Aethelgard: The Survival Game (Chloe) novel Chapter 19

Chapter 19 A Bountiful Harvest

After the brilliance of the Golden Chest, the items that spilled out of the Silver Chests, Bronze Chests, and Wooden Loot Chests felt far less dazzling.

The blueprints and items that dropped were all of Premium quality, not even reaching Rare.

Still, the day’s total haul was staggering. What Chloe had pulled in on this third day of the novice period outweighed everything she’d collected in the previous two days combined.

A sudden rush of new–wealth euphoria washed over her.

Now that she finally had a moment to breathe, Chloe set to work sorting through everything: the fish she’d caught that afternoon, the spoils from the High–Level Slime, and the chests dropped by the other mutant monsters.

The ground around her was riddled with craters and gouges. She wanted to take her hoe and smooth them all flat, but there simply wasn’t enough time.

Her first step was to list her spare matches and the Nightstalker Tent on the Trading Post.

The Trading Post was packed with players and served as the single public hub for the entire server, which meant messages drowned fast.

The built–in search index helped, but it had a frustrating time lag. More often than not, by the time she found a listing, the seller had already traded the item away.

There was no helping it, though. As she sorted her supplies, she remembered the Slime Slayer title she’d earned during the fight.

She opened the title to check its effects: [Slime Slayer: While this title is equipped, ‘Slime Slayer‘ will be displayed as an identifier on the Trading Post, making your messages far more prominent.

[Additionally, the title holder deals 10% increased damage against Slimes and can more easily target their weak points.]

The effect was fantastic, and it made her trades stand out. Chloe equipped it immediately.

The moment she did, the identifier automatically appended itself to her name on every trade message she’d posted earlier.

Chloe the Slime Slayer: [Selling matches, Nightstalker Tent, Adept Carpentry Tome, 5L Fresh Water, and Premium Blueprint: Coarse Burlap Loom.

[Will trade for basic materials, Premium basic materials, or any materials with magical properties such as Slime Ooze or Slime Essence. DM me if interested.]

Chloe the Slime Slayer: [Priority given to Arcane Workbench Upgrade Tome. DM me if interested.]

She decided to trade away every blueprint she’d pulled from the chests.

The Adept Carpentry Tome and the Coarse Burlap Loom blueprint were things she could technically use herself, but she already had too many high–level blueprints to manage.

What she needed now was to double down on her strengths and acquire items better suited to her: plant cultivation tools, magic–related Skill Tomes, and magic–related blueprints.

She’d considered whether she should hide her magic proficiency and lie low. But after mulling it over, she decided she couldn’t let fear stop her from moving forward.

Her talent meant she had to collect more magical materials to grow stronger. Her high–level magic talent could actually serve as her calling card.

At the very least, anyone who came across magical materials would think of her first. Whether they offered fair price or tried to gouge her, she could take her time evaluating each potential trade partner.

It would save her the effort of hunting the

Successfully unlocked!

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Chapter 19 A Bountiful Harvest

She’d already noticed that magical resources were selling for extremely low prices, since so few players had magic talents.

The moment her message hit the Trading Post, the whole channel erupted.

After all, it was only the third day of the novice period. Most players were still struggling at the basic survival line, barely scraping by.

Plenty of them were still on the channel every day trying to trade water and food. Premium wood was out of the question. Even Common wood was beyond some players, who couldn’t scrape together fifty units of basic materials to save their lives.

To the average player, Chloe’s request for Premium materials looked indistinguishable from cheating.

WindWalker: [Are we even playing the same game as this pro? So many Premium blueprints, and a Premium Skill Tome too.]

NoMoreBadLuck: [Damn. I just used medicine today to heal my injuries.

[Finally got my hands on a weapon and some food, even picked up a campfire blueprint, and I was feeling like my life finally had some hope. Has this pro already reached that kind of level?]

MintyGrass: [I want a Premium Skill Tome and a Coarse Burlap Loom.]

BIN: [What’s a Premium blueprint?]

DamnltAll: [Poor soul, you don’t even know what a Premium blueprint is? Items have quality tiers, you know. So far I only know about Common, Premium, and Rare. A friend told me that.

[It’s day three and I just got lucky and grabbed my first Premium item. I’ve never even seen a Skill Tome. This pro is incredible, already sitting on extra Premium blueprints.]

BerryBear: [What’s a Slime anyway? Sounds seriously tough.]

Rich DragonWolf: [Aren’t Slimes supposed to be easy to kill? I’ve killed a whole bunch. At noon you don’t even have to do anything, just hook a Slime with your fishing line and leave it under the sun. It dies on its own.

[How come I don’t have the Slime Slayer title? Also, what’s Slime Ooze even used for? I’ve got a huge pile of it.]

The Trading Post had blown up, but Chloe paid it no mind.

She might have a lot of blueprints, but her basic material stockpile was relatively thin. She had the plans but not the resources to build half of them.

She was certain there were far more players lurking in the shadows than she imagined. If there weren’t, her ranking on the Lifestyle Leaderboard wouldn’t have been so low after she’d built her wooden cabin and plush bed.

Combat players were plentiful too. Every fight dropped chests, and even if they were only Wooden Loot Chests, they added up fast. Plenty of people had pulled Common blueprints.

Chloe often saw players on the Trading Post offering clothes, blankets, vases, straw sandals.

She just hadn’t had the spare resources to trade for them, and her entire day had been packed too full to sift through the listings. She hadn’t dug any deeper.

But players with higher Strength, higher Endurance, and even more powerful talents than hers were definitely out there. She believed good items were bound to surface.

Chloe set to work filtering the flood of private messages pouring in.

They arrived in an endless stream. Some asked her directly what a Premium blueprint was. Some offered fifty logs for a blueprint. Others demanded to know how she’d gotten so many things.

Chloe ignored every message asking for information and blocked anyone who tried to lowball her outright. CarpenterSoul: [Hello, I’d like to trade for the Adept Carpentry Tome. Could you show me the description?]

This player’s name struck Chloe as vaguely familiar. She’d seen him before on the Trading Post, offering carpentry services and custom–carved wooden items.

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Chapter 19 A Bountiful Harvest

She didn’t hesitate and sent over the system description of the Adept Carpentry Tome.

Notification: [Adept Carpentry Tome: Contains all the experience and techniques amassed by a carpenter of the Solari Empire over thirty years.

[He once believed, with absolute and fervent devotion, that his carvings could bring forth miracles and restore the favor of the gods to the continent.

[Quality: Grand Premium. Upon use, rapidly master a wide range of Premium woodworking techniques and acquire extensive carpentry experience and knowledge.

[This includes, but is not limited to, the crafting of wooden beds, wooden furniture, wooden buildings, and even Divine Idols. Wood carving speed is significantly increased after use.]

The moment he read the skill tome’s description, CarpenterSoul didn’t waste a second.

CarpenterSoul: [I’ll take it. I’ll trade 300 units of Premium Wood, 100 Premium Ore, 10 Cubic Yard Soil Plots, 12 Treant Essence, plus a Wooden Buckler, a Wooden Fence, and a Wooden Bucket for the Adept Carpentry Tome.

[I’ll trade all of this for it. Deal?]

Chloe scanned the offer. ‘A very fair price, she thought. ‘But then again, that’s a life–skills player for you. They really can bring resources to the table!

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