159: Chapter 159 Green Materials

Xiao Niao curiously turned his head, casting his gaze onto the fur on the Black Wild Boar's back. Frowning, he examined it closely, only to be surprised to find that a faint green glow was radiating from the boar's hide.

"Oh, it dropped something!" Xiao Niao said pleasantly surprised.

"Where? Where?"

"What did it drop?"

Hu Gualing and Tang Yao had already crushed the euphorbia humifusa and applied it to their wounds, just waiting for their HP to slowly recover. Hearing Xiao Niao's voice, they were both drawn to the side of the Black Wild Boar's carcass.

"Pigskin? Green Materials?" Hu Gualing was already quite experienced in looting. At a glance, he could tell that the part glowing with a faint green light was the Black Wild Boar's back, representing that the piece of fur could be collected as Materials—just like the dozen or so Wild Dog teeth currently lying in his backpack. They could either be sold as loot to an NPC for a few copper coins, or used as raw Materials to craft equipment.

Of course, the difference was that most of the dog teeth in Hu Gualing's backpack were of ordinary quality, with some even being gray quality. Even if they could be used to craft equipment, it would likely be trash-tier weapons. However, this piece of pigskin before them was a Green Material. Obviously, it was quite rare, not to mention that it was a raw material for crafting the armor they currently needed the most.

Therefore, as soon as Hu Gualing saw it, he said pleasantly surprised, "What are you standing there for! Hurry up and get it off!"

He was naturally speaking to Xiao Niao, the only player in the team with Skinning and Leatherworking life skills.

Upon hearing this, the look of pleasant surprise on Xiao Niao's face instantly froze. "I..."

He had already spent a great deal of effort mentally preparing just to touch the pigskin with his hand, and now they wanted him to skin it? This...

Hu Gualing, however, didn't indulge him. "What 'I' what? It's fine that you weren't willing to skin the fur dropped by those Wild Dogs earlier, since they were all white or gray quality and couldn't make any powerful equipment. But the fur dropped by this Black Wild Boar is not only green quality, it's the fur from the Black Wild Boar's back. Do you know how powerful the defense on this Black Wild Boar's back is?"

As he spoke, Hu Gualing reached out and pointed at Tang Yao. "When she slashed other parts of the Black Wild Boar with her sword, she could deal twenty or thirty points of damage, but when she slashed its back, she only dealt 15 points of damage. Just think about it, how terrifying must the defensive capability of this pigskin on the Black Wild Boar's back be?"

30 points of damage turning into 15 meant damage reduction by half, right? Xiao Niao was startled upon hearing this, then suddenly realized, saying, "So the defensive capability of this pigskin is that powerful. No wonder when I shot a wooden shaft steel arrow at it, it was directly deflected, only dealing 7 points of damage. So it wasn't that I was too weak, but that it was too strong."

Hearing this abstractly low 7 points of damage, both Hu Gualing and Tang Yao were choked up for a moment.

Tang Yao: "I want to say, I just saw Gualing use his fists to deal 10 points of damage. So, while the Black Wild Boar is indeed very powerful, is it possible that your attack power is still just a little bit... weak?"

Xiao Niao: "..."

Although Tang Yao had spoken quite tactfully for the sake of Xiao Niao's self-esteem, the truth always hurts. Hu Gualing quickly intervened to smooth things over. "Xiao Niao is our reliable scout. What does a little low damage matter? You should hurry up and skin it; that's what's important."

"This..." Xiao Niao looked at the massive Black Wild Boar carcass on the ground, the entire boar head already bloody and mangled, looking quite terrifying. A look of unbearable reluctance appeared on his face.

However, he had also witnessed the defensive capability of the Black Wild Boar skin. If it were skinned and made into leather armor or similar protective gear, it would definitely provide a significant amount of defense attributes. Such a precious material shouldn't be given up just because he was faint-hearted.

Thinking this, Xiao Niao gritted his teeth and steeled his heart. He took out his Skinning knife from his backpack and held it in his hand, looking for an easy place to start on the Black Wild Boar's back. He happened to see a very thin but relatively deep wound on the upper shoulder of the Black Wild Boar, presumably caused by Tang Yao's longsword during the previous battle. This saved him quite a bit of effort.

After Xiao Niao gripped the Skinning knife and stabbed it into this opening, he turned the direction of the knife and cut the edge of the pigskin at a slightly inclined angle, making the opening larger until it exposed the entire cross-section of the Black Wild Boar's body.

The Black Wild Boar skin was very tough. Xiao Niao had to use a lot of force to cut back and forth with the small Skinning knife, making a "creak, creak" sound like using a saw on wood, before he could slowly cut the pigskin open vertically from the existing wound on the Black Wild Boar's upper shoulder.

Seeing the flesh and blood revealed inside, Xiao Niao felt scared again, his hands softening significantly. It was only when he thought about the vicious, perverted behavior of this Black Wild Boar, which had knocked him flying and even intended to whip his corpse, that a fierce determination welled up in his heart. He gripped the Skinning knife tightly, cutting vertically and then horizontally, until he was sweating, finally cutting through the last bit of fascia connected to the Black Wild Boar's flesh, and completely stripping this piece of pigskin, which was glowing with a faint green light, from the Black Wild Boar.

Game Prompt: [You have skinned Black Wild Boar hide (Excellent Quality), gained Skinning EXP +200]

Xiao Niao was exhausted. He didn't pay attention to the slight increase in his Skinning skill EXP, but still put away the Skinning knife and held up the pigskin to examine the result of his long, hard work. Hu Gualing and Tang Yao also crowded over to check the attributes of the pigskin.

[Black Wild Boar hide (Excellent Quality): This is a piece of pigskin stripped from the back of a Black Wild Boar. The skin has a protective layer worn down by the boar rubbing against stones for years, as well as tree resin rubbed off from trees, making it hard and smooth. It has quite good defensive capabilities against sharp weapons and can be used as a material for crafting certain equipment, or as food or medicinal ingredients. Additionally, as a trophy witnessing the slaying of a Black Wild Boar, some people might be willing to collect it.]

Just looking at the length of the description for this piece of pigskin, it was obviously much longer than the dog teeth collected earlier; it was clearly a higher-grade material.

After reading the description carefully, the three of them—Hu Gualing, Tang Yao, and Xiao Niao—finally understood why this Black Wild Boar was so resistant to damage, to the point where even the wooden shaft steel arrow shot by Xiao Niao at close range could be deflected. It turned out that the fur on the Black Wild Boar's back wasn't naturally grown, but rather processed by the boar over many years of rubbing against stones and trees, making it hard and smooth. When arrows and sword blades struck it, a large portion of the force was deflected, so naturally, it couldn't cause too much damage.

After reading the item attributes of this pigskin and confirming that it was indeed a rare and good item, Xiao Niao put it into his backpack. "I'll keep this for now. I can't handle Materials of this quality very well yet. We'll talk about it after returning to the village." Hu Gualing and Tang Yao naturally had no objections to this, and Xiao Niao, having been exhausted during the Skinning process, sat down on the ground as he spoke.

However, as soon as he sat down, he felt something wrong. Why was his butt feeling so uncomfortable?

Xiao Niao supported himself on the ground in a posture somewhat like squatting over a latrine, stuck his butt out, and turned his head to look. He saw that there were two large holes in the back of his pants, exposing his fair thighs. He could see yellow mud and sand stained on them, which had been imprinted when he sat down in the sand just now. No wonder it felt so uncomfortable!

He brushed the yellow mud and sand off with his hand and didn't sit down anymore, just squatting on the ground to rest. As a result, he found that the front of his pants near the waist also had two holes, though these two holes were smaller and didn't matter much.

Xiao Niao thought about it carefully, and only then did he remember that although he had used a revival coin to resurrect at full status, making the wounds bitten by the Wild Dogs and the injuries from the Black Wild Boar's collision disappear, his pants hadn't been restored to their original state along with his Resurrection; instead, they remained with the holes torn by the Black Wild Boar.

Tang Yao noticed Xiao Niao's embarrassment and said considerately, "Can you still wear your pants? If you can't, just buy a set of fashion items in the Game Store. The cheapest one is only 10 fantasy points per set."

Xiao Niao hurriedly waved his hand and said, "No, no, I wouldn't dare to be so extravagant. I can still wear these pants; they just look a bit disheveled. But if they get damaged any worse, I'll probably really have to go back to the village to mend them."

Hearing this, Hu Gualing also glanced at Xiao Niao and said carelessly, "What's a few holes? Ripped clothing is popular now. Even if you buy a perfectly good pair of jeans, people end up cutting a few pieces of fabric off themselves. Your pants are still considered in good condition compared to those."

With this interruption from Hu Gualing, Xiao Niao and Tang Yao were both stunned for a moment, then laughed, and weren't too concerned about Xiao Niao's ripped pants anymore.

It was Hu Gualing who, taking advantage of this time, discovered a second dropped item on the Black Wild Boar carcass, which was already so bloody and mangled that it was unbearable to look at.