Volume 1, Chapter 51: Learning to Skin

Ruan Qintan had initially been a bit unsure how to bring up the subject and secure a logistics position for herself.

Now that Lin Yifan had readily agreed, it was naturally for the best.

Of course, she couldn't enjoy the perks of this job just yet, but at least there was now a glimmer of hope.

As long as a person is alive, having hope means having something to look forward to.

Ruan Qintan's mood improved considerably, and she immediately replied:

"No problem at all! Working in logistics suits me perfectly. So, Captain, it's settled then. From now on, I'm following your lead, and you're not allowed to go back on your word!"

"Rest assured, I never break my promises," Lin Yifan replied with an amused smile.

Having obtained the commitment she wanted, Ruan Qintan's spirits lifted even further, and she quickly sent another message:

"By the way, Captain, I wonder if you have any other teammates? If so, I'd love to get acquainted with them as well."

"Although for now we can only trade online and can't gather together, we are still teammates after all. We can share what we have, and if there's any way I can be of use, I'd be happy to pitch in."

Lin Yifan thought about it, and indeed, this was a good idea.

Since he had decided to form a team, he naturally wanted to help all team members improve their strength.

Hong Shaoqiang possessed extraordinary abilities, especially when it came to hunting, in which he had unique insights.

In this world, killing a beast rewarded one with a treasure chest, so Hong Shaoqiang certainly wasn't short on chests.

Meanwhile, Ruan Qintan's greatest skill was opening treasure chests. If the two of them could coordinate their efforts, it would undoubtedly accelerate their growth in strength.

This was also beneficial to him. As for whether the two of them might turn on him once they grew stronger, Lin Yifan wasn't worried in the least.

Well, it wasn't so much that he wasn't worried; rather, he simply didn't care!

What he wanted were teammates he could trust with his back. If they would betray him over something like this, it was better to find out now, saving him from being stabbed in the back later.

With that in mind, he introduced Hong Shaoqiang to Ruan Qintan.

Unfortunately, there was no group chat feature here, so after making the introductions, he could only let them add each other as friends.

As for how the two of them would chat and communicate, Lin Yifan had no intention of interfering further.

They were both adults; they naturally had their own ways of speaking and acting.

If he had to manage everything, he would rather not form a team at all!

His time could not be wasted on such meaningless trifles.

In exchange for the [Beginner Skinning Skill Book], Lin Yifan gave Ruan Qintan a large handful of blueberries and a silk quilt.

As for the [Beginner Cooking Skill Book], he told Ruan Qintan to keep it for herself to learn, but whether she actually chose to study it was entirely up to her.

However, thankfully, upon hearing Lin Yifan's suggestion, Ruan Qintan readily agreed.

Clearly, she also knew that this life skill was well-suited for someone in a logistics role.

After obtaining the [Beginner Skinning Skill Book], Lin Yifan didn't hesitate and learned it immediately.

Then, quite uncharacteristically, he opened his personal profile. He tended to forget that he even had a personal profile.

Because the feature felt far too much like a video game, he would instinctively ignore it.

Even when he was allocating attribute points by the pool earlier, he hadn't bothered to open his personal profile.

Now, he finally remembered to check it out.

Name: Lin Yifan
Strength: 9
Agility: 12
Constitution: 13
Intelligence: 9
Remaining Attribute Points: 0
Age: 23
Life Tier: Exceptional Human
Talent: [Random Buff, A Daily Draw!]
[You may draw lots once per day to obtain various buffs with different effects. The draw refreshes every day at midnight. Whether you are favored by the goddess of luck or cursed by bad fortune depends entirely on your face!]
[Today's Buff: Golden Glimmer]
[Golden Glimmer: Increases the probability of finding metal-type materials! If there are any metal-type materials you wish to acquire, you certainly shouldn't miss today.]
Life Skills:
[Beginner Skinning] (Proficiency 0/1000)
(Evaluation: You are now an exceptional human. Your physical fitness already ranks among the forefront of humanity, but do not grow proud—you are still quite weak in reality!)

"Oh! My personal profile has actually changed!"

Lin Yifan looked at the information panel in surprise, discovering that not only had the order of the information changed, but his life tier had also improved.

He remembered very clearly that his previous life tier was "Healthy Human," and now it had advanced to "Exceptional Human."

A mere increase of three points in constitution had raised his life tier by an entire grade—this truly came as an unexpected pleasant surprise.

Could constitution be the key reference metric for one's life tier?

He recalled that previously, when he had obtained eight random attribute points and allocated all of them, his life tier had only shifted from sub-health to healthy.

This time, just by adding three attribute points specifically to constitution, his life tier had advanced by a whole level. It would be unreasonable to claim there was no correlation between the two.

It seemed that whenever he obtained random attributes in the future, he should test them by pouring them into constitution first.

Although he still didn't know what the promotion of a life tier actually represented,

based on his past experience playing online games, a higher life tier would undoubtedly grant greater strength.

As for the other attributes, they could be improved slowly over time.

Next, Lin Yifan checked the life skills section.

This entry hadn't been present on his previous profile page; it seemed this attribute only appeared after learning a life skill.

Furthermore, there was a proficiency rating, though wasn't a requirement of 1,000 points a bit excessive?

He wondered if filling up this proficiency bar would allow him to directly upgrade the life skill.

At that moment, Lin Yifan suddenly noticed a small knife materializing in front of him.

The knife was about the size of a fruit knife, but its blade was slightly curved into an arc.

Looking closely, the information regarding the knife appeared.

[Skinning Knife] (A tool bound to the skinning skill, usable for...)

"There's even a matching skinning knife!" Lin Yifan said in astonishment.

Moreover, he could sense that this skinning knife was exceptionally sharp—at the very least, much sharper than his axe.

After tossing it around in his palm for a moment, Lin Yifan squatted down beside the crocodile and prepared to skin it.

He had originally thought that after learning the skinning skill, he could simply issue a command like in a game to complete the skinning automatically.

To his surprise, he still had to do it by hand!

Fortunately, the skinning knife was sharper than he had imagined. The crocodile hide, which was difficult even for his axe to hack through, proved quite fragile under the blade of the skinning knife.

With a gentle slice of the skinning knife, a slit opened in the crocodile hide, and following this opening, he peeled the entire skin off bit by bit.

Although this wasn't the first time he had skinned an animal, he found that this skinning process was much easier than before.

Not only did he peel off the entire crocodile skin intact, but once removed, the hide didn't even require tanning; it instantly transformed into a neatly stacked pile of rectangular leather sheets.