Chapter 56: Looting the Camp, A Bountiful Harvest of Resources

This was also the place where that Boss-level assassin had rushed out from.

Looking inside, a stove was burning in the small wooden cabin, and there was a small wooden table next to it.

On the wooden table sat a yellowed parchment map.

It seemed that because of the sudden turn of events, the black-robed priest had rushed out before he could put the map away.

Cao Xing went over and picked it up.

[Obtained Gale Snowfield Map *1]

[Click to expand and view]

Cao Xing clicked on it.

The map unfolded before him, and various symbols and drawings immediately appeared on it.

There were rivers, high mountains, wild beasts, and towns.

And in the upper-left corner of this map, Cao Xing saw a symbol for a large town, with a name written on it.

[Lake Doron City]

Cao Xing was taken aback. "Oh boy, so Lake Doron City is over there."

Cao Xing glanced at the distance; it was a whopping thousand-plus kilometers away from his current location!

From the icons on the map, he could roughly tell that [Lake Doron City] should be a large town with a massive population.

Cao Xing thought to himself, "The distance is too far. It seems that delivery quest won't be completed anytime soon."

"I wonder if the residents of this town have received word that the Hunters are planning a massacre in the near future."

Shaking his head, he cast these thoughts aside.

Apart from these icons, Cao Xing also saw individual sun symbols on the map.

These suns varied in size.

One of the slightly larger sun symbols was located right where they currently were.

And going deeper into this canyon, about ten kilometers further ahead, there was an even larger sun.

Cao Xing suddenly thought of something and said in surprise, "Holy crap… Don't tell me all of these marked locations are Hunter camps?"

"Does this map mark the strongholds of the Hunters across the entire Gale Snowfield?"

Cao Xing's breath hitched, and he instantly realized the importance of this map!

As seen from the previous battle, destroying these [Hunter Camps] not only yielded rewards but also granted reputation points.

Knowing these locations was equivalent to holding a treasure trove of benefits!

Cao Xing said excitedly, "It just so happens that I have a tavern blueprint. Once the tavern is built, attracting powerful followers will require a high enough reputation."

"In the future, if my reputation is running low, I can just farm a few Hunter camps, and my reputation will skyrocket!"

Cao Xing thought to himself gleefully.

Just then, Liu Muxue's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"A-Xing, there's also a storage chest here."

Hearing this, Cao Xing looked over and saw a yellowed wooden chest in the corner.

So he nodded and said, "Alright, I'll go take a look."

[Hunter's Storage Chest (Blue): Openable]

"It's actually a Blue-grade storage chest!"

This was a medium-sized camp, so the grade of the storage chest was also higher. Correspondingly, there might be some good stuff inside.

Cao Xing rubbed his hands together, filled with anticipation.

Then, he clicked to open it.

[Successfully opened Hunter's Storage Chest. Obtained Smoked Fish *6]

[Obtained Honey *3 Jars]

[Obtained Milk *5]

[Obtained Intact White Bear Pelt *1]

[Obtained Basic Watchtower Construction Blueprint *1]

[Obtained Redanian Centaur Strong Liquor *7]

[Obtained Skill Book: Blessing of Courage]

[Obtained Black Diamond *1]

"So many things, and even honey and milk!"

In this freezing, resource-scarce world, the value of these two resources could easily be imagined.

Especially honey, which was a delicacy that only nobles could enjoy.

If his subjects like Dahua and the others found out that Cao Xing had brought back honey, they would definitely jump for joy.

Aside from these, there was also a skill book and a blueprint.

Cao Xing checked the attributes of this skill book.

[Blessing of Courage (Blue): Gathers the power of the Aurora, increasing the Physical and Magic Attack of friendly creatures within a certain range by Spirit * 1.5. Effect lasts for 90 seconds. Cooldown: 200 seconds.]

After reading the attributes of this skill book, Cao Xing was instantly shocked.

"Holy crap, isn't this the Blessing of Courage, one of the top-tier early-stage support skills of the Aurora Knight?"

Although Liu Muxue's current Spirit stat wasn't very high, and the attack boost wouldn't be as massive as imagined.

However, as long as she leveled up a few more times and increased her Spirit stat, a single blessing would make everyone's attack power skyrocket.

Thus, Cao Xing handed the skill book directly to her.

"Muxue, learn this."

"Okay."

Liu Muxue nodded slightly and then clicked to learn it.

A moment later, Liu Muxue said with a joyful smile, "It's done, A-Xing."

Cao Xing nodded.

At this moment, a diamond with a black crystal luster all over appeared in his hand.

This diamond was about the size of a thumb, and under the reflection of the firelight, it appeared extremely translucent.

[Black Diamond: Special material. Socketing it into equipment increases Charm by 20 points.]

(An extremely rare mineral. Nobles view it as a symbol of status. Any Black Diamond will spark a bidding war and can fetch an extremely high price.)

Seeing the description, Cao Xing was taken aback, and then a look of joy appeared on his face.

"Holy crap… a single gem can increase Charm by 20 points. That's just absurd!"

"No wonder those nobles all yearn to possess a Black Diamond!"

Whether Cao Xing used this Black Diamond for himself or traded it in a town, it would bring massive benefits.

Cao Xing nodded in satisfaction and then put the Black Diamond back into his backpack.

At this point, everything in this camp had been looted clean by them. It was truly a bountiful harvest.

"Let's go, time to head back!"

After saying that, they walked out of the camp.

Then, everyone climbed up along the pile of boulders by the edge of the cliff.

Thud! Thud, thud!

As Dabai also climbed up from below the cliff, Cao Xing's team members were gathered once again.

He glanced at the time above.

[Time until nightfall: 1 hour 17 minutes…]

[Current Temperature: -56°C]

Cao Xing felt reassured. "There's still over an hour before dark. That's more than enough time for me to get back to camp."

Then, he sat on the back of the tracked robot and continued forward.

The group, along with four machines and a mammoth, traveled rapidly through the vast ice field.

Before long, snowflakes actually began to drift down from above.

"It's snowing, A-Xing."

Liu Muxue stretched out her right hand and murmured, "So beautiful…"

Cao Xing glanced around.

Although the weather forecast said light snowfall.

But in this kind of snowfield, a light snowfall was comparable to a heavy snowfall on Blue Star.

Whoosh—

The cold wind howled, and the temperature began to drop sharply.

Heavy snow fell, turning everything before them into a vast expanse of white, making it difficult to even tell north, south, east, and west apart.

Fortunately, Cao Xing had the system's built-in mini-map function.

Under his lead, the team braved the wind and snow, advancing steadily.

Before long, they saw the location of their camp.

From afar, a large bonfire could be seen burning fiercely.

Snowflakes drifted near the bonfire and were quickly melted by the heat radiating from the flames.

Compared to the vast white expanse outside.

Cao Xing's camp was like an independent world amidst the ice and snow.

At this moment, the Arctic People were still working hard despite the heavy, feather-like snow.

Liu Muxue said, "A-Xing, our territory has expanded quite a bit again, and it seems there are many more buildings!"

Her expression was slightly excited.

After all, this was the territory belonging to her and Cao Xing.

Cao Xing nodded; he also saw the changes in the territory.

Compared to when they had left, the current territory size had increased by a large margin.

In other words, during this time, Da Zhuang and the others had upgraded the camp bonfire by at least two levels.

Apart from that, there were many more small shelters in the territory.

Even the [Blacksmith Shop] and [Cafeteria] had been built.

"Let's go, back to the camp."

Cao Xing and the others gradually approached.

From a distance, the Arctic People saw a large group of figures walking through the snow, their eyes filled with intense vigilance and wariness.

But when they saw Cao Xing sitting on the tracked robot, their pupils dilated instantly.

"Oh, heavens! It's the Lord!"

"How did so many creatures suddenly appear?"

"Heavens! There's even a mammoth. To even be able to tame such a sacred creature, how did the Lord do it?"

Seeing that Cao Xing had brought back so many powerful creatures after just one trip out, these Arctic People were incredibly shocked.

At the same time, all the subjects stopped their work and stood together respectfully, waiting.

Xia Yanni, tall and wearing tight jeans, stood out exceptionally among the crowd.

A rich, mature aura emanated from her, like a fully ripe peach.

Xia Yanni held Tong Chuchu's small hand, looking somewhat nervously at the big guys around Cao Xing.

Cao Xing jumped down from the tracked robot and asked, "Da Zhuang, nothing happened while I was away, right?"

Da Zhuang quickly stepped forward to report, "Lord, nothing special happened. Everyone has been working hard."

"Except around noon, a few Frost Goblins tried to attack us, but they were shot down by Lady Ilena with the help of the powerful Elemental Arrow Tower."

Hearing this, Cao Xing nodded.

Frost Goblins were also a relatively common type of monster in the wilderness.

Although these wild creatures could not enter the territory, they could attack the workers outside the territory.

Fortunately, before heading out, Cao Xing had left Ilena to guard the territory and had also built a [Basic Elemental Arrow Tower].

Cao Xing looked at the snakewoman Ilena and said, "Ilena, well done."

Ilena swayed her body, flicked her crimson tongue, and said, "At your service, my Lord."

Da Zhuang respectfully took out a few azure stones and said, "Lord, these are the items dropped by those goblins. They contain the aura of magic."

Cao Xing took them.

[Obtained Ice Crystal Stone *4.]

[Ice Crystal Stone (Green): A stone dropped by certain ice element monsters. It contains a strong icy aura and can be used to construct certain special buildings or to forge ice-attributed equipment.]

…

Cao Xing's eyes lit up. "Oh? It's actually this kind of stone?"

…

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