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Chapter 16

  Wilona opened her eyes, she didn't get a hangover this time around even though she more or less drank three bowls of poisonous soup last night. She touched her stomach, humming, "Did I seriously get a resistance from eating it?" Well, to be fair, she also didn't get drunk last night. That should have been a sign honestly, "My body is a lot more adaptable than I thought."

  She got up and stretched, hopefully, she can find some kind of alcohol out there which will make her drunk no matter what. She would hate herself if she somehow lost the ability to get affected by alcohol just because she drank a soup ridden with neurotoxins.

  Yawning, she casually strolled past the door of her home, it opened on its own when she neared. She greeted Fuzz, "Good morning Fuzz, do you guys sleep?" How come she's never asked the mushroom this before? She muttered a reply to her own question, "I never really thought about that before..."

  "We do, yes." Fuzz positively confirmed. Wilona noticed that the myceloid sounded glad that she could sleep, Wilona sympathized, nights would be boring if she didn't have a "skip" button internally built into her brain. "I can slow down the data I get from my mycelium and that makes me fall asleep for some reason."

  "For some reason, huh?" Wilona shook her head, did the mushroom not know why that happens? Well, she also didn't know why she sleeps to begin with, so eh.

  "How's the pottery going by the way?" Wilona scanned her camp and spotted Mossheart in the corner, the ent had gone back to being a tree and was blending in with the rest of the swamp's flora. "Huh, I wouldn't have noticed her if I didn't know that's what Mossheart looked like."

  "Your pottery has finished cooking," Fuzz went over Wilona's musings to tell her the results of the fire pits. "We have enough storage space to store enough food to last you through two winters."

  "Great!" Wilona clapped, knowing that she didn't have to spend a portion of her day collecting food made her feel excited. "Maybe I can spend days learning magic now that I have a storage system?"

  "You need to set it up first," Fuzz sighed, the myceloid stopped talking and thought about how Wilona would actually set up the storage system. "Say, you made smaller pots right? Bowls?"

  "Yeah? I wanted a place to put spices and jams in, of course I made some." Wilona crossed her arms, what is Fuzz trying to say?

  "Hm, it seems you thought this one through already. Are you gonna start drying roots soon? You've already put the extra fish you had last night below the burning fire pits so you have a lot of smoked fish, that'll last you for a while at least. Spices should be your priority this time right?"

  "No, I'm thinking of building a shed for firewood," Wilona denied the myceloid's suggestion, spices were good but like, she already had fruits and roots to increase the taste of the things she cooks. "I'm getting tired of going out to collect branches every single time I need to cook something."

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  "Fair point," Fuzz thoughtfully agreed, "I did find constantly drying out the branches a bit tedious."

  "Right?!" Wilona exclaimed as she checked on the fish she hung on a makeshift tri-pole last night, she placed them at the interconnected center of the trees she used to make the pole so the fillets should have been constantly exposed to the smoke. "Oh, these are done!"

  Wilona took one out and bit. "These suck." She blanched, well there goes her thoughts on having something to snack on. But that's probably for the better, "I'll just keep them around for cooking, at least they won't spoil now."

  "You're going to need to clean your pots first if you want to use them," Fuzz pointed out as Wilona collected them.

  "I know that already," Wilona drawled, is this mushroom her parents or something? "Don't be so nagging."

  Fuzz turned silent and Wilona continued harvesting the pottery she made. There was a lot of it, she noticed, and honestly maybe there's too much. Maybe. Oh well, can't go wrong with excess, "... It's better to have too much than too little."

  Wilona grabbed a vase and began making her way to the stream, "Oh, and Fuzz, I'm sorry. I didn't want to lash out but like, come on. That was obvious, I was gonna do it. I know you were trying to help me and all but... Come on."

  "I'm sorry as well," Fuzz replied after Wilona had gone through over half the campsite without receiving a reply. "Maybe I should have taken your stories last night much more seriously."

  "Damn right you should! I literally meant it when I said my parents were all over me whenever I did something. It got annoying."

  Fuzz chuckled, noble girls often complained about that sort of thing, didn't they? Fuzz figured this one wasn't any different, "I'm sorry to hear that."

  Wilona let out a huff and stalked out of the camp.

  It took several back and forth trips to clean all the pottery and remove the ash stubbornly clinging to them. Luckily for Wilona, she didn't have to wait for them to dry out because Fuzz was working hard to absorb the moisture using her mycelium. It was kind of odd, seeing veiny growths on the vases and stuff.

  Wilona assumed she got used to the sight though because she didn't get goosebumps when looking at them.

  When the pottery was finished, Wilona proceeded to bring most of them inside her home. Fuzz was generous enough to grow shelves on the walls of her room and so Wilona didn't have to spend time building a place where she can put the smaller ceramics she owned.

  The larger ones—mainly used to store food, some of them are full of the smoked fish she gathered earlier—stayed on the floor, acting as decoration that gave the house some flair. Or, you know, a sense of primitiveness but she didn't own a fridge damn it! She can't help it!

  Speaking of fridges, "Can I enchant these so that they can better preserve my food or like, keep my water cool?"

  "Yes," Fuzz confirms.

  "Great!" Wilona grinned. She opened her status screen and distributed her newly gained charges, one went to her Soul and the other to her Mind.

  Now her stats reached to 3 for Soul, 2 for Mind, and 2 for Instinct respectively. She didn't know what they did but like, they're probably useful if they're part of her system.

  "What to do..." Wilona snapped her fingers, "Right, building a shed," she hummed, "Maybe I should make a farm too?"

  "That can work," Fuzz agreed immediately, "I believe it's about time you plant your magical seeds."

  "Eh, I guess." Wilona shrugged, those had been sitting in her bag for quite a while now. First things first though, she needed to wake up Mossheart, "Uhm, I need your help."

  The ent immediately broke apart and the tree that Wilona was facing disappeared to become a humanoid tree creature that towered over her. Mossheart tilted her head, a gesture that meant she's asking what Wilona wants.

  "I need to build a shed and to do that, I need trees, can you snap a few of the smaller ones for me? Please." Wilona added the word hastily at the end of her sentence, "It will be great if we have a place to store firewood in."

  Mossheart nodded and didn't wait for a reply to start moving and do as she was told. Wilona waited for her at the spot where she wants the shed to be built, somewhere next to the hollow tree she calls home, and slowly, the ent began to pile up the wood next to her.

  When they had enough, Wilona nodded. "Okay, try stabbing the cut trees into the ground, stab them one by one, like, make sure there's no space between them." Wilona wasn't sure if she was articulating it correctly, "Make a wall using this method. You know?"

  Mossheart seemed to have understood what she was saying because the ent nodded and started following Wilona's instructions.

  "Yes! That's what I wanted you to do!" Wilona gave Mossheart an excited thumbs up. The ent returned it, she grinned. After a while, the roof began to get constructed.

  "Okay, okay, lift me up and I will slather the top of the trees with mud, after that you place the roof okay?" Wilona turned to Mossheart, who, as always, nodded wordlessly.

  With the two of them working together, it didn't take long for the shed to be built.

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