Chapter 70: Wild Wolf Valley
Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey
"Wake up, Bighead. We're setting off..."
Due to his poor Qi and blood, Zhang Tie's biological clock had been delayed for the past couple of days. The next morning, Fatty Barley woke up Zhang Tie by shaking him. Opening his eyes, Zhang Tie realized it was almost dawn, as the last star was still hanging in the eastern parts of the sky. After spending an entire night sleeping on a sturdy stone, Zhang Tie felt a tinge of pain on the back of his head.
Seeing that both Fatty Barley and Doug had already awoken, Zhang Tie also hurriedly climbed out of his sleeping bag and started to pack his luggage. The day had not broken yet; however, the horny students in the square had already woken up one by one and were preparing for the upcoming survival training.
"I've noticed that more than ten groups have already left. It's our turn now!" Fatty Barley said as he arranged his luggage.
"Did you wake up early?" rolling up his sleeping bag, Zhang Tie asked Barley.
"Of course, I woke up early. Afterwards, I began to count the number of groups that had left. Those guys will find a path for us, and we will follow them. It won't be good if we're too early or too late."
"This fatty is truly cunning." Zhang Tie admired inwardly. "But it's really reassuring to have him as a brother."
Picking himself up from the ground, Zhang Tie glanced at where Glaze's group had stayed last night. As he predicted, the four people had already disappeared. It seemed that they had already climbed down the mountain a long time ago. As this survival training was the final chance for Glaze, he might be more anxious than anyone else to perform well.
The seven members of the Hit-Plane Brother arranged their luggage quickly and then followed the over ten groups that had departed earlier from the square outside Wild Wolf Castle. Leading to the valley below was a 200m long path paved with broken stones from the square. Walking along the path that twisted around the mountain, they entered the valley. Two other groups walked alongside the members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood before splitting up with them at the bottom of the mountain. From this point on, they had become opponents to the other groups, as there were limited inhabitable places and resources in the valley that could only be gained through luck and fighting.
On the first day of the survival training, everyone's first test was to search for a suitable place to stay.
In the wild, a proper place to stay had to meet the following three conditions: first, it had to be close to a clean water source; second, it had to be sufficiently safe; third, it had to be in a place that was convenient for them to gather enough food in the future.
Although they could feel safe and would be close to a clean water source if they stayed near the castle, it would be difficult to gather enough food. Based on the experiences of those from the previous years, most people chose to stay about 1-7 km away from the castle, though some arrogant people or groups with many members would choose a place a bit farther to stay.
With an axe in hand, Bagdad cleared the path before them as Doug, Barley, and Zhang Tie followed. Hista and Sharwin followed behind Zhang Tie, and Leit stayed at the end of the line. Everybody held their weapons and entered the valley cautiously. They couldn't be careless here because just as they walked down the path, Doug had stepped into a pile of feces from some unknown beast, who seemed to have left it here last night. When Doug cursed loudly, they all felt a chill in their hearts. They once again reminded themselves that this was Wild Wolf Valley and not Blackhot City.
After walking for 200m in the valley, Sharwin found a water-leaf willow. He then picked up several willow twigs and distributed them to the other members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood. They then chewed the willow twigs for the water inside the twigs, using it to wash their mouths. In the wild, they had to be frugal. As it was early in the morning, the temperature in the valley was still a bit low. The valley was still covered with a thin layer of fog, and dew was still on the leaves of the trees and in the grass. After walking for a while, a small portion of their clothes had gotten wet.
The "gugugu" sound from some unknown birds on the trees reverberated from far away. The valley then gradually became quiet.
After traveling less than 500m since they entered the valley, they encountered their first wolf. When Bagdad was waving the huge axe to clear the path, a wolf that had been resting in the grass 20m away suddenly stood up. After staring at them, it immediately turned back and disappeared into the woods before they could respond.
The sight of the wolf naturally made everybody tightly grip their weapons.
After walking another 1km, they found a crystal stream with a width of more than 5 meters. The river was so translucent that they could even clearly see the cobblestones and the water weeds at the bottom as well as a shoal of small fish that was swimming happily among the water weeds.
"I suggest we go deep into the valley along the river. It would be great if we could find an inhabitable place along the river!" Bagdad uttered.
"Fine!" Everybody agreed. Thus, they descended into the valley along the river. After another 1km, they passed by an abandoned mine. Surrounding that mine were several caves in the mountains nearby. The two groups that had arrived earlier had already occupied two of those caves. Seeing the huge and perfectly round caves in the precipices and the ridges, Doug asked curiously, "How could there be so many strange caves in the precipices?"
"I heard that there used to be Gold-Eating Boas who would twist over there in the past and would bore holes for themselves, but later on, they were exterminated by humans. As a result, those holes were left..."Sharwin said.Caves of Gold-Eating Boas?" Doug asked surprisingly. Seeing those round caves in the precipices and the ridges whose diameters varied from 1m to 3m, Zhang Tie forcefully swallowed his saliva. He tried to imagine how large those Gold-Eating Boas would be if those caves were the size of the Gold-Eating Boas. At this thought, Zhang Tie's legs felt weak, and he felt despair when he looked at those pitch black holes.
"Of course, you didn't know that?" Sharwin asked curiously.
"How did you know?" turning pale, Leit asked Sharwin.
"I read about it from the local chronicles of Blackhot City..." Sharwin said without any hesitation. "I remember that these Gold-Eating Boas from the Wild Wolf Valley were recorded in the local chronicles of Blackhot City more than 30 years ago. It was said that these Gold-Eating Boas were as old as 1000 years. At that time, in order to eliminate them, the whole Blackson Human Clan Corridor had to take action and numerous high-level fighters arrived from all directions. With the cooperation between the armies and the numerous high-level fighters, they were finally able to kill them all. After that, Blackhot City found an iron mine and a high-quality crystal mine. Tens of years later, nowadays, the crystal mine has almost been completely depleted and became useless. In contrast, the iron mine was completely deserted when the Glang Iron Mine was discovered. They had transferred the personnel over to the Glang Iron Mine due to this mine being more costly and producing lower quality iron ores, thus this iron mine was gradually abandoned. After the Gold-Eating Boas were killed, the population of the wild wolves sharply increased. Seeing so many wild wolves here, they named this place as the Wild Wolf Valley..."
Naturally, nobody in the Hit-Plane Brotherhood, with the exception of Sharwin, would be bored enough to read the local chronicles of Blackhot City. Although this event had happened more than 30 years ago, it was still terrifying to them even now.
"What if they didn't kill them all and had left a small one..." Doug muttered.
With the sound of "gulu", everybody forcefully swallowed their saliva. Looking at those mountain caves once again, they dared not to live inside them anymore.
"I think we're better off not going too deep into the valley. If we can't find a suitable place to stay after another 2 km, we should turn back..." Fatty Barley immediately suggested with a solemn look.
Everybody hurriedly nodded, and even Bagdad didn't object. Thinking of how this place used to be teething with huge snakes and monsters that were as long as 100m and could even eat the stones before them, everyone had an inexplicable feeling about Wild Wolf Valley.
After searching for about 4 hours, the seven members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood finally found a place that was about 5 km away from Wild Wolf Castle. There was a Dragon-Claw Tree with a diameter of more than 10m near the small woods. Unknown whether or not this was a mutated species, this Dragon-Claw Tree that was covered in lumps was the largest one they had ever seen. Its height was greater than 50m, and at the top of the tree was a cloud-like crown, which covered several mu of land. Previously, seeing the tree, they had wanted to take a rest over there, but they ended up finding a hollow cave on the tree that was 4m away from the ground. Climbing onto the tree, Bagdad took a peep inside and surprisingly found that the inside of the hollow cave was very spacious and could easily hold three people. What was more marvelous was that someone had once lived inside; this should have been the living place of someone who had previously attended the survival training. Everybody then became excited. Each of them climbed onto the tree to peep inside. Fortunately, they found another natural hollow cave, which was much smaller than the first one and could only hold one person, 7m above the ground on the same tree. Even with the two hollow caves, the Dragon-Claw Tree still looked very green; however, the wood inside the tree had already become completely rotten. It seemed as if it had been struck by lightning, as one could easily grab some wood scraps from the inside of the hollow cave.
"Why not renovate it into a place that could hold the seven of us?" Leit's words made everybody spirited. It could already hold four people and it did not seem difficult to further renovate it, thus everyone immediately started to work.
The renovation was composed of two steps. The first step was to expand the space of the two hollow caves as much as possible. The lower cave should be able to hold four people, their equipment, and food, while the upper cave should be expanded as much as possible. If it was expanded to be as large as the lower cave, then it would be able to hold another three people and they would all be able to live inside.
After expanding the inner space of the two tree caves, they would arrive at the second step of renovation: breaking through the two hollow caves by leaving an "N"-shaped path between them. At least two or three people could sleep in the "N"-shaped space, so they would not feel cramped inside the caves.
As they had learned some preliminary carpenter's skills at school and didn't need to make it nice-looking and delicate, they could easily do this kind of work.
Bagdad waved his axe together while Zhang Tie and Leit used their multi-purpose military shovels. With wood scraps flying everywhere, it only took them over two hours to finish the work on the lower hollow cave.
Seeing those wood scraps inside the hollow caves, Barley shouted, "Ah, don't throw them away. These dried wood scraps can be used as firewood. We will not have to worry about lacking firewood for the next couple of weeks..."
Everybody burst out into laughter...
Chapter 71: Base and Dreams
Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey
Using his multipurpose military shovel, Zhang Tie dug in the upper hole in the tree. The military shovel could become a miniature hoe by folding the foldable shovel head vertically into each other. One edge of the head of the hoe was very sharp and could be used as a miniature axe, while the other edge was full of jagged teeth and could be used as a saw. While humming a tune, Zhang Tie flicked the shovel to clean off the rotten woods in the cave. As everyone found it refreshing and interesting to live in tree hollows, they worked really hard.
Barley and Sharwin were responsible for making a fire to cook supper that would be cooked in the huge black pot on the stone hearth, and Doug and Hista were responsible for sending out warnings for any danger within 50m, while Zhang Tie, Bagdad, and Leit were responsible for the renovation of the holes in the trees.
After renovating the lower hole, the three of them placed all their attention onto the upper hole. Compared to the lower hole, the upper hole required more work. As the upper hole had a limited amount of space and only had enough space to allow one person to enter for the first time, only when the first person had expanded the size inside could a second person enter. Thus, it was slower to renovate the upper hole. Zhang Tie was the first one to enter the upper hole. One hour later, Zhang Tie exited the hole and replacing him was Leit. After another hour, Leit exited and Bagdad entered. After two more hours, the space inside could already barely hold two people, thus as Bagdad left, Zhang Tie and Leit entered again. After another hour of work, Bagdad could push himself in as well. From then on, the renovation work for the upper hole started to accelerate.
At noon, several groups of students from the Second National Male Middle School and the Seventh National Male Middle School also noticed the renovated tree hollows. Two groups of guys from the Second National Male Middle School had even intended to chase away the Hit-Plane Brotherhood by relying on their superior numbers, but when Doug held the "Iron Gate T21" and aimed it at those malicious fellows, they could only reluctantly leave as the corners of their eyes twitched. They would never have imagined that the Hit-Plane Brotherhood would be so crazy to even bring along the "Iron Gate T21". The "Iron Gate T21" was a machine-driven crossbow with two strings, and the two strings could be pulled simultaneously, allowing one to shoot two arrows at the same time. The arrows shot from the "Iron Gate T21" could pierce through an armored human body as long as it was within a distance of 50m. Anyone who wanted the tree hollows would suffer a miserable loss once Doug pulled the trigger of the bow twice. Naturally, nobody dared to trespass in their territory. As it was merely a place to stay, casualties were not worth it.
Working through the entire afternoon, they finally finished renovating the upper hole just as dusk was about to fall. At the time of completion, the upper hole could barely allow two people to lay inside; however, having two people lay inside and having three people stand inside were completely different matters, as the three people standing would all feel a bit exhausted. Finally, Leit couldn't stand anymore and was replaced by Hista. Bagdad and the other members of the Hit-Plane Brother were really amazed that Zhang Tie could stand as long as Bagdad. They were even in awe at Zhang Tie, who looked as normal as before. For Zhang Tie, he had indirectly showed his strength as a LV 1 fighter and could even surpass Bagdad by a bit at that moment. After igniting his Shrine burning point, Zhang Tie's physique had already improved greatly, quickly narrowing the gap between the physique of a Chinese and that of another human race. Certainly, if Bagdad had also ignited his Shrine burning point and had gained the same benefits as him, then Zhang Tie knew that he would not be his match. But, how could Bagdad ignite his Shrine burning point as fast as him?
After thinking through this point, Zhang Tie became more confident of being able to successfully complete the survival training.
In the evening, the aroma drifting from the hot pot of soup made everyone feel hungry. Naturally, when Barley called them, everybody took their own food container and moved around that pot of hot soup. Compressed dry food plus a bowl of hot meat soup——it was simply perfect!
Inside the soup were the dried beef brought by Barley and the wild fiddlehead foraged by Sharwin. After boiling them in lightly salted water, they ended up with the delicious soup.
Everybody was satisfied with this supper. After supper, they cleaned their dinnerware in the small stream a few dozen meters away. When they all returned, they all sat by the bonfire under the tree as they discussed their next course of action.
"I think it will take us another day to finish the second stage of the renovation, after which we would be able to completely put the two holes to use. The food that we had brought with us will only last one week. For the remaining two months, we will have to gather food by ourselves. Considering how we all eat from the same big pot, in theory, we should all submit about a kilogram of food each day," Barley said solemnly as he glanced over every member of the brotherhood. "Since this survival training is dangerous, we might lose our lives when searching for food. We have to take this seriously. As we are brothers and will eat together, we have to consider our collective interests as well as our individual interests when it comes to obtaining food and its distribution. We will not force any member of the brotherhood to do something that is inconsistent with the principles of our brotherhood. I've already thought up a plan for food allocation. Let's discuss about that..."
Barley then poured out the details of his distribution plan. The food collected through a group effort will be evenly distributed and consumed by all the members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood. If an individual acquires food by themselves, then it will be dealt according to its weight. For amounts less than 1kg, since they all ate from the same big pot, it should be used to replenish the group's food supply, so that will belong to the group. For amounts that weighed between 1kg and 3kg, it will belong to the individual's emergency food supply, which should be safely stored somewhere and would only be used in times of emergency. As everyone has to eat, if someone in the group has an insufficient amount, someone else would have to bail you out. For amounts greater than 3kg, it will depend on the individual who found it. They could send it to others, use it seduce girls, or exchange it for other things at Wild Wolf Castle. That person could also contribute the food to the Hit-Plane Brotherhood in exchange for credits worth the same in the market of Blackhot City. The credits could then be exchanged for a ticket when it accumulated to a certain degree. Using Barley as an example, that fatty had two vote tickets because of his contributions to the Hit-Plane Brotherhood.
After Barley declared his plan, everybody agreed after a short discussion. It truly considered both their individual interests as well as the collective interests of the group.
"If I submit more than 1 kg of food every day, can I freely do my own thing for the rest of the time?" Zhang Tie asked Barley.
"You can be free to do your own thing. However, at our tree base, from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm every day, we must have at least one person on duty that will cook. In addition, we will take turns being on duty; one will stay on duty from 6:00 pm to 0:00 am, and someone else will replace him from 0:00 am to 8:00 am. As long as you submit enough food and will not disturb the other members, you are free to do whatever you want during the rest of the time!" After explaining, Barley curiously looked at Zhang Tie and gave him a suggestion, "Bighead, it's dangerous to act alone. As we are brothers, we should work together for the sake of our safety!"
"The thing I want to do is probably something you guys don't want to do!" Zhang Tie smiled.
Bagdad raised his chest and replied, "There's nothing to fear. If you want to fight Glaze's group, we brothers will support you!"
"That's right!" the rest of the people said in unison.
"I want to dig in the mines. Do you still want to go with me?" Zhang Tie said as he stared at those guys. Hearing his words, everyone's eyes opened widely.
"Dig in the mines? You want to dig in the mines?" with his mouth gaping, Barley asked.
"I know how you guys see those who aren't able to find food and have to suffer bitter feelings because they couldn't find enough food to complete the survival training. But, I really do find mining to be fun!" Zhang Tie blinked as he naively looked at them. "I have always felt since I was young that mining was interesting. Since I have the opportunity, I must seize this chance!"
"Brother, you will regret it!" Hista sincerely suggested. "This survival training is our test and is also an opportunity arranged by Blackhot City for us to get acquainted with and perhaps even marry those girls. No girl would like a man who isn't even able to gather sufficient amounts of food through hunting and would rather just make himself dirty in the caves. The people who had dug in the mines there in the past years were just guys with bad luck. Most of them were even single."
"Since this has been one of my dreams since I was a kid, I would still like to give it a try. If it's not interesting, then I'll just come back!"
Hearing Zhang Tie's words, the corner of everybody's mouths began to twitch. They became speechless. Even Barley couldn't think it through. Since Zhang Tie was such a smart kid, why did he want to be a miner when he was a kid? Though, he wasn't one to speak since he had dreamed to become a prestigious concierge when he was a child.
Seeing the looks of amazements on their faces, Zhang Tie apologized inwardly, "Sorry, brothers! This survival training means different things for you and I. For you, you are here to gather sufficient food and perhaps even earn the favor of those girls, but I am here to gather enough energy for my Castle of Black Iron. I don't know where else I could replenish my Castle of Black Iron's basic energy storage. It would be difficult for me to find an opportunity in a short period of time once we return back to Blackhot City or some other destination."
Before the survival training had begun, Zhang Tie had already decided that his goal for the survival training was to make the Castle of Black Iron grow stronger. After learning of the effects of the first Leakless Fruit and surviving his first life and death encounter, Zhang Tie obtained a deep understanding of the changes and hopes that the Castle of Black Iron had brought. The Castle of Black Iron and that small tree were his two top-guarded secrets, ones which were closely related to his fate. Because of the Castle of Black Iron and that marvelous tree, Zhang Tie had already stepped onto a road that was completely different from the others. When compared to the Castle of Black Iron and the marvelous tree, a little bit of food, the looks of ridicules, and the mocking from others became nothing significant.
As Zhang Tie and the others were idly chatting under the tree, Doug, who had run towards the grass to relieve his bowels, suddenly shrieked, causing all the members of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood to grab their weapons and rush towards him. Bagdad and Zhang Tie rushed forward shoulder in shoulder, causing Bagdad to cast a look of amazement at Zhang Tie. When they drew close to Doug, everybody gaped...
With his trousers off, Doug was crying as he jumped around in the grass while covering his bottom. "Ahh, my ass! These bastards... Can't they even let me take a sh*t?"
Seeing the members of the brotherhood running towards him, with dripping tears, Doug ran towards them with his bottom exposed as if he had just seen his saviors. "Help! Quick! Help me take a look. My ass was just bitten by something... I think it might be poisonous... I'm going to die... Help!"
Without even having pulled up his trousers, Doug ran towards the group, inevitably tripping on his trousers and falling onto the ground. When Doug fell, Zhang Tie clearly saw a bloody mark on his swollen left butt cheek.
Bagdad hurriedly helped Doug up as Zhang Tie rushed towards where Doug had just been. That guy had just left a landmine——there was a pile of sh*t over there. The moment Zhang Tie arrived there, the odor almost made him vomit; however, compared to the life of his brother, the smell was nothing serious. Zhang Tie wanted to figure out what had bitten Doug, so he could quickly cure him with the right medicine.
As he ran over there, Zhang Tie casually broke a twig. When he arrived, Zhang Tie held his breath and started to search for the thing that had bitten Doug at the place where he had squatted. Luckily, he soon found a blue-gray scorpion which had its tail raised in the patch of grass beside the "landmine"; it was currently preparing to attack Zhang Tie. The instant Zhang Tie saw it, he became relaxed; however, the smelly odor almost made Zhang Tie roll backwards. He hurried broke the twig into two halves and nipped the scorpion as if he was nipping vegetables with a pair of chopsticks.
"Ah! It's so painful! I'm going to die... Hurry, brothers! Someone help me suck out the poison. If not, I really will die soon. I already feel numb in half my body. Ah... I feel cold... Hurry up... Ah..." Doug cried miserably over there as he glanced at the other members of Hit-Plane Brotherhood, who showed weird expressions. Before Zhang Tie returned, every member of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood looked pale and had a solemn look on their faces; they looked as if they were making a choice of life or death as they stared at the swollen spot on Doug's butt. The atmosphere was very weird. They looked at each other and became speechless. Sucking out the poison wasn't a problem, but someone would have to put their mouth on Doug's butt. That... That...
As they were drawing lots, at the sight of Zhang Tie, who was walking towards them with the scorpion, everyone hurriedly rushed forward as if they had seen their savior.
"Don't worry, it's nothing serious. It's just an ordinary blue-gray scorpion, which isn't very poisonous. Those who had been bitten will recover after a day of rest..." As he said that, Zhang Tie showed the scorpion to the others. Whoop! Everybody became relaxed. At the same time, Doug, who was crying about how that poisonous fluid had flowed into his heart and how half his body had already felt numb, shut his mouth.
It was just an ordinary blue-gray scorpion which had a little toxicity. Those who were bitten would only feel a little bit of pain, and at most, it would slightly affect their actions temporarily; it was nothing serious. After becoming relaxed, they realized something and then shot Doug, who was still lying on his stomach, a furious glare. What a bastard! Thinking of how Doug said that half his body already felt numb and the poisonous fluid had flowed into his heart, they realized they were almost cheated by him. At this realization, when they had come to terms with what the consequences of being cheated by Doug would have been, everybody became furious inside...
Moving forward with an obscene smile, Barley said, "You said that you felt half your body being numb?"
"Kaka!" With a pinch of his fingers, Bagdad also gloomily walked over. "You also said you had started to feel cold..."
"Poisonous fluid had already arrived at your heart?" Leit asked solemnly with arms crossed.
"Were you planning to let us suck out the poison from your butt?" Hista smiled obscenely.
"You are a liar!" Sharwin pouted.
Feeling as if something was not right, Doug immediately pulled up his trousers and stood up. Seeing his movement, even Zhang Tie frowned and became speechless. "He seems to have not even cleaned his butt. He's... really... really... great!"
"I... just now... was too nervous. Right, I was too nervous, so my body had the wrong feelings!" Doug stammered.
"Felt the wrong feelings? We'll help you correct it. I remember a method. We don't need to suck out the poisonous fluid for you; there's a mystical oriental treatment where we just beat your wounds to help the poisonous fluid flow out" Saying that, Bagdad kicked Doug's wound, causing him to cry out miserably. The instant Doug intended to escape, he was caught by Bagdad. Afterwards, with the exception of Zhang Tie, everybody charged at him. In the next three minutes, Doug, who had just been stung by a scorpion, got to experience the "beating treatment" and its effects...
Chapter 72: Setting Traps
Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey
After a day of rest, Doug was already able to freely move in the next evening. At the sight of his sad and furious face, every member of the Hit-Plane Brotherhood could not help but laugh out loudly. On the first day of the survival training, Doug had been stung by a scorpion on his snow-white butt when he was squatting in the grass to relieve his bowels. Thankfully, that was only an ordinary blue-gray scorpion which had low toxicity, and he was able to freely move only one day after his brothers' "beating treatment". That incident caused everyone to be alert; they had started to realize what the farmer meant when he said, "Don't expose your butt in the air." What if it was a mutated scorpion with extremely high toxicity? What if it was a snake with extremely toxic venom or a fatally poisonous insect? If that was the case, Doug might have already become a corpse.
Nobody wanted to be bitten by something while they squatted on the ground or in the grass relaxedly like Doug had. After realizing the potential dangers, everyone, with the exception of Doug, had built a toilet that was not too far away from the tree hollows on the first evening of the survival training. Barley had even sprayed some medicinal powder used to repel poisonous animals on the ground around the toilet and as well as the area around the Dragon-Claw Tree.
During the daytime of the second day, with the exception of Doug, who was still lying in the hole to recover, everyone continued to expand the tree hollows using the axe, military shovel, dagger, and machete. They had basically completed the second step of the renovation of their tree hollow, successfully expanding the hollows into three spacious floors, which was sufficient for seven people to sleep inside.
After eating for two days, the total amount of food had dropped below 30 kg, which would only feed them for four days at most. They had started to feel pressure from the limited basic living necessities, thus on the third day of the survival training, everyone had decided to go and forage for food.
Due to his Qi, blood, and spiritual energy having recovered, Zhang Tie's woke him up from his sweet dream at about 6:00 am; he was the one to wake up the earliest. Opening his eyes, he saw the traces of the top of the hole having been chopped. His crystal clear senses had been recovered, as he could easily identify which tools or which weapons had created those marks. Previously, Zhang Tie couldn't do that at all. Could his growing spiritual energy be making him smarter and giving him sharper senses? After thinking about it for a while, Zhang Tie immediately got up. Knowing that the Leakless Fruit will continue to ripen again, he felt much better and felt as if his life was full of hope.
The one lying in the same upper hole with Zhang Tie was Hista. When Zhang Tie woke up, Hista was still snoring. Those from the hole under them seemed to have not woken up yet either, thus after putting on his clothes and shoes, Zhang Tie equipped his soft armor and fastened his waistband. After checking his personal equipment, he silently climbed out of the tree hollow. For adolescents like Zhang Tie, it was not difficult to climb up and down from the high and twisting, lump-covered Dragon-Claw Tree.
Since midnight, Leit had been on duty. Hugging the "Iron Gate T21", he sat in a pit that was a meter deep under the lower tree hollow with widely opened eyes. Seeing Zhang Tie climbing down, he was pretty surprised. "So early?"
"Hoho, the early bird gets the worms!"
"The worms that get up early will be eaten by the bird. Do you really want to give it a try?"
Zhang Tie nodded. "Yes!"
"Good luck!" Leit stopped trying to persuade Zhang Tie. In his opinion, Zhang Tie would definitely come back after suffering from a couple of setbacks. Mining during the survival training was not that easy.
Waving his hands towards Leit, Zhang Tie climbed down the tree and quickly disappeared from their camp...
Morning in the valley was different from that in the cities, as there was a fresh fragrance lingering here. Leaving the tree, Zhang Tie greedily inhaled the fresh air that contained the aura of the wild plants. He then ran towards the small stream not far away. Arriving at the small, crystal-clear stream where the members of the brotherhood fetched water, he washed his face. He then broke a water-leaf willow twig and used it to clean his mouth. After drinking two mouths of the mountain spring water and eating a small piece of dried ration, Zhang Tie started to take action.
Before heading to the mines, another idea popped up in his mind, one which he had always dreamt of but failed in practice. If he was successful, he would not have to be worried about food anymore and would have a lot of time to do what he truly wanted to do. After all, mining was just his excuse to the public; he didn't really plan to get food from others by mining.
While he was an assistant at the grocery store, Zhang Tie had learned various skills and knowledge that would help him survive in the wild from Donder and the pioneers who visited the store. The skills and knowledge learned were not things that could be learned in school; this one, in particular, was about setting traps to capture wild animals. After observing the environment of Wild Wolf Valley for the past two days, Zhang Tie realized he could try out some of the skills and use the methods to acquire food.
Zhang Tie cut off a piece of wild bamboo, dividing them into two parts with each being 1m in length. After bundling them together, he left the area. When he passed by a patch of chestnut trees, Zhang Tie found a chestnut tree which was as wide as a duck's egg and had a height that was greater than 3m. He then used his multi-purpose military shovel to cut that chestnut tree. After cleaning off the extra twigs and leaves on it, Zhang Tie was left with a rod. He then took out the steel spearhead that hung on his waist and nailed it onto the rod, forming a complete spear with a length that was slightly longer than 2m. With that long spear in hand, Zhang Tie became even more dauntless. He then moved towards a place in his memory that was 500m away from the camp with his long spear and the two parts of bamboo in hand.
As most of the participants of the survival training chose to stay within 5km of the castle, most of the birds and animals were observed and chased away, while the unlucky ones had already been killed by the participants. Thus, it would be relatively safer within this area, as fewer dangerous beasts were here. Because of this, despite him acting alone, Zhang Tie had nothing to worry about.
Before he had arrived at his destination, he had already heard the sound of running water from behind the mountain slope. After detouring that mountain slope, a small river that was as wide as seven or eight meters appeared in front of Zhang Tie's eyes. Patches of weeds, aquatic plants, and reeds could be found along the streamside. Zhang Tie's arrival had caused several birds to fly away. Although the river was not crystal clear, it was still clean. Squatting down, Zhang Tie observed along the riverside for about five or six minutes, finding that there were always fish the length of chopsticks jumping out of the water and that there were no other fierce aquatic animals like crocodiles. After a while, Zhang Tie got an idea. Clearing the path using his long spear, he walked towards the upper reach of the stream. At that location, he found several small streams which would converge with the river at several different distances. Every time he saw another small stream, Zhang Tie would stop and carefully take a look; however, in the end, he would shake his head and continued to walk to the upper reaches with a disappointed look. After 700-800m later, Zhang Tie had already seen five small streams, yet none of them made him satisfied. However, as he was blocked by a ravine and a cliff, he could no longer continue. If he wanted to pass, he would have to swim across the river or take a detour around it. Fortunately for Zhang Tie, before he took a detour around the river, he heard the trickling sound of a stream.
"Woah!" Zhang Tie stopped. If the sensitivity of his senses were not increased by his spiritual energy which had sharply grown by seven-fold, then Zhang Tie would never have heard the sound that had led him to this extremely hidden place. Clearing the path with his long spear, Zhang Tie walked past the weeds and thorns beside the cliff, heading to the direction where he could hear the trickling sound more clearly. He then continued to search for the origin of that sound along the walls of the cliff and the ravine. After detouring several huge rocks, he saw a 1m wide stream filled with pebbles converging into the river by the cliff and the ravine. The stream could only immerse his feet.
At the sight of this stream, Zhang Tie's eyes turned bright.
After verifying the location, the slope, the depth, and the quality of the small stream, Zhang Tie made some gestures with his hands before finally making a decision. Fortunately, he had found a suitable place...
Inserting the long spear into the ground, Zhang Tie took out his military shovel and removed his shoes as he begun to dig at a place that was not too far from where the small stream led into the river. As he dug, Zhang Tie threw the wet sand and the pebbles to one side of the stream. After digging for more than an hour, he finally built a small pond that was 2m above the point of conversion; it was more than 50 cm deep and was as large as a water vat.
After creating that small pond, Zhang Tie picked up the nearby pebbles and built a small dam above it. He then started to smoothen out the 2m long water channel from the small pond to the point of convergence. Removing all the stones and pebbles that were larger than the size of an egg from the water channel, Zhang Tie then paved the water channel with fine sand and pebbles which were smaller than the size of a thumb. He then further reduced the slope of the water channel and made it narrower and deeper...
After doing so, Zhang Tie then broke the two parts of bamboo using a dagger and turned them into fine bamboo strips. Using the strips of bamboo and strips of the nearby willow, he weaved them into a funnel-shaped object and placed it at the exit of that pond. By the time he finished doing all of this, it was almost noon...
Zhang Tie then took a rest under a tree beside that stream. Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Zhang Tie was satisfied with what he had achieved with this whole morning. The area within 20m from the point where the stream converged into the river to the upper reaches had been totally changed.
About 2m onwards from the mouth of the stream, Zhang Tie had slightly changed the slope of the stream, thus the speed of the flowing water was changed and became slower. Zhang Tie had also changed the depth of the stream. Previously, this section of the stream was only 5 to 10 cm in depth, and pebbles were even exposed to the air in some areas, meaning the depth was less than 3 cm. After Zhang Tie had moved the bigger stones and the wet sand away, the depth became more than 20 cm. Above the water channel was a deeper pond, the exit of which was blocked by an ugly, funnel-shaped object created by Zhang Tie; however, although it was rough, it was also the only "entrance" to the pond. The opening of that funnel-shaped object was facing the water channel, while its end was in the pond. The simple structure of the funnel-shaped object allowed fish to easily enter, but it would be difficult for it to leave due to the bamboo strips, which did not need to exert any force because of the water flowing against it. However, fish that were wider than 1 inch would not be able to pass through that funnel-shaped object and would be forced back into the pond again.
The funnel-shaped object was the key to this trap. In addition, Zhang Tie had built 8 dams with those larger pebbles at the area 20m from the pond, each of which was about 2-3m in height.
Naturally, the dams made of pebbles were not used to block water; they were used to form a natural waterfall to increase the amount of oxygen in the water. After such modification, the water flowing into the stream would definitely contain more oxygen after crashing down eight times. As fish needed oxygen, they would definitely swim upwards from the mouth of the stream and would ultimately fall into that pond. The pond plus that funnel-shaped bamboo formed a natural fish cage; any fish that entered could only stay inside and wait for his arrival.
This was a hunting skill that was imparted to him by Donder. Using this skill, with some modifications to the area and given the appropriate terrain and conditions, he would be able to force the fish to enter the trap on their own without having to use a fishing net or a fishing spear. Donder had once said that alcohol, sex, and money was to humans as oxygen was to fish. Those clever traps were based on the prey's natural characteristics and preferences.
After taking a rest for a while under the tree and eating some dried rations for lunch, Zhang Tie found that the water had gradually become crystal clear. The flowing stream soon cleared the mud at the point of convergence, causing ripples. Before leaving, he cut off a verdant twig and used it to cover the pond. Afterwards, as he made his way to Wild Wolf Castle, taking advantage of the elasticity and weight of the twigs on the side of the road, Zhang Tie made another two traps which could be used on small animals. These were also traps that he had learnt about before.
He soon arrived at the Wild Wolf Castle, staring with wide open eyes at the sight of the boisterous scene in the castle square.
Chapter 73: Becoming a Miner
Translator: WQL Editor: Geoffrey
The castle square was even more boisterous than the municipal square in Blackhot City. With just a slight glance, Zhang Tie knew that there were at least 800-900 people there. The male students were trading goods, mostly food, with the female students. Some of the male students exchanged the prey they had caught with the female students for various wild vegetables, while the other male students formed small groups with the female students in an attempt to get acquainted with each other. With a simple sweep of his glance, Zhang Tie was able to see dozens of horny male students proudly displaying their strong arms and patting their chests in front of the girls. In order to make their weak bicep muscles stand out, some of the seemingly weak guys had even turned red all over, causing the girls to giggle.
This was also the most attractive factor in the survival training—once both parties agree, the male students and the female students could form a group to complete the survival training together. As long as the female students return to the castle before 8:00 pm, nobody would interfere with their movements. After several years of compulsory education, which separated the male students from the female students, the sheer terror of talking to the opposite sex was finally conquered. Unless the female students were forced to do something against their will, they could do whatever they wanted. In the end, love was both a trivial matter and an important matter; it was trivial when it was private, but at the same time, it was also important because it is the foundation of the existence of the human race and was something which could not be easily controlled.
At the beginning, as female students had the initiative, the horny male students could only try their best to attract girls.
For the shy guys, they would get familiar with the girls through exchanging goods and food. For the shameless guys, they would rush towards girls and ask, "Beauties, how about joining us? We're powerful. If you join us, we promise you will have meat to eat every day!" Most of the guys from this group would then suffer from glares filled with contempt. In contrast, the lucky and power guys who were more experienced with women would directly bring their hunted prey to the square and would loudly shout, inviting girls to eat supper with them. These guys would always easily succeed.
A few moments after Zhang Tie arrived at the square, Zhang Tie saw a group of horny students from the Second National Male Middle School carrying a dead boar. Soon after they shouted to invite girls to eat roasted boar in the valley tonight, two groups of girls joined. Feeling spirited, those horny students left together with the two groups of girls. Only at the sight of this scene did Zhang Tie understand why Barley had brought such a huge black pot. Needless to say, he was preparing to attract girls with it, as there was a clear difference between cooking food with a pot and without. Since they had to stay here for two months, no matter how powerful one was, even though one could capture prey every day, one would not be able to find a girl who liked to continuously eat roasted meat for two months...
Zhang Tie seemed to see the cunning smile on Fatty's face!
Besides mutual recognition, they could also show off their strength and special abilities in the square. Seeing some of the goods traded by the students, Zhang Tie was amazed. It was only the third day of the survival training, yet someone had already made some practical goods, like bamboo woven mattresses, medicinal herb cages, pillows, wooden stools, bowls, basins, and barrels. Practical application was truly the best way to test one's talents. Those handmade goods reminded Zhang Tie of the pride of Seventh National Male Middle School, Li Shizhen—the talented Chinese student who was always average school but showed off his exceptionally high talents in medicine by continuously making several types of potent medicine in order to sell it. Immediately following the survival training, he became well known and obtained an opportunity to be recommended by the school. Thus, at this moment, for the students, this survival training was the most important opportunity for them to win a school recommendation.
If one had already advanced to become a power fighter, then they would use their strength to kill wild beasts and bring them back...
If one had the talent to become a medicinal master, they would create miraculous medicinal pills and medication...
If one had a pair of delicate hands and special techniques, they would create something special and show them off...
Of course, if one was a good-for-nothing and didn't even have the confidence to gather food in the wild, then they could only dig in the mines and do laborious work. If one suffered from labor work, then they wouldn't have to starve to death during the survival training. People who were able to withstand the suffering and do labor work were always needed in human society, as not everyone could be surrounded by glory and fresh flowers.
Standing before the outer castle, a few guys were reading the notice on the door. Seeing the missions on the notice, some shook their heads and left, while others looked happy and intended to give it a try...
Zhang Tie easily pushed his way through the crowd. Raising his head, he looked at the notice that had just been released.
The first mission: Wild Wolf Castle was preparing to create coal, which burns through a large amount of wood in a short period of time. The people with strength but have yet to acquire prey can go get an axe and chop some wood. In exchange for the firewood, one can acquire food. For those who have confidence in their ability to make charcoal, they are free to apply to join this team. Since making charcoal was something that had been taught at school, many students would be able to survive in this manner; however, neither of the two jobs were something to be proud of. Those two jobs would only allow them to survive, temporarily avoiding death by starvation.
The second mission: Charcoal was naturally used to smelt iron, and an iron smelting workshop was opened together with the charcoal kiln in Wild Wolf Castle. Besides needing charcoal, they also needed iron ores and people who were confident in their abilities of smelting iron and striking iron. Although they were also skills, iron smelting and iron striking were much more advanced than making charcoal and digging in the mines. Anyone who was able to smelt and strike iron could directly show off without restraint.
The third mission: A lot of people are needed to create lime in the lime kiln. As lime was needed to taw numerous hides later, it was a necessity.
As for the remaining missions, Zhang Tie didn't feel like reading them anymore...
After scanning the notice, Zhang Tie directly entered Wild Wolf Castle. Entering the gate of the castle, he took a right took and walked for more than 30m. There, he saw a small room in the small square in between the inner castle and the outer castle; it was labeled as "Comprehensive Logistics Management". In front of the door was a desk which was occupied by two girls, who were chatting like a pair of birds, sitting behind it. It was only when Zhang Tie had moved closer to them that they raised their head and glanced over Zhang Tie. At the age of 15, Zhang Tie looked average and was neither tall nor short. His appearance was not particularly pleasing to the eye, but at the very least, he wasn't irritating to look at. After glancing over Zhang Tie, the girls were not interested. With an official sounding tone, one of the two asked Zhang Tie, "Can I help you?"
"I'm here to get a shovel and a basket!" Zhang Tie calmly answered.
"You want to dig in the mines?" Hearing Zhang Tie's words, the two girls were startled. They once again glanced over Zhang Tie. The strange look in their eyes had hinted to Zhang Tie that there was some sort of problem.
"Yes. Although I have not done it before, I find it to be quite interesting, so I want to take this opportunity to experience it..." Zhang Tie replied with a smile without feeling the least bit of embarrassment. Seeing Zhang Tie's smile, the strange look in the eyes of the two girls lessened as they looked at each other with a look that seemed to say that male students really do like to do strange things.
"Fine. Fellow classmate, please show me your student number plate, so I can help you register..."
After undoing the metal student number plate hanging from his neck, Zhang Tie handed it to her. Each student was given a student number plate when they entered school. It was akin to the identification card used by the students in Blackhot City, but these would not be used during normal times; it was only during the survival training that the schools required the students to bring with them their student number plates. There was a saying among those horny students: the student number plate was used to identify the corpse of any student that had died so miserably that they couldn't even identify the face.
After registering the number from his student number plate, that girl gave it back to Zhang Tie. "I need to warn you that you should not damage the shovel or the basket. If you damage them, you will be asked to pay for them at their original prices. From now on, you are expected to hand in at least 100 kg of iron ores a day. You can exchange them for food; the more ores you hand in, the more food you will get. If you are not able to hand in the minimum amount of ores for three consecutive days, then you will lose your qualification to be a miner. At that point, you will be asked to hand back the shovel and the basket."
"Fine. Is there anything else I need to remember?"
"Do you know where the abandoned mines are in Wild Wolf Valley?"
"Yes, I know. The closest one is less than 200m below the castle!"
"That's fine. If you don't know how to identify iron ore, you can go to the iron smelting workshop to learn about it. They have many samples over there!" As she said this, the girl pointed at a direction in the small square of the outer castle.
"Fine!"
Submitting 100 kg of iron ore each day was a pretty low requirement. This made Zhang Tie feel reassured that he would have enough time to do what he wanted. It seemed that only a few people wanted to take this job since it was too easy. Most people felt that it was too shameful to do this job since it was prepared for those who were on the brink of starving to death.
After telling him about these matters, the girl turned around and entered the warehouse beside her. Less than half a minute later, she returned and brought out a steel shovel as well as a basket. It seemed as if someone had cleaned the two items in the past couple of days; despite not having been used for the past year, it was not dirty at all. Throwing the shovel into the basket, Zhang Tie carried the basket that was higher than a child. Waving his hand to the two girls as he bade them farewell, Zhang Tie awkwardly walked out of Wild Wolf Castle with his spear in hand
As expected, his equipment caused everyone on the road to glare at him.
The moment he moved past the gates of the castle, Zhang Tie heard a weird voice full of cynicism. "Wow, who's that fish? Isn't that the brave guy from our school?"
Turning his head, Zhang Tie saw Glaze's group casting a glare full of contempt at him. As the old saying goes—one can not avoid one's enemy...