Chapter 51: Changes Brought by the Level 2 Constant-Temperature Bonfire

Because the bonfire had been unpacked and a large iron ore from the spatial backpack had been used to build the house, two slots in his spatial backpack had been freed up. Therefore, Liu Hen was no longer worried about a lack of space.

Whenever he dug holes now, he used the bulk material collection mode. At present, each spatial backpack slot could hold two hundred units of materials.

At a depth of twenty meters underground, even with the need to dig stairs down, it would only require excavating a little over a hundred blocks of large dirt. His current spatial backpack capacity was more than sufficient.

Finally, after a few minutes, he arrived at the location Little Black Stone had mentioned.

With a single swing of his pickaxe, the copper ore deeply buried underground was excavated.

However, it was still a large chunk of material mixed with soil, and he would still need to refine it into pure, smaller components later.

Liu Hen immediately used the free-building mode to place the large chunk of dirt he had just gathered, stepping on it to elevate himself as he continuously ascended.

After a few more minutes, he successfully returned to his room.

First, he used the homestead building mode to patch up the hole in the foundation that had been dug through. Only then did he retrieve the large lump of dirt containing the copper ore, wielding the All-Things Pickaxe to harvest smaller materials.

To prevent producing excess byproducts that might exceed his spatial backpack capacity and cause material loss, he also took out his workbench to free up space before beginning the extraction.

[Dirt +10]
[Dirt +10]
……
Finally—
[Copper Ore +3]

Three pieces of copper ore were harvested.

When the entire large chunk of dirt had been completely processed, only three small pieces of copper ore had been obtained in total.

'Just three pieces? But it's enough to upgrade the All-Things Pickaxe by one level, and I'll even have one piece left over.'

Eagerly, Liu Hen immediately initiated the upgrade for the All-Things Pickaxe.

After waiting for many days, the All-Things Pickaxe could finally be upgraded again.

Once two pieces of copper ore and twenty magic crystals were consumed, the countdown began, and the data in his mind blurred.

The upgrade countdown for the Bronze-grade All-Things Pickaxe was ten minutes.

Since he was in no hurry, Liu Hen felt that ten minutes wasn't particularly long.

During the upgrade process, he once again felt a wave of heat originating from deep within his body.

Perhaps because he was currently wearing the complete cold-weather gear set, which already provided continuous strength augmentation, he could not feel the physical enhancement brought by this upgrade at all.

All of this was because the physical improvements brought by the upgrade were simply too minor.

From his current perspective, his combat power did not come directly from the upgrades, but rather from wearing the cold-weather gear.

The ten minutes passed quickly.

The data in his mind grew clear again, and the updated stats became:

[All-Things Pickaxe (Bronze) Lv.2 (Upgrade requirements: 3 pieces of copper ore, 30 magic crystals)]
[Magic Crystals: ……]
[Spatial Backpack: 20]

'The spatial backpack slots have doubled?'

Liu Hen felt a surge of joy. With this, he could carry even more items.

In this famine-stricken world, he wished he could stuff every usable material he encountered into his spatial backpack.

'There's still one piece of copper ore left...'

He checked the items in his spatial backpack and found nothing else that could be upgraded, so he simply decided to keep the remaining piece of copper ore for now.

'Then I'll upgrade the bonfire.'

Upgrading the bonfire to Constant Temperature Level 2 required two large logs and twenty magic crystals.

He had collected some more large logs along the way earlier, which was more than enough.

Upgrading the constant-temperature bonfire from Level 1 to Level 2 only took one minute.

One minute later, the upgrade was complete.

On the surface, the bonfire showed no visible changes, but its data had undergone significant modifications.

[Constant Temperature Bonfire Lv.2: A bonfire possessing cooking, lighting, warming, evil-repelling, and constant-temperature effects...]
[Constant Temperature: Beyond two meters, the temperature within the monster-repelling radius will be locked, fluctuating only within ten degrees. The current repelling radius is 20 meters.]
[Restricted by the level of the All-Things Pickaxe, further upgrades are currently unavailable.]

Everything else remained largely unchanged, except for the repelling radius, which had directly increased from the previous ten meters to twenty meters.

Within this range, the temperature would be locked. Although outside the two-meter mark the temperature would drop the further away one got, the minimum temperature would never exceed the ten-degree variance established within the two-meter zone.

This was quite miraculous.

The most miraculous part was that, under normal conditions, the fuel consumption rate remained unchanged: a single small piece of wood could still burn continuously for ten minutes.

As long as situations like resisting demonic power did not occur, the fuel consumption rate stayed completely constant.

From now on, the threat posed by demonic monsters would be drastically reduced, because as long as the bonfire remained lit, demonic monsters could not approach within twenty meters.

The trait of repelling demonic monsters seemed to be an absolute characteristic that did not consume extra fuel; that was the most terrifying aspect of it.

Outside, deep night had descended, and visibility had plummeted.

Zong Ni and Chen Ye were keeping watch by Chang Xin's doorway, discussing how to schedule their shifts for the night watch.

Not far away, the Wu siblings were patrolling around, careful not to exceed a distance of ten meters from one another.

The exact moment the constant-temperature bonfire upgraded to Level 2, all six of them simultaneously noticed that the visibility, which had previously dropped significantly, was now rapidly increasing.

Clearly, there was no light source present, yet they were astonished to find that centered around the nine-by-nine-meter building, visibility within a radius of over a dozen meters had vastly improved. They could clearly make out the faces of people ten meters away.

The visibility within this range even surpassed that of early night.

Yet, beyond ten meters or so, it remained pitch black.

The changes didn't stop there. To their amazement, the six of them realized that the temperature within this perimeter was rising rapidly at a perceptible speed.

With the arrival of deep night and the howling cold winds, the temperature had previously plunged rapidly to minus thirty degrees Celsius and was closing in on minus forty.

Right at that moment, however, the biting wind suddenly turned warm, as if they had instantly transitioned from a freezing hell into a warm paradise.

"This..."

Zong Ni said, looking both startled and uncertain, "Am I imagining things? Why do I suddenly feel a warm glow all over my body?"

"You're not imagining it. I feel it too," Chen Ye said, equally astonished.

"It must be our Lord's ability," Wu Yuanming said with a smile.

Wu Yuanguang and the others also wore proud expressions. Following such a lord meant that, whatever else might happen, they at least wouldn't have to freeze during their night watches anymore.

At that moment, Chang Xin walked out. She too had noticed that inside her doorframe-less room, visibility had improved dramatically.

Upon stepping outside, she discovered that visibility out here had also surged, exceeding even the conditions of early night.

Within this zone, despite the complete absence of any light source, small pebbles on the ground more than a dozen meters away were clearly visible.

Moreover, the bitterly cold night wind had grown remarkably warm.

"Sister Chang..."

Zong Ni and Chen Ye hurriedly greeted her.

Chang Xin nodded slightly, then walked further out, wanting to test the boundaries of this miraculous phenomenon.

Soon, she stepped past the fifteen-meter mark from the building, leaving the bonfire's repelling range.

Immediately, a fierce, biting gale slammed into her, and right at that boundary, visibility abruptly plummeted as if her vision had been obscured by some unnatural force.

"This..."

She took a step back and instantly discovered that with just that single step, the temperature soared back to a highly comfortable level, and visibility was restored.

Curious, she stepped forward again, and the freezing wind returned instantly.

"A single step to heaven, a single step to hell?!"

An expression of utter disbelief flickered in Chang Xin's eyes. Such a method of directly altering the surrounding environment was simply unheard of.

Seeing Chang Xin's actions, Zong Ni and Chen Ye walked over to imitate her, and quickly discovered the same phenomenon.

The two women exchanged glances, both seeing the shock mirrored in each other's eyes.

The Wu siblings had naturally noticed it as well. They were both startled and delighted by the change, and felt an even greater sense of fortune regarding the choice they had made earlier.

"As expected of Lord Liu Hen! If other wastelanders found out about this kind of capability, wouldn't they go crazy trying to squeeze their way in here?"

Wu Yuanming said with a moved expression, "Those guys earlier actually gave up the chance to chop down a tree in exchange for the qualification to live near the Lord. If they knew what it's like now, their intestines would turn green with regret, wouldn't they?"

"Definitely!" Wu Yuanguang laughed.

"Can we always stay in such a warm environment from now on?" Wu Yuanxia murmured, her grime-covered face filled with yearning.

For as long as they could remember, they had barely known what warmth felt like.

And now, they finally did.

Not far away, Chang Xin fell silent, deeply moved as well.

Because Liu Hen's ability was of tremendous help in establishing a faction.

Although wastelanders were generally resilient against the cold, with some stubborn ones even surviving in a freezing hell of minus sixty degrees Celsius barefoot and without spare clothing, who would willingly live in such a bone-chilling abyss if a warm environment like this existed?

In a place like this, one could feel warm even without wearing clothes, and never have to worry about freezing to death.

If word of such a warm sanctuary got out, people would undoubtedly break their necks trying to crowd their way in.