"Crunch! Crunch..."
The little blue-purple bug bit viciously into the fruit that had nearly poisoned her to death. This time, the highly toxic fruit had no effect on her whatsoever.
After this ordeal, Wen Jing had grown to more than twice her previous size, making her a little bigger than the large ants. She soon devoured the remaining half of the fruit, which was larger than her current body.
After she finished the entire fruit, her stats finished increasing as well.
Health: 0.5 Strength: 0.5 Speed: 0.5 Spirit: 1
But what delighted Wen Jing was not just the increase in her stats. The evolution she had completed at that critical moment had actually cost her only three skill points.
She had thought she would go broke again, just as she had when evolving Gravity Silk, but unexpectedly, she still had seven points left.
The trait she had gained, Abnormal Status Immunity I, was interesting too. Rather than simple poison resistance, it covered the broader category of "abnormal statuses." Both poison and the hypnotic effect of the white spores seemed to fall into this category.
"It was probably mostly the fruit's effect..."
Wen Jing pondered. There was no reason spending only three skill points could have taken her this far. Considering the direction of her evolution at the time and her body's current color, she had most likely evolved a specialized resistance to the blue-purple fruit's poison, then combined it with the fruit's effects to upgrade it into her current trait.
Viewed that way, the stat increases were merely a bonus. The real value of this fruit lay in gaining this immunity.
That was a win!
But she would have to be more careful the next time she encountered a similar situation. She needed to keep a fixed reserve of skill points to deal with danger.
Having reached that conclusion, Wen Jing looked down and saw the ant army busy cleaning up. A few ants lingering near the white branches did not dare come any closer, and they did not seem inclined to attack her either.
Had this evolution made her unrecognizable to them?
Wen Jing used Gravity Silk to leap onto a nearby leaf. This time, even standing directly on its white-spore-covered surface caused no sensation at all. She had been debating whether to bite off a leaf and take it with her when she suddenly noticed that several of the ants dismembering the scorpion had collapsed near its tail stinger.
With their enemy dead, they no longer insisted on approaching the highly poisonous scorpion tail. Instead, they carried away the shell and flesh, leaving its venom glands behind.
That scorpion tail looked more promising!
Mainly, the leaves were growing perfectly well here and would not move, while their hypnotic effect could keep many creatures away. The scorpion tail, on the other hand, was biological material and might soon rot and lose its potency.
Estimating how much time this trip to the Ancient Wilderness had taken, Wen Jing decided to take the scorpion tail and head home.
"Whoosh!"
Gravity Silk pulled the most valuable prize, the highly poisonous scorpion tail, out from among the ant army with ease.
Just as Wen Jing had expected, the venom that could instantly kill the large ants had no effect on her either.
However, she did not choose to return directly from this spot.
Carrying a scorpion tail larger than herself, the little blue-purple bug pulled herself along with Gravity Silk, following the ant army back to its nest. After watching them enter an inconspicuous hollow in a tree, she found a safe spot nearby, spun a cocoon, and returned.
Her return went smoothly this time, without interference, and the time it took had even improved to six minutes.
"Tap..."
Wen Jing appeared out of thin air on the platform at the exploration registration center.
Seeing the staff member's surprised expression, she froze briefly before realizing why he had reacted that way-next time, she could not land quite so "accurately." With the deviation in the standard calculation, she should reasonably have appeared in the plaza outside.
But a moment later, she had no attention to spare for that. "Quick, give me a sealed container."
Chapter 24
"Huh? Oh, right!"
The staff member snapped out of his daze and hurried to the counter. Then he paused and turned back to ask, "What item do you need to seal? We have Aether Medium here, at a discounted price of one point per 500 grams."
Wen Jing had already followed him over, her gaze sweeping across the various items behind the counter.
As an Ancient Wilderness exploration registration center, it provided not only basic registration services but also all sorts of supplies explorers needed. Besides various materials for sealing treasures from the Ancient Wilderness, it stocked plenty of first-aid supplies.
"I just want the one on the far left that costs ten credits!"
"Huh?" The staff member paused at her words, then immediately gave her an understanding look. "Of course."
He took a palm-sized transparent plastic box from the left and handed it to Wen Jing. Returning unscathed from one's first exploration of the Ancient Wilderness was already remarkable. Bringing back resources as well, even ones of little value, definitely made her one in a hundred.
As expected of a new student who dared to explore alone, she really was exceptional. Even with F-rank potential, she was presumably one of the top students in her class.
Then the staff member watched Wen Jing take the plastic box and put the item she was holding inside.
A purplish-red, oddly shaped scorpion tail, extraordinary at first glance, went into a box normally used to store the most ordinary Ancient Wilderness materials, such as stones and leaves.
"Wait, you... isn't that biological material?" The staff member's eyes widened in alarm.
Wen Jing examined it carefully, confirming that the residual venom on the scorpion tail, invisible to the naked eye, was not corroding the box. She quickly asked, "Can't I put it in this? It looks fine."
She did not even sense any energy leaking out.
"Uh... it's not that you can't." For a moment, the staff member did not know what expression to make.
As one of the available sealing materials, even this cheapest model, which looked like a plastic box, was actually made of technologically sophisticated material and could naturally do its job.
It was just that using it to hold biological material worth at least five hundred thousand credits... was really casting a pearl into the dark.
So he could only remind her instead, "An ordinary sealing box like this can only prevent energy leakage from biological material for three hours. Would you like us to arrange a sale for you?"
"No." Wen Jing refused decisively. She had read about this on the forum. Although the registration center had fairly extensive channels for selling materials, they were not very efficient.
Unless some rare material appeared that prompted the academy's various institutions to actively bid against one another, going through its normal commercial channels incurred a one-percent handling fee.
This was where connections came in handy. She contacted Xie Ming directly through her smart terminal, leaving no margin for a middleman.
The staff member wanted to say more, but Wen Jing had already dashed out of the building.
"Thump, thump, thump..."
Five figures appeared in the spacious plaza. Thanks to the positioning stone, the Operations Department group had returned simultaneously and landed close together.
All five wore expressions of relief at having survived, and Du Jiang, the newcomer among them, was also injured.
The registration center detected their arrival and immediately dispatched medical robots.
"Although we didn't defeat that golden-feathered eagle, at least we gained something." As the tallest and most heavily built second-year student among them spoke, he bought Aether Medium from the reception staff and sealed the spoils each of them had acquired on this trip, one by one:
Two metallic-looking feathers, an unidentified palm-sized green leaf, and a stone.
"Hmm?"
Just as they were taking stock of their spoils with satisfaction, a familiar figure raced past them, seemingly carrying something in her hands.
What it meant to leave the registration center carrying something went without saying-Wen Jing had not only returned safely but had brought back spoils too?
They exchanged looks, then looked at one another's battered bodies, their expressions turning awkward.
A short while later, they entered the registration center in a medical transport. The one with the lightest injuries curiously asked a staff member, "Wen Jing... what did that new student just now bring back from the Ancient Wilderness?"
The staff member glanced at the paltry handful of items the Operations Department group had sealed so neatly, his expression turning peculiar.
Not long afterward, in the research institute, Xie Ming wore the same peculiar expression when he saw the plastic box Wen Jing had brought.
Wen Jing chuckled. "Save where you should, spend where you should."
But after carefully examining the scorpion tail, he could not help remarking, "You really are quite lucky."
In the end, after a round of bargaining that allowed no consideration for their teacher-student relationship, Xie Ming bought the piece of scorpion tail from Wen Jing for eight points.
This comparison once again demonstrated the value of the Ancient Wilderness at night. Although the oddly shaped scorpion tail was not particularly large, it was still the size of a fingernail, yet the entire tail was worth only half as much as a microgram of shadow biological material.
"The valuable part isn't the scorpion tail, but mainly the venom inside." As he spoke, he looked at Wen Jing with some surprise. "I didn't expect your Wilderness Body to be able to withstand this level of toxicity."
"Mm, I had a little fortuitous encounter." Wen Jing was happy to "patch" her story at times like this.
Sure enough, as an experienced awakener, Xie Ming was not surprised. Instead, he cautioned her, "Don't become reckless or careless because of one lucky encounter. Opportunities come with danger too."
Wen Jing nodded seriously.
Seeing that she had taken his words to heart, Xie Ming smiled again. "But there's no need to be overly cautious either. Insect biological material isn't all that common. If it weren't so small, it would be worth even more, and it has considerable research value in its own right."
"I suspect that, because of your own Wilderness Body, the depth of the world you enter is more likely to contain insect-type Wilderness Beasts. If you can bring back similar materials in the future, you can sell them directly to me."
"Once we reach a certain quantity, I might be able to apply to the academy for a long-term project..."
At this point, he gave Wen Jing a look that said, "You know what I mean."
Scamming research funding, right? Got it.
Thinking of the giant-tree area where she could return at any time using Gravity Silk, Wen Jing not only nodded outwardly but was also utterly certain inwardly: There would be more. Guaranteed.
"Your personal awakener information has been updated."
"Thank you."
After leaving the academy's testing center, Wen Jing opened her personal information on her smart terminal.
[User: Wen Jing] [ID number: 9407691] [Compatibility: 4%] [Wilderness Body rating: F]