Chapter 28: Collection Skill

After finishing all of this, Lily Rhodes still felt no sleepiness. She checked the time. It was nearly four in the morning; dawn would break in just a few hours.

She checked the growth of the other fruits and vegetables. The sweet potatoes had matured, but instead of harvesting them for food, she kept the entire yield as seeds and replanted them.

Thanks to the Earth Spirit Pearl, this batch of sweet potatoes grew massive, plump, and perfectly round. Each one looked meticulously handpicked and gave off a faint, sweet aroma entirely absent in ordinary sweet potatoes.

Lily had originally planted regular sweet potatoes, but purple and white varieties sprouted alongside them. She replanted those as well. She rarely ate purple or white sweet potatoes—not because she couldn’t afford them, but because she never went out of her way to buy them. She didn’t even know if they tasted the same as the regular ones.

The first batch of fruit had already been sold, and the second batch wouldn’t mature for a while. However, another round of cucumbers and tomatoes had just ripened.

She had specifically saved a few from the last batch to use as seeds. They were about ready now, allowing her to expand her planting scale.

Lily busied herself for another hour. If not for the Potential Seed, her small frame would have collapsed from exhaustion long ago.

After working for so long, the desire to find a helper sprouted in her mind. If she kept working alone, she would eventually die of overwork.

With that thought, Lily yawned and walked toward the wooden cabin.

It was time to sleep. She still had to explore the island tomorrow.

Before bed, she listed a few items in the trading zone as usual. The young masters in the Advanced supplies trading group had already monopolized her fruits and vegetables. Supply fell completely short of demand, so she never worried about sales. Instead, she planned to trade Healing Water, salt, and cleaned fish for seeds or special items.

Healing Water would be exchanged for special seeds, and salt for ordinary seeds. As for special items, she would personally review the offers. The cleaned fish would be traded for basic supplies.

Although they were at sea where fish was abundant, not everyone knew how to process it. Even if they managed to prepare a fish, they couldn’t be sure it was clean. What if it had parasites? There were no hospitals out here.

Furthermore, many Survivors were no longer alone; they now had elderly dependents and children with them, whose stomachs were far more fragile.

Lily used the Decomposition Technique to process her fish. This guaranteed the meat was perfectly clean, without a single trace of blood or parasites.

After finishing everything, Lily finally lay down on her bed, closed her eyes, and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

...

RING RING RING!!!

A frantic alarm jolted Lily awake.

She opened her eyes and checked the time. It was already seven o’clock, and the sky outside was bright.

Lily yawned and struggled out of bed. She splashed cold water on her face to clear her head, then took two sips of cooling water.

The cooling water slid down her throat, instantly clearing much of the fog from her groggy mind.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, Lily packed her prepared tools and set out once again. Yesterday was for exploration; today was for gathering supplies.

Drawing on yesterday’s experience, she smoothly steered the raft to the sandy beach.

She pulled a Bronze Treasure Chest from her spatial storage and used the Collection Skill on the white beach. In the next second, a massive crater appeared in the sand.

"Sure enough, it works. I wonder if I can use the Collection Skill to chop trees. It would save me so much trouble if I could."

Although she had brought an axe, she had never actually used one before. She had barely even touched an axe in her daily life, let alone chopped down a tree.

However, wood was essential for burning charcoal. To secure an endless supply of charcoal, she would have to bite the bullet and chop them down herself if the Collection Skill didn’t work on trees.

But if it came to that...

Lily looked at the distant forest. "If it comes to that, I’m afraid I’ll be delayed here for several days."

She filled over a dozen Bronze Treasure Chests to the brim with sand before stopping, figuring this stash would last her a while.

Using Skills was definitely much faster than doing it manually.

After packing away the Bronze Treasure Chests, she headed into the forest. Her first target: a coconut tree.

"Decompose."

In the next second, the coconut tree collapsed. Its leafy crown fell away, leaving behind a perfectly straight, bare log.

Excellent, it really works!

An unstoppable smile spread across Lily’s face.

She quickly decomposed over a dozen more trees without a hitch. But just as she prepared to continue, her body suddenly seized up, and she slumped to the ground, utterly drained.

A wave of exhaustion washed over her. The fatigue stemmed from her mind rather than her body; it seemed directly decomposing trees drained a significant amount of spiritual power.

After all, these trees were somewhat alive, which naturally made them different from the dead objects she usually decomposed.

Even so, it was still far faster than chopping them down with an axe.

Moreover, she had the Potential Seed. The Potential Seed didn’t just push physical limits; it pushed mental limits as well. In just a short moment, she already felt much better. Her recovery speed was faster than she had imagined.

"Keep going. Today’s goal is to decompose a thousand trees."

Lily rubbed her hands together and marched deeper into the island.

She didn’t know if islands were considered rare resources in this sea, but since she found one, she had to exploit it completely. Otherwise, what would she do if she never encountered another one?

If her own capabilities didn’t limit her, she would have simply packed up the entire island and taken it with her.

That aside, she needed to buy more Bronze Treasure Chests once she got back. The ones she currently had were running out, and since there were no more to be found in the nearby waters, she could only purchase them from others.

She wondered if Bronze Treasure Chests could be decomposed, and if so, what they would yield.

Given that a Bronze Treasure Chest could hold so many items, its interior had to be more complex than just simple Bronze. She might even be able to decompose it into something incredible.

As Lily pondered this, her hands never stopped moving. She continuously cast the Decomposition Technique, maintaining a steady rhythm: decomposing a dozen trees, resting for a moment, and then repeating the process.

As time passed, she noticed that the number of trees she could decompose in a single burst was increasing, while the intervals between her rests grew longer. It seemed this method truly exercised her spiritual power, and the results were remarkably clear.