Chapter 45: Ghostly Skeletons

Twenty minutes passed quickly, and half the time was already gone, but Su You had already found what she was looking for.

Fortunately, the unlikely event she feared didn’t happen—just as she’d guessed, this was indeed a mine, not a mineral vein hidden beneath a mountain of stone.

However, there was also some bad news: near the mine, Su You spotted many monsters guarding it.

[Ghostly Skeleton]

HP: 100/100

Attack: 20

Defense: 10

Description: An undead monster whose body appears to be a transparent spirit, but is actually made of bones.

...

Just as the description said, the Ghostly Skeletons looked like transparent ghosts at first glance, but if you looked closely, you’d realize that beneath that “transparency” was actually a body made of bones.

Because these Ghostly Skeletons were naturally hard to spot due to their transparency—and with the sky darkening and little light around—if Su You didn’t look carefully, she wouldn’t see their bodies at all. All she could make out were their eerie, green-flamed eyes and their ghostly white skulls.

Since their bodies were nearly invisible, Su You’s perspective at this moment was especially terrifying—wherever she looked, she saw nothing but countless floating skulls suspended in midair...

Faced with this sudden shift from a survival/base-building/sandbox game to a horror/weird/combat game, even though Su You wasn’t afraid of these things and had gotten used to such sights before, she couldn’t help but get goosebumps when those skulls turned to look in her direction.

She glanced at the time, then took the last marker out of her backpack and placed it in a discreet spot nearby, so the monsters wouldn’t find it.

Although destroying the marker wouldn’t affect the map’s record, it would let the monsters know that an “outsider” had been here, making them more alert and potentially disrupting Su You’s future plans.

But she couldn’t just skip placing the marker, either.

Even though Su You had found the mine in just ten minutes, the whole area was full of broadleaf trees, with nothing distinctive to use as a landmark. Combined with the time of day and poor lighting, her visibility was limited, so it was best to leave a marker.

After hiding the last marker, Su You crouched low to make herself less noticeable, then quickly slipped away.

Although there were quite a few monsters near the mine, luckily, there weren’t any in the surrounding areas. At least, Su You didn’t run into any trouble on her way back and returned to her territory without incident.

On her way back, Su You even stopped by the stone monster’s place to check on the meat and berries she’d left behind. Everything was still there, untouched and unmoved.

She figured maybe the stone monster hadn’t come back yet, or perhaps it just wasn’t planning to show up today... Either way, after confirming the food was fine, Su You headed home.

...

...

As soon as she returned to her territory, Su You received a flurry of system notifications.

[Lyle has submitted the completed quest “Build Farmland.” Reward has been automatically distributed.]

[Lake has submitted the completed quest “Collect Wood.” Total completions: 5. Reward has been automatically distributed.]

[Lyle has submitted the completed quest “Collect Branches.” Total completions: 2. Reward has been automatically distributed.]

[Lake has submitted the completed quest “Collect Stones.” Total completions: 1. Reward has been automatically distributed.]

[Lyle has submitted the completed quest...]

[Lake has submitted the completed quest...]

...

There were so many notifications that Su You only skimmed a few before temporarily muting the rest.

In short, the soil for the farmland had been fully tilled and was ready for her to build on. In addition, the two brothers had collected 150 units of wood, 120 branches, and 4 stones for her.

In exchange, Su You paid out 10 copper coins (for building farmland) + 30 (collecting wood) + 6 (collecting branches) + 4 (collecting stones), for a total of 50 copper coins.

Originally, Su You had 136 copper coins and 6 silver coins, plus the 15 copper coins the brothers had given her later, making 151 copper coins in total.

She had placed those 151 copper coins and 1 silver coin in the wooden chest. At their current spending rate, this money would last several more days—assuming no new wanderers arrived.

However...

Su You checked the territory info panel and found that only the dark creature invasion event was left, meaning no new wanderers would be arriving anytime soon.

“Miss Lord!” Seeing Su You return, Dolly looked happy, though there was a hint of hesitation on her face.

She glanced at the two brothers resting by the central fire, then hurried over to Su You.

From her expression, Su You could tell she wanted to talk privately, so she stopped walking.

“Did those two do something?” Since Dolly wanted to avoid Lake and Lyle, Su You had every reason to suspect this was about them.

Dolly shook her head, then nodded slightly. “They didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that not long ago, the two of them came to me with money, wanting to buy food.”

Previously, Su You had told them that if they couldn’t find food, they could buy it from her. But since Su You was out and Doya was nowhere to be found, after working for ages and getting hungry, the brothers turned to Dolly for help.

They brought the fruits of their labor, hoping to buy food from Dolly, since they could tell she had some authority in the territory.

But since Su You had “forgotten” to tell Dolly about this before leaving, Dolly didn’t know if she should give them food.

If she did... it didn’t seem right, since she hadn’t forgotten she herself was just “sheltering under someone else’s roof.” She wasn’t the owner here and didn’t have the right to distribute supplies.

She’d overheard the brothers’ earlier conversation with Su You: ten copper coins a night for lodging, food charged separately... By comparison, all Dolly had done was help repair a fur coat, and she got free room and board—a total windfall.

So Dolly didn’t dare make the decision on her own, and refused the brothers’ request the first time.

But later, when the brothers produced copper coins and explained that Su You had said they could buy food..."

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