Dual World Apocalypse: My Harem Gives Me 10x Rewards

The early morning sun had just begun to rise, casting a soft golden light over the settlement.

As usual, Sera was the first to wake up, careful not to disturb the others who were still sleeping.

She slipped out of the longhouse, stretching her arms as she headed toward the chicken pen to collect eggs and clean the place, like she did every morning.

Well, she tried every morning and failed every morning. That was the case, they were yet to taste an egg in the primitive world.

It wasn’t because she hadn’t made nests for the hens to lay eggs. The problem was that they were too damn possessive of the eggs and too big for her to fight them alone.

"...I hope they go easy on me. This time for sure, I’ll collect at least one egg for Adrian," she clenched her fists, ready to fight the hens. "He has done so much for me, for us. This is the least I can do for him."

Yesterday’s fall in player numbers made her realize something. If she had been with Junito’s group. She would have become one of those greyed-out numbers.

It was what she and Hannah had been talking about last night after dinner. Both of them were extremely thankful to Adrian and wanted to make it up to him, but not in the way Amika had.

Hence, it was the little things they could help with him to make up. Getting eggs for him was one such method.

However, as she stepped outside, she froze mid-step.

Adrian was walking toward the longhouse in a slouched position with his hands dangling in front. It wasn’t just his posture that took Sera by surprise, but the massive dark circles under his eyes.

He looked completely exhausted. His hair was messy, and there was dirt smudged on his face and arms.

"Master! What happened to you?" she asked, reaching out to help him. "You look like you haven’t slept at all!"

Adrian just shrugged weakly. It was true that he didn’t sleep a wink last night.

Why you ask? It was because he got a little too excited about the settlement rewards.

He wanted to test out the new cards and build the new buildings and fence, but even that took a long time.

One could take the fence, for example. He could have just used the card to upgrade the wooden fence into a stone one. However, the system informed him that doing so would make the poison vines disappear, as it was attached to the existing fence.

Adrian was not having that. The poison vine was very useful, and without it, the fence would lose huge points in defence.

So, in the dead of the night, he went around pulling the vines out gently, getting poisoned himself in the process.

Thanks to that, most of the antivenom in his inventory was gone, but it wasn’t all that bad since he ended up discovering a new mechanic because of it.

Since he got poisoned multiple times and healed himself, his body developed [Poison Resistance], and overnight, he already levelled it up to level 2.

Essentially, with poison resistance, his body could now create antibodies to tackle the poison while also lessening the poison damage he would take from any source.

Then he went to work in the lava ridge, and a similar thing happened there. He got [Heat Resistance], and that too levelled up to level 2!

Now, he didn’t feel much heat when working in the ridge, and fire attacks would deal less damage to him, just like poison damage.

He wanted to tell Sera and Hannah about the new mechanic. After all, they were players under him, and it would benefit them in the long run. However, he did not have the strength or the resolve to do it at the moment.

Instead, he just looked at Sera and pointed toward the new fence. The once wooden fence had been completely replaced with thick basalt walls wrapped in poisonous vines.

The dark stone looked incredibly sturdy, and the purple vines covering it glistened with venom in the morning light as usual.

Not just that, Sera noticed that there were many spike traps scattered around the settlement.

Most were outside the fence, but there were some placed strategically around the longhouse, the arrow tower, and even the underground cave entrance.

Basically, he had reinforced every location of strategic importance that he could think of.

As if that wasn’t enough, he also made some drying racks with leftover wood after the repairs and placed them inside the lava ridge to treat the boar hide and left some racks for Sera to put new pots in.

He had also constructed an epic-grade sulphur mine and obsidian quarry around the lava ridge. Although he hadn’t had the time to test them out or figure out their uses. He just built them because he had the expansion cards and a sleepless night to go through.

Once that was done, he would use the hide to create new armor for everyone, since they had new members. He had hoped to do it before sunrise, but he had overestimated his stamina.

"I worked through the night," Adrian mumbled. "Just wanted to make sure we’re ready for whatever comes today, or tomorrow, or the day after... You get the gist."

Sera’s eyes widened as she looked at the new defenses. The basalt walls were much stronger than the previous wooden ones, and the spike traps looked deadly. It must have taken him hours to set everything up. No wonder he had those massive dark circles.

"Master, you didn’t have to do all this alone..." she whispered, still holding his arm as her respect for Adrian skyrocketed. "We could have helped you in the morning."

Adrian just dismissed her concern. To Sera, it seemed like Adrian wanted to ensure the settlement would be protected just in case more creatures decided to attack them before sunrise. Hence, he spent the entire night guarding and building new defences.

If she knew the truth that Adrian did all of it because he got too excited to sleep, then the sacrifice of his sleep would seem like a fool’s chore rather than a hero’s sacrifice to them.

"You can... *yawn* carry on with your tasks..." he mumbled. "Just stay away from those spike barricades. They might be laced with poison, I can’t seem to remember."

"Okay, you should go and sleep..." Sera guided him to Amika’s room.

Not wanting to talk more, he patted her head and walked inside the room, flopping on top of Amika. Sera watched him go, her heart aching a little at how exhausted he looked.

She turned back toward the chicken pen. Now that Adrian had done so much for the settlement, she would surely catch a dozen eggs, just for him.

She approached the pen with renewed resolve and kicked the gates open.

The hens inside immediately turned their heads toward her, glaring at the human who seemed not to know the meaning of defeat. They beat her every day, yet she was there the first thing in the morning again.

Sera tucked the giant leaf bowl in her skirt, and the hens puffed up their feathers, trying to look big. Then, without warning, both sides charged.

"Today I will get those eggs at any cost!"

"Bawk! Bawk!! BAWWWK!!!"