Chapter 71: Copper Tools

Since the white ermine possesses a treasure-seeking bloodline and can even activate prefixes, this proves that its bloodline purity is quite high. Such bloodlines are attractive to all living creatures.

If it were a fierce beast, this bloodline would grant it even greater combat power, allowing it to dominate in battle and easily kill any creatures coveting its bloodline.

But the white ermine is clearly not a combat beast.

Without fighting ability, there are only two possible outcomes for it—

One: it gets eaten by an enemy attracted by its bloodline, who then absorbs its bloodline for themselves.

Two: it’s clever and resourceful enough to protect itself without brute force... But let’s be honest, without Sun Wukong’s protection, what are the chances that Tang Sanzang would have made it safely to the West?

To other wild beasts, the white ermine is basically no different from Tang Sanzang’s flesh—this is why Su You called it a disaster.

Thinking about it, this also explains why the white ermine was caught by the Black-striped Tiger, and why the tiger fought so hard—getting seriously injured—before finally letting the ermine go. Maybe the tiger was drawn by the ermine’s bloodline in the first place.

If she really chooses to raise the white ermine, things like this will definitely keep happening. She’ll have to take responsibility for her choice—she’ll have to become the Sun Wukong who protects “Tang Sanzang.”

But at least Sun Wukong had the power to protect him. What ability does she have right now?

...

While Su You was pondering the issue of the white ermine, the little creature had been watching her the whole time.

Perhaps it sensed that Su You was deciding whether to keep it or not, so the ermine was extremely nervous—so much so that its fur stood on end, even more than before.

Cautiously, it wrapped its four paws around Su You’s hand and nuzzled her palm in a fawning manner.

The soft, fluffy touch made Su You look down at the little creature in her grasp.

“Behave yourself from now on. Don’t run around for no reason. If you get caught by a beast or a monster, I won’t come to save you.” With that, Su You casually placed the white ermine on her shoulder and left the mine.

Although the ermine didn’t understand what Su You just said, it at least knew that this human wasn’t going to drive it away.

...

...

The first thing Su You did after returning to her territory was to use the stone materials Laike had brought back to build a furnace for smelting ore.

With a furnace, she could make copper tools to improve work efficiency.

She first put the copper ore she’d previously mined into the furnace and smelted it into usable copper ingots.

Back in the chain of mines, Su You had dug up a total of fifteen pieces of copper ore, which yielded fifteen copper ingots after smelting.

As for the copper slag, Su You didn’t plan to use it for now, so she just stored it in a chest.

With these fifteen copper ingots, Su You planned to make two copper axes (cost: 2 wood, 1 copper ingot each) and two copper pickaxes (cost: 3 wood, 2 copper ingots each).

**[Copper Axe]**

Category: Tool

Quality: Green

Attack: +2 (Attack Damage: 10)

Durability: 150/150

Description: An axe made from copper ingots, with higher tree-chopping efficiency and much greater durability than a stone axe.

**[Copper Pickaxe]**

Category: Tool

Quality: Green

Attack: +2 (Attack Damage: 10)

Durability: 150/150

Description: A pickaxe made from copper ingots, with higher mining efficiency than a stone pickaxe, able to mine more types of ore, and much greater durability.

After making these four tools, Su You’s fifteen copper ingots were quickly reduced to nine.

But she wasn’t done yet.

She went back to the furnace, put in some string, coal, and a few copper ingots.

**[Do you want to use String*2, Coal*1, Copper Ingot*2 to craft a Portable Copper Lantern?]**

**[Crafting: Portable Copper Lantern. Estimated time: 300 seconds]**

**[Portable Copper Lantern]**

Category: Tool

Quality: Green

Durability (Burn Value): 100/100

Description: A basic portable light source, mainly fueled by coal. Burn value can be replenished by adding coal: 1 coal = 50 burn value. The lantern’s brightness can be adjusted. At minimum consumption, a full burn value lasts about 100 minutes; at maximum, about 50 minutes.

Su You picked up the lantern, inspected it, and nodded in satisfaction before squatting down by the furnace to prepare her next item.

After making the lantern, she was left with only seven copper ingots. She put three more in to make a copper pot.

**[Do you want to use Copper Ingot*3 to craft a Copper Pot?]**

**[Crafting: Copper Pot. Estimated time: 300 seconds]**

Because she didn’t have a pot before, Su You couldn’t cook many foods, even though those recipes offered the best value.

Take, for example, the “Meat Soup” she’d likely be eating most often in the future:

**Meat Soup** (requires: Small Meat*2, Water, and a ‘Pot’): Hunger +80, quenches thirst, keeps for two days.

If she roasted the small meat, each piece would only restore 30 hunger, but turning it into soup restores a whopping 80—almost as much as three pieces of small meat!

Not only that, another recipe called “Berry Meat Soup” is also highly efficient:

**Berry Meat Soup** (requires: Small Meat*2, Berries*2, Water, and a ‘Pot’): Hunger +120, quenches thirst, keeps for two days.

Just by adding two berries, the hunger restored jumps by 40 points.

For reference, the most efficient early-game food—roasted berries—only increases a single berry’s hunger value to 10, while in berry meat soup, each berry is worth 20 hunger!

Looking at these numbers, it’s clear how cost-effective these recipes are.

As for Su You’s hunger cap being only 100—how could she eat something that restores 120 hunger? Well, there are four people in the territory, and one pot of soup isn’t enough for everyone anyway. She’d need at least four pots, so there’s no need to worry about that.

Although these recipes call for small pieces of meat, there’s actually no difference between small and large meat. Large meat can be used in these recipes too, and with fewer ingredients.

By weight, the ratio of small to large meat is 2:1, meaning one large piece equals two small pieces. So, to make meat soup, there are two possible recipes:

One is [Small Meat*2, Water], the other is [Large Meat*1, Water].

(End of Chapter)"

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