'Holy crap!'
Ethan really hadn't expected this turn of events.
If the White Eagle lured the bees over here, even if the eagle was fine, his soft human flesh definitely couldn't withstand those stings.
"White Eagle, fly up, don't come this way!"
Startled, Ethan quickly stopped the White Eagle from returning.
Luckily, the White Eagle understood human speech.
Hearing the command, it immediately circled once midair, then flew higher up into the sky.
Those bees, of course, could never chase the king of the skies. After following for a while and failing to catch up, they resentfully flew back to the hive.
Ethan seized the opportunity.
He quickly pulled out his bow and arrows, smeared resin on the tip of one arrow, and lit it.
Flames roared up.
A normal arrow instantly became a flaming arrow.
Now that Ethan had the Precision skill, he barely even needed to aim.
It was as if a radar, or a sixth sense, had formed in his mind.
He could always instinctively tell the exact moment to release the arrow.
Whoosh!
The flaming arrow shot straight toward the poison thorns beneath the hive!
The next second, the resin easily caught fire.
The flames spread quickly, igniting the poison thorns, and thick smoke began to rise.
WHOOSHHH~
Dense smoke poured out continuously.
The bees once again went into full alert, swarming out of the hive.
But as soon as they emerged, the poisonous smoke hit them. Almost instantly, they lost their sense of smell, and without the queen's pheromone signals, they couldn't tell north from south.
A dense cloud of bees swirled aimlessly above the hive.
.
.
.
After half a minute…
The bees that had inhaled the poisonous smoke began falling one by one from the air, dropping in batches, dead.
As time passed, fewer and fewer bees managed to come out of the hive.
Even so, Ethan didn't rush forward. After all, the bees feared poisonous smoke, and so did he.
So he wandered nearby, finding a few large trees to test out his new axe.
He'd only head to the hive once the smoke cleared and it was completely safe.
The hive wasn't going anywhere, after all.
Walking up to a large tree, Ethan looked up. It was at least two or three times bigger than the pine he'd seen before. The trunk was so wide that it would take three people, hand in hand, to wrap around it.
Thick vines dangled all over it; clearly, it was an old tree with many years behind it.
"Let's test the axe on you!"
Ethan blew on the axe blade.
Then he swung it hard at the tree.
Thump!
A flash of cold light streaked past his eyes.
The entire tree shuddered from the impact, and leaves fell like rain.
[Critical Hit +100%]
Then, the tree, which had only a shallow cut at first, was suddenly cleaved clean in half by that one strike. It toppled with a thunderous crash.
[Advanced Wood +3, Vine +10, Resin +10]
"Whoa!"
'This one tree dropped so much loot!'
And he'd felled it with just one strike, "This new axe really is powerful."
'But still…'
'What is Advanced Wood?'
[Advanced Wood: A higher-grade version of ordinary wood. A required material for crafting fine furniture. Very rare.]
'What kind of description is that?'
"A higher-grade version of higher-grade wood"?
Ethan couldn't help but laugh helplessly.
This was his first time seeing Advanced Wood. Curious, he decided to check the [Trading Channel] for info about it.
He typed in the keyword.
And sure enough, he found two listings.
[1 Advanced Wood: Exchange for 100 Ordinary Wood]
Comment: ["Are you insane? I've got 100 ordinary wood, why would I trade them for your one fancy stick? What, does your wood send you to heaven after using it?"]
Comment: ["At that price, you'd better keep it to make your own coffin!"]
Reply: ["You guys all grab keyboards when you're born or something? If you don't know the value, stop talking nonsense! You think Advanced Wood is easy to get?"]
Comment: ["Then explain, how hard is it to get?"]
Reply: ["I got it after opening a Perfect Stone Axe from a treasure chest. On average, I can chop 100 normal wood a day, but it took me three whole days to fell the tree that dropped this! If that tree hadn't also given me 10 vines and 5 resin, I'd have lost out big time!"]
Comment: ["That awesome? You're lying, right?"]
Reply: ["If I'm lying, may I drop dead! The tree's durability was freaking 9999, go try it yourself!"]
Comment: ["..."]
[1 Advanced Wood: Exchange for 3 Meat]
Reply: ["Starving to death here, anyone got meat to trade?"]
Comment: ["Who's got meat to spare these days? And you want three pieces for one chunk of wood? Why not just rob someone?"]
Reply: ["It literally says advanced! Can't you read? This stuff's gotta be valuable! Don't talk if you don't get it!"]
Comment: ["Heh, leave it up there to rot. I bet no one's dumb enough to trade you."]
Comment: ["See? Still unsold, hahaha…"]
Comment: ["One piece of meat is already selling for 100 wood now, and even then, there's no stock! And you want three pieces? Keep dreaming!"]
Reply: ["Can you all just shut the hell up already?"]
After reading through all the replies under those two listings, Ethan roughly understood, the difficulty of getting Advanced Wood was quite high.
It was only because his axe was special, and with the critical hit bonus, that he managed to collect three pieces. With a normal stone axe, it would take at least three days.
And if it were a broken stone axe… He'd probably be chopping for a month and still get nothing.
Ethan glanced over the old forest thick with vines, and a sly grin spread across his face.
One Advanced Wood was worth a hundred regular wood.
That's like landing a 999-crit with each swing.
How could he not chop more?
Wham!
[Critical Hit +100%]
[Advanced Wood +2, Vine +8, Resin +8]
Wham!
[Critical Hit +100%]
[Advanced Wood +3, Vine +10, Resin +5]
.
.
.
He kept going until he'd cleared the entire old forest.
Only then did Ethan stop swinging his axe. In total, he'd chopped about twenty-something times.
The once lush grove of ancient banyans, draped with vines, had been completely flattened, reduced to piles of usable timber.
If it weren't for his carry weight being maxed out, he'd still be chopping away.
In half an hour, he'd gathered 46 Advanced Wood, 396 Vines, and 365 Resin.
Just the wood and base materials alone had maxed out his load capacity.
The rest of the vines and resin, he couldn't even lift them.
So he decided to haul the Advanced Wood back first, then craft a backpack before returning to collect the rest.
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