[Stone House]
Ethan tossed all the Advanced Wood into the warehouse.
With the stone house upgrade, the stone house's storage had also expanded a lot. Now the indoor warehouse capacity reached 2000, ten times what it was before. He wondered how big it would get after another upgrade.
He opened the workbench menu and found the backpack section.
[Beginner Backpack: Capacity 100. Crafting requirements: Beast Hide 7/2, Hemp Thread 9/1]
[Intermediate Backpack: Capacity 1000. Crafting requirements: Beast Hide 7/2, Hemp Thread 9/1, Wind-type Beast Core 3/1]
The ordinary materials were the same as the beginner backpack, just the intermediate required an extra Wind-type Beast Core.
Since he had the materials, Ethan naturally didn't consider the beginner pack.
He chose to make the Intermediate Backpack without hesitation.
A flash of golden light and a white backpack appeared before Ethan; the fur was from the Lightning Leopard. And on the flap of the backpack, there was a lightning emblem. Very beautiful.
Although the pack looked large, it felt very light when lifted.
That was probably the effect of the Wind-type Beast Core.
He slung the pack on and left.
———
Back in the banyan forest, he saw a woman collecting the vines and resin he had left behind.
"What are you doing?", Ethan shouted.
Hearing the noise, the woman turned her head and glanced at Ethan.
Only then did he clearly see her face: wine-red curly hair, dressed a bit provocatively.
She wore a black dress and held a battered stone axe, and as she turned she kept furtively stealing Ethan's vines.
"Those vines were cut by me. If you keep messing with them, believe me I'll chop off your hand!", Ethan was furious.
But the woman didn't say a word in her defense; without another word she bolted into the mist.
Ethan was livid.
He immediately took down his bow and intended to shoot this thief dead with an arrow.
To his surprise, he found the woman's running speed was absurdly fast.
And when she ran, the strange pointed shoes on her feet even emitted flecks of golden light.
Before Ethan could nock an arrow, the woman had already rushed into the mist and completely disappeared.
'Looks like, those shoes on her feet are interesting.'
'Could they have come from a treasure chest?'
Since the thief had escaped, Ethan let it go. He tallied his losses: 20 vines and 15 resin gone.
Luckily her backpack was a beginner one; besides her own stuff she couldn't carry much more.
So she hadn't stolen that much.
Still, it left Ethan annoyed.
If he saw this w*man again, he'd immediately kill her.
Collect!
Walking over, Ethan gathered the remaining vines and resin into his backpack.
After he finished collecting, the poison thorns around the hive had burned out; only wisps of blue smoke remained drifting away.
Ethan took off his clothes, wrapped them over his mouth and nose as a makeshift gas mask, and then walked toward the hive.
[Found Charcoal, collect?]
As he moved through the low shrubs, he noticed many had been burned into charcoal.
He was short on charcoal right now, so Ethan didn't hesitate.
Collecting all the way to under the hive, he actually got 121 pieces of charcoal, equivalent to 121 dry branches, free gain.
[Found Fire-type Beast Core, collect?]
[Found Honey 1L, collect?]
[Found Propolis 5 pieces, collect?]
[Found Queen Bee 1, tame?]
[Found Bee Larvae 75, collect?]
[Found Flame Flower Nectar 100, collect?]
[...]
As he approached the hive, a string of collection prompts popped up.
This hive really had the right idea.
There was quite a lot of stuff.
Ethan waved his hand and collected everything.
In a blink, he obtained 20 Fire-type Beast Cores, 1L honey, 5 pieces propolis, 75 bee larvae, and 100 Flame Flower Nectar.
[Found Queen Bee 1, tame?]
"Tame!"
Ethan tried to tame the queen bee, though he didn't know what taming a bee would do.
But judging from how he tamed the White Eagle, it seemed after taming a pet you could gain some of its abilities, the White Eagle gave him Eagle Eye.
He wondered what the queen bee might give him.
[Ding! Taming successful. Obtained an adult Queen Bee, lifespan three years.]
[Owner acquired ability to emit Queen Bee pheromones!]
'Pheromone ability?'
'What is that?'
[Queen Bee Pheromones: An important skill for controlling the hive. Once the hive loses the queen's pheromones, they become confused and aimless.]
"So that's it."
Controlling pheromones is effectively controlling the bees.
Ethan immediately released the hive pheromone ability, but then he was stunned.
He realized the only things he could control were the 75 larvae; the other bees that had come out of the hive had all been killed by the smoke.
Only the larvae and the queen, sheltered inside the hive and unable to come out, had survived.
He'd bring the hive back and study it later.
After collecting the hive, the sky was gradually darkening. Ethan checked the time, only an hour remained before sunset.
He decided not to risk it and go back first.
"Anyway, today's gains are plenty."
———
Back at the stone house, Ethan carried the hive in his hands and glanced around. There happened to be a place on the east side of the house where he could build a pet cage.
He looked at the hive and thought, "Does this count as a pet?"
"Never mind, let's build it first!"
[Pet Cage: Let your beloved pet have its private space, which benefits its physical and mental health and accelerates growth. Build requirements: Stone 186/20, Mud 279/20, Wood 204/10, Dry Grass 5/5, Fire-type Beast Core 21/1]
"Build!"
With enough materials, he built it at once.
These things would need to be built sooner or later; materials weren't negotiable, so no point in delaying.
He was a little surprised the Pet Cage required Fire-type Beast Cores.
"Buildings usually use Earth-type Beast Cores, why Fire-type?"
A golden flash and a ten-meter Pet Cage, or pet paradise, appeared before Ethan.
A ring of stone walls enclosed a small area; in the middle stood a uniquely shaped dead tree with a hook, obviously for hanging a hive.
Under the dead tree was a huge nest made of dry grass and mud and a slightly smaller chicken coop.
The coop was obviously for the wild hen he hadn't killed.
The big nest was probably for the White Eagle.
The design was thoughtful.
Ethan hung the hive on the dead tree. When he steadied his hand on the tree, he finally understood why the Pet Cage needed Fire-type Beast Cores.
The whole cage felt warm and cozy.
"Looks like the Pet Cage includes fire elements to prevent pets from freezing to death at night, it might also help them grow."
Ethan scanned the Pet Cage and also found some small red exclamation marks.
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