61 First Progress - Metal 1 (1/2)
Back to his momentarily allocated bedroom, Zhang Wu Ji used his private time to went through the two blueprints given by his eldest brother, Zhang Wu Yuan. Based on the fact the two blueprints is directed to the Master Teacher as a present for his appearance in the event, Zhang Wu Ji suspects the blueprint to be extremely valuable, notably when Zhang Wu Yuan stated it can sustain them financially if sold.
First Grade Blueprint - Plateau Plantation Plate (Tool)
-Capacity: 10 Plants | Restriction: Tier 1 Only
-Usability: Once until plants withers | Fighter Qi Consumption Rate: 300 Strands / Monthly
-Durability: 14/14 | Quality: First-Grade Complete Blueprint
-Information: Designed for the benefits of harvesting high-quality plants, the Plateau Plantation Plate is produced to be able to endure one complete stage of the plants. They're created in order to adjust the difficulties of a specific area that was challenging for any plantation to grow.
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Ingredient Required:
(100 KG) Charcoal Powder
(100 KG) Mineral Powder
(100 KG) Fertile Soil
(100 KG) Water soaked Soil
”No wonder eldest brother said the blueprint can be sold for a hefty price. With this Plateau Plantation Plate, even if the land is filled with contaminated substances or blanketed with snow all year long, the plantation can continue to grow everywhere as long it was supplied with ample amount of Fighter Qi.”
”The usability of this item is only once, but that is more than enough for the unfortunate county without a proper land to grow any vegetations. Plus, the required ingredient to craft this item is easy to obtain, making it worth the hassle to prepares the Plateau Plantation Plate to start cultivating precious medicinal materials.” Zhang Wu Ji speaks his mind as he measures the quality of this blueprint in his hand.
Putting this aside to somewhere else, Zhang Wu Ji unroll the next blueprint given by his eldest brother.
First Grade Blueprint - Master Huang's Fighter Crossbow (Incomplete)
-Damage: 102 Points | Fighter Qi Consumption Rate: 35
-Capacity: 15 shots | Usage: Disposable Weapon
-Durability: 12/12 | Quality: First-Grade Incomplete Product
-Information: Designed by the well-known Master Archer, Huang Zhong Wei. The Fighter Crossbow carries 15 bolts in their magazine and comes with a Fighter Qi operated drawstring. Because the Blueprint is incomplete, the weapon carries a 70% failure rate and 60% destroy rate when used.
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Ingredient Required:
(12) Solid Oak Wood
(8) Advance-Quality Iron Bead
(2) Hamstring from Blast Fire Ape
”Again... This is my second weapon blueprints. But according to the information given, this blueprint is incomplete, so how can I craft them...” Zhang Wu Ji is scratching his head for a moment thinking about the long period he needed to repair and refine the blueprints before he can begin with the production.
”I'll just go ahead an... Wait!”
” Why did I forget about my ability to Create Blueprints! My ability says that I can [Create / Upgrade / Amend / Recycle] on the blueprints I have, so why don't I try to create one on my own?” Zhang Wu Ji remembered his own perks given by the [UPGRADE] system, and knock his head twice for being so forgetful.
”I'm always like this... Remembered all the other stuff inside the library, but forget that I need a toilet paper when I went to the toilet. Zhang Wu Ji... Zhang Wu Ji... When will you change and stop being so forgetful?” he scolds himself for focusing his stuff at something else, and always forget about his own needs.
”What should I design?”
”An airplane? Nope, too big of a task, not to mention the material is required is going to kill me before I'm able to craft it.” Zhang Wu Ji thought of something extremely convenient before he throws away that idea. Pondering about what he should create out of the blue, Zhang Wu Ji looks around for his inspiration.
Suddenly, an idea came up in his mind.
”Tools! I need the miners to increase the output of their Mineral Ore collections but based on the numbers they're providing, it was incredibly low for a city. I should go to inspect how they mine the rocks on the mountain!” Zhang Wu Ji found his motivation to start creating a blueprint.
Without delaying further, he dresses in a proper attire before he went out in the night to the western side of the Wen Wu City. Riding the Qiyue Flying Sword, Zhang Wu Ji's traveling speed is faster than riding a horse. It only took him about an hour to reach the location where the miners are still working.
Knowing that he might scare the miners with his sudden arrival, Zhang Wu Ji purposely stop not too far from the entrance to the mine and keep his Qiyue Flying Sword away from the public eyes. With a calm demeanor, Zhang Wu Ji steps forward and greets the worker that moving the mineral ores into the Horse-Drawn Cart.
”This brother,Can you please show me with the way to the supervisor's office?” Zhang Wu Ji cupped his hand together as he greets the worker. Based on his attire, Zhang Wu Ji can be said to look like a young debauchee, but his manner says otherwise.
”I can bring you there, but I have to finish my task before I can leave.” the worker pointed at the mineral ores in his small trolley. It seems that he will have to finish transferring the ores into the Horse-Drawn Cart before he can leave to do something else.
He smiled and came close to the worker and started to help him to move the mineral ores. After spending about ten minutes of time together, the moving completed. Leading the way toward the inner side of the mine, the duo reaches the building made from timber and metal sheets nailed together.
”Head Miner Yang, this young master is looking for a supervisor.” the worker greets his supervisor and pointed atZhang Wu Ji. Lack of the news related to the outside world, the Head Miner Yang is uninformed with Zhang Wu Ji's appearance.
He cupped his hand together to greet the youth, but instead of inviting the youth for a seat, he asked him directly for the reason to come here. In his mind, a young master like this youth should be busy entertaining themselves inside a brothel or restaurant, why bother to come here to get themselves dirtied by the ashes from the mining and smelling the sulfur gases?
”Greetings to Head Miner Yang. This junior is Zhang Wu Ji, the Ninth Disciple of the Headmaster of Seven Star Sect, Lord of Seven Swords Liang Tian. I am here to ask for head miner's opinion in a few questions related to the miner's equipment and also the concerning matter to mine in this Western Mountain area.” Zhang Wu Ji introduced himself.
The introduction was simple, but for a person that did not mind his manner earlier was given a shock to almost death. How can a youth like Zhang Wu Ji be a direct disciple of the Headmaster of Seven Star Sect? Plus, given with his humble and polite attitude, it was much scarier than a youth that shows all his overbearing attitude whenever he goes.
”This... This fellow name Yang is extremely impolite to the Master Senior, please accept this fellow's apology.” he quickly bowed and half kneeled on the ground, afraid that Zhang Wu Ji will take this kind of manner offensively.
”Head Miner Yang, please stand up, save the menial ceremonies aside. I wonder if Head Miner Yang can help this junior with his request?” Zhang Wu Ji used both hands to bring Head Miner Yang back on his feet. He repeated his question one more time to see how will the Head Miner Yang will reply.
”Master Senior, I hate to say this kind of word, but the tool of the miner has been going for over a hundred years of same design and usage, I'm afraid there is nothing much we can offer an opinion. Plus, the tools we're using for the mining process did not go through any drastic changes, I'm afraid the workers cannot get used to it to have some new equipment coming in suddenly.” the Head Miner explained the situation to him.
In a different perspective, his word is more similar to the conveniences and familiarized with their ancestor's culture.
Because the method of the people followed here is a lower cost Open-Pit mining method, the miners scale the mountain in order to begin their mining process. Through this method, the thousand and over miners work together to be scale the mountain from one part to another, slowly taking down the whole Mineral Mountain before moving to another target.
Through this method, the requirement of having a better tool to mine under darkness and protection from poisonous fumes is removed. This method may restrict their time to start and finish mining, but it is much safer than the normal convention mining technique.
Altogether, their number of tools is only five different items. The Mining Pick, which looks like a crowbar with a longer sharper edge. Next is the Mineral Trolley, sometimes similar to the Cement Trolley in his former world, but made completely with wood and much bigger than a normal one he'd seen in his own world. The third equipment is the Horse-Drawn Cart, a bigger cart with the capacity of close to 1.5 tonnes.
The fourth Item is the ten water mills that were used to separates any unnecessary remains such as gravels and soils from the ore before transferring them to the Horse-Drawn Cart. Lastly, is the Breaker Tool, operated by people with a little higher cultivation level due to their weight. The Breaker is only operated when the mining ends up with having mineral ores that were too strong for their stone pick to break.
”Do you have an additional Stone Pick that I can use?” Zhang Wu Ji requested.
”Sure, we have over ten Stone Pick stored below the mountain, just go ahead and do what you want, be careful during the testing session because sometimes some mineral ores do not come out from the first strike.” the Head Miner Yang pointed at the mountain his miners is scaling at the moment, and let Zhang Wu Ji to personally experience the difficulties in mining for ores.
Recycled-Alloy Stone Pick
-Composition: 14% Copper / 31% Pure Iron / 41% Silica / 2% Silver / 2% Kaolin Clay
-Attack: 3 (+1 point when used in breaking solid rocks)
-Defense: 0
-Durability: 7/9 (Durability Doubled when using mainly to mine mineral ores)
”Oh my god... They're using a complete trash for mining works. No wonder the number of mineral ores delivered to the city is so limited. If this kind of situation continues, won't the Wen Wu City remain as the weakest city among the three cities inside of the Seven Star County?”
Zhang Wu Ji holds five of the Stone Pick in one hand, and another tightly gripped with his right arm. Walking closer to the mineral mountain, Zhang Wu Ji took a strong leap and appeared on top of the mountain in a split moment. With a strong strike on the mountain, Zhang Wu Ji took down an estimated 1kg worth of mineral ores from it, but the durability of the Stone Pick reduced by 1 point already.
Looking at the others react as they stare at him, Zhang Wu Ji understands the reason they reacted in such a way. Although his method allows him to get a kilogram worth of mineral ores, it exhausts the Stone Pick immediately. If the miner followed the way he mines for the ores, they might instead carry over ten to twenty Stone Pick before they started to mine for the mineral ores.
Holding on the mineral ores he mined with a strong grip, Zhang Wu Ji tossed the ores one after another into the Small Trolley provided to him earlier. With perfect accuracy, Zhang Wu Ji deposited all of them back into the trolley before he continues with his earlier task.
With six Stone Pick in total, their total durability worth 39 points. Using only thirty-nine heavy strikes, Zhang Wu Ji destroyed the six Stone Pick in his hand before he ends his mining effort. By the time he left the mineral mountain, a deep hole has been scaled by his heavy attack.
Zhang Wu Ji next inspects the Small Trolley provided to him.
Recycled-Alloy Ore Trolley