Enough timber

The wind in Frost Forest made no great show of itself. It was simply cold.

It pressed against the skin without cutting, yet drew away his body heat bit by bit.

The frozen ground was hard and compacted. The dark brown roots of old trees arched above the surface, tangled and raised, ready to trip anyone who was not careful. The nearby saplings, slender branches, and scrub had long since been cleared away. All that remained were mature trees with hard trunks and dense wood, just right for cutting into the standard logs needed to upgrade the Shelter.

Lu Heng stood before a tree, gripping the axe handle with both hands.

This was his second standard-issue stone axe.

He remembered clearly how the first one had shattered. He had met hardness with force, chopping hard, and a few blows against the wood outside its grain had ruined it outright.

So this time, he held back his strength throughout.

He did not swing the axe in great arcs or drive it down with his waist.

He planted both feet firmly on the frozen ground, lowered his center of gravity, and used only short bursts of force from his wrists and forearms to chip into the grain of the trunk.

The axe bit into the wood with dull, short sounds, each blow distinct.

The trees growing in the frozen soil were extremely dense, far harder than ordinary woodland trees. No chop brought a satisfying crack, only heavy resistance. The recoil traveled along the handle into his palms and forearms.

After dozens of repetitions, the first thing his body struggled with was not exhaustion, but stiffness.

His forearm muscles tightened until they were hard, trembling slightly.

The rough wooden handle rubbed repeatedly against the calluses on his palms. Tiny splits gave off warmth, pale yellow wood chips lodged in his flesh, and a close scattering of sharp little pains clung to his skin.

He did not force himself to endure it.

Every dozen or so chops, he paused, lowered his hands, shook his arms a couple of times, and loosened his fingers to let the blood flow back.

The breaks passed in moments. He did not want to dawdle, but was even less willing to exhaust his strength in one go.

The entire forest was quiet.

There were no beastly roars or strange noises, only wind passing through leaves and his continuous, regular, monotonous chopping.

The excessive quiet instead kept his nerves taut.

Partway through, a sudden rustling came from distant low bushes. Several birds perched on branches startled into flight, their wingbeats bursting abruptly into the silence.

Lu Heng stopped instantly.

Holding the axe, he stood still, his gaze sweeping toward the source of the noise.

His body's instinctive vigilance came faster than thought.

Only after confirming that it was merely birds startling in the woods, with no sign of strange beasts, did his tense shoulders and back slowly relax.

A false alarm.

It also indirectly showed that this safe zone near the Shelter truly had no active large predators left.

He lowered his head again and resumed felling trees.

Tedious, but safe.

After an unknown length of time, a faint crack came from inside the trunk.

The whole tree slowly tilted, then landed solidly on the frozen ground, crushing several layers of dead branches. The roots twisted the instant it struck the ground. An old, coiled root beneath his foot shifted, and he stumbled half a step, tightening his grip on the axe handle before regaining his balance.

Lu Heng went forward and broke off all the side branches, fine twigs, and excess treetop growth with his bare hands.

Only the main trunk remained.

Then he used the stone axe to adjust the length, cuts, and curvature little by little, trimming it strictly to the system's standard specifications.

One log, two logs, three logs.

He kept the pace of his tree felling balanced between exertion and rest throughout.

Sweat slowly soaked through the back of his clothes. When the cold wind blew, the fabric chilled against his skin.

His stamina drained steadily, his eyelids gradually grew heavy, and his lower back and legs began to ache and tingle. The accumulated fatigue of labor slowly seeped through his entire body, rather than leaving him suddenly drained.

At last, twenty logs lay neatly stacked on the ground.

The count stopped there.

No more, no less.

Exactly enough to meet the Shelter upgrade's timber requirement.

Lu Heng stopped and let out a long breath of white mist. It struck the tree trunk and dispersed in an instant.

At that moment, there was no exaggerated release of tension, only a grounded sense of things settling into place.

The hardest basic material to gather, the timber, was finally ready.

He raised his wrist and activated the bracelet. The interface glowed a faint blue.

With a tap of his fingertip, every log on the ground instantly turned insubstantial and entered the bracelet's storage space.

The ground was empty in an instant, without a trace left behind.

No carrying, no dragging, no stockpiling.

It saved all that physical labor and avoided the risk of timber getting damp or damaged while piled outdoors.

Only after finishing did he lower his head and carefully examine the stone axe in his hand.

The axe face, once rough but even, was now covered in fine marks of wear.

The blade's originally slight outward curve had been worn completely flat. Its edge had turned white, with small chips in several places leaving it uneven.

The axe head had not fractured as a whole. He could still hold it, still chop with it, and still subject it to light knocks.

But its poor condition was plain to see.

Lu Heng gently brushed a fingertip over a chip.

He knew perfectly well.

This axe had been pushed to its limit.

If he used it to hack hard at another large tree in the frozen soil, just two or three heavy chops would definitely shatter it on the spot.

It was no longer fit for heavy-duty logging.

Only a little basic usefulness remained.

He stepped back half a pace and stood with his back against a tree trunk.

The delayed fatigue suddenly swept through his entire body.

His forearms ached and swelled so badly that even raising them took effort. His lower back was rigid, his legs were too heavy to lift easily, and even his breathing carried deep weariness.

His body's instincts were honest.

He wanted to return to the cave, sit down, warm himself by the fire, and rest completely, doing nothing.

This was inertia at its most genuine.

But Lu Heng did not immediately turn back toward the Shelter.

He stared at the battered axe in his hand, doing the calculations in his mind.

He had enough wood now.

There was no need to keep pushing the tool.

But the axe was not ruined yet.

It could chop, pry, intimidate, and defend him.

Going straight back to the cave now and leaving it idle, waiting for it to wear out completely after a couple of days or be ruined by some casual knock later, would mean wasting the last stretch of its useful life.

Too much of a waste.

In a survival environment, the remaining value of any usable tool could not be squandered.

He wrestled with himself for two seconds.

His body wanted rest.

His reason wanted to squeeze out every bit of value.

In the end, the caution and greed of survival overcame his inertia.

Now was the time.

While he could still walk, while the axe was not completely ruined.

He would go out on a short exploratory circuit.

Gather resources wherever he could, survey the terrain wherever he could, and scout locations in advance wherever he could.

He would use up every last bit of this stone axe's usefulness.

With his decision made, Lu Heng straightened and gently moved his shoulders and neck.

His joints were slightly stiff, but once he loosened them up, he felt considerably more alert.

He turned to look back toward the cave.

The entrance was properly screened, and he had added plenty of dry firewood before leaving. The fire would not go out anytime soon, wind would not pour inside, and there were no hidden hazards.

The Shelter was safe.

Having confirmed that all was well, he withdrew his gaze.

He looked beyond the Shelter, toward the deeper woods.

He had already stripped the nearby area of resources.

The trees had been cut, the firewood gathered, and the level patches of ground thoroughly surveyed.

If he wanted to develop further, he could only head outward.

Deeper in the forest, the colors were darker, the trees denser, and the light dimmer.

It was quiet enough to tighten his chest.

He did not know what lay hidden there, or what he might encounter.

But resources were always hidden in unexplored areas.

Lu Heng tightened his grip on the damaged stone axe.

The handle remained firm, neither loose nor wobbly, enough to support one short exploration.

He stepped forward, slowly walking deeper into Frost Forest.

The wind sounded as before, and the trees' shadows stood still.

One man, one battered axe, a body full of fatigue.

From deep in the dense woods, the faint sound of a dry branch snapping drifted toward him. His steps paused slightly, but he continued steadily into the unknown.