Chapter 21 Water Purifier
Qin Zhen let out a sigh. The Fire Affinity Skill Book was completely useless to her — she'd take it to the Trading Market later and see if she could trade it away.
The six Fire Spirit Beads could go along with it.
As for the Tang Dao, that was a pleasant surprise. Her Lianyue Crossbow dealt high damage, but it was only suited for ranged combat. For close quarters, she'd been relying on an axe.
But the axe handle was just too short.
The Tang Dao was perfect — it gave her some reach without being unwieldy at range.
Qin Zhen used her Inventory Expansion Card, increasing her backpack slots to 35.
She then consumed the Attribute Orb: Attack +6, Defense +3, Speed +3, Intelligence +3.
With no Rice left, she stir-fried the last kilogram of bamboo pit viper meat, but it wasn't quite enough, so she cooked another 2 kg of Frostice Scorpion-tail Rabbit Meat.
That finally filled her up. It seemed that as her Constitution grew stronger, her appetite had increased considerably.
After eating: Constitution +1, Ice Affinity +4.
Qin Zhen checked her status panel.
She noticed that her base Attack was now actually higher than the bonus Attack granted by the Starlight Staff — though it still fell short of the Lianyue Crossbow's output.
Unfortunately, she couldn't use her skills without equipping the staff.
She could only hope that once she reached level ten, she'd unlock two high-damage skills.
Qin Zhen reviewed her supplies: Refined Iron ×605, Stone ×990, Wood ×360, Glass ×365.
She had no immediate use for the Glass, couldn't trade for more Wood, and her Stone count was roughly sufficient.
Only the Refined Iron still felt a little short.
Her current stock was only enough to craft 20 fences.
That was technically enough, but she wanted to enclose a larger yard.
It would save her a headache the next time the Shelter needed to be upgraded.
Qin Zhen used Refined Iron ×600 and Stone ×300 to craft 100 Iron Axes.
By the time she finished, it was nearly ten o'clock.
She listed the Iron Axes in the Trading Zone.
[Iron Axe ×1: Trade for Refined Iron ×12, Stone ×6] ×100.
She had adjusted the quantities to break even on materials.
In less than an hour, all the Iron Axes had sold out.
Qin Zhen received Refined Iron ×1200 and Stone ×600.
1,200 Refined Iron was enough to craft 40 Spike Fences — that would do.
She stopped flipping Iron Axes and turned her attention to crafting Spike Fences.
She kept at it until two in the morning before stopping.
Given her Constitution, each Spike Fence took about ten minutes to craft.
Over four hours, she had made twenty-four Spike Fences in total.
By Qin Zhen's estimate, tomorrow the sun might rise at noon and set at one in the afternoon.
The day after that — Polar Night.
She absolutely had to finish enclosing the Spike Fences before tomorrow, and stockpile some more Wood.
She never believed Polar Night would be nothing more than simple darkness.
Qin Zhen slept until she woke naturally. She checked the time — nearly ten minutes to noon.
She opened the door and looked outside. Sure enough, it still hadn't gotten light.
Qin Zhen used the toothbrush, Toothpaste, and Toothbrush Cup set she'd gotten from yesterday's chest to brush her teeth and wash her face.
She then ate a bag of Bread and an Apple, and by then it was noon.
Qin Zhen went out to chop pine trees as usual, though today she only had about fifty minutes.
She obtained [Wood ×100, Pine Resin ×20, Pine Nuts 500g ×20, EXP +100].
Then she returned to the Shelter.
The moment one o'clock arrived, the sky went dark immediately.
Qin Zhen stood at the doorway of the Stone House, waiting for the monsters to come.
Today's visitors were five ducks.
Every duck Qin Zhen had seen back in Huaguo had a flat bill, but these ducks had sharp, pointed beaks, and their feathers were a vivid water-blue.
They looked quite peculiar.
[Shardbill Waterduck: Tier 1 Monster. Attack Power: 30; Defense: 30; HP: 400.]
Their Attack Power was genuinely mediocre — even lower than some of the stronger Common Monsters she'd encountered.
But their HP was the highest she had ever seen on a Tier 1 Monster.
The Shardbill Waterduck's attack method was to spit a water ball from its beak — a ranged attack.
However, Qin Zhen currently had a full 650 HP.
Even if she stood perfectly still and let all five ducks pelt her without dodging, focusing entirely on killing them, they'd probably all be dead before they could finish her off.
So Qin Zhen didn't bother moving. She even swapped out the Starlight Staff.
She equipped the Lianyue Crossbow.
Each of her arrows now dealt 82 points of damage.
In just a few minutes, all five ducks lay dead on the ground.
Qin Zhen switched back to the Starlight Staff and used "Blessing of Light" to restore herself to full HP.
As for MP, setting aside the recovery from her Mana Regeneration Necklace, it would slowly regenerate on its own over time.
[A Tier 1 Shardbill Waterduck corpse has been detected. Decompose?]
[Yes / No]
Qin Zhen selected Yes, and received [Tier 1 Shardbill Waterduck Meat 1kg ×5, Tier 1 Shardbill Waterduck Feather ×10, Tier 1 Shardbill Waterduck Foot ×2, Water Spirit Bead ×3, Black Iron Chest ×1, EXP +50].
Decomposing the four Common Shardbill Waterducks yielded [Shardbill Waterduck Meat 1kg ×10, Shardbill Waterduck Feather ×40, Shardbill Waterduck Foot ×8, Water Spirit Bead ×2, Wooden Chest ×2, EXP +120].
Opening the Wooden Chests yielded [Mineral Water 500ml ×3, Seasoning Gift Set ×1, Watermelon ×1, Potato Chips ×3].
Opening the Black Iron Chest yielded [Blueprint ×1, Attribute Orb ×3].
[Water Purifier Blueprint: The crafted Water Purifier can filter any water source into pure drinking water. Required materials: Stone ×30, Wood ×10, Glass ×10, Gauze ×5.]
Qin Zhen had been a little disappointed at first by how little the Black Iron Chest contained — but the moment she saw the Blueprint was for a Water Purifier, her disappointment vanished entirely!
A Water Purifier!
With a Water Purifier, she'd never have to haul water all the way back from the stream near the bamboo grove again.
She could filter seawater directly.
Perfect timing, too — the water she'd carried back from the bamboo grove last time was already half gone.
And that was after she'd been careful to conserve it.
Now, she was finally going to have unlimited access to clean water!
Qin Zhen immediately clicked to learn the Blueprint.
She checked her supplies — she had exactly five Gauze.
So she used Stone ×30, Wood ×10, Glass ×10, and Gauze ×5 to craft the Water Purifier.
Crafting time: ten minutes.
While she waited, Qin Zhen consumed the Attribute Orbs: Attack +3, Speed +6.
The Water Purifier was complete.
Qin Zhen inspected it — the Water Purifier could produce 20 liters of pure water per day.
That amount was more than enough for her needs.
Still, she'd need to find more containers to store it all.