The Lifelong Enemy of the God of War, Fang Mo

"Tinkers' Construct... you're so gentle."

Looking at the Tinkers' Construct book in Steve's inventory, Fang Mo couldn't help but sigh.

Back in the day, when he was grinding servers with friends, Fang Mo never really felt it. But now, after losing the ability to check crafting recipes, he finally realized just how considerate a mod with a built-in tutorial really was.

The Tinkers' Construct mod, as the name suggests.

It's a mod about craftsmen and tools.

Tinkers' Construct adds a bunch of new ores, metals, and tools to the game.

Every tool in Tinkers' Construct is made up of different parts. For example, a pickaxe is split into three components: the Pickaxe Head, the Tool Rod, and the Binding.

Players can craft these parts from different materials—like making a Tool Rod from Gold Ingot, a Pickaxe Head from Diamond, and a Binding from Obsidian. Of course, you can also use materials from other mods, like IndustrialCraft's Steel Ingot, Bronze Ingot, or Iridium Ingot.

In Tinkers' Construct, almost every material has its own special trait.

For example, tools made from Sponge come with Silk Touch, while Iron tools have Magnetic, which increases pickup range.

And then there's the high-tier alloy unique to Tinkers' Construct: Manyullyn. Weapons made from this stuff hit like a truck—almost every vanilla mob goes down in one hit.

On top of that, Tinkers' Construct adds something called Modifier Slots.

Every tool comes with three Modifier Slots by default. These slots can be used to apply effects similar to vanilla enchantments. For instance, adding Lapis Lazuli gives the tool Fortune or Looting, while Redstone increases the tool's or weapon's swing speed.

Of course, if you prefer, you can also use Diamonds or Emeralds to reinforce these tools.

Diamonds increase attack damage and durability, and also let the tool mine Obsidian. Emeralds add 50% extra durability. Both are solid traits.

And unlike vanilla tools, Tinkers' Construct tools don't just vanish when their durability runs out.

Players can place materials on a Tool Forge and repair the tool.

Hmm... how to put it?

Tinkers' Construct might not be as complex or massive as tech mods, but its replayability is sky-high. Players can completely DIY their own custom weapons based on their preferences.

If you have enough addon mods installed, you can even craft a true Demon Blade—the more monsters you kill, the higher the weapon's attack power. There are even addons that bring in Wakandan Vibranium and Asgardian god metal Uru from the Marvel Universe.

Just imagine: in Thor: Ragnarok, when the Death Goddess Hela crushes Thor's Hammer with her bare hand and Thor is in agony, Fang Mo just pours Uru metal and forges him a brand-new Battle Axe. What kind of scene would that be?

Hell yeah, even the Dwarf King Eitri would call it pro.

Of course, none of what I just said is the most important part.

For Fang Mo right now, the thing that really moves him is that Tinkers' Construct actually gives him a tutorial book right after loading.

The Tinkers' Construct book records almost every mechanic in the mod.

For Fang Mo at this stage, nothing is more valuable than that.

"Alright, decided. First, I'll craft Tinkers' Construct gear, then I'll go kill the Wither and the Ender Dragon." Fang Mo clapped his hands, setting his next course of action as he looked at the book in his hands.

With the goal set, Fang Mo and Steve got to work immediately.

As a humanoid mining machine, Fang Mo was never short on ores. Same as always—the ores in the furnace were quickly smelted into ingots. With a wave of his hand, Steve instantly upgraded his gear.

His worn-out Iron Sword and shield were replaced with new ones.

All the stone pickaxes were thrown away—their mining speed was way too slow. He just made ten Iron Pickaxes to get by.

As for Steve's iron armor?

Fang Mo swapped it out for a full set of Diamond Armor.

Actually, Tinkers' Construct does have an armor addon that lets players forge their own armor the Tinkers' way. But Fang Mo had only unlocked the base Tinkers' Construct mod, not the armor addon yet, so for now, he had to settle for giving Steve a Diamond Armor set as a stopgap.

After the gear swap, Fang Mo immediately sent Steve out to collect Sand, Clay, and Gravel.

These three materials were for building the Smeltery.

Unlike the vanilla furnace, this is a large multiblock structure. Players toss ores in, and the Smeltery uses Lava to melt them down into double the amount of liquid metal.

Then, by pouring that liquid metal into Casts, you get the corresponding parts.

Since it was early game, the Smeltery Fang Mo built wasn't very big, so it didn't need too many materials. Steve soon returned with a few stacks.

After mixing the materials and firing them into Seared Bricks, Fang Mo rolled up his sleeves and started building the Smeltery.

Honestly, Fang Mo had never built one himself before.

Back in the server days, he always teamed up with a girl whose ID was "xiaoyao."

Fang Mo handled combat and exploration, while she managed logistics. Too bad Fang Mo had died in his original world—he wondered if she ever thought of him sometimes.

Shaking his head, Fang Mo pushed those thoughts aside and started building the Smeltery according to the Tinkers' Construct book. After a few rounds of checking and adjusting, he finally got the multiblock structure right.

Earlier, while mining, Fang Mo had already brought back several buckets of Lava. Now he just poured them straight into the Smeltery.

With a faint glow of fire, the Smeltery started working. The ores Fang Mo tossed in slowly melted under the high heat, turning into molten metal.

"Alright, next up is the Tool Forge."

Flipping through the Tinkers' Construct book, Fang Mo tried crafting a series of workstations.

Things like the Stencil Table, the Part Builder, and the Tool Forge—a whole mess of stuff. He had to admit, crafting was definitely his weak point. Just these few workstations had him squatting there, fumbling and studying for half a day.

By the time everything was done, it was already the next morning.

"Wait... isn't this way too damn troublesome?"

Fang Mo fiddled with the stone parts in his hands, along with a few duplicate gold casts, and a pained expression gradually crept onto his face. "I didn't even spend this long mining ore. Goddammit, why won't it just give me an Equivalent Exchange mod..."

Thankfully, the Tinkers' Construct Smeltery guidebook was there to help. After dying on the spot three times, Fang Mo finally managed to craft himself a full set of component casts.

Once the casts were done, Fang Mo finally let out a sigh of relief.

This was a man who could mine for three straight days without blinking, yet now he felt an indescribable exhaustion.

But what Fang Mo didn't expect was...

An even tougher challenge was still waiting for him.

He grabbed a big pile of ore, ready to melt it down. He'd originally planned to make Bronze Alloy, but because there was some residual Molten Aluminum left in the furnace, the Bronze Alloy turned directly into Molten Aluminum Brass.

Seeing this, Fang Mo instantly lost it.

"Are you kidding me? Why?!"

Fang Mo felt like he was about to snap, on the verge of a full-blown impotent rage. "Fuck... what kind of hellish mechanic is this? Maybe next time I should go to the Marvel universe and collect the Infinity Stones, snap my fingers, and see if I can pull her over to help me with crafting... or at least get a recipe list out of it. This is already unplayable!"