Chapter 6: Has the Difficulty Increased?

Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Has the Difficulty Increased?

Beyond District 122, players in the world channels of other regions were also searching for Rowan Rhodes. Unfortunately, no one received a response. Many players thought to themselves that this Rowan Rhodes was impressively composed. Meanwhile, Rowan, watching the players of District 122 discuss her, remained exceptionally calm.

Without hesitation, she closed the world channel and reviewed her upgraded panel.

[Territory: Initial Raft]

[Level: Level 4] [Upgrade]

[Introduction: Looks a bit like a raft now.]

[Specification: 16 square meters] [Expansion]

[Durability: 450/450 (thatched house +50)]

[Defensive power: 450/450 (thatched house +50)]

[Current Equipment: Hook Claw, fishing net, thatched house, campfire, long spear]

[Unlockable Equipment: raft (Wooden House, wooden fence); Production (Freshwater Collector, Workbench); Survival (cooking platform, Storage Box); Weapons (Iron Axe, spike)]

Jumping straight from Level 2 to Level 4 immediately added two new Unlockable Equipment items, all of which seemed perfectly suited for the raft’s continued development.

[Wooden House: 50 Wooden Boards]

[wooden fence: 60 Wooden Boards + 15 ropes]

[Freshwater Collector: 4 scrap iron + 1 rope]

[Workbench: 14 Wooden Boards + 2 scrap iron + 4 ropes]

[cooking platform: 2 Wooden Boards + 3 scrap iron + 1 rope]

[Storage Box: 8 Wooden Boards + 10 iron nails]

[Iron Axe: 4 Wooden Boards + 5 scrap iron + 1 rope]

[spike: 10 Wooden Boards + 10 scrap iron + 10 ropes]

Looking at the resources required for each piece of Equipment, Rowan began to take stock of her current supplies: Wooden Boards 158/153, scrap iron 45/20, ropes 50/37, and iron nails 2/10. Because she had just upgraded the raft, she didn’t have enough iron nails to meet the Manufacturing conditions for the Storage Box. She decided to build the Storage Box later and prioritize the rest.

Rowan’s fingers tapped rapidly across the screen. One by one, the new pieces of Equipment were successfully upgraded and manufactured. She then spent some time arranging everything on the raft: the Wooden House in the upper right, the living area in the lower right, the planting area in the upper left, and the work area in the lower left. Finally, she placed a ring of spikes around the perimeter of the raft.

At this point, Rowan’s raft had finally taken shape. It was a floating sea house that looked like a hedgehog.

Next, Rowan turned her attention to the two gifted Bronze Treasure Chests. These were treasure boxes that typically only appeared after a raft reached Level 10. Taking a deep breath, she opened the first Bronze Treasure Chest.

[Obtained: Instant noodles *10, mineral water *20, Wooden Boards *20, iron nails *20, potatoes *5, small earthen pot *1.]

Rowan was pleasantly surprised by the haul. The appearance of potatoes alongside a small earthen pot meant she could start planting. A single potato provided 60 units of satiety, making one equivalent to three loaves of bread. This meant that her leverage in terms of food had just received a massive upgrade.

If the first Bronze Treasure Chest had given her such a huge surprise, what about the second one? Filled with anticipation, Rowan opened the second chest.

[Obtained: Instant noodles *10, mineral water *20, Wooden Boards *20, iron nails *20, Unknown Pet Egg *1.]

A Pet Egg!

This was another rare item that only became available after Level 10. She had never owned one before, but she had seen players showing off their pets in the world channel. There were pets of the sea, land, and sky, and some players had even been saved by them. They were truly handy survival assistants. She never expected to have the chance to own one so early.

She wondered what kind of pet was inside and felt full of anticipation.

Because her inventory was full, the items from the boxes were scattered across the raft, leaving Rowan without even a place to step. Yet, looking at the clutter, she wasn’t bothered in the slightest. These were the assets for her future survival. However, she still needed to organize everything properly. Anything useful had to be put to use immediately so it wouldn’t end up collecting dust.

Rowan first sorted out the potatoes, the small earthen pot, and the soil. The potatoes could be planted directly in the pot and would mature in six hours, yielding two potatoes for every one planted. They required freshwater irrigation, unless it rained. She took out the soil because a handmade wooden box combined with soil could also be synthesized into a small earthen pot for planting potatoes. This was a DIY method discovered by players much later on.

Currently, she had five potatoes and four units of soil. If she made four more wooden boxes, she could harvest ten potatoes every six hours.

As for the wooden boxes, they had to be Manufactured using the Workbench. The Workbench’s function was simple: inserting a material into it would permanently unlock blueprints related to that material and allow for its production. Conveniently, she had just unlocked the Workbench. After she threw a Wooden Board into the Workbench, it began to operate.

[Wooden Board can generate Blueprint: Simple Wooden Box, Blueprint: Simple Wooden Bed, Blueprint: Hammock, Blueprint: Basic Tables and Chairs...]

After unlocking the blueprints, Rowan scanned the list and quickly locked onto her target.

[F-level Simple Wooden Box: Plantable. Requires Wooden Board *2]

After building four wooden boxes, Rowan placed the soil into them, immediately turning them into homemade small earthen pots. She then buried the potatoes into the five pots. Once she lined them up in the living area, she took out a bottle of mineral water and began watering them. As she watered, text appeared above the earthen pots.

[Potatoes successfully planted. Ready for harvest in 6 hours.]

Watching this scene, the corners of Rowan’s mouth curled up involuntarily. Being able to plant meant she would have a steady stream of food in the future.

Rowan then picked up the Pet Egg to check its status.

[Unknown Pet Egg: Pending Incubation. Can only be incubated in a Pasture.]

[Pasture: Requires 4x4 space, Grassland, Water Storage Tank]

After reading the Introduction, Rowan set the Pet Egg down. Leaving aside the space and the water storage tank, the Grassland alone required going ashore to obtain soil and grass seeds for synthesis. Therefore, she could only set it aside for now and activate it once the conditions were met. At that point, she wouldn’t just be able to keep pets; she could even raise livestock!

Having dealt with these two precious rewards, Rowan shifted her gaze to the other resources. It was time to organize them properly and sort them into categories.

The Wooden Boards and iron nails required for the Storage Box were already fulfilled after opening the bronze boxes. After some calculation, Rowan decided to Manufacture three of them directly.

[Manufacture Storage Box *3: Wooden Board *24, iron nails *30]

Three F-level Storage Boxes materialized. Rowan kept the instant noodles, water, long spear, and Iron Axe in her backpack, then placed the other resources into the different Storage Boxes.

Storage Box No. 1: iron nails, Wooden Boards, trash, bandages, scrap iron, ropes, clay, bronze empty boxes.

Storage Box No. 2: Pet Egg.

Storage Box No. 3: Shark Meat, Shark Skin, Shark Oil, shark headgear.

The three Storage Boxes corresponded to different types of resources. Box No. 1 was placed in the work area, Box No. 2 in the planting area, and Box No. 3 in the living area.

At that moment, looking at the neat, orderly raft that had finally taken shape, Rowan’s eyes lit up. It felt... like a home! Her mood relaxed involuntarily.

SPLASH...

The sound of bursting seawater echoed. Rowan looked up, her brows furrowing instinctively.

Two sharks were rushing toward her raft side by side? She had never heard of two sharks appearing during the novice period. Was it because she had continuously leveled up?

She began to realize what was happening. Because of her rapid progress, her path in this life seemed to be diverging in a completely different direction.

Just like now—the difficulty of her novice period had increased!