Ethan had just stepped out the door when hints immediately appeared from four directions.
[East: A group of uninvited guests has come from the dwarf pines. Nightmare Rats are not only terrifying with their sharp claws and sharp teeth, their movements are also extremely quick. If you want to make enemies of them, be careful of their mental attacks, which can trap you in nightmares you can't escape from, until you either die in the nightmare or die from being gnawed to death.]
[South: After encountering acid rain, a large number of trees died. You can easily chop down large amounts of wood. Hidden inside the trunk of one tree is a Silver Treasure Chest. Guess if you can find it?]
[West: A cat is lying under a tree with its white belly up, sleeping soundly, but don't be fooled by its appearance. Its true form is a catwoman, extremely dangerous! But if you're confident you can tame it, it can bring you unexpected benefits.]
[North: Because of a full day of acid rain, the small animals are starving and have all come out to forage. If you place a beast trap cage on the grassland today, you might get unexpected gains, but remember to change out the bait more often.]
Looking at the hints from the four directions, Ethan felt a bit torn.
Which way should he go first?
There was a group of Nightmare Rats in the east. Just hearing it sounded like trouble. Ethan decided to save them for last.
According to urgency and importance, one after another.
Ethan arranged an order for the four directions. First go north to place the beast trap cage.
After all, he didn't have much spare food left. He now had only one piece of Lightning Leopard meat. As for the Lightning Leopard's blood, he couldn't drink it. He could only use it to refine weapons.
'Refine weapons?'
A spark of inspiration flashed through Ethan's mind.
"If axes and daggers count as weapons, then won't bows and arrows also count as weapons, and couldn't arrows also be refined?"
By the time he used them to shoot those Nightmare Rats and such, wouldn't things become much easier?
Thinking of that, Ethan decided that after setting up the beast trap cage, he'd take some time to refine a few arrows and see how it worked.
Once he decided, he acted.
He prepared the bait for the beast trap cage, inserted the dagger into his belt where he could draw it anytime.
Then he lit a torch. Only after that did Ethan step into the mist.
"Today's mist is really thick."
Once he stepped into it, Ethan couldn't even see his feet when he looked down. All he could see was a sheet of white covering the lower half of his body, and he could vaguely see that his shoes were golden, Whirlwind Shoes he took off that thief girl.
He waved the torch in his hand and the mist was pushed back.
"Gotta say, Wearing these Whirlwind Shoes feels really different when walking."
Ethan felt like his movement speed was twice what it used to be, and there was a strange effortless feeling too.
Like when you're in a great mental state and you jog a hundred meters, versus when you haven't slept, pulled an all-nighter, and you're dragging your feet on your way home.
Before wearing these shoes, Ethan didn't even understand what "light and nimble" meant.
But after putting these shoes on, Ethan felt like he could fly.
Twice his usual speed.
He arrived at the great grassland. After yesterday's acid rain assault, the originally lush grassland had turned dry and yellow, decayed and withered, looking as if it might die at any moment.
[This spot is not suitable for placing a beast trap cage, please go east.]
[This spot is not suitable for placing a beast trap cage, please move a bit further south.]
[This is a good spot. Place it here and you will have unexpected gains today.]
After trying a few times, Ethan finally found the right place.
He set down the beast trap cage. Just as Ethan was about to step back, a system hint suddenly appeared.
[Ten meters to your left, a Bronze Treasure Chest has just refreshed.]
"Hm?"
'Such good luck!'
Ethan's eyes lit up and he immediately walked toward his left side.
Ten meters was only ten steps away, but when Ethan reached the ten-meter mark, he froze.
Because right in front of him were two identical Bronze Treasure Chests.
'Didn't the system say there was only one Bronze Treasure Chest?'
'Could it be the system also makes mistakes?'
'Or did another one spawn just now, meaning double the luck.'
Just as Ethan was about to step forward and open one, a red exclamation mark popped up again.
[Two chests, surprising isn't it? One of these two chests is fake, one is real. Guess which one is real and which one is fake.]
There was even something like this.
Ethan was speechless.
He decided to draw an arrow to test it. Even if he shot the wrong chest, it'd be fine.
A Bronze Treasure Chest wouldn't be that easy to break.
Whoosh!
Full draw, release!
The bronze arrow shot straight through the chest's body, but the chest didn't react at all.
"It looks like this one should be the real Bronze Chest."
Ethan was overjoyed.
He rushed forward, reaching out to open the chest.
[Wrong guess! This is a ferocious Scare-Box. Its rows of teeth can bite off the hand you point toward it in one snap. And its long tongue can easily coil around you, drag you into the box, and turn you into the Scare-Box's new nourishment.] [T/N: Wuwa Echo]
"Damn!"
Ethan hadn't expected this Scare-Box to be so fierce.
The chest had been pierced by his arrow, and yet the Scare-Box could hold still without any reaction at all.
"How the hell am I supposed to deal with this?"
Judging from that arrow just now, the Bronze Chest's outer defense was extremely tough, so he could only attack from the inside.
'Attacking from the inside…'
Ethan thought it over. There was only one way.
First use resin to glue the Scare-Box shut, then use fire to roast it to death inside.
'It can work. It can work.'
Ethan nodded repeatedly, very pleased with his own cleverness.
Then he took some resin, softened it with the torch, and poured it around the Scare-Box. To be sure it was sealed properly, he even took a tree branch and carefully spread the resin around every gap.
Honestly, the Scare-Box had some patience.
No matter how Ethan poured resin on the lid, no matter how he poked around with the tree branch, it remained completely still.
Acting like a real treasure chest.
If not for the system, he really would have fallen for this treasure chest bastard's trick.
After applying the resin, Ethan splashed a little water to make sure the resin cooled and hardened.
Only then did he pull up a bunch of dry, yellow weeds and pile them around the Scare-Box, lighting them with the torch.
This did it.
The Scare-Box finally lost its calm.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
THUD! THUD!
The Scare-Box began to struggle desperately.
It seemed to want to open its mouth, but its mouth had been sealed completely by Ethan, so it couldn't open at all.
With no other choice, the Scare-Box started doing a frantic tap dance.
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