, Jehanne’s face turned bright red—enough that steam seemed to be coming out of the top of her head. Then, before Xu Tao could do anything further, she ran... back to the Log House protected by the walls. "...Did I do something again?" Xu Tao scratched his head. "I should probably get a refresher on how to treat women later..." After he and Pepe finished gathering all the loots—and transferring the contents of Pepe’s ring over to his—the two returned to the Log House too. But Xu Tao didn’t go inside. Instead, he stood right next to the open space beside it. After all, he had a more urgent task left—making houses for the wanderers. "Right now, there’s one house ready," Xu Tao pondered. "Thinking about how there’s three factions right now, I guess adding two more is the most logical choice here." After deciding so, he went and checked his Character Panel, just in case—confirming the remaining points he had. [ Name: False Fisherman Level: 100 Stats: STR: 22 INT: 22 VIT: 22 AGI: 22 DEX: 22 Cultivation: 515 Bonus Points: 117 Currency: Money: 20,660 Gold System Points: 18,403 Point ] "I still got 18 thousand points left..." Even after spending a few on Arthur’s banner, his current amount of points increased instead—all thanks to fighting off the monster wave. Though it didn’t increase as much as he had hoped, since the mobs, when killed, dropped either none or 1 point at random. Anyway, after checking his remaining points, he returned to the main menu before selecting the Crafting tab. There, he selected the "Instant Build" option of the Log House... only to be shocked by its price. "F-Five thousand?!" He wasn’t sure if this was expensive or cheap, though. After all, this meant that crafting one Log House instantly was as expensive as quick-crafting 50 hammers! Still, with the current amount of points he had, he could afford his initial plan of making two more Log Houses... the problem was whether doing that was worth it or not. He also had the option of creating Mud Huts for them too. A Mud Hut can easily fit five people, after all, and its instant build option cost was just a tenth of what the Log House cost. "But I feel like people would curse me if I forced them to live in Mud Huts..." Xu Tao sighed. In the end, after long and hard deliberation, he decided to go with Log Houses... though not through instant build, but rather, through manual building. That way, he would just need to spend time instead of points, conserving them. "Right! We’re in no rush, anyway!" Given the time it took them to make the first one, he calculated that making two more would take them the entire day. It was time-consuming, but still better than wasting 10,000 points just because he wanted to build it "instantly." With that decided, he didn’t delay and called for everyone. Arthur, however, was late. He still hadn’t made it back from the forest. Thinking he’d just make Arthur work harder when he got back, he moved on with everyone present only. "We’ll be gathering 400 pieces of logs right now. I want you all to help in carrying the logs back here." He explained quickly. "Jehanne and Pepe, you can use your rings to carry the logs, so I’m counting on you for most of the part." "Yes, Sir Tao! You can count on me!" "Pui, pui~!" Both Jehanne and Pepe answered quickly, seemingly without complaints—rather, they looked excited after having been singled out. "The rest of you, carry one log or two, depending on what you can carry comfortably, and go back and forth from the forest to here." "Yes, Great Elder!" "..." The disciples answered in the affirmative immediately, but the five soldiers of Jehanne stayed silent. They didn’t seem too inclined to listen to Xu Tao’s orders. "You guys... disrespect Sir Tao once again, and I’ll have you perform pushups 5,000 times." Jehanne said with a sweet smile—but the contents of her words were far from sweet. "S-Sir yes sir!" And with a little bit of "persuasion" from Jehanne, her soldiers became obedient all of a sudden. "Alright!" Xu Tao nodded. "Then, let’s set off!" To speed things up, Xu Tao planned to gather the materials first before building the blueprints. He already had the length, thickness, and number of wood logs he needed, after all. After setting up an "earth bridge" through the gate, allowing Jehanne’s soldiers to walk over it, the group went to the forest where Jehanne went before. It was, after all, closer than the alternative, where Arthur was still holed up. Upon arrival, Xu Tao didn’t delay and began processing the materials. He cut down trees, removed branches and leaves, and arranged them for immediate use. One by one, soldiers and disciples grabbed a log before carrying it back within the confines of the walls. After the ten grabbed their parts, both Jehanne and Pepe would grab an appropriate amount to the limit of their rings, before walking back casually. No—Pepe was hitching a ride on Jehanne’s shoulder, so it was basically just her who was walking. With everyone’s cooperation, gathering 400 pieces of lumber ended quite fast—taking roughly two hours. "We might finish faster than expected!" Xu Tao smiled, nodding to himself. SWOOSH! But that’s until a familiar golden sword flew in, seemingly panicked. This content is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.com