NOVEL WEB 0023 – Athena Returns and Upgrades!
The pounding of hooves just entered the city gates when a series of prompt tones sounded.
| Faction mission completed! |
| Commencing return! Rewards will be distributed upon return. |
| Departed safely, returned safely! |
Athena tightly gripped the reins as she listened to the continuous system prompts.
"Drive!" The people inside the city quickly gathered around, healers standing by.
Handing the person on horseback over to the healers, Athena felt her body being pulled by a force.
She vanished on the spot, but the people around seemed oblivious, continuing to bustle about.
| Return successful! |
As Athena underwent the second teleportation, she began to adapt, yet still felt a wave of dizziness. Sitting down on the bed, she looked around the familiar room, the fire crackling inside the stove, never extinguished.
Her whole body ached, especially the inner sides of her thighs sore from long horseback riding, but luckily she wasn't injured.
But what about that swordsman? Did they manage to save him in the end? Being directly teleported back, she had no idea how the system handled the aftermath.
By now, the fourth wave of attacks from other players had ended, marking the official conclusion of the entire newbie tutorial. The chat channel messages had exploded long ago, even Athena's private messages couldn't escape.
| -- Phew, finally it's over. -- Why did so many suddenly pop up? Almost thought I was going to die here. -- Hehehe, I've unlocked hidden rewards! You bunch of scrubs. -- Bragging will bring bad luck! Why do I only have a few white packages? |
The subtitles in the chat channel scrolled rapidly, even though the battle had ended quite a while ago, people still hadn't fully recovered from the thrilling experience.
To celebrate their survival, everyone flooded the chat channel with messages, asserting their presence. Almost everything on the trading panel was refreshed as well. With such a commotion, of course, some people noticed Athena.
| -- Wasn't there someone called Big Dream before? Why has there been no activity from them recently? I mean, people like that can survive! -- Upstairs is really jealous, what does it matter to you if they don't speak? -- I also think, what's the use of showing off at the beginning? Ended up lying down anyway? -- Does anyone know how to obtain the Shelter Upgrade Blueprints? -- I heard that the successful ones in this tutorial were directly provided by the system, don't know about other aspects. |
Although Athena wasn't a bad person, she definitely wasn't a good person either. Even though she couldn't do anything right now, it didn't stop her from scaring these people.
| -- Players can teleport each other, it's just a matter of time. (Attached: Faction Teleportation Array Data) -- Haha, trouble's brewing, boss remembers you all, boss, take me along! -- Boss, how come you're really starting to explore the world, while we're still stuck here, there's more to this world! Please take me along! |
| [ Bear Big ] sent you a message. [ Ask-the-Heavens ] sent you a message. [ Potato ] sent you a message. |
Athena had just made an appearance in the chat channel when her friends sent her messages one after another. She had originally planned to chat with them later, but it seemed she couldn't escape now. After all, these two could potentially become her customers, and as the customer is the suspicious Ask-the-Heavens, she upheld this principle and opened the chat interface.
First, she dealt with the more tricky one, Ask-the-Heavens.
| -- Big Dream, it's been a while since I've seen you active. I knew you must be up to something big. -- How about it? Any intentions to sell to us? We've gained a lot from this recent event, and you can pick some items of equal value from us as a gesture of goodwill. |
Indeed, he was a businessman, constantly showering her with compliments before getting to the point.
| The other party has sent you an item list | |
| Item list | |
| Fire Defense Tower Blueprint | x1 |
| Wood Blocks | 999 |
| Stone Blocks | 999 |
| Special Weeds | 999 |
| Level 2 Shelter Blueprint | x1 |
| Thorn Vine (Attack Type) | x1 |
| Arrow Defense Tower Blueprint | x1 |
...
Athena opened it and found out these guys were really wealthy. It would be unfair of her not to take advantage of this opportunity to make a hefty profit from them.
Of course, her intel was worth this price, after all, it was about a new world. As she leveled up, it would be essential to have access to it. Knowing information in advance could be both beneficial and harmless, even saving lives.
Athena used all her literary skills and carefully crafted a 100-word mini-essay, describing her experiences and providing some useful information.
This was her limit; some people just weren't naturally gifted with language or literature skills.
| Congratulations on obtaining Arrow Defense Tower Blueprint x1, Fire Defense Tower Blueprint x1, Thorn Vine x1, Ore x50, and Giant Rabbit Meat x30. |
This harvest made Athena feel once again that being an information broker was the most lucrative.
I wonder if [ Ask-the-Heavens ] knows that upgrading to a Level 3 Shelter requires ore? She used to worry about where to find these things.
Bear Big's side was much simpler.
| -- Are you okay? Are you okay? |
These were multiple messages sent at different times. Athena was originally fine, but after seeing them, she felt like there might be something bothering her after all.
| --> I'm fine. Next time, you can greet me differently. |
As for Potato...
| -- Ahem, sorry, I've already withdrawn that trade offer, I'm not selling Air Walls for the time being. Don't be angry, boss. There's a reason for it. In the future, if there are good things, I'll definitely come to you first! |
After so many days, the first snowfall finally stopped. Outside, the sun was shining brightly, with not a cloud in sight. Apart from some darker pits on the ground, there was no trace of snowflakes, as if the storm had taken everything away.
Standing outside, Athena felt the rare joy of this sunny day. It wasn't just the harvest that brought her joy; it was also the fact that she finally had a pair of shoes.
Although the system had sent her back, there was a catch!
But it didn't return her clothes as a form of hidden reward. Her eyes had returned to their original black color, no longer golden.
Now it was time to settle the bill!
"System, open the inventory."
The inventory was filled to the brim. Athena picked out the Snow Guardian and Snow Armguard and equipped them.
| Arm Defense | +10 |
| Special defense effect: | Unafraid of snowstorms, greatly improves resistance to snowstorms. |
The Snow Armguard was a pair of silver armguards with exquisite hollowed-out snowflake patterns on them, not to be underestimated.
The Snow Guardian was extremely simple, a pure silver chain with a snowflake pendant hanging from it. The snowflake was a real one, just thicker and more three-dimensional. Athena tried putting it in her hand and found that it wouldn't melt.
The two pieces of equipment matched her gray clothes quite well. Standing upright in her military uniform with her ponytail tied high, Athena adjusted the position of the armguards.
Then she placed her hand on her small wooden house.
Does Ask-the-Heavens know that upgrading to a Level 3 Shelter requires ore?
| Would you like to use the Level 3 Shelter Blueprint Yes / No ? (Conditions met for use) |
"Yes"
| Consumes 300 Stone Blocks, 300 Wood Blocks, 300 Weeds, 50 Ore... |
A gentle white light flashed. Compared to the first time she upgraded the shelter, this time took a few seconds longer.
| Shelter upgraded to Level 3! |
The ordinary wooden cottage had now transformed into a stone house, with two additional wooden annexes on the side. The courtyard had doubled in size, and the wooden fences that once surrounded it had all been replaced with small stone walls.
To Athena's surprise, the pockmarked holes in the courtyard had all been smoothed out and leveled. What caught her off guard even more was that the system had created two lions made of woven weeds, standing on either side of the stone house.
Without rushing to inspect the interior of the stone house and the wooden annexes, Athena once again took out the blueprint for the arrow defense tower. The previously acquired dual-headed cannon had already been automatically placed on the left, so Athena placed the arrow defense tower on the right.
An arrow tower, similar in design to the cannon tower, was swiftly constructed, but equipped with arrowheads instead. Athena then retrieved the [ Thorn Vine ] she had obtained earlier and placed it on the ground, but there was no system prompt displayed. Athena circled the courtyard but received no system prompts. Tentatively, she placed it on the short stone wall.
| Confirm Placement Yes / No ? |
"Yes"
Instantly, the low stone wall was covered with thorny vines, continuously winding and growing, with small pink flowers blooming on top, both aesthetically pleasing and possessing considerable attacking power.
Next was her [ Level 1 Smelting Furnace ]. This thing had some degree of danger, so Athena didn't want to place it in the main room; she chose the left wooden annex instead.
Opening the left annex revealed a room resembling a combination of a bath and toilet, but without any water supply.
Athena fell silent. If it weren't for the system giving her a thorough cleaning while disguising herself, there wouldn't be a spot on her that wasn't dirty now.
But she was already considered quite fortunate; at least she didn't have various wounds infected. For most people here, just staying alive was their greatest aspiration.
Few people pursued the highest quality of life, and there wasn't enough water to use such amenities, so hygiene wasn't guaranteed.
But the system did consider quite comprehensively; at least it provided them with the necessary hardware, even if they had to build it with their own materials.
Gently closing the door on the left, she walked to the right annex. Opening it revealed a workbench, with a wooden rack beside it. The remaining space was quite spacious, just enough to be used as a workshop. Athena took out the blueprint for the smelting furnace and tore it open, placing it in a relatively open area.
A smelting furnace appeared on the ground, emitting a blazing fire.
| [ Level 1 Smelting Furnace ] | |
| Use: | Throw what you need to melt into the charcoal fire. |
| Tip | The resources at Middle Link Road are broad, with each piece of wood lasting two minutes when burned. Please hurry up and make money. |
The first thing Athena did was to take out the two axes that had been dulled and thrown them into the furnace.
| Random Smelting in Progress... Please add 50 wood blocks. |
After adding 50 wood blocks, Athena didn't pay any more attention to this side. Now she needed to go back and visit her room and have some food.
As she walked into the stone house, the two grass lions at the door suddenly opened their eyes, alert to every movement around them. But when Athena approached, they were just ordinary decorations again.
The overall layout of the room was not much different from what Athena had arranged before. The room hadn't expanded again; it was just that the original wooden house had become a stone one.
The windows were still the same standard wooden ones, but there was now one on each side.
Her bed had turned into a 2-meter wooden bed, adorned with many grassy little animals. There were three in total: a rabbit, a panda, and a kitten, all in mini versions.
Sitting back on the bed, Athena had no intention of eating some compressed biscuits just to get by. She neatly arranged the seven white packages she had previously obtained in front of her.
Now was the time to unpack, but the fonts alone didn't give her a sense of excitement.
| Total of seven white packages, with a harvest of: five mineral waters, five compressed biscuits, 50 wood blocks, and two axes. |
Seeing these prompts, Athena instantly lost interest. After quickly opening the packages, she stuffed everything into her space. She knew she wouldn't get anything good, except for the axes.
