I stand before a pile of lumpy logs – they look even more jank sitting here in the sand. This is my pile. There are many like it but this one is mine! Alright then, first steps should definitely involve the outline.

This stick looks nice…walking forward I begin to drag a groove into the sand. I don’t want to seem too unrealistic so I'll start small. A nice rectangle 10x20m. Small and manageable. I can add extensions on it afterwards.

Big sigh…you’re right. Fine. This is a bit big isn’t it? I’ll have my castle yet but moderation is key.

I stare sadly at my rectangle and decide to cut it in half twice before scratching out a side and settling on 5x8.

It's so small.

I pout staring at the sad plan before rolling up my sleeves and scratching some more lines down. Perspective works fine but gets scewed slightly in larger distances. The lines I've drawn is just big enough to start looking weird if I walk around it.

Anyways. This is my plan to make it square. I know the space is weird but hopefully I can make it mostly even if I draw these as tight as I can.

Digging four holes at the four corners next. I push some of the hardest logs into the holes trying to keep them upright.

Picking four of the largest stones in the sand, I spend ages rubbing them then glue them to the bottom of my sticks. These should help weigh them down.

I then place them back in the holes and burry them with sand, stepping back to walk around my corners.

They aren’t 100% parallel to each other – instead of a perfect rectangle they are ever so slightly skewed – but I’m pretty happy with it all things considered.

Sorting several of my logs I pick out ones with as close a uniform length as possible then begin gluing them together into longer poles.

Next I put glue on both ends and try to place the long stick across the 8m distance. This is the back of my house I think?

It sticks and stays – even if it pulls the two corner posts sideways slightly.

I think important points are supposed to go in cement not just sand?

…but I don’t have cement do I? How can I afix them to the ground that well?

Just go for it I guess.

I slowly place all the poles together – adding several smaller posts in between the others. By this point I’m covered in dust – my hands especially feel incredibly dry.

It's either the sand or how much I’m using my skill…one of those two. Theres definitely a link. I drink extra water and continue working.

More boards...more sticks – and we are running out sooner than I would have thought. We are going to need at least one more tree if not two just to get this frame down.

Mr gnome? Mr gnome? Where are you?

Stay away from dairy! Slime is not sugar! Slime is friend. Friend.

Okay. I'm going to need you to butcher another tree. Can you do that Mr Gnome? How does...One sugar cube for your tree cutting services sound? Oh trying to haggle with me are you? Fine. One sugar cube now and one sugar cube after but just know you drive a hard bargain.

...

After I get more lumpy wood I head back to stacking them all along the wall. I’m aiming for a log cabin look – that should totally be possible for me – and yet as I continue, more and more problems keep coming up. My “columns” weren’t set correctly so now they are bending and bowing. I didn’t put them close enough and I didn’t put them evenly enough. It's coming together but it's making me annoyed.

This isn’t supposed to be a shelter this is supposed to be a home. What happened to my amazing day? I told Mr Day it was going to be amazing why did it let me down!?

Has anything good come from this?

I’ve gotten really good at sticking boards together – I’ve rubbed and pressed so many my hands are scraped and raw. So much sand is glued to my boards a lot of them are now blue. Hours of work gave me a single skill level and yet…and yet I want to rip it all down and start again.

Every “its fine” added up to a point where just looking at the lopsided roofless shack is making me annoyed.

I’m not OCD I swear.

Only a little.

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I’m sorry okay? I want to live somewhere that looks nicer than this waste of a days effort. I think I rushed too much. I have time. I have endless time. theres no rush to even get this done! I have a good bed out in the middle of the field.

There’s a final note that helped me out and is giving me the courage to restart.

After washing my hands in the lake – they feel so dry – I learned a secret. Wet hands make the skill work faster and stronger by a noticeable jump. That revelation and the increased throughput at the end gave me two extra skill levels when I went for a late lunch and idly checked my status to confirm.

I use Maxie to carve a quick signature on the corner of the house – “MRK 1. A lesson”.

I then take Maxie to the posts smashing each edge – Take that, and that! My frustration is wacked away with each swing.

Wack. Wack. Wack! Wack! Wack!

It feels great – I’ve never understood the joy in smashing things but right now? It’s strangely freeing. It’s not just the idea of destruction it’s the idea of cleaning up my mess.

I’ve been regretting this for hours so finally giving in is perfect.

I'm recovering some of the nicest columns of wood and salvaging this entire corner. This will be my bathroom. As soon as I stop caring about aesthetics everything becomes so much easier. Just glue stick after stick together. it sways and leans to the side. thats fine. More sticks!

I'll spare you some of the secret inner details but sufice it to say I now have a passible outhouse far enough away from my beach I'm hopeful it wont contaminate it with unmentionables. I've also set up a sort of washbasin by gluing wood and sand into a bowl beside my outhouse. A place to wash my hands for now. Soap and a handful of sand to scrub away gunk. I want to design a shower or better yet a bath...but this will do for now.

There's one final sad bit of my disappointing day. It's not even a real problem it's a personal one.

I didn't make a house so I can't get my new skill – that would be cheating. And yet I did so much work. I feel like I deserve it. What do you think? You think I should just get it? Don't tempt me.

After recovering a large portion of the wood used and stacking it in the corner I head back to my ‘home base’ sit down on my bed and relax for a bit.

I’ve been working a lot today but…I feel like I’m not doing enough. A proper farm – a proper life requires some effort, especially at the start.

Lying on my back I raise my hands and begin to form mana pearls. Of all the things I can do this is the most productive. I could take a break for the rest of the day but at least this way it won’t be a total wash.

As I sit here focusing on the mana pearl creation, my mind starts to wander. It's like driving – I have to pay attention obviously but I’ve done this so much in such a short amount of time…I don’t have to focus much. At least not with the main part of my mind if that makes sense?

My mind drifts to skills and skill levels.

I feel like I’ve learned a lot from my main two skills so far. Enough I can add what I’ve learned to the short description I was given in the tutorial. Level 1 is not fully a skill – it's just the ‘affinity’ and the potential for a skill to form. The skill wizard mentioned a ‘mana seed’ meaning skills run based on mana…or are made out of mana? I don’t have a feeling like I’m ‘using’ any resource for any of my skills I can kind of just keep using them indefinitely. Don’t know if it's just the type of skills I have or if all of them are like that.

Level 2 is almost a free level – it's ‘locking’ in the skill so it actually exists. Its kind of like the shape of the skill maybe? Before that point you could shape it into doing whatever but after that point its set in its shape.

This step basically just needs you to use the skill correctly to a good enough degree. You have to put in a tiny bit of effort – as proven by my first paper airplane not being good enough to lock in the flying wing skill – but it's basically a free level.

Level 3 and 4 weren’t that hard to get in Triboadhesion while hours and hours of mana crystal creation haven’t given me that second level. The only level I got in that admittedly stronger feeling skill was when I figured out how to make mana pearls which…was just a proper use of the skill. No clue how many days or what I might have to do to reach level 4 with it.

Levels 5-7 for Triboadhesion have been much harder comparably, while feeling like a bigger change in strength and ease of use. Each level is a real increase in strength of my skill but the skill itself is mostly the same feeling. I learned how to glue sand to things and hold an axe better...but thats it. Still the same.

Individually each level is an increase in strength but on a more important note. Level 4 let me start glueing things permanently. That – plus the pattern for how skills are gained – is enough for me to guess when I reach level 8 the skill will change and improve again in some more qualitative way. Will it change based on how I’ve used it? Will I need to try and get it to do something to gain this next level? Will it be a small change or a big change? How does this work?

All things I should figure out.

I finish making mana pearls – set aside the interesting looking ones while dumping the rest in the goddess’s payment field – and then feed a tiny chunk of sugar to Mr Gnome. He’s worked hard as well. You’d understand if you could see his little face. Its best to keep my farmhand happy.

The garden is looking good – I can see tiny shoots pointing out of the bed already but it looks like it's going be quite some time before it's fully made. It’s nice I’ve delegated looking after this – not that remembering to water the plants is that hard – but… it's nice that I don’t have to worry about it.

Buying some salted mystery meat I start to wander the property until I find dairy climbing about my stack of wood.

I think I’m slowly training him to accept scritches – he no longer runs away when I try to pet ‘em. There we go. Deep scrapes on this side you say? Sure. Such a good slime. I can tell he likes it because he leans into my scritches instead of pulls away. My hands get damp but it's worth it to feel that jiggle.

Alright then. Review of the day. What do I think? I think today...was okay. Better than yesterday but not as good as I hoped. It's an upward trend so hey! That means tomorrow will be even better.

I'm being too pessimistic. Today was so productive! I got several levels! I hired a farmhand! It's been a productive grind and now I know a better way of using my skill. Yep. That’s the best way of looking at it. I also put exactly 50 pearls into my 350 pearl debt and sold a dozen more. It hasn’t quite been as good as I expected but I’ve been responsible.

I tell those optimistic words to myself several times as I pull myself into bed early and watch the sun set the rest of the way – grinding out a final pair of pearls just for good luck.

“Good night dairy”

“Rustle”

“Good night gnome”

“…shu”

...

And once again. My day ends. With just a few minutes of tossing and turning I fall asleep.