It was still mid-morning by the time I pulled my second ten mounds of clay out of my back. It was still the oddest experience, reaching into the small of my back and feeling a pocket dimension there. I didn’t notice any added weight when I put the clay inside. I was expecting some sort of fanny pack, almost, but it really was just something behind me that I could tap into.

Either way, before the sun was high in the sky, I managed to mold and start baking another thirty bricks on the ground while another fifteen baked bricks were cooking.

I straightened, glancing around. I assumed gathering resources would take me all day, but now with this new inventory upgrade, it cut that time down significantly. If I had thirty baked bricks and fifteen more finished bricks, that would give me more than enough for both fences. Then I could dump the rest of the bricks into the storage unit tomorrow when I knew for certain what my to-do list would be. I was pretty sure I had enough room in the storage unit for forty-five bricks. Just not for logs.

I cut the logs into boards, feeding them into the dumpster to give me another huge boost. I now had a whopping 117.03 total dopamine points.

“I’ve got points to burn,” I said.

Once that was done, I changed into my cooking outfit. This lesson clearly taught me that it was best to keep all the levels evenly matched, so I needed to make sure my lower skills weren’t too far behind.

I headed toward the river, prepared to do more fishing when I slowed my walk, feeling information enter my mind. I waited as the words appeared.

Level 3 clothing unlock new skill: skilled forager

I blinked at it. Foraging? I had to wait until I was level fifteen to start foraging?

Out of curiosity, my clothes changed into all the level three clothing for animal handling, and I waited, information coming to me.

Level 3 clothing unlock new skill: cows

I raised an eyebrow, then shifted back into my cooking clothing. I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised with cows. There was an option to get milk, after all. That would be nice. I’d probably have to build a barn or something before I could buy some cows, much like how I had to build a chicken coop before getting Daisy.

What confused me, though, was foraging.

I turned toward the sky. “Again, I don’t want to critique your game or what not, but foraging is usually one of the first things people do in a farming game. There’s always berries or mushrooms in the wild that a person can collect right from the get-go. It’s, like, a level 0 skill, honestly.” I glanced around, realizing I hadn’t seen any bushes or mushrooms around. In fact, in my black slacks, chef’s jacket, and chef’s cap, I probably looked like an idiot, but I was waiting to see the words over the new bushes, telling me about what food foraging I could do.

Which is when I realized I really hadn’t explored my side of the river.

“Okay, maybe this is all on me,” I mumbled as I started walking deeper into the forest. “Granted, if these woods didn’t look so terrifying and creepy, I might have done more exploring later. Like, come on, what is this!” It was already dark, the thick trees blocking out the sun. “Obviously I would have taken two steps in here and noped the hell out of here. You really can’t blame me.”

Maybe this was why it was a level 15 skill here. I took out a flashlight, the woods were that dark already in the mid-morning. In my cooking clothes, I could feel an almost pull to where I knew the house would be.

“At least I’ll never get lost,” I said as I plunged forward. “You know, maybe this is why you waited until I was at level 15. I know where the house is, and I also have an inventory now.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Right. I have an inventory. I don’t have to store food in the storage unit anymore, I could store food on my person. Could I still have my inventory as I go to sleep? Did I essentially gain ten more spots of storage? It was worth experimenting with. Have a bowl of soup on my person and a plate of fish and chips. That way I could be prepared for anything.

I saw some glowing words ahead. I started for them, my flashlight out, when my feet were frozen in place like there was an invisible wall in front of me.

Entering Wolf territory. Do you wish to continue?

Y/N

I stared at the words, wishing I hadn’t rambled to the sky so loudly on the way here.

Wolf territory? As in… the wolf creature? The creature that came closer to my house every night? The one that could stand up on its hind legs and sprint at an inhumanly fast rate?

I let out a shuddering breath. Okay. Maybe this was why foraging was a level 15 skill.

I closed my eyes, not sure what to do. Obviously, this was a skill I could use, so there had to be something that would help me. I wasn’t going in blind, and I knew exactly where the house was.

I mentally chose yes, and the wall disappeared. I walked toward the bush with the words above it, my hand holding the flashlight trembling.

My vision shifted, and things were rearranging. I could see the ten spots of my inventory pop up at the bottom of my vision. The wolf timer moved from underneath my sanity and stamina to the other corner of my vision. Instead of a timer counting down, it had three question marks around it, which did not help me feel better in the slightest.

I tried to feel a bravery that I did not have as I approached the bush. The words above it said forage food. It looked like some strawberries. I knelt down, quickly picking them and placing them in my pocket dimension. On the lower part of my vision, a strawberry icon popped up, with a number next to it. This one had a six as I finished putting all the strawberries in there.

That was nice. Since they were so small, they didn’t take up all ten rows of the inventory for one strawberry. I finished picking all the strawberries off the bush, and the words disappeared from on top of the bush. There were more glowing words further off, and I took a deep breath, steadying myself as I allowed my feet to carry me deeper into wolf territory.

I knelt down, gathering nuts and mushrooms. Despite being all the way out here, I could almost feel some recipes getting unlocked on the clip board at the house. I didn’t want to stay out here too long, mostly because the trees were so thick it was difficult to tell time. And since my wolf timer wasn’t giving me a hint right now, I would have to judge for myself. If this was anything like the actual farming games I would play, I would often spend too much time gathering and forget what time it was. I knew where the house was, so I wouldn’t have to worry about that, but the fact that the wolf timer just had three question marks made me nervous.

Through experimentation, I figured out that I was able to collect fifteen bunches of each foraged item in my inventory. Fifteen strawberries, fifteen nuts, and fifteen mushrooms. If it went past fifteen, it was placed in another slot of my inventory. That meant I probably couldn’t stay here for too long, since I was quickly filling up those slots. That was fine. Every moment I was still here made me worried about the wolf finding me.

I walked toward a tree, shining my flashlight up to see apples on the tree. I raised an eyebrow, then glanced around. I saw the words glowing on top of the tree, which meant I could pick them. My flashlight stopped on what looked like claws tearing into the tree, and my heart froze in place.

I approached cautiously, touching the branch of the tree. Words started filling my vision, and I blinked, slightly alarmed. They were going too fast for me to read until they finally paused.

Information download. Wolf was here an hour ago. No sign of him now.

These words appeared, then shrunk very small and moved to the side of my vision to where the wolf icon was. I froze, blinking. This must be part of the foraging skill. I mentally chose the wolf icon again and the words came back to full vision. Whatever skill I had would let me know more about the wolf. Which meant yes, I did have some sort of skill involved with helping me forage.

The tree wasn’t large. A step ladder would have been nice, but I didn’t have one. Instead, I set the flashlight on the ground and grabbed a branch, climbing up the tree. I didn’t have to go far before I grabbed a few branches and placed the apples in my inventory.

For apples, I could only store seven before it moved on to the next inventory slot. I gathered enough apples to have two slots of seven before hoping down and picking up my flashlight. I felt my natural pull toward my house and headed back, stopping to pick more nuts on the way to keep filling my inventory. I didn’t dare relax until I moved out of wolf territory.

Once I mentally selected to leave the foraging spot, my vision shifted again. My inventory shrank so it didn’t take so much of my vision, but it was kind of nice to see how many spots I had left. The wolf icon zoomed back underneath the stamina and sanity bar. I still had a good five and a half hours left before the wolf came.

I stretched, heading for the covered back porch. It was time to see what recipes my foraging unlocked.