The next morning at six o'clock sharp, Caelus's eyes opened on schedule.
As he sat up in bed, March 7th also opened her eyes, hugging her blanket and yawning, her pink hair sticking up in a messy cowlick.
After March 7th was up, Caelus walked over and collected her bed and Dan Heng's into his backpack, but he didn't touch his own.
He had set his respawn point here last night while sleeping. If he broke the bed now, he would respawn at the Herta Space Station upon death, and getting back to Jarilo-VI would be a pain.
March 7th ran her fingers through her hair to straighten it out, and once Caelus had finished packing, she followed him to find Dan Heng.
"Dan Heng, we're ready. We can go now."
Dan Heng nodded, picked up the Cloud-Piercer spear leaning beside him, and stood up. He walked over to the boat and lightly poked the snoring Sampo with the tip of his spear.
Sampo awoke with a painful start. He shot his head up to see three faces staring down at him in unison. He shrank back against the boat's wall and immediately put on a fawning smile.
"Big bro, big sis, good morning!"
Dan Heng ignored him.
"Let's go."
Sampo nodded eagerly, his smile never faltering. He just pointed down at his two legs, still trapped in the boat.
"Going is definitely not a problem, it's just that…"
Dan Heng glanced at Sampo's lower half and then turned to Caelus. Having him row the boat to lead the way would be no faster than crawling.
"He's not much good for travel like this. Can you undo it, Caelus? I'll keep an eye on him."
Caelus nodded and threw a punch at the boat.
The boat shattered on impact, shrinking into a palm-sized mini-block that fell to the ground. Caelus bent down to pick it up. Sampo's feet were back on solid ground, and he wobbled for a moment before steadying himself.
He flexed his stiff knees and ankles, his bones creaking several times. Once he felt loosened up, his gaze fell on the miniature boat in Caelus's hand, and he let out two appreciative clicks of his tongue.
"This boat really is something magical. Big bro, would you be willing to part with it?"
Caelus shot him a look.
"Lead the way first. We'll talk business later."
"You got it!"
Sampo pushed open the wooden door and walked out, with Caelus and the others following behind.
---o---
Outside was still a vast expanse of white. The blizzard had stopped, and the sky was a hazy gray, obscuring the sun. A cold wind scraped across the snow, kicking up a thin layer of powder.
March 7th stepped out and stretched, then looked back at the perfectly square wooden house behind them.
"What about this house? Should we just leave it here?"
Caelus nodded. "Let's leave it. If someone else gets trapped on the plains in the future, it might just save their life."
March 7th hummed in agreement and said no more.
Sampo, standing a few steps away, identified the direction, pointed southwest, and led the three of them off.
They hadn't gone far when a sound began to drill into his ears, intermittent and rhythmic. Sha-sha… a dull thudding, like something digging through snow.
Sampo turned around and saw only March 7th and Dan Heng. Caelus, who should have been between them, was gone.
Instead, a trench had appeared in the snow between the two of them. It was two meters deep, about a meter wide, and stretched out neatly in front of them.
Sampo peered down and saw the 'missing' Caelus.
Caelus was squatting at the bottom of the trench, punching the snow in front of him, one fist after another. With every few punches, a cubic-meter block of snow would shatter and disappear, yet the snowpack above it remained suspended in mid-air, not collapsing or even shifting.
This bizarre scene left Sampo dumbfounded. His expression froze for two seconds before he finally called down into the trench.
"Big bro, what are you busy with down there?"
Caelus didn't even look up. "Don't ask what you shouldn't."
If it were March 7th or Dan Heng asking, he might have offered a bit of an explanation, but Sampo… he could wait.
March 7th stood on the edge of the trench, her hands on her hips, her head tilted toward Sampo.
"Exactly! Whatever our Caelus wants to do, he'll do it. It's none of a Nameless's business, so mind your own!"
Sampo pouted, turned, and continued leading the way. Don't tell me, then. So fierce!
The group continued southwest. Sampo broke the trail up front, Dan Heng stayed in the middle on high alert, and March 7th, finding herself bored, hopped down into the trench Caelus was digging. She walked behind him with her hands behind her back, watching him punch away block after block of snow.
After observing for a full minute, she finally couldn't hold back anymore and leaned in to whisper.
"Caelus, what are you doing?"
Caelus didn't stop. "As the saying goes, physical training makes you stronger."
March 7th blinked, finding his words a bit 'strange'.
"What kind of training can you get from punching snow a few times? Training your fist's cold resistance?"
Caelus chuckled but didn't reply. In the bottom left of his vision, system notifications were popping up one after another.
[Auxiliary MOD Proficiency +1]
[Auxiliary MOD Proficiency +1]
---o---
There was no shortage of snow on Jarilo-VI. And the hardness of the snow was barely different from air. One punch, one block. It was an exponentially faster grind than rummaging through containers on the train.
A few minutes later, the progress bar jumped to the top.
[Auxiliary MOD Proficiency has reached 200. Auxiliary-type MOD obtained: More Torches MOD]
Caelus's fist stopped in mid-air.
More Torches?
The name seemed unremarkable. He didn't have any impression of it and wasn't sure what it did. He immediately pulled up the JEI interface to check the new recipes.
[Purification Torch: When placed, prevents hostile mobs from spawning within a 16x16 area.]
[Cursed Torch: When placed, rapidly spawns mobs of the corresponding biome within a 16x16 area.]
Both types of torches also had their own upgrade paths—Gold, Emerald, and Diamond tiers—with different crafting recipes and progressively enhanced effects.
Caelus squatted at the bottom of the trench, staring at the two lines of description for a long time.
He wasn't sure when the Purification Torch would come in handy for now, but the Cursed Torch… its utility was immense!
To this day, he still hadn't seen a single native Minecraft mob in this world!
Zombies and skeletons aside, the key was the Endermen. Ender Pearls weren't just for crafting Eyes of Ender to find the End Dragon; they were also an incredible support tool in their own right. For people who had never seen an Ender Pearl before, it was a perfect tool for a first-encounter ambush.
He had been agonizing over where to find Endermen, but now, with the Cursed Torch, he just needed to find a similar biome in this world, and he'd be set.
Caelus let out a breath, the corners of his mouth curling into a smile he couldn't quite suppress.
Besides the reward, the proficiency cap for the Auxiliary MOD had doubled from 200 to 400, confirming his earlier theory of incremental increases.
But that didn't matter.
He stood up, brushed the snow off his hands, and looked up at the hazy gray sky of Jarilo-VI. Then he looked down at the snow stretching to the horizon.
The one thing Jarilo-VI had in abundance was snow that shattered with a single touch.
---o---