Chapter 13 Weapon Crafting Materials
Qin Zhen gathered up all the Arrows she had fired. She only had thirty of them, so she had to be careful with her supply.
[Five Phantom Demon Wolf corpses detected. Decompose?]
[Yes / No]
Qin Zhen tapped "Yes," and the corpses along with every trace of blood vanished instantly without a trace.
Obtained: [Phantom Demon Wolf Meat 1kg×10, Phantom Demon Wolf Hide×5, Phantom Demon Wolf Fang×10, Mana Regeneration Necklace (Green)×1, Attribute Orb×3, Wooden Chest×3, EXP+150].
[Mana Regeneration Necklace (Green): Intelligence+10, restores 1 MP per second; Durability: 200/200]
[Attribute Orb: Randomly increases one attribute by 3 points.]
Opening the three Wooden Chests yielded: [Mineral Water 500ml×5, Cup Noodles×5, Roast Duck Set Meal×3, Gauze×5, Pillow×1].
Qin Zhen mulled it over. The supplies gained from killing monsters were indeed far greater than what she got from fishing up Treasure Chests.
On top of that, killing monsters could yield weapons and stat-boosting items, whereas Treasure Chests only ever contained survival supplies.
It seemed the System was subtly pressuring Players into fighting monsters.
Should she still bother going out to fish for Treasure Chests tomorrow morning?
The supplies from Treasure Chests were already limited, and now even the number of Chests she could pull was being restricted.
If she kept spending every morning fishing for Treasure Chests, wasn't she getting her priorities completely backwards?
Qin Zhen let out a sigh. She'd wait and see.
If the number of Treasure Chests she fished up tomorrow was the same as today, she'd give up on Treasure Chest fishing for good.
Spending that time on exploration would be far more worthwhile.
Qin Zhen equipped the Mana Regeneration Necklace, then swallowed the Attribute Orbs one by one.
Constitution+3, Attack+3, Speed+3.
Her various stats looked impressive on paper right now.
But in truth, they were almost entirely the result of equipment bonuses.
Equipment had Durability — if she lost her gear, her overall stats would drop by a significant margin.
So she still needed to raise her own base strength as quickly as possible.
"Oh right, System — what are the hides and fangs that monsters drop actually used for?"
She had previously obtained bamboo pit viper hides, fangs, and scales, but had never figured out what to do with them.
Now she had more of them, and it seemed like every monster kill dropped these kinds of materials.
Still, she trusted that the System wouldn't give her useless items.
[Monster fangs, scales, and similar materials are extraordinarily hard — they make excellent weapon-crafting components. As for hides, they can be used to craft clothing.]
"So you're saying I can incorporate these materials when crafting an axe?"
[That is correct, Host. Adding these materials will improve the quality of the crafted weapon.]
Qin Zhen's eyes lit up.
Truth be told, she was rather lacking in high Attack Power options.
The Lianyue Crossbow had high Attack Power, but it was only suited for ranged combat — useless up close.
Her Iron Axe could handle melee, but its Attack Power was far too low.
Even a Common Monster took several swings to bring down, let alone anything of a higher tier.
Qin Zhen took out Refined Iron×6, Stone×3, thought for a moment, then added Phantom Demon Wolf Fang×2.
Crafting time: ten minutes.
Obtained: [Iron Axe (White): Attack Power: 20; Durability: 150/150]
Not bad — Attack Power had gone up by 5, and the Durability was higher too.
And that was only with the fangs of a Common Monster. What if she used materials from a higher-tier creature?
Qin Zhen wasted no more time. She pulled out the drops she had collected earlier from killing Tier 1 Bamboo Pit Vipers.
"System, how many materials can I add to an Iron Axe at most?"
She wanted to throw everything in, but she was worried the Iron Axe had too low a cap — adding too much would just be a waste.
[It's best not to exceed four units of materials. Anything beyond that has no effect. To further improve weapon quality, use higher-Level materials.]
"Got it."
Qin Zhen combined Bamboo Pit Viper Venom Fang×2, Bamboo Pit Viper Scale×2, Refined Iron×6, and Stone×3 to begin crafting.
Ten minutes later, she obtained: [Iron Axe (Green): Attack Power: 30, 50% chance to poison the target on hit, dealing 5 HP damage per second while poisoned; Durability: 200/200]
Attack Power of 30! And a fifty-fifty chance to inflict poison on top of that!
Although she couldn't equip the Iron Axe herself and therefore couldn't stack her own Attack Power onto it, the raw Attack Power and the special effect already left Qin Zhen very satisfied.
It was a shame she had run out of Refined Iron — otherwise she could have crafted a few more high-quality axes.
Gurgle.
Qin Zhen's stomach growled with hunger. Only then did she realize she hadn't eaten dinner yet.
Right — she'd been so caught up in fighting and crafting the Iron Axe that she'd completely forgotten.
It was too late to set up the Stone Stove now. She'd eat first and deal with it afterward.
Qin Zhen took out the Roast Duck Set Meal she had just obtained.
It came in an elegantly packaged gift box.
Inside were a container of duck meat, a container of thin pancakes, a container of shredded scallions, and a container of sweet bean sauce.
The duck meat was tender and juicy, the pancakes were paper-thin, and paired with the scallions and sweet bean sauce, the whole thing tasted wonderful.
The duck meat was generous in portion, and together with all the sides, Qin Zhen ate until she was completely full.
She opened the Chat Channel, and the number in the bottom-right corner made her heart lurch.
Over six thousand people had been killed by monster attacks!
That couldn't be right — even if you couldn't fight them off, you could just stay inside your Shelter and not go out.
How had so many people died?
[Blinds: Holy crap, something is attacking my Shelter!]
[Xiaomihu: Same here — what do I do?!]
[YouMustBeStarving: It's fine. As long as you don't leave the Shelter, the monsters can't get in. It's just a bit noisy.]
[Xiaomihu: But my Shelter is still a Thatch hut — can it even hold off a monster attack?]
[YouMustBeStarving: ...No, it can't. Why haven't you upgraded yet? The materials for a Wooden Cabin aren't that hard to come by, are they?]
[Xiaomihu: I haven't gone out to gather materials. The stuff I get from opening chests every day isn't enough to upgrade.]
Xiaomihu's message had barely been up for a few seconds before it disappeared.
Everyone knew what that meant — they were dead.
[JustGoMarryAGuy: People have been told over and over that the Shelter is critical. Why do some people still not take it seriously? I genuinely cannot understand how their brains work.]
[Lychee Boba: They're just gambling on luck — always thinking bad things won't happen to them.]
[The Golden House Within Books: I've noticed that monster drops give way more supplies than Treasure Chests. I killed two Fleet Rabbits tonight and got rabbit meat plus a bunch of other stuff.]
[Mango Sago: Huh, why did only one monster show up at my place? The loot really is great though — is the System trying to encourage us to kill monsters?]
[Jacksu: Haha, same here.]
[......]
The number of monsters that appeared at each person's Shelter was different?
What criteria was that rule based on?
Could it be overall combat strength?
At this rate, the gap between Players would likely widen very quickly.
The strong would grow stronger, and the weak would only fall further behind.