Chapter Eight: Raising the Crafting Level

When his stamina was nearly spent, Jia Zhengjin finally cleared the entire stretch of grassland by the riverbank. Gasping for breath, he looked at the leveled ground and managed a smile. He laid a foundation of wooden planks synthesized from timber, then placed a stone campfire and a sleeping bag atop it. Nestled beside the warm campfire, he rested for a while in the sleeping bag. Once his energy returned, he switched to a stone pickaxe and began mining the nearby exposed boulders rich with iron ore.

The crude stone pickaxe was not efficient, but each successful blow yielded a substantial amount of stone and iron ore. Mining was exhausting, so his stamina depleted quickly. Jia Zhengjin could only work for a bit before having to rest. During breaks, he used the stones he’d collected to craft simple stone bricks.

Stone bricks, while basic building materials, were not especially durable—just 200 points of endurance. Still, compared to wooden materials with only 100 points, stone bricks were much sturdier.

Mining was a tedious and monotonous task, and Jia Zhengjin spent the entire day doing little else but chipping away at rocks, storing iron ore, and crafting stone bricks from his supply. Only as the sun dipped toward the western horizon did he decide to call it a day. He put away his pickaxe and started stacking stone bricks into walls, constructing a stone-brick matchbox house, far sturdier than the one from the previous night.

Of course, he could build something far more beautiful—an elegant house, even a grand castle if he had the time and resources. But in these early days, with resources scarce and time precious, a boxy, windowless matchbox room, with only a door for entry, was the most practical solution.

Before nightfall, he managed to complete the simple square house. Still wary of undead creatures like those from the night before, he crafted basic wooden spike traps and laid a perimeter around his home. These spikes, little more than sharpened sticks, could injure any creature that stepped on them. While effective, each had only 50 points of durability and would break easily. Still, it was better than nothing.

He fashioned two torches and mounted them on the walls inside, driving away the darkness. This night was already far better than the first. Nor would he be bored, for he had gathered plenty of stone and iron ore, enough to craft stone spears and also to build a furnace from stone, in which he could smelt iron ore into ingots.

With enough iron ingots stored, his plan for tomorrow was to set up basic hunting traps at dawn, then hunt some weaker local creatures to gain experience and skill points to unlock ironworking skills.

The sooner he could forge iron tools, weapons, and armor, the stronger his chances of survival would become.

The furnace was simple—only eight stones were needed to construct it. Yet, after a whole day’s effort, he had enough iron ore to smelt just ten ingots. The stone pickaxe’s low level and poor quality were partly to blame, but his lack of mining skill was the main reason.

There was nothing to be done. These were the hardships of the early game.

Ten iron ingots were just enough to forge a single iron axe. And with his current Level 1 weapon crafting skill, whatever he produced would be the lowest quality—either a poor iron axe or a similarly low-grade tool. It was somewhat disheartening to realize that a day’s mining only yielded enough for one iron tool.

So Jia Zhengjin resolved that after gaining a level tomorrow, he would first craft an iron pickaxe. With that, mining would be faster and more productive. Of course, he also needed to improve both his tool-making and weapon-making skills.

He had plenty of stone from today’s mining, and a surplus of plant fibers from clearing the grass, plus stored wood to craft sticks. All of these could be used to mass-produce stone tools, which would likely raise his crafting skill by at least one level. At Level 2, he’d have a chance to produce white-quality, standard tools.

Incidentally, the lowest quality tools were marked with gray names. White was standard, followed by blue for fine, gold for perfect, green for superior, orange for legendary, and purple for epic. Epic-level tools, weapons, and armor were the ultimate sets—their gathering and combat efficiency was remarkable. Before he’d been transported to this world, Jia Zhengjin had always maxed out his skills and sported full epic gear in games.

So even in this new reality, his method wouldn’t change: frantically gathering resources and grinding skills. First, he’d max out his tool-making level, then weapon and armor crafting. Each successful craft granted experience; to reach the highest skill levels, a great deal of patience was required.

The furnace blazed fiercely, coal burning with high efficiency. As the iron ore melted, Jia Zhengjin, well-fed and rested, sat in the warm room, ready to grind his tool-making skill.

But first, he used wood and plant fibers to craft a crude bow. Then, with stone shaped into flint, plus wooden shafts and the feathers he’d found during the day, he made eleven stone arrows—superior to simple wooden ones.

He stored the bow and arrows in his backpack, ready for hunting. Then he began the monotonous process of using the day’s materials to craft as many stone axes as possible, maximizing his tool-making experience.

The house stood beside the forest, and the night in the woods was far noisier than by the beach. All manner of strange, otherworldly creatures made a racket, making it difficult to focus.

Jia Zhengjin forced himself to ignore the sounds and concentrated on crafting tools, watching the axes pile up and his skill experience steadily rise.

Only when he was utterly exhausted, his eyelids heavy and ready to close on their own, did he finally run out of wood. There was still plenty of stone and plant fiber, but without sticks made from wood, he couldn’t make more tools.

He could, of course, dismantle the tools he had made, recovering some materials depending on their quality. But looking at the mountain of crude stone axes he’d crafted, Jia Zhengjin had no intention of breaking them down—each would only yield a single stone, and disassembling them all would take until midday the next day without sleep. It simply wasn’t worth it. Unlike a game, he couldn’t just drop the excess tools on the ground and wait for them to despawn.

He decided to sleep first, and in the morning, he’d haul all the crude axes outside and burn them. That way, he could recover some coal, which would be invaluable for smelting more iron ore.

He’d met his goal for the day, raising his tool-making skill to a little over Level 2. Now he stood a fair chance of making standard-quality tools. Tomorrow, with a bit more effort, he hoped to reach Level 3, which would mean consistently producing standard-grade tools.