The next day.

Almost everyone woke up with a hangover.

The girls moved around like zombies, looking for water to drink.

Of course, some remained unfazed by drinking, some abstained, and some weren't allowed to consume any, so their day-to-day life wasn't that impacted.

Axel woke up the earliest as usual and had already finished what he promised. He went around, placing the ballista and crossbows into his inventory, repairing them, before replenishing the dwindling stock of bolts.

After that, he made a two-stage walk-in cold storage facility right beside the tenement housing, designing it with wrought iron outside and stainless steel inside.

The design was a bit complicated for the inner part, as he made it like a floating cube suspended by non-heat-conductive material. The space between the two sections was then turned into a vacuum, limiting the heat loss further. It was the same principle that was used for thermos bottles.

After that, he placed about a ton of solid ice at the furthest back, making a primitive refrigerator. Inside, he filled it with fresh meat and vegetables and other processed goods that needed refrigeration.

The space right outside of it was to store things like grains that didn't really need to be refrigerated to be preserved. Still, since it's connected to the freezer, the air around them was chilled.

And just like that, before the morning sun even rose, his job was completed.

[Eight days of survival! That's a new record!]

Soon enough, Navi came to bug him.

"Enough with empty praises, just go to my daily rewards." Axel rushed him. "What do I get today?"

[Well, not that I mind... Your reward for today is another system upgrade! Badum, tiss~! It's Housing Auto-Crafting!]

Axel paused, glaring at Navi for a moment. Then he checked the Housing Panel and figured out what Auto-Crafting meant... and just as he predicted, it's to make the buildings automatically the moment he bought them, but costing him mana!

"And you give me this after I finished all the buildings we need, huh... great." He couldn't help but grumble.

The timing was as if Navi was waiting for it to deal the most "mental" damage to Axel! Still, he didn't let it get to his head. He remained calm.

After all, this was still a convenient function for later on if he's planning to expand their camp further.

"Still, I wish it were instant crafting for the Concoction Tab instead." He added, a little disappointed.

After all, when he tried using the tab yesterday, he was greatly disappointed.

The crafting was done "in a virtual world" based on his current laboratory, where a "copy of Axel" was doing the exact process he did in reality. It's like replaying a video, but that video is actually making the items whenever it completes one playthrough!

Of course, that means the crafting time was the same as how long it took him to actually finish crafting the potions—way too slow!

But what's worse is that it could only craft items one at a time.

You can't craft two kinds at the same time. You can't queue them either. It was so inconvenient at present that Axel was hoping it could get better soon!

[Well, upgrades are random, so I can't do anything about it~!]

Navi shrugged, looking smug about it.

Axel, for one, didn't believe it was random at all. However, he didn't have any proof to prove his suspicions, so he could only let it go for now.

If he found proof that everything was by Navi's intent, he was more than prepared to burn the little fucker on a stake for revenge!

...

"You're heading to the Miles River?"

Back at the camp's center, Axel announced his itinerary for today to the girls. Not everyone, since only Arianne, Eve, Teruria, and Cherry were present at the moment.

The rest were already doing their tasks at the workshop after finishing breakfast.

"Yes," Axel nodded to Arianne's words. "That was the main reason we scouted it out the previous day, after all."

Checking the map, no other red blips came on the path from the camp to the river, meaning it should be safe to head there now.

And while he's at it, he also plans to finish his quest in one go.

Having access to flowing water would definitely be a big plus later down the road, after all.

"As for the soap, I've already checked earlier. The quality is good, so you can continue as is. Or maybe even expand to other products if you want." He added.

Actually, Axel was shocked when he checked the soap quality. Although he did prepare the best materials for them, the item they got was still high-quality enough to be worthy of being sold to royalty! That was way above what he expected!

'Who would've thought they'd be able to make level 3 soaps on their first try?'

Not only that, but he could tell that the level of soap for the later batches was increasing. Meaning, their soap-making skill was getting better the more they made! In fact, the latest batch, despite not being done drying yet, was already level 5!

'Leaving the workshop to them should be fine.' He nodded.

"S-Sir Axel..." Just as he was deep in his own world, Eve's voice reached his ears. "Could I tag along with you today?" she asked.

"Huh? Eve will?"

Axel turned to Arianne, who quickly smiled wryly as if reading his mind.

"Sorry, Sir Axel. I'm unable to accompany you today. I have other business to attend to."

"I see." Axel smiled, nodding in understanding. "Then, Teruria..."

When Axel turned to her, the little witch quickly averted her gaze. Her face was flushed, and she was still unable to meet Axel's eyes. The events of the night before were still fresh in her mind.

Seeing her like that, Axel could only give up.

"Guess it's only me and Eve going then?" He shrugged.

He didn't need to ask Cherry, as she was probably the busiest of all. After all, she was now in charge of managing the food in the freezer Axel just made: regulating entry and exit, inventory of the food, ensuring it doesn't get flooded by the melting ice, and so on. Her task list was quite long!

Thus, for today's outing, only two of them would be coming.

But if he knew what was waiting for them at the river, he'd definitely insist on bringing someone else with them.

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