As Caelus broke one of the wood blocks with his hand, a system notification popped up.
[Support MOD Proficiency +1]
Breaking blocks adds proficiency too?
Caelus's eyes lit up. Say what you will, but breaking things was Steve's greatest talent!
And when it came to mods related to breaking things, the first one that came to Caelus's mind was the king of all breaking mods: Chain Destruction!
He had to grind this out! What if he actually got it?
While Caelus was lost in the joy of his increasing proficiency, March 7th was staring numbly at the tree. Its mid-section had been punched out, but the top half remained floating in mid-air, completely motionless.
Heh. I must be dreaming. This has to be a dream I'm having after passing out from exhaustion during the Doomsday Beast fight!
Otherwise, how can you explain a tree continuing to fly in the air after someone punches a hole through its middle!
Caelus, however, didn't notice the dumbstruck March 7th. He quickly broke down the entire tree, collected the saplings that dropped from the leaves, and replanted one in the pot. Then, he continued to take out the bones he had collected from the Antimatter Legion soldiers, grind them into bone meal, use it on the sapling, and break the newly grown tree.
After repeating this process a dozen times, all the bones in Caelus's inventory were gone. But this was a small price to pay.
He had harvested two full stacks of logs, more than enough for his current needs. More importantly, between rummaging through all those trash cans earlier and continuously breaking blocks just now, his proficiency had finally maxed out.
[Support MOD Proficiency has reached 100. Acquired Support MOD: Loot Box MOD]
[Loot Box MOD: All storage containers with a containment function are treated as Loot Boxes. Opening a Loot Box may yield vanilla MC items as well as items related to unlocked MODs.]
It wasn't Chain Destruction, unfortunately.
Caelus was a little disappointed, but the Loot Box MOD wasn't bad either. If his luck was good enough, he could get a full set of diamond gear without ever having to go mining. Not to mention, this mod could also grant items specific to other MODs later on. It was a module with an incredibly high ceiling!
Besides that, Caelus also noticed that the proficiency bar for the Support MOD had changed from a max of 100 to 200. This just made him more frustrated.
Buddy, you'd better not be on an incremental scale.
Then again, even if the difficulty did increase, it wasn't a big deal. Breaking blocks also increased proficiency, which made things incredibly simple. Worst-case scenario, he'd just find a planet and blow it up with the Stellaron!
Caelus couldn't even imagine how much proficiency a Stellaron explosion would grant.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Caelus turned his head and saw March 7th still standing there with a dazed look, mumbling something about why trees can fly.
"March?"
Seeing her like this, Caelus's heart skipped a beat. This girl hasn't been possessed or something, has she?
He quickly checked March 7th's status bar and confirmed there were no negative effects. Only then did he relax and wave a hand in front of her face.
"March, snap out of it."
March 7th came back to her senses. The look she gave Caelus was incredibly complex, and she blurted out, almost subconsciously, "Caelus, are you really 'human'? You're not some kind of tree demon from a novel, are you?"
Caelus didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He might have agreed if she called him an artificial human, but a tree demon... was a bit too ridiculous.
Still, seeing March's dazed look, Caelus couldn't resist the urge to tease her.
"And why can't my species be Creator God?"
"Get out of here!" March 7th rolled her eyes, annoyed. "I've never heard of a god like you!"
Caelus just chuckled and didn't press the matter, turning instead to a different set of shelves. March 7th quickly followed.
---o---
Passing by the living supplies section, Caelus spotted several neatly folded duvets. He walked over, unzipped one, and saw it was filled with a type of fleece. He took out a pinch, checked the recipe with JEI, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it could be crafted into wool. What a coincidence!
Caelus immediately grabbed the duvets, emptied out all the fleece, crafted it all into wool, and stuffed it into his inventory. He then placed the empty duvet covers back where they were.
March 7th, who had been watching him, couldn't help her curiosity.
"Caelus, what are you doing? Why did you specifically take the fleece from inside?"
"I'm going to make a bed."
March 7th blinked.
"Then why don't you just go ask Asta for a bed?"
"Making a bed is just one of its uses. I can also use it to make other things."
March 7th nodded and didn't ask any more questions, continuing to follow Caelus deeper into the warehouse.
After passing a few more shelves, Caelus would occasionally pick something up and look at it, but if he confirmed it had no special crafting recipe and wasn't something he needed, he'd put it back.
After a bit more wandering, the two finally arrived at the last section, where various minerals were stored. This was the place Caelus had been looking forward to the most.
But one look at the shelves left him bitterly disappointed.
"Why are there no diamonds? Why is there no netherite?"
March 7th followed behind him with her hands behind her back. Hearing his wails of despair, she couldn't help but laugh. "This is a space station for conducting experiments. They'd only need a small amount of something like diamonds. As for that 'netherite' you mentioned... I've never even heard of it. Isn't it normal for them not to have any in stock?"
"Then why is there no iron!"
Caelus pointed an indignant finger at a pile of messy alloys and rocks. No diamonds and no netherite was one thing, but no iron?!
March 7th spread her hands helplessly. "The space station was built in outer space. Iron doesn't really have a use here. A few researchers might need some, but... how about I go with you to ask them later?"
Caelus nodded in disappointment. It seemed that was his only option.
He then rummaged through the pile of minerals and rocks, finding a few unknown stones that could substitute for cobblestone in crafting a stone pickaxe. As for the remaining alloys, he glanced at the JEI; they could only be used to craft high-precision instruments or for experiments. They were completely useless for making an iron pickaxe.
But since he was already here, Caelus took a portion of them anyway. Even if he couldn't craft a pickaxe, their mass would be converted into strength in his inventory, which was still a good deal.
After that, Caelus and March 7th wandered a bit more. Confirming there was nothing else worth taking, they left the warehouse area, preparing to head back to the lab to regroup with Himeko and the others.
As they were leaving, Caelus glanced back at the warehouse behind him and couldn't help but complain.
"I may not have been to other space stations, but this is the poorest one I've ever seen!"
The corner of March 7th's mouth twitched. Poorest? The alloys you just took are worth enough to buy an entire transport ship full of iron!