Karen currently has 250 grams of black beetle dung, so she only exchanged it for 50ml of spring water with James.
The second resource was a plant.
[Trade Request: Wisteria. Message: Excellent quality wisteria, available in large quantities.]
James guessed that these wisterias were not cultivated by themselves, but found near the shelter.
Otherwise, the quantity would not be so large.
Moreover, it seemed that the seller did not have healing potions but only wanted scrolls, so they were unaware of the uses of the wisteria's roots.
[Name: Wisteria (Excellent)
Function: A vine plant with purple flowers and a highly developed root system. Wisteria flowers have certain insecticidal and insect repellent effects.
Description: A very beautiful decorative plant.]
This was a plant that wasn't very practical.
Neither the flowers nor the roots had any particularly important uses.
Its biggest feature was its beauty!
The description also mentioned it was a decorative plant!
However, James noticed something: extremely developed root systems!
After adding as friends.
Oliver: "Brother, how about 200ml of spring water for a whole wisteria vine?"
James naturally would not agree, since it was just a plant useful for repelling insects and decoration.
James: "It's not worth that much, give me a reasonable price. The wisteria flowers are indeed beautiful, and I would like to plant one."
Oliver: "Although wisteria flowers are not particularly useful, they are still excellent plants. Even just the branches of a whole wisteria are a substantial amount of excellent quality wood!"
James: "Excellent wood is good, but after all, it's just a basic resource and not very valuable in use!"
Oliver: "Then 100ml?"
James: "50ml is fine, if you agree, let's make the deal."
Oliver: "Alright, but the trade can only happen tomorrow!"
James: "Going to cut it from the wild?"
Oliver: "Uh... don't go back on your word, 50ml, no less!"
James reluctantly agreed. They would make the trade the next day.
The last trade request was for a familiar item - a fence!
This time, they didn't add as friends but went straight to the trade.
An excellent quality fence was traded for 100ml of spring water.
James didn't bargain, as the value of the fence was indeed worth it.
After the trade, James was left with 150ml of spring water.
He put another 50ml on the shelf, hoping to exchange it for good resources in the future.
After this round of trading, James couldn't help but exclaim: Indeed, the truly valuable things are resource-type items like springs, which can be traded for various resources over time!
Both the black beetle dung and the wisteria were also considered sustainable resources.
Especially the black beetle dung, which was easy to collect and produced in large quantities.
James believed that Karen must be trading not only with him and was probably already making a good profit.
...
After completing the trades, James was somewhat idle.
Before leaving the trading market, he traded all his stones for wood.
130 stones were exchanged for 390 units of wood.
James needed to take advantage of the high value of stones to exchange for more wood.
Moreover, whether it was for upgrading the level two shelter or just needing charcoal and cups, a large amount of wood was required.
To prepare for winter, James planned to produce a lot of charcoal for storage.
Fortunately, the workbench was now free, and James turned 190 pieces of wood into 190 charcoals.
...
Four hours had passed into the night.
James was gnawing on a freshly grilled wolf meat steak, finding it a bit hard, the blackened surface of the steak emitting the aroma of charcoal.
Although his barbeque skills were not great, the taste of good quality meat was indeed good.
The thick, fragrant meat was irresistible to James, who had only been eating bread for the past two days, making it seem like a grand feast.
The steak was quite large, over 500 grams, and much more filling than regular meat.
James was full after eating just half of it, feeling warm and cozy all over.
His mental and physical state gradually returned to their peak, even surpassing it.
"Good quality meat steak has such great effects!" James felt his abundant energy and muttered in surprise.
"If I take two of these when I go out, would I ever run out of energy for work?"
Moreover, the steak not only replenished the body's energy, but its blood also provided essential trace elements, such as salt.
A long-term lack of salt could lead to health problems.
James silently decided to stock up on good quality meat steaks for future trips, carrying them for tree cutting and mining, eating a bit when hungry.
After a full meal, there was still plenty of time left.
Unlike yesterday's idleness, today there were many things to do in the shelter.
First, he took out the "fence" to expand the shelter's area.
He enclosed an additional 10 square meters outside the existing fence.
Forming a small yard of 20 square meters.
6 meters long and 3.3 meters wide.
Together with the wooden house, it formed a rectangle of 6 meters by 8.3 meters.
Seeing that the small yard enclosed by the fence was already 20 square meters, and the wooden house only 30 square meters.
James began to consider upgrading the shelter.
But upgrading the shelter required many resources.
The auxiliary facilities for a level two shelter were not yet fully constructed.
Originally, the plan was to build a workshop, living room, kitchen, and external balcony.
But now with the fenced yard, the need for an external balcony was reduced.
So he just needed to build a kitchen with its own stove and iron pot for cooking.
Although James got a [Iron Pot Manufacturing Scroll] from Luke.
But James had no iron!
And more importantly, with a kitchen's own stove and iron pot, who would buy an iron pot even if he made one?
At that moment, James felt regretful!
The iron pot manufacturing scroll seemed good but was actually a trap.
The kitchen required 50 wood and 10 stones.
But James had just traded all his stones for wood.
Now he didn't have a single stone!
Helplessly, James decided to consider building the kitchen the next day.
Coming into the fenced yard, the doubled size of the yard felt much more spacious.
James buried 50 grams of black beetle dung at the base of the guard thorns.
The guard thorns had always been wilting.
Without sufficient plant absorption, they naturally lacked the energy to grow and reproduce.
James also buried the remaining tree root at the base of the guard thorns.
The energy from the tree root was much richer than weeds, and the thorns' weak roots slowly absorbed it.
Soon, the wilting thorns recovered a lot, looking much straighter and stronger.
James tenderly touched the thorns, planning to find more plants to feed them tomorrow.
He had hoped to cultivate the guard thorns and reproduce them to protect the shelter.
But now he couldn't even keep one alive.
With the remaining 200 grams of black beetle dung, James divided them into five portions, 40 grams each.
He buried them near the seeds of five "Crystal Rice" plants.
"Crystal Rice" was an excellent plant that had difficulty growing in ordinary soil.
James also planned to exchange for more black beetle dung to quickly improve the quality of the soil in his flowerbed.
The cultivation of "Crystal Rice" was an important aspect of his future life.
Food had always been James' weakness.
With no food resources near the shelter, he had to rely on his own cultivation.
Currently, food could still be obtained through resource boxes and the trading market.
But once the cold wave arrived, it would be nearly impossible to buy food.
At that moment, James suddenly remembered that he had five potato seeds not yet planted.
Potatoes were ordinary plants and could grow in the soil of the fenced yard.
They were easy to cultivate, grew quickly, and produced a good yield.
They were a very cost-effective type of crop.
But with the weather being so cold, it was uncertain if they would survive.
James cut the potatoes into small pieces and planted a whole row far from the guard thorns.
After watering them with river water, he waited for the potatoes to sprout.
However, James clearly lacked life experience. The potatoes... hadn't sprouted yet.
Standing in the fenced yard, James felt extremely cold.
In the pitch-dark night without a single light, the biting cold wind seemed like the gaze of terrifying creatures.
James wrapped his cotton jacket tightly, feeling a bit afraid of the night in the misty world.
After tidying up the yard, James quickly hid inside the wooden house.
Seeing the gentle light of the oil lamp and the red-hot charcoal in the furnace, he felt the long-missed warmth of the wooden house.
James' racing heart calmed down as the fear and cold dissipated.
Lying on the small wooden bed, wrapped tightly in a blanket, listening to the "whooshing" wind outside the wooden house.
James' heart suddenly quieted down, and he slowly fell asleep in the warmth of the furnace...
...
The nights in the misty world were becoming more and more difficult to endure.
James curled up into a ball, huddled next to the furnace.
The cold of the misty world had a magical power.
The same temperature felt much colder than on Earth.
In theory, inside the closed shelter, with a fireplace and warm items, the cold shouldn't be too strong.
But in reality, James kept waking from the cold and falling back asleep, only sleeping for a little over 7 hours before shivering awake.
The cold severely affected the quality of his sleep, even causing symptoms like coughing, dizziness, and weakness.
James knew he was likely catching a cold.
But fortunately, he had "spring water". Even if the "spring water" didn't work, he still had "healing potions" to save his life.
After drinking some "spring water", James felt the symptoms of the cold ease, but he still felt weak.
So he put the remaining half of the meat steak on the stove to roast.
The weather of minus ten degrees had frozen the steak solid.
The texture after defrosting and roasting was certainly not as tender as last night.
After eating the half steak, James once again felt warm and full of energy.
This was the feeling of being filled with energy!
His body's recovery improved James' mood a lot.
Now, less than 4 hours until dawn, James planned to exercise!
Staying curled up in bed would only make him weaker.
James tried to recall the few exercise methods in his mind: push-ups, sit-ups, squats, stretching...
"It seems I need to ask Luke for some formal exercise methods..." James panted as he did planks.
Originally on Earth, James didn't have the habit of exercising, so his physical fitness was poor.
This led to muscle soreness and difficulty in doing even a few sets of exercises.
But fortunately, James had good perseverance and always managed to pull through.
Exercising for a few dozen minutes, resting for a dozen minutes...
Continuing on and off like this, James exercised until dawn.
Looking at the time, dawn was not far away.
James ate the last two pieces of bread as breakfast to replenish his nutrition.
Then he began to prepare for going out.
Speaking of packing, there was really only a pickaxe and an axe, at most another resource box as a transport tool.
But James still made careful preparations to face the whole day in the best state.
In fact, most strong people would wake up a few hours earlier.
They would do light warm-ups and preparations before going out to mine, chop trees, or find supplies.
Even if they didn't encounter danger on the first or second day, they would still be vigilant.
This was how they maintained their lead.
James also maintained this attitude, carefully facing the crises of the misty world.
Starting today, the probability of resource boxes appearing would greatly increase.
At the same time, the probability of warm items and food appearing in the resource boxes would also increase.
So, today was a very important day!
James was ready for a day of hard work!