The golden chest full of ancient engravings slowly opened, and its small inside instantly expanded to reveal the content.
[Pet goggles blueprint, aviator goggles, anti-slip horseshoe pads, parent-child harnesses, wood x1,000]
Sandrine smiled as she gathered everything from the golden chest. For sure, this was worse than what she had found previously, the splinters, the tamer's pitchfork and the crafting table were all way more valuable than those few things, but this was only the golden chest for the first day, and she needed every single one of those items.
First, the pet goggles. Those were customizable goggles that could be made for every single type of pet. They could protect the eyes in every situation, be it while underwater or from chemicals. Sandrine had a feeling that this could be very useful during the next season, with goggles they wouldn't fear a harsh rain and Paquerette would be able to speed up while being able to see where she is going.
The aviator goggles were for herself.
The anti-slip horseshoe pads were small plastic pads that could be attached underneath the horseshoes, so that Paquerette would be able to run even on a very slippery surface. Once again, very useful for the rainy days to come, the water could make the asphalt slippery.
The last thing, the parent-child harnesses, were a set of two harnesses, one big and one small, with a retractable leash beneath them. It was probably made so that the parent and child would both wear harnesses, and so that the parent could keep an eye on their child, keeping the leash at an acceptable range. However, this particular parent-child harness had a 'forced call back' button, that would forcefully call back the child's leash. It was extremely dangerous, but for Sandrine this was a total windfall.
She could strap herself to the harness, with Gribouille at the other end. The puppy could now go out of the kangaroo pouch and try to find his footing on Paquerette's back on his own. If he fell or encountered a dangerous situation, Sandrine would use the forced call back button.
This would both free her hands from carrying the puppy, and also help Gribouille try to take action on his own while still having a guard rail just in case.
Like a child taking his first steps alone and discovering the world.
How emotional.
It wasn't much for a golden chest, but every item made Sandrine very happy, especially the wood. It wasn't much, but she was slowly heading towards her goal of building the barn.
With the golden chest out of the way, and the wooden ones opened but mostly useless, Sandrine finally turned her attention to something a bit more useful : Her rewards for upgrading her vehicle to level 5.
She opened her inbox, and immediately a wall of text attacked her eyes.
[Rewards : Chicken coop Blueprint, random clothing set x5, toiletries set x3, rice 10kg x5, milk 1L x5, couscous can, quenelles can, coq au vin can, duck confit can, tuna can, sweet peas can, salt 1kg x5, flour 1kg x5, 1L water bottle x20, planting pot x3, fertilizer 1kg x3, vehicle fragment x70, metal x50, wood x50, rubber x50, glass x50, plastic x50, electric component x5, vehicle repair card x3, vehicle extension card x1, vehicle customization card x1, stat enhancement pill x1, straw x20, dog food 1kg x10, hay 1kg x50, chicken feed 1kg x10]
Sandrine had to take a deep breath before she was ready to focus on the contents of the reward. There were way too many things ! She just couldn't keep everything and that was starting to piss her off. You have to understand, every inventory space could hold only the exact same things. If you count only the different cans Sandrine had, between blanquette, confit, couscous, quenelles, coq au vin, ratatouilles, tuna, corn, green beans, peas… She had already enough to fill an entire horse basket. Then , she had the same situation with the jars, another horse basket. Then she had the clothes, another horse basket. Then the toiletries, another one.
And, in the blink of an eye, only her backpack remained. And what about all the materials, her pets' stuff, the camp set up, the cookware, the miscellaneous things she kept just in case ? Her inventory was big but not that big.
If she had a truck like AlphaWolf, she could build shelves and put in all her jars, cans, and toiletries, freeing space for other things. But she didn't.
Thankfully, she had the shelf blueprint that allowed her to free some inventory, but she couldn't put anything important on it because then it was difficult to take it out, she had to pull out the whole shelf from her inventory everytime.
Sandrine groaned and rubbed her face.
"Okay, let's focus, I'm sure there are good things inside !"
She read everything with increasingly shiny eyes.
"The chicken coop is that amazing ? Chicks mature 2 times as fast, and chickens are guaranteed to lay at least one egg a day each. If there is a rooster in the chicken coop, every egg will be fertilized. That's awesome !"
Sandrine jumped in joy. It would be even better if she had an incubator, but she would have to do without and push back her plans to breed chicken. At least, she would have an egg every day.
"But just one egg… It's really not a lot. I was hoping to mix up Gribouille's meal…"
The puppy wasn't picky and ate his kibble nicely every day, but Sandrine still made sure to add a little bit of leftovers so that meals would be more enjoyable. With regular eggs, she could have mixed them in the kibble. It was too bad.
"Anyway, it's still quite good."
She immediately took out the crafting table and made the chicken coop, then put the two pheasants inside. They seemed quite at ease, not coming out at all despite the open door.
Or maybe it was because they were surrounded by night monsters.
Anyway, Sandrine kept on analyzing her rewards.
"More random clothing sets…"
She took one and opened it, revealing an ancient Edwardian gown with sumptuous flowing sleeves and a white hat full of ruffles.
"Yeah, I rarely have any luck with those ones."
It was in one of those random clothing sets that she had found her frog onesie. Sometimes she would still try to open a clothing set and see if she would find new everyday clothes, but she rarely had any luck. And once a set was open, it transformed into the clothing, so it couldn't be stacked in the same inventory space with the others, because of that she avoided opening clothing sets usually.
She simply had felt lucky today because she beat a boss, but it looked like it was a misconception.
Sandrine put the other clothing sets in the inventory and continued skimming through her rewards.
"Pots and fertilizer… I really don't have any space, I'll ask MomImThirsty if he needs them. The materials can stack with what I already have, then there are the vehicle cards… I'll send them to AlphaWolf if he wants them. The customization card would be great if he needs wooden walls for his drying space ! The meat will taste better this way. Then, there is all the food for my pets… Okay, I read everything. There is just one question I have though."
What is the stat enhancement pill ?
Out of everything Sandrine got today, this pill was the most intriguing thing. If she read the game's description, it showed :
[Stat enhancement pill : Randomly increase a stat by 1]
Sandrine scratched her head.
"Is it how other players enhance their stats ? But it's way more worth it to get chased by bosses or fall off cliffs, though…"
She couldn't understand how abnormal she was, and how unbearable the pain was for normal people. Nobody would be crazy enough to play tag with a monster on the off chance that it could bring them benefits.
"I'm sure people would pay great money for this ! Should I sell it ?"
But it was too good a thing to just sell it outright. Sandrine opened her panel.
[Player : Sandrine Legrand
Nickname : 84jojo84
Species : Human
Vehicle : Paquerette (Select to see profile)
Job : Friend with the barn (Tamer)
Health : 88
Fatigue : 49
Strength : 9 (Average human : 7)
Constitution : 10 (Average human : 6)
Agility : 10 (Average human : 7)]
It looked like frolicking in the knittles and climbing a tree while breaking her fingers was enough to bring her constitution to the limit of 10.
As for the bonus point in strength, it should be either because she finally killed a boss, or because she climbed the giant tree by pulling on her arms.
Anyway, She had reached the limit in two stats and the last one was almost there. Sandrine wasn't sure that the pill would be worth it for her. But she didn't want to give it away either, it was way too precious a thing !
"Should I give it to my pets ?"
Nothing said that she had to take the pill herself. But also, her pets got higher stats everytime they leveled up, and that was 5 points at a time ! The pill really seemed unnecessary.
"Let's just keep it for now."
With her rewards sorted out, Sandrine could finally focus on the Labour Day feast !
Making a festive dish always started with the type of meat you wanted to serve. But Sandrine also had to be careful and only chose something she could realistically cook in her very primitive set up. For example, without any red wine, she couldn't possibly cook daube. She also didn't have any lamb, which was a shame since she would have really wanted a Sisteron lamb right now…
Anyway, after searching through her mental recipe book, Sandrine ultimately chose to ask AlphaWolf for some good sized liver, like from a cow or something, and cut it in thin slices.
[AlphaWolf : First the lily of the valley and now some liver ? Are you transforming today into Labour Day ?]
[84jojo84 : Why not ?]
[AlphaWolf : No, I'm in ! It's just that at my place we don't do anything for Labour Day, except sleeping and relaxing since we don't work]
[84jojo84 : Too bad. You should treat yourself better. Want me to cook you a plate ?]
[AlphaWolf : Thanks bro, you're too nice, I can't keep up ! I'll send you every wood unit I collected today ! But there's a lot of tree shards and broken trunks, I don't have a crafting table]
[84jojo84 : Not a problem, thanks a lot. Liver simply paned with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and Provence herbs, accompanied with roasted potatoes and fresh asparagus. You're in ?]
[AlphaWolf : Aaaah don't describe it so well, I'm salivating already !]
Sandrine laughed. Her friend was really cute !
She also asked MomImThristy, but that man didn't like entrails, apparently. It wasn't his fault, entrails are a bit stronger in taste and it's normal for most people not to eat entrails. Very few French people eat them.
Still, MomImThristy thanked her for the lilly of the valley and reciprocated with a bag of sugar. It seemed that guy was the type to find sweet things in chests, but no savory ones.
He also gave her all the wood he had gathered today, which was more than 2,100 units ! He said it was to thank her for everything she had given him. Sandrine snickered a bit, thinking about what his reaction would be when she would send him the pots and fertilizer…
Sandrine started cooking by washing the potatoes and cutting them into chunks as wide as two thumbs, then poured a bit of olive oil on them as well as salt, then put them in a dish and slid the whole thing in the wooden stove after lighting a fire. While this was cooking, she fed every pet, made some water boil, and put the asparagus she had harvested today in the forest inside the water after cleaning them. She made sure the thick stems were at the bottom and the tender tips were above the water, cooking only with the vapor. This way the whole asparagus would be cooked seamlessly.
After that, Sandrine took out a pan, oiled it with olive oil, and put it on the stove top.
Once the oil was hot, she put on the liver pieces. She sprinkled a bit of salt and Provence herbs on top, and once the bottom was cooked to a deep brown, she flipped the pieces and sprinkled once again the cooked parts.
Sandrine then took out two beautiful plates, and filled them with the liver, the asparagus, and the potatoes, adding the meat juice from the pan on top as seasoning.
[84jojo84 : Done. Thanks for the meat]
[AlphaWolf : It smells so good ! Bro, you're so good at cooking, you're husband material af !]
Sandrine laughed and rolled her eyes. What husband material ? Are only spouses supposed to cook well ?
MomImThristy didn't like liver, but Sandrine still sent him a few roasted potatoes and asparagus. It would be unfair if he was the only one without anything, and she knew he likes vegetables, so the asparagus should suit his taste.
After that, she took out her table and ate her plate. The taste of liver cooked so simply was amazing. The meat was fresh, with the strong taste of entrails not diminished, but linked with the olive oil and the Provence herbs into a pure taste of South East France, as if Sandrine could feel the Mistral wind and the warm sunlight, and smell the scent of lavender and olive trees. It was good, but more than that it had soul.
Sandrine would probably never again feel that the cans provided by the game were fancy. None could come close to this simple thing she had cooked.
After dinner and cleaning up, Sandrine once again took out Little clever's book collection and chose another illustrated story. Like yesterday, she was sitting next to Paquerette with Gribouille on her knees, but now there were two new additions, two curious birds who had cautiously come out of the coop and were now perched on Sandrine's shoulders.
The book tonight was titled 'Ronron, the firefighter dragon'. Once again, when Sandrine opened the book, it revealed beautiful watercolor illustrations, and an interesting story.
"Ronron always had a big dream. Bigger than his maman who was as tall as a house. Bigger than his papa who was as tall as a mountain. Ronron's dream was to be a firefighter, like the heroes he saw on his little tv."
Once again, the story was incredibly lovely, and with a good lesson. Ronron was a dragon and breathed fire, his family told him that it was impossible to become a firefighter. But after some shenanigans, Ronron learns to breathe in the fire instead of breathing it out, saving his family from a fire they had started, and becoming an honorary firefighter until he grew big enough to be one for real.
It was a lesson about perseverance and following your dreams. Even if destiny seems against you, you can always find a way to make your dreams a reality.
Sandrine read with a steady voice, trying to input all the emotions of the characters and make the story engaging. She wasn't really proficient, but she really liked these bonding moments. And, she had to admit, the drawings really were amazing.
Gribouille was completely focused, as if he had waited for this moment all day, his little tail wagging so hard that Sandrine had to hold him lest he fell off her knees. Compared to him, the birds seemed a bit too dumb to understand what a story was. Their eyes were just attracted to the movements of Sandrine's fingers following the text and pointing to the related characters in the illustrations.
As for Paquerette, maybe she was the one who seemed to understand the book the best. Not only did she watch the drawings, she also followed the story as Sandrine was reading, as if trying to match the letters with their pronunciation.
At least it looked that way.
After the story, Sandrine kissed her pets good night, put everyone to bed, and only then did she lay down herself, bound by the splinters as usual, burrowed under her covers.
Today was a good day.