Once the tech tree opened, I looked at the bottom to see what new techs had been unlocked after I purchased the primitive tools tech.
Connected to the primitive tools tech were three gray lines leading to their own grayed-out techs.
This first line went up and off to the left, leading to the tech called Wooden Building Set. The second line went directly up and led to the tech called Wooden Workbench. The third and last line went up and off to the right, leading to the tech called Thatch Building Set.
Both of the building sets were not able to be bought as there was another even darker line leading from the Wooden Workbench to each of the building sets.
There were more lines like these leading off from the weapon techs. However, none of them led to tech that were able to be seen yet, let alone bought.
Thus I was only able to purchase the wooden workbench tech to continue unlocking the tech tree.
From here, I needed to make a choice between getting more weapon blueprints or unlocking building sets.
This was not that hard as I had a quest which required me to build a house and would most likely lead to me leveling up once more. Thus, I would now need to choose between getting the wooden building set or the thatch one, as I only had one tech point left.
Taking some time to consider the differences between the two, I finally ended up buying the Wooden Building Set as I did not see much more benefit to buying the thatch over the wood.
Once I closed the system window, the knowledge flooded my head and caused my vision to dim as I almost passed out. This was because of all the knowledge needed and developed to build with wood for my old world across all of its different climates and cultures.
Having all of this stuffed into my brain at the same time in the format it was compiled probably was not the best for my brain.
The amount of knowledge from the wooden building set was also quite large, so that probably did not did help.
This amount of knowledge was also so vast that the knowledge of the wooden workbench and the tools to go with it managed to slip by almost unnoticed.
Soon after, things got under control, and my sight returned to normal, with only a slight headache. Thus, I opened the crafting window and found the new blueprints that had been added before selecting the wooden foundation, setting the amount to four.
This was the first step in making a building, but the problem was that it took most of the resources that I had looted from the ship, so if I wanted to build more, I would need to get more resources for it.
While the foundations were being crafted and these spiraling thoughts were occupying my mind, I pulled the young trees that I felled earlier into the meadow near the spot that I designated as the construction site.
This spot was near the edge of the clearing, a small distance away from the creek on a particularly flat area.
As I thought about that, I finished moving the trees at the same time as the foundations were finished crafting, which pulled me out of my thoughts.
I then opened my inventory to look for the foundations but was unable to find them. Instead, the moment that I thought about wanting to pull out the foundations, I saw an outline of the foundations appear in my vision, like a hologram being overlayed with the ground.
Trying to direct this hologram mentally, I watched as it moved around to where I wanted it.
Using this, I directed all four to appear connected to each other next to the edge of the construction site and then confirmed their placement.
What happened next was amazing to watch as wooden poles appeared out of nowhere and lodged themselves into the ground. Then, cross beams and planks for the floor and side walls connected with the poles and each other. This resulted in a complete foundation for a small building that I was in awe of, even if it broke one of the major rules of construction and left wood directly in touch with the ground.
It was around this time that the world started to grow darker, signaling that the day was drawing to a close.
I then used the last of my resources from the ship with some of the trees that I cut down to craft a few sections of walls, one of which contained a doorway.
With the walls being crafted and the last lights of the day descending, I went back to the forest to collect more wood.
I did not want to use the trees around my meadow as they make a great background to fill out the beauty of the meadow. However, the trees farther away could be thinned out but not clear-cut to allow for the forest to recover over time.
While I was cutting down more trees, the crafting of the walls was finished. So I used some of the freshly cut wood to create one roof piece as I did not have enough for two yet.
When the crafting of the first roof piece was finished, I had enough materials to make the second, though it was also at this point that night had begun to fall in earnest.
Running back to my meadow as I was quickly losing light, I noticed my enhanced agility compared to my past life, as well as this strange joy I felt from running around this exterior part of the forest.
Reaching my meadow, I ended my run and then mentally called out the walls, placing them down with the completed roof pieces coming not long after.
This marked the near completion of my slightly less temporary new home.
The renewed scene of the system constructing the house was so mesmerizing that I did not even notice the final lights of the sun fading, as the light of the moon provided enough for my racial trait to allow me to see by.
When the construction finished, the sound of victorious trumpets filled my ears, and a banner filled with flowing golden light unfurled with a golden-colored screen in the middle.
[Congratulations [Quest: Mainline 1: Homesteading] Complete! Due to completing it before the expected time frame, the reward has been upgraded.]
[Rewards received: The rest of the system has been unlocked!]
Seeing this new window, I was somewhat surprised by the upgrade in reward as the other parts of the system that I did not have access to yet were quite powerful if used correctly. The only reason why I was not freaking out about them, though, is that they were not present in my previous life, and I would not be using them much right now, so I would soon forget about them.
There was one part of the full system I would use all the time, though, and that was the now unrestricted inventory.
Ignoring any other thought I might have had on this right now, I opened up my crafting menu and ordered a basic wooden door to be built before entering my new house.
Once inside, I started looking for a place to hang my hammock to get some sleep, only to realize that the walls had been built without the hammock in mind, thus leaving no place to hang one.
Stopping and taking a moment to try and figure out how to hang my hammock or potentially find some other way to sleep. I remember that I had some stuff in my inventory that might help.
Opening it without a second thought, I started looking through all the stuff that might be helpful to me and even some of the things that might not, in case any of those things gave me an idea.
During this search, I found a wood-burning stove that I thought would come in handy during the looting, and now I ended up placing it in the new house.
Going back to searching through my inventory, I went outside to find some sticks and kindling to start a fire for the stove.
This led to me learning that trying to look at two completely separate places and not expect to fall down was a great mistake. Thankfully, I had a tail now; otherwise, I would have been planted face-first into the ground right about now.
Once I was back on my feet, I closed my inventory and focused on finding all the kindling and firewood that I needed for now before returning home.
Walking back into the house, I placed down the cast iron wood-fired stove and loaded up everything needed to make a fire in it. I then reached over to my backpack and pulled out the fire starter to light the fire in the stove.
After the fire was lit, I walked over to the back of the room and sat down with my back against the wall. Opening my inventory once more, I started to go through it again when I saw the bundled-up sections of sail from the ship.
Normally, the thought would have never crossed my mind, but now I found myself pulling out the section of sail and placing it into the corner of the room. This effectively made it into a makeshift bed.
Walking over and sitting down on the makeshift bed, I stared at the ceiling for a moment and watched as the smoke filtered out of the building through a small hole I left in the roof for this exact purpose.
After a while, I decided that I had enough of watching the smoke and instead chose to start appraising my gains from the ship as I had not done that yet with how fast I looted everything and left the place.
Opening my inventory once more, I tried to filter it to only show everything that came from the ship. Surprisingly, all the items in my inventory shifted, and now the only thing I could see were the things that I had taken from the ship.
The first thing out of all of my loot that caught my eye was the strange blue marbles I kept getting from all the skeletons. When I focused on these little marbles in the inventory, their names, information, and what I could do with them appeared.
[Cultivation core (unaspected): Body Refining: Bone Tempering (3rd level)]
[Qi Amount: 532 sparks]
[Would like to convert this core to XP (Y/N): or absorb the Qi within (Unavailable due to host not having a cultivation technique)]
After reading the information, I became a bit more cautious about using the little marbles as I now know they are cultivation cores from dead cultivators.
If this were a video game, I would be excited about all the free EXP. However, this was my actual life I was messing with, so I was very careful with it.
Especially after reading all the stories from my old world that talk about what will happen if I use the cultivation base or special techniques linked to more unsavory cultivators.
It was then, upon sensing my worries, that the system pulled up a new window.
[Would you like to purify all cultivation cores looted from this point forward? (Y/N)]
[Warning: This will result in a loss of Qi within the core!]
I immediately select yes because, as the saying goes, 'It is better to be safe than sorry!' After this, the core on the page flashes brightly before dying down, and the information changes.
[Cultivation core (unaspected): Body Refining: Bone Tempering (3rd level)]
[Qi Amount: 310 sparks (purified)]
[Would like to convert this core to XP (Y/N): or absorb the Qi within (Unavailable due to host not having a cultivation technique)]
With that done, the only remaining problem was that I did not have a cultivation technique at the moment, nor did I need the increase in realm. Thus, I opted to turn the core into experience points for my next level.
[Cultivation Core Converted to XP]
[You have leveled up]
[You have received the level-up rewards of +1 skill point and +3 tech points]
Seeing the new notifications, I could not help but say, "Well, that was unexpected-!" I then became Startled for a second by the sound of my own voice. Taking a moment once more to calm down, I realized that I had not been paying any attention to my voice during all of my race for survival, so this meant that I was still thinking that my voice was the same as before, even though it was not.
This also leads to the Realization that I have been acting a little strangely since I came here. It was nothing much, but my hyper-focused state still gave me a slight pause out of concern.
Feeling a shiver start crawling up my spine from my now puffed-out tail, which I also just now realize I have not been paying any attention to as of late, I divert all my attention to the tech screen in an attempt to distract myself.
At the bottom of the tech screen, just above the workbench and connected to the wooden building set, was a picture of a bedroll. This picture is labeled Portable Bedding, and it is definitely something I will be putting one of my three new points into.
Next to this option and directly above the workbench is one called stone kitchenware and set, something else that I will be getting just for the convince that it would bring.
Finally, off to the side of this is one connected to the workbench and straw/thatch labeled primitive bedding, which I would have loved to pick, however, I did not have its prerequisites unlocked.
There was one more connection that went above the workbench, but there was a line going across it saying that I would need to unlock two more techs in the current age before I could move on.
Deciding that food comes first, I placed the first point into the stone kitchenware and set.
I then grabbed the portable bedding since the primitive bedding option was locked, and I wanted a more proper bed as soon as possible.
Now, the only choice left is between primitive melee weapons and the straw/thatch building set. Thinking of which one was holding me back the most right now, I chose the latter.
Closing the window and feeling the flood of information streaming into my head, I came to the conclusion that this was far less than what I felt when I chose the wooden building set, as well as it has been better structured to cause less damage to a person's brain.
When the information stopped flowing, I opened the crafting window to see if there was anything I wanted to attempt to build the next day, as I did not have any plans at the moment.
That was when I saw that one of the bed roll blueprints was buildable.
Selecting the option to build it, I fell down on my bottom as the sail section that was underneath me disappeared. Looking back at the crafting recipe, I saw that it took the cloth to make the bedroll, and the system had counted the sail sections I was sitting on as salvaged cloth.
Ten minutes later, an already-prepared bedroll appeared in my inventory ready to use.
Pulling the bed roll out, I placed it on the ground where I was sitting on the sail section.
Now that I was back to just waiting around until I fall asleep like earlier, I started looking through the stuff I had gotten of the skeletons once more. This time, though, I was looking at the scrolls and books that most of them seemed to have.
Most of the scrolls ended up being medical prescriptions, while only a few of the books were cultivation or martial arts techniques, with the occasional journal mixed in.
Not really wanting to learn cultivation or martial arts techniques at the moment, I find myself looking through all the medical prescriptions the crew had.
All this time, I kept trying to make an educated guess about what they were given for until I felt that I was right, not noticing the notifications accumulating in the corner of my vision.
Eventually, I felt too tired to continue and was about to go to sleep. However, before going to bed, I opened my skill tab and, following my previous thought process, placed it in medical.
When I closed the system window again, all the knowledge impacted my brain, causing me to fall unconscious immediately.