Natural Shelter

"You eat the two bigger sections, and I'll eat the two smaller ones. After lunch, I'm going to take a nap, so don't wander too far..."

"Yoyo!" Poliwag had already been starving. It had been lying in the bucket without wanting to move, but the moment it heard Yu Hai mention food, it immediately lowered its head and started eating.

After dividing the roasted Caterpie meat for Poliwag, Yu Hai split up the meat soup in the stew pot as well. He only poured himself one cup and gave the rest to Poliwag.

After one man and one tadpole finished lunch, Poliwag returned to its bucket while Yu Hai used the lifebuoy as a pillow and fell asleep beneath the shade of the tree.

But he had not slept for long before Poliwag woke him with Water Gun.

"Yoyo, yoyo!" Poliwag could not wake Yu Hai no matter how it called, so it simply sprayed a Water Gun right in his face. More importantly, Poliwag was in a hurry too.

"What?" Yu Hai was completely bewildered. Was Poliwag trying to turn on its master? It actually dared to hit him with Water Gun?

"Yoyo, yoyo!" Poliwag cried urgently, as though calling for Yu Hai to hurry over.

"Poliwag, what did you find? Why are you so excited?"

Yu Hai immediately rolled over and sat up. Following the sound, he spotted Poliwag not far away and walked straight over.

"Caterpie?"

When he got closer and looked, he was left utterly speechless. A Caterpie lay unconscious on the grass.

Wasn't it just a Caterpie? It was merely dinner. What was there to make such a fuss about?

If they got this excited every time they saw dinner, wouldn't they be far too easy to satisfy?

"Yoyo, yoyo!" When Poliwag saw Yu Hai approaching, it continued urging him to hurry up and catch the Caterpie. This was dinner.

"Alright, alright, don't rush. Dinner won't get away. You already knocked this thing out—how could it possibly run?"

Unhurriedly, Yu Hai took out a Poké Ball and threw it at Caterpie, once again catching today's dinner without any suspense.

"Alright, it's caught." Yu Hai reached out to soothe Poliwag's excitement, then stepped forward, picked up the Poké Ball from the grass, and opened this Caterpie's Proficiency Panel.

[Caterpie]

[Type: Bug]

[Gender: Female]

[Potential: 36%]

[Level: 4.59%]

[Ability: Scale Powder/0.91%][Hidden Ability: Run Away/2.61%]

[Mastered Moves: (Body Slam/0.91%)(String Shot/0.55%)]

Caterpie's Proficiency Panel had never surprised him. Mediocrity was the norm.

His heart had long since become as solid as a rock, without the slightest ripple.

If a high-Potential Caterpie suddenly appeared one day, he would not be surprised in the least.

After all, having eaten so many Caterpie, even a blind cat would eventually catch a dead mouse.

That would not mean he was lucky. It would simply be the inevitable result of having a sufficiently large sample size.

After catching Caterpie, Yu Hai remained on the grass and looked toward the broken giant tree. Suddenly, a bold idea came to him.

He could use this hollow giant tree as a shelter. It would save him the trouble of hollowing it out; all he had to do was make a door and seal the top.

This was a naturally perfect shelter, but he did not have any tools.

Whether it was smoothing out the broken end of the trunk or making a door in it, he needed tools.

He needed to smooth it so he could cover it with rainproof plastic, keeping out the rain and wind.

Making a door in the trunk would make it easier to enter and leave.

Although he had no tools, he was not entirely out of options. He could slowly hammer with nails. That was his only option unless he found suitable tools.

Before modifying the trunk, he first walked around it and discovered that the base of the giant tree was quite large, over two meters in diameter. There was more than enough room for him to sleep inside.

Next, Poliwag hopped back into the bucket to escape the heat and blow bubbles.

Yu Hai went alone to the beach to scavenge. His goal was clear: broken Wooden Boards, two bamboo poles, and rope. No matter what kind of rope it was, he would take it all...

After carrying all the materials he had found back to the temporary shelter, he prepared to make a simple ladder out of them.

The broken section of the giant tree trunk was more than twice his height. He could not reach it to smooth it out, so he could only make a ladder.

For a simple ladder, he only needed to place sturdy Wooden Boards across two bamboo poles, then tie them in place with rope.

Anyone could figure this out at a glance. There was nothing difficult about it. To keep the boards from breaking, he simply tied on more rope to reinforce the ladder.

Poliwag watched Yu Hai from inside the bucket, curious about what fun thing he was doing.

After finishing the ladder, Yu Hai took the nails he had dug out from the campfire. These nails had been left behind from burning broken Wooden Boards, and there was a whole handful of them.

Arriving beside the giant tree, he set up the ladder, stuffed the nails into his pocket, climbed up, and chose the lowest broken gap in the tree trunk to begin hammering nails.

Clang, clang, clang—

The reason it made clanging sounds was because the hammer Yu Hai used to drive the nails was Poliwag's frying pan bowl. The frying pan striking the nails produced such crisp sounds.

"Yoyo, yoyo!" When Poliwag saw this, it hurriedly ran over and shouted, "That's my bowl! My bowl! The thing I eat with..."

"I know. It won't break. I'm just borrowing it for a bit," Yu Hai said, comforting Poliwag without stopping what he was doing.

Every short distance, he hammered a nail into the trunk. After finishing a circle around the trunk, he used the largest remaining nail to start punching holes along the line of nails he had driven in earlier.

Once there were enough small holes, he called out to Poliwag, "Poliwag, aim at this protruding section of the trunk and use Water Gun..."

"Yoyo?" Watching its food bowl get hammered had already made Poliwag's heart ache. It had thought its bowl was safe, but Yu Hai was now asking it to use Water Gun.

"Don't ask. Use Water Gun." Yu Hai's hands were sore from hammering nails. How could he have the time to explain it to Poliwag?

Psh, psh, psh—

Three Water Guns struck the trunk in succession. Under the impact of the Water Guns, the wood instantly broke apart at the small holes and fell into the hollow within the trunk.

When Yu Hai saw the excess wood break away, his heart leaped with joy. This method would work.

It was not some brilliant method. In many underdeveloped areas, workers used this very method to split stones by hand. As long as there were enough holes, even a huge boulder would naturally crack apart. He was merely using it on a tree trunk instead.

If he had an electric saw, he would not need to go through so much trouble. But that was just wishful thinking. On an uninhabited Deserted Island, wanting an electric saw was just madness, wasn't it?

Next, he repeated the process and hammered flat all the excess gaps at the top of the trunk. The entire afternoon passed like that.

As for sealing the top, he would have to leave that until tomorrow.

"That's enough for today. Let's call it a day and go back to make dinner, Poliwag." Yu Hai climbed down from the ladder and called Poliwag to head back.

That afternoon, Poliwag had been a huge help. It had trained its Water Gun move, increasing its proficiency by 0.5, while also improving the shelter. It had accomplished two things at once.

He ought to reward the little tadpole properly at dinner. It seemed the food had been caught by the little tadpole too.

He had also used the little tadpole's bowl all afternoon. He truly felt a little sorry for it. The little tadpole had sacrificed so much...

Thanks to [冫绎灬魂] for the one hundred Book Coins, thanks to [i7787] for the five hundred Book Coins, and thanks to everyone for all the monthly votes—there were probably over thirty of them, with even more recommendation votes. Thank you all. The bookmarks broke three thousand last night. What a joyous occasion. I'm happy...