I grabbed the clip board, checking the progress bar first. Foraging had helped my cooking levels grow, which meant I had another thing that would help gain experience in that skill. I then noticed a small note underneath my cooking skill that was written in with the same perfect handwriting the to-do list was written in.

Foraging: level 2

I blinked at it, trying to understand. The information came to me, without the words written in my vision. Essentially, every time I go to forage, I would gain more skills of tracking the wolf to more accurately guess where he was to further protect myself from stumbling on that creature unintentionally. Foraging was clearly its own kind of skill within the cooking skill. I was pretty sure I’d get better at foraging the more I did it. Though why I had to wear a chef’s hat and jacket was beyond me. Who even forages for food in clothes that were meant for a fancy kitchen?

I flipped through the many pages of recipes, seeing all the things that were unlocked. I saw peanut butter was unlocked, as well as berry jam. That meant I would probably be unlocking the ability to make bread soon. That or I just randomly had the ability to make peanut butter and jam for other things.

On the salad bar it had the option of putting in 0/10 foraged items on the salad, which gave it a more complex stamina addition. There was even a recipe for applesauce.

There would eventually be more recipes when I unlocked more greenhouses. Until then, I was happy for what I had.

I then glanced through the building options and saw the one to build a barn. It would cost 30.00 dopamine points, but I had that. Perhaps I shouldn’t have dumped all those boards in the dumpster, but I didn’t feel sad about it too long. Having something to build was another way to store logs or boards I didn’t need instead of storing it in the storage unit.

I had a feeling this was going to take a while to build. But that was okay. Maybe my building would finally reach level twenty-five when I was done. I walked out the back door and saw the barn was nearer to the last greenhouse. It was nearer the bedroom window, and I saw the base of it nestled in the trees. Glowing words appeared above it.

0/200 logs

I hadn’t chopped too many trees on this side of the house, so my first order of business was to start chopping. Considering I needed two hundred logs, it wouldn’t be that hard to get the place cleared out soon.

I switched the bricks out of the tool, putting more finished bricks into the storage unit as I gathered up the thirty baked clay from the ground and placed them in the storage. Only then did I start placing the food I had foraged into the storage area. A basket appeared in the storage room, and I was relieved to see that I could put all twenty strawberries in the basket. I did the same with the nuts, then tried to with the mushrooms, but it stopped me. The storage unit was full.

I sighed. All thirty baked clay were in the storage room, with fifteen bricks in the tool. I supposed I could try seeing if they were protected in the tool for the night. I was already planning on keeping some food inventory for the night to see if it would stay stored. While thinking about it, I grabbed a potato soup and all the fish and chips I could hold. They were attacking tonight, and I would need them all.

It was getting darker. Not dark like in the woods, but the sun was sinking to the tree line. I pulled out my axe as I walked toward the base of the fence. I crossed over it and started swinging at the nearest tree. A barn could hold a cow. I could start getting milk. So many things could be unlocked with milk.

I worked for the next hour, clearing out a section of trees around the base of the barn. Two hundred logs was a lot, but I felt elated the first time I got seven logs instead of six. It was its own kind of dopamine. I also tried out a salad for the first time when my stamina got low. I would eventually try just the base salad, but I needed stamina right now. My salad had onion and some nuts on it, giving me about the same amount as a bowl of soup. Eating something besides soup to give me a boost of stamina was a nice change, even if it was still gone in three bites.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I burned through my stamina as I cleared out a section of trees. Most of the time I would drop six logs that I dumped in the barn, but sometimes I would get that seventh log that still felt amazing. I would no doubt get strong enough in this skill to reach twenty-five soon, especially if this barn really did need two hundred logs.

I kept going until I had a small percentage of stamina left. I almost dropped the last log into the base, when I hesitated. A small smile crossed my face, then I moved the log to my lower back. I waited, feeling the pocket dimension do the rest. Before I knew it, the entire log was in my back.

“Alright, well, should have tried that from the beginning,” I said before pulling it out again and dropping it into the barn. This could work for so many things. It could really help with decluttering if I could put boxes of trash in my inventory to bring down. Overall, this was a huge help.

I stood back to admire my work.

49/200 logs

Not bad for a night’s work. It would be a lot harder to chop down trees in the pouring rain, and of course I would have another to-do list to work on tomorrow, but if I could spend a solid day chopping down trees, I could get all the logs done for the barn.

I had my flashlight on. The wolf timer still had forty-five minutes before it started blinking, so maybe now was as good a time as ever to try out my inventory in decluttering the junk upstairs. I couldn’t chop down any more trees with the stamina I didn’t have, and I needed to save my soups for the next three days.

I turned around, heading toward the house. I crossed over the fence and was about to move around the storage room to enter the back of the house when some strange shadows caught my eye. I turned the flashlight, my heart skidding to a stop. I was mentally prepared for the creepy shadows to happen inside the house, not outside.

My flashlight landed on a strange pile by the house. My feet were frozen in place. I had rarely been on this side of the house. It was the side with my bedroom window and the entertainment room. It had some lovely, yet overgrown lilac bushes. Honestly, cut a hole between the bushes, place a bench between them, it would be the coziest reading spot in the spring and summer.

I really had a bad habit of jumping to house decor ideas when I was scared out of my mind.

The light remained on the pile of trash. I approached it cautiously, wishing it wasn’t getting so dark so quickly. It didn’t help that the house was blocking whatever sunlight was left.

I crouched down, then inspected the garbage in the dead grass. Beer cans and cigarette butts. I could have sworn this wasn’t here before. True, I was rarely on this side of the house, but this was… this was a lot of beer cans. I was pretty sure I would have noticed this when I came out here on this side of the house. Which could only mean this had been collecting for a while.

My mouth went dry. I tried keeping my wits about me as I counted the beer cans. Fourteen. Fourteen cans and plenty of cigarette butts to go with it. Someone had been here, smoking and drinking, and I didn’t even notice. The best way I could calculate this was if I threw all this trash away and came out tomorrow morning to see if this person came in the evening or… some other time in the day.

I was on my knees, a sliver of my sanity disappearing. I thought I had taken this well, but this was a new thing I wasn’t expecting. Something had been happening on this side of the house for at least a week, maybe two. But what were they looking at.

I stood up, moving to the window. I tried to see past the bushes into the window, cupping my hands around my eyes as I leaned over.

It was my bedroom. Of course I knew it was my bedroom, but… but part of me needed to make sure. Because I needed to make sure just how good of a view my bed was to this person to understand what it meant. From here, where the pile of beer cans were, they had a perfect view of me sleeping.

And… I didn’t know what it meant. Part of me didn’t want to go down that road. But I couldn’t deny the chunk of sanity that disappeared from my bar, the way my breathing hitched, the fear that gripped me. There was something else besides the wolf out there in these woods. Something possibly human. Someone who watched me while I slept. Another chunk of sanity disappeared from my bar as I backed away.

There was absolutely nothing comforting about that thought.