Chapter 13: Construction Speed

[Creation Workbench Lv.2: Upgrade Requirements (300 Iron Ore, 3 Magic Crystals); Upgrading unlocks more recipes.]

The statistics had not changed much.

Liu Hen immediately opened the [Crafting] interface, and his eyes lit up.

In addition to the campfire recipe, a brand-new recipe had appeared—a Warm Coat.

[Warm Coat Recipe: Clothing with thermal insulation properties. Size can be selected during production. Materials: Three pieces of tree bark (minimum), one Magic Crystal.]

'A warm coat?'

Liu Hen felt a surge of excitement: 'In the world of Eternal Night, the value of this item is no less than that of food.'

He was about to craft one to test its effectiveness, but he discovered he was out of Magic Crystals. He immediately stood guard at the cave entrance, eyes fixed on the darkness outside, hoping to see if any monsters were wandering by.

However, monsters are like that—they seem to be everywhere when you don't want to encounter them, but when you actually want to hunt, you cannot find a single one.

After more than half an hour, Liu Hen, chilled by the biting wind, gave up.

'Forget it. It's not cold inside the cave anyway. I'll deal with it tomorrow.'

He retrieved the Creation Workbench, turned around to return to the cave, and used the Free Build function to seal the entrance.

"Clack!" "Clack!" "Clack..."

Pieces of slag stone fell into place, and the stone wall, which already had a threshold built into it, rose rapidly.

Since he had plenty of stones this time, to be safe, Liu Hen built a three-layered stone wall, totaling thirty centimeters in thickness.

This way, even if a monster were to charge at it, there was no need to worry for the time being.

Moreover, given the miraculous nature of the Free Build, the monsters' destruction speed would likely not keep pace with his construction speed.

Beside the campfire, Little Black Stone watched the stone wall appear out of thin air and slowly grow taller, her eyes filled with shock and curiosity. Once again, she marveled at the mysterious nature of her master.

Soon, the stone wall was finished, with only a small, uneven gap left at the very top for ventilation.

Liu Hen turned to Little Black Stone and said, "Time to sleep."

As he spoke, he prepared to lie down on the spot.

However, at this moment, Little Black Stone hurriedly stood up and walked toward the cave entrance, saying respectfully, "Master, please go rest inside. Black Stone will keep watch. If there is any movement, I will wake you immediately."

Because his habit of respecting the elderly and cherishing the young from his previous life had not yet faded, Liu Hen was stunned for a moment before nodding.

He did not try to be a hero; this world did not value such sentiments, and doing so would only make Little Black Stone anxious.

Having someone keep watch was naturally a good thing, but he did not force Little Black Stone to stay awake.

He walked to the back of the cave, to the widened area two meters away from the campfire, and lay down, telling her, "With the stone wall for defense, the cave is very safe. You don't have to push yourself. If you're tired, go to sleep. Get some rest; I'll need you to keep watch tomorrow."

"Yes, yes, thank you for your concern, Master. Black Stone will definitely not doze off." Black Stone nodded repeatedly, moved, clearly having misunderstood Liu Hen's words.

"..."

Fine. Regardless, this little girl had survived even more difficult circumstances, so surely she wouldn't collapse now that conditions had improved.

Once he lay down, he could no longer hold back his exhaustion and fell into a deep sleep.

Inside the stone wall, Black Stone sat on the ground, bracing herself and listening intently to the sounds outside, not daring to relax for a moment.

Although she was incredibly sleepy, she was long accustomed to pushing through.

Back when she was alone, she had almost always slept with one eye open for fear of being abducted or bullied in her dreams.

Especially now that the cave was incomparably warm and she had food in her belly, she did not find the task difficult at all.

'I will definitely work hard to prove my worth and not let Master down!'

She silently vowed to herself, wanting to perform well because she did not want to lose everything she had now.

Time passed.

Black Stone watched the smokeless, perpetually burning campfire. Even though she knew it was created by her master's ability, she still felt it was magical.

Time unknown, the deep night outside slowly faded, and the pale dawn approached.

Liu Hen's body jolted as he was startled awake by a nightmare, only to find that Black Stone was still keeping watch, showing no signs of dozing off—she was truly diligent.

"Master, are you alright?" Black Stone stood up quickly and asked.

"I'm fine."

Liu Hen sat up and rubbed his face vigorously.

He had just dreamt that he and Zong Ni were being hunted by Zhang Ling's scavenger squad. Because they were running too fast and the night was too dark to see the path, they had fallen into a pit, which had scared him awake.

'Zhang Ling...'

Because of the chaos of the last two days, he had almost forgotten about the guy who had snatched his pyrite.

But right now, he couldn't take on five people working together, so there was no rush.

At the same time, he was also worried about Zong Ni.

Zong Ni was the first partner he had met after transmigrating; she had even given him food, and she was a candidate for his future team.

Unfortunately, in this era of Eternal Night, without prior arrangements, meeting up again was purely a matter of luck.

He shook his head, stopped dwelling on it, and said to Black Stone, "You sleep now. I've had enough rest."

"Yes, Master."

Hearing this, Black Stone immediately leaned against the cave wall and fell asleep instantly.

Liu Hen glanced at the sleeping Black Stone and then at the campfire, rubbing his stomach.

'I'm actually hungry already... That makes sense. Tree bark porridge has almost no nutritional value. Although I ate until I was stuffed last night, it was just that my stomach was full; my body's actual needs hadn't been met.'

However, he did not eat immediately, as he only felt hungry, not to the point of desperation.

'Better to save it. I'll mine some more iron ore while I'm at it.'

He took out the Pickaxe of All Things and began mining again, expanding the cave while collecting iron ore for future use.

Whether it was upgrading the Pickaxe of All Things or the workbench, both required iron ore.

He would stock up on iron ore first, and once he had Magic Crystals, he could upgrade them directly.

As the tapping sounds began, the light-sleeping Black Stone was immediately startled awake.

"You keep sleeping. I'm expanding the cave; there's no need to keep watch now," Liu Hen said.

"Yes, Master." Black Stone immediately closed her eyes again.

[Slag Stone +6]
[Slag Stone +6]
[Iron Ore +1]
...

As the Pickaxe of All Things struck repeatedly, and as the slag stones and the iron ore embedded within were collected, the cave before him slowly extended inward.

When his inventory was full, he took out all materials except for those inconvenient to move, like the ice blocks and the workbench, freeing up space to continue collecting.

Half an hour later, the cave had extended inward by more than three meters, but the interior was now piled high with slag stone, making it difficult to walk.

Liu Hen thought for a moment, then took out all the iron ore and began collecting the slag stones from the floor instead.

When his inventory was full again, he walked to the cave entrance and used the Pickaxe of All Things to dig through the defensive stone wall.

The cold wind poured in, and Black Stone was startled awake once more, hurriedly rising.

"Since you're awake again, help me keep watch."

Liu Hen dug a gap in the stone wall just wide enough for one person to pass through and stepped outside.

Black Stone quickly followed him out.

It was now the pale dawn, and visibility outside had increased to about thirty meters.

"I plan to build a defensive stone wall. You stay here and keep watch for me; call me immediately if there's any situation."

Liu Hen walked five meters out, opened the Free Build function, and began placing slag stones on the ground.

"Clack, clack, clack..."

One piece of slag stone after another appeared, merging into the ground.

From Black Stone's perspective, she saw a stone wall twenty centimeters thick extending at a visible speed, forming a '匚' shape to surround the cave entrance.

When the slag stones in his inventory were exhausted, Liu Hen used the stones he had piled outside the previous night to continue building.

When those were gone, he went back into the cave to retrieve the ones inside to continue construction.

And when the ones inside were gone, he continued to expand the cave.

With his constant mining, the cave continued to extend inward, getting deeper and deeper.

Two hours later, when the number of iron ore pieces reached three hundred, the total depth of the cave had reached ten meters.

By this time, the outer wall had reached three meters in height.

Liu Hen did not stop there; he continued to dig, extending the cave laterally, preparing to dig an escape tunnel.

He piled the excavated iron ore directly inside the cave, while the slag stones were used to continue building the outer wall.

Do not be fooled by the fact that the wilderness dwellers looked skin and bone; these outlaws, who had lived on the edge of life and death for years, were all quite capable.

The current three-meter-high wall would not be of much use against them.

Since the slag stone materials needed to be processed anyway, it was the perfect opportunity to heighten the defenses.

In the process, he also leveled the ground. From the cave entrance to the wall, and even the entire area inside the enclosure, he laid down a thick layer of stone.

These stones were all 'floors' created using the Free Build mode, making the area very smooth.

Because the ground outside the cave was uneven, once the inside was leveled, the wall directly in front of the cave was only two meters high.

Of course, the two-meter height was what could be seen from the inside; from the outside, it was still three meters.

To prevent himself from being unable to see the outside world from within, Liu Hen specifically left several ten-centimeter-wide lookout ports on the three sides of the wall, making it convenient to observe the surroundings.

Additionally, on the front wall, at a height of one meter from the ground, there was a window with a side length of half a meter, convenient for trading supplies.

The reason it was only one meter high was that Black Stone's height was currently only about 1.2 meters; if it were any higher, she wouldn't be able to reach it.

Viewed from the outside, this window was 1.5 meters high, which was perfectly sufficient.

Black Stone, who had arrived at the trading window to keep watch, looked at the three walls rising from the ground and the leveled interior floor with amazement.

Although she lacked experience, she could still estimate that such a project would take at least several days for five people working together, including transporting materials and other tasks.

Yet, her master had finished it with ease in just over two hours.

She had watched with her own eyes as three stone walls and a leveled ground appeared in a short period of time. Even after an entire night of recovery, she still felt shocked.

Suddenly, looking down from her vantage point, she saw five figures appear in the darkness and immediately raised the alarm: "Master, someone is coming."

Liu Hen, who had just stepped out of the cave, immediately went to the trading window.

When he saw the five figures holding wooden shields, his eyes lit up.

'The Magic Crystals needed to craft the Warm Coat have arrived.'

Although he could not see their faces clearly due to the distance and the dim light, he had already guessed the identities of the five people.