First thing I do before relaxing is head over to the farm area and heal the plants there. I’ve been leaving an extremely low power heal on them.

All the plants are doing well in every area.

Surprisingly, the ones that naturally grow underground are not benefiting from the healing more than the ones that do not.

Spiders continued to scurry around, taking care of the plants. I go up to one and hand them a few seeds of the common plants that I had used for the concoction and elixirs’ earlier. I direct it to be brought to Gong for a place to be farmed, with an instruction to gather more seeds, when possible.

The recipes that I have given out will cause the supply for these to go down, so it’s important that we stock up. Not taking their abundance for granted, is something that will pay dividends later, when it inevitably leaks. We’ll also have the only already consistent supply, since we are making this readily available for ourselves early on and have an already setup farm.

I could easily use my scan to find a place to plant the seeds that would be of benefit for these plants, but I don’t know the plans Gong has for this area and could inadvertently mess them up by trying to achieve perfection.

Not only that, but even at their best, the increase would be marginal for this level of products and ingredients. They just need to not be bad to achieve excellent results.

I can just drop these off now and we can discuss how to use these in the upcoming days. I mean… it’s not like I’m going anywhere for the next few days, right?

As I head back toward the main room, I notice my scan picks up both Lin and Ai hanging out in my room.

Uh… what are they doing in there?

A quick, deeper look shows Ai watching by the door, while Lin is on the bed.

On the side of the bed, I usually lay on.

For sake of knowing what I’m walking into, I wait and listen in.

Lin speaks muffled into the bed, “… and you’re telling me nothing happened?”

Ai responds quickly, “No, nothing. We just laid there. I think he may have been sleeping, but I couldn’t tell.”

“So, what are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to lie down with him again. If he gives in, we’ll have a deeper hold on him. I’m sure of it.”

“… that’s not what I mean.”

She gets up from the bed, looking at her sister.

“Are you sure this is helping you? I wish I knew earl…”

Ai’s voice comes in fast, with a frosty edge.

“Stop.”

Silence falls between them, with Ai seemingly surprised how that sounded. But her face scrunches up seriously. Her voice now soft.

“I’ll be fine. Just let me handle this. He… doesn’t seem bad. And he heals me every night, which feels like it’s helping.”

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“… okay.”

Lin’s voice is even softer and weaker, sounding almost defeated.

Lin slowly gets up to leave, “I better get going. We still need to check the plants and take some notes.”

Seeing that concluded, I head to the room. Timing it, so that I will appear after she leaves. I also step on some webs to let Gong know I’m in.

Strangely though, Ai’s head shoots up towards my direction.

…

What? How… how did she know?

My scan zeroes into a web hooked onto her finger.

Did she learn to read the webs vibrations? That can’t be true, right? That would require an enormous amount of sensitivity.

My scan activates, determining the plausibility of such an ability in a regular person. What it finds is in relation to blind people and others who cannot rely on their other senses, showing that having to compensate with other methods is actually possible.

I remember now, fingers are one of the most sensitive parts of the body, so technically it would be a way for someone like… wait.

She had to have already had that skill before we met.

Laying on the ground, not being able to move far. Feeling the vibrations of those who walk past or toward her. Being prepared for their approach, with nothing much to do to stop it.

Living in apprehension.

Damn… that’s a rough thought.

I continue to move toward their location.

Ai notifies Lin about my approach, who seems to freeze in place. Ai also freezes, seeming to realize something.

“Ah. Calm down, Lin. It’s okay. Just head back to the room like norm…”

Lin jolts into motion, turning back into the room.

“Y-you’re right. I-I-I have to hide!”

“… you aren’t even listening.”

Ai puts a hand to her head, as Lin runs around the room, desperately.

Lin’s head snaps to the bed, where there is a smaller recess underneath. She scurries to the ground and tries to fit herself into it. Her butt wiggling in the air as she attempts to squeeze inside.

… What she doesn’t know, is that is an entryway for the tiny and baby spiders, from their tunnels.

Since I could already see where this is going, I direct the spiders to leave that tunnel branch. And to create a separate path around it, in case this happens again.

For her part, Ai attempts to drag Lin out by her butt. She most definitely fails and it looks quite inappropriate.

Should I just leave and come back?

… no. I suppose avoiding the situation isn’t the best option. Plus, I’d actually really like to sleep at some point.

A man can only go off of zero sleep for so long. Even if my body can handle it.

For now, though… I might want to just grab some food first.

Yeah…

Let’s do that.

And so, I left to go to a separate branch of the main area to find the food stores.

In my casual talks with Gong, she mentioned that we have quite a bit of food storage here. It seems, primarily, she has something that resembles onions, called poiyos.

They seem to last just as long as well in hot conditions, which is about a year. In these conditions, in her cold rooms, it lasts quite a bit longer. Nutritionally, they seem to provide quite a lot for the body, but not as much as everyone would need for a balanced diet.

These primarily grow deep underground and seem to be rare on the surface. These naturally grow by the underground light stones.

Stopping by there, I grab one of the poiyos and take a bite of it, while drinking some water from the nearby storage.

Huh. This thing is pretty sweet.

I’ve already chatted with Gong, and even though I don’t have to eat, she agrees I still should, just in case there might be some adverse effects to not doing so.

Monitoring the situation in my body, it seems to be a net benefit to eat things. By eating and drinking more, my healing won’t have to compensate for the deficiency. Also, the benefits of the food and water are added, while the downsides removed.

Still a little OP. Makes me want to pig out a bit.

Maybe when we can afford it. I don’t want to eat all of her stock, as she mentioned she does have some plans for it. Some of which, I can already guess at.

The entire time, I keep my eye out on the situation happening in my room. Which honestly doesn’t seem to be improving.

By the time I’m done, Lin is already under the bed, with Ai looking exasperated on top of it.

Well, looks like I have no way out of this.

Walking over to the room, I see a defeated Ai sitting there looking at me on my side of the bed. Lin has actually done a good job of hiding herself partially in the tunnels. It looks like it would be a difficult to get out of, but not impossible. She’s listening in.

Walking over to her, I ask, “So, you want to go to sleep? I’m tired.”

She looks up at me, sighs in defeat, and walks over to her side of the bed.

Yep. None of us are getting sleep tonight.