Just as Axel returned to the camp, taking his sweet time walking, a new pop-up appeared before him. Navi, along with it, began doing a victory dance while holding two folding fans in each of his flippers... using whatever witchcraft it was that let flippers hold a fan.
[Congratulations, contractor! You have successfully cleared the quest: Expanding the Camp! Rewards have been sent to your inventory and shop wallet. Please confirm whenever you like~!]
"This fast?" Axel raised a brow before quickly opening the system panel.
The first thing he checked was his Colts balance.
Right now, combining all his expenses and earnings, he had 96,000 Colts remaining. He even used the healing potion from the emergency medical supply he got. Essentially, he recouped all his investments with a profit! A brief smile crossed his lips before he quickly wiped it away.
"Next is the item rewards..."
In his previous quest, the random items gave him a longsword and a breastplate, which he was currently wearing. For his second quest, however, he should be getting ten random items, so he couldn't wait to confirm what he randomly got.
"Hmm... Huh?"
And checking it out, he found that a variety of things were gathered. Of the ten, six were defensive gear, while the other four were weapons.
The defensive gear was varied. There was a pair of gauntlets, greaves, pants, a breastplate, a helmet, and even epaulets. Just like the previous breastplate he got, all of it was of a simple, colorless design, without insignias or anything drawn on it.
But that wasn't what surprised him. Rather, it was the four weapons. Curious, he quickly withdrew the items and inspected them individually.
The first one was a simple spear with a metal shaft that was quite plain but had a few engraved decorations. It was about half a meter longer than his wooden spears, making it quite hefty, considering that it was made fully of metal.
The second one was a crossbow.
In terms of defensive installations, crossbows usually would top the choices for soldier weapons. After all, it packed quite a punch and could be used regardless of the user's strength. However, of course, there were no bolts included with it. Only the crossbow itself was rewarded.
The third was another sword—a short sword, able to be wielded in one hand.
"Oh, this is better than the first sword."
Even Axel nodded along as he lifted it, swinging it around to test. It was more wieldy compared to the longsword but came with the caveat of shorter range and lighter overall weight. Well, it should be good enough to handle mere zombies, though.
However, what perplexed him the most was the fourth item.
"And... Navi, what the fuck is with this thing?" he asked the floating penguin idling around.
[Huh? What, you don't even know what a cannon is?]
The little penguin sarcastically answered back.
"I know what it is!" Axel growled in irritation. "I'm asking why it was rewarded as a weapon!"
Right. Before Axel was a cannon—the same ones that were usually seen on pirate ships in films. The kind that's loaded with a spherical metal ball along with a bag of gunpowder to shoot.
Navi, however, didn't seem as if he was willing to answer.
[Congratulations~! You just got an SR item~!]
"Fuck, there are rarities for the random items too?"
[Nope, there aren't. But there are smaller chances of randomly choosing newer weapons based on your world's timeline.]
"..."
Axel felt that Navi was completely making fun of him.
However, the explanation he gave did make sense. After all, he did manage to buy an LED floodlight from the shop too... albeit at a hefty cost.
"So I need to buy the charge and the load separately to use this, then?" Axel sighed. "This is a liability now rather than a tool..."
Checking the shop, a gunpowder pack that was compatible with his cannon cost 50,000 Colts a pack. The cannonball was cheaper at 2,000 Colts each. In short, each shot would cost him at least 52,000 Colts—extremely cost-inefficient!
"But..."
While looking at the cannon, a thought passed through Axel's head.
"If I could unlock the recipe for gunpowder and could craft the cannonball... couldn't I make them at an extremely low cost?!"
The dream was expanding! However—
[Yeah... that's only possible after you've unlocked Concoction first. And that's still far into the future~!]
Axel's mood quickly fell until he was frowning sourly. "Fuck. And you don't want to tell me how to unlock it faster, do you?" he grumbled.
[It wouldn't do you any good unlocking it early, so nope.]
"..."
For the nth time since yesterday, Axel felt like strangling the living hell out of this caricature penguin. If he could unlock the Concoction tab early, then it would only help him accelerate snowballing his earnings, but the fucking system spirit didn't seem to want that!
"...Alright." Axel sighed, calming his nerves a bit. "Then, what about bolts? Do you know the recipe for it?"
Bolts didn't seem to include a complicated structure, so he should be able to craft them easily. And to his surprise, the little penguin nodded.
[You just need one stick for one bolt!] it answered.
Following the recipe, Axel placed one stick in the middle of the crafting menu, then pressed craft. As soon as he did, he got a... stake.
"This doesn't look like a bolt, though?" he grumbled, glaring at the penguin.
Navi, however, answered briefly. [Wrong slot then~!]
Axel wanted to argue back but quickly shut up. It'd be faster if Navi just told him which slot to put the stick in to build a bolt, but he decided to just do a trial-and-error. There were only eight slots left to test, after all.
However, his decision led to a long series of trials and errors.
After testing all nine slots, none worked to build a bolt. Instead, he got various wooden pieces that he had no idea how to use at present.
[Wrong quantity~!]
And with the second clue given, and about 50+ failed attempts, Axel finally found the crafting recipe for the bolt—five sticks on any of the corner slots.
Axel sat on the dry ground, looking at the various wooden tools surrounding him, and shook his head, feeling empty. Then, casually, he thought:
'If this penguin messes with me again, I'll fucking use these stakes to nail him to the ground.'
Of course, he wasn't sure if he could do it, but the thought itself was enough of a stress relief for him.
"Sir Axel?"
And only when a worried voice called to him did he realize...
He had been doing all these things for a while, but he was still outside the barricade!