"Phew, I'm exhausted!"
Chu Yuan sat down on the straw mat, panting; it was truly exhausting for him.
Setting the chest aside, he opened the lid and took out a hanging pot, an iron axe, and a manual.
"Rest a bit, then go find water."
Chu Yuan added more wood to the fire to keep it burning, while he himself sat resting and holding the instructional manual to learn how to fell trees properly.
After a while, a blue virtual light screen suddenly popped up in front of him, and at the same time, a system voice rang in his ears.
[Congratulations, player, you have learned the skill 『Tree Felling』!]
"So fast? System, open Personal Information!"
[Personal Information]
Name: Chu Yuan
Age: 19
Spirit: 1.2
Constitution: 0.8
Strength: 0.9
Agility: 0.9
Energy: 0
Skill: Tree Felling [28/100%]
... ...
"Oh, it's actually that high?"
Chu Yuan was quite surprised; he didn't expect that just reading for a bit would reach 28% progress, which meant his comprehension was not bad.
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Moreover, just as he had guessed, the personal information section had a new line for skills; it seemed the path ahead was not much different from what he had suspected.
Looking back at the real-time display on the light screen.
7:24
"That's about right, next is getting water!"
Everyone knows water is the source of life; a human can go three weeks without eating, but without water to drink for three days, one might as well dig a hole to bury oneself—dust to dust.
In this environment of thick Eldritch mists, finding a water source wasn't too difficult; it was even an advantage because the air humidity was at a saturation level.
Instead of looking for water from streams or rivers, he only needed to get it from places where dew accumulated, such as leaf surfaces or depressions in rocks.
Without needing to go very far, Chu Yuan suddenly remembered—wasn't the thatched roof of his hut the very place where dew collected?
So he took the hanging pot to catch the water droplets accumulating on the roof, using his hand to gently slide them into the pot, repeating this on all sides of the thatched roof.
A moment later, he saw that the pot contained a fair amount of water—neither too much nor too little. Chu Yuan pulled a few dry stalks of thatch from the roof, tied them along the edge, and joined them at a single point according to the drainage principle, then placed the hanging pot underneath to catch it; the rest was just a matter of waiting.
It wasn't that he hadn't thought of taking water from the leaves in the forest outside, but he feared accidentally taking water from toxic leaves; at that time, even if it were boiled, if it didn't kill him, it would cause a stomach ache. Taking water from the thatched roof was safer.
"Great, next is felling trees for firewood; the wood is almost gone!"
Chu Yuan wiped the condensation from his face, grabbed the iron axe, and headed toward the forest.
... ...
"It's you!"
Chu Yuan looked at a tree in front of him about 6 meters tall, with a diameter of approximately 15 cm, a straight trunk, and a wide canopy of branches and leaves above.
Chu Yuan first used the axe to clear the small bushes around the base of the tree within a radius of about 2 meters so the axe wouldn't get snagged when he swung his arms.
Next, recalling the instructions in the manual on how to fell trees, Chu Yuan found a good and favorable standing angle, feet shoulder-width apart, took a deep breath, and then swung the axe diagonally at a position on the trunk level with his hips.
Thud!
As the axe bit into the trunk, the tree trembled, followed by a flurry of water droplets splashing down from the canopy onto Chu Yuan.
Chu Yuan had anticipated this, so he used his jacket to cover his head to avoid getting wet, which could lead to hypothermia, colds, heat shock, and so on.
The axe blade embedded into the trunk at a diagonal angle of about 45 degrees; Chu Yuan pulled it out, then aimed precisely to strike another blow at an upward diagonal angle so the second cut met the first, forming a V-shape.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
"Huff, huff—"
Setting the axe on the ground, Chu Yuan rested his hands on his hips, panting incessantly.
He couldn't be blamed; after all, before transmigrating a few months ago, he did nothing but study, eat, and lie around playing, with almost no exercise, coupled with staying up late and constant "manual labor"—it was normal for his body to be weak.
After resting for a moment, Chu Yuan used the axe to push out the wood chips that had been cut from the trunk; the trunk was now cut with a V-shaped notch about 1/3 deep.
This method of felling saves strength and helps the tree fall much more easily than cutting straight across; this was the knowledge instructed in that manual.
Recalling the instructions from the manual again, Chu Yuan stepped to the opposite side of the cut, stood firmly, and carefully estimated a cutting position about 5 cm higher than the opposite side.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Chu Yuan exerted his entire body's strength, gripping tightly to help the moment the axe contacted the wood surface create penetrating force and maintain the axe's direction.
As soon as the axe stopped, he immediately relaxed his muscles to prepare for the next strike, performing exactly as instructed in the manual.
Cr-ack—!
After a few more strikes, the sound of wood snapping rang out. Chu Yuan quickly stopped to observe, then moved to a safe position and watched the tree slowly fall.
