Having given the people of Taylor Camp peace of mind, Bruce walked directly to the side of the Iron Refining Furnace.
Seeing the coal and iron already spilled out on the ground, his face immediately showed excitement.
[Camp: Harper (Level 0)]
[Lord: Bruce]
[Population of Territory: 341]
[Resources: Wood 1240 Coal 254 Iron 402 Silver 0 Gold 0]
[Buildings Opened: 1 – Iron Refining Furnace (Level 2)]
[Buildings Not Opened: 8 – Wooden Mannequin, Green Bamboo Fence, Marking Stone, Medicine Decoction Pot, Yellow Earth, Polishing Stone, Small Wooden Table, Rough Iron Chain]
Currently, the camp's wood supply is completely overflowing.
Unless Bruce wants to crazily produce Solidified Fire Oil and Small Torches, there's no way the wood could be entirely used up under normal conditions.
The coal and iron gifted by George couldn't be refused by Bruce, because he realized that trying to gather the resources needed to open buildings on his own in a short period was absolutely impossible.
Coal mines are easy to find, but currently, in Harper, he is the only one in the Earthripper Realm.
By himself, he can mine at most two hundred kilograms a day, and then there's the even harder-to-find iron mines and subsequent mining, so accepting George's gift is undoubtedly the fastest choice to unlock other buildings.
Except for the Small Wooden Table and Rough Iron Chain buildings, the other six unopened buildings only require three types of resources: Wood, Coal, and Iron, and the cost to open them isn't much; the real expense comes with upgrades.
Wooden Mannequin: Wood 100 Iron 20
Medicine Decoction Pot: Coal 50 Iron 40
Polishing Stone: Coal 60 Iron 30
Marking Stone: Coal 150 Iron 90
Green Bamboo Fence: Per meter/Wood 20 Iron 5, upgrades upon exchanging for 10,000 meters
Yellow Earth: Per square meter/Wood 200 Coal 20, upgrades upon exchanging for 10,000 square meters
Bruce reviewed the building unlocking conditions, falling into contemplation.
Although he didn't know the specific functions of these buildings, he could roughly guess from their names.
The Green Bamboo Fence should be defensive camp material, and Yellow Earth is probably used for planting crops.
These two are useful but too expensive and not suitable for the camp's current situation, so they won't be considered.
The Wooden Mannequin seems to be for martial arts training, the Medicine Decoction Pot for healing and medicine, the Polishing Stone for forging purposes, and the Marking Stone, as the name implies, is probably for marking boundaries.
Bruce wanted to build all four of these in one go, but due to limited resources, he decided to forgo the Marking Stone for now.
Wooden Mannequin, Medicine Decoction Pot, Polishing Stone.
Bruce placed his hand on the coal and iron on the ground, and with a slight focus of thought, he first clicked on the Wooden Mannequin.
A gleam of light flashed, and a single-legged wooden figure, two meters tall with a hollowed abdomen, immediately appeared beside the Iron Refining Furnace.
Though standing on a single leg, the wooden figure's face had complete features, and its expression even carried a hint of a smile.
With sturdy, muscular arms naturally hanging down, its whole body was muscular and robust, with all joints connected by iron rivets, lifelike.
If not for the skin tone and the single leg, no one would believe it's a fake wooden figure.
Wooden Mannequin (Level 1): Training equipment, activated with coal stone, can significantly enhance training speed and increase martial arts insight.
Special Function 1: Can record varieties of Cold Beasts through essence blood, transforming into any Cold Beast and exhibiting the strength of an adult beast.
Special Function 2: Activated within the Iron Refining Furnace's radiation range, can follow commands and engage in independent combat.
Consumption: 5 coal per hour
Upgrade Conditions: 3000 Wood 6000 Iron
This Wooden Mannequin is incredibly powerful!
After reading the description of the Wooden Mannequin, Bruce couldn't help but click his tongue in admiration, his face filled with excitement.
Enhancing training speed; increasing martial arts insight; able to transform into various Cold Beasts for sparring; and within the Iron Refining Furnace's radiation range, it can follow commands to fight independently.
Each of these four functions is astonishingly powerful.
Bruce took a deep breath and continued to open the second building, the Polishing Stone.
As more of the coal and iron on the ground disappeared, another glow appeared beside the Wooden Mannequin, swirling in the air for a moment before vanishing, leaving behind a rectangular black stone over half a meter in diameter.
Polishing Stone (Level 1): Can be shaped into any mold for crafting various metal devices, capable of forging weapons ranging from Ten Forged to a thousand forged.
Special Function: Absorbs enough Cold Beast Blood to forge weapons with Beast Suppressing attributes.
Upgrade Conditions: 5000 Coal 10000 Iron
Another valuable treasure!
Bruce's face was filled with delight, and he then pointed out the Medicine Decoction Pot.
A sudden glow appeared, and beside the Polishing Stone emerged a half-meter-diameter green medicine pot, with a layer of strange patterns on the outside, accompanied by a refreshing fragrance upon its appearance.
Medicine Decoction Pot (Level 1): Alchemy equipment, capable of identifying item properties upon the placement of any object; medicinal items will be automatically recorded.
Special Function: Automatically generates formulas based on recorded types; materials can be added following the formula and boiled with water to create medicine.
Consumption: 20 coal per hour for decoction, identification consumes varying amounts of coal stone based on the rarity of the item.
Upgrade Conditions: Wood 20000 Coal 20000 Iron 10000 to generate 10 types of formulas
Phew…
Today's surprises are truly one after another.
Bruce was almost out of breath.
This Medicine Decoction Pot, despite its rustic name, turns out to be the most useful.
Identifying item properties and automatically generating formulas mean that just adding water and boiling according to the formula can automatically concoct medicine.
Medicine!
If not for this Medicine Decoction Pot, Bruce even doubted whether he could ever interact with this term in the future.
Though Bruce is not clear about other camps, but for a small camp like Harper, where even survival is challenging, there is fundamentally no concept of treating injuries with medicine.
Injuries must be endured, and if endurance fails, one dies, with no exceptions.
Now with the Medicine Decoction Stove, they won't have to expend much effort to use medicine.
According to the description of the Decoction Stove, as long as they keep feeding it items to continually record, it will automatically generate various formulas.
Once the formulas are generated, they don't even need to expend effort for refining; they just need to add water and boil.
Moreover, not only can medicine for treating injuries be concocted, but medicine for enhancing strength should also be possible.
Consumption: 20 coal per hour for alchemy, and identification consumes different types of resources based on item properties.
Upgrade Conditions: Wood 20000 Coal 20000 Iron 10000 to generate 10 types of formulas
Looking at the Medicine Decoction Pot, though Bruce's eyes were fervent, seeing its terrifying consumption and the subsequent upgrade conditions made him click his tongue repeatedly.
"Consuming 20 units of coal per hour, such crazy upgrade conditions, it seems even the system knows you are the most precious!"
Leader, what is this?"
The sudden appearance of three objects by the furnace immediately drew the attention of everyone in the camp.
It's no secret in the Harper Camp that Bruce can create things out of nothing, especially with the miraculous Iron Refining Furnace.
Naturally, everyone was curious about these three objects, looking at Bruce with great anticipation.
Some people from Taylor Camp were also curious and came over, mainly the younger ones with strong curiosity, including Flash and Jane, the children of William.
Bruce didn't hide anything and gave a general introduction to the three objects.
The people of Harper trusted Bruce without doubt and were thrilled upon hearing about the powerful functions of the three objects.
However, Flash, Jane, and some others from Taylor Camp were puzzled by these unheard-of items.
"Leader, why not give it a try, activate this wooden mannequin, and I'll spar with it."
Bruce was not about to waste time explaining, and when Tony suggested a demonstration, he waved them off quickly.
[Resources: Wood 1140 Coal 144 Iron 312 Silver 0 Gold 0]
Currently, there's no source of coal or iron, and the recent construction has already consumed a lot, leaving few resources.
Without new production, not even a bit could be wasted.
Bruce frowned slightly as he looked at the few remaining coal stones on the ground, picked up a small one, and tossed it into the Iron Refining Furnace.
Bang…
The moment the coal stone went in, the flames surged upward instantly, spreading a wave of heat from the furnace, raising the temperature inside the cave significantly.
"It's so warm; I can't believe the heat the coal stone gives off is this high!"
"I'm not cold at all now, even though the cave entrance is open."
"Did Rogel Camp send a lot of coal? Will we be able to use it in the future?"
"Not yet, we can't. Once we break through to the Earthripper Realm and can mine coal ourselves, then we'll be able to use coal for heating."
---
The campers felt the warmth rise and began discussing fervently.
Bruce understood immediately why Rogel Camp didn't use much wood for heating.
The heat emitted from burning coal and wood is not comparable at all, and the smoke from burning coal is virtually nonexistent compared to wood.
Not to mention, coal was also essential for forging and weapon crafting.
The system showed a daily consumption rate as soon as the coal stone was thrown into the Iron Refining Furnace: twenty units of coal per day.
Twenty units equates to 400 kilograms.
Bruce couldn't help but click his tongue; the consumption rate was absurdly high.
However, considering a standard 50-square-meter wooden house in Rogel Camp consumed 150 daily, and this Iron Refining Furnace covered a hundred-meter radius, burning 400 kilograms a day didn't seem excessive.
In short, they were poor.
Currently, with only 144 units of coal available, it would only suffice for seven days if used for heating— they simply couldn't afford it.
Bruce took a deep breath, picked up two more coal stones, and threw them into the Iron Refining Furnace.
Then he selected a fist-sized piece of iron ore from the ground.
With the same weight, iron ore is half the size of coal stone; a fifty-kilogram coal stone is as big as a fist, yet the iron ore Bruce held, also fist-sized, weighed over a hundred kilograms.
"According to George, the world's iron ore here doesn't need refining; just melt it with coal fire, pour it into a mold to form an iron ingot, and continuously hammer it until forging patterns appear, and it becomes a weapon.
The more forging patterns, the more powerful the crafted weapon. Generally, reaching the Ten Forging Level can break through the lower-level Cold Beast defenses without issues!"
Recalling what he learned about weapon crafting from George before leaving Rogel Camp, Bruce showed a hint of contemplation in his eyes.
Compared to the process from his previous life, this crafting method seemed unreasonable, but the iron ore of this world obviously was not the same as Earth's.
Judging from the weight alone, it was evident.
Remembering Wang Ming's roughly 600-kilogram broadsword, Bruce stopped overthinking, selected fifteen pieces of iron ore—about 600 kilograms in total—and placed them over the Iron Refining Furnace, adding a few more coal stones underneath.
"Leader, are you planning to forge weapons?"
"Definitely, didn't the leader just say that the black stone could form any mold? After melting the iron ore and pouring it into the mold, a weapon should come out, right?"
"Our Harper can also craft weapons ourselves now."
"Iron probably isn't enough at the moment, not many weapons can be made now, but once we have more iron mines, we'll all have weapons."