[Expandable pool, can raise aquatic pets.]
[Expandable cabin, can raise cats, dogs, and other mammals.]
[Ex...]
"Whoa! This pet cage is no joke."
It actually even took into account that later on, he might tame all sorts of pets, and had already prepared cages of every style for him.
The only problem was that this stone house was a bit small. After building this ten-meter-wide pet cage, the whole house suddenly looked even more cramped.
"Looks like I'll have to work harder and upgrade to a new house again."
"What is the next level after the stone house?"
Ethan opened the upgrade tree and took a look.
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[Upgrade Tree]
— Grass Hut → Wooden Cabin → Stone House → Two-Story Villa (Locked)
[Stone House: Only a thick stone wall and mud-sealed, airtight structure can withstand natural disasters! You can also build a fireplace inside, so you can survive the extreme cold that comes after a week. Upon upgrading, you can construct a Pharmacy Table, Alchemy Furnace, and Fireplace.]
[Two-Story Villa: Those who truly know how to enjoy life will build a private villa. You'll not only have an enormous 400-square-meter private space but also a small outdoor garden. On foggy days, being able to lie in the sunny garden and bask in the sun is a truly blissful thing.]
[PS: After upgrading, you can also build an outdoor greenhouse, private bathroom, and small swimming pool.]
[Locked: The next level can be viewed after upgrading to the villa.]
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After reading the description for the next level of the stone house, Ethan was practically drooling.
His living area would not only become several times larger, but he'd also have an outdoor garden.
And not just that, he could even have a private bathroom and a small swimming pool.
After three days without a shower, Ethan was already feeling unbearably uncomfortable all over.
Just thinking about having a bathroom, and even a pool, Ethan could practically feel the drool about to drip from his mouth.
But when he looked at the upgrade requirements, his expression instantly collapsed.
[Villa Upgrade Requirements: Advanced Stone 0/200, Mud 279/1000, Advanced Wood 49/100, Vines 396/200, Glass 6/20, Earth-element Beast Core 0/10, Fire-element Beast Core 20/5, Water-element Beast Core 0/5]
The villa upgrade materials had changed from ordinary to advanced materials.
And just the various beast cores alone already totaled twenty pieces.
'That is a bit much.'
Whew~
While Ethan was studying the villa upgrade, a fierce wind began blowing outside the stone house. That howling sound in the wind even resembled the cries of wild beasts.
As the sun went down,
Ethan felt a chill creeping into the room.
The cold felt like it was seeping into his bones, not just a dry chill.
Ethan glanced at the magic book, the temperature had already dropped to around 4°C. Who knew how much lower it would go at night? Without a proper fireplace, the night was going to be tough.
Better upgrade the fireplace first, it'd be useful sooner or later anyway.
[Fireplace: Makes your bedroom as warm as spring. It also helps save on wood usage, a 100% worthwhile investment. Build requirements: Stone 166/50, Mud 279/50, Fire-element Beast Core 20/1]
"Build!"
[Stone -50, Mud -50, Fire Beast Core -1]
Countless stones and mud quickly self-assembled.
A flash of golden light and the once-empty wall now had a neatly built fireplace. It didn't look particularly special, but it gave off a cozy feeling.
Ethan moved the bonfire inside and added some more firewood.
Before long, the entire house had warmed up.
The fireplace even had some small holes designed for inserting sticks, probably for roasting food.
Ethan placed some lightning leopard meat on to roast. Besides the portion he planned to eat right away, he intended to roast the rest for storage.
While the meat was roasting, Ethan habitually opened the [Regional Chat Channel] (443 Online).
The number had dropped from 635 to 443. Two hundred people had died.
Ethan frowned slightly.
Judging by how harsh this world was, at this rate, people would die faster and faster. Eventually, there might be only a few dozen left alive.
So few people in such a vast area, how could anyone survive like that?
["@Everyone! Bai Tiantian! She promised to split the burn medicine with me yesterday, but she took it all for herself and won't give me any! Let this be known, don't ever cooperate with her!"]
["Anyone got extra burn medicine? Please sell it cheap! The wound I got from the rain yesterday is starting to fester, if this keeps up I'm gonna die."]
["What kind of weather is this? I just finished fixing the roof that got eaten by acid rain, and now it's SNOWING? You trying to freeze me to death?"]
["Crap, it's snowing! I haven't even upgraded to a cabin yet, am I gonna freeze to death tonight?"]
["Whatever, I'll just cut all the dead grass near the door and use it to keep warm! I heard stuffing grass inside your clothes helps with insulation!"]
["So cold! Any big shot with a wooden cabin willing to take in a little sister? I promise you can do whatever you want!"]
"Snowing?"
Seeing that in the chat, Ethan turned his head toward the stone house's glass window.
Sure enough, outside, snowflakes were falling sparsely but steadily.
And each flake was surprisingly large.
It hadn't even been snowing long, yet the ground was already turning white.
'No wonder it feels so cold.'
Ethan decided to cook some soup that night to warm himself up.
Opening the upgrade tree, he looked for anything related to pots, and found only three kinds: Stone Pot, Bronze Pot, Silver Pot.
A stone pot could be slowly carved from stone, but it would take around three days to finish.
To make a bronze or silver pot, though, he'd need to upgrade the Alchemy Furnace first.
Ethan decided to build the furnace now.
He'd originally planned to make one after upgrading the stone house earlier that day, but he hadn't had enough beast cores.
Thankfully, the hive attack that afternoon had earned him plenty of fire-element cores.
[Alchemy Furnace: With temperatures up to 2000°C, it can smelt most metals! Build requirements: Stone 146/50, Mud 269/50, Fire-element Beast Core 19/1]
"Build!"
[Stone -50, Mud -50, Fire Beast Core -1]
A flash of golden light and at the center of the house, not far from the fireplace, appeared a round alchemy furnace. It had an upper opening for smelting metals and a lower one for adding charcoal or spirit stones.
[Add 4 units of charcoal, runs for 1 hour]
[Add 1 spirit stone, runs for 10 hours]
Ethan tossed in four units of charcoal without hesitation. He'd gathered plenty from the shrubs earlier, so no need to save it.
Spirit stones, on the other hand, were precious. He wasn't about to waste those.
The furnace wasn't even running yet, but the outer shell already felt warm to the touch.
Ethan scrolled through the crafting list to the metal pots section and selected "Bronze Pot."
[Bronze Pot +1, Bronze -10]
[Bronze Pot: Extremely durable. Can be placed on a campfire or fireplace to boil water or soup. Heating time is cut in half compared to stone pots. A must-have for quality living. (Non-toxic and safe to use)]
'Not bad.'
It used up some bronze, sure, but the time savings made it totally worth it.
He rinsed the bronze pot with some water, threw in lightning leopard meat and some tomatoes, and decided to have tomato meat soup tonight. Sounded pretty good.
———
In the middle of the fog, a woman wearing golden boots held a torch and was cautiously finding her way.
Kathy, relying on her Whirlwind Shoes, had thought she could run around freely. But who could've known a snowstorm would hit so suddenly, covering all traces of her path home?
Now, she was truly lost in the mist.
The fog at midnight was absolutely terrifying.
Kathy kept feeling as though a pair of faint, hidden eyes were watching her from within the mist.
And her torch had maybe forty-five minutes of burn time left.
No matter how she looked at it, there was no way she was making it back alive.
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