Vol 2 Chapter 4: The Second Day

After Solo's arrival to the new world, a day had gone by. Despite being high levelled, Solo decided to rest for the rest of the first day. Solo would not be hungry, nor would he be tired due to his characteristics, but since he was still used to sleeping, he obeyed his routines. However, that was not the only reason; although it was not visible, him being taken from his original world, stripped of his humanity and forced into this new world; no matter how happy he was or how well he accepted, it still caused him quite a powerful shock. As a result, he needed to mentally rest.

While Solo was slumbering, his followers were working diligently. Since most of them were of high level, with an abundance of stamina, or there were many who just simply didn't need sleep, but there were few who were unable to sleep.

The NPCs were in constant work; they harvested the plants or herbs or cut down trees since their growth sped up drastically. In that mere one day, they produced years worth of food, which was stored in the inventory of the base.

Once Solo woke up after a few hours, he instantly travelled to the first floor, as per his usual routine. Having sat foot on the floor, he came to realise that he had almost nothing to do, for the NPCs had been diligently working on the floor, leaving no work for him to do. As far as he could see, the trees were all cut down, and in their place, saplings were planted. There was a gentle wind on the floor and constant cracking and cracking sounds.

Solo deducted that the NPCs were working quite well, as he alone would have never been able to clear such a large area by himself ever since he had upgraded the growth of plants to their current level. But that was not the only thing he had deducted; being able to cut down every single tree planted on the floor meant that the NPCs had perfect access to the main inventory of the base. Since he did not provide his followers with extremely high-tier gear, not even his personal companion Lulu, that is why her armour broke so easily before.

NPCs were, at best, given a second-tier weapon, which, in terms of power, would only allow one to cut down a fourth-tier tree, let alone one from the higher tiers. The difference between tiers was such great gaps that it was nearly impossible for one to overcome unless they were higher level. A tier-two toll was able to effortlessly cut down trees below their tier, such as tier zero and tier one. Cutting down a tree on the same tier as a tool made of metal was a breeze; although it took a bit more power, it could still be considered neglectable. However, a third-tier tree would be quite difficult, and for a fourth-tier tree, the tools would barely leave a mark on the log; it would be almost as if the tree was made of metal as well, in terms of durability.

However, since Solo maxed out his smithing previously, he had forged dozens of high-tiered tools, which he merely tossed into the main inventory, never wanting to care about them, as they were all part of mass production and his usual grind. Those high-tiered tools found new owners, the NPCs. In the distance, the trees were mercilessly cut down, and once they were completely removed, a single branch was planted back, which soon, practically minutes later, had already started growing steadily.

After a brief moment, Solo decided to walk around the lumbering camp. Since the area was divided into sixteen large portions, it was easy to see how it was divided; however, even without prior knowledge, one would have been easily able to realise the way the floor structure was designed, for each tier had a different; and quite a distinguishable colour. There were sixteen tiers, but unlike most would think, it did not start with one. The very first tier was zero, as zero was meant to be an indication of weakness.

As the very first tier was zero, there were tiers One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Beyond, Godly, and Psuo-Ascended. Trees, metals, stones and herbs had these sixteen tiers, while crafted items had a slightly different tier system, for each material had its own quality that played a detrimental role in the final product. As a result, the lowest-tiered item was tier-one, and the highest was Ascended, which came right after Psuo-Ascended.

When it came to trees, the higher one's tier was, the brighter colour of its leaves and bark was. The lowest tiered, tier-zero, had dark brown bark, and its leaves were almost pitch black. Meanwhile, the highest tiered, Psuo-Ascanded, was mostly white, and its leaves were golden coloured. The tree alone could be used as a source of light as it illuminated the area around it and also had a slight goldish aura which was emitted by its leaves.

As Solo strolled around the lumbering camp and recalled how he spent hundreds of hours cutting down trees, a strong nostalgic feeling came over him and caused a thin, genuine smile to appear on his face. But before he could fully submerge in this nostalgic feeling, he quickly shook his head and walked back to the door of the logging camp.

"What a great time those were, but no, I need better things to do now! Since the forest is occupied, I presume the mine and the two garden is also being taken care of... Since I have nothing else to do, I might as well just go and craft a few potions and another ridiculous weapon!" Mumbled to himself Solo, as he stopped by the door of the small building.

After having closed his eyes slowly, Solo teleported to his favourite floor. To the floor, which could have also been called a factory since he had produced more arms, weapons, armour, potions, and even dishes there than one could imagine; the sixth floor. He found himself standing in a large room made of grey bricks. One would say that it was a dungeon, as as far as the eye could see, everything was made of the same grey stone. And despite the noticeable lack of torches, the whole structure was light.

It was light due to one simple reason. It was built by Solo, and he placed a large number of sones, which served one purpose, to illuminate the surrounding area between the bricks. Although these crystals were naked to the human eye as they were the size of a single spec of dust, their amount was enough to light up the whole place.

On the ground, where he stood, there was a large circle drawn with white colour, and in the interior of that circle, many symbols and sigils were drawn. It was not an understatement to call it a magical circle; however, it had only esthetic purposes, as magic circles like the one on the floor were non-existent in Gates of Ardion. The room had only a few objects in it, as it was only used for enchanting. Only a chair and two tables were located in the room.

The two tables were fundamentally different; the smaller one, located in the corner of the room, was much smaller and was made of some sort of black stony material. The top of it was made of a different material, a purplish-coloured one, but it was much smoother. Despite being made of two different materials, the table was perfectly in one piece; it seemed and felt as if it was naturally formed. Floating above that table was a white space. The table was about the size of Solo's chest, maybe a bit wider, and the floating orb was a bit smaller than his head.

The other room, which was much wider and was made of tier one tree, as its dark colour represented. It was mostly empty; only a single tool was on top of it, which was partially there just to show what room it was. A tool resembling a screwdriver or a soldering rod, it had a somewhat dull tip and was mostly made of metal. It had a wider diameter where the tool was grabbed; that portion was made of a rubbery material and was black, while the metal part was silverish, but at the same time, it had a mirror-smooth surface. Except for the tip, which was made of an entirely different material. A much rougher dark purple metal.

The stony table was the table used for enchanting, while the almost empty, low-quality table, located a few meters from the smaller one, was only used for storing or keeping objects while Solo was enchanting. That larger table was mostly used to hold the items which Solo was about to enchant but was already working on one; as for the tool on the table, that was used to engrave the enchantment onto the tools. Its tip was made of the highest quality and tier metal in order to be able to be usable for the engraving.

On the other side of the wall, there was a corridor without a door. Solo, without looking around in the room, quickly headed to that passage, as he had seen that room thousands of times already. He was going to his smithy, driven by both curiosity and routine. The corridor soon separated into three different ways. The one on the left led to the area where he cooked; that area could be called a kitchen. The second, which led forward, was for alchemy; and the route he took was the one leading to the right. That was Solo's smithy; although he called it a smithy, it was more like a workshop, as he drafted and then crafted all of his tools and armour there.

Just like before, the room had no door, and from inside, a flickering purple light was emitted. The source of that strange yet magical light was the forge, which was burning with a purple, everlasting flame. Unlike the room before, this one was quite packed. Next to the forge, there were many different tongues and hammers placed on racks. Right beside the forge was a large metal cube, which was used as Solo's anvil. As the flame was flickering, there were times when the pitch-black cube of metal was painted slightly purple all over its top, but then there were moments when it was barely even lit.

The room also had a grindstone, or to be more precise, a "grindcrystal", as the spherical stone piece, which would rotate at high speed, was replaced by a clear, nearly transparent crystal. It was placed about three meters away from the wall on one side of the room.

Then, on the other end of the room, there was a lathe; since electricity was not present in the game, that tool was working by consuming the user's mana. In the lathe, there was a single lathe cutting tool, which, just like the grindstone, its blade was made of the same crystal. However, the machine was no longer used, as there had been an update which allowed easier forming using blueprints.

As Solo sat foot in the room, he was filled with a pleasant feeling, he remembered how it felt to use this workshop back in the game, and now he was filled with curiosity about how it would work now.

"Let's get started!" Mumbled Solo as he stopped by his large metal cube.

He slammed his hand against the cube, and then five purple metal ingots materialised on top of the cube. He quickly placed them into the fire; each was about ten by fifteen by twenty centimetres, or as he liked to call a unit of ingot, TFT. Once the ingots were in the forge and were being heated, he took out five logs from his inventory; unlike the ingots, they were of different sizes, but all of them were larger than the bars. Each was white, indicating that they were of the highest tier, just like the ingots.