Not only did she have enough materials to build the Heartfire in the city, but she also had enough to craft items from the fire demon’s drops.
If she had to gather these materials herself—meaning she’d have to kill three more rock monsters—it would take at least until tomorrow. With the materials she had on hand and her current physical state, she could only manage to take down one more rock monster at most.
It wasn’t just her physical condition; killing six rock monsters had already taken up her entire afternoon. Now, it was almost evening, and the forest at night was extremely dangerous. She needed to get back to her temporary camp as soon as possible and light a campfire…
Everything was planned out perfectly, but Su You hadn’t acted yet because she knew that picking up those dropped items might anger that mysterious creature.
The aura’s protection was limited—it only worked as long as she didn’t provoke the other party. But picking up someone else’s spoils? For most creatures, that would be seen as a “provocation.”
She couldn’t bring herself to take them, but she was also reluctant to leave them behind… Su You crouched in the bushes, her gaze seemingly fixed on the clearing, but she was actually watching her surroundings out of the corner of her eye.
As the minutes ticked by, her legs were starting to go numb from crouching. She glanced at the countdown—almost fifteen minutes had passed—and as her peripheral vision swept past a tree…
After waiting another two or three minutes, Su You sighed, rubbed her numb legs, and slowly stood up, preparing to leave.
If she was leaving, it meant she was giving up on those stones.
She was truly reluctant, but since the other party showed no sign of leaving, it was clear she wouldn’t get a chance to grab the loot while they were gone.
She’d already wasted a lot of time here for those stones. There was no time left to kill a seventh rock monster. Now, she had to go back, retrieve her string traps, and return to camp to rest and prepare to collect the remaining stones tomorrow.
Just as Su You stood up, she could clearly feel something watching her.
She paused for a moment, then left without looking back.
On the way back to the trap site, Su You took out a roasted berry snack, planning to eat as she walked to restore her hunger. But just as she was about to take a bite, everything suddenly went dark—something seemed to block her vision.
And in the instant she lost sight, she suddenly felt her hand lighten.
Su You: “…”
When her vision returned, she looked at her now-empty hand, a mix of complicated emotions swirling inside her—she didn’t know how to react.
Her food had been snatched away for no apparent reason, but there was nothing she could do about it.
Still, she didn’t feel angry or upset. After all, the other party was much stronger, and she had just made it pretty obvious that she was eyeing their loot. So, having her food taken as “punishment” wasn’t too unreasonable.
But to avoid getting her food snatched again, Su You decided not to eat anything else for now and quickened her pace to leave.
She wanted to get out of there quickly, but the creature hiding in the shadows clearly wasn’t happy about that.
She’d barely taken a few steps when she felt something underfoot. Because she was walking so fast, she didn’t have time to react and tripped over something. Luckily, she managed to grab a nearby tree and avoided falling.
Once she steadied herself, Su You instinctively looked back—and saw the culprit that nearly tripped her: a chunk of stone she’d been eyeing for a long time.
Su You: “?”
If emotions could take physical form, Su You felt like she’d be covered in question marks right now.
Before she could react to the stone, she heard a rustling sound, and saw several things drop from the tree above, landing next to the stone.
One of them nearly hit her, but she’d moved away from under the tree as soon as she heard the noise. If she hadn’t, she might have lost a few hit points from the impact.
Looking at the scattered stones and that chunk of stone, Su You thought back to the food that had just been snatched from her—and suddenly, she understood.
She immediately opened her backpack, took out seven portions of roasted berries, and placed them under the tree where the “stone rain” had just fallen.
After arranging the berries neatly, Su You hesitated for a moment, then said, “This is all I have. I’m only keeping two portions for myself.”
There was no response, but she could vaguely sense that the other party had “agreed.”
With the other party’s tacit approval, Su You breathed a sigh of relief and tentatively began picking up the stones on the ground…
After she’d picked up all the stones and still hadn’t seen any reaction, Su You finally relaxed.
She mustered her courage, picked up the last chunk of stone, then took out a cup of berry juice from her backpack and placed it with the roasted berries. Then, she quickly left.
After walking some distance, Su You vaguely heard some sounds behind her. She resisted the urge to look back and hurried away.
…
…
“Killed six rock monsters, got 11 pieces of rubble, 1 chunk of stone…” Su You sat by the campfire, carefully counting her gains for the afternoon.
Besides the drops from the six rock monsters she killed herself, Su You had an “unexpected” harvest this afternoon—she’d traded food with the mysterious creature for some rubble and a chunk of stone.
She remembered seeing only seven or eight pieces of rubble on the clearing, but maybe it was the angle, or maybe there was some other reason—when she counted now, she realized that “stone rain” had given her a full ten pieces of rubble!
Ten pieces of rubble and a chunk of stone—that was almost as much as she’d gotten all afternoon on her own… Wait a minute!
Could these be all the drops from the three rock monsters that mysterious creature killed?
Su You: Something feels off here…
She’d killed six rock monsters and gotten 11 pieces of rubble and 1 chunk of stone. The mysterious creature killed three rock monsters and got 10 pieces of rubble and 1 chunk of stone…
Su You took a deep breath. For the sake of these stones, she decided not to think about it any further.
Including the piece of rubble she’d used as bait earlier, Su You now had 22 pieces of rubble and 2 chunks of stone—enough to build the Heartfire and still have some left over for other things.
Aside from the stones, here’s what else Su You had in her backpack:
Lord’s Token (doesn’t take up space), String x4, Wood x14, Branches x20, Berry Juice x2, Stone Knife (89/100) x1, Red Berries x50, Leaves x47.
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