Morning saw a mostly naked Lanek striding through the forest and up to a small river. He placed a small bundle of the clothes he had found in the city the day prior on the ground and dove into the water. He nearly shrieked as the cold water found all of his sensitive bits, but this needed to be done.

In his prior life, he would never allow himself to go a day without a shower. Even though he hated cold showers with a passion, he would take a cold shower over stewing in his own filth and stinking. He proceeded to scrub himself with a strip of wet cloth he had torn from the ruined t-shirt he had been wearing under his hoodie.

Once he couldn’t bear the cold water any longer, he climbed out of the river and began moving in place to shake off excess water and get his blood flowing. After a few minutes in the air, he dressed himself quickly, noting that in his haste he had forgotten to loot socks or underwear while in the city. Ah well, I can go commando for now. Let’s just wash my socks and underwear right now and let them dry back at camp.

Returning to the camp, Lanek found himself being inspected by his furry companions. This is probably the first time they have smelled me while I was clean.

While restarting the fire, Lanek added a few more items to his growing shopping list for the next trip into Caelis. In addition to the aforementioned undergarments and socks, he would need a nice large pot. Not only would that be nice for cooking, but it would be nice to be able to heat up water for a sponge bath. Not to mention that there was no way Lanek was going to dive into a river in the dead of winter. Screw that noise.

“All right, guys. I need your help today.” Sanguineus and Kazuma both perked up and turned to face him. “You see this rock? The one that’s the size of my fist? Can you guys bring me more that are about that size?” Both animals considered the stone before lumbering off to begin the search.

“Thank you!” he called after them. While they hunted for suitable stones, Lanek cleared the ground outside of the cave, removing all of the twigs, leaves, and other flammable debris from the area. Once he had the area down to bare dirt, he retrieved his mattock from the cave.

Lanek used the mattock to break up the dirt with the pick side before flipping it over and scraping the loose dirt out with the adze side. Once he had an indentation in the ground that was roughly 15 cm deep and 40 cm in diameter, he started placing the stones he had found the night before around the bowl he had dug into the dirt. He had just finished utilizing the last of his stones when both Kazuma and Sanguineus returned to camp with a stone apiece and eyed the hole curiously.

After placing their stones and showing them how many more he would need, both creatures nodded and returned to the forest. Lanek was glad that they understood, he did not want to have them collect more than they needed and waste their energy.

While they collected the stones, Lanek turned to a new task, getting himself off of the ground while he slept. He collected several of his cut saplings and his bedroll. Laying his bedroll out, Lanek measured out the saplings before cutting one of the saplings into two smaller pieces, each one slightly wider than his bedroll.

He proceeded to cut two notches in the underside of each of those two pieces. Taking another two saplings, Lanek trimmed them down to be a bit longer than his bedroll. With that done, he was able to place the notched pieces of wood at the top and bottom of these longer saplings, making a crude frame. Satisfied with what he saw, he proceeded to cut more saplings into shorter, notched pieces that would serve as support slats to create a solid platform just slightly larger than his bedroll with the longer pieces raising him off the ground.

Now, he could have easily stopped there, but he wanted to be comfortable. He disassembled the bed frame he had built and moved it into the cave fully. He didn’t want to have to move it once it was fully assembled. Walking back outside, he checked on the progress his companions had made, finding enough rocks lying around to complete the fire pit.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Thanking the furballs for their help, he once more let them know he was going to be busy in camp, so they could wander off if they liked. Neither seemed inclined to go, both choosing instead to lounge around camp and watch him work. Frankly, Lanek felt like they found his labor amusing somehow.

Returning to his project, Lanek cut more notches into the smaller bits of wood, this time in the top of them. He didn’t need them to be very deep, just enough to keep his next pair of long logs from moving around while he slept. After placing the two logs into these new notches, he started to get excited. Not much more to go! Which is good, I’m fucking exhausted.

Now, he just needed to finish the box, which he accomplished by cutting two large notches in the two newly laid saplings and two deep notches into two more small pieces of wood. Fitting the notches together like you would with a log cabin, he was able to create a raised rim around the slats. In all, the entire bed frame was about 40 cm from the ground to the top of the frame.

Lanek took a brief rest, draining his water flask and downing some berries he had scavenged. The next part of his plan shouldn’t take too long, probably less than an hour if he was being honest with himself. Dragging himself to his feet, he walked into the forest, looking for some of the evergreen trees he had spotted while looking for the lake.

Finding a patch of what turned out to be spruce trees in this world as well, he proceeded to harvest the lower boughs. He broke what he could and chopped the stubborn ones free until he had an armful. Lanek returned to camp and stuffed the boughs tightly into the frame in a bit of a crisscross pattern. It took him several more trips before he was satisfied with how much he had stuffed into the frame.

With a satisfied grin, Lanek spread his bedroll over the spruce boughs to protect himself from the branches and pokey needles. Once he lowered his body onto the bedroll, the spruce boughs compressed, causing Lanek to sink just enough to keep him from accidentally rolling out of bed.

Filled with a sense of pride at his work and greatly looking forward to sleeping on a soft surface rather than the hard and cold floor of the cave, Lanek pried himself out of bed. There was still work to do after all.

First on the agenda was getting some lunch and refilling his water flask. Picking up one of his makeshift spears and chain whip, he set off to the river. He wanted fish. Of course, he knew that wanting and getting were two very different beasts when it came to survival. Having had their fill of the camp, Kazuma and Sanguineus ambled after him.

Once at the river, he refilled his flask, once again being intensely grateful for the purification enchantment it utilized. Hefting the spear, Lanek crept along the riverbank, trying to keep his shadow from falling on any fish he found. Lanek had never spearfished before, although he remembered reading about how you had to be careful not to let your shadow fall on the fish as this would scare them off. He wasn’t sure if this was accurate or not, but it was all he had to go on at the moment.

After finding several fish and missing his strike horribly, he watched Kazuma saunter over to the water, watch for a moment, and smoothly pull a fish out. Kazuma made himself comfortable and began eating his lunch, side-eyeing Lanek. He had to be honest, he felt judged.

“Show off!” Lanek muttered, receiving only a couple of chuffs in return. Okay, now he knew that meant that the cat was laughing at him. Bastard.

Hearing a loud splash behind him, Lanek spun around to see a soaking wet Sanguineus emerge from the river with a large fish in his mouth. “Really? You, too?” Sanguineus’ tail wagged in response as he settled down next to Kazuma, much to the cat’s irritation considering just how wet the wolf was.

In frustration at his lack of luck, Lanek dropped his spear and released his chain whip. He could feel Sanguineus perk up in interest behind him as the prepared to strike. Lanek knew this was going to be harder than hitting a monster due to the size and speed of the fish. However, one hope he had was that his [Weapon Proficiency: Chain Whip] skill would give him a better chance than he had with the spear to hit his target.

Spotting a larger fish a bit further from shore, Lanek chose his target. He needed the food and the bigger target could only benefit him with his rudimentary abilities. With a sharp exhalation, he shot the chain whip forward, almost willing the blade to run the fish through.

You have learned [Fishing] [General] (lvl 1).

“LET’S GO!”