Raising all of humanity: Starting with a backyard pool world

Chapter 91 [The Road North and the Footprints of Giants]

A cold wind swirled dust as it swept across the three-way intersection.

"I insist that we must go to the north first," Chen Kai broke the silence.

"The equipment we're wearing is just a layer of animal hide; it's okay for fighting goblins in the newbie village, but now we could be wiped out by any elite monster we encounter."

"Without proper equipment, we can't go even a mile."

Wang Xuan nodded in agreement, waving the rough animal hide map in his hand.

"I think so too. The dwarven 'Artisan's Sacred Mountain' sounds like a giant equipment dungeon; the legacy left by the God of Forging must contain the combat power we need."

He looked at Ai Jia and Li Yao.

"Solving the problem of survival is the top priority. We can't even save our lives right now, so how can we talk about research and solving mysteries?"

"I object," Ai Jia retorted, pushing up her glasses.

Her gaze fell on the [Seed of Chaos] that was emitting an ominous light in Wang Xuan's hand.

"Equipment is an external thing that can be replaced at any time; but this thing is a time bomb growing inside our bodies."

She turned to Li Yao, whose face was pale with nervousness.

"It absorbed too many chaotic concepts last night, and it has upgraded; you've all seen the system notifications, the hunger level has increased significantly."

"It's getting hungrier and hungrier, and Li Yao can't suppress it forever. Once it turns on us, none of the four of us will escape."

"Since the Arcane Codex is the source of knowledge, the relics of the Eastern Elves are most likely to hold the answer to completely solving it."

"I...I also want to go to the East," Li Yao said softly, mustering her courage. "I can feel it becoming more and more active. I...I'm a little scared."

Both paths seem reasonable, yet they are completely contradictory.

An old house in the countryside, in the basement.

Xu watched the debate in the aquarium with great interest. "Interesting."

"The divergence in development paths has already emerged so quickly."

He absolutely did not want this unstoppable disaster squad to part ways as soon as they left the starting village.

Ai Jia's words made his eyes light up.

"Perhaps we've both fallen into a misconception," Aijia said, looking at her arguing companions. "We're discussing whether to 'solve the problem' first or 'improve our strength' first."

"But what if there's a third option?" She stretched out her finger and drew a square in the air.

"What we need right now is not an incomprehensible instruction manual; that's a distant solution that can't address our immediate needs."

"We need a 'safe'!"

Ai Jia's words stunned Wang Xuan and Chen Kai.

Wang Xuan's mind worked the fastest; he understood Ai Jia's meaning and clapped his hands.

"That's right! Lead boxes! Just like the lead boxes used to hold nuclear waste!"

"What we need now is not to fully understand it, but to 'lock' it up! To create a 'constraint device' that can stabilize the Seed of Chaos!"

"Looking across the entire continent," Wang Xuan pointed on the map, "who is best at crafting sturdy, stable items inlaid with runes?"

The answer is self-evident.

dwarf!

"Let's go to the North!" Wang Xuan concluded. "There's no conflict! Going to Ironforge in the North will allow us to upgrade our equipment and utilize the dwarven technology to create a controllable 'rune-bound container' for the [Seed of Chaos]!"

"Killing two birds with one stone!"

"Great idea!" Chen Kai's eyes also showed approval.

Ai Jia nodded; this was indeed the best solution at the moment.

However, the suppressed cry of pain made everyone's heart skip a beat.

"Uh!" It's Li Yao.

She suddenly clutched her chest, her face drained of color, and large beads of cold sweat rolled down her forehead.

The seed of chaos residing within her was burning hot, throbbing, and yearning for something.

Xu smiled and gently wrote a line in the Genesis Diary:

"The last straw that breaks the camel's back is called a sense of urgency."

"Yao Yao!" Ai Jia was the first to react and helped her up as she swayed.

Chen Kai and Wang Xuan stopped fooling around. There were no other players in this game for the time being, so they could only help each other and couldn't afford to lose power to anyone.

The problem can no longer be delayed.

"Go north." Chen Kai looked at Wang Xuan. "Immediately, now, right now."

This time, no one objected.

The journey to the North is long and tedious.

Fortunately, the valley tribes provided a sufficient amount of food and water.

Once outside the shelter of the valley, the true wilderness revealed its dangerous side.

During the journey, the team's division of labor and cooperation became increasingly sophisticated.

Chen Kai always walked at the front, avoiding most wild animals and dangerous terrain in advance.

Aija continuously collected plant samples and minerals along the way and analyzed their characteristics.

Holding the animal skin map, Wang Xuan matched his researched geographical knowledge with the actual environment, constantly revising his route.

The biggest change came from Li Yao.

Under Ai Jia's systematic guidance, she began to try micro-management training for the [Seed of Chaos].

The first training exercise was shelling nuts.

It's a black nut with a shell harder than a rock, so hard that it's difficult to crack open even with a stone.

"Close your eyes," Aija instructed, "Don't think about aggressive concepts like 'destroy' or 'damage'."

"You just need to define in your mind that the shell of this nut is fragile, like a crisp cookie."

Li Yao nodded nervously, carefully sending a faint wisp of her will into the Seed of Chaos, and then covering the nut with it.

The crystal gleamed slightly.

Chen Kai stretched out his finger and gently pinched the fruit shell.

"Crack." The hard outer shell cracked, revealing the sweet kernel inside.

"We did it!" Li Yao let out a small cheer.

This helped her regain her long-lost confidence.

Next, the thorny bushes blocking the way were cleared.

Li Yao used the same trick again; this time, the concept she applied was "withering".

The thorny vines, having lost their moisture and color, had become dry and scorched, turning to powder at the slightest touch.

Later, on a rainy night, they couldn't find any dry firewood.

Encouraged by Ai Jia, Li Yao used the concept of "acceleration" on a pile of damp wood.

The moisture inside the firewood was forcibly evaporated in a way that defied physics, sending up plumes of white steam.

A few minutes later, Chen Kai lit the campfire with just one spark.

Looking at the warm firelight, Wang Xuan and Chen Kai exchanged a glance, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.

Xu also watched with great interest.

"Brilliant," he exclaimed in the Genesis Diary.

"The Fourth Awakener is reborn, taming chaos into the most efficient Swiss Army knife. Her pure obsession with living is becoming the perfect reins for chaos."

"Perhaps, she is the true core of this game."

They traveled for about five more days.

After a reconnaissance mission, Chen Kai brought back a discovery.

"There's a road ahead," he said with a strange expression, "or rather, a road that has been developed."

Wang Xuan and Ai Jia followed him there.

The trees there showed obvious signs of having been felled, but the method was very crude.

There are still some abandoned camp ruins on the ground.

"Look at this." Ai Jia picked something up from the mud.

It was a small piece of hammered iron, with some slag still remaining on it.

"It's not dwarven craftsmanship," Wang Xuan judged at a glance. "It's too rough. But the hammering marks are very even, which shows that the user put a lot of effort into it."

He also found some abandoned levers and pulley system parts around the camp.

"I remember now!" Wang Xuan connected these clues with the rumors he had heard in the tribe.

"These are traces left by Mason, the forge seekers who went west to learn forging!"

"They've been here before, and..."

Wang Xuan took out the animal hide map, compared the location of these marks with the direction of travel, and drew a conclusion.

"Their destination is the same as ours!"

"It's also a dwarf kingdom in the north!"