The Influence of the Plane of Air

"Whoosh—"

Another wisp of cool air swept over them. Carl no longer hesitated and immediately began selecting lumber to make the door.

"Wait, could this wind be a sign that the Plane of Air has begun exerting its influence on the dungeon?"

No one had said that the influence of the Four Elemental Planes on this Demiplane had to arrive one at a time. With that thought in mind, Carl increased her pace at making the door panels by two notches.

"Is there anything I can help with?"

Watching Carl work so hard, Hopp unexpectedly began to feel a little guilty.

Thinking that her body had more or less recovered, she took the initiative to ask Carl for some work.

But...

"Uh... there's nothing suitable for you at the moment."

As a "Barbarian" who was good at nothing except fighting and wilderness survival, Hopp had rather few ways to help Carl.

At least until she mastered certain skills and knowledge, the most she could do was roughly process some lumber for Carl.

"Oh, all right."

Hopp obediently went to the side, sat down hugging her knees, and tried her best not to disturb Carl.

Seeing that Hopp seemed somewhat disappointed, Carl thought for a moment before taking some flint and whetstones out of her Bag of Holding.

"How about helping me sharpen some flint? That way, we can have two more flint daggers for handling things."

"Okay!"

Hopp took the stones with high spirits, found a spot directly facing Carl, and began sharpening the flint daggers.

Flint daggers were not essential tools for Carl. Once she reached level three, she would be able to learn the Artificer's Handy Tools.

This was a class feature of the Artificer class. Its wielder could precisely create the tools she needed.

This feature allowed an Artificer to use the thieves' tools or artisan's tools in her hands to magically create a set of artisan's tools in an unoccupied space within five feet of herself.

This set of tools was a product of magic, but the tools themselves were nonmagical.

When the Artificer used this feature again, the tools she had previously created would disappear.

In ancient times, Artificers could only rely on this feature to create simple alchemical vessels or blacksmith's tools for use.

But in the modern era, Artificers had made tremendous progress in developing this feature.

Machine-tool lathes, potion extraction workbenches, hydraulic power hammers, and even high-speed centrifuges—as long as something was nonmagical and its size and construction were not too outrageous, an Artificer could create it.

Of course, the manufacturing time would also gradually increase with the machine's complexity.

The earliest Artificers needed only an hour to create the tools they required, but by now, that time had generally risen to at least three hours.

And so, Carl and Hopp sat facing each other, each working on her own task.

Time passed swiftly, and the things in their hands grew more and more complete.

Just as the two of them were about to finish, a white light suddenly lit up in the sky outside.

The white light kept flashing and lasted for roughly five or six seconds.

Carl and Hopp set down their work because of the flashes. After another ten seconds or so, the sound of rumbling thunder came from the distance.

"It looks like the Plane of Air has indeed joined in. I'm starting to feel rather fortunate that I laid a foundation for this house back then."

The moment she finished speaking, rain suddenly began pouring from the sky.

The sound of wind howling rose from the mushroom grove, and some rain was blown into the wooden house.

Seeing this, Carl quickly grabbed the door panel from the ground and set it into the doorframe.

She took another piece of lumber and braced the door with it, then crouched down and began making a mechanism to open and close it.

This did not take Carl much time. Just as Hopp finished her first flint dagger, Carl finished as well.

After assembling everything piece by piece, Carl looked with satisfaction at the door blocking the wind and rain outside, then found a suitably sized piece of lumber to serve as a door bolt.

Just as she was about to brag to Hopp, Carl suddenly felt the spirituality in her soul increase substantially.

What's going on?

The increase in spirituality had come so abruptly that Carl was caught off guard. But after thinking it over carefully, she could more or less understand the reason.

Although the house had been made of lumber, the sophistication of its mortise-and-tenon structure was no less than that of mechanical mechanisms.

In a certain sense, this also counted as part of an Artificer's "training."

But why hadn't I received any spirituality feedback when I made the basic framework earlier? Could it be because it didn't have a door at the time?

Suppressing the doubts in her heart, Carl did not investigate further.

In any case, it was enough that she could gain spirituality.

At my current rate of progress, if everything goes smoothly, and I practice combat techniques for a while longer through the Combat Apprentice feat, I should be able to advance to level three.

Thinking of all the abilities she would be able to learn after reaching level three, Carl's heart gradually grew feverish with anticipation.

"Hey! Why are you just standing there?"

Seeing Carl standing motionless after securing the door, Hopp walked over and waved a hand in front of her.

"Nothing. My spirituality just increased by a considerable amount. I might reach level three before you!"

"Well, aren't you impressive? Then, to celebrate your reaching level three early, how about adding an extra training session later?"

At the words "extra training," Carl's expression immediately fell.

Hopp's training methods were even more extreme than those of certain fitness bloggers from her past life. Carl was not sure whether she could endure the workouts.

But when she thought of her current physique, which was only a tiny bit better than an ordinary person's, she abandoned the thought of giving up and nodded with difficulty.

"Fine!"

No matter what, Carl felt that she at least had to train her body to withstand the high-mobility operation of the Arcane Power Armor.

Otherwise, before the enemy was even defeated, Carl herself would collapse first.

"Then start with ten sets of weighted push-ups."

Seeing Carl agree so readily for once, Hopp did not hold back and immediately raised the intensity.

"Don't put anything too heavy on me."

Carl gave Hopp a pitiful look, then bent down and lay on the floor, preparing to begin her workout.

Just as she was wondering what Hopp would place on her back, a soft yet resilient object pressed down on Carl's lower back.

Turning her head, Carl saw that Hopp had actually sat on her lower back and seemed to be planning to lie directly on top of her.

"Don't stop! You do push-ups, and I'll do sit-ups. We can work out together."

Before Carl could say anything, Hopp had already lain down on Carl's back and then sat up, completing a standard sit-up.

"Wait... where did you even get this workout method?"

It was said that when men and women exercised while in contact with each other, it increased the amount of hormones secreted by both parties, thereby improving workout efficiency.

But Carl's knowledge of this workout method was limited to short videos from her past life, and she did not know whether it was true.

"Huh? I just saw that you needed extra weight, so I decided to use myself to help. Or did you want to use those hard pieces of lumber as weights?"

"No... this is fine..."