Others try to survive on an island, I try to survive on a raft?

Chapter 122 The Crown of the Mother of the Neuroanemone

Chapter 122 The Crown of the Mother of the Neuroanemone

The two parties quickly reached a deal.

In fact, Zhao Tieshan was really short of coal. He had already used up one of the two baskets of coal just from smelting and forging iron.

Just when it seemed the last basket was about to run out, thankfully Su Jin arrived.

He took three baskets of coal from Su Jin in one go. His mouth watered as he watched Lin Xuan carry out the full load of shiny black coal from the cabin.

In addition, to Su Jin's surprise, the old man was actually a bit of a foodie.

Not only did they want his coal, but they also wanted to get some third-tier sea beast meat from him.

What surprised him even more was that the old man had a rather strong palate and actually looked down on the bright white and delicious meat of the razor clam, but instead had a special fondness for the meat of the stinky fish.

According to the old man, the stinky fish looks a bit like stinky tofu, and it's his favorite thing to eat.

Moreover, the meat of the stinky fish is firm and tastes like wild game, with a chewy texture, while he doesn't quite like the fine, brany texture of the razor clam.

However, it's good for making soup and enhancing its flavor, so he asked for a little bit.

In this godforsaken place, eating dry rations and grilled fish every day, I've long since lost all interest in food.

For a miner like Zhao Tieshan, whose physical exertion is immense, a piece of high-level beast meat rich in energy is more precious than Lu Yao.

In the end, Su Jin proposed to exchange 20 units of meat and three frames of black coal for a full 100 units of iron ore from Zhao Tieshan, which was more than what he had exchanged before.

Zhao Tieshan accepted the offer without hesitation. Fearing that Su Jin might change his mind, he turned around and rushed into his makeshift warehouse, where he laboriously carried out several piles of dark red hematite.

"Young man, please count this. This is a rich ore deposit I mined overnight, with an exceptionally high iron content! There are 110 units in total; the extra is a bonus!"

Zhao Tieshan is a straightforward man; he has a sense of justice.

The coal and meat that Su Jin gave him not only improved his work efficiency but also replenished his desperately needed physical energy. He made a huge profit from this deal.

Su Jin didn't stand on ceremony and, together with Lin Xuan, loaded all the iron ore onto the ship, basket by basket.

With this shipment, his subsequent plan for overwhelming firepower finally had the foundation to be implemented.

"Thank you, sir. Goodbye."

After saying goodbye to the beaming Zhao Tieshan, Su Jin patted the slag off his hands and turned his gaze to the small wooden house not far away.

Old Zhang was pretending to be calm as he grilled the meat, but his shifty eyes, which kept glancing this way, had long betrayed his inner turmoil.

Upon seeing Su Jin approach, he immediately stood up and said, "Boss, you've come at the perfect time! I caught something amazing last night!"

"What big stuff? Don't tell me it's some sea monster's excrement again." Su Jin casually sat down on a rock, and Lin Xuan also came over, her eyes filled with curiosity.

Old Zhang chuckled and mysteriously scooped a lump of pink jelly from the bucket behind him.

"This is it."

Old Zhang spread the thing out on the table.

It was a semi-transparent gelatinous substance, shaped like an irregular crown.

The most outrageous thing is that this thing is still alive.

The crown's edge was covered with dense, white nerve tendrils that were unconsciously scratching at the air, occasionally emitting a faint bioluminescence that sent chills down one's spine.

"The Crown of the Mother of the Neuroanemone"

Old Zhang gave the name, his tone revealing a sense of shock that I didn't understand: "Boss, you have no idea, last night this thing almost pulled my fishing rod away."

"This thing doesn't have any attribute description, it just says it's a rare marine creature material. I'm thinking, the meat looks pretty tender, maybe I could slice it up, dip it in some soy sauce, and make sashimi?"

"Eating this will definitely boost your brainpower and mental attributes, probably quite a lot."

Lin Xuan frowned, took a glass rod from her pocket, and poked the still-wriggling tentacles: "With such a highly developed central nervous system, how can this thing remain active after leaving its mother? Could it be infected with parasites?"

"Don't worry about that," Su Jin shook his head and said, "This world isn't as abstract as ours. What kind of parasite can parasitize a supernatural being?"

"I'm afraid the tiny parasite would have been killed by the super cells long ago, and besides—"

He patted Lin Xuan's back hard, making the top student look at him with a resentful expression.

"You think all those physical attributes you added are useless? Tiny parasites become protein in your body."

Upon hearing Su Jin's words, Lin Xuan nodded in agreement, realizing that her thinking was still somewhat limited.

Thinking about how much better I felt after eating the meat of these sea creatures, and how my headaches and nasal congestion that had bothered me for years were cleared up.

If there were parasites, my buttocks would have been bitten raw by them when I applied the jellyfish poultice last time.

The thought of that incident made her blush, and she immediately thought of what happened last night, which made her mind go blank.

Ignoring her, Su Jin said directly to Old Zhang, "This thing is at most food. By the standards of a Tier 3 material, it can be used to offset money."

He said that, but in his heart he didn't see this thing as food.

Now his ship has been upgraded again, and this is another rare marine life material that might be able to be socketed into a skill slot.

At that time, there will be another skill, which will fill the gap in combat power.

It's like playing a roguelike game; you can wait for better skills to appear, but leaving skill slots empty is never a good option.

Moreover, there are plenty of skill slots, and more as you progress, but rare marine creatures are not so easy to encounter.

Many of the rare marine biological materials he has obtained were acquired from Lao Zhang.

"Really? It can cover the cost?" Old Zhang's eyes lit up. "Then what about the money for the timber before—"

"Cancel it all out."

Su Jin readily agreed, and casually picked up the still twitching anemone crown behind him.

Upon hearing that the debt was gone, Old Zhang straightened his back considerably.

He reached into the broken bucket, which looked like a treasure chest, and started rummaging around.

"Hehe, Boss Su, to be honest, my talent level improved yesterday. I still can't catch any fish, but I can catch a lot of strange and unusual scraps."

As he spoke, he slammed the two small blue iron balls onto the table.

"The excrement of an unknown sea creature. This is deep-sea blue iron, which seems to be a high-grade mineral in this world."

"If we made them into daggers or something, they would be very sharp, not to mention these two things are quite heavy."

Immediately afterwards, another silver feather, half a meter long, appeared.

"The tail feathers of the Storm Petrel are so light they're practically nonexistent, but they're incredibly sturdy; you can't even cut them with a knife."

"I don't know which unlucky bird got bitten by a sea monster, but anyway, some part of its body ended up in my hands."

Old Zhang shrugged, speechless at having caught such strange things.

Looking at the two items on the table, Su Jin couldn't help but feel a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, mixed feelings).

Old Zhang may seem unreliable, but he's incredibly lucky.

The former made it into a dagger as the other party suggested, which was really good, since their current ordinary iron daggers were already having trouble cutting through the skin of a level 3 sea beast.

As time goes on, more advanced materials will be needed, and cheap metals like ordinary iron will eventually sit at the same table as wood.

He indicated that he hadn't figured out what to do with the latter, so it could be put on hold.

"Tell me, what do you want to exchange it for?"