Lu Heng jolted awake from his light sleep, his whole body aching and weak, inexplicably irritable to the point of nearly breaking down.
The sound beside his ears had not stopped all night.
Drip... drip...
Water seeped through cracks in the rock overhead. The drops fell at long intervals, without any hurry, but inside the small, enclosed cave, their echoes were trapped. Every drip was clear and piercing, hammering his eardrums over and over. Earlier, he had wondered why he had to complete the rainproof roof when the system clearly stated that the cave needed no rain protection. Now he understood completely.
No matter how thick the mountain was, it still had cracks that let water through. Moisture from the night wind and water accumulated in the rock kept seeping down, dripping day and night without pause.
He pushed himself upright on numb arms, his head heavy and swollen, his entire body exhausted from a night of shallow sleep. As he stared at the tiny droplets continually falling overhead, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.
Water seeping through mountain rock like this had passed down through layers of soil and stone, filtered by the rock. Without the impurities found in muddy surface water, it was most likely clean.
With water in short supply, he had no right to be picky.
Lu Heng slowly stood, his movements stiff from just waking up. He retrieved the empty mineral water bottle left over from yesterday from the corner and unscrewed the cap. Rising onto his toes, he slowly raised his arm and narrowed his eyes, carefully shifting the tiny bottle opening bit by bit until it lined up precisely with where the droplets fell.
He did not dare move carelessly. Holding his breath, he kept his wrist steady.
One drop.
The droplet fell squarely into the bottle with an extremely faint, muffled sound.
He kept his arm raised, remaining motionless as he quietly waited for water to seep through the rock and slowly accumulate, drop by drop.
After just a few minutes, his arm began to ache and go numb, and his shoulder stiffened with tension. Lu Heng sighed inwardly. He really could not keep holding his arm up like this.
He adjusted his position slightly and set the bottle firmly on the ground directly beneath the dripping water. Its opening faced upward, aligned perfectly with the falling droplets, so he no longer needed to hold it in place.
Once he finished, he took two steps back and watched the few drops slowly collecting in the bottle. He left it to collect water on its own, however much it could catch. At least he no longer had to strain to hold it up.
Lu Heng moved his aching arm, sweeping his gaze around the cave as he began sorting out what he needed to do today.
There were two urgent tasks he had to make progress on. First was starting a fire. The cave was cold and damp at night, and both cooked food and warmth would require fire going forward. He needed to work out a way to make one as soon as possible. Second was continuing to stockpile supplies. The intermediate Shelter still needed thirty units of stone and twenty logs, and he had no stone reserves at all right now. He had to set aside time to gather some.
He looked at the bottle quietly collecting water in the corner, then at the reinforced Shelter's upgrade panel, and settled on an order. First, he would find a way to start a fire, then head out to chop trees and look for usable stones, one step at a time.
With the day's goals decided, Lu Heng briefly stretched his stiff limbs, then turned and walked out of the renovated cave Shelter.
The early-morning chill in Frost Forest bit to the bone. The wind among the trees was not strong, but it carried the distinctive cold of frozen soil, leaving his skin slightly stiff as it blew over him. A thin layer of dead leaves and fragments of frozen earth covered the ground. All around him, patches of low vegetation suited to the cold climate grew scattered among the trees. Most were unfamiliar plants he had never seen before.
He raised his hand and activated his wristband, intending to identify them one by one along the way, learn what resources this forest offered, and avoid wasting anything useful.
His gaze first fell on a clump of small weeds growing close to the ground beside his feet. Their stems and leaves were slender and weak, their whole surface tinged a pale, frosty white.
The wristband swept over them with a faint light, and a notification appeared in pale lettering:
[Frostleaf Grass][Grade: Common][Uses: No edible or medicinal value. Can only serve as basic tinder.]
Lu Heng glanced at it and silently committed it to memory. A completely useless plant, with no purpose beyond feeding a fire.
He continued slowly forward. A few steps away, he spotted several short green plants half-buried in the frozen soil. Their leaves were thick and compact, coated with a natural layer of white frost. They were extremely common plants in cold regions.
He activated identification again:
[White Salt Mugwort][Grade: Common][Uses: Stems and leaves naturally contain trace amounts of salts and alkalis. Can replenish small amounts of the body's electrolytes. Bitter and astringent; do not consume in large quantities. Nontoxic.]
This counted as quite a valuable resource. Salt was already scarce in this resource-poor, frozen environment. Going without it for a long time would leave a person weak and listless, making this White Salt Mugwort a genuine strategic resource. Lu Heng immediately bent down, pinched off the stems and leaves of several flourishing plants, and tucked them into his pocket. Finding one patch meant there were most likely more growing nearby. He glanced around and firmly memorized the area, planning to return later to harvest it in bulk.
After he rounded two slender trees, several long, thin, dull-green grass stems trailed beside their roots, spreading along the ground. They looked withered, but their roots and stems were alive.
An identification notification appeared on the wristband:
[Frozen Silk Grass][Grade: Common][Uses: Extremely tough. Can be twisted into simple thin cord. No edible value.]
Lu Heng bent down and pulled off a stem. His fingertips could clearly feel its dense fibers, and it proved exceptionally tough when tugged, making it ideal for tying up timber and securing objects. He followed the roots as he gathered more, collecting the patch of Frozen Silk Grass within reach into a small handful, then casually tied it together and carried it with him. Clumping plants like these were everywhere, and gathering them along the way took little effort.
Lu Heng walked slowly onward through the woodland, keeping his eyes on the ground as he watched for stones and different plants. After hanging his head for so long, his neck grew sore and stiff. He stopped, straightened up, and slowly turned his neck from side to side to relax the muscles.
His gaze rose with the movement and swept over the tree trunk ahead. He froze.
A wooden box rested securely in the fork of a thick trunk, square and conspicuous, wedged between the branches.
Lu Heng was startled at first, his footsteps coming to a halt as well. A moment later, genuine delight appeared on his face. He had only collected ordinary plants along the way and had never expected to stumble across a supply chest. It was a completely unexpected find.
He walked beneath the tree and looked it over. The treasure chest was not far off the ground, and several protruding knots on the trunk offered convenient footholds. Alternating his hands and feet on the knots, he pulled himself upward, climbing steadily until he soon reached the fork. He reached out, took down the wooden box, and jumped back to the ground.
Holding the wooden box, he raised his wrist and scanned it with his wristband.
[Wooden Box] [Status: Unopened]
Lu Heng rested his fingertips against the edge of the lid and gently lifted it. The clasp sprang loose, and the lid slowly opened.
The lid slowly opened, revealing the neatly arranged items inside. Two securely sealed bottles of mineral water rested quietly to one side, with two packs of compressed bread stacked beside them, dense in texture and suitable for long-term storage. Besides those, there was a small box of waterproof matches, several basic water purification tablets, and a palm-sized coil of thin hemp rope.
Lu Heng reached in and took the items out one by one. The water and food would replenish what he was currently using up. The waterproof matches solved his urgent need to start a fire, and the purification tablets could further treat the seepage he collected from the cracks in the rock. The thin hemp rope was another practical item, useful for both binding and building. None of these things were luxurious, but they were all supplies he needed most right now. Every item was just right.
He sorted the supplies and put them away, rubbing his fingertips over the matchbox as his delight grew. He had only meant to search for materials along the way, never expecting to gain so many supplies by chance. The days ahead could be a little easier, too.
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