HC: Handyman | Ch. 166 - Fiber Tempering

You have tempered [Bulrush Grass Hat].

Bulrush Grass Hat »»» Bulrush Grass Hat +1

Jack grinned as the progress bars of all four minor skills surged upward.

+200 XP in [Butchering], [Bushcraft], [Pottery], and [Beekeeping].

+2230 XP in [Butchering], [Bushcraft], [Pottery], and [Beekeeping].

Congratulations! You've reached level 2 in journeyman [Beekeeping]!

[Honey Harvesting] has leveled up.

Haha! My plan worked!

He had been slightly nervous about this vase combo. 

If the system tracked the location of the vases throughout the entire crafting process, requiring them to stay near the pot from start to finish, then this trick wouldn’t have worked. But since it only counted them at the moment of completion, it boosted his XP.

Jack exhaled in relief. Just from this single trick, his XP gains had surged more than tenfold.

And I can go even further!

He was already at the limit of how many vases he could have around him at once. But there was still room for improvement in the quality department.

If I ditch all vases below an A crafting grade and make new, better ones, I can push my XP even higher!

His progress bar in [Butchering] had climbed halfway to level 9, and he’d even gained a level in [Beekeeping]! Wasting no time, he pulled up the new beekeeping skill description.

Honey Harvesting (Common)

Skill level: 2

Skill description: Your bees have worked hard. They have enough to feed the colony—and you too!

Skill effects:

Passive: The bees produce honey—rate scales with intellect.

Passive: The bees produce royal jelly—rate scales with luck.

Requires: An empty container for each.

Finally! I can start producing royal jelly!

He had been waiting for this—one of the key requirements for breeding new queens. With a flick of his fingers, he opened the description of the skill he had unlocked a few days earlier, when he first leveled [Beekeeping] to novice 9, on his way to the bulrush grass pond.

Queen Breeding (Rare)

Raising a new queen requires time and resources.

Effects:

Passive: When a hive is without a queen for 24 hours, a new queen will be raised. It takes an additional 24 hours to mature and start laying eggs.

Requirements: 10x [Honey], 10x [Royal Jelly]

Cooldown: 30 days

Jack’s honey stockpile was more than enough, but royal jelly had been the bottleneck keeping him from expanding. Now, with a little patience, he could finally split the hive into two.

It scales with luck, huh?

That made sense. But if there was one thing he’d learned in this game, it was that nothing came free. The price of queen bees in the market alone was proof enough of how difficult it was to trigger this skill. It couldn’t just the long cooldown—the rarity of royal jelly itself was a factor, too.

It's a good thing he had a bit more luck than when he first started. Hopefully, it would be enough.

His only regret was that he’d left his empty pot hives in storage—outside of the Breach.

Guess I’ll have to make a new one here.

Between leveling up [Beekeeping] and testing the limits of [Clay Dome] with the vases, he’d learned more than he expected.

And he hadn’t even checked out the real star of the show yet.

Carefully stepping around the vases, Jack made his way to the pot of terracoat. As soon as he approached, a system prompt flickered to life, letting him inspect the results of his experiment.

Tempered Bulrush Rope Hat (Common)

Description: A finely woven hat made from bulrush grass. The smooth, adhesive quality of the fibers provides improved comfort and defense. It has been coated with a blend of oil, clay, and beeswax, enhancing its protective properties.

Crafting grade: C+

Tempering: I

Effects:

+4 constitution »»» +7 constitution;

+8 defense »»» +21 defense;

+5 block »»» +10 block;

+1 fire resistance;

+1 water resistance.

Durability: 13 »»» 17

Requirements: Lvl. 20+.

Jack scanned the numbers, his eyes lingering on the improved stats. This wasn’t just a slight enhancement—it was a serious upgrade. Defense had more than doubled, and now the hat even had fire and water resistance. But something else caught his attention.

A second progress bar had appeared over the pot.

It hadn’t been there before. The first one had filled, signaling that the process was finished, but now a new one had taken its place. He frowned, watching as it inched forward at a slow but steady pace.

I thought tempering was a one-time process. 

But the bar was still filling. The item was still tempering. When his gaze flicked back to the item description, something stood out.

Tempering: I

A tier number, written in Roman numerals.

His breath hitched as recognition crept in. He had seen this before. Not in armor or weapons, but in brewing. Mead aged in tiers, gaining strength over time. And the way this new progress bar had appeared the moment the first one finished? That was exactly what happened when mead aged to the next tier.

I can temper the same item more than once!

That thought should have excited him, but instead, a small knot of uncertainty formed in his stomach. When aging mead, he had full control over the process. He could interrupt it, store the bottle in his inventory, and resume aging later by placing it back in a cellar. But would the same be true here?

He could already picture himself pulling the hat out of the mix, the coating hardening instantly, locking the process in place. Would that mean he had wasted an opportunity? Could he put it back, or would the mixture reject it? The possibility made his fingers twitch.

The once heavy plop… plop… of thick bubbles had changed into a quieter, rapid fizzing, like freshly poured ale. The viscous mix had lightened in color, no longer resembling dense lava. Large, sluggish bubbles had been replaced by a myriad of tiny ones along the rim. It was as if the hat had drawn the minerals and strengthening agents directly from the pot, altering the very nature of the mixture.

Jack exhaled slowly, forcing himself to wait. His curiosity beckoned him to pull the hat out now, to see how cool the hat looked. But the sheer potential of what was happening made him hesitate.

If the improvements are exponential, I have to see this through.

This wasn’t just about strengthening a single piece of gear—it could be a major discovery not just for him but for the entire team.

Horace wore heavy plate armor, and Amari’s leather gear might not take to the reinforcement either. But Marie’s could.

She had a leather chestpiece, but the rest of her gear was lightweight. If [Terracoat] worked on fabric-based armor, he might be able to give her equipment a makeover.

For now, he decided to leave his hat tempering. It would take another three hours until he could get a look at the final result.

Jack was thrilled with the discovery. Just as he was about to message the team with the good news, a notification popped up.

Horace has found a hidden package! [The Two Short-Faced Bears] has been upgraded into [The Short-Faced Bears’s Mating Season].

Hidden package description:

Over these mountains, short-faced bears hibernate during the winter. They are fiercely territorial, but they tolerate each other's presence due to how much game there is near the fortress these days. After you dislodge three of these bears, they relocate and establish a new home closer to the road—nearer to the fortress.

With the presence of two female bears and one male, their mating season has been anticipated. One additional male has moved nearer the fortress, attracted by the two females. As a result, all four bears have become even fiercer!

Who knows. Maybe there are some bear cubs on the way!

The short-faced bears will always attack incoming waves of enemies. Their presence adds additional pressure on the beast waves, diverting some of the burden from the fortress's defenses.

"Oh my goodness! Four bears?"

Amari had told him about streamers who had unlocked package upgrades by completing multiple hidden conditions. Jack had suspected that getting all three bears dislodged would lead to something good, and it had.

He’d expected some kind of monstrous fusion—maybe a three-headed short-faced Cerberus or something—but instead, the game had simply given them one extra bear and cranked up their aggression. Not a bad result, though.

"Muahaha! Tremble before the mighty Horace!"

Jack smirked as the message popped up in chat.

"Congrats!" he shot back. "But I was the one who figured out most of that package. What do you say? Split the point?"

"Come on, man! If I get this point, we’ll both be tied at three. No way I’m giving up my chance at victory."

"You wouldn’t have lasted this long without my pickles. I’m counting half a point. 3.5 to 3. Still winning."

"You little—"

"Jack deserves half a point," Marie chimed in.

"You old hag!" Horace shot back. "You’re just siding with this greedy wack cook because you know it’ll annoy me!"

Jack chuckled as an angry exchange of messages went back and forth between Horace and Marie.

When he had first joined the group, he’d been a little shocked by the way they fought. It wasn’t just friendly bickering—it had real heat behind it. Back then, he had felt a little out of place, like an outsider watching a long-running feud.

Funny how things had changed. Now, he was right in the middle of it, throwing fuel on the fire.

And even though he was giving Horace a hard time, he was genuinely happy for him. Horace had pulled through. That was worth celebrating.

More than that, even though the One-Eyes had once trapped him and were still Piri’s minions, he was glad they could enjoy some peace.

Amari only sent a thumbs-up but stayed out of the kerfuffle.

How are things progressing on his side, I wonder. 

It had been three hours since Amari had left. What kind of package was he aiming for? For a package to be so far from the fortress and for it to take so long to tackle, it had to be something really precious.

Jack shrugged. He would know as soon as Amari completed it. He’d get a notification just like he had for Horace’s.

For now, he fed more fuel into the flames heating the terracoat pot and decided to check in on the other pot—the one filled with boiling water and bones. The once-clear liquid had turned cloudy, swirling with nutrients drawn from the bones. Fat droplets floated on the surface, shimmering in the firelight.

Looks richer than I imagined.

He caught a whiff. It smelled nice, too. What if he added herbs? Spices? Would they make the broth even richer? 

He was about to research online for how to make broths when a distant sound pulled his attention away. At first, it was just a faint rumble, barely distinguishable from the crackling of the fire. But then it grew.

The rumble was deep and guttural, rolling down the mountain pass like an earthquake given voice. Another followed, heavier, commanding. The two new bears had arrived. There was a moment of silence. Then, a roar erupted.

Jack tensed. The males were squaring off. He expected to feel the earth tremble as the giant creatures engaged in battle, but instead, a new set of calls echoed through the valley, shifting from aggression to something else entirely. These weren’t warning growls anymore. They were deeper, rhythmic—meant to impress.

Jack’s mouth twisted. They were probably trying to impress the females.

I guess we have some new noisy neighbors.

Potentially, two bear couples with cubs on the way.

He’d already been uneasy about walking past the bears’ dens whenever he needed to head down the road. Now, with them even more aggressive, he could only hope they wouldn’t block access to the rest of the map. That mountain pass was a crucial route. If the bears became too hostile, they might end up cutting off their own access to important areas.

Jack sighed. As if the fortress didn’t already have enough dangers. Now, every trip down the road came with a side of territorial bear drama.

With the terracoat working a second layer of tempering on his straw hat and the broth still simmering, he needed something productive to do. Preferably, something that didn’t involve navigating past amorous bears.

I could take the vases to the pot hive and grind for beekeeping XP.

If he played Clay Dome while alternating with other melodies near the hive, he should speed up his leveling speed considerably.

Or maybe I could take the amphorae down to the cellar, reset the clocks on the aging progress bars, and then grind for brewing XP.

There was also the etching recipe he’d learned from the One-Eyes. He wanted to see what it did.

Jack quickly decided on the best order: take the amphorae down to the well, come back up, grind beekeeping and bard XP at the pot hive, then return to the cellar to ride the wave of XP as the batch aged to the first tier.

Then, it would be wave time. After that, he could finally test the etching recipe.

Time to get busy.

Ch. 165 - Tempered

INDEX

Ch. 167 - Wax Resist