Cleo woke up from his meditation when something pulled his shirt. Opening his eyes, he saw that the surroundings were already dim, and the thing that tagged his shirt was the lazy monkey. He was a bit confused at first, as he was still drunk from all the memories he recalled. However, a few seconds were enough for him to get his awareness back. There was something inside him; he could feel it, and he even tried to grab it. However, his memories prevent him from accomplishing it.

He didn’t know if the thing he tried to grasp was his Spirit Root, but he wouldn’t find it now as his focus had already slipped away.

"I tried to stop it, but it won’t listen to me," Duk said as soon as he saw him opening his eyes. "I’m sorry, I know it’s important for you to cultivate as soon as possible, but I didn’t know what to do with that creature."

Duk didn’t need to feel guilty, because if he had considered how the monkey acted until now, he could already picture what happened and how difficult it was for him.

"Don’t worry, I know you’ve tried," he said, attempting to remove Duk’s guilt. After all, he had been having a lot of negative emotions today.

"Hu hu ha ha," the monkey said while pulling his shirt.

Looking at the monkey, he already knew what it wanted—to cook sweet potatoes. But the problem was that the sun had already set, and he believed the remaining heat it produced wasn’t enough for him to make a fire. He never expected his meditation to last this long. Not to mention his habit of getting sidetracked, if he considered the time he began meditating, it meant he had been sitting in the same position for almost five hours!

Was he on the right path of meditation? He didn’t know meditation could do something like this. In a few hours, he had already done something impossible for him. What would happen if he meditated every day? Besides sensing his Spirit Root, he could even fix his bad habit of getting distracted all the time!

With another tag on his clothes, he decided to stand and slice open two coconuts. If the monkey refused to eat it, then it would sleep on an empty stomach.

The monkey jumped around in excitement when it saw him moving. However, when he picked up a coconut, it stopped in confusion. It seemed that the monkey realized that he had no intention of cooking a sweet potato. In the first place, he didn’t have enough sweet potatoes to cook for all of them anymore. He intended to eat them at first, but his plan changed and wanted to plant them instead. Although he already had Lunaria fruit in a matter of few days, he still preferred to have more variety of food to eat.

He gave the two coconuts to Duk to poke a hole and then slice it open; he didn’t need to ask Duk, as he already knew the drill. It was sure convenient having Duk with him on the island; if he were alone, he wouldn’t even know how long it would take him to open a single coconut.

At first, the monkey stubbornly refused to drink the coconut water, but after a while—maybe afraid of getting nothing—it finally gave in and joined him and Duk. When the coconuts were sliced, he gave the monkey and Duk each half of the coconut while he kept the whole coconut with him. The three of them ate in silence, as it was a little hard to spoon the coconut meat. He even helped the monkey scoop it, as its strength wasn’t enough.

After a while, all of them went to their respective beds, ready to end the day.

While lying inside the shelter, Duk seemed curious about something.

"I thought you were going to upgrade this little home?" Duk asked.

"Yeah, I intend to, but I’m worried that I’ll encounter the black panther again."

"Black Panther? You mean the big beast yesterday?"

"Yes, that one."

"I see…"

Early in the morning, he woke up for the same reason as yesterday. Sighing, he walked out of his shelter and stretched out. The monkey did the same thing as before, making noise so it could get what it wanted. It appeared he was spoiling it too much, as it only relied on him and gave up on looking for its own food. That wouldn’t produce a good outcome; what would happen at the time of his departure? He had no intention of bringing the monkey back to the mainland, and if this kept up, the monkey wouldn’t survive the island alone.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

But what could he do? Was there a good solution for it? Well, he could think of one—taking the monkey inside the forest. The idea was dangerous, but it had its benefits. It wouldn’t just help the monkey get back to the game; he could also gather things while he was there. Even if he went to the forest the next day, the risk would still be the same; it was better to get used to it and learn as much as possible early than wait for something that wouldn’t appear.

However, if he intended to go into the woods, it was better to have a plan and consider all possibilities.

First, their safety. The most important thing that he must protect. What did he need to do to make sure all of them would come in and out of the forest intact? Having a weapon could help them defend themselves. His pocket knife wouldn’t do a good job, so he must find something more suitable to use.

Now that he thought about it, he could relate his experience as an investor to what he was doing right now, as they almost had the same thing that he must consider before investing. Most of the time, when he was choosing where to invest, he would prepare and find a weapon—information—before diving in. So, if he copied what he always did before investing, the next thing he must do was scout and gather as much information as he could.

Therefore, what he needed to do in his situation was to understand the danger, the place, the environment, and everything that could help him.

"Yes, after all, we humans survive and thrive not because of our strength but because of our brain and preparation!" He nodded, understanding something about surviving.

Although he wasn’t a very good investor, he still trusted the experience he had, as it never failed him—not in a big way, at least.

With that, he had new goals added to the things he had to do. Now that he had some free time, he should create a new design for his shelter. He didn’t manage to think of one yesterday, as he had no desire. However, now that he was a bit inspired, he was confident of making a new one.

Staring at his shelter, he brainstormed with himself while ignoring the monkey’s cry for attention, thinking of various things he could add or do to make it better. The most obvious need for an upgrade was the spacing; he must expand it so the three of them could fit inside—he wasn’t afraid of the monkey anymore, knowing it had no intention of harming him. Next was comfort. He didn’t know how to upgrade the shelter in this department, but he would think of ways or find things that could help him achieve that goal. Lastly, but maybe the most important one, was their protection. He intended to add a barricade to divide his shelter from the forest; having some protection, even from a wall of sticks, was much better than nothing.

After brainstorming, he gained some ideas on how to improve the shelter. While observing his shelter, he realized that the sloped stick wasn’t the most efficient way to build it. If he added another pair of triangular sticks from the other end of the slope, he could have more space inside his shelter.

However, that wasn’t the only thing he wanted to change. The height and width of the triangular sticks weren’t enough for him anymore; he needed a much longer one; the longer it was, the better. Thus, he must gather longer sticks and more banana leaves—a lot of them. Also, if possible, he ought to look for firewood, as the dry materials were starting to deplete on the beach.

With all that, he finally gave his attention to the needy monkey, as it wouldn’t stop making noise. He didn’t want to wake Duk early, as he hadn’t had a very good day yesterday, so he wanted him to rest for a little longer.

"Ok, we already had this conversation yesterday," he scolded the monkey. "You know that I can’t give you what you want, so no matter how much you cry, I don’t have anything to give you."

"Hu hu ha ha."

"No, if you don’t stop, I’ll not give you food."

Even though they couldn’t understand each other's words, the monkey seemed to understand his meaning, as it sadly sat on the grass while staring at him with teary eyes.

Now he felt he was blackmailing the monkey to do what he wanted, but what could he do? That was the only thing that would work for it. Regaining the peacefulness of the morning, this might be a good opportunity to meditate while waiting for Duk to wake up, but he was worried that the incident yesterday would repeat itself, so he didn’t know what to do.

Glancing at the monkey, the thought of telling it to wake him up arose within his mind, but he swiftly scrapped the idea as it was stupid. How could the monkey understand a complicated request like that? But if he meditated without informing Duk to wake him up, he was sure Duk wouldn’t wake him up on his own.

Sighing, he decided to give up on meditating, as he didn’t want to accidentally waste a day doing nothing but meditating. Therefore, he should focus his attention on other things while waiting for Duk to wake up. Searching for a good weapon was a good way to use his time.

Looking around, he scanned the area for things he could use or create. In the distance, he saw the plane debris. He didn't know what to do with them, but now he had a good clue how to use them. Although they weren’t as tough as he expected them to be, they were still sharp enough to utilize as a weapon. Walking closer, he picked up the heaviest one, trying to understand the overall appearance and material of the debris.

While holding it, he caught on to something a little odd. The debris was lighter than he remembered, but if he considered his body’s condition when he first dragged it to the rocky part of the beach, he could understand the difference in weight.

Putting the thought in the back of his mind, he realized that the plane debris had a different thickness to its body. If he could separate the thickest part of the metal and shape it like a spearhead, he could tie it to a stick and make a spear!

However, how could he cut metal debris? He had no tools for that. The only thing that had that ability was Duk’s claws, but would it work, though? Metal was very different from a coconut, after all.