[NR] Making A Path - Chapter 722

Jason nods, now it is time to do a little earth moving. Right now, if he just flattened things all it would result in is the area being a bit below ground level. Which to a point, is his goal, but more sculpted.

His plan wasn’t anything complex. Jason simply dug a narrow pit along the edges of the tilled soil with his hand. A coating of Energy protected said hand as he shoved his arm down until about a finger’s length into soil that hadn’t been “bloomed”. Once that is done, it was a matter of scooping out soil and tossing it into the middle of the soon to be path.

This physically strenuous method of creating the channel might have been a bit slow going, but Jason hadn’t found a narrow enough shovel for what he wanted. Not that he didn’t have any tools.

With the channels dug on each side and connected to the previous channels, Jason grabs a cheap rake with bamboo tines off his cart. While he did want the center raised, it needed to be spread out evenly . Which is the easiest and quickest of the tasks involved in constructing his gravel path. You know, instead of just spreading gravel.

Though with the piled-up dirt smoothed over the entire section, it is time to actually put down some gravel. Not on the main road area, but rather filling the channels he has just dug with the bigger chunks of rock. Not that the gravel he had is too varied.

Once topped up with gravel, it is time for Jason to stomp around again. Though instead of War Stomp, this time will make use of Body Blast. Except he starts on the outside of the path so that any soil being pushed around, goes towards the center.

Of course, there is no helping that some of the tilled soil gets pushed it to the gravel-filled channels, but not enough to clog them. Which is important as they’re meant as drains. Jason has not actually looked up whether this specific design will work, though he figures it should hold for at least a little while .

Besides, the gravel channels would at least be less compact than the main road. So, by its very nature, drain faster. Helped along by how Jason had the road angled away from the center.

Stomp Stomp Stomp

Since Body Blast used Energy instead of Stamina, it didn’t stop. Jason stomped back and forth along his newest section of road. Energy flowed in a stream of power, never-ending as he spread out the burst over an area to tamp the earth to a degree you normally would need a roller to manage.

Admittedly, the action itself is tedious. Though Jason had found it easier and easier to fall into a flow state. Which was nice and meant that before he realized it, the new section is ready for the final application of gravel.

Jason didn’t do anything fancy. He had already grabbed out the larger chunks and so simply spread what was left over the packed earth. Which resulted in another section complete and the path project just that little bit closer to being finished.

Oh, and it seems the road counted towards his Wilderness Construction skill, raising it by a level. Jason did question it somewhat as he was buying the gravel from town. His best guess for why it still counted came down to the fact that most of the work was done with personal effort and his body, instead of civilization-sourced materials and tools.

Then again, the skill didn’t mention needing to be used with supplies from the wilderness. Rather, the skill and effects all simply talked about not working with fancy tools and being able to supply himself. Not that he has to.

Though admittedly, he had tried to activate the effect to figure out the best place for the path, but it didn’t fire. Which could be from the planned trail going all the way to the town and the effect specifies only working on areas the System recognizes as wilderness.

Good thing you don’t need much experience to place a path. Or rather, the experience needed for a simple path like this was with travelling the area. After all, you could easily path through a section of land that ends up waterlogged on the spring if you didn’t pay much attention. Jason is hoping to avoid such things, though admitted it wasn’t entirely possible as the Deep Wilds aren’t exactly known for having stable weather.

And as with many similar projects, Jason just had to rest and repeat. A path like this was a matter of weeks, given the size of his cart. Which felt a little out of place when he could easily make the trip between town and clearing in a single day with time to do something else. Though admittedly, that is somewhat unfair as his Strength and Free Form Energy movement made the trip a lot faster.

Either way, this work was strenuous in ways that fighting and training weren’t, which benefited his stats. Jason almost wished he hadn’t been checking on his stat growth. If only to see the change all at once when the trail was finished.

Back in the clearing, Rosha was also thinking about how long the path was taking. “Why did he want to go all out on making the path? Like, I’ve seen it! The path is quite nice, and with how his cart rides on it, clearly works quite well. But it feels like a boring way to play the game.”

Courtney shrugs, “From my perspective, NeoRealm hasn’t been a game for decades, if not centuries. The only step up from previous games that tried to tout the whole ‘play to earn’ thing is that you can’t run a sweatshop in a third world country. Which admittedly, might have more to do with the global economy having evened out. Kind of hard to pay people pennies on the dollar, when the actual currency used is the gold piece itself.”