In the center of the sky-blue treasure chest, there was a red question mark.
But its material looked like glass.
Ethan reached out his hand and touched it.
It felt cool to the touch, sure enough, it really did feel like glass.
[Lucky Treasure Chest: A special treasure chest, not many exist. Only the truly fortunate have a chance to encounter it. Inside a Lucky Treasure Chest, there is usually something the player most desires! Open it?]
"Open!"
[Earth-type Beast Core +4]
[Whetstone Blueprint +1]
[Tomato +20]
[Skill Book: Precision]
[Fine Compass Blueprint +1]
[Lucky Treasure Chest dismantled, Glass +10]
"Huh!", Ethan's eyes lit up.
This Lucky Treasure Chest was truly amazing, inside were exactly the things he urgently needed, and they couldn't even be bought on the trading market.
He had even been thinking earlier, when he found eggs today, about making stir-fried tomato and eggs.
He hadn't expected that this Lucky Treasure Chest would actually contain tomatoes.
He couldn't help laughing and shaking his head.
Tomatoes had actually taken up a slot in the chest.
He didn't know whether to call it a profit or a loss.
After collecting all the treasures, his backpack space was running low, so Ethan decided to head back first and store everything in the warehouse.
———
Now that he had gathered all the materials for the stone house, it was time to upgrade his wooden cabin and build a fireplace. With the cold wave coming tonight, he'd better not freeze to death.
It was also time to upgrade his gear.
Once he got back to the cabin, Ethan couldn't wait to open the upgrade tree and prepare to upgrade to the stone house.
But then—
[Stone 199/200, Mud 380/100, Wood 143/50, Vine 32/20, Glass 10/4, Earth-type Beast Core 4/4]
Ethan was dumbfounded.
What was this situation? He had gathered even the hardest materials, the beast cores and glass, and now the system told him he was short one stone.
He was speechless.
Fortunately, when he had been trading purified water earlier that morning, he'd stocked up some extra materials.
Though not many.
He opened the [Trading Channel], and lines of trade records popped up instantly.
[-10 Purified Water, +1 Bamboo]
[-150 Purified Water, +10 Stone]
[-30 Purified Water, +2 Wood]
[-200 Purified Water, +10 Bronze]
[-50 Purified Water, +1 Silver]
All kinds of trade data were flashing rapidly.
Ethan checked the total: he had gained 187 stones, 113 wood, 200 bamboo, 50 bronze, and 6 silver.
There were still 4 purified waters priced at silver that no one had traded for.
The remaining 7,800 units of water had all been bought out.
A total windfall.
After collecting all the items from the trading channel, Ethan finally had enough materials to upgrade the stone house.
"Upgrade!"
[System prompt: Stone -200, Mud -100, Wood -50, Vine -20, Glass -4, Earth-type Beast Core -4]
A flash of golden light and Ethan watched as the wooden cabin around him began to disassemble itself. The planks of wood spinning rapidly like they were caught in a tornado.
As they spun, the wood turned into stone.
Then, one by one, the stones stacked themselves into place like pieces of Tetris, fitting perfectly into the gaps. Before long, a solid stone house stood fully completed.
The stone house was more than twice the size of the previous wooden cabin. The old workbench and wooden bed were still there, but now several new buildable areas appeared.
[Fireplace: Buildable!]
[Alchemy Furnace: Buildable!]
[Pharmacy Table: Buildable!]
[Pet Cage: Buildable!]
Four new buildable facilities.
Ethan glanced around. Sure enough, after the upgrade, the lighting inside the house was better, and both the usable space and available constructions had increased.
The stone house covered over a hundred square meters, with one wooden door and two glass windows.
Sunlight streamed inside, filling the room with a warm, comfortable glow, much cozier than the old wooden cabin.
After upgrading the stone house, Ethan didn't rush to upgrade anything else. Instead, he walked to the workbench and started crafting a short bow.
[Short Bow: Can attack prey within a 50-meter range. Beyond 50 meters, accuracy decreases. Crafting requirements: Vine 12/2, Beast Tendon 1/1, Bamboo 219/1]
[System prompt: Short Bow +1, Vine -2, Beast Tendon -1, Bamboo -1]
A short bow, over a meter long, appeared in Ethan's hand.
He tested it out.
Although a bit short, the quality was decent.
Next came the arrows, he decided to make ten and test them outside.
Time to see the results.
[Arrow: Bamboo 218/1, Feather 1000/2, Bronze 210/1]
[System prompt: Arrow +10, Bamboo -10, Feather -20, Bronze -10]
Ten arrows in hand.
Ethan grabbed his bow and went outside.
Not far from the stone house, he used charcoal to draw a target on a tree trunk.
Shiing~
Whoosh!
With no archery experience whatsoever, Ethan's first arrow flew completely off course, vanishing into the treetop.
"White Eagle, fetch the arrow for me!"
The arrows used feathers and bronze, valuable materials, so Ethan couldn't bear to lose any.
The White Eagle chirped, flapped its wings, and soared up.
In the blink of an eye, it reached the treetop, grabbed the arrow with its claws, and started flying back toward Ethan.
But halfway back, it suddenly remembered something.
It flew higher, then released the arrow from its claws.
Ethan stared, dumbfounded.
The next second, the White Eagle spun midair, caught the falling arrow in its beak, then flapped its wings and returned.
Ethan finally understood why it had been doing acrobatics midair.
It was because of what he had said, ("White Eagle, fetch the arrow for me!")
So this silly creature thought that since its master said "fetch with your beak," it couldn't use its claws.
Ethan couldn't help laughing, though he also found the eagle incredibly endearing.
As a reward for its loyalty, Ethan tossed it a piece of Lightning Leopard meat.
"Good job!", he said.
"Eeeng!"
The White Eagle was so happy at the praise that it tilted its head and fluffed its feathers proudly.
Then, Ethan continued practicing archery.
Unfortunately, out of ten arrows, only one hit the target, and even that one barely grazed the edge.
If he were to shoot at moving prey with this skill, he'd be in trouble.
But that was to be expected.
After all, he was just an ordinary person who had never learned archery before. How could anyone instantly become accurate the moment they picked up a bow?
Anyone who wanted to hit the target needed long-term practice.
However, Ethan still had a Skill Book from the Lucky Treasure Chest: [Skill Book: Precision!]
"Learn!"
The next moment, Ethan felt as though something was being poured directly into his mind.
His brain was suddenly filled with knowledge, archery techniques like proper stance, ninety-degree turn, drawing the bowstring to the ear, focusing on the target.
Shiing~
Whoosh!
As though guided by an invisible hand, Ethan smoothly released the string. The feathered arrow flew exactly as he willed it, streaking straight toward the bullseye.
Thud!
Bullseye.
The arrow pierced one full inch into the target, and its tail continued trembling.
The power was incredible.
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