Hand of Construction

"These climatic conditions..."

"Most animals would never roam in the wild!"

Linsey immediately became interested.

The blizzard followed the strong winds, and he hadn't caught any fresh prey for a long time.

As for Devil Beast and such, we'll eat them anyway.

Ultimately, there's not much difference between the meat of Devil Beast and ordinary wild animals.

He stood up from the campfire with great enthusiasm, but before Linsey could even set off, a new section appeared on his Attribute Panel.

Survival Construction Level: 3→4

[Survival Construction Ability: The Hand of Construction]

[The Hand of Construction: Expands the player's building scope; the mining and placement of building materials are no longer limited to direct contact.]

[Note: How many blocks of dirt are needed for the simplest house?]

"..."

Linsey blinked and quickly realized what was going on.

In addition to quest rewards, real-world activities also play a crucial role in advancing Game Player's abilities.

This time, it happened during a blizzard.

He created a sizable underground living space, where he built camps, produced materials, and cultivated Farmland.

This was the first time Linsey had ever built such an entire survival system.

This experience perfectly aligns with the core principles of survival games, thus leading to module upgrades.

"The requirement for further advancement isn't that I have to build a castle in reality, is it?"

Following this pattern, Linsey could also foresee the future development of the Survival Module.

Building cities and creating wonders should give it the opportunity to continue pushing boundaries.

But... what happened next?

Thinking of this, Linsey shook her head.

He glanced at Hong, who was still sleeping peacefully beside him. The girl's eyes were closed, and her serene and beautiful face shimmered in the light of the campfire.

"Let her rest well..."

Linsey smiled slightly, not disturbing Hong.

He went alone to the passage where the two of them had come down, intending to catch the few Devil Beast running around outside and test his new skills.

According to the skill description.

Linsey took out the Meteorite Pickaxe and swung it at the sealed cave entrance above his head.

Bang! There was still more than a meter of space left.

Neither Linsey nor his Meteorite Pickaxe touched the wall above them.

But just like a pickaxe hitting a clod of earth, the familiar sound rang out again, and the digging was clearly effective!

"So it's possible to dig without any contact at all?"

Linsey opened her eyes wide, raised her hand, and swung the Meteorite Pickaxe in the air once more.

Clang—snap! With the digging power of the Meteorite Pickaxe, ordinary clods of earth were dug open in just a couple of strokes.

The next second, a square clod of earth fell down and hit Linsey in the face.

"Damn it—Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!"

Linsey quickly shook off the dirt.

This time, instead of climbing higher, he remained in his original position and continued to swing his Meteorite Pickaxe at the soil further above.

Clang—

Sure enough, another clod of earth was unearthed.

Linsey continued testing and soon discovered the limits of the skill.

Within a two-meter radius, the amount of Essence consumed by activating this extended excavation capability is negligible, not even keeping up with the automatic recovery speed of Linsey's Essence.

It's similar to the [Map] skill.

Once the testing range exceeds two meters, the Essence consumed by the [Hand of Construction] increases rapidly, and a range of 5 meters is currently the limit for use.

Linsey then switched to other weapons.

Unfortunately, as the skill description states, [Hand of Construction] only works on tools and items. Weapons such as daggers and whips cannot benefit from this skill.

"But a tool like Meteorite Pickaxe, which has an effect, is actually powerful enough to hurt people."

Linsey pondered how to develop this skill.

At the same time, switch back to the Meteorite Pickaxe and completely dig open the passage above.

Splash—

The snow piled up at the entrance collapsed first, hitting Linsey in the face.

The raging blizzard then poured down into the cave, causing the once warm cave to immediately begin to cool down! Linsey jumped straight out of the cave.

He took a clod of mud out of his bag and, without squatting or bending down, simply swung it around.

Bang! The cave below was immediately sealed off by mud.

[Hand of Construction] has the same effect on digging and placing materials, and can be used within 2 meters. Beyond that range, the consumption increases dramatically.

"If we can find a material that is hard enough."

"Using this placement capability, a barrier can be raised at any time within a two-meter range, anywhere."

Linsey continued to ponder the direction for developing this skill.

He opened the map, gripped the Handheld Radar, and walked towards the Red Dot on the map.

The heavy snowfall severely obstructed visibility.

Visibility became completely blurred a few meters away.

The rushing snow also created considerable noise, making it difficult to distinguish surrounding sounds.

Linsey promptly replaced the "Decryption Game" module with the new one.

In this way, at least within the range of blurred vision, some objects had a prominent outline; the sounds were also layered, allowing him to distinguish some movements that were different from the sounds of wind and snow.

creak—crack—

Linsey walked forward, her steps uneven.

He seemed to be lucky; before he even reached his destination, the Red Dot had already appeared on the map.

These Devil Beast came from east to west, directly opposite Linsey's position.

Soon, the Handheld Radar also located them.

Linsey reacted quickly, casually tucking the [Handheld Radar] between his neck and nocking an arrow on the [Spider Silk Night Shadow].

But the arrow failed to fly.

Because of the detailed information provided by the Handheld Radar.

The markings on these maps weren't the shapes of Devil Beast, but rather human figures with clearly defined limbs and torsos! "Humans?"

Linsey was a little unsure.

He actually encountered humans in the Black Mountain World, and to make matters worse, they were marked in red on the map, a color that symbolizes hostility.

In a situation where you are the first to discover something, but the other party is completely unaware.

Is it really okay to launch an attack rashly?

"..."

Linsey unconsciously lowered her body, almost burying herself in the vast expanse of snow.

At the same time, he replaced the Spider Silk Night Shadow in his hand with the Iron Horn Great Bow, and simultaneously applied the Silent Edge enchantment to it.

Linsey had three guesses in mind.

These people were also residents of a small town who had fled from the Hidden Borderlands, hoping to escape from Black Mountain. However, due to this sudden snowstorm, they were trapped here and, lacking supplies, were running around aimlessly like headless flies.

Or perhaps they came to this world more than a decade ago, when the Teleportation Array in the Hidden Borderlands was still intact, and have stayed ever since.

Linsey had seen people like this in her notes about Border Town.

This is also possible for certain awakened individuals with special requirements; even the Female Hunter Dan could very well have become one of these beings along with her husband.

The last, and worst, guess.

These people were subordinate to the Dragon Beast.

The reason it's marked in red on the map is because of this unavoidable hostility!

Under the wind and snow, Linsey lay quietly hidden in the snow.

He waited quietly for these humans to move, the arrow that would determine their fate already poised to be released under the focused gaze.