Ita Era

Chapter 80 The Primitive Era (15)

Ding Shi leaned against the stone wall, chewing on bitter and smelly herbs, spitting them out to the side.

The herbalist said, "It's too coarse, grind it again."

Ding Shi glanced at the herbs covered in his saliva, but didn't touch them.

Herbalist: "Herbal herbs are very scarce."

Ding Shi picked up the clump of herbs and chewed it again, while the herb girl felt her stomach churning.

After chewing ten mouthfuls of herbs, the herbalist used a small wooden board to pick up the herbs and stuff them into Ding Shi's wound, then bound the wound with the treated tiger skin. To allow the wound to breathe, the tiger skin was cut into a mesh pattern. In addition, the herbalist scraped away all the flesh from the tiger skin, showing that she had put in a lot of effort.

Ding Shi said, "Thank you."

The herbalist nodded, picked up her vine basket, and left, intending to use the last 15 minutes to find some herbs at the edge of the forest. Yu Yuan called out to her, "Don't go out again, Xiao Long, Xiao Feng, seal the gate."

The wood inside the stone fire was burning, and there was a considerable amount of combustible wood piled up nearby, with plenty of damp wood placed around the fire to dry. Smoke from the fire rose and was expelled from the vents above the cave.

Inside the cave, several pits were filled with water, and vine baskets filled with bayberries and persimmons were neatly stacked to one side.

All the people in the camp had retreated into the cave. They were cutting meat, making soup, and grilling. The saber-toothed tiger brought more than just food to the camp; it also boosted morale.

Xiaolong and Xiaofeng used a dozen tree branches to block the cave entrance and returned to sit down by the stone fire.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Yu Yuan said, "Since we have time, let's give our camp a name."

Wang Meng, seemingly lost in thought, was the first to answer: "Nameless Camp."

Everyone fell silent. Xiao Long raised his hand: "Chaowei Camp."

Everyone was puzzled, and Yu Yuan asked, "Who is Chao Wei?"

Xiao Long replied, "Tony Leung, isn't he a movie star?"

Everyone's itching to hit someone.

Su Su said, “Survivor camp, primitive camp, warrior camp, unity camp…” She rattled off more than a dozen camp names without repeating any.

The herbalist, who was usually quiet, said, "Fire seed."

As everyone pondered, Yu Yuan nodded: "The spark, the spark of humanity from the last ten primitive humans."

Ding Shi said, "Ten people, how many generations later will they be unable to have close relatives and reproduce?"

Su Su said, "This was very common in primitive societies. For example, Zeus and his group in our Little Pu mission, they did this to ensure the purity of their bloodline..."

Yu Yuan remained silent. Is reproduction something you need to consider?

However, once Su Su started the conversation, everyone chatted while busy preparing the food. Only Yu Yuan was mentally calculating the supplies. The tools needed for the main mission weren't a problem; they had the materials and could make them in a day or two. The more troublesome issue was fuel. The temperature was low at night, so fuel couldn't be wasted. Roughly calculated, the fuel would only last until tomorrow night.

Now we can only pray that Ding Shi's jinx doesn't come true. If we can work tomorrow, we can seal the cave entrance tomorrow afternoon and the group can huddle in the cave for five days.

Amidst the eating, drinking, laughing, and joking, Su Su was the first to notice, saying, "It's leaking."

Everyone looked up and saw four ventilation holes near their location, from which water was constantly flowing down. A thunderclap boomed from the cave ceiling, followed by several muffled claps. Yu Yuan picked up a burning piece of firewood, walked to the cave entrance, extended it through a gap in the branches, and then pulled it back; the rainwater had extinguished all the sparks on the firewood. Another thunderclap, and Yu Yuan seemed to hear the sound of a giant tree falling.

Yu Yuan returned and explained the situation. Even if it rains tomorrow, they still need to go out and find fuel. Everyone understood. The work was quickly arranged: Ding Shi, who was injured, would be in charge of keeping the fire going, Herbalist would search for herbs, and everyone else would go find fuel.

As Yu Yuan requested, everyone helped the alchemist light a fire at the cave entrance, covered it with damp branches, and placed the remaining tiger meat on top to smoke.

After eating and drinking their fill, they lit a second fire, and everyone except those on night watch rested around it. Even so, it couldn't dispel the chill emanating from the stone floor. Forget sleeping; even sitting for a while left your bottom icy cold.

As the night deepened and the temperature dropped, everyone slept restlessly, and some even started talking nonsense.

The herbalist on night duty touched Aunt Zhang's forehead, who was rambling incoherently, and found she had a fever. So she woke up the alchemist, who took out a crucible and started cooking tiger meat and herbal soup. The half-asleep people sat up at the smell of the aroma, drank a few sips of the herbal soup, and everyone felt warm.

But Aunt Zhang's condition was getting worse, and the herbalist whispered to Yu Yuan, "It's almost forty degrees Celsius, it's not just a simple case of catching a cold."

Yu Yuan asked, "What other possibilities are there?"

Herbalist: "Food poisoning, allergies, various germs, all are possible."

Yu Yuan asked, "Is there a solution?"

Herbalist: "No, she needs antibiotics."

Yu Yuan asked, "Will I die?"

Herbalist: "I don't know." As an excellent medical professional, she felt deeply helpless in the face of Aunt Zhang's situation.

The herbalist touched Ding Shi's forehead; he didn't have a fever. Theoretically, Ding Shi was the high-risk individual; who knows what germs might be inside the tiger claw? Even if the tiger claw was clean, the wound could still become inflamed and suppurate.

Yu Yuan said something that made the herbalist's heart jump: "This is only the second night."

Ding Shi sat up, looked around, nodded, and swayed to the side hole to relieve himself.

Seeing Ding Shi return and lie down again, Yu Yuan whispered, "Ding Shi, you guessed the storm right. With your understanding of the system, what's the next step?"

Ding Shi thought for a while in a daze and said, "After the storm, there should be a landslide."

Yu Yuan's expression changed drastically: "Are you going to destroy our place of refuge?"

Ding Shi said, "Originally, I thought the storm would greatly increase our survival difficulty. But it doesn't seem to be the case so far. The rainwater won't flow back, the wild beasts are returning to their dens, and we can work in the rain during the day. Since the storm is not the goal, it can only be a means. The worst consequence of the storm is landslides. If it still doesn't kill us, then earthquakes may start. I can understand even if the system uses a meteor shower."

Ding Shi said, "If it's a landslide, the first thing to be hit should be the new camp we originally had our eye on." As he said this, Ding Shi felt a chill of fear. If they really moved to the new camp today, it would be very likely to be buried by the landslide rocks under the torrential rain.

Ding Shi slammed his fist on the table and exclaimed, "Damn it, this system is a nightmare! It's all interconnected!" The west is the only direction where the terrain slopes down, so if players want to migrate, they'll definitely move towards lower elevations. This will lead them to an excellent campsite with water, fish, forests, and no wild beasts—making it incredibly easy to survive for five days.

Just then, the system collapsed.

Thinking back to the first day, starting a fire was difficult. The system issued a simple task: even if you don't want fire, I'll still force it on you. Presumably, even if you failed the task, the system would still send lightning to ignite a fire, ensuring your camp had a fire. How could you let the rhinoceros trample you without a fire?

Without the rhinoceros crushing everything in its path, a hundred Nightmare players could still put up a fight against hundreds of wolves, even if they were at a disadvantage.

I never expected that the system, that little bitch, would be so vicious.

(End of this chapter)