Chapter 43: Nature’s Gift

[Collect Wood] (Repeatable)

Posted by: Lord

Quest Objective: Submit wood (0/5)

Quest Reward: Copper Coin x1

……

Aside from the very first quest, which can only be accepted once, all the other quests are repeatable. As long as you have the required items, you can keep turning them in.

Unless Su You manually withdraws a quest, or the rewards she’s stored for it on the bounty board run out, the quest will disappear automatically.

Even though Su You wasn’t standing by the bounty board, she still received notifications when the brothers Lyle and Lake accepted quests.

[Notification: Wanderer Lyle has accepted the quest ‘Build Farmland’.]

[Notification: Wanderer Lake has accepted the quest ‘Collect Wood’.]

[Please place the corresponding tools in the linked storage building and wait for the quest taker to pick them up.]

Since the two wooden chests she had weren’t enough, Su You used some wood to craft another one, placing it next to the bounty board. Inside, she put not only the tools needed for the quests, but also the quest rewards.

Within the territory, NPCs can only use buildings if Su You grants them permission—whether it’s using the hearth to cook, opening the fence gate, entering the tavern, or opening a chest.

So she didn’t have to worry about anyone stealing or causing trouble.

Plus, this third chest was now linked to the bounty board, so the tools and rewards inside would automatically unlock for whoever accepted or completed the quest.

On top of that, when NPCs finished collecting resources and turned them in, the system would automatically store their submissions in this chest, greatly reducing Su You’s workload.

……

Lyle, who had accepted the farmland-building quest, was now heading to the spot where Su You had previously been turning the soil, shovel in hand, ready to take over. Maybe because he was an adventurer, he worked quickly and efficiently—what took Su You ten minutes, he could finish in about half the time.

Lake, after accepting the wood-collecting quest and picking up an axe, chatted briefly with Lyle before leaving the territory with the tool.

But perhaps out of concern for wild beasts, he didn’t go too far. Even though Su You couldn’t see him, she could still hear the sound of his axe striking trees.

To prevent the axe from breaking and disappearing due to durability loss while the NPCs used it, Su You had also stocked the chest with plenty of whetstones.

With these, whenever a tool’s durability dropped to its last point, it would automatically consume a whetstone from the chest to repair itself.

With everything prepared and the two working diligently, Su You suddenly found herself with much less to do.

With no more physical labor required, Lord Su glanced at the growing pile of fiber scraps in the chest, momentarily surprised, then took them all out.

First, she crafted some rope, then combined it with animal hides to make leather jackets and pants.

While she was working, Dolly returned with another batch of fiber scraps.

“All right, this is enough fiber. You can take a break now.” Now that Dolly was back, Su You handed over the rope-making and leatherworking tasks to her, while she herself picked up a stone knife and started making wooden cups.

She made seven in a row, and with the three she’d made earlier, she now had ten and stopped.

“I’m heading out for a bit. Keep an eye on them for me, will you?” By “them,” Su You naturally meant Lyle and Lake.

Although she didn’t fully trust Dolly either, since she hadn’t officially joined the territory, Su You still trusted her more than the two brothers.

Hearing this, Dolly looked a little worried and seemed like she wanted to say something, but in the end, she just nodded.

“Okay, my lord. Be careful.”

“Oh, and take these.” Su You handed Dolly the wooden cups she’d just made. “Boil some water and keep it ready. Don’t drink unboiled water—it’s not safe.”

“I’ll get right on it.” Dolly nodded and took the cups to the stream.

Watching her fetch water, Su You took out a pile of roasted berries she’d prepared earlier from the chest, along with several large portions of berry-roasted meat.

If Doya were here, she’d notice that the amount of meat Su You was taking was nearly two-thirds of what that wild boar had yielded.

It was only because this was a digital world and Su You had an inventory system that she could carry a hundred or two hundred pounds of meat by herself. Otherwise, it would have been impossible.

Even if she could carry it, it wouldn’t be safe.

But with an inventory, she didn’t have to worry.

Su You packed all the food into her bag, grabbed her pickaxe and stone knife, and left the base.

……

……

“Looks like this is the ‘crime scene’ where the wild boar died.” Su You once again arrived at the stone monster spawn point.

In just half a day, the place had become a mess. The surrounding trees bore clear marks of a wild animal crashing through, and there were even bloodstains at the spot where she’d previously mined sandstone.

Based on her earlier suspicions, the wooden cup was the one she’d filled with berry juice and left for the mysterious creature that traded food for stones with her. Ruling out a series of highly unlikely coincidences, Su You had every reason to believe this was the same cup.

If that was the case, then the wild boar was probably killed by that mysterious creature too.

It killed the boar and delivered it to her territory... She wasn’t sure if it was just passing by by chance, or if it had been secretly following her, spying on her and discovering the location of her territory in the process.

Either way, when it came to “gifts from nature,” Su You always made a point to reciprocate—which was why she’d brought so much food here.

Never mind giving away two-thirds of the meat—even if she gave it all, she wouldn’t be at a loss, since it was a windfall anyway. Besides, the most valuable part of the boar was actually its tusks.

Not to mention, such a large wild boar had also provided Su You with a good amount of leather.

Since she didn’t know where the mysterious creature lived, Su You came to this old spot. Now that she’d found traces of the boar’s death here, she had every reason to believe this was a place the creature frequented.

So, Su You took out all the roasted meat and berries she’d brought and laid them out at the usual spot."

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