Chapter 39: Building a Residential House

“Throw it… hmm? What’s this…?”

After confirming that the wild boar was dead, Su You was planning to ask Duoya to help her toss the boar outside. After all, it was another creature’s trophy, and it wasn’t appropriate to leave it here—nor would it be right for her to just claim it for herself.

But as she was inspecting the wild boar, Su You discovered something pressed underneath its body.

She dragged the boar a few steps to the side, revealing the object in full—a rather worn-looking wooden cup.

Duoya noticed Su You’s actions and glanced over as well, so she also saw the wooden cup lying on the ground.

“Did it steal this?” That was the only explanation Duoya could think of.

Otherwise, she couldn’t understand why a wild boar—or any clearly non-human creature—would have a wooden cup, something only humans would make.

Besides, Duoya had just used a wooden cup Su You made to drink water, so she immediately recognized that although this cup was a bit old and dirty, it was almost identical to the one she’d used earlier.

Su You stared at the cup for a few seconds, then seemed to realize something.

“It’s fine… Let’s just keep the wild boar. Could you help me process it? As payment, you can take some of the meat for yourself, and I can help you prepare it later.” Su You had other things to do and didn’t have time to deal with such a large boar, nor did she really know how to process it.

Duoya, on the other hand, had followed her hunter father for over a decade and was used to this sort of thing. She was definitely more skilled and faster at it than Su You.

From Su You’s reaction, Duoya sensed she might know something, but she didn’t ask further. She simply walked over to the boar.

“I can help you butcher it, but I won’t take any meat. I’ve got plenty of my own, and I can’t carry too much anyway.” Duoya didn’t refuse; after all, she was free at the moment. “Do you have a knife? My hunting knife isn’t in great shape.”

When Su You heard she had a hunting knife, she put away the stone knife she’d taken out and instead pulled a whetstone from her backpack.

“I only have a stone knife, but here’s a whetstone. No need to return it—you can keep it.”

Duoya didn’t stand on ceremony. She took the whetstone, pulled out her hunting knife, and started sharpening it.

Once her knife was sharp (full durability), Duoya tucked the whetstone away for herself.

With a sharp knife, butchering the wild boar was a breeze for Duoya. Su You watched for a moment, then turned away to get on with her own tasks.

She’d spent the whole morning chopping wood. Although she’d taken plenty of breaks, she’d finally gathered enough materials to build a residential house.

She took out all the processed wood blocks from both her basic and portable workbenches and further refined them into planks.

Once both workbenches were busy, Su You began sorting through the things Duoya had brought back.

[Obtained Small Meat x20]

[Obtained Small Meat x10]

[Obtained Large Meat x5]

…

Looking at the piles of meat on the ground, Su You paused for a moment, then quickly stored them in a chest to prevent them from spoiling faster by being left out.

Besides the meat, there were plenty of other animal drops.

[Obtained Rabbit Fur x20]

[Obtained Chicken Feather x10]

[Obtained Deer Antler x2]

[Obtained Deer Blood x5]

[Obtained Animal Hide x12]

Of all these materials, the most valuable were undoubtedly the two deer antlers.

After all, they were top-tier healing items!

Unfortunately, Su You didn’t have any good supplementary materials to pair with the antlers. Processing such rare materials without proper ingredients would be a waste.

She decided to store the antlers for now and planned to search the forest for suitable herbs later that afternoon.

Besides that, the deer blood was also a great ingredient. Not only did it restore a lot of hunger, but it also provided a strength-boosting buff.

But no matter how good these materials were, they were useless for now. Su You didn’t have the right supplementary ingredients for cooking or alchemy, nor did she have the necessary tools.

For example, she needed an alchemy furnace for potion-making, or a cooking pot for boiling deer blood… The antlers were fine, since they didn’t spoil here and could be kept indefinitely.

But deer blood was different—it would go bad in about five days.

As she sorted through everything, Su You pondered how to deal with it all. By the time she finished, the wood blocks she’d put in the workbenches had all been processed into planks.

She dusted off her hands and carried the planks over to the side of the tavern.

[Consume Plank x10 to build a Residential House?]

Su You lined up the residential house with the tavern and confirmed the build.

[Building Residential House. Estimated time: 120 minutes.]

Two hours—this was the longest any building or crafting had taken Su You so far.

But really, it wasn’t much. After all, the residential house was just a basic structure. Later on, even the simplest buildings would take three to five hours, some over ten, and a few special buildings could take several days.

Maybe it was the noise from starting construction, but just a few minutes later, the tavern door opened from inside.

“Miss Lord, I feel great right now. Is there anything you need me to do?” Dolly came over to Su You, looking serious.

Su You thought for a moment, then handed her the stone knife.

“We just got a batch of animal hides. I want to make some clothes, but I’ll need some thread. Could you help me gather some fibers?”

“No problem.” Dolly nodded and prepared to head off with the stone knife to the spot where Su You had previously collected fiber scraps.

But she’d barely taken two steps before Su You called her back.

“Oh, by the way, I’ve gathered all the materials for the residential house, so you’ll be able to move in today.” Su You pointed to the house, then continued, “You just woke up, so go eat something first. You can collect fibers later… By the way, do you know how to cook?”

Since Dolly hadn’t joined the territory yet, and the house wasn’t finished, Su You couldn’t see her info in the “Join Territory” menu, so she could only ask directly.

At the mention of cooking, Dolly looked a bit embarrassed and shook her head.

“Sorry, I can’t cook…” That was putting it mildly—she’d managed to burn meat to charcoal more than once, as unbelievable as it sounded.

Whenever she touched ingredients, none of them ended up edible."

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