"With the land auction done, the only thing left is to build the house!"
Jiang Yuan had successfully secured the mansion on the Yuhang map and was in a state of excitement. Holding another land deed in his hand, he opened the mini-map and began searching for the location of the NPC "Ministry of Works Artisan."
This "Ministry of Works Artisan" NPC was quite good at hiding—it wasn't in the building Jiang Yuan was currently in, but rather in front of an unfinished tower in the capital city, Shangjing.
The tower's design differed from the ones Jiang Yuan had seen on the Zhongzhou map. Its base was rectangular, the middle section tapered into a cone, and the upper part narrowed further, with the top presumably still under construction.
Jiang Yuan had taken an elective in ancient history during college and recalled seeing a similar tower from the Western Xia dynasty in a book, where it was called an "Ashoka Pagoda."
"Honorable warrior, how may I assist you?"
The NPCs in *All Worlds* were always this polite.
"I want to build a house. Here's the land deed."
Jiang Yuan handed over the deed for the Yuhang map mansion, numbered 01.
"Honorable warrior, please prepare the following materials, and we can build your house for you."
The "Ministry of Works Artisan" quickly rattled off a list of names, and a new side quest, "Build a House," appeared in Jiang Yuan's task bar.
[Side Quest: Build a House] Quest Description: Gather the following materials and hand them over to the Ministry of Works Artisan to have your house built. Land Deed: 1/1 Pine Wood: 0/2000 Sandstone: 0/5000 Granite: 0/2000 Fir Wood: 0/2000 Red Gold: 0/1500
Jiang Yuan glanced at the task bar. Whoa! That's quite a few materials needed!
"Where can I get these materials?"
Jiang Yuan asked the "Ministry of Works Artisan."
The NPC rambled on for a good while, and Jiang Yuan listened carefully. By the time it finished, he had everything memorized.
According to the NPC, pine wood was a common tree found in the mountains across all maps of the Great Chinese World. Sandstone was primarily sourced from Panlong Mountain on the Imperial State Alliance map, where the Panlong headquarters of the Imperial State was located.
Fir wood and red gold came from the Hanjiang City Alliance that Jiang Yuan belonged to, while granite was only available on the Jianghuai map within the Tianbo Mansion Alliance's territory.
"Besides gathering them myself, is there another way to get these materials?"
Just as Jiang Yuan was about to leave, he turned back and asked, almost cursing the NPC out when he heard the reply.
The "Ministry of Works Artisan" said, "Honorable warrior, aside from manual mining, you can also purchase these materials at the auction houses of the major alliance capitals!"
"Damn! Why didn't you say that earlier? If money can solve it, is it even a problem? Do you think your bro Yuan is short on cash?"
Jiang Yuan grumbled to himself as he left the "Ministry of Works Artisan" and headed to the auction house in Shangjing.
But after checking the prices of these materials at the auction house, Jiang Yuan muttered an apology to the "Ministry of Works Artisan": Sorry, I was too naive!
A rough calculation showed that the gold needed to gather all these materials was over a dozen times the cost of the land deed!
Take sandstone, for example—15 gold per piece. Five thousand sandstone would cost enough to buy the Yuhang mansion land deed he'd just won!
"Damn! Those greedy life players are jacking up prices. I should've stockpiled these building materials before the update, dammit!"
Just then, a player from the Hundred Flowers Palace standing nearby cursed loudly after checking the material prices.
Jiang Yuan stopped him and learned that before the update, these materials were dirt cheap—just a few silver or copper coins each. But after the "Home System" update, the struggling life players had hiked prices dozens of times over, dumping their stockpiled materials at inflated rates.
"Bro, is it hard to gather these materials yourself?"
As a leveling fanatic who knew nothing else about the game, Jiang Yuan humbly asked the Hundred Flowers Palace player for advice.
"It's not hard, just time-consuming. You need to learn the relevant life skills. Cutting down a pine tree takes a few seconds, and mining sandstone is the same—a few seconds per piece."
The Hundred Flowers Palace player patiently explained.
"Thanks."
Jiang Yuan thanked his ally and left the auction house.
About ten minutes later, Jiang Yuan emerged from the "Life Skills Zone" on the Shangjing map.
"Wow! You never know until you go—it's a shock! I had no idea *All Worlds* had so many gameplay options!"
For Jiang Yuan, who only ever focused on leveling up, this was an eye-opener. Just now, he'd learned several life skills in the "Life Skills Zone"!
Opening his skill panel, Jiang Yuan immediately noticed a change. A new page had appeared, and the top of the original skill page now read "Character Skills." Flipping to the second page, it said "Life Skills," filled with the skills he'd just acquired: Fishing Proficiency 0/100, Mining Proficiency 0/100, Hunting Proficiency 0/100, Alchemy Proficiency 0/100, Metallurgy Proficiency 0/100...
And each time he learned a life skill, a related item appeared in his inventory. For example, after learning fishing, the system gave him a fishing rod; after hunting proficiency, a bow and a quiver of arrows; and after mining, a pickaxe.
Having learned all the life skills, Jiang Yuan decided to gather the materials for building his house himself. Checking the task bar, fir wood and red gold were both near Hanjiang City, so he chose to start with those two!
"Which one first? Let's go with red gold!"
Jiang Yuan's eyes darted between fir wood and red gold, and he finally decided to start with red gold.
Red gold was a product refined from "red gold ore," found at Jiaolong Ridge in Hanjiang City, which happened to be the location of the Cloudrise Guild's branch.
Riding his Dragon Beard Tiger to Jiaolong Ridge, Jiang Yuan saw players scattered all over the mountains. Some were life players from the Cloudrise Guild, while others, like him, were there to mine red gold ore for building houses.
"Huh? Why can they damage the red gold ore, but I can't?"
Watching these players deal "1" point of damage to the ore, Jiang Yuan found himself unable to attack the red gold ore at all, and a puzzled expression crossed his face.