Chapter 34: A Machine for BrewingWaking up in the early morning, Lan Chi looked at his messages which had surged again overnight and felt the pressure to make money increasing. Upgrading his equipment was urgent.
He opened his storage room and began taking inventory of his supplies. Ever since the hut could upgrade by consuming food, not much wood remained in the storage room—basically just enough for daily living needs. Stone materials weren't abundant either. Most of the items in the storage room were food, seeds, and various ores. Even tools were scarce. After all, he had two tool monsters; whenever he needed wood or stone, he could send them out to collect.
"Wood is running lower and lower." Lan Chi looked at the basic materials room, which was more than half empty, and felt deeply uncomfortable. His hoarding habit was acting up again. Since acquiring two powerful helpers, he felt his sense of crisis had diminished significantly, and the speed of his hoarding had slowed down considerably. "This won't do. This world is dangerous. I need to make money quickly and hurry up and upgrade."
He closed the materials room and moved to the growing room. Inside, the two tool monsters and five scorpion-tailed bees were busy working. Recently, these "employees" had been doing most of the harvesting, with Kaelen occasionally helping out.
At this moment, several wooden barrels and boxes were already placed on the ground, containing the three types of high-yield fruits from their operation. Lan Chi calculated that the fifteen barrels of fruit harvested today could at most produce ten barrels of liquor. But by adding water and combining them with the mutated Sweetheart Fruits, they could produce at least thirty to forty barrels.
"Sigh, not only do I need to upgrade the brewing equipment, but I also need to expand the fruit growing area. I'll go out today to look for more fruit or grain seeds." Lan Chi muttered to himself. Why couldn't his mutation talent be more stable? Kaelen had brought back seeds, but after he experimented on them, only one had turned out plantable. The others had mutated into different species and ended up being fed to the hut.
"Master, are you ready? We can set out now." Kaelen's voice came from outside the door.
"Coming."
...
Lan Chi's shopping goal for today was goblin technology. He headed straight for the largest tool market in the commercial district with Kaelen, thinking about the magic energy crawler he had seen before. He wondered if he could find some special items today or custom-make the items he wanted.
Lan Chi and Kaelen crossed several streets and soon saw the largest tool market in the commercial district from a distance: "Ten Thousand Races Workshop." The name was quite apt, because even before entering the gate, he spotted figures from at least three different races.
A Dwarf was set up at the entrance, hammering a piece of red-hot metal. Sparks flew everywhere but landed precisely in a water trough beside him. His stall was filled with various farm tools—shovels, hoes, sickles—all looking sturdy and durable but ordinary in style.
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After walking around for a bit, a goblin's stall caught Lan Chi's attention. It was covered with various delicate mechanical devices: small crawling machines for automatic seeding, metal arms that could identify crop maturity, and a fist-sized sphere that spun in place, emitting a faint buzzing sound.
"What's this?" Lan Chi crouched down and pointed at the sphere.
"That's a detection crawler. In the wilderness, it can detect whether enemies are nearby." The old goblin glanced sideways at where Lan Chi was pointing without looking up, continuing to assemble the items in his hands while flipping through a book placed in front of him.
Lan Chi glanced at the book in front of the old goblin. The dense text and images made his eyes feel a bit dizzy. He turned to scan the other stalls. Among the many goblin stalls, it seemed this one was the only one constantly making things, and his goods were noticeably more numerous than the others. "Old-timer, do you accept custom orders?"
The old goblin looked up upon hearing this, glanced at Lan Chi, and nodded flatly. "I do. What, you have something you want custom-made?"
Lan Chi smiled and nodded. "Yes. I want to make a power system—something that can power machinery when connected to Phosphorus Crystals or other energy stones."
The old goblin laughed upon hearing this. "Heh, you've got a sharp eye, young man. You've been wandering around this market for a while, haven't you? There aren't many people who can make such things. But I, Old Kik, happen to be one of them!"
Lan Chi smiled ingratiatingly. He really had wandered for quite a while, observing many people before approaching this old goblin.
"Alright, tell me what you want, and I'll see if I can make it." The old goblin continued.
Lan Chi quickly took out the design sketches he had drawn yesterday from his spatial wrist guard and handed them to Old Kik. The old goblin looked at them, gestured, and asked: "A two-meter diameter drum mixer? That'll take quite a few materials. Ashfuse Stone and Bright Copper Stone for the energy input alone will consume quite a bit. You'll also need blades made. This will cost at least five hundred Phosphorus Crystals or equivalent materials. You want it done?"
"Yes, I want it done." Lan Chi nodded happily. Any problem that could be solved with money was not a problem.
"Alright." Old Kik took out a document and handed it to Lan Chi. "Magic Energy Binding Contract. Sign it, then a deposit of three hundred Phosphorus Crystals. Come back in two days to pick it up."
Lan Chi signed his name on the contract. A ring of script rose from the contract and bound itself separately to Lan Chi's and the old goblin's wrists. He handed the contract and three hundred Phosphorus Crystals to the old goblin.
After the deal was struck, Lan Chi looked at the book in front of the old goblin and became interested again. He had always wanted to collect technological skills from this world, but unfortunately, in this trial ground, books were scarce. He pointed to the book in front of the old goblin and asked: "Old-timer, do you sell that book? Or do you have any extra books for sale?"
Old Kik's expression changed, looking at Lan Chi with a scrutinizing gaze. "What do you want? Trying to steal Old Kik's knowledge?"
Seeing the other's reaction, a term popped into Lan Chi's mind: knowledge barriers. The people here seemed very protective of knowledge dissemination. He smiled and pointed to the mechanical devices on the ground. "I'm just curious and came to take a look. The little gadgets you make are really delicate. You can tell you have real skill. They're not only interesting but also particularly practical. So I wanted to learn how to make them myself."
Old Kik looked at Lan Chi in surprise. He hadn't expected that his technology, dismissed as garbage by other races, would actually gain recognition. He carefully scrutinized Lan Chi up and down and didn't detect any hypocrisy or insincerity.
"Well, these are indeed quite practical. I have a basic mechanical assembly practical manual here, written by us goblins. If you want to buy it, take it for one hundred Phosphorus Crystals." With that, he took another old book from his backpack and placed it on the stall.
"Oh, okay." Lan Chi readily took out one hundred Phosphorus Crystals, handed them to Old Kik, took the book, and left the market with Kaelen.
