Chapter Six: Upgrading the Razor-Tusk Boar Card!

For the next three days, Lu Sheng followed the team on their hunts. He quickly became familiar with the members of the small squad. During this period, the group’s main focus was gathering materials to build houses; only when they encountered monster dungeons while collecting resources did they hunt monsters in passing. As a result, the monster cards Lu Sheng obtained were limited—he gained just five cards through hunting, which was less than what his sow brought him, yielding twenty-one piglets.

The piglet corpses were mostly stored away in his storage space. Of note, all five monster cards were goblins. This, he recalled from memory, was not unusual. According to the reasoning of the human leadership, if a region’s dungeons repeatedly produced the same monster, it likely corresponded to a world dominated by that monster. However, it wasn’t exclusive; just as the human world houses more than just humans, though humans are most numerous. Of course, this was merely speculation by humanity, without any solid evidence.

Of the five goblins hunted, his life card absorbed blood essence from only two. With his current life card’s low rank, it could barely extract blood essence from one goblin per day. Life card advancement wasn’t limited to blood essence absorption, but blood essence was the simplest method.

He was fortunate to also obtain a source pearl from the hunt. Source pearls had many uses and served as the world’s mainstream currency. For example, source pearls were an essential material for card makers. Life cards could absorb source pearls to enhance cultivation, with no restrictions, though the drawback was the slow pace—much slower than blood essence absorption.

After three days of rebuilding, housing arrangements had settled into two people per room, and the originally small Oxhorn Village had expanded tenfold. In this era of cards, with enhanced physiques and monster card assistance, building houses and performing labor-intensive work was much more efficient. Three days were enough to give Oxhorn Village a complete facelift.

Lu Sheng awoke from sleep, preparing for today’s hunt. The construction was now finished after three days, and today it was time to scout the surroundings and search for monsters or monster dungeons. Monsters from dungeons would descend into reality after twenty-four hours, so the wilderness did contain monsters. In unexplored areas, one needed to be cautious when traveling.

He now held a total of twenty-six first-tier early-stage monster cards, all unused. He had two options: first, to select a goblin card for enhancement, thus gaining a trump card; second, to enhance the Fanged Pig, to see if its improved form could summon more piglets or produce higher-tier piglets.

He had hesitated before, but now the choice was clear. The first option lingered in his mind only because he felt insecure upon arriving here, prompting a desire to boost his combat power. However, this path posed several problems.

First: the appearance of a goblin would be hard to explain; if others believed he possessed some treasure, it would spell trouble—this was, after all, a post-apocalyptic world.
Second: even enhancing a goblin wouldn’t help much, since his goblin card was only first-tier early-stage. A single upgrade would barely make it first-tier mid-stage, offering limited assistance.
The risks far outweighed the benefits, and after three days of peace, he no longer felt so unsafe. With tenfold strength, he could easily slay monsters; at least for now, nothing threatened him.

In his mind, the Fanged Pig card quietly took precedence, with many piglet cards placed into the auxiliary slots. After inserting fifteen piglet cards, the fusion progress reached one hundred percent.

[Fusion!]

Light flashed in his mind, and a brand-new card appeared.

Fanged Pig
Quality: White
Rank: First-tier Mid-stage
Skill: Piglets (Upon use, can summon ten piglets.)

Seeing the card’s details, Lu Sheng smiled. An increase of three in litter size was no small matter. Monster cards could only be upgraded in rank, so their quality wouldn’t change. Now, everything was ready for today’s hunt.

He opened the door and knocked on the neighboring room.

“Mu Kui! Time to get up and assemble!”

Now, with two people per room, Mu Kui was his roommate.

“Coming! Coming!” Rustling came from inside, and soon a sturdy man stepped out, yawning and rubbing his eyes, still half asleep.

“If only I could sleep until noon, ha~”

“You can try that, but don’t blame Captain Shi if he kicks your backside.”

“Tch, him? I’m not afraid.”

As they chatted, the door swung open and Shi Jiu walked in from outside.

“What did you just say?”

Mu Kui snapped awake: “Nothing, just discussing how much we might harvest today. Right, Lu Sheng?”

As he spoke, Mu Kui gave Lu Sheng a meaningful look. Lu Sheng shot him a disdainful glance, but didn’t expose him. He nodded, affirming Mu Kui’s words.

Shi Jiu eyed Mu Kui suspiciously. From experience, he knew this rascal was probably badmouthing him behind his back.

“All right, let’s go. A small dungeon appeared to the east. Grab your weapons, we’re heading out.”

The team quickly assembled. Shi Jiu addressed them: “This small dungeon is assigned to our squad, so stay alert. Let’s handle it cleanly!”

“Move out!”

In the apocalypse, combat was routine. There was no need for motivational speeches or stirring battle cries. To survive, one had to keep fighting.

The small dungeon lay right next to Oxhorn Village, having appeared last night. It was just a few steps away.

Entering the dungeon, Lu Sheng scanned the surroundings. From each large tent, swarms of diminutive goblins crawled out. In moments, nearly twenty appeared, and judging by their numbers, there were over fifty.

Goblins were weak fighters, and everyone in Shi Jiu’s squad was formidable. Apart from Lu Sheng, the others were at least first-tier mid-stage. Facing these goblins, they showed no sign of panic.

“Attack!”

Life-and-death combat was nothing like street brawls, where both sides stared each other down for minutes. Seizing the initiative was the way to fight in the apocalypse.

Under Shi Jiu’s command, the previously unremarkable team sprang into action. Two members summoned monsters to assist—a cat demon and a wolf—while the others relied on their life cards for bodily enhancement.

Lu Sheng had no time to observe them; seeing so many monsters, he was already excited. If he could slay them all, he’d enjoy a windfall. The best outcome would be to stockpile enough cards to upgrade his life card’s quality.

Higher card quality meant greater blood essence absorption and faster advancement. Moreover, quality upgrades would not only grant new skills, but also strengthen existing ones.