When he woke up, the sky had already brightened. Xu Xin looked at his calves and arms, wiped off the dried herbs, and saw that the scratches had completely disappeared, as if he had never been injured.
"This really works well," Xu Xin marveled. The herbs in the original world probably didn't have such rapid effects.
As the day was just beginning to break, Xu Xin quickly got up and walked out of the cave. Although he was in the newbie protection period, he still felt subconsciously nervous about this cave and hurried to escape from here.
Munching on apples and berries, Xu Xin returned to the edge of the creek and continued walking downstream.
After a day of walking, the creek was no longer the small stream it had been at the beginning, but gradually became wider, with water depth reaching about one meter. Many fish and shrimp could be seen in the water at a glance, making Xu Xin feel a bit envious.
However, he didn't waste energy on this. The urgent task now was to find fertile soil.
Along this journey, besides seeing five patches of ordinary soil, the rest was all barren soil, which made Xu Xin feel very strange.
He had walked for so long without seeing fertile soil, let alone those other survivors without creator abilities. It was practically impossible to find fertile soil by feeling alone, and even ordinary soil was basically impossible, unless they had the same ability as him.
Could it be that this world never intended for them to grow advanced treehouses?
Thinking of this, Xu Xin suddenly became interested.
If he found fertile soil and grew an advanced treehouse, wouldn't that mean his starting point was much higher than the vast majority of people?
It's settled.
He would strive to find fertile soil today. Xu Xin didn't want to sleep rough anymore; he wanted to live in a treehouse.
As he continued walking, Xu Xin began to ponder the patterns of soil and these resources.
So far, he had only seen two colors, white and green, with white resources being one level lower than green. The five patches of ordinary green soil he had seen were all discovered after finding green plants, because those green plants were growing in ordinary soil.
But not all green plants grew in ordinary soil; they could also grow in barren soil.
In other words, barren soil (white) was likely to produce white-level plants, but also had a certain chance of producing green-level plants, while ordinary soil (green), from what he had seen so far, always had green plants growing on it.
Perhaps there was also a certain possibility of growing higher-level plants.
As he was pondering this, suddenly, a broad expanse of green appeared in Xu Xin's vision. His heart leapt with joy. Could it be…
He quickly ran forward a bit, looking towards where the green light had appeared, and was suddenly overjoyed.
"It's a lake! I knew there would be a lake!" Xu Xin was so excited he nearly jumped up.
The area around the lake was much flatter than the area around the creek, more suitable for settling down. And since there was a lake, the surrounding resources must be very abundant. Perhaps he could find a patch of fertile soil.
One thousand meters wasn't very far, and Xu Xin quickly reached the edge of the lake. Looking at the rippling surface of the lake and the finally widened view, he let out a long sigh, feeling a sense of relaxation throughout his body.
This lake was indeed not small. Of course, it couldn't compare to the large lakes formed by the confluence of great rivers, but it was about the size of an ordinary reservoir. The lake water was very clear, seeming very deep in the middle, but shallow at the shore.
Various fish and shrimp swam in the lake water, reeds grew in patches along the lakeshore, and there were lotus leaves and flowers on the lake surface. If not for his current circumstances, Xu Xin would have thought he was in a park.
[Reed (Green): A plant that grows by the lake, seems to be a raw material for making certain tools.]
[Lotus root (Green): A type of food, can be eaten raw or cooked.]
"Good stuff!" One raw material and one food source, this place was truly the best choice for settling down. But around here, was there any fertile soil…
Xu Xin looked around.
Suddenly, a blue light appeared in his vision.
"Beautiful!" Xu Xin jumped up and rushed directly towards the blue light.
The blue shrub was only a few dozen meters from the lakeshore at its closest point.
[Red Berry · Large (Blue): A fruit that can be eaten directly, with a sweet and sour taste. It has the effect of improving eyesight, and eating it grants 2 hours of night vision ability.]
"Wow!" Xu Xin was once again shocked.
"Blue quality red berries have this kind of effect?"
However, this wasn't the main point. Xu Xin slowly looked down…
[Fertile Soil (Blue): A patch of fertile soil, very rich in organic matter and other nutrients. Rare even in the jungle.]
"Nice!" Xu Xin excitedly clenched his fist.
After calming himself down, Xu Xin didn't rush to plant anything. Instead, he walked around the lake to see if there was any other fertile soil.
However, to his disappointment, it seemed that in this area around the lake, there was only this one patch of fertile soil. There was plenty of ordinary soil though, much more than by the creek earlier. Nearly half of the soil was ordinary soil, and at a glance, the proportion of green was not much less than white. There were even a few scattered blue spots, which were blue plants growing in ordinary soil.
His guess should be correct. A certain level of soil could not only grow plants of the same level but also had a certain probability of growing plants one level higher.
It seemed that areas like this lake were the suitable areas for survivors to find and plant treehouses. Although there was only one patch of fertile soil, ordinary soil (green) was everywhere. As long as they found such an area, they could at least minimize the probability of growing a "low and small treehouse".
After all, the name "low and small treehouse" sounded unsafe just by hearing it.
Having spent half a day with little effect, Xu Xin decided not to waste any more time. He returned to the original blue red berry bush, first harvested all the [Red Berry · Large], 32 in total, then hesitated for a moment. He tried not to dig out the shrub, but dug a small hole next to it and planted the walnut-sized treehouse seed.
After all, this 1 meter by 1 meter piece of land still had half of it not growing any plants.
[Treehouse seed planted successfully, 2 hours remaining for growth]
[Wild plants growing in the soil have been automatically cleared.]
The first prompt made Xu Xin's eyes light up, but the second prompt immediately deflated him. As expected, it didn't work. It seemed that one patch of soil could only grow one type of plant.
The [Red Berry · Large] shrub instantly vanished without a trace, and a small seedling sprouted from the soil, beginning to grow at a visible speed. In less than a minute, it had grown into a small sapling.
Xu Xin was amazed.
The growth speed was truly magical.