Chapter 65: Skeleton Horse

Just after Su You and Dolly reassured everyone that they were fine, Dolly turned to look at him as well.

“Do you need me to prepare anything for you? Like hot water, or something else?” In the past, Dolly might not have been so enthusiastic, but she’d noticed that Lyle had joined the territory… Don’t ask how she knew, she just did.

Since he was now part of the territory, that made them family—so showing some concern was only natural.

Lyle was a little taken aback by the attention. He was about to refuse, but Su You answered for him.

“Prepare some hot water so he can wash up. As for clothes…” Su You glanced at Dolly as she spoke.

Dolly immediately responded, “While you were out, I gathered some fiber scraps. It’s not a lot, but it should be enough to make a simple set of clothes.”

10 fiber scraps = 1 thread

5 threads = 1 cloth piece

5 cloth pieces = 1 linen fabric

Three pieces of linen fabric can make a linen shirt, and two pieces can make a pair of linen pants.

This was exactly why Su You had always asked Dolly to collect fiber—because a single piece of linen fabric required a full 250 fiber scraps, and a full set of linen clothes took five pieces, which meant a whopping 1,250 fiber scraps.

Although, considering that one fiber plant could yield a dozen or so scraps, collecting 1,200-plus scraps only meant gathering a little over a hundred fiber plants. Not difficult, but definitely time-consuming.

“Alright, I’ll make a set of clothes in a bit.” The reason Su You had looked at Dolly was to check on their fiber supplies. As long as they had the materials, there was nothing she couldn’t make.

Since making clothes would take some time, Lyle just did a quick wash with water for now, then went to find Doya to discuss how to divide up the spoils from the Black-striped Tiger.

While they discussed, Su You didn’t interrupt.

After preparing the hot water, Dolly grabbed her stone knife and went back out to collect more fiber. Su You, meanwhile, looked at the warehouse, which was packed with fiber, sorted it all out, and began the tedious process of crafting materials.

First, she spun all the fiber into thread, then wove the threads into cloth pieces, then into linen fabric, and finally made the clothes.

With all the workbenches running at full speed, the process took nearly half an hour. When she was done, Su You handed the clothes to Lyle and pointed to Residential House 2.

“You two will live there from now on.”

Lyle nodded, went to House 2 to change, and when he came out, he saw Su You getting ready to chop wood with an axe.

Since he was feeling much better, he wanted to help. Just then, Doya also approached Su You, as if she had something to say.

“Since Miss Doya needs to talk to you, let me handle the woodcutting,” Lyle offered.

Su You glanced at Lyle’s current status. Seeing that his previous “limb weakness” had disappeared and his “severe fatigue” had improved to “mild fatigue,” she handed him the axe.

Then Su You followed Doya to the side, curious about what she wanted to say.

“I’m not one to beat around the bush, so I’ll just ask directly. I just want to confirm one thing: can you really help me find the materials to repair that bow?” In fact, Doya had woken up last night and spent almost the whole night thinking. In the end, she felt her resolve waver.

She realized Su You had convinced her. She wanted to stay.

But staying didn’t mean giving up on finding materials to repair her bow. She simply knew that, on her own, she had no chance of getting those materials from the dragons… She couldn’t even defeat an ordinary Black-striped Tiger.

A regular Black-striped Tiger… Compared to the dragons, it was just a common beast.

Given that, she might as well put her hopes in Su You.

Even if Su You’s chances of finding Dragonbone were only 0.001%, it was still better than her own, which were 0%.

It was like trying to cure a dead horse—one that was already rotted to the bone—by treating it as if it might still live… Who knows, maybe it could be revived as a “skeleton horse”?

Su You didn’t know about all these complicated thoughts running through Doya’s mind, but she understood her meaning.

“I can tell you seriously: yes, I can.” Su You wasn’t joking. The territory didn’t even need to be fully leveled up—there would be a chance to contact the dragons before that.

Last time, Su You had already established friendly relations with another race, and in order to accept their invitation and deepen their relationship, she gave up the chance to contact the dragons, which led to losing all contact with them.

As long as she made a different choice this time and seized the opportunity to meet the dragons, there was a good chance she could trade for Dragonbone.

And that was just one possible method.

If that failed, she could always pay a hefty price to hire a certain “black market dealer” to acquire Dragonbone.

Granted, the “hefty price” here would be even higher than one might expect… but that wasn’t an issue.

As long as she could keep Doya, Su You was willing to pay the price—because she saw limitless potential in her.

“Alright, I trust you, Lord Su. I’m willing to join the territory.”

【Wanderer “Doya” requests to join Sunset Territory. Accept?】

Was there even a question?

Su You immediately accepted Doya’s application.

As she made her choice, Doya seemed to sense something. She suddenly looked up at the sky—

With no plants blocking the view, the sky was a clear blue, like a vast sea of clouds, but it seemed she wasn’t really looking at the clouds, or even the sky.

…

After Doya joined the territory, Su You was able to see Doya’s supplementary story, and also noticed some unusual things.

But before looking into those, she wanted to check the supplementary story.

Through it, Su You learned about Doya’s mother’s passing, and what had really happened to her white ermine.

The white ermine from last night wasn’t Doya’s—her own had gone “missing” some time ago.

Not long ago, she’d wandered into a dangerous place, like a maze she couldn’t escape no matter what she tried.

Just when Doya thought she’d be trapped there forever, her white ermine appeared and led her out.

(End of chapter)"

"66. Small Wooden Cart

But as luck would have it, Doya had barely left that place when she ran into a ferocious beast.

Fortunately, the beast didn’t notice her. Unfortunately, it was blocking the only way out.

By all rights, Doya—already in poor shape after being trapped for several days—shouldn’t have had any chance of escaping the beast. But at that moment, the white ermine darted out alone, drawing the beast away...

And that’s where the story ends...

Wait, no!

It actually doesn’t end there.

Looking at the last part of the story, Su You couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing.

Given Doya’s personality, she had risked her life to save a strange white ermine, nearly dying in the process. Would she really just abandon her own ermine after it lured the beast away, escaping on her own without a second thought?

If she really did run away, then the story would indeed end here. But if she instead chased after the beast, hoping to rescue her own ermine, then things were definitely not that simple.

Something else must have happened between Doya, the beast, and the ermine.

If this was just Su You’s speculation based on Doya’s NPC settings, then what she discovered next could be considered definitive proof of her theory.

In the section listing talents, Su You found something that hadn’t appeared on the tavern’s recruitment panel before.

[Doya]

Talents: Archery (88), Combat (70), Divine Archer (Not Activated)

...

Just as Su You was pondering what this “Divine Archer” talent could be, Doya suddenly patted her on the shoulder.

“Lord Su, what were you just thinking about?”

Snapping out of her thoughts at Doya’s question, Su You shook her head slightly and replied offhandedly, “Oh, nothing. I just remembered there’s someone else... That’s Lake. The one you were talking to earlier was Lyle. Lake is over at the mine digging up stones. I need to go over and bring them back now.”

“Then please go ahead, I won’t keep you.” Doya paused, as if recalling something, and added, “Oh, right—about that black-striped tiger, I’ve already discussed it with him. We’ve both decided to contribute the spoils to the territory.”

Lyle did this because he wanted the territory to develop quickly, and also hoped to become something like a “founding hero.”

As for Doya, her reason was much simpler—she wanted the Dragonbone.

Su You glanced at her, but didn’t refuse their “contribution.”

After that, Doya returned to Residence 1 to rest... Although she seemed able to move around normally now, that was only because her fracture was in her hand. Her legs were fine, but her hand would still need some time to heal.

...

...

Afterward, just as she’d told Doya, Su You really did head out to the mine. But before leaving, she stopped by Crate 3 and took out all the wood Lyle had chopped.

Flipping through the recipe list, Su You grabbed some wood and started crafting.

[Consume Wood*8 to craft Wooden Wheel*4?]

[Crafting Wooden Wheels. Estimated time: 30 seconds.]

[3 Wooden Wheels remaining. Estimated time: 90 seconds.]

...

Once the four wooden wheels were finished, Su You took out some more wood and, together with the wheels, put them all on the workbench.

[Consume Wooden Wheel*4 and Wood*10 to craft Small Wooden Cart*1?]

[Crafting Small Wooden Cart. Estimated time: 300 seconds.]

Five minutes passed quickly, and Su You obtained a small wooden cart with ten inventory slots.

[Small Wooden Cart] (Upgradeable)

Category: Tool

Quality: Common

Durability: 100/100

Description: A small wooden cart with average capacity, containing ten inventory slots. Stack limits are the same as the backpack. No restrictions on who can use it.

Although this small wooden cart wasn’t as convenient as Su You’s personal backpack, the backpack was unique to her, and she couldn’t always be the one hauling materials back and forth. So the wooden cart became the best option.

Especially since it could be upgraded: the small cart had ten slots, the medium cart had twenty, the large cart had fifty... and there was even a deluxe cart with a full hundred slots, plus increased stacking limits.

However, because the higher-level carts required too many materials—including some rare ones—the cost-effectiveness was very low. Besides, under normal circumstances, there was rarely a need to transport as much as two level-one warehouses’ worth of supplies. So, most people would only upgrade the cart to the large version at most.

...

With the cart finished, Su You took it and headed to the mine.

The journey was uneventful. When she reached the area with the ghostly skeletons, Su You pushed the cart forward while using the wooden fences she’d just crafted to fence off a safe path.

Fencing as she went, she eventually reached the spot for digging stones. But Lake was nowhere to be seen—only piles of broken stones and a pickaxe with almost no durability left.

Su You: ?

She frowned slightly, a sense of foreboding rising in her heart.

She left the cart where it was and searched the area. Not finding any obvious bloodstains or signs of struggle, her anxiety eased a little.

Still, Lake’s disappearance left her worried.

After waiting for about five minutes without seeing Lake return, Su You circled toward the left side of the mine. Logically, she should have gone back to fetch Lyle and searched together, since she herself had little combat ability.

But the mine wasn’t close to the territory—a round trip would take over an hour. With no idea what had happened, she couldn’t be sure that time was the only thing at risk...

...

On the way to the mine cave, Su You looked tense.

She reasoned that since there were no signs of struggle or blood, and since NPCs—unlike stone monsters—would leave traces if killed, Lake had probably left of his own accord.

If that was the case, there were only two places he could have gone: back to the territory, or into the mine cave.

There were several routes back to the territory, but only the one they’d cleared that morning was safe. Su You had just come from that path and hadn’t seen Lake, so the only possibility left was that he’d gone into the mine cave.

And, most likely, something had prompted him to go there.

(End of chapter)"

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