The person who traded a Gold-Type Beast Core for medicine was named Jerry.
His avatar was that of a special forces soldier holding a gun, with a buzz cut, a square face, and a rather stern look.
[Ethan: "You want to trade a Gold-Type Beast Core for my medicine?"]
[Jerry: "Yeah! Can I?"]
[Ethan: "Sure. But can you tell me what you killed to get a Gold-Type Beast Core?"]
[Jerry: "Funny story! There's a cave near the grassy field where I live, with lots of stones that can be mined. I went there to collect some. While mining, I saw one stone that looked really strange, like… like a bat. But since I was in a hurry to get stones to trade for food, I didn't think much about it. Anyway, that big bat-shaped stone looked easy to break, so I swung my axe down, and suddenly the system told me I'd killed a Little Stone Statue Monster, and got a Gold-Type Beast Core from it."]
[Ethan: "…"]
[Jerry: "Brother Ethan, what's this Gold-Type Beast Core for?"]
[Ethan: "I'm not sure either. Anyway, I've got plenty of other materials, so I just collect a bit of everything. This one looks really pretty, like a gemstone, so I'll keep it for now. Maybe later it'll sell for some money."]
After learning that Jerry had gotten the core purely by accident, Ethan was speechless.
It was probably because that Stone Statue Monster had been asleep, that's why it didn't notice Jerry.
In the end, Jerry got lucky and earned a free beast core with one swing.
As for Jerry asking what the cores were for, of course Ethan wasn't going to tell him. While no one on the market yet knew how valuable they really were, he'd better gather as many as possible. That was the smart move.
[Jerry: "I see! Well, Brother Ethan, when you find out what it's for, please message me privately."]
[Ethan: "No problem."]
He quickly sent a private trade request and ended the awkward chat.
[Burn Medicine -1, Gold-Type Beast Core +1]
Aside from the remaining eleven portions that could only be traded for spirit stones, everything else was sold.
Ethan had now sold all thirty-nine portions of burn medicine, leaving only the ten portions that required spirit stones. He listed those directly on the World Trade Channel.
The other materials weren't hard to get, but Ethan had a feeling that these spirit stones would turn out to be an extremely important resource.
Once players figured out their use, it'd be much harder to gather them.
So he had to act now, while it was still early in the game, when players still had a high chance of opening chests but few survival resources, to snatch up a batch while he could.
Not long after listing them on the world trade channel, the remaining ten portions of burn medicine were also sold out.
From this round of medicine sales, Ethan earned: 1 Gold-Type Beast Core, 100 Wood, 200 Stone, 180 Mud, 20 Vines, and 20 Spirit Stones.
After this one batch of trading, he had gathered all the materials for the Level 2 Tool Table upgrade.
[Stone 219/100, Wood 143/20, Earth-Type Beast Core 2/2]
As for upgrading the Stone House, he was still short two Earth-Type Beast Cores, and, most importantly, four pieces of glass, which were proving very hard to find.
Ethan hadn't even seen glass appear on the trade channel.
He even tried offering a jar of medicine for a piece of glass, but no one responded at all.
Looked like no one had any glass yet.
Left with no choice, Ethan decided to upgrade the tool table first.
[Stone -100, Wood -20, Earth-Type Beast Core -2]
[Level 2 Tool Table upgrade successful.]
A flash of golden light and the black stone tool table in Ethan's small hut instantly turned into a large stone workbench.
The side against the wall now even had multiple hooks, perfect for hanging tools, while the surface of the table was neatly arranged with various instruments.
It finally looked like a proper workspace.
[Level 2 Tool Table: Can craft Double-Headed Axe, Stone Axe, Short Bow, Arrows, Vine Armor, Cotton Clothes, Intermediate Backpack, Basic Bracers…]
"Hm?"
"Oh, right."
"I already have a blueprint for Excellent Bracers."
But since he hadn't had the materials before, Ethan never made them. Now that he saw them listed under the Level 2 Tool Table menu, he immediately opened the Basic Bracer description.
[Basic Bracer: Can increase the protection of your fragile arms. Overall Defense +0.1. Remember to craft two at once, you're not Hulk! Requires Beast Hide 4/2, Hemp Thread 11/1]
[Excellent Bracer (Requires Blueprint): Can increase the protection of your fragile arms. Overall Defense +1. Remember to craft two at once, you're not Hulk! Requires Beast Hide 4/2, Hemp Thread 11/1, Gold-Type Beast Core 2/1]
"Four pieces of beast hide?"
"Didn't I only have two?"
Sure enough, when he checked, he saw that the Dwarf's Backpack had completely broken down and auto-decomposed.
Since it was already gone, Ethan didn't bother thinking about it anymore… he kept reading the crafting requirements.
Under the tool table options for crafting bracers, there were now two recipes.
The first was the built-in Level 2 recipe for Basic Bracers, it required one less Gold-Type Beast Core than the Excellent version.
But its defense value was only one-tenth that of the Excellent Bracers.
If you counted both arms, the total difference in defense was nearly tenfold. That was a huge loss.
Without hesitation, he chose to craft the Excellent Bracers.
[Excellent Bracer +1: Beast Hide -2, Hemp Thread -1, Gold-Type Beast Core -1]
At once, a golden bracer appeared on Ethan's wrist.
The texture felt soft to the touch, yet its golden sheen gave off an extraordinary impression. To test its defensive strength, Ethan pulled out his rusty axe and slashed at it.
The golden bracer didn't even flinch, there wasn't a single scratch on it.
"Awesome!!"
Ethan immediately crafted another one.
Now, both of his arms had an extra layer of protection. Beyond the added defense bonus, in a pinch, he could even use them like small shields.
Just imagine, a venomous snake lunges toward him.
If he couldn't attack in time, he could raise his arms to block it, buying himself a precious moment to strike back.
Two bracers, done.
Ethan was delighted.
Meanwhile, the rabbit meat had finished roasting.
He picked up a piece of golden-brown roasted rabbit and took a bite.
The meat was tender and smooth, and tasted pretty good.
Unfortunately, it lacked seasoning. If only he had some salt, or black pepper, cumin, chili powder, and a sprinkle of white sesame, it would taste even better.
If only he'd saved a bit of the medicine to trade for spices… a total miscalculation. Total mistake.
After finishing a piece of rabbit meat, Ethan felt a bit thirsty.
Then he remembered the 10 liters of water he'd poured into the purifier that morning.
Walking over to the water purifier, he saw a red exclamation mark flashing on top of it.
[Lack of charcoal. Please replace with new charcoal!]
Ethan looked inside.
The charcoal had mysteriously vanished.
But there was still about one-ninth of the dirty water left unfiltered. He suddenly remembered, yesterday he'd already purified one liter, so he was short about 0.3 units of charcoal to finish the job.
He quickly grabbed 3 units of charcoal from the firewood pile and added them in. The purifier started running again.
The remaining 2.7 units could be used for the next batch of water, no waste.
.
.
.
About ten minutes later, the remaining liter of water was finally purified.
Ethan now had 9 liters of drinkable pure water.
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