World Upgrade

Chapter 6

Chapter Six

In her place in the Elte Sector, Claudia retrieved the fishing rod and hook, trying to channel a calming vibe. Sitting back against the chest, feet braced against the raft, waves lapping the seat of her pants until it felt like a soggy nappy. The line was thrown into the water, Claudias best guess at what to do. Holding the rod with a firm grip, Claudia brought up the trading market. The most prevalent item was undoubtably wood. Currently selling at a 3-1 wood for cloth and seaweed, 10-1 wood for coal, and 20-1 wood for iron. Posts for Iron faded from the screen almost the moment they appeared. Typing her own advertisement, selling one Iron for 10 Coal, Claudia felt the rod jerk in her grip and hurriedly fired off the post. The comments were not wrong. Reeling in a catch took monumental effort.

Widening her stance, Claudia shifted her weight, muscles taut with the rapid drag of the marine animal pulling in every direction, black trainers slipping and skidding over the wet, uneven surface. Balancing on the small craft, trying not to fall over the edges that were suddenly much closer, Claudia squinted through the salt spray of the waves, corner of her mouth curling to a smile at the invigorating challenge, baring gritted teeth in a grin.

By the time the sun slipped down under the waves and the last light was fading almost two hours later, Claudia had two auto dismantled fish, following the systems prompt after landing them she was rewarded with two fillets per fish, amounting to not much more than a fish finger per fillet. The auto dismantle reduced the amount of edible meat on the fish, but Claudia had no intention of processing animals any other way. 4 cloth, 7 wood and one seaweed rounded out her evening haul, most had been floating debris she hooked in. The Mood ring did not activate the entire time.

The trade she posted completed almost immediately and was missed in the excitement of reeling in her catchs. Checking the Campfire recipe, Claudia saw she had all but 33 Wood, she was loath to waste resources on common items like wood when she could easily gather them tomorrow. It would mean an uncomfortable night, but realistically, how much comfort was available in a literal sea cold, solid wood water bed.

After landing her fish Claudia had pondered on the limitations of the inventory, would the fish decay or retain item quality like an infinite freezer. In real life she would not eat unrefrigerated fish that had been left out all night. Deciding to hedge her bets, Claudia stored half in the inventory, to see what would happen tomorrow, and opened the Trading Market to list her other two fillets. Now her balance shown 26 Ocean Coins. When had it increased by one, was it just a daily allocation, Claudia wondered as she checked the average rate for fish. 2 fish fillets for 20 Wood. She fired off the post. It didn’t take long to get snatched up, within the minute a notification flashed above, ‘Sold. Obtained 20 wood 1 oc’.

1 oc, Claudia glanced at her balance, sure enough it had gone up by one to 27 Ocean Coins. She looked forward to the day she could test the limits of that particular game play.

Night descended fast, the glow of the moon barely outlining the small floating wooden square on the inky black water. The rafts edges were more defined by the sound of the waves slapping over it, Claudia opened the unlocked chest, she had stored the cloth and bottle of water inside to make more room in the rafts inventory after reeling in her fish. Taking a slow sip of water, the bottle now a third empty, Claudia rearranged the cloth inside the trunk, then climbed inside. It was uncomfortable, her legs bent to a scrunched fetal position. Even with the promised protection period, sleeping unprotected on an open raft turned her blood cold. Terrified anything could happen while she slept, the raft could break apart, a wave could capsize her and drown. She wrapped a layer of cloth around and over her head, a muffled warmth enveloped her, easing the fear a little somehow. Opening the cloth to her lower face to avoid suffocating, the waves rocked Claudia to sleep.

Pain. She opened her eyes to the sun blinding her through absolute agony.

Claudias legs seized during the night in their compressed spot, unable to wiggle around, change positions or restore blood flow. An intense ache and rush of painful pins and needles followed her attempt to stand. Huffing like a wounded rhino, she ripped the cloth from her head and used her arms to bear her weight on the edges on the chest, slowly stretching her legs straight in painful increments.

Gripping the center pole once she rose enough to step out the chest, she slowly straightened her back and hips to stretch up straight. The last thing she needed was to injure herself moving too fast. The pain had wiped any traces of drowsiness she may have woke with. Pacing around the pole Claudia woke the rest of her body, each footfall walking off the stiffness of the terrible nights sleep.

Looking around, cabin fever crept in at the edges, the raft was too small to move around properly. Her muscled ached for motion. Scanning the water Claudia started stripping her clothes before she could worry her self out of it. She would be quick, a few laps around the raft, and she could climb back on fast if needs be. The water was shockingly refreshing, the cold hitting her like a freight train. Initially locking against the temperature, Claudia soon coaxed her body to a fast front crawl around the raft. Once she lost her breath she switched to breaststroke and continued her swim for half an hour, worry gone.

Climbing out, a sharp jolt of pain ran through her foot. Swinging her legs wildly out the water and rolling on to the raft, Claudia scooped up the closest thing to hand, the hook, using the heavy metal as a bludgeon she hammered at the vague fish shape she had no time to look at in detail attached to her foot. After the third blow the teeth gripping her foot released. Swinging round, Claudia lunged on top of the dark grey blue squirming mouth of teeth attached to pure muscle. It took another five minutes of sitting on this fish and beating its head to get the notification of its dispatch.

Tier Three, Uncommon, Reef-Scourge Barracuda Kill EXP: 60 Loot: Razor Jaw Bones, Striated Fish Leather (Hide Attribute: Increases swim speed by 5%). Four fish fillets.

The processed hide and jaw bone went into the storage trunk, the rest into raft inventory. The jaw bone was as cured as the hide, completely free of meat or contamination. The fish fillets joined the batch from last night, no new tag of deterioration on them in the inventory, taking them out momentarily confirmed they were still fresh with no new tag out of inventory either. Claudia opened Craft and made One Small Storage Crate : 20 Wood 1 iron, she planned on grinding all day today and would need more inventory spaces. Whilst on the Craft Screen making the crate, Claudia noticed an upgrade option for the raft, opening it Claudia scanned the recipe.

Upgrade Cost to Tier 2:

Wood: 150x

Cloth: 40x

Seaweed: 80x

Iron: 20x

It would be a week or two of gathering all those resources, Iron had not emerged from the ocean so far, it may be only obtained through chests or trading, which made it more difficult.

Claudia examined her foot, seen clearly through the interface screen, a row of points beaded blood and dripped down to the water washing over her Raft. They were not deep enough to incapacitate, just to greatly hinder her ability to move around. Opening the trading Market there were no healing potions or real world bandages, nothing that could be termed first aide. Claudia looked over the dried small bottled spices listed for sale from individuals with something called Chef Class, a few Farmer Classes offered fresh herbs. Finding Tumeric down the list, a blood clotting agent, with an asking price of 20 cloth for 10grams, an absurdly small amount that would only flavor a few meals. Claudia sent the Chef a message offering her Striated Fish Leather (Hide Attribute: Increases swim speed by 5%) for the turmeric. Not wanting to give up the cloth she had accumulated or wait to gather more.

Shifting the unlocked chest over from the middle to one side, to place the crate next to it in the middle of the top half of the raft, its storage 0/15 slots. The 20 Wood gained last night selling fish fillets went straight back out on the crate, plus another Iron, bringing total down to 8 iron, 7 wood.

The sun beat down, drying her quickly. Seeing no reason to don her clothing Claudia retrieved the rod and hook and sat, back against the chest, bracing with one foot, crossing the injured foot over the other, rod in hand and opened the Sector Shop with a thought, checking the prices.

Kitchen Set Bundle Cost 200 oc

Cutlery 50

Plate and Bowl 50

Mug 60

Large Glass 60

Inside the kitchen set was another bundle

Brew Set Bundle Cost 50

Tea Pot 10

Tea Bags 25 10

Coffee 100g 10

Sugar 100g 10

Honey 150g 10

Milk powder 250g 10

There was a clothes set with astronomical prices, the bundle was 3000 oc. The cup of tea she craved to start her morning could be reachable soon, but the price of a mug to drink it from was more than the brew set bundle cost. She planned to whittle a cup instead, or hit up the Trading Market for a cheaper version if any came available from other players. Claudia watched the notification flash above, ‘Sold. Obtained 10g Turmeric 1 oc’.

Claudia crossed her legs so the injured foot hung in the air again after rinsing the wound in the wash over the raft, and brought the aloe leaf to hand. Stripping the green outer layer of a small section Claudia snapped off, she used her palm as a cup to mash the cool and slippy aloe gel into a jelly paste with her fingers. Bringing the tumeric to hand, she emptied half the bottle into the aloe and mixed them together, the clear jelly turning yellow.

Adding it to the line of blood around her foot, the aloe would clean out the wound and prevent infection, the turmeric would help the would close faster, important in a water environment where injuries must remain dry to heal. Once she finished applying the paste, a Notification popped up, ‘Alchemist Class Unlocked.’

Assuming this must be similar to the Chef Class and Farmer Class Claudia had seen assigned to players in the Trading Market, she thought yes to accept.

Alchemist Class Tier 1 Level 1: Requires 50 EXP to reach next level (+10 base increase)

Tier 1: Foraging & Harvesting Actions

Planting a basic seed (e.g., Potato, Turnip): 2 EXP

Hanging string of ingredients to dry 2 EXP

Harvesting a basic crop (e.g., Potato): 5 EXP

Harvesting a basic tree (e.g., Cherry): 5 EXP

Foraging wild common herbs (e.g., Wild Mint, Dandelion): 5 EXP

Drying string of ingredients 5 EXP

Level 1 basic grind 15 EXP

Skill 1: Appraisal Pulse (The Core Tracking Tool)

Level 1: The Diagnostic Scan. Looking at a plant strips away the visual graphics, revealing its basic name, level. Shows higher value and level and specific uses with every 10 Level ups.