It Starts With A Mountain

Chapter 8: Treasure Hunting Activity

Cheng Dalei had been under a certain misconception when it comes to this world’s medical capabilities. In the movies, when some hero gets hurt, they’d just wrap a few random bandages around the wound and they’d be good as new soon enough. However, in reality, without any sort of antibiotics or other ways to deal with infections, even a cold could end up becoming life-threatening. Even the most minor scrapes or sicknesses could very well take down the toughest of men.

Lin Shaoyu’s injuries were indeed not life-threatening, but the minor wounds on his body has already gotten infected. He was in a constant high fever ever since the day before, so by now, he was deeply unconcious.

Cheng Dalei had carried him back to base and cleaned his wounds and made him drink some warm water with the aid of the others. Cheng Dalie also remembers that he got a few revitalization pills from the system before, and after finding them, he fed it to Lin Shaoyu, so there shouldn’t be too big an issue anymore.

“Boss…” Qin Man showed up with a happy smile on his face.

“What is is?”

“Just then, after fighting with that guy, I had some inspirations. My Plum Blossom Spear has improved a step further.” Qin Man happily reported.

Cheng Dalei checked Qin Man’s status again.

Name: Qin Man (An elite bandit who is just starting out)

Skill: Plum Blossom Spear (Five Pistils)

Remember the system reward of increasing the skill level of one random member? So it ended up going to Qin Man. The improvement to his spear skill also directly boosted his own status from skilled to elite status. If this was the army, then Qin Man would basically have the power equivalent to a hundred men. Thus, with Qin Man’s presence, they’d have a bit more confidence in being able to fend off Blackstone City’s attack.

“If only I had a spear though. The Plum Blossom Spear has been passed down all the way to me, but I don’t even have the money to get a single spear forged. Sigh…”

As he said that, Qin Man let out a heavy sigh and slapped at the pillar holding up the roof. Yet, with a clang, an object actually fell down from the room, coincidentally landing right in front of Qin Man.

Eh?

The eyes of the four people in the room widened in surprise. Qin Man was just saying that he wanted a spear, and then a spear fell down from the heavens. That really was a bit too lucky a coincidence there. Qin Man then picked the spear up. The shaft was pitch black, and the whole thing was a bit longer than a man is tall, with the spearhead flashing with a black shine.

“Strategist. This spear… Why was it on the roof?” Qin Man spoke, surprised.

“I don’t know either… Could it be that back then when the house was built, it was used as part of the supports?” Xu Shenji was also completely befuddled.

Only Cheng Dalei understood what was really going on. This spear is a system reward. That said, the way it appeared really is pretty weird. After having grinded the BUG for so many rewards today, they really should properly search them all out.

“This spear is now Qin Man’s to use from now on.” Cheng Dalei declared.

“Really!” Qin Man showed a shocked expression. After getting Cheng Dalei’s confirmations, he suddenly took the spear along as he bounded out of the room and headed out to the base’s training grounds.

Qin Man was a spear user from the start, but a normal spear took something like 40, 50 pounds of iron or so. There’s no way he could afford that on a hunter’s savings. In an age where several houses might share a single iron pot, weapons are things that only the high class could afford.

Although Lin Shaoyu seemed to not shown a very good performance thus far, just that well made spear, that good horse, and that silk robe marked him as someone who stood far above what most could even dream of. Taken to Cheng Dalei’s previous life, it’d be equivalent to having a custom tailored suit while driving a brand new sports car.

Basically, in the end, everyone might have dreams of crossing the world as a wandering hero, but not everyone could afford the monetary costs required.

Qin Man had dreamed of having a real spear of his own, and even he was counting and calculating the whole time he was a hunter on when he might save up enough to afford one. Worst comes to worst, he’d even be willing to first have a lighter one forged. And today, he just directly received a spear that perfectly fits all his wants out of nowhere. Thus, Qin Man was practically bursting with joy.

He carried his spear to the training grounds. Then, he got into a stance and pointed his spear forward. It stabbed out like a serpent’s tongue, swept about like a tiger’s jaws. The spear danced within his hands like a furious storm, the spearhead flashing forth and leaving afterimages in its wake.

“Nice!”

Xu Shenji and Xu Linger both clapped and cheered. Although they didn’t really understand it all that much, they could still feel just sheer might exhibited when Qin Man was wielding his spear.

Qin Man withdrew his spear and stood back up. His face was slightly red with exertion.

Right at that moment, Cheng Dalei came out of the storage room with a hoe. Xu Shenji asked in confusion, “Boss. What are you planning on doing?”

“Treasure hunting.”

“Treasure what? Our base doesn’t have any treasure though. Boss, don’t go breaking anything.”

Cheng Dalei just ignored him. The system rewards are all within the base, so he’s going to find each and every one of them.

Xu Shenji hurried to follow after Cheng Dalei when he suddenly tripped, his foot having been caught on a rock. Just as he was crying in pain while holding his foot, he suddenly saw that there was a urn under the rock.

“Huh? What’s this?”

After opening it up, Cheng Dalei saw ten green pills in the urn. Those should be the system reward’s blood replenishment pills, capable of healing most normal injuries and sicknesses.

“Go feed one to Sir Lin.” Cheng Dalei handed a blood replenishment will to Xu Linger while he continued on his treasure hunt.

He went to the stables. Right now, the base had a total of three horses. One was the skinny horse that the base had from the start. One he got from his robbery. The final one was Lin Shaoyu’s. Since Lin Shaoyu hadn’t joined the Toad Bandits when they got the rewards, his horse didn’t get a level up.

Cheng Dalei checked the status on those two horses.

Normal yellow horse (skinny horse)

Skill: Escape (Speed buff when running away)

Normal black horse

Skill: Charge (Speed buff when charging)

What Cheng Dalei really was ecstatic about is the fact that not only did those two horses leveled up, they both also got a skill each.

“Qin Man, this black horse is your mount from now on.” Cheng Dalei announced.

“Mine!” Qin Man was overjoyed. Within such a short amount time, his spear skill improved, he got a weapon, and now he even has a horse. This world might be too generous to him. If he had a set of armor, then he’d have achieved his dream of striding across the battlefields.

Xu Shenji was feeling a bit faint though. He got up and ran to the stables while shouting, “Boss…”

Then, he tripped on his face again. Xu Shenji discovered that what tripped him was a wooden chest that was buried in the ground. Just as he got back up though, as he supported himself with a hand on the trunk of a tree, two sets of armor fell from the tree with a bang.

Cheng Dalei, Qin Man, and Xu Linger all surrounded him. So the trick is via Xu Shenji huh.

“What are you looking at me for? I-I… I don’t know what’s going on either?”

“Keep a tight eye on the strategist.”

Xu Shenji yelled out as he ran away. It’s strange, but everywhere he passed, there would be something to be discovered. A war drum buried under a rock. Wooden chests in the dirt. A flag under the table…

In the end, Xu Shenji ran before a dried up well in the base thinking that it should be fine there. But then he looked inside the well without thinking and discovered that the well that had been abandoned for over a decade had started filling up with water again.

“Gah. The heck.”

After going through the entire base, everything that could be found was found. The four of them all gathered under the flagpole in the main yard as Cheng Dalei tallied up the day’s findings.

High quality iron spear x1. Normal armor x2. Blood replenishment pill x10. War drum x1 (Attached skill: Drumming), Flag x1 (Attached skill: Recruitment). Strong wine x10. Mt. Blackbull Map x1. Scholar’s robes x1.

Farmland 10 acres. Well x1. Mountain spring x1.

Base gained skills Healing and Unity. Mounts all leveled up and gained skills.

The most amazing, numbers wise, were the wooden chests x50.

They really did get quite the haul there. Of course, near the end, the system rewards turned fewer and fewer. All four of them were utterly shocked. Xu Shenji spoke in a mysterious tone, “Boss, tell me. Did the old boss leave some kind of will or last words before he died?”

Cheng Dalie neither confirmed nor denied. Xu Shenji just took the scholar’s robes and happily spoke, “These clothes are practically made for me. After wearing them, my strategies will definitely improve many times over.”

“Put it down. That’s mine.” Cheng Dalei stopped him. His Int was 0 from the start, so even it it multiplied tenfold, it would still be 0.

However, the thing that really disappointed Cheng Dalei was the fact that with all the rewards that the system gave him, including even a set of white robes, it still didn’t give him a single sword. Could be that he simply lacked the qualities to go through the world, sword in hand?

His eyes fell on the pile of chests though, and Cheng Dalei’s eyes lit up, “Let’s open up the chests.”