Since materials were in hand Ethan first upgraded the Workbench.
[Stone -20, Wood -2]
[Level 1 Workbench, Construction Successful!]
With a flash of golden light, in the corner to the left of the cabin, near the bed, a large stone appeared, with a stone hammer resting on it.
"Looks like this is the Workbench. Level 1 really does look primitive."
Ethan opened his magic book, and sure enough, the description under Level 1 Workbench had changed.
[Level 1 Workbench → Level 2 Workbench: Allows crafting of basic defensive equipment, Double-Bladed Stone Axe, Short Bow, Arrows, Sewn Clothing, and Intermediate Backpack. (Upgrade requirements: Stone 0/100, Wood 47/20, Earth-type Beast Core 0/2.)
[Stone Axe: Craftable. (Requirements: Stone 0/1, Wood 47/1, Vines 9/1)]
[Bamboo Spear: Craftable. (Requirements: Bamboo 0/2, Stone 0/1, Vines 9/1)]
[Torch: Craftable. (Requirements: Resin 0/2, Wood 47/1, Vines 9/1)]
[Basic Backpack: (Craftable. Requirements: Animal Hide 1/2, Linen Thread 0/1)]
[Wooden Barrel]
"Level 2 Workbench can actually make bows and arrows?"
Ethan's eyes lit up.
He remembered that there was always a Lightning Leopard wandering around his area.
If he had a bow, he could cripple it from a distance, then finish it off with his axe, he might actually be able to take it down.
Who knows what good stuff might drop from a Lightning Leopard.
Too bad the Level 2 materials were insane, 100 stones, and even 2 Earth-type Beast Cores.
Ethan had wondered before what Earth-type Beast Cores were for, but now he had an idea, they're used to upgrade higher-tier equipment.
It's very possible that crafting Level 2 or above tools will also require beast cores.
Looks like he'll have to collect more of them.
As for the Level 1 weapons, Ethan really didn't care for them. After all, he already had a rusty metal axe, which was obviously far better than these primitive stone tools.
So there was no need to craft extras.
If there was anything from the Workbench he actually wanted, it would be the torch and the basic backpack.
Unfortunately, he didn't have enough materials.
But he wasn't in a rush.
He still had several pieces of flint left unsold.
He'd check the trading channel later to see what he could trade for something useful.
For now, food came first.
Sizzle!
At that moment, the last piece of snake meat roasting over the campfire was finally done.
Ethan picked it up, took a satisfying bite, and washed it down with a big gulp of mineral water.
Seeing all the crying and panicking in the chat channel, Ethan suddenly felt very lucky.
After all, he already had a warm, cozy wooden cabin, with a campfire blazing bright inside.
With four walls to block the wind, the outside world suddenly felt distant, giving him a strange sense of safety.
After finishing his meat, Ethan realized his water was running low.
Then he remembered, he'd gotten a [Water Purifier Blueprint] earlier today.
"Time to store up some water!"
He opened the blueprint.
[Water Purifier Blueprint: Stone 0/3, Wood 47/3, Charcoal 0/1, Bamboo 0/1]
[Can purify water sources, so you no longer have to worry about water contamination.]
'Uh, it can only purify water, not produce it?'
"Looks like I'll have to trade with others for some water."
[Trading Channel]
Ethan searched for "water" and immediately saw lots of listings.
He sorted by price and scrolled down until he found the best deal: [1L Water: Trade for 1 Wood].
Compared to others selling 100 milliliters, or even just a few milliliters, this was a great deal.
After all, there were people all over the world, and some had spawned near water sources.
Naturally, they enjoyed the advantage of easy access to water, but they might lack other resources, like wood. Otherwise, they wouldn't be trading water at all.
Just as he was about to confirm the trade—
[System Alert: You don't have a container to hold water. Proceed anyway?]
No container, he almost caused a flood.
Good thing the system warned him.
Ethan exhaled in relief, then muttered to craft a wooden barrel.
The magic book quickly flipped to [Upgrade Tree → Workbench → Level 1], where the wooden barrel recipe was listed.
[Ordinary Wooden Barrel: Holds up to 10L of water. Requires Wood 47/2, Vines 9/1]
He had plenty of materials.
Ethan clicked "Craft" without hesitation.
Soon, a small but sturdy wooden barrel appeared in front of him.
[Trade: 1L Water]
[Trade Successful: Water +1L, Wood -1]
Inside the freshly crafted barrel, some murky water appeared at the bottom.
As expected, the water was dirty, with floating bits of twigs and leaves.
Looking closer, he even saw some tiny organisms inside, mosquito larvae, maybe, utterly disgusting.
No wonder it was sold so cheap.
If he didn't have a purifier, this stuff would be undrinkable.
Ethan opened the Water Purifier Blueprint again.
[Water Purifier Blueprint: Stone 0/3, Wood 44/3, Charcoal 0/3, Bamboo 0/1]
He had plenty of wood, just missing charcoal and stone.
"Charcoal, huh… isn't that what's left when wood doesn't burn completely?"
Ethan stared at the campfire carefully.
Sure enough, soon, he noticed a few tiny red exclamation marks flickering in the flames.
[Charcoal: Byproduct of incomplete wood combustion. Useful for filtering water, an excellent resource.]
[Collecting charcoal reduces campfire burn time. Please remember to add fuel. Nighttime temperature will drop to zero.]
So that's how it worked.
Collecting charcoal shortened the fire's burn time.
Which meant, when you added fuel, the system had already counted the charcoal's burn time as part of the total.
But Ethan had plenty of wood and branches, so he didn't mind the cost.
"Collect Charcoal."
[Charcoal +3, Campfire burn time remaining: 14 hours. Please add fuel.]
"One branch for one piece of charcoal?"
"Not a bad exchange rate."
But Ethan didn't rush to collect the rest. He could always make more when needed.
Charcoal was something you could always produce on demand.
He tossed three more branches into the fire, enough to keep it burning until dawn.
[Water Purifier Blueprint: Stone 0/3, Wood 44/3, Charcoal 3/3, Bamboo 0/1]
Now he was only short a few stones and a single piece of bamboo to finish crafting it.
Ethan suddenly remembered, someone had commented under his flint listing earlier, saying they didn't have enough wood and wanted to trade stone instead.
"Perfect!"
He immediately opened the trading channel and contacted the commenter.
The avatar was of a long-haired woman.
She looked about twenty, with a round, cute face, like a 3D-modeled real-life doll.
But Ethan didn't take the photo at face value.
After all, with how advanced makeup and filters were these days, "photos" could easily turn into "photo-lies."
So he just took it as a glance, nothing more.