Those leaves really were just as big and soft as promised. As morning came, I wriggled out from next to the still sleeping Tristan, careful not to disturb him. At some point over the night, we had ended up wrapped up in each other’s arms as we slept, purely for the warmth, of course, nothing more. I tried to remember each of the other things he had said to me about the local plantlife, the things he had pointed out on the way out and back, mostly things that were good for cooking, if I could get some better kitchen equipment than just sticking things on the end of sticks.

  Not that it mattered, another 25 of those experience points, a whole new level gained, and a new Skill appearing, Plant Identification, and now I could just take a careful look at another half dozen or so other things growing nearby and be able to tell what to do with them. I wondered vaguely how long it would’ve taken me, and how many times chewing on nasty tasting leaves or trying to squeeze juice out of unripe berries for me to learn that Skill without help. Level 3, it didn’t feel that different to before, apart from the strange innate knowledge that the leaves of a big yellow flower I was sure I’d never seen before could be made into a salad, but the floating stats sheet claimed I was stronger now, or at least had more staminas, however that manifested in the real world.

  I tried plucking off a few of those leaves and munching on them as a makeshift breakfast, they didn’t taste too bad, or maybe that was just where I was quite hungry by now. Even as I was doing so, I heard the sounds of Tristan waking up behind me, I hoped I hadn’t disturbed him too much. Strolling up behind me, he put an arm around my shoulders.

  “I really ought to be getting home, people might worry about where I got to by now. Are you sure I can’t tempt you to come along too?”

  “Not right now, I’ve got so much to do here, but you never know, I might come visit you in… that place where you live.”

  “Treville.”

  “Yes, like I said, that place, maybe some time soon. Just straight down the road here?”

  “Just follow the path a long. It’s not as well worn as it used to be, but a mile or so along, the town comes into view at the bottom of the valley, you can’t miss it. Take care of yourself, and do stop by if there’s ever anything you need.”

  “Don’t worry, I will.”

  He hesitated over leaving for a while longer, but eventually, he was on his way, stopping to turn back and wave shortly before disappearing out of sight, and I was left to my own stubborn insistence on turning this wilderness spot into something resembling home. I had been entirely truthful about having a lot to do. All my earlier attempts at unlocking new points or Ability options by sticking random bits of materials together had failed, but I was sure I knew what I needed to do next. At the very least, I had a short list of needs I could accomplish this morning, and if any of them happened to also give me more useful Skills or magical powers, then so much the better.

  I wished I had a notepad to scribble these ideas down onto, but it was a simple enough list of basic living essentials:

  Water, Food, Shelter, Repair Clothes.

  Food was simple enough, now that I knew what plants around here were edible, it was only a case of going around and collecting enough of them. A good thing my sore and bruised feet had recovered by now, as that might be a lot of walking.

  I’d spotted at least one type of plant stem thin and tough enough to make a basic sewing thread, enough to keep some of the tears in my dress together for now.

  I had some vague ideas on how to build a simple shelter, mostly using sticks and some of the biggest leaves I could find. A roof, some poles to hold it up, that would cover the bare minimum in case it rained. One dry day seemed reasonable to expect, two or three in a row might be pushing my luck a bit.

  And then I needed clean, fresh water, the stream hadn’t made me ill yet, but I was sorely tempted to buy that Filtering ability just to make sure.

  None of this seemed difficult, but it was likely to be time consuming, so I had best get started right away.

  Running Plant Identification over various of the different things growing around my campsite, I was able to slowly but surely build up a considerable heap of leaves, fruits, berries, roots, it all made for a very colourful and interesting looking salad, but nothing I could cook without access to some kitchen utensils, maybe some oil, I didn’t even have bread to make a sandwich out of them, but at least it was fresh and healthy. With a distinct lack of anything to store the food supplies in, and with my quick realisation that foraging for a whole lot of them at once to last me the day or two, rather than picking things as and when I felt a bit hungry, I ended up settling on the only reasonable solution. The only place where all this salad would stay clean, safe, out the way of the wind, was on top of my bed, with the covers looped around them a bit, it wasn’t the sturdiest bowl in the world, and if anyone happened upon it, it wouldn’t stop them looting my hard earned goods, but it was the best I could manage. I had some hope that nobody out here, if anyone did pass this way again soon, would wander off with just a heap of veg I had piled up.

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  Occasionally, as I was foraging, I disturbed small flocks of local birds, which would flutter away slowly. I briefly considered the first time the prospect of finding some way of hunting, catching, plucking the feathers from, carving the meat of, cooking… I quickly gave up on that line of thought, far more trouble than it was worth.

  As well, I noted where those giant Rutuda plant leaves were, a few growing over here, and few over there. Once I was sure I had enough edible plants gathered to keep me going for a bit, I started harvesting some of them in, dragged a whole heap of the leaves over to that cluster of trees I’d so benefited from yesterday, and started trying to figure out how to make some kind of shelter from the rain by threading big, waterproof leaves onto a structure of sticks.

  The prospect was getting more urgent by the passing hour as noon approached and passed, with clouds starting to gather on the horizon, slowly bigger, thicker and darker with the threat of rain catching me outside. Barely had I threaded a couple of the leaves and made what might pass for a small umbrella in an emergency, than another message popped up for me.

  New Skill Unlock:

  Material Crafting (Foraged): 1

  Gain 5 Experience Points

  Construction Ability Tree Unlocked

  Grade 1 Abilities Available

  Gain 15 Experience Points

  Ability Points: 2

  Waterproofing (1)

  Simple Furnishings (2)

  Basic Shelter (2)

  Wood Framing (3)

  The plan was working, I was picking up new options and more points and skills. I wasn’t entirely sure if the rising skill number was representing my increasing practise and weaving these leaves into place, or if gaining the skill had made me innately able to understand the craft, but either way, the leaves and sticks of my structure made gradually more sense and were steadily quicker and easier for me to fit into place as time went on, until I had an entire pitched roof of overlapping leaves large enough to cover the whole bed and space either side, and enough thick, sturdy branches to hold it up at head height. At some point along the way, I was aware that a Material Crafting (Foraged): 2 had popped up, but I was busy enough with rushing to get this all finished before the rain started that I hardly noticed now.

  Walking back toward where I had set up the fireplace with this now quite large and heavy structure that caught every gust of wind was not fun, especially with the constant worry that it might be pulled out of my grip or snapped in two before I got to benefit from it at all, but eventually I was fixing each of the poles into place around my bed, digging little pits to slot them into at the corners, and even though the dark clouds were still growing ominously over the neighbouring forest, I was safely under cover without even a drop of rain having started to fall.

  Stage 3 of the plan was one I was not looking forward to, but I had realised something overnight, that if it did start to rain, that water would likely be a good deal cleaner and fresher, as well as more conveniently nearby, than what flowed through the muddy stream. It hadn’t taken long into the slow, repetitive process of constructing my roof to realise that the water cascading off that would help speed up collection as well, if only I had somewhere to put it all.

  Kneeling down beside the bed, smearing yet more mud and other stains over my already ruined clothes, I started pulling plants out of the ground, as best I could, ripping and shredding them, sometimes bringing whole clumps of roots with them, revealing the bare mud underneath. Then, all I had to do was get stuck in, digging and scooping as much of that out as I could, with just my bare hands still, forming a nice big pit, or rather a small dent in the ground before I ran out of energy and had to stop and rest for a bit. It was enough for now. All I had to do now was line the edges of the pit with the last half dozen or so leaves, and wait to see if it worked.

  While I waited, I started stripping the stems from the plants I had Identified as being suitable for emergency sewing with, cross legged on one end of the bed, occasionally nibbling on the heap of salad I had piled up on the other end as I worked. A few minutes in, the rain started up, at first a gently drizzle, then picking up more, the roof I had built creaking and waving back and forth in each gust of wind, but holding steady, keeping the rain off me, and cascading it down into my hopefully vaguely suitable water tank. As the light dropped with the swelling cloud cover, I could just sit there, safely dry, listening to the sounds of the rain storm I had defeated, and feel somewhat more confident than I had at any time before. I had this, each step would build on the next, and I would only improve from here.