Give it a try?

The Dry Season did not mean there was no rain.

But according to the records, in previous years, the Strange Entities had not run rampant when it rained in spring and summer.

That also answered a question that had been bothering him for a long time: what naturally occurring rainy season brought nonstop rain for an entire month?

The rain during the Rainy Season was different from ordinary spring and summer rain.

It was like...

For a moment, he could not find the right words to describe it.

Time to sleep.

Dawn had just broken. After seeing Zhou Mo off and acquiring this Wraith Hide, he wasted no more time. He headed down from the City Wall toward the Wooden Hut to get some sleep. Once he woke up, he still had more road to lay.

He wanted to build a Highway that could be used at night.

Whether he charged tolls or used it to serve the Camp,

it would bring nothing but benefits.

Most importantly,

the special upgrade path unlocked when the Eerie Fire reached Level 3 only worked during the Rainy Season. He had to use up the daily free allowance rather than let it go to waste.

Even if he had no immediate use for what he made, he could put it in the Warehouse for later.

There were still almost six hours until Eternal Night descended.

Chen Fan woke up.

He built another brand-new Three-Wheeler, took Qi Chong out of the Camp and into Eternal Night, and continued laying his Highway.

The vehicle traveled through the rain-soaked wilderness at an uneven speed.

Standing at the front, Chen Fan kept laying Copper Pipes in a straight line, joining them end to end.

He buried the Copper Pipes a meter beneath the Wasteland, the deepest he could place them. Under normal circumstances, they would be difficult to damage unless someone did it deliberately. Even if they were damaged, though, it would not have much of an effect.

Only the damaged Copper Pipe would stop working.

The Eerie Fire would continue flowing through the Copper Pipes connected to the Camp. As long as he built a Camp at each end, even if a section was destroyed, only that stretch would stop functioning. It would not affect the overall network.

The only problem was...

He was the only one who could maintain these Copper Pipes.

If the Camp survived the Rainy Season and kept growing, he could hardly spend every day running around maintaining buildings.

That meant the Camp needed another Builder.

That Builder would not need to construct anything, only handle maintenance.

A Builder... an Artifact Refiner... an Alchemist... and people to work under them, among others.

People were essential to building a faction.

Once the Rainy Season ended,

he would have to go to Northbank City and recruit a group of people.

But recruiting a Builder would be as hard as reaching the heavens. It was no simple task. He would have to plan carefully and wait for the right opportunity.

"Station Master."

Just then,

Qi Chong, who was standing on the Three-Wheeler operating the Power Rod, wiped the sweat from his forehead. After hesitating for a long time, he finally said hoarsely, "There's something I haven't been sure whether to tell you..."

"The night before last, I happened to discover that Wang Mazi's Subordinate... had secretly kept some Eerie Stones. He didn't hand them all over when he first joined the Camp."

"..."

Chen Fan frowned slightly, but his hands did not stop working.

Wang Mazi's Subordinate.

He had kept a low profile in the Camp, quietly doing his work. On the very first night after the group joined, the Camp had faced its greatest crisis to date—the meatworm wraith tide—and nearly exhausted its Eerie Stones.

Little Qiu and Zhou Mo had risked their lives outside the walls to bring back Eerie Stones and keep the Camp's Arrow Towers operating.

Yet Wang Mazi's Subordinate had possessed Eerie Stones at the time and simply stood by, letting Zhou Mo leave the walls expecting almost certain death. That was more than a little damning...

He could understand selfishness.

After all, who did not look out for their own interests?

But being selfish under those circumstances was foolish.

If the Camp fell, who could survive?

He had now assigned Wang Mazi's Subordinate to accompany Zhou Mo and collect resources from other Stations.

After a brief silence,

Chen Fan spoke again. "Does Wang Mazi know about this?"

"I don't think Wang Mazi knows."

"Have you told anyone else?"

"No one."

"All right." Chen Fan nodded slightly and continued working. "I understand. Don't tell anyone else about this."

"Understood."

Qi Chong nodded firmly and went back to working the Power Rod without mentioning it again. His main reason for hesitating had been that he did not want to disrupt the Camp's current harmony. But he also felt that someone like that might someday bring disaster upon the Camp.

After thinking it over for a long time, he had decided that the Station Master needed to know.

After finishing the day's Copper Pipes,

Chen Fan returned to the Camp with Qi Chong and built another plot of Level-1 Farmland beside the original one. He left it to Qi Chong to transplant the Crops brought back from the other Stations.

Only then did he begin his daily inspection of the Camp.

Eternal Night was about to descend.

Less than two hours remained.

"..."

Standing on the City Wall, Chen Fan looked at the slightly dim Eerie Stone in his palm and sighed softly. Yesterday, he had asked Zhou Mo for a cultivation manual, which allowed him to absorb energy from Eerie Stones and improve his Cultivation.

He was currently a Level-1 Builder.

In this world, the higher a Builder's level, the less energy they wasted during construction. They could control more energy and construct higher-level buildings.

The difference between him and other Builders was that,

to construct a building, he only needed to look at his panel.

That effectively made him a max-level Builder.

Raising his level would do nothing to improve his construction abilities, but it would improve his physical condition. Being a little stronger was naturally a good thing, and there was no harm in absorbing Eerie Stones and cultivating in his spare time.

But—

The absorption was far too slow.

According to Zhou Mo,

advancing from a Level-One Cultivator to a Level 2 Cultivator required absorbing roughly fifty Eerie Stones.

The exact speed depended on the grade of the cultivation manual and the cultivator's own talent.

Zhou Mo had taken a year to advance from a Level-One Cultivator to a Level 2 Cultivator. That was with little time to cultivate but plenty of Eerie Stones.

Chen Fan did the math.

Even with a sufficient supply of Eerie Stones and several hours set aside for cultivation every day, the cultivation manual Zhou Mo had given him would require at least six months to absorb fifty Eerie Stones and advance to a Level 2 Builder.

That was hardly fast.

More importantly, reaching Level 2 would not improve his physique by much.

It was not a particularly good return on the investment.

That was how he had always thought of it before. He had felt there was little real difference between Level 1 and Level 2.

But...

Then Zhou Mo and Chen Fan's Subordinate had encountered a Doppelganger Wraith in the wilderness. Zhou Mo had made it back, while the Subordinate had died.

That had made him realize

that, at a critical moment, Level 1 and Level 2 did make a difference.

That was why he had asked Zhou Mo for a cultivation manual and decided to start cultivating. Level 2 was better than Level 1, and every little improvement to his physique counted.

"..."

Something suddenly occurred to Chen Fan. He turned and looked thoughtfully at the Wooden Hut beside the Eerie Fire inside the walls.

He had never upgraded that Wooden Hut.

After all, it was only a shelter from the wind and rain. But perhaps he could try upgrading it?

Maybe it would offer an upgrade path that accelerated cultivation or something similar?

Give it a try?

Give it a try.

Upgrading the Wooden Hut would not cost many Eerie Stones. He still had around three hundred on hand, so he could afford to try.