She decided to postpone meeting other humans in the end. There's a decent chance that she gets angry and starts mocking people she shouldn't mess with when going out, so to avoid that, Wilona went ahead and did team-building exercises around her camp.

  Wilona patted the row of clay she just finished placing. It was solid enough; the line of sticks she placed as a foundation for the oven was also effective enough to keep the hollow mound from collapsing. She grabbed another handful of clay and moved to fill another row of bones. Just then, heat touched her sides.

  "The oven is going along nicely, right?" Wilona smiled towards Fuzz. Now that she had a body, the myceloid told her that she wanted to physically help out. For the time being, Wilona is asking her to heat up the clay walls Wilona finished making to solidify them. The two of them worked together to build the oven slowly.

  "Yes," Fuzz nodded. She waved the fire around, then put it away once the dried branches they used as foundation began to smoke. Fuzz waited for a bit, then she put the torch close again. "I've always loved baking, and I am happy to know that you are willing to entertain my little request."

  "Don't mind it," Wilona went back to work. She found it odd that Fuzz baked, but eh, she hasn't been in heaven yet so for all she knew, maybe everyone there had time to do their favorite hobbies or something. "I felt kind of bad too, you know? That's why I asked if you wanted to do something in your free time, because you'd be bored."

  "Thank you," Fuzz replied brightly. Wilona minding her mental state had been unexpected but welcome. She has worked with ovens in the past so making one from scratch isn't all that difficult for her. "I'm surprised you knew how to make an oven."

  "Yeah, well, you watch enough brain rot every day and it'll just find its way over to you." Wilona giggled, but Fuzz didn't understand why she found it funny. "I know a lot of stuff thanks to my lifestyle, even if they're just, you know, surface level. I know I lack the finer details for things like this, but hey, it's not so bad."

  "You did need help when making the bones of the oven earlier." The myceloid pointed out. Wilona knew how to make an oven but lacked the experience and muscle memory to pull it off. A weird combination, but she guessed that this must have been what most nobles experience day to day.

  They know how something works but not why it works. It's no longer shocking to the mushroom why most of them are so bad at leading armies and expeditions even though they're educated in those things; they simply do not know the goings of such things and are basing their decisions on words and explanations they got from books.

  The conversation ended there and the two of them worked in silence for a while. They slowly finished the lower half of the oven, then the middle. They also set up the hands for the inner shelf—Wilona's recommendation, as the ovens in her world apparently had shelves which can be removed and replaced to control the amount of heat the food gets from the fire. Or coils, as she put it.

  It was around the quarter of the oven's head that one of them spoke again, "I never thought it'd take us an entire day to finish this thing."

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  "That is simply how it works," Fuzz shrugged. "Ovens are delicate, and rushing while making one is a quick way of experiencing a life-threatening accident. We needed to carefully place everything; it's why it took so long."

  "We could have rushed?" Wilona asked playfully. She bent down and slapped the oven's body. A dull thrum resonated within the hollow inside and the oven began to sing. "Huh, I didn't know that can happen."

  "The walls are thin," Fuzz shrugged in nonchalance, but she thought it was concerning. The oven being hard enough to sound like metal when struck is good, but for the inside to echo every time it gets hit implies that it's very brittle. And the walls are thin, as she mentioned.

  "Great!" Wilona nodded. "I don't know what it means when walls are thin but I'm guessing it's something good, right?"

  "Kind of," Fuzz admitted. "It means that the oven is fragile but also compact. The walls will hold even when I bake in the hundred-degree range under the rain, as there's no room for moisture to seep inside the clay because of how small the walls are. We can also leave this in the open for the same reason—water will simply not find hold inside the walls."

  "That's good then," Wilona nodded. She sounded happy. "I want to make an oven that lasts a while, but even if this thing is resistant, we're still putting walls around this thing." The witch looked at her shed, which now had leaves and mud on top of its roof to prevent water from leaking when it rains. "Something like that sounds nice."

  "I agree," Fuzz replied. She decided to add something to the idea. "Maybe we can also make the room bigger to start with? I think it'll be nice if we have space for more ovens or a place to have dinner in."

  "I agree with the oven part, but dinner inside a house means Mossheart can't join us." Ah yes, Fuzz thought that the ent has taken a liking to eating the balls of swamp debris Wilona has been giving her. In a plate, no less. "If we want to make a place for having dinner, maybe we can set up something near the river? Garry would appreciate it too."

  Wilona has been the first person Fuzz saw willingly call a Wyrm-Scale Gar an affectionate name, and for some unknown reason, the fish seemed to not mind that fact. The myceloid assumed that it must have had an owner in the past, but the rough scales, various scars on its snout, and the healing back fin implied otherwise.

  "I suppose," Fuzz agreed. Turning the fish into an ally isn't a bad idea, especially in a place such as this. Even if this isn't their natural habitat, around swamps, Wyrm-Scale Gars would reign supreme. Then again, they'd do that no matter what type of water they're in.

  Oceans, rivers, lakes—that particular species will dominate.

  Once more, the conversation lapsed. They didn't talk about anything and only mentioned plans about the future. Even when Mossheart joined in to build the building which would surround the oven, Wilona barely talked. Fuzz noticed that she would usually find a topic to talk about, but this time, Wilona is silent.

  "Is something on your mind?" Fuzz asked her.

  "Yeah? I'm just curious if making more magical staffs would mean that I get to sell more items which I get to a village. You know?" Wilona rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "It's not a bad idea, I think."

  "Why make more staffs?" Fuzz curiously asked. Wilona was good enough at copying the written enchantments on her book that she can make a magical staff without issue, but it seemed counterproductive, especially when she can work on her quests.

  "I want to upgrade the one that I have. I feel like it's pretty lacking." Wilona shrugged. "And besides, Garry has been collecting those magical stones for me and I've learned how to chisel stone using wood and bones, so you know..."

  "You have an idea on how you would go about this?" Fuzz thought that if Wilona said yes, then why wouldn't she pursue making better equipment? Wilona nodded. "Then do it. But can I ask what your idea is?"

  "It's nothing really, I'll just carve the planetary alignment onto the stones, then I'll ask Mossheart to stack them together by wrapping a bunch of treant wood around them! That way the stones are inside the staff. If I'm feeling lucky, I might even add like, another stone up top."

  "Hm..." Fuzz thought in silence. She fixed her posture into something that resembled a thinking man's pose—back hunched, knees pulled, and chin down. "It's not a bad idea. I think some mages use the method you thought of even, just with more expensive gemstones and without the ent."

  "Aw really?" Wilona pouted. "I thought my idea was unique!"

  "Anything that anyone can come up with in this day and age is rarely unique," Fuzz chided. "It's no surprise that yours isn't innovative either."

  "Yeah, yeah." Wilona smiled. "I was just joking—but it would have been cool if I made something original though, right?"

  "It would have been, yes." Fuzz agreed.