Chapter 62: Chapter 62: Berry Seeds
It was another ordinary night.
Wang Wu emerged from his concealed dormant state, first rushing to the creek to gulp down a bellyful of water, gaining 50 points of satiety, slightly restoring his Life Value, and washed himself meticulously, though he couldn’t keep warm.
To speak of it, ever since the Devil Vine passed by, he hadn’t eaten for a long time. Previously, he had been dormant at the North Mountain Root for eight days, with his Growth already declining significantly, and now he was just living by drinking water. Although it didn’t affect his Growth, increasing it was impossible.
Now, he was just a malnourished little bear.
However, he was not too concerned, feeling that he could hold on for another one or two months without issue.
At this moment, Wang Wu headed straight for the low mountain where the mouse hole was located. After roughly determining the location, he started digging at a corner under the low mountain, reasoning that since there was an entrance to the mouse hole above the low mountain, he could definitely dig into it from below, the only question being how long it would take.
Wang Wu’s claws were still quite sharp and hard now, seemingly related to his Growth stage and Defense stats.
He had tried before, striking rocks with his claws at full force, feeling only a slight pain but not causing them to break or fracture.
When scratching with effort, he could already leave five marks, about a centimeter deep, on the hard rock, resembling proper marks.
With such sharpness, if he were to claw at tree trunks, it would be even more effective.
So now, using them to dig the soil, although not quite suited for this scene, still gave a sense of using a butcher’s knife to kill a chicken.
Swish, swish, swish, large clumps of earth fell down in swathes, and within a moment, Wang Wu had dug out an entrance with a diameter of thirty centimeters, enough for him to enter normally.
Then, he pushed away the excavated soil with his two front paws, spreading it around.
Thanks to the Devil Vine for overturning the soil around here, even the newly dug soil didn’t strike as awkward at all.
Next, Wang Wu continued to dig into the low mountain, and after digging less than two meters, he encountered a rock layer.
So, he tried digging downward, and while doing so, the ground beneath him suddenly collapsed, burying him in two to three meters of loose soil—it turned out there was a hollow below.
Faced with this situation, Wang Wu did not panic. He first confirmed his position to determine up and down, then slowly swayed to compact the surrounding earth, compressing the space, and quickly found the exit above.
Then, he carefully examined the surroundings, searching for the collapsed hollow.
As expected, he found a rather large cavity on one side, at least a meter in diameter, but this was definitely not a mouse hole; it was caused by the roots of the Devil Vine being withdrawn.
He was quite knowledgeable about this; when the Devil Vine searched for plant roots underground, it was truly like a headless loach drilling randomly everywhere.
It would especially keep sprouting more tiny roots, wreaking havoc wherever it went.
However, upon leaving, these roots wouldn’t cause destruction but would gather and systematically withdraw, forming such a huge cavity.
Next, Wang Wu crawled into this wide tunnel-like cavity, planning to explore fifty meters in each direction since it was easy to get lost underground.
He headed slowly toward the low mountain direction, but before long, the ground beneath him loosened and collapsed again, revealing yet another crossing hollow below.
It took him quite a while to climb out and continue forward, but after less than ten meters, he found it blocked ahead, with a massive collapse of earth.
Originally, Wang Wu intended to bypass it, but he caught a faint, somewhat familiar scent within the collapsed soil.
"Mouse droppings?"
He blinked, immediately stepped forward to scrutinize it with his nose, even feeling an urge to taste it, as he was now desperate to dig out the mouse hole.
However, in the end, he resisted; this pile of collapsed soil indeed provided him with a lot of information.
"Some of the soil is quite dry, unlike it has been ravaged by the Devil Vine. It’s mixed with a bit of mouse droppings, indicating this mouse hole also suffered a destructive blow from the Devil Vine. At least half of it was destroyed."
Wang Wu analyzed internally, accelerating his digging pace, pushing the collapsed soil continually backward, only for more soil to keep collapsing from above.
Within this new collapsed soil, he found more mouse droppings and —
"What is this?"
Wang Wu carefully grasped with his claw a small particle resembling mouse droppings but slightly smaller, overall round, and quite hard.
The scent on it was somewhat familiar.
This wasn’t mouse droppings; it resembled a kind of plant seed.
Wang Wu’s heart was pounding.
Eventually, he couldn’t resist and licked it; his tongue was more sensitive than his nose.
"Goodness, this is a berry seed!"
At that moment, Wang Wu felt as if he had hit the jackpot, his whole body and soul rejoicing and jumping, never expecting such a surprise awaited him.
As for the seed, it was unlikely to have come from the mouse’s stomach as it would have been already digested into droppings.
And considering the Gray Rat Race’s past occupation of the Berry Plain, Wang Wu could almost affirm that these berry seeds were stored by the Gray Rat Race; their tribe had already stepped into an agrarian civilization.
Next, Wang Wu didn’t dare be careless, meticulously and frantically searching through the soil, not minding even if he mistakenly tasted two pieces of mouse droppings.
In the end, he miraculously found nine berry seeds.
By now, the collapsed soil above had almost all fallen, revealing an upward cavity with a stronger scent of gray mouse, yet not a single living gray mouse was seen.
Wang Wu explored with his claws, finally touching the rock layer.
He also found a mouse hole dug through a rock crevice, undoubtedly leading directly to the top of the low mountain.
Besides that, he discovered several obviously excavated small hollowed spaces around the rock layer, quite dry and sizeable, but with faint traces of mouse scent.
"If my guess is correct, this should be a place where the Gray Rat tribe stored food, but there’s no evidence of attacks by the Devil Vine here, so where have those gray mice gone?"
Wang Wu was puzzled, did they migrate elsewhere?
Perhaps they took their food and seeds with them before setting out, and what he found were merely leftovers?
Finding no further gains, Wang Wu did not dwell on it, painstakingly returned the way he came, and finally re-emerged on the surface, only then realizing that the mouse hole storing the seeds was at least twenty meters deep underground.
After a brief rest, Wang Wu sought a moist, flat area nearby, not likely to be flooded by mountain torrents, and carefully planted the nine berry seeds, these being his hope.
Then, he returned to the mouse hole beneath the low mountain, piling a mound of soil at the entrance, sealing it up meticulously.
This mouse hole was of no use to him for now, but come winter, it would serve as an excellent hiding place.