Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

The underground world is teeming with an unimaginable number of creatures.

Virtually every dozen meters, there’s at least one giant bug.

It’s only natural; bugs, regardless of the world, are always abundant.

Above ground, bugs are small, so they are often ignored.

But in this underground world, the bugs are easily three to four meters long, larger than the Mimi Silver King.

Then there are those peculiar and strange appearances, every time Xu Xin would feel a slight discomfort physically.

Big bugs are indeed far scarier than big grizzlies and big tigers.

Although their destructive power may not be very strong.

After all, bugs, most of them give off a soft and squishy impression.

Except for those large beetles.

He didn’t walk very fast, instead, he moved at a relatively steady pace through the jungle.

The underground world also has soil.

These vines and gigantic plant-like monsters all grow from the soil.

But...

Xu Xin crouched down and grabbed a handful of soil.

The soil was dark red.

[Completely contaminated soil (Gray): Soil tainted by unknown forces, rendered useless for survival.]

So it’s true.

He had just scanned the area using his identification ability, and surprisingly, all the soil here was colorless.

The ground is covered with gray-level soil, which serves little to no purpose.

"Eep...?" Keke also poked at the dark red soil in his hand with her small paws.

Xu Xin felt slightly puzzled.

Speaking of which, where did this soil come from?

Underground...

Shouldn’t there be no soil?

Isn’t soil a substance found only on the surface?

Could it have been transported here by someone?

He shook his head, deciding not to dwell on it, Xu Xin stood up and continued walking forward.

Not all the surrounding soil is gray and polluted.

Here, there are also plenty of blue-level resources.

For example, every random rock on the ground is blue-level.

However, Xu Xin had become too lazy to pick them up. Li Wenxi had complained more than once about the excessive number of mining by-products, like stones.

The stones on the surface are already too many to use up. So, he’s not wasting time anymore.

His steps quickened, as he found this stretch of path much easier to navigate than Xu Xin imagined.

The surrounding giant beasts and large monsters seemed to have no interest in him.

Approximately every five to six hundred meters, there would be one or two giant beasts at least twenty to thirty meters tall.

These giant beasts, while appearing incredibly fierce, do not seem to attack one another and maintain relatively wide distances apart.

It looks like they’ve already delineated their own territories, avoiding mutual infringement, and it seems somewhat harmonious.

The creatures in this underground world seem to have truly formed a food web of their own.

An outsider like Xu Xin is simply not part of their diet, and since he doesn’t provoke them, they hardly care, entering their territory is not considered a violation.

Just like a tiger wouldn’t consider a butterfly entering its territory as a threat.

Too weak, unsure if it’s tasty, and even if it is, it’s not enough to fill the gaps between the teeth—there’s simply no interest.

Thus, he felt he wouldn’t need to wear the concealer cloak either.

As long as he doesn’t move too quickly and trigger the curiosity of the giant beasts, there won’t be any issues.

That’s just perfect.

Although he thought so, he still walked carefully.

After all, the underground world’s monsters are just too many.

Who knows if some giant beasts might be overly curious and decide to strike at him?

For instance now, about two hundred meters ahead to his left, there’s a giant rhino, roughly the size of a heavy truck, lying on the ground.

It’s lying atop a cluster of struggling mutant vines, unmoved, leisurely munching on the twitching vines.

The surrounding uncrushed mutant vines launched whip-like and stabbing attacks at the giant rhino, but the rhino hardly cared.

Because these attacks couldn’t penetrate the rhino’s armor-like thick skin at all.

Not even a mark could be left.

After observing for a while, Xu Xin let out a breath lightly.

Way too strong, he couldn’t possibly handle this thing.

Perhaps, Ma Hongwei’s new heavy crossbow bolt, a delayed explosive crossbow bolt, might be able to injure the rhino.

He continued walking forward.

Ahead, there was not only the giant rhino.

Because, from afar, he could hear the sound of the water flowing.

The underground world also has rivers and lakes.

Xu Xin took two steps and was stopped by Keke’s "eep".

Her little paw pressed against his breastplate, her small head shook incessantly: "Eep..."

It seems very dangerous over there, Keke could sense it.

Whether above ground or underground, life cannot survive without water. Thus, the riversides and lakesides usually gather all sorts of creatures.

Including powerful beasts.

The riverbank is undoubtedly dangerous.

But...

"There’s no other choice, Keke, we must cross this river." Xu Xin looked ahead, "This river is blocking our path."

"Eep..." Keke softly whimpered, expressing her helplessness.

Though there are thorns and vines ahead, and the river isn’t visible yet, the sound of trickling water, the splashing sound from the water, and even unidentified things plopping into the water, all came from ahead.