Natural Shelter

"You eat the two big sections, and I'll eat these two small ones. I want to sleep after lunch, and you shouldn't wander too far..."

"Yoyo," Poliwag was already starving. It had been lying in the water bucket, not wanting to move. Hearing Yu Hai mention food, it immediately lowered its head and started eating.

After dividing the Caterpie roast for Poliwag, Yu Hai also portioned out the meat soup from the stew pot. He only poured himself one cup, giving the rest to Poliwag.

After the person and the Poliwag finished lunch, Poliwag returned to its water bucket, while Yu Hai used a lifebuoy as a pillow and fell asleep under the shade of a tree.

However, he didn't sleep for long before being woken up by Poliwag's Water Gun.

"Yoyo, yoyo," Poliwag couldn't wake Yu Hai up no matter what, so it simply used Water Gun to spray his face. More importantly, Poliwag was also very anxious.

"What?" Yu Hai was stunned. Was Poliwag trying to betray its master? How dare it use Water Gun on him?

"Yoyo, yoyo," Poliwag's calls were urgent, as if urging Yu Hai to come over quickly.

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

Yu Hai immediately sat up, looked in the direction of the sound, saw Poliwag not far away, and walked straight over.

"Caterpie?"

When he walked over and looked, he felt utterly speechless. A fainted Caterpie was lying on the grass.

It's just a Caterpie, a dinner, what's the big fuss about?

If they got so excited every time they saw dinner, wouldn't they be too easily satisfied?

"Yoyo, yoyo," seeing Yu Hai arrive, Poliwag continued to urge him to quickly capture this Caterpie, as it was dinner.

"Alright, alright, don't rush. I won't let dinner escape. You already knocked it out, how could it run away?"

Yu Hai calmly took out a Poké Ball and threw it at the Caterpie, once again capturing his dinner for the day without any suspense.

"Okay, it's captured," Yu Hai reached out to comfort Poliwag's excited mood, walked forward to pick up the Poké Ball from the grass, and opened the Caterpie's proficiency panel.

[Caterpie]

[Type: Bug]

[Gender: Female]

[Potential: 36%]

[Level: 4.59%]

[Ability: Shield Dust/0.91%][Hidden Ability: Run Away/2.61%]

[Learned Moves: (Tackle/0.91%)(String Shot/0.55%)]

The Caterpie's proficiency panel never surprised him; mediocrity was the norm.

His heart was already as firm as rock, without any fluctuation.

If a high-potential Caterpie suddenly appeared one day, he wouldn't be surprised at all.

After all, having eaten so many Caterpies, it was bound to happen eventually.

It wasn't because he was lucky, but because with a large enough sample size, it was a guaranteed outcome.

After capturing the Caterpie, Yu Hai stayed on the grass and looked at the broken giant tree, suddenly having a bold idea.

That was to use the hollowed-out giant tree as a shelter. The work of hollowing out the giant tree was already done, leaving only the task of opening a door and sealing the top of the tree.

This was a natural, perfect shelter, but he didn't have any tools.

He needed tools even to smooth the broken surface of the tree trunk and to carve a door into it.

Smoothing was for covering it with waterproof plastic, for rain and wind protection.

Carving a door into the trunk was for easy access.

Although he had no tools, he wasn't helpless. He could use nails to slowly hammer them in; this was the only way, unless he could find suitable tools.

Before modifying the tree trunk, he walked around it once and found that the base of the giant tree was quite large, with a diameter exceeding two meters. It was more than enough for him to sleep in.

Next, Poliwag jumped back into its water bucket to cool off and blow bubbles.

He went to the beach alone to collect trash. His goal was clear: broken wooden boards, two bamboo poles, and rope. He would take any rope he found...

He carried the collected materials back to the temporary shelter, preparing to use them to make a simple ladder.

The broken part of the giant tree trunk was higher than two of him. To smooth it, he couldn't reach it, so he had to make a ladder.

A simple ladder only required placing sturdy wooden boards on two bamboo poles and then tying them with rope.

This was easy to understand at a glance, with no difficulty. To prevent the wooden boards from breaking, he would tie more rope to reinforce the ladder.

Poliwag looked at Yu Hai from inside the water bucket, curious about what fun thing Yu Hai was doing.

After making the ladder, Yu Hai took the nails he had salvaged from the campfire. These nails were left from burning broken wooden boards, and there was a whole handful of them.

He went to the giant tree, set up the ladder, put the nails in his pocket, and climbed up. He chose the lowest broken opening of the giant tree and began hammering in the nails.

Clang, clang, clang--

The reason for the clanging sound was that the hammer he used to pound the nails was Poliwag's frying pan and rice bowl. When the frying pan collided with the nails, the sound was crisp.

"Yoyo, yoyo," seeing this, Poliwag rushed over and shouted, "That's my bowl, my bowl, the thing I eat with..."

"I know, it won't break if I knock on it. I'll just borrow it for a bit," Yu Hai said, trying to comfort Poliwag, his hands not stopping.

Every short distance, he hammered a nail into the tree trunk. After nailing all around the trunk, he used the largest nail he had left to start drilling holes along the path of the previously hammered nails.

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

"Huh?" Poliwag was heartbroken when its food bowl was knocked. It thought its food bowl was safe, but it didn't expect Yu Hai to ask it to use Water Gun again.

"Don't ask, just use Water Gun," Yu Hai said, his hands sore from hammering nails. He didn't have time to explain to Poliwag.

Puff puff puff--

Three consecutive Water Gun attacks hit the tree trunk. Under the impact of Water Gun, the trunk instantly broke off at the small holes and fell into the hollow inside the trunk.

Seeing the excess part of the trunk break off, Yu Hai's heart leaped with joy. This method worked.

This wasn't a clever method. In many backward regions, many workers used this method to break stones with their bare hands. As long as there were enough holes, the giant rocks would naturally crack. He had just adapted it for breaking tree trunks.

If he had a chainsaw, he wouldn't have to go through so much trouble. But that was just wishful thinking. Who would have a chainsaw on a deserted island?

Next, he followed the same procedure, flattening all the excess notches at the top of the trunk. The afternoon was gone.

Sealing the top would have to wait until tomorrow.

"We'll stop here for today. Let's pack up and go cook, Poliwag," Yu Hai called out to Poliwag as he came down from the makeshift stairs.

Poliwag had been a great help this afternoon. It not only practiced its Water Gun move, increasing its proficiency by 0.5, but also improved the shelter. It was a win-win.

He should reward the little Poliwag well for dinner. It seemed like the little Poliwag had also caught the food.

He had also used Poliwag's food bowl all afternoon. He felt a little sorry for Poliwag. Poliwag had made too great a sacrifice...

Thanks to [Soul Weaver] for 100 book coins, thanks to [i7787] for 500 book coins, and thanks to everyone for so many monthly votes, perhaps over thirty, and even more recommendation votes. Thank you all. The collection broke 3000 last night, which is truly cause for celebration. Happy