Chapter 34 Ultra-Hardened Stone

Several hours later, the sun was beginning to set again.

I felt as if the entire day had just flown by.

After all this, I was somewhat curious as to what the global rankings were.

-

[GLOBAL RANKINGS]

New-Gen Humans

1. Mackenzie Franklin - 2121

2. Noah Gait - 1445

3. Oliver Moran - 1398

4. Maia Keller - 1103

5. Rodeen Sadeghinad - 1032

~

[Your rank] #23

[Your Estimated Progression Score] - 823

-

It seemed I was moving up the ranks, albeit slowly. I still wasn't exactly sure what the Estimated Progression Score measured. Was it like a ranking of your level or maybe how capable you would be in combat? There was no way to know for sure.

I felt as if it was going to be more important in the future though. There was likely more to the global rankings than being purely cosmetic.

From just looking at the movement of the upper ranks, I realised that it was only going to get more difficult to claim the ranks. The gap between me and the top 5 appeared to be growing. I was surprised, especially because I had quite a resource-gathering-oriented system, granted it wasn't purely resource-gathering, unlike Chloe's.

I hoped that once I crafted the demon sword, my rank should increase somewhat.

I started to make my way back once I noticed that it was starting to get dark. In total, during the entire day, I had managed to gather seven pieces of [Ultra-hardened Stone]. It wasn't an insanely large amount but once I collected some from my Minions and Chloe, I should be well on the way to crafting the demonic sword.

However, on my way back, I remembered that I also needed to form a contract with the demon, I still wasn't exactly sure how to do that but there was a message which said I was allowed to initiate the contract-making process at any time.

I would deal with that once I was closer to gathering the necessary materials, this way, I would be able to face it with more strength, well, at least that's what I assumed it was going to test.

After several minutes, I arrived back at camp and was instantly approached by my Minion Manager.

[I've got the end-of-day report]

-

<End of Day Report>

Total resources gathered:

- [x1833] wood

- [x20] leaves

- [x51] meat

- [x458] rocks

- [x19] Ultra-Hardened Stone

- [x8] iron

- [x2] gold

Other:

- [x41] Scout Minions Crafted

- [x5] Minion huts built

~

At the moment, I had a total of 31 [Ultra-hardened Stone]. I was almost a third of the way to crafting the weapon, in a day or two, I should have collected enough.

I looked around the camp, it seemed that the mummies weren't around and neither was Chloe. I was somewhat curious as to what they were doing but it didn't really matter all that much. I wanted to see how much stone Chloe had collected on her expedition.

Since I was already here, I decided to set up for the night. I lit the fire with some wood and began cooking some meat. I assumed that the mummies were going to be staying with us again so I decided to cook lots of pieces of meat. Soon enough, I wanted to try to find a mummy settlement and return their children. They were all of similar age to us but I felt like it would be a better idea to try to form good relations with the mummies than to aimlessly use them.

They weren't exactly all that useful and there was a good chance that I would be rewarded for returning them.

My three Elite Minions were standing by since Chloe didn't want to attack another settlement today. I decided that I would change my focus to eliminating the 'Cloaks' once I finished crafting my sword. That way, I could get Elrich back and also prevent my Minions from constantly being attacked whilst they were out gathering resources.

I decided to scroll through my crafting menu as I waited for them to return and I noticed that there were also quite a few pieces of armour I could craft. The only issue was that I had never worn armour before and it'd likely be quite heavy. I thought about it for a little bit and decided that I'd just skip out on any heavy armour at the moment.

In this state, it would be more of a liability than an asset to me since it would just weigh me down. A forearm guard and shoulder pads might be useful but even they would have limited uses. I decided that I would just focus on offence.

After a few minutes, I decided to take the steaks off of the cooking station and place them on wooden plates. For some reason, Chloe and the mummies hadn't returned yet.

I contemplated sending some Minions to search for them but I decided to wait a few more minutes.

I looked up at the leaves which swayed hypnotically in the wind. It was pretty cold and the breeze was rather rough. Now that I thought about it, considering that the days weren't even that cold, we probably weren't even in winter. If anything, this felt like autumn or spring. It was completely possible that there would be a much more violent winter in the future, and if so, I would need to make preparations.

It was probably a good idea to ask one of the other races here about this.

I started to eat my steak after noticing that the others weren't returning.

Almost an entire hour later, Chloe finally trudged through the forest back into the settlement, the mummies were all following behind her, however, I noticed that the number of mummies had increased.

"You guys came back pretty late," I said.

"Yeah, I was out gathering resources and then we found more mummies running around the forest," she replied.

"Oh, are they like lost or something?"

"Apparently they had run away from captivity a few days before I attacked."

"Ah, I see."

"Apparently they know where their main village is."

"That's perfect, you can take them there tomorrow."

"Are you sure you don't want to use them~"

"Nah, just make sure you take any rewards they want to give us."

"Hehe, alright~"

I pointed at the several plates of steaks that I had prepared earlier and they all made their way over to begin having their dinner.