Chapter 10: The Upgrade Dilemma

“Use a bowl to catch it!” Master Liu reminded.

Yunqing moved mechanically, carrying out the task. It was her first time taking a life, yet she felt no excitement at gaining combat experience from killing a chicken. To her surprise, her first battle experience came not from a worthy opponent, but from slaughtering a domesticated chicken incapable of resistance.

When the blood had drained, Yunqing placed the chicken into the bucket of hot water. She was an adult now, and slaughtering chickens was within her capabilities. She lifted her head and managed a strained smile at Master Liu.

“Today you’ll need to kill ten chickens. Clean this one thoroughly first.”

“Alright!”

Ten chickens? That would earn her one hundred sixty combat experience points.

After Master Liu left, Yunqing was surprised to notice a prompt appear on the chicken in the bucket: “Feathers can be collected. Requires Gathering Skill Level 5.”

So her gathering skill was more miraculous than she’d thought—not only could she gather herbs, but she could also collect animal skins and feathers. The first time required her to do it manually, but that didn’t matter; the next time would be easier. Master Liu had said she’d be killing ten chickens today.

It was hard to pluck feathers from a cold chicken, and scalding her hands in hot water made it no easier. After half an hour of grimacing and struggling, she finally finished cleaning the feathers. However, the chicken skin was left riddled with unsightly holes—its appearance was such that no one would want to buy it.

“Liuliu, do you eat chicken?”

“I do!”

“If this chicken is very cheap, and I can afford it, I’ll buy it for you.”

“Chicken has too many bones. I prefer the meat.”

Yunqing muttered to herself: “Choose all you want, after starving for three days.”

Afterward, Yunqing gutted the chicken and cleaned out the viscera. Under Master Liu’s guidance, she processed the gizzard and intestines as well. Such work left her at a loss for words.

But for the sake of gaining experience from slaughtering these docile creatures, she endured.

By the time she finished with one chicken, Master Liu had already processed five. At Yunqing’s request, she was given another chance to slaughter a chicken.

Practice makes perfect. This time Yunqing efficiently gained sixteen experience points. Collecting feathers became fully automated, and her speed and technique were nearly on par with Master Liu.

Unfortunately, her character level restricted her from gaining further gathering experience.

Master Liu was astonished. “Xiaoyun, from now on, I’ll leave the chicken slaughtering to you.”

“I don’t mind at all,” Yunqing replied joyfully. “I came here to learn, after all.”

“Haha! Looks to me like you’re almost ready to graduate.”

“I still have a long way to go.”

Though Ye Family Village was considered prosperous, its population was limited, and without refrigerators, slaughterhouse work only lasted for half a day.

The slaughterhouse provided a meal, and the fare was generous—blood tofu and pork liver, enough for everyone. After several days in this world, Yunqing finally managed to fill her hunger bar to one hundred.

Chicken was too expensive, considered a good ingredient for nourishing soup. In the end, Yunqing spent a hundred copper coins to buy a piece of meat for Liuliu.

Upgrading combat skills through slaughtering domestic animals was merely temporary. Eventually, she would need to hunt and improve her own fighting strength.

With several hours left before nightfall, Yunqing spent five hundred copper coins at the village’s grocery store to buy a spool of sturdy linen thread. She planned to make a simple bow herself and practice shooting.

Following the appearance of the bows in the blacksmith’s shop, she fashioned a small bow from bamboo and was greeted by a system prompt:

Crafting experience +2;
Successfully crafted bamboo bow *1;

It was then she realized that crafting skills could also be upgraded.

Further testing showed that making a bamboo arrow earned one crafting experience point. Without proper tools, making these was difficult, so she needed to find a way to buy a dagger.

On the second day, Master Liu kept his word. All ten chickens were entrusted to her for slaughter and processing. Afraid that Master Liu might take her combat experience, Yunqing hurried to finish killing all ten chickens while he was still busy with pork.

Unexpectedly, her combat level reached level two, but her character level remained at one.

She suspected the system required balanced development—only when all skills were leveled up would her character level advance.

Gathering experience could be gained from harvesting herbs and plucking feathers. In the future, she would surely collect magical herbs and loot monster corpses.

Crafting experience—for now, she only discovered it could be gained from making simple bows and arrows. Later, it would likely rely on alchemy or forging.

Combat experience came from killing monsters. Whether practicing martial arts would also count, she didn’t know; many questions and functions awaited her discovery.

In just three days, she no longer needed the guidance of a targeting aid to catch and slaughter chickens. Yet killing ten or so chickens and ducks a day was no longer enough to raise her combat level.

When it was time to finish work, Yunqing tidied up, cleaning and returning various items to their proper places.

Master Liu, preparing to leave, pointed at the toolbox filled with all manner of knives, astonished. “Xiaoyun, I just saw you move that toolbox by hand.”

“Yes, I’ve been putting it back myself these past few days.”

“Move it again for me, would you?”

The toolbox was a bit heavy, but Yunqing, puzzled, complied as instructed, lifting it and walking a few steps.

Master Liu was amazed. “This toolbox weighs nearly two hundred pounds. I didn’t expect you could lift it so easily. Tomorrow, come early and help with the pig slaughter.”

Nearly two hundred pounds! Yunqing knew the original owner had trained physically, but after twenty years of modern life, she assumed she could only move fifty pounds at most. She had never tried moving anything heavier, not even the large stone in her system backpack.

To move on to the next stage of learning so quickly—though unprepared, it was a good thing, and she needed to seize the opportunity.

“Master Liu, do you mean you want me to slaughter pigs tomorrow?”

Master Liu had intended for Yunqing to assist at first, but seeing how quickly she adapted after her initial nervousness, he laughed heartily. “You’re sure to become an excellent hunter one day. Tomorrow, you’ll do it.”

“Thank you, Master Liu.”

Currently, Yunqing’s character level was three, her gathering skill level eleven, combat level five, and her crafting level matched her character level.