My morning routine was done with a healthy dose of adrenaline. The first thing I did, even before realizing I was still in my nightgown, was change the stone blocks with the five bags of sand. This was going to take all day, which meant I wouldn’t have this tool to make other things until tonight. And I didn’t want to put anything in the tool until I put the broken shards of glass in the fence. I needed to check and see if there was anything else the fences needed. Fences were my number one priority.

The words above the greenhouse were still blinking red. It was an obnoxious pull on my anxiety. I would get there. Now that I was making glass, I was confident I’d have it at least partially fixed by the time they came. Hopefully being partially fixed would work and it wouldn’t get completely destroyed.

I put the finished stone blocks into the fence around the greenhouse. The words popped up again.

0/2 broken glass

That meant I’d use all five panes of glass currently in the tool to strengthen the fence. It also meant I’d have to go across the bridge to get some more sand. It might be better in the daylight to get more sand. I also need more stones for upgrading the garage. And I had a feeling, what with the chipped and broken bricks on the garage that it would ask for bricks.

Either way, there was no harm in stockpiling some bricks in my storage area. I fed Daisy and gathered an egg, then went to the blinking greenhouse to water the plants. Tomorrow the tomatoes would finally be ready, and I wasn’t sure when the potatoes would be ready. They were all growing at a very slow pace.

I checked myself the moment I said that, because honestly, growing them on earth would have been so much longer. The tomatoes were still growing in about four days, despite the damage to the green house.

I switched out the last of my animal care clothes and decided it was time to start upgrading the logging clothes. If I was right, today would mostly be gathering sand, clay, and stone. I placed my hard hat on the sewing machine, just to see what it did. The machine started with a flattened imprint of the hardhat. I shrugged and headed downstairs.

I did my best to respect my stamina. This was a day of monotonous gathering, and since the greenhouse wasn’t getting fixed today, I wanted to save what food I had.

My first order of business was to gather sand. As soon as I mentally agreed to enter monster territory, I was again hit by the noises these creatures made as well as my sanity bar being replaced by a smaller health bar. Sure, it wasn’t as scary in the daytime, but I also realized that I was far more visible in the daytime, too. Despite doing this in the dark, my anxiety was still through the roof.

“At least they don’t have an anxiety meter. I’d destroy that every single day,” I mumbled to myself.

I did it again. I got so nervous that I made a noise on the side of the river that was full of monsters.

I gathered sand while constantly looking around. I knew I was pushing my luck as the bags of sand grew. If I was serious about this, I needed enough sand to replace the fifteen panes of glass in the greenhouse, and then some extra just for good measure.

Once I had ten bags of sand, I moved them to the other side of the bridge, then kept gathering more. Twenty bags would do it. This side of the forest was loud, but I still felt like night was way louder. Some of the monsters must be nocturnal.

I was grabbing the last two bags to move across the bridge when I heard something rustling in the deeper forest. My heartrate spiked and I booked it onto the bridge, not minding that I was sacrificing stamina for this. I was probably making more noise than necessary, sprinting across the bridge, but I quickly made it to the other side and hid by the bridge before peeking over. Another bush spider monster scuttled near the clearing. I couldn’t see any eyes, so I wasn’t sure if it could see me, but I could almost imagine it glancing around.

It can’t go over the bridge, I whispered in my mind, sweat forming on my forehead. It can’t go over the bridge. It can’t go over the bridge.

The spider monster returned to the forest and I let out a breath, leaning against the bridge. I had twenty bags of sand. That would last me for… until I fixed the greenhouse.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I spent the rest of the day moving two bags of sand at a time into my storage area, then giving a mini celebration as I realized I could now carry two clumps of clay at a time without it hurting my stamina.

It was a long day of carrying stones, clay, and sand, but a productive one. I was getting things done. It was feeling good.

I started to consider my next move. I could now work the brick tool at night. If glass took an entire day, was I going to put five more bags of sand in the tool tonight to make it cook all night, or was I going to put in ten piles of broken stone to make bricks to upgrade the garage?

It was a tough choice. I didn’t like the idea of losing half a night when the stone blocks were done cooking. But I also didn’t like not being able to know what the next step was in upgrading the garage and waiting until the day was half over to figure it out. It all went back to whether or not broken glass really was the final piece of strengthening those fences.

When I got enough resources of clay and stone, I let out a sigh and admitted to myself I needed to experiment with them. I currently had -26.84 dopamine points, and one of the things I needed to do was buy another article of clothing, once the garage was upgraded. That meant I needed to start paying off my debt.

I grabbed a clump of clay and dropped it in the dumpster. The clay gave me +5 dopamine points. Not bad, but considering how monotonous it was to get it, it was easier to get the points with boards or firewood.

I then dropped a stone into the dumpster. That, too, gave me +5 dopamine points. My debt was now -16.84. All things considered, with the information I was given about the bridge, it was worth the price. It protected my sanity and gave me peace of mind. Peace of mind was worth all the dopamine points I could muster.

Though I didn’t want to think that, knowing the alien overlords heard that.

I still had one more thing to try. I broke one of the stones with my pickaxe and dropped it in the dumpster. It gave me +3 dopamine points. Alright, so the brokenness of the stone was only to make the bricks. It would be better to have an intact one for dopamine points.

Sometime I’d have to experiment with how much a stone block gave me. I was already planning on making a batch of bricks to bake in the sun tomorrow with the mounds of clay I had stored in my storage area. I might sacrifice one baked clay to the dumpster to figure out what it gave me. And I might sacrifice a brick to see how much that gave, too. But as of now, I needed all those resources. There were now two more full days until they came. This experimentation was something I could do after I completed my to-do list.

I grabbed the clothes from the sewing machine and started to cut down some trees as I waited for the glass to finish. I cut the logs into boards to put toward upgrading my storage room. Extra room could only help at this point, especially in my endeavor to stockpile resources. Eventually the greenhouse would be producing better. I was using the fact that I’d been eating through a ton of food to start storing resources, but eventually I would need the space.

Because I was going to fix that greenhouse.

I was halfway done with the boards needed for upgrading the storage when the tool finished making my glass. Too excited, I rushed over and pulled out the glass, still cool to the touch. The wolf was not going to be late this time. My timer told me he’d arrive in about a half an hour. I set the glass on the concrete, then hit it once with my pick axe like I did with the stone. It only took one whack for it to change from glass to shattered glass.

I doubted it would cut me. If I spent most of the summer cleaning a musty old house and a dirty garage to somehow get cut by glass now, I’d be angry. But there was still something instinctual about my hands reaching toward broken pieces of glass that forced me to do so delicately. I placed it into the fences. As I finished putting three in the large one, I held my breath, waiting.

There was a slight sheen to the entire fence. It was finished! Shattered glass was the last thing it needed!

I let out another breath, then seriously considered my next step as I broke two more glass panes. I had two days and two nights. I had a very good feeling bricks would be soon for upgrading the garage. It seemed weird that a brick building wouldn’t have a request for bricks to upgrade. In that case, it would be easier to make glass during the night so it took the entire night instead of losing half a night. I would need to spend the morning shaping the clay mounds into bricks and have them baking in the sun.

I put five more bags of sand in the tool to cook through the night and spent the remaining time cutting more trees down for upgrading the storage.

Before going to bed, I checked my to-do list for some much needed dopamine.

Repair all damages caused by them

Make glass

Strengthen the wall around the house and greenhouses

Upgrade garage

Purchase third article of cleaning clothing

Build bridge to collect sand

I was so close. Two more days of work, and I could actually finish a to-do list for the first time since they were daily to-do lists. It was nice that I had the ability to force myself into a sleep. I was too excited to get more things crossed off my list.