Chapter 210 - 139: Rearing a Wild Deer! Earth Core Crystal Forging Successful! A+ Class Extraordinary Artifact

Chapter 210: Chapter 139: Rearing a Wild Deer! Earth Core Crystal Forging Successful! A+ Class Extraordinary Artifact

"I never would have imagined it, Brother Chong! To think we actually caught this. We’ve really hit the jackpot this time!"

Xu Jun stared at the animal before him, his voice brimming with excitement.

Smiles also lit up the faces of Wang Biao, Jia Wen, and Qi Zhen.

The reason was simple: while checking the traps, they had unexpectedly captured a...

A wild deer!

The deer was about a meter and a half long and stood nearly a meter tall at the shoulder. Its coat was densely covered in irregular white spots, with a distinctive brown-and-tan back.

The spots on its fur resembled blooming plum blossoms—it was unmistakably a... Sika Deer!

To everyone’s even greater delight, it was a pregnant doe!

Seeing its slightly swollen belly, everyone was as thrilled as they were surprised.

No one had expected such good luck, after all. They had only gone out to check the traps during a break from processing the snake meat.

This Sika Deer wasn’t caught in the traps by the river.

After all, aside from fish cages and bird nets, the traps there could only catch small prey. They could never hold a creature of this size.

Capturing it had been a complete accident.

Back when they were trying to catch the wild boar in the scrubland, the group had gone to great lengths to dig a large pit. Although they had successfully caught their prey, Wang Biao shared an idea before they left...

He had observed that the scrubland was rich in food. The wild fruits and grass stems were a favorite of the local wildlife, making it highly likely that other herbivores or omnivores would be drawn to the area.

He suggested they slightly modify the pit and turn it into another trap.

The chances of catching something might not be high, but it was better than nothing. And if their luck held out, they might even snag a few more animals.

So, before leaving, the group had deepened the pit again, covered the top with branches and fallen leaves, and camouflaged it seamlessly.

Who could have imagined that after not checking it for a few days, they’d detour from the river just to try their luck and actually find that the pitfall trap had been triggered.

The prey trapped at the bottom of the pit was none other than this pregnant Sika doe!

Sika Deer aren’t particularly large for their species, typically weighing only two to three hundred pounds as adults, but they are one of the easiest types of deer to domesticate.

More importantly, the fawn inside the doe was close to term; she would be giving birth soon.

Its value... was far greater than that of an ordinary wild deer!

The doe wasn’t injured, just listless. She had probably been trapped in the pit for more than a day or two.

Fortunately, the pit was deep enough that even if a predator from the jungle found it, it wouldn’t risk jumping in and being unable to climb back out...

After days without food or water, on top of being terrified, the doe was not in good condition. She barely struggled when Qi Zhen tied her up and carried her back.

But with proper care, she should recover quickly...

After bringing her back to their residence, Chen Chong and the others immediately began modifying the enclosure in the restroom, dividing the space in two.

The wild ducks and pheasants occupied one-third of the space, while the remaining two-thirds were left for the doe.

After all, she was larger and needed more room to move.

Fortunately, the enclosure was spacious. At fifty square meters, it was more than enough to accommodate all three types of animals.

The biggest worry now was whether the doe would refuse to eat due to the change in environment and her lethargy.

If she refused to eat, her Life Energy would weaken, and the fawn in her womb would also be affected.

The plan to domesticate the Sika Deer would likely end before it even began...

But when a handful of fresh grass was tossed into the enclosure, the doe sniffed it for a moment before lowering her head and starting to eat ravenously.

Whether it was the irresistible temptation of the tender grass from the B-Level pasture for an herbivore, or simply that she was starving after being trapped in the pit for so long, she quickly devoured an entire bucketful of grass.

Watching the doe finally start to eat, Chen Chong broke into a relieved smile.

’As long as she’s willing to eat, everything will be fine.’

This meant the Sika doe could be domesticated. As long as she could adapt to this environment, the fawn she gave birth to would also adapt easily under her guidance, making it no trouble at all to raise.

Furthermore, the B-Level enclosure’s 100% accelerated growth effect would allow the fawn to develop rapidly, greatly shortening its maturation time.

The hardest part of domesticating wild animals was always the first step. Once that was handled, the rest was no longer a problem.

Excluding the fish and shrimp in the fishpond and mud pond, the only livestock at their home were wild rabbits, wild pheasants, and wild ducks.

Although it was the beginning of a small farm, these were all small animals, a far cry from a medium-sized one like the Sika Deer. ℴℴ𝘮

Now, with the addition of this doe, their little homestead’s animal husbandry had finally made a qualitative leap...

As for why they didn’t keep the Sika Deer in the more open space of the stadium’s main hall, that came down to Chen Chong’s prior planning.

The stadium was to be the entire team’s future resource cultivation and logistics base. Although he, as the leader, had the authority to allocate everything within it as he saw fit, most of the resources there essentially belonged to the team.

The assets inside would be distributed based on members’ contributions to maintain balance within the team and to motivate everyone.

It was best not to keep personal property there, whether it was his own or that of any future member.

Otherwise, if the line between public and private assets blurred, things could easily descend into chaos.

The team was the team, and home was home. Chen Chong was very clear on this distinction.