Chapter 55: System Recovery
Lu Qingyan’s figure disappeared into the night.
Chu Jiu went back inside, a wave of curiosity washing over him again: What exactly is Lu Qingyan…?
He seemed to know a lot.
Like that strange box.
From the second day after waking up, Chu Jiu had been asking him about the “box” and the “things inside the box,” how best to deal with them.
Lu Qingyan had said that the things inside the box had already had their “activity” removed by his ability, and were now just a pile of black ash, posing no further threat.
As for the “box” itself, once Chu Jiu’s body recovered, he could examine what material the box was made of.
Unfortunately, Chu Jiu had turned the box over and over for a long time afterward, but couldn’t figure out any clues.
When he mentioned this to Lu Qingyan yesterday, the latter wasn’t in a hurry, only saying that perhaps if they encountered similar things in the future, they would be able to recognize them.
Chu Jiu steadied his mind and returned to the workshop, continuing to read the [Forging Workshop Facility Diagram] that the blacksmith squirrel had given him.
To be honest, Mr. Blacksmith’s facility diagram was drawn in great detail, with the dimensions and structure of each component, and the materials to be used, clearly marked.
But Chu Jiu became more and more astonished as he read, finally exclaiming in amazement: What kind of dwarf beastman exclusive advance technology is this!
Chu Jiu didn’t have a detailed understanding of “metal smelting,” but he had some basic concepts.
He knew that even in ancient Earth, whether in the China region or the Europe region, “smelting and manufacturing” was by no means easy.
Taking iron smelting as an example, because the melting point of pure iron exceeds 1500°C, ancient technology simply couldn’t reach such a temperature, and there was no way to melt iron like modern processes.
Either iron ore was reduced to “sponge iron” at temperatures between 800°C and 1000°C through chemical reactions, and then shaped ironware was obtained through literal “hammering and forging.” Or, at temperatures between 1100°C and 1200°C, the property that iron absorbs carbon at high temperatures and that the melting point of carbon-iron alloys is much lower than that of pure iron was utilized to obtain liquid “pig iron,” which was then used to cast ironware.
When Chu Jiu went to Emerald Town to order a large iron pot, he noticed that the blacksmith used the first method. Even though the ability user at the time possessed fire-type abilities, the flames he released couldn’t exceed 1100°C.
Whether on Earth or this other world, in metallurgy, how to obtain a high temperature sufficient to melt metal, and how to maintain such a high temperature in the “furnace,” were the most basic and most difficult parts.
But among the dwarf beastmen, these problems that plagued humans simply didn’t exist.
The dwarf beastmen used a mineral called [Fire Origin Stone]. By simply manipulating this stone, they could freely obtain the smelting temperature they needed!
As for maintaining the high temperature, they directly made [Top-grade Firebricks] from a raw material called [Fire-resistant Clay] to build their furnace.
In this way, the problem that had troubled humans for thousands of years on Blue Star was not even a problem for them…
Not only that, Chu Jiu also discovered that the use of [Fire Origin Stone] was something the dwarf beastmen accomplished by relying on their racial talent.
Just like the chestnut sprites could control the Bodos, the dwarf beastmen could manipulate this ore.
In human eyes, [Fire Origin Stone] was just a dark, unremarkable stone, not as valuable as an iron ore.
But for the dwarf beastmen, this ore was a secret treasure that could be recycled for many years.
Chu Jiu put down the leaves in his hand, thinking that in this case, the dwarf beastmen’s blacksmith shop, even if located in a human city, was something only the dwarf beastmen could use.
Humans simply couldn’t operate their blacksmith shop, nor could they easily learn their forging techniques directly.
Thinking of this, Chu Jiu silently thanked Mr. Blacksmith again for his generous help.
In the entire Carolot Continent, this blacksmith shop in Bean Village would be a unique branch.
This thought inspired Chu Jiu, and he even forgot his fatigue.
He found a wooden board and charcoal pencil, and meticulously listed the materials and environmental requirements needed to build the forging workshop, checking each line carefully.
Hmm… high-quality wood, there’s still a lot.
Ordinary fuel-type materials, those are also abundant.
Leather for making the bellows, no problem.
Water diversion facilities? Modifying the existing waterwheel and canals should work. But it’s necessary to check the water flow strength downstream of the river beforehand.
[Fire-resistant Clay] and [Limestone] are both specialties of the Sheltered Valley, and Little Squirrel can help collect them.
Checking to the end, Chu Jiu confirmed:
The only thing that was neither in stock nor known where to collect was [Fire Origin Stone].
Regarding the source of the Fire Origin Stone, the blacksmith squirrel had actually carefully noted a few sentences:
[It has been many years since we last collected Fire Origin Stone. It was once said that this miraculous ore could still be found deep within the earth’s core. But the exact location of the earth’s core has long been forgotten.]
Deep within the earth’s core…
What kind of new map is that?
Chu Jiu carefully recalled all the illustrated cards he knew, but none of them mentioned such a location.
But he seemed to have seen this term somewhere before…
Chu Jiu was a little troubled, and he raised both hands to hug his head, rocking back and forth in his chair as if shaking his head would shake out his memory.
At this moment, he heard a “meow” behind him.
Turning his head, Little Can had jumped onto the high shelf and was looking down at him with an unhappy expression.
Chu Jiu’s eyes lit up, and he got up, looking up at the kitten: “You’re awake? You haven’t played on the cat tree for days.”
In the past few days, apart from waking up to eat some dried fish and insisting on going to bathe by itself at night, Little Can had spent most of its time sleeping alone in its cat bed, and no longer clung to him during the day.
This state was a bit similar to the first two days after it came out of the mine.
Chu Jiu guessed that it was because the sudden increase in size had consumed too much energy, so it needed a lot of rest.
Seeing that the little guy had the energy to run downstairs again today and even jumped into the workshop to stare at him, Chu Jiu’s first reaction was joy: Little Can had almost recovered! That’s great!
Thinking this, his eyebrows curved into a smile, and he stretched out his arms, making a “come down and let me hug you” gesture to Little Can.
Little Can’s eyes drooped into semicircles, and it angrily sharpened its claws, but in the end, it still pouted and jumped down, landing squarely in Chu Jiu’s arms.
“Meow!”—”It’s so late, why aren’t you asleep yet!”
“Ah, ah, soon, soon. I was just looking at the facility diagrams Mr. Blacksmith gave me and got a little engrossed,” Chu Jiu explained, gently scratching Little Can’s chin.
Little Can: “…Sleep now.”
Looking very angry.
Chu Jiu glanced at the time in the backend: it was already two o’clock in the morning.
No wonder he was so sleepy.
He didn’t insist anymore and carried Little Can upstairs.
Tonight, Little Can didn’t return to its can cat bed, but took it for granted and lay down on Chu Jiu’s pillow.
Chu Jiu thought to himself that it was indeed fully recovered.
He lay down next to Little Can and rubbed his forehead against the little guy’s soft fur: “Go to sleep.”
Little Can: “…Meow.”
After a while, Chu Jiu heard Little Can’s almost aggrieved voice: “When… when I saw you not moving in the carriage… I was so scared.”
Chu Jiu knew that the little guy must have thought he was asleep to say such things.
Sure enough.
When he reached out to hold Little Can’s small head, the little guy’s body stiffened: “Meow!”—”Weren’t you asleep!”
Chu Jiu ignored the little guy’s accusation and said softly, “That was several days ago.”
“I’m fine now.”
“Thanks to you turning into Big Can and bringing me back in time, nothing happened to me at all.”
“So, don’t be scared, go to sleep.”
Little Can rolled twice towards Chu Jiu and rubbed its cat face against Chu Jiu’s cheek twice: “Meow!”
This time, with such a warm cat snuggled against him, Chu Jiu really fell asleep quickly.
But Little Can still kept its icy blue round eyes open, its gaze filled with confusion, doubt, unwillingness, and self-blame.
Its memory had broken again.
It only remembered that while in the carriage, at a moment of extreme anxiety, its body was suddenly filled with power, causing its size to increase several times.
At that time, its only thought was to bring Chu Jiu to a safe place.
After that, what did it do?
Chu Jiu and Rawr Rawr Rabbit both said that it was the one who brought Chu Jiu back.
It also said that later Lu Qingyan took over. Lu Qingyan protected Chu Jiu, removed the box that attracted the monsters, and directed everyone to clean up the battlefield…
Little Can wasn’t willing to hear too much about Lu Qingyan, and even less willing to inquire further.
But it had to admit: that guy had accomplished what it had wanted to do but couldn’t.
That guy was indeed very strong.
If… if it could also be this strong, how wonderful would that be.
But now, it didn’t even know how it had grown so big, or how it had brought Chu Jiu back.
Little Can rested its chin on the pillow, its cat face showing unprecedented melancholy.
*
At the same moment.
Ancient Linburg.
The association’s vice-president’s private residence.
The gray-haired man leaned back in his high-backed chair, his face clouded with displeasure.
The long-nosed man in black robes knelt on both knees, trembling with fear and respect:
“Those three brothers are used to doing this kind of thing, they wouldn’t usually make mistakes when paid to do a job. Who would have thought they were so short-sighted that they would try to make a quick buck in the village first and steal all the honey…”
“Weren’t we afraid they’d talk nonsense, so we put poison on the silver coins we gave them in advance?”
“Knowing that all three of them have a habit of licking coins, we estimated that they would be poisoned to death within a day or two, conveniently eaten by the monsters along with those old fogeys in Bean Village.”
“Who would have thought they would fight with those old geezers in Bean Village, and halfway through the fight, they would die from the poison themselves!”
“As a result… nothing happened in Bean Village…”
The long-nosed man wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued, “Now Bean Village is saying that their honey was targeted, so they spent money to hire patrol team members to stay permanently… this…”
Everything the long-nosed man said was what his informants had painstakingly “inquired” about, with convincing details and logic.
The gray-haired man finally spoke.
“The box?”
Just three words, but the long-nosed man was already so frightened that his face was pressed against the floor:
“Those three… they say because they died suddenly, they were worried about some kind of epidemic, so… so the patrol team used their abilities… to burn it…”
“The box… I’m afraid…”
The gray-haired man didn’t speak for a long time.
When he spoke again, he was actually smiling: “Such a gift has always been prone to accidents, and you actually… only brought back such a result?”
Ordinary flames naturally couldn’t harm the “gift” inside the box.
But the flames of ability users containing mental power were different.
The long-nosed man trembled like a sieve, kneeling on the ground and begging for mercy non-stop, saying that he was willing to slaughter Bean Village at any cost now, and that he was willing to serve the true god for the rest of his life…
The gray-haired man raised his hand and turned the gemstone ring on his index finger: “Useless.”
The long-nosed man lay prostrate on the ground in extreme terror, truly scared out of his wits.
As a result, the gray-haired man smiled again: “If you go and cause trouble for Bean Village again now, do you think the patrol team is easy to provoke?”
“Don’t forget, those ability-users have other uses. Don’t go and antagonize them inappropriately.”
“As for the rest… handle it yourself.”
“If there are any more mistakes,” the gray-haired man’s smile was particularly amiable, “then you can serve the true god in a different way.”
The long-nosed man thanked him profusely and left.
The gray-haired man remained leaning back, his face gloomy.
What a waste…
Before this waste makes up for his mistakes, this matter should be temporarily kept from the president.
*
The next morning.
Chu Jiu, who had slept soundly with Little Can nestled beside him all night, sat up full of energy and stretched languidly.
Hoo… it’s been a long time since my mind felt this clear!
Sleeping is still the most useful!
He excitedly ran downstairs and immediately started quickly scanning the ?Underground River Adventure?.
This ?Adventure? was drawn by a human boy named Eric, who was less than ten years old at the time, and the blacksmith squirrel together.
Although there were some words in it, there were more pictures and strange symbols.
Not to mention others, even the blacksmith squirrel himself didn’t understand what the child had drawn back then.
Fortunately, Chu Jiu had the active skill [Fairy Tale Interpretation].
Those scribbled lines automatically formed words in his mind.
For example—
On the very first page, in what the matchstick figure representing the human boy said to the little squirrel, there was a sentence: “I heard that the underground river here can lead all the way to the deep within the earth’s core, I really want to go take a look!”
That’s it!
That underground river is the path to the world deep within the earth’s core!
Chu Jiu clenched his fists, thinking that once the system was repaired and he could use his active skills, he would go down the underground river to find this world deep within the earth’s core!
Before the system recovers… he needs to do as much preparatory work as possible!
Chu Jiu glanced at the “to-do list” he had written on the wooden board yesterday and decided to take Glup-Glup to “survey the river” later.
*
The dwarf beastmen’s “forging workshop” should be built directly by the river due to material requirements, and it also needed a large amount of cold water.
Therefore, it was bound to use water wheels and canals.
However, old-fashioned pot chain waterwheels could only be built where there was a height difference in the river channel.
The small river flowing through Bean Village still had a drop in the wilderness section, but in the section that entered Bean Village, especially the section where the villagers usually drew water and fished, the water flow was very gentle.
Such water flow naturally couldn’t support a waterwheel.
Fortunately, Chu Jiu had noticed long ago that there were large areas of uncultivated land within Bean Village that were not farmed or inhabited—because there were too few people, these places could only remain barren.
When the small river flowed through this area, there were some small undulations.
What Chu Jiu wanted to do today was to let Glup-Glup and himself see if these undulations were enough to build a waterwheel.
If traditional water wheels couldn’t be used, then he would have to think of other ways as soon as possible, and couldn’t wait until all the other materials were ready only to find that the water problem was a bottleneck.
Before going to “survey the site,” Chu Jiu first went to the old village chief to inquire about the situation.
The size of the water flow was affected by the seasons. It was now early winter, and the riverbed width and water storage capacity were significantly different from summer, so Chu Jiu needed to understand the condition of this river in other seasons to avoid misjudgment.
The old village chief was extremely supportive. He said a lot himself and finally simply asked Aman, who was most familiar with the village, to lead Chu Jiu and help him.
Aman then led Chu Jiu downstream along the small river, explaining as they walked, and he explained very clearly what the river water was like in spring and summer, how wide it was at its widest, and how narrow it was at its narrowest.
After walking for a while, Chu Jiu heard the little sapling say, “Glup-Glup, Glup-Glup, fly ahead quickly! Glup-Glup thinks that area should be enough!”
With that, Glup-Glup flapped its leaves and flew towards the area above the river channel.
After the monster attack last time, everyone in the village already knew about Chu Jiu’s “pets,” including this tree-shaped pet, and that they were very capable alien beasts. Chu Jiu was no longer worried about others discovering the strangeness of the spirit beasts, so he just let Glup-Glup fly out openly.
After Glup-Glup flew away, Chu Jiu heard Aman say very softly, “Brother Chu Jiu…”
Chu Jiu: “Hmm?”
Aman: “…will work harder, will work with everyone to build the village better!”
Chu Jiu: “…Huh?”
Why did this child suddenly say this? And with a bit of a sob in his voice?
Chu Jiu quickly said, “You’re already working very hard! You’ve done so, so many things!”
Tears had already started streaming down Aman’s face: “That day, that day, it was me who took those people to the road sign, told them where you lived, and also told them you weren’t in the village…”
“If it wasn’t for…”
Chu Jiu squatted down and said seriously, “Aman, this isn’t your fault.”
“First of all… even if they hadn’t sneaked in beforehand, they would have eventually sneaked in at night to cause trouble.”
“Besides, they were so well disguised that no one could recognize them. How can you blame yourself—”
Aman cried, his nose and eyes streaming, sobbing, “I know, so, so… I have to work harder, I have to become, become someone who can defeat him, who can stop him, a grown-up.”
Chu Jiu patted his head: “Mm, that’s the spirit.”
Aman sniffled again: “Actually, I wanted to find you a few days ago to say sorry…” “But Brother Lu Qingyan told me not to.”
Aman’s swollen eyes had wanted to find Chu Jiu then, but Lu Qingyan had stopped him.
That cold and aloof older brother had calmly told him:
If he went to apologize to Chu Jiu now, it would only make Chu Jiu even more upset.
After two more days, when Chu Jiu had fully recovered, and Aman had thought about what he wanted to do in the future, it would be enough to tell Chu Jiu his conclusions.
Hearing this, Chu Jiu couldn’t help but feel surprised and whispered, “He actually… thought so considerately…”
What Lu Qingyan said was indeed correct.
If Chu Jiu knew that Aman’s childlike innocence had been exploited, he would indeed be both angry and sad.
Why could he even consider this? It was as if… he understood Chu Jiu very well.
But Chu Jiu clearly hadn’t had much contact with him?
Just as Chu Jiu was staring blankly at the river water, Little Can also propped up its head and gazed at the river, its eyes extremely melancholic.
*
Two more days passed.
This evening, Chu Jiu had just finished bathing the little guy and was wrapping up the recently often dazed Little Can when he suddenly heard a long-lost notification sound:
[Congratulations, Host, your level has increased. You are now a Level 9 Pioneer]
!
Compared to leveling up, what made Chu Jiu even more delighted was that the system had finally been repaired!
System repair meant he could use active skills and set off towards the Sanctuary Valley!
The system, which had been out of operation for a long time, began to pop out notification sounds one after another, not knowing how many had accumulated:
[The Host now possesses available “Titles.” Titles have been automatically generated based on your experiences.]
[The Host has gained the Title: “Explosives Enthusiast.” When you use explosive items, loudly announcing your title will increase the item’s effect by 10%. This effect is not stackable.]
Chu Jiu: ….
Hey hey, it’s “Peace Enthusiast” here.
But then again, without explosives, how would anyone know he loves peace?
[The Host has gained the Title: “The Indomitable.” When non-human intelligent beings are in a negative state such as depression, frustration, or despair, loudly announcing your title may dispel their negative state.]
Chu Jiu: ……
This… are you sure the non-human intelligent beings aren’t dispelling their negative state because they can’t help but laugh after hearing this title?
Next were various Pioneer Point rewards.
The reasons for the rewards ranged from [Defending the Pioneer’s Hut] to [Repairing Roads], from [Helping Chestnut Sprites Purchase Pottery] to [Encouraging Bean Village Villagers].
Accumulating this large string of Pioneer Points, plus the previous Pioneer Points, Chu Jiu now had a full 12,100 Pioneer Points!
Chu Jiu “wowed” in his heart: If this were converted to Chinese Yuan…
He’d be rich!
Even if building a facility cost 1000 points in the future, he could build 12 in one go, and no longer had to be so frugal, fearing he wouldn’t have enough points!
The system asked him again whether he wanted to immediately accept the reward of 4000 points for completing [Even the Sunset Glow Should Not Be Underestimated], which, along with the previous [The Boy’s True Wish], [The Merchant’s Small Dream], and [Guarding the Merchant’s Small Dream], constituted a series of linked events, or continue to accumulate the reward. Chu Jiu still chose “accumulate.”
Anyway, he had enough Pioneer Points now, so he would just keep doubling it and see how much it would eventually become.
In addition to the generous Pioneer Point rewards, the development level had also increased a lot, from 10.5% to 14.5%.
Looking at the details, just the [Building “Chu Jiu’s Little Shop”] item contributed 2% to the development level.
Chu Jiu was quite surprised, not expecting this small vending shop to bring such a high development level.
But before he could think about it, the next prompt completely attracted his attention:
It was a growth notification for the spirit beasts.
The system successively prompted that Spirit Beasts No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 had triggered growth.
Then, what about Spirit Beast No. 1, Little Can?
System, don’t go too far! Little Can worked so hard to save him, could that really not compare to “accepting assigned work”?
Just as he was nervously thinking and waiting, the notification sound rang:
[Spirit Beast No. 1 has triggered “Growth”]
Wow!
Upon seeing this, Chu Jiu hugged the nearby Little Can without thinking:
“Little Can, you ‘grew’!”
“You don’t have to worry about your spiritual power being damaged from not growing anymore!”
Little Can, who had been somewhat melancholy these past two days, suddenly perked up: “Meow? Meow meow meow?”—”Really? Grew? Became stronger?”
Chu Jiu nodded vigorously: “Mm, let’s see how strong you can become!”
Chu Jiu hugged Little Can, excitedly waiting for the system to slowly display the prompts—
[Current Growth Level of Spirit Beast No. 1: Unknown]
…? Unknown?
[Spirit Beast No. 1 has learned the Active Skill: “Big Cat Scratch.” When facing extreme situations, Spirit Beast No. 1 can transform into a “Big Cat” and scratch in the Big Cat form.]
…That’s it?
Over here, Little Can gently scratched Chu Jiu’s arm with its paw, its icy blue eyes full of anticipation:
“Did I get a skill too? It must sound very powerful, right? What is it?”
Thank you for the new chapter