Coming to a large tree, Shawn opened the system and found the melee tool slot.
Stone Axe: Quality 1
Materials required for crafting: Small Stone * 2, Plant Fiber * 2, Wood * 2
Crafting time: 00:01
Entity Damage: 6
Block Damage: 22
Durability: 250
Number of mod slots: 1
Uses: Resource harvesting, Corpse butchering, Block repairing, Block upgrading
A Stone Axe, although only the most basic crafting condition, is the most frequently used melee tool in the seven days to die world.
With this Stone Axe, as long as there are enough resources, Shawn can conjure a steel fortress out of thin air.
Among these four uses, each one is extremely useful, except for butchering corpses.
The Camp's location was temporarily settled, so Shawn decided to craft the Stone Axe.
After circling the jungle for three minutes, he found all the materials needed for a Quality 1 Stone Axe.
"Two not-too-big stones, two handfuls of weeds, and two pieces of broken wood—who would have thought these scraps could make a Stone Axe as useful as a divine artifact?"
Shawn chuckled, putting all these materials into his system backpack.
He silently chanted in his mind: "Craft."
Then came the sound of gears turning, but it stopped after only a moment.
Afterward, in Shawn's tool slot, there was a somewhat crude Stone Axe.
Holding it in his hand, Shawn carefully examined it.
The Stone Axe wasn't as dilapidated as it first appeared; the axe head was smooth and flat, no wonder its functions included butchering animal corpses.
Shawn sighed inwardly, gripping the axe handle with both hands, steadying his stance, and swinging with his waist!
The axe head embedded perfectly into the 30-centimeter diameter tree trunk; with just one swing, one-sixth of the trunk was cut away.
"The logging mechanism is also the same as in the game!"
Shawn was delighted, swinging the axe five times in a row, and with a 'whoosh' of rustling, the wood instantly fell to the ground.
At the same time, 35 identical block-shaped pieces of wood suddenly appeared in Shawn's system backpack.
"Is the amount of wood determined by the size of the tree chopped down...?"
Shawn pondered silently.
As the tree was harvested, the words '+35' experience points also appeared in the bottom right corner of Shawn's vision.
In the seven days to die world, not only does killing Zombies grant experience points, but even some collection activities do, though the amount of experience points will be far less than that gained from killing Zombies.
Having roughly understood the mechanism, Shawn did not linger and continued to swing his axe at the next tree.
Although different sized trees yield different amounts of wood and experience points.
However, thicker trees would require Shawn to swing the Stone Axe more times, naturally consuming more stamina, so Shawn made no distinction and felled all ten or so nearby trees.
Wiping a thin layer of sweat from his forehead, Shawn looked at the 352 square logs stacked in his system backpack, opened the 'Trap' section, and looked at the first one.
Wooden Spike Trap
Materials required for crafting: 20 pieces of wood
Wooden Spike Traps are your initial and primary line of defense, capable of slowing down enemies and inflicting damage.
When damaged, they can be repaired using wood or forged iron.
"350 pieces of wood, making 17 Wooden Spike Traps, should be enough."
Shawn put the Stone Axe back into his backpack, raised his hand, and pointed into the air; a pile of interlocked wooden barricades suddenly appeared with a crackling sound, the wood at the top and bottom sharpened into spikes, enough to pierce flesh.
This defensive mechanism is naturally not very useful against humans, but it is just right for blocking Zombies.
The Wooden Spike Trap would buy time for Shawn and the others while they slept, at least preventing Zombies from silently approaching them.
After setting up the Wooden Spike Trap, Shawn calculated the time.
"It's still early; going back with traps so soon would be hard to explain..."
Shawn decided to put the traps back in his backpack first, then wandered around in the jungle.
...
A beam of sunlight pierced through the tall trees, falling on Shawn's sweating face.
The temperature had risen now, no longer as cool as in the early morning, causing his clothes to be completely soaked with sweat.
But there was no fatigue on his face, instead, a hint of satisfaction.
Splat --
He removed the Ma Bone Warhammer from the Zombie's head beneath his feet, brain matter and skull blood mixing together, making a viscous squishing sound.
In his vision, which only Shawn could observe, a familiar golden light shimmered from his body.
A cheerful background music, light and joyful, faintly drifted into Shawn's ears.
At this moment, Shawn's panel was as follows:
Shawn
Level Lv6
Skill Points to Use: 2
Health: 106 / 106 (Initial 100, Level Bonus 6)
Stamina: 30 / 106 (Slowly recovering)
Food and Water: 48 / 106 (Continuously slowly decreasing)
Body Temperature: 85° F
Zombies Killed: 64
Status Effect: Fatigued (You need rest)
"Phew --" Shawn raised his hand to wipe away the sweat: "I've been busy all day, and I've gained a lot."
This jungle area was a natural barrier; finding and killing Zombies nearby was not as easy as in the city.
But thanks to this, Shawn had not suffered any damage during his killing spree, and his health had remained full.
As Shawn took several deep breaths, his stamina slowly recovered from 30 to 60, and only then did he set off towards the Camp.
It was Shawn's first time venturing deep into the jungle, but he wasn't worried about getting lost at all.
He silently chanted "map" in his mind, and an opaque map, visible only to him, suddenly unfolded before his eyes.
The map was primarily green, representing the jungle grassland.
A green symbol made of interconnected blocks represented the Camp's location, currently about 1.2 kilometers from Shawn.
To the not-so-distant north on the map, the fog had cleared, revealing the unique terrain of a Quarry and jungle; that was the Quarry Camp Shawn had left not long ago.
The Quarry Camp extended clearly along the upward fog, finally connecting to Atlanta, which was where Shawn had first gone.
Above, that was all the information on the map.
Putting away the map, Shawn carried the Ma Bone Warhammer and walked briskly towards the Camp.
By the time Shawn arrived at the Farm, the sky had gradually darkened, and looking into the jungle, it was pitch black.
Click --
The sudden crisp sound made Daryl frown, and his crossbow arrow immediately aimed at the source of the sound.
Without foolishly asking who it was, Daryl slowly shifted his feet, his center of gravity remaining unchanged.
Shawn guaranteed that if he didn't speak up soon, Daryl would pull the crossbow trigger.
"It's me." His voice came first, and Shawn then emerged from the jungle, his increasingly robust upper body illuminated by the light from Hershel's house.
"You disappeared as soon as we woke up, and you still weren't back when we returned from hunting; if you didn't come out, we were going to go in and look for you."
Daryl silently put away his crossbow, tilted his head, and carefully stared at the bloodstains on Shawn's shirt.
Following Daryl's gaze, Shawn lightly patted his clothes: "It's nothing, just Zombie blood."
Then Shawn pointed to the jungle behind him.
"Help me out, I made some things in the woods that we can place around the Camp to prevent lost Zombies from getting too close."
With the help of Daryl and Merle, 17 'Wooden Spike Traps' were sequentially placed near the tents, almost forming a triangular shape.
The 'Wooden Spike Traps' at the entrance and exit were placed slightly outwards, while for the inner positions, Shawn manually crafted a simple 'alarm'—several thin metal cans strung together.
This way, even if Zombies could enter through their designated entry and exit points, they would definitely trigger a sound, waking everyone up.