The children's books from Little clever's book collection seemed to have a magical power to calm Sandrine down. She wasn't in an ideal state, of course, her legs still felt a bit weak, but after reading the story to her pets, Sandrine felt way better.
She stayed seated for a while, pairing fruits and cheese from her platters. She had had the fruit and cheese platters for a while and without a fridge, some were starting to go bad. The strawberries particularly had some black spots, overly ripe. They went quite well with some fresh cheese that also needed to be eaten, like sheep and goat cheeses. The goat's crottin went really well with strawberries. For the comté, Sandrine preferred to eat it with apples, and the cantal with pears. She didn't prefer the emmental, but it was somewhat good with yellow melon, and the little red currants, very sour, were a nice palate cleanser in between cheeses. As for camembert, Sandrine didn't like it with fruits, she preferred it with smoked ham or lomo, any type of salted charcuterie cut in thin slices.
With her belly full and her heart healed by watercolor illustrations, Sandrine felt finally well enough to do what she needed to do : Open the chests.
First, those from the side of the road. As usual, there was nothing interesting inside, mostly bread and water bottles. However, one she opened had a boar as a danger ! She killed it quickly and happily sent it to AlphaWolf, the guy would have more meat to make charcuterie. Inside that chest, there was a lot of fuel, so she sent it too.
Then, she opened the wooden chests from the offroad event. There was nothing particularly impressive inside : vehicle upgrade materials, food, pots, seeds, fertilizer, water collectors, vehicle upgrade fragments, vehicle expansion card, vehicle repair card, custom vehicle card, and the one she had suffered from today, the duel card.
As soon as she saw it, Sandrine wanted to throw it away. It made her nauseous. But this was way too convenient and could be used in an emergency, so she couldn't really give it away, she had to keep it.
Anyway, all the wooden chests were open, now was time to take out the big guns.
Sandrine opened both metal chests. Inside were some more fruit and cheese platters, a fishing net, a calming cream, and riding pants blueprint.
The last two were those targeted for her.
[Calming cream : Skin inflamed ? Spent too much time in water and now your fingers are bloated ? Put on a little bit of this calming cream to turn back to your original baby skin ! After applying, protect your skin from any status effect for 12 hours]
Another one of those miraculous medicines. Sandrine immediately put it in her backpack.
"Looks like the only thing left is the golden chest !"
Sandrine didn't hesitate and undid the latch.
[Linked item upgrade card, VR fight set]
Only two things ? Those must be good then ! Sandrine first took the linked item upgrade card. It could allow her to upgrade one of her linked items. For now she had only two, the backpack or her tamer's pitchfork. Both were useful for her, the backpack contained all her wealth, and the pitchfork was her principal weapon and gave her bonuses passively.
Ultimately, Sandrine decided to use the card on the pitchfork. She had suffered way too much today, and had understood how weak she was. She definitely needed more ways to defend herself.
She used the card, and it unlocked the list of materials needed to upgrade the pitchfork. It really looked like those things the other players described in the server chat, when they had enough vehicle upgrade fragments and they could unlock the materials needed to upgrade.
[Upgrade materials : Hidden condition (Fulfilled) Upgrade the Tamer job once, Hidden condition (Fulfilled) Make a pet evolve once, wood x50, metal x50)
Easy enough, she had all the materials and the hidden conditions were already fulfilled. It hurt Sandrine's heart to use wood when she needed it so much, but she didn't hesitate and pushed for the upgrade.
White light enveloped her pitchfork, and when it disappeared, it looked more mysterious, more mystic, with strange patterns shining in light blue all over the handle.
[Tamer's evolved pitchfork : Exclusive to the Tamer job. Linked to the player, evolves with them. Can change forms. When wielding it, Strength +2, Constitution +1. When taking care of pets, Agility +3]
Sandrine frowned. Not much had changed in the description, except for the 'evolved' added to the name, just like the splinters she used, which were named 'evolved' splinters. Had they been upgraded ?
Also, it said that the tamer's pitchfork would evolve with her, but Sandrine hadn't seen it for now.
Anyway, it said that now it could change forms ?
Sandrine took the pitchfork and thought about an axe. Immediately, the tool became shorter, stubbier, a strange light blue shimmer covering it, until it became an axe.
"Cool !"
With this, she didn't need any other tool ! As long as Sandrine had her pitchfork, she had everything she needed. And she would have bonuses while wielding it ! Truly great.
She put the pitchfork away and focused on the other thing she had gotten. The VR fight set was just as awesome.
The item looked like a normal VR headset, but it could allow someone to fight imaginary enemies in order to improve their movements. With this, Sandrine could train efficiently and raise her speed. She had always struggled with this despite her high agility stat, because she was more focused on balance and dexterity, she needed to train more in speed. This gave her the perfect tool to do this.
She also lacked decision making power during a crisis. For example, when the cement mixer truck fell over and continued to slide towards the black mist, Sandrine could have gotten out using the passenger window and run out of the truck before it reached the black mist. It was possible with her agility. But instead, she had stayed frozen in place, watching death approaching while holding Gribouille.
Thankfully, the vehicle stopped before reaching the black fog, otherwise she would be dead.
Anyway, she really needed this thing, she lacked experience in crisis management. The golden chest really lived up to its reputation.
Now with all rewards taken care of, Sandrine organised her inventory and sent the pots and seeds to MomImThristy. The guy would probably freak out again, it was fun to imagine. As for the numerous vehicle cards she had just gotten, she distributed them equally with the ones she had gotten prior, making sure each of them got what they needed.
She tried to trade more bread for wood, but curiously, there weren't a lot of people accepting it tonight. Did someone catch onto the fact that she was buying wood ? But she had been very discreet and asked her friends to trade for it, she didn't think someone would notice. Or maybe the food was the problem ?
Sandrine searched on the trade tab and found that food was going away quickly as usual, but there was a lot more of it tonight. Had the first harvests started ?
She nodded to herself and finalised a few trades before closing her game screen and finishing cleaning up her inventory. When everything was organised, Sandrine felt so tired.
"I just want to go to sleep… But there are only two days left for the newbie protection period, I have a lot to do !"
If she wanted to maximize her gains, she needed to use her owned blueprints and craft a lot of umbrellas, so that she could sell them as soon as it started raining. She also had the water purificator blueprint. Contrary to the water collector who collected water from the air, the water purifier needed water input into it, that was why Sandrine didn't craft it earlier. But now, since it was going to rain, it was the perfect time to craft them in order to sell them on the first day of the new season.
In short, Sandrine had some work to do.
Well, it was just about putting materials on the crafting table and pushing a button with her mind, she didn't even need arms. So she put on her splinters, she still needed to heal her wounds from today, and finished her beers while regularly inputting more materials into the crafting table.
It would have been great if this could be automatized. But for now, she had to press the button each time. It was tedious work, it numbed the mind, but it was perfect since she didn't feel well today and needed to numb her thoughts.
When it started to get really late and all her pets were asleep, Sandrine finally stopped and went to bed.
The next day was, once again, the roadside opening event. This time, the trees seemed less towering than before, but there were a lot more lush bushes. Sandrine would probably find a lot more berries today.
But since she didn't know many and wasn't an expert at identifying them, she wouldn't go back with much.
After walking for a bit, Sandrine found a river coursing through the forest. The water was very clear, transparent, with visible fishes getting carried by the current. Sandrine had just gotten a fishing net yesterday, this was a good occasion.
"We'll eat fish tonight !"
Sandrine didn't really know how to fish, but she could use ropes to fix each end of the fishing net to a side of the shore, completely blocking the way for fishes. That way, the current would keep bringing fishes to the net.
"Let's do it that way and come back when we have the chests."
After making sure the fishing net was placed securely, Gribouille once again used his nose to guide the group towards the chests. Today, they were placed along the river, hidden either on the shore underneath the rocks, or directly in the water, hidden by plants or tree roots.
Of course, each of them was guarded by monsters or traps. Paquerette almost fell victim to one of them when the ground crumbled under her hooves, and she almost fell into a deep pit covered in spikes. Thankfully, she stopped in time, only her front legs were dangling in the air. Sandrine had to use a rope to tie it around the mare's chest, pass it around a solid tree, and then pull with all her strength to get Paquerette back on solid ground.
She almost pulled a muscle, but it looked like her high strength stat was showing results.
Naturally, they got even more careful afterwards. They dodged barbed arrows, avoided traps, defeated wild animals and herds of attackers, and when finally they approached the golden chest, hidden under a waterfall, AlphaWolf had already received enough animal corpses to be busy for a week.
"Getting under the waterfall won't be easy. It looks like the current is strong, we could be pulled under the water if we aren't careful."
Of course, this was for a normal person. With their high stats, Sandrine and Paquerette probably wouldn't be in any danger. But since overconfidence had already taught her a tough lesson, now Sandrine was careful.
Just as she was pondering, Sandrine smelled a putrid odor of decomposition and slime, something that had grown increasingly familiar.
"Oh, you're finally there ! I was wondering where you went…"
Sandrine turned around with a smile but froze when she saw the boss. It looked even more disgusting than the ones prior. It was an enormous boar, as tall as a house, with its greasy fur moving like tentacles, and slimy black goo flowing from its mouth, nose, and ears. Its eyes were wide and cloudy, with black capillaries as if his blood itself had been corrupted by the black fog. Its spine was bent at an odd angle, with crooked legs and deformed but incredibly long tusks.
It was grotesque.
Sandrine wrinkled her nose, even though a smile had bloomed on her lips. A thing like that, she didn't even want to touch it with a stick.
"Let's get this over with. It's the last day of the offroad event, I want to make the most of it."
She took out her pitchfork just as the creature started to scream, the sound imitating a human screaming in death. The smell of its breath, full of putrefaction and corruption carried towards Sandrine.
"Hugh… Have you never heard about brushing your teeth ?"
Then it charged towards her, its body so heavy it made the earth shake.
It was fast, but not faster than Sandrine. She easily dodged at the last moment and stabbed it a few times in passing. She thought she could do a hit-and-run tactic just like with the bear boss, but to her surprise the boar suddenly whipped its head around, its enormous tusks heading for her throat.
"Shit !"
Sandrine instinctively raised her pitchfork and, in front of her shocked eyes, it became a shield !
The tusk hit the shield violently, making Sandrine fall backwards a few steps. Her arms were shaking because of the impact.
"Great ! I'm really such a lucky gal !"
Well, the lucky ones were probably those who had never been wounded since the beginning of the death game, not her, but Sandrine avoided thinking about those guys, lest she become really mad.
Having failed its sneak attack, the boar screamed in anger and charged her again. Same tactic, but this time Sandrine dodged right after stabbing her pitchfork, avoiding the tusks. Now, the boss had several gaping wounds on the side, one for each tooth of the two pitchfork attacks. It wouldn't last long.
Indeed, the boar was tough and stubborn, but it couldn't keep running around with its insides pierced and its blood flowing out. After a dozen minutes, it fell on its knees but still whipped its head around to try and impale Sandrine on its tusks. After another dozen minutes, it didn't have the strength to even do that.
Sandrine changed her pitchfork into a machete and slit its throat. Thankfully she had the pitchfork upgrade, or she would have had a bad time !
After this ordeal, she dove under the waterfall and discovered a hidden cave. There was the golden chest, but also signs showing that the boss had slept here, with its bedding covered in goo, and half eaten vegetables laying on the rocky floor. Searching around, she once again found a strange shiny glass bead in the boss' bedding. It looked like a galaxy was contained within, very mystical.
It was the second time she had seen one, the first was in the bear's lair. She still had this nagging feeling that she needed it, so she took it in her backpack.
On the way back, Sandrine gathered a few blackberries, some wild carrots, and then headed back towards the fishing net. She discovered with great happiness that she had caught five fishes ! Two were very big and the rest were small, but this was still a good harvest. It was too bad she didn't have the necessary tools, or she would have made some fish soup or rouille. Even some bouillabaisse would have been great !
Anyway, she would do with what she had.
She gathered the fishing net, changed her pitchfork into a knife, and killed the fishes directly next to the water. The boss was already dead and they were not far from the infinite road. The smell of blood wouldn't bring any dangerous animals.
She slit the fishes' bellies from the base of the tail to the top of their abdomen, and slid her thumb inside to take out the entrails, washing the hollowed fish in the river and descaling it.
When everything was done, she cleaned up everything, rounded her gains, and looked at the time. It was still early, so she took out her foldable shower and had a good time bathing herself and her pets.
The first season was coming. Maybe it was the last moment of leisure they could afford.