Chapter 27: Chicken Leg Mushroom Seeds

With this idea in mind, Lily Rhodes began rummaging through the blueprints she had acquired earlier. She vaguely remembered seeing one with a similar function among her collection.

"Found it. The stone floor blueprint."

Lily glanced at the required materials. It only needed stone.

While the material was abundant, she needed a massive amount to pave paths to all her frequently visited spots.

Since the Sea Beast tide outside showed no signs of ending and she felt no drowsiness, she simply began crafting the stone tiles and laying them on the ground.

Initially, she worried about laying the floor without any preparation. After all, she didn’t know how to mix cement or level the ground. To her surprise, the stone tiles merged perfectly with the earth the moment they made contact.

"Looks like I overthought it. This isn’t Azurea, after all," she murmured.

Because it was still in the middle of the Sea Beast tide, Lily couldn’t let Shelly return to her original size. For now, she could only pave the immediate area where she was standing.

After finishing the stone paths around her wooden cabin, Lily stood up and rubbed her sore lower back. "It sure would be nice to have a helper around."

Shelly would only continue to grow larger. If Lily had to do everything by herself, she would likely die of exhaustion. On the other hand, if she did nothing, vast stretches of land would inevitably turn into wasteland, which would be a tremendous pity.

However, given Lily’s personality, cooperating or trading supplies with other Survivors was fine, but her heart completely rejected the idea of taking someone in to live on Shelly’s back.

"Whatever. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I’ll just take it one step at a time."

There weren’t too many things on Shelly’s back right now, so she could still manage the workload.

By the time today’s Sea Beast tide was nearly over, she had basically finished laying the stone floors.

Lily dusted off her hands. She had no intention of resting just yet. Grabbing her prepared instant coffee, she downed it in one gulp. The bitter taste spread through her mouth, sending a jolt through her body and instantly banishing any lingering drowsiness.

She couldn’t sleep yet; there was still work to be done.

Lily walked to the edge of the fence. Shelly had already eaten her fill and was resting with her eyes closed.

Sensing Lily’s approach, Shelly extended her massive, angular, scale-covered head and affectionately nudged her.

Seeing this, Lily reached out and patted her. "Time to work. I’ll upgrade you in a bit."

"Woo~"

Shelly gave a cheerful cry, and her body began to sink.

She only stopped when the ground was nearly level with the sea. Lily looked at the water just inches away, gazing at the various fish corpses floating on the surface. She had never even seen most of them before, let alone knew their names.

The System panel could display their names, but there were simply too many for Lily to bother reading. In her eyes, as long as it was edible, it was a good fish.

She continuously used her Decomposition Technique and Collection Skill. The edible meat and useful materials were kept, while the inedible offal and fish heads were tossed aside to become fertilizer for Sprout. Her ultimate philosophy was zero waste.

"What’s this?"

While looting the corpses, Lily noticed a glowing orb resting on the remains of an eel-like Sea Beast.

[Chicken Leg Mushroom Seeds: Special mushroom seeds that require nutrient-rich soil to grow. Growth cycle: 3 days. The first consumption after maturity will significantly enhance physical constitution. Subsequent consumptions will yield diminishing returns.]

Lily stared at the seeds in her hand, deep in thought.

To think seeds like this actually existed. And they dropped directly from killing a Sea Beast.

The effect was incredibly impressive. If she sold them, they would undoubtedly be in high demand.

Lily had already formed a habit: whenever she obtained something new, her first thought was whether it could be sold in the trading zone. Since she was completely on her own, she required very few supplies. Feeding herself meant her entire family was fed.

Aside from crucial strategic resources that she wouldn’t foolishly sell off, she didn’t mind trading away the rest.

Moreover, special items that strengthened the body, like these Chicken Leg Mushrooms, were only truly valuable in the early stages. She highly doubted this was the only item capable of enhancing physical constitution; more would definitely appear later on.

It was just like weapons.

A few days ago, the Fish Spears she sold were in short supply. Now, they were just sitting in the trading zone alongside everyone else’s weapons, waiting to be picked by other Survivors. Sales had plummeted off a cliff.

Still, she needed to pay closer attention to seeds from now on.

Just because she could find special seeds like this didn’t mean others couldn’t.

With that thought in mind, Lily quickened her pace.

Today’s Sea Beast count was dozens of times higher than yesterday’s, but aside from that initial glowing orb, she hadn’t seen a single one since. It was clear how abysmally low the drop rate was.

But Lily wasn’t discouraged. Getting even one was already great; having something was always better than nothing.

Working in perfect tandem, the girl and the turtle quickly dismantled all the Sea Beast corpses in the surrounding waters and packed the materials into boxes.

Perhaps the effects of the strong coffee hadn’t worn off yet, because Lily felt completely wide awake without the slightest hint of sleepiness.

As Shelly rose back to her original height, Lily finally moved away from the sea. She hurried over to the designated planting area without a moment’s pause.

Although she called it a designated planting area, all the vegetables and fruits here were actually mixed together.

Lily hadn’t bothered to properly plow the land because she had never done farm work before and simply didn’t have the time. When she got plant or vegetable seeds and saplings, she would just dig a deep hole, toss them in, and pour some rooting water over them. For other seeds, she dug a shallow trench, scattered them, and watered them. Her entire approach was purely casual.

The fact that these vegetables and fruits were thriving had absolutely nothing to do with her, aside from the fact that she had planted them in the first place.

Lily was very self-aware about this. If she hadn’t obtained the Earth Spirit Pearl earlier, she wouldn’t even be able to keep weeds alive, let alone farm. She hadn’t forgotten how absurdly poor the soil quality on Shelly’s back used to be before getting the spiritual pearl.

Even without farming experience, she knew that barren dirt couldn’t grow a single thing.

Given the special effects of the Chicken Leg Mushrooms, Lily specifically picked an empty spot. Following her usual planting method, she simply scattered the Chicken Leg Mushroom Seeds directly onto the soil.