Chapter 8 The Hut Evolves
Early the next morning, the shelter woke Lan Chi, who was sleeping soundly, loudly complaining, “Lan Chi, I’m hungry.”
Lan Chi got up groggily and comforted it, “Okay, okay, I’ll find you something to eat.” Then he froze for a moment. His drowsy mind suddenly cleared — the shelter could talk now?
He took out the phosphor crystals and materials from yesterday’s trade and fed them to the shelter.
“Wow, so much!” The shelter happily stretched out its tentacles and devoured everything like a whirlwind. “Tasty.”
Lan Chi watched in amazement. Yesterday it could barely speak clearly, and today it could communicate normally? He immediately opened the system to check the shelter’s information and found it had reached Tier 1, 32%, and had gained a new function:
[Scorpion Tail Stinger]: The shelter can grow tails like scorpion-tail hornets to attack enemies.
“Anything else to eat? I’m still hungry.” After swallowing all the materials and still not full, the shelter’s tentacles reached toward the honey barrels in the living room.
Lan Chi quickly stopped it. “Wait, don’t eat this one. There’s more outside.” He pointed at the beehive outside, larger than the shelter itself. “Go eat that. We didn’t finish harvesting yesterday. That’s enough to fill you up.”
The shelter excitedly moved over and stretched out its tentacles, clinging to the hive and devouring it greedily.
Lan Chi noticed the shelter had not only grown larger, but also spoke much more fluently. He walked outside to watch it eat for the first time. The roof opened into a huge gaping mouth, and tentacles grabbed chunks of the hive and dumped them inside.
Lan Chi didn’t stay idle either. He directed the axe monster and pickaxe monster to continue chopping wood and mining stone nearby.
Suddenly, a miserable scream came from the shelter’s direction. A huge insect was desperately clawing at the hive’s opening.
“Help me, help me!!” A cry for help, accompanied by a powerful mental wave, slammed directly into Lan Chi’s mind, making him dizzy. Before he could react, the voice abruptly stopped.
Lan Chi held his forehead and looked again, only to see the shelter’s tentacles dragging half of the insect while chewing.
“That just now… the queen?” he suddenly realized. It was likely a scorpion-tail hornet queen with extremely strong psychic power. Unfortunately, it hadn’t even finished begging before the shelter swallowed it.
The shelter continued eating. After spending more than half a day, it finally consumed most of the entire hive, leaving only some royal jelly and beeswax for Lan Chi.
Lan Chi seriously suspected it only left those behind because it couldn’t eat anymore, since the amount it consumed was several times more than what remained.
He looked at the piles of royal jelly and beeswax outside the house, then looked at the honey filling the interior. Selling them felt wasteful, but there wasn’t enough space to keep everything. He sighed and said, “Shelter, can you still eat? There’s no room left inside.”
The shelter replied, “I’m full. I won’t eat anything for the next few days. These can be saved for me to eat later.”
Lan Chi sighed. “Looks like I still have to sell it. Such a waste. I can’t finish it alone, and you can’t carry it away. Let me see if I can trade it for something.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
But the shelter said, “No need to sell. Keep it. I can store it.”
Lan Chi looked confused. “You can store it?”
“Wait a moment.” The shelter stopped speaking. The walls inside the house began to ripple.
The system panel popped up:
[Your shelter is generating Sackwood Worm stomach sac. Folded space area 10×10 square meters has been generated (area still expanding).]
“Holy shit!” Lan Chi felt like he’d been hit by huge happiness. The shelter had this function too — that was awesome!
Half an hour later, the shelter said tiredly, “I’m exhausted. I can only generate this much.”
Lan Chi walked inside and found a bark door on the wall. He opened it and saw a layer of black rippling surface. He hesitated and asked, “Can I go in? Will anything happen if I do?”
“You can go in. It’s safe. There’s nothing inside. You can store things there,” the shelter replied.
Lan Chi leaned half his body inside. It was pitch black, he couldn’t see anything. He complained, “It’s too dark in here. I can’t see anything.”
“No choice. I don’t glow. Do you want to find something that glows for me to eat in the future?” the shelter suggested.
“Good idea. For now let’s put the honey inside first?” Lan Chi proposed excitedly.
“Okay.” The shelter stretched out its tentacles and stuffed barrel after barrel of honey into the folded space. The crowded room instantly became much more spacious.
By nightfall, the axe monster and pickaxe monster finished work and brought back another pile of building materials. Lan Chi looked at the pile filling the living room and asked, “Do you want to eat this wood and stone?”
The shelter’s big eye glanced at them in disgust and replied, “I only eat tasty things. Those don’t taste good. Don’t want them.”
“Alright, I’ll trade them then,” Lan Chi said helplessly.
Suddenly he remembered the mutated fruit he had planted earlier and asked nervously, “Do you remember the path we ran yesterday? The mutated fruit I planted is still over there.”
“The fruit is with me. When we ran over yesterday, I pulled it out and brought it along,” the shelter answered proudly, then took the plant out from a crack in the wall.
It could do that too? Lan Chi looked at the plant, now only half a meter tall, and fell silent.
“Alright, I’m tired today. Going to sleep. Staying up late is bad for babies,” the shelter said on its own, then shut the door and stopped talking.
Lan Chi made a wooden flowerpot, replanted the fruit, and placed it in the living room. Then he opened the trading channel. He planned to buy some special materials to help improve the shelter’s performance — preferably something self-luminous, since the house was too dark at night, and the fireplace light wasn’t enough.
The moment he opened the system, private message notifications immediately popped up. He hadn’t expected that after just one day, messages had piled up beyond 99+:
“Kid, did your team hunt the scorpion hornets? Where are they? Selling coordinates?”
“Do you still have honey for sale? Buying.”
“You got more of that fruit? Buying fruit.”
Most messages were asking about the scorpion hornets, which confused Lan Chi. Were these dangerous creatures special somehow? Why were they so popular?
He found Beastman Ake’s chat window and sent a message to probe:
“Hey bro, I’ve got a question. Are scorpion hornets special? Why is everyone asking?”
Ake replied quickly:
“You really don’t know anything. They want to capture the hornet queen and raise it themselves. Scorpion hornet honey boosts mental power and lifespan. Everyone wants it, especially elves — they pay high prices. Farming scorpion hornets is a good industry. If I weren’t on the grasslands so far from your forest, I’d go grab it myself.”
Lan Chi’s heart skipped at the last sentence. Grab it? He cautiously asked, “Bro, you can locate a scorpion hornet hive?”
“Yeah, I can. Honey leaves scent traces. Follow the smell and you can track it,” Ake replied. “But don’t worry. I’m far away from you. Can’t get there.”
Lan Chi broke out in cold sweat. He decided to ask more clearly:
“Bro, you’re amazing. Not many people have that tracking ability, right?”
Ake got playful and teased:
“Not many. Only a few races can do it. You worried someone might track you? Not many usually — mostly some elves, goblins, and some wood-type races might come looking. Of course, can’t guarantee others won’t be tempted.”
Lan Chi: “…”
Oh hell! I still don’t even understand this place, and if those races really track the scent here, I’m dead!
Lan Chi didn’t dare continue chatting. He closed the system page and slapped the wall, shouting, “Shelter, shelter, wake up, stop sleeping. If you keep sleeping we’re finished.”
The shelter muttered sleepily, “Don’t bother me… I’m sleepy… zzz…”
“Stop sleeping, get up, we have to run!” Lan Chi shouted anxiously, hitting the wall harder. “Someone could raid us anytime. If they come, your honey is gone, I’m done, we both die!”
The shelter woke up in alarm. “Who’s coming?”
“I don’t know, but I got information. The scorpion hornets here may have been targeted,” Lan Chi explained urgently. “We need to leave now. They could arrive anytime.”
The shelter didn’t dare delay. It quickly extended the tentacles beneath the house and began running frantically.
“Slow down, slow down, don’t make too much noise,” Lan Chi steadied himself while warning, “There are monsters at night. Don’t attract attention. And try not to leave footprints.”
