Song Xu took a deep breath.
The medication could not be stopped.
If she wanted to completely cure her condition, she had to go back and exchange for another bottle of Elementary Heart-Clearing Pills.
Fortunately, her Big Stomach Pouch allowed for smuggling, or else she really would not be able to afford it.
In the afternoon, she took her daughter to the supermarket.
She picked out a brightly colored set of building blocks and grabbed an early learning music book that made various animal sounds.
Her daughter’s autumn pants were getting a bit short, so she bought another new set.
After checking out, holding the items, she went to the vegetable market.
Pork, flour, and various fresh vegetables.
Finally, in front of one stall, she hesitated for a moment before buying a few pounds of ordinary Welsh onions.
Because the Law of Silence was in effect, she had to pay as much attention to details as possible.
Upon returning home, she unpacked the building blocks.
Bao Bao was instantly drawn to the multicolored blocks, reaching out her tiny hands to grab them.
Song Xu watched from the side as her daughter was finally able to play with toys, her eyes softening.
After feeding her the afternoon complementary food, she stayed with her and played for a while.
The little one grew tired from playing and began to yawn.
Song Xu carried her to the bed, gently patting her.
Before long, her daughter fell asleep.
Song Xu sat by the bedside and pulled up the system panel.
She took a deep breath.
She selected to enter the game.
After the familiar wave of dizziness, Song Xu opened her eyes calmly.
Propping herself up by her arms, she sat up and rubbed her somewhat stiff neck.
The room was very warm at the moment.
She was no longer living in that crude, five-square-meter wooden cabin.
This was a rectangular room of about fifteen square meters.
The original log exterior walls had been replaced with neatly cut, thick slate slabs, offering much better thermal insulation.
The ceiling was higher, and beneath her feet were pine wood floorboards, polished exceptionally smooth so they would not prick even if walked on bare-footed.
Two tidy, square windows were cut into the walls, though currently sealed shut from the inside with iron sheets, since so far not a single person had sold glass.
The iron sheet fireplace had also been replaced with a stone-built fireplace embedded into the wall, twice the size of the previous one, with space on top to hold a cooking pot.
At this moment, the firewood inside the hearth burned bright and hot, warming the entire room until it was cozy and comfortable.
[Stone-Wood Composite House (Level 5)]
[Durability: 680/800]
[Space: 25 square meters]
[Description: A sturdy composite shelter capable of effectively resisting severe weather and conventional attacks, with good thermal insulation performance. Currently unable to upgrade due to lack of a key material: Glass.]
This was the new home she had upgraded using the large quantity of materials traded over the past two days.
Song Xu stretched her shoulders and walked two steps inside the room.
The floor was very hard, making her waist uncomfortable after sleeping.
She opened the recipe column.
When materials were sufficient, those originally gray crafting options would light up.
[Consume Beast Hide x3, Spring x8, Thatch x20 to craft Spring Mattress?]
Craft.
The materials vanished, and a double mattress appeared in the crafting slot.
Song Xu placed it in the warmest spot beside the fireplace.
She lay down on it to test it out.
Her back felt soft, while her waist and hips were properly supported.
Comfortable.
Exhaling a long breath, she stared at the roof beam for a few seconds.
Then she flipped up and sat up smartly.
Time to get to work.
She pushed open the iron door.
Outside the door, the tethered toad glanced at her, the favorability above its head displaying [55/100].
Song Xu took out a piece of roasted moth meat and threw it over.
The toad rolled its tongue, swallowed it down, and the favorability jumped back to 100.
Song Xu opened the map, confirmed the northern direction, packed up her house, and set off.
The weather was colder than before, and her exhaled white breath caused frost to condense on her eyelashes.
After walking for about half an hour, she passed by an exposed stone pit.
Her Sight as Food scanned across it, and text popped up at the bottom of the rock wall: [Iron Ore (Rich Deposit)].
Song Xu halted her steps and crafted a Sturdy Iron Pickaxe.
She had heard Lu Le mention before that iron ore was not easy to find, especially rich deposits like this, which had a high probability of yielding treasure chests.
Sliding down to the bottom of the pit, she swung the pickaxe, smashing down with force.
Clang!
Her current physical strength was much stronger than her body in the real world, and the iron pickaxe sent sparks flying as she swung it.
After smashing it about a dozen times, the large rock cracked open, revealing ore inside that shimmered with a metallic luster.
[Obtained Iron Ore x2]
Her arms were numbed by the recoil; mining was indeed not that easy.
Shaking her hands, she continued.
Clang! Clang!
Every hit required full strength, expending 1 point of stamina.
Sweat seeped from her brow, and Song Xu removed her rabbit fur cotton cap.
By the time she mined the fifth piece, her stamina had dropped by nearly thirty points.
She stopped, reached into her Big Stomach Pouch to retrieve a ham sausage, and swallowed it in a few bites.
Her stamina began to slowly recover.
As she ate, she thought to herself that Lu Le had probably expended all her stamina on mining, no wonder she was only Level 2.
Most players were currently stuck at Level 3 or 4.
Someone like her who relied on infinite supplies to force her level up probably could not be found anywhere else in the whole district.
Finishing the ham sausage, she raised her pickaxe once more.
Clang!
The entire block of ore became covered in cracks, shattering with a crash, and stones collapsed all over the ground.
Song Xu instinctively took half a step back.
Just then, a sudden change occurred.
Those small stones that had collapsed onto the ground suddenly began to roll.
The stones rubbed against one another as they gathered toward a single point.
In the blink of an eye, a little rock golem that reached up to about her knees stood up, wobbly on its feet!
Its two sunken socket eyes faced Song Xu as it swung its right arm, smashing toward her lower leg from right in front of her!
[Rock Soil Puppet LV5]
It was too sudden! Song Xu did not have time to pull out her bow.
She dodged to the side abruptly, blocking with the iron pickaxe in her hand.
Bang!
Her arms went numb, and her health was reduced by 8.
The puppet’s other fist was raised again.
In a moment of urgency, Song Xu instinctively threw a piece of iron ore she had just dug up straight at the puppet’s face!
Unexpectedly, it opened its mouth and actually swallowed that piece of iron ore.
Its movements slowly froze, and it smacked its lips.
The bright red name above its head turned a light green.
[Rock Soil Puppet LV5 (Favorability 100/100)].
It lowered its arms and tilted its head to look at Song Xu,
Baring its mouth to reveal a row of uneven stone teeth.
Song Xu was stunned for a moment.
Before she could even react, the rock golem turned back, dug into the pile of rubble, and pulled out a pitch-black treasure chest.
Then, stepping on its short little legs, it trotted over, raising the treasure chest above its head.
Song Xu: …
Did anything fed through her hands trigger the skill effect?
That was actually pretty great.
Song Xu opened the iron treasure chest, and inside appeared a palm-sized brass trumpet.
[Punching Bag, single-use item, can enlarge the target object based on the amount of negative energy inputted, lasting for 30 minutes.]
Looking fine in craftsmanship and rather cute, Song Xu casually placed it into her backpack.
There were still quite a few iron ore rocks at the bottom of the stone pit. Song Xu looked at the little rock golem rubbing back and forth against her leg and gave it a gentle kick.
“My leg’s almost got its skin rubbed off by you. Since you’re so energetic, can you help me mine?”
“Ga-ga!” The little rock golem nodded vigorously, turned its head, and charged toward the nearest rock.
Song Xu’s hand that was about to hand over the iron pickaxe froze, as she watched with wide eyes while it split that large rock in half with a single headbutt.
She gasped cold air.
This head… was way too hard!
Raw ore that she had to dig for so long just to break open took it just one strike.