Chapter Nine: The Hunting Trap

“The weather today is so fine it makes my face burn, and I miss you so much my hormones are all out of balance…” At dawn, brimming with energy, Justin Jia sang a song by Jordan Chan as he left his room to breathe in the fresh air, stretching lazily at the same time.

Last night, there were no skeletons, nor did any monsters attack the fortress. He’d enjoyed a solid, uninterrupted sleep, and felt wonderfully refreshed.

Turning back, he noticed that most of the wooden spike traps around his stone house had been badly damaged. The cause was the dense layer of mushroom corpses scattered all around.

Clearly, after he’d gone to bed, a large number of mushrooms had emerged from the forest, crowding desperately around the house for reasons unknown, only to perish en masse on the traps.

Recalling how those mushrooms had clung to him, and how there seemed to be more of them in the corner where the furnace was placed, Justin suddenly had a thought: could it be that the mushrooms were attracted by heat, which led them into the traps?

It seemed highly likely! The heat radiating from his body might attract mushrooms, which was why they tried to stick to him. The furnace inside gave off even more heat, so more mushrooms gathered there.

But if that was the case, why didn’t they simply leave the forest during the day and bask in the sun, where it was even warmer?

Never mind, he decided not to dwell on it.

One by one, Justin dragged the mushroom corpses away, making sure to search them for loot. As expected, most of them dropped only spores, but the largest of the mushrooms yielded two new items.

[Notification] You have acquired: Mushroom Toxin!
[Notification] You have acquired: Mushroom Headpiece Crafting Blueprint!

“Thank goodness I didn’t get curious and eat any of these mushrooms yesterday—they’re actually poisonous!” Justin exclaimed, startled. “And after all that rubbing against me last night, I didn’t get poisoned? I must be lucky! Or maybe the poison is only inside them, and it’s safe as long as you don’t eat them?”

He silently counted his blessings and promptly learned the recipe for the mushroom headpiece.

A new crafting option immediately appeared in his armor crafting menu.

[Mushroom Headpiece] requires: 5 mushrooms, 10 plant fibers.

“So, these mushroom corpses are useful after all?” Justin mused, realizing he had no idea what the mushroom headpiece actually did—this equipment hadn’t existed in the game before he was transported here. It must have been added after his arrival! Quickly, he picked five mushrooms from the ground and placed them in his backpack, and the crafting option lit up.

He clicked “craft” at once. The five mushroom corpses vanished from his inventory, replaced by a large mushroom cap. The headpiece was essentially made from the cap of the mushrooms, decorated with intricate patterns.

[Inferior Mushroom Headpiece]: Defense +1. Allows the wearer to camouflage as a mushroom in grass, avoiding the eyes of carnivores. However, there is a chance of being attacked by herbivores.

Though a bit ridiculous, the hat was actually quite impressive! Seeing the description, Justin immediately discarded his fiber cap with zero defense and donned the mushroom headpiece, which not only provided one point of defense but also allowed for camouflage.

He looked like a clown, but he was perfectly content.

He collected the remaining mushroom corpses and stored them in his virtual backpack, then took out his stone axe and felled a nearby tree for a batch of wood.

He returned to his house, used the wood to craft a wooden chest, and placed it in a corner. Into it, he stashed all his stones, plant fibers, wood, mushrooms, and coconuts. In his backpack, he kept only his stone axe, pickaxe, shovel, spear, wooden bow, and eleven arrows.

He then rebuilt the ring of wooden spike traps around the house, determined to protect his home from otherworldly creatures while he was out hunting.

Prepared to leave, he ventured into the dangerous forest.

After finding a path trampled out by animals leading to the river, Justin got to work, digging a pit about two meters deep with his stone shovel. He covered the hole with branches and leaves, creating a simple hunting trap.

Such a trap would be useless against the large creatures he’d seen yesterday, but it was perfect for catching smaller animals. As soon as a creature fell in, he’d be able to dispatch it easily with his stone spear!

Of course, one trap wasn’t enough. He dug three more in different spots.

Now all he could do was wait. He surveyed the area, and after a careful look around, climbed a large tree, using its dense foliage to conceal himself.

Camouflaging in the grass would have been easier, given his mushroom headpiece, but from there he wouldn’t have been able to see anything! Up in the tree, he had a clear view of all four traps and could immediately spot any prey that fell in. It wasn’t the most efficient method, but it was safe.

If only monsters killed by traps counted towards experience, he’d have lined the pits with spikes instead of waiting so foolishly.

Waiting was dull, and after a few hours perched in the tree, Justin nearly dozed off.

The first creature to approach the traps almost scared him out of his wits. It looked like a dinosaur from a science fiction film—a giant beast resembling a triceratops. Or perhaps it really was a triceratops?

Whatever it was, this colossal creature’s legs were taller than the pits he’d dug. If it stepped into a trap, not only would it not get caught, it would probably destroy the trap in an instant!

So Justin sat in the tree, silently praying for the triceratops to move on.

Luckily, it didn’t step into his traps.

Many more otherworldly creatures came and went, following the path to the river to drink. Some were too large, others too small; none triggered the traps, and he had yet to catch any prey.

After another hour, when the sun was high and the air in the forest grew stifling, Justin was nearly nodding off, his eyelids drooping, when a sudden commotion below jolted him awake.

He opened his eyes to see a group of bizarre-looking creatures scattering in panic. Several unlucky ones had fallen into his traps and couldn’t get out!

This was a group of otherworldly creatures coming to drink at the river. They stood at about a meter tall, very short, but walked upright like humans. Their general appearance, to put it simply, was that of dogs walking on two legs.

More precisely, they were kobolds.