Moving to the house re-construction, I start by buying simple supplies. More twine. More sticks. A pair of hinges and a welcome mat. Guys! Look at this! New Stock!

We now have metal poles. Boom! I’m buying those as well. A little treat for working so well.

I also cave and start checking the wood area. My free wood is part of why everything started going wrong yesterday. If I want the house to be as nice as I’m imagining, I have to commit to spending more on it.

The slabs I want…they are roughly 300 moola each. Pricier than the garden bed boards but long enough to reach the edges of my desired house size. That’s 1 pearl if I’m lucky and one sells well, two pearls max using my worst prices.

It feels almost like focusing on churning out pearls is a better use of my time if you start doing the math on effort to results. Unless I get distracted I can make 7-8 pearls an hour. These boards are also so much better than the ones I chopped myself, even if they do lose a bit of that personal touch.

I’ve been thinking a lot since last night and…I have an idea I want to try. I just need 4 boards for my plan so I buy them as well – using the last of my money. A quick dip into my debt fund and I have some pearls auctioning themselves off on the market. 2 hours this time because I'm not waiting as closely.

Anyways. Yesterday I remember thinking “I don’t have cement” and yet I have a skill that sticks things together permanently as well as tons of sand.

If my skill can’t do it as is – well then maybe by the time I reach level 8 it will be able to.

What do you think? Am I reaching? Will it work? These boards are to keep it in. Make some molds.

Step one is to measure out the footprint of my house – this time I carefully create a retangle using twine and rods to stake out a proper floor area.

Two pieces of string 8m long. Two pieces of string 6m long. Tie the strings between them like this. Spread the poles out in a rectangle and pull them taut.

Perfect. This is already so much more even then yesterday.

How should I space my columns? How about every 2 meters? No 1 meter seems better at least on the long sides. 3 inner on the short sides?..That’s… 24 holes…now to try and bribe some help.

Digging holes is not something I need to do – and half a sugar cube as payment shouldn’t be as aggressive as before.

The gnome seems happy enough with the trade – hyperatically digging all my holes as fast as he can…he even digs a few extra holes in random places…not helpful but he tried. I thank him and then return to working on things on my own.

First I fill buckets with water and then dump sand in to create an incredibly hydrated mix.

This is…not how my skill works. I want to be clear. I usually pick two separate things to rub and spend time priming them to stick together. I can kind of get it to work by only priming half or putting a lot of effort into one side and not the other…but it works the best if I do both sides properly.

I also usually need to use both hands – one for each side. I can sort of manage doing it all with one hand but once again it works best if I separate them.

That’s actually how I drew sand on the crown the other day. I rubbed the spot I wanted the sand to stick on a whole bunch then made the sand slightly sticky and sprinkled it on.

And yet this doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch? Enough of a progression?

I swirl my hands through the bucket churning the insides up in a cloud.

I’m pretending to be a cement mixer right now – my skills aren’t really imagination based but I still spend as much time focusing on what I want as I can. All these bits of sand stick to all these bits of sand. All of you stick to all of you!

I churn and churn and just focus on the way the bucket and slurry I’m manipulating feels. The way friction builds between sand and grains catch on each other. The way I interact with the water almost filling it with my skill. At its base, my skill is based in friction. That's what the Tribo stands for. Friction. I can't activate it without some good rubbing. I can't just reach out and glue stuff together because I want to. I can sort of charge up the stickiness by rubbing my fingers together first but the skill doesn't like that.

We listen to our skills here at Sam's grind shop.

I'm learning alot with this experiment even though I can tell its a failure.

The problem with this attempt is simple. All the things I want to stick together are all already touching each other. It's kind of obvious, but because they are already touching, the bits of sand clump together as soon as they are properly activated. It's actually worse than normal because they clump before getting “super sticky” sticking together as soon as they can instead of as soon as they are fully saturated. Slowly a lump of sand forms in the middle of my bucket. A sandy sort of blue-red rock…that’s sort of rubbery because my skill didn’t have time to fully stick it together.

It’s interesting but not what I was hoping would happen. I kind of expected it but I was hoping for more you know?

And yet as I was doing this I felt something change. I felt a click as if a bit of my skill was popping open and accepting a new ability.

Level 8 I’d be willing to bet on it.

The problem is that while I know my skill has increased somehow I don’t know how – the paper I was given never explained this. The skill itself hasn’t just told me what it does now…at least not fully.

I kind of have a hint I’m doing something wrong as I start my second test. This time I focus on stirring two buckets of sandy water separately – one hand in each bucket. I want to make two slurries that will attach together when combined.

It feels like it should work even if the skill itself is whispering that it's not quite right.

I finish this experiment and dump both buckets into one of the gnomes errant holes.

Quickly the two congeal as they combine. They lump into a messy sort of marbled thing clumping where they meet but leaving pockets of still wet slurry in spots that didn’t have enough time to touch…this was a good attempt but it happened too fast. The two reacted and combined before I even finished stirring them together.

Can I delay them from activating? The skill almost purrs as I try and follow through on this train of thought.

Once again I make two buckets – this will let me spend enough time mixing them – but also sort of grab onto what I’m stirring as well.

It’s a very fiddly sort of feeling but I can kind of just barely focus on it.

Breathing out as I concentrate, I inadvertently activate phantoms breathe on an incredibly low level. They don’t fully synergize... but there’s definitely something there – it feels like what I’m reaching for suddenly becomes solid.

I want these to wait a minute or two before sticking together. Be patient. Wait.

I’m nearly certain I’ve gotten that goal.

Carefully holding the wooden column in place on one of the dug holes I dump both buckets into the holes stirring frantically and as vigorously as I can to combine them.

I maintain a small sort of link to the buckets as I pour one bucket into the other – a faint feedback remaining as I stay in this trance. I can just barely feel my skill and the way it’s working even though I stopped stirring. This is new.

“Not yet.” I whisper pushing for the mixture to stay apart even as I stir and stare down at the results.

It feels like my skill is beginning to struggle as I stir the results while holding them back. Not yet. Soon my mixture starts to thicken despite my attempt to delay the inevitable. Faster than the one or two minutes I was hoping for but more than enough for what I actually need to do.

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Turning to my first post and hole, I dump the mixture and stand up holding my first column in place. Okay. Go ahead.

I watch in excitement as the cement chunk finishes setting. Now that I’m no longer holding it back, it congeals in seconds.

Sadly if I push it the whole pole still tilts – the cement half sphere at the bottom slides with it.

On its own it’s weighed down, but not fully set in place. Maybe if my holes were deeper?

That’s fine. I have a plan.

One by one I work on each of the columns mixing the two cement buckets and then activating them and setting the post.

I can feel my skill level increase as I continue through each and every one of them one at a time.

Right as I finish I make a final bucket – trying to make a single bucket that will congeal in as far a time in the future as possible.

It's definitely harder than the two separate bowl versions but I get it working. I then pour it on the ground and begin crawling around mixing my cement with the sand on the floor as I do so.

It's so satisfying the way this cement feels. Is it even cement? I didn't fill it with big rocks.

Anyways I focused on making the cement stick to itself but nothing else. so I can spread it with my bare hands and it magically doesn't stick to my knees or hands. It's so satisfying let me tell you. like playing with magic sand.

I focus on spreading the “cement” to every corner of the floor. I was hoping it would spread out more but its not quite wet enough for that – eh, I’ll stick with what I can get. I try making a level with a curved log and some water but it's not shaped well enough to do it. Eyeballing will have to do for now.

When I’m done spreading the sand I use my finger to write a note down.

Mk2 foundation for my perfect home. This glue gal will make a palace yet!

I then rush to my stack of metal poles and start pushing them into the still soft sand in as many places as I can.

Listen, I don’t know how rebar works and I know for a fact these metal poles are not nearly strong enough…but it feels like just by adding these I’m doing better than someone who wouldn’t. Rebar is just bits of metal in the cement right? If I try to make sure it's spread all around it will make my floor stronger right? A crosshatch pattern looks familiar and strong so I place them back and forth across the entire floor focusing around each column in particular.

Making sure to rush to the lake after I finish – I don’t want to permanently glue sand to my hands and knees – I let the “cement” floor set for as long as possible.

I feel much happier looking at this foundation and columns – much happier. It feels like I’m doing it right this time. This home should last me a long time. walking around to each pole I push them and feel the way they remain upright no matter how much I push.

Next step is my door. Taking one of the boards I bought for molding I cut it into four equal strips and fuse them into a nice door shape. A curved stick makes a nice handle for now so I glue it at roughly my hand height and glue the two hinges to the side as well.

I try making my own sandpaper by glueing a handful of sand to some of my limited paper and it sort of works...its not perfect and doesn't do it as cleanly as I would like but I do manage to smooth over all my corners and remove the splinters from the doors handle.

Honestly the door is a bit thick. Kind of heavier than it needs to be. I'm still incredibly proud of it - I use maxie to carve a heart and a "welcome" message to the front of it then spent way too much time sanding the area to look right.

The door's frame is equally as "easy" – if time consuming. Another perfect board to the chopping block this one measured to just a bit taller than my door and glued to the ground where I want my entrance to be.

As I’ve been working something has become more and more clear. Everything is heavy. The buckets are heavy. The poles are heavy. My arms are pitiful noodles.

It may seem like a miss appropriation of time but I have an idea. An idea that will help.

Trust me.

First the sticks. I’m not using ones from my trees even though they are free. I want them to be as strong and straight and evenly weighted as possible.

Yeah you already know what I’m doing don’t you? Guess I’m not as clever as I thought.

Let me pretend I’m revealing it anyways okay? Wings!

I’m starting off with some wings for one of the buckets. Frame first then feathers. One of these days I’m going try making super complex wings but for now I just make a shape and attach rubber bands to it pulling the shape upwards with some tension. The hard part is really just the hinge - I glue a piece of cloth to the end of the stick and then directly to the side of the bucket letting the wing bend back and forth on a tiny pivot.

Now…if I tie string around it like a little hat and glue a ball of sand on the bottom for grip…if I pull this down the wings come down and if I let go they fly up. Perfect. Not high tech but it sort of flaps and that’s the important bit.

Now if I figure out what I’m going to use for feathers…probably cloth? I’ll use cloth.

I buy some incredibly cheap clothes – a light blue cloak with a hole on the side – and get to work cutting out hundreds of blue feathers. It’s much harder to stack the cloth and cut multiple out at once but I didn’t want the feathers to melt if they got wet hence the cloth. My skill also seems to like when I spend more time on each feather anyways. The potency raises if I do…not enough to offset having more feathers but enough it’s not a total waste.

I’m going to be putting a lot of water in this bucket after all it makes sense if it's slightly waterproof.

My afternoon passes faster than I would like but I’ve finished the job. Filling the bucket nearly all the way – much higher than I was able to carry alone – I test it by walking all the way over to my garden repeatedly jerking the wings into keeping it aloft.

These wings are so jank. I swear to heck. My skill did make them magical and they do lighten the load but I have to keep flapping continuously with one hand holding it up and pushing it forward anyways.

Focus on the positives. It actually worked. My plan is a success. It’s a viable solution – I need to figure out how to momentarily attach wings to logs and stuff if I’m going to lift them. Why did I just say I need to figure it out – I just have to glue them in a way that’s not permanent. Base Triboadhesion is temporary I can focus on that.

Smort. Very smort. Thats a plan for tomorrow.

I place my bucket down and stare at the garden with squinted eyes. I think Mr Gnome forgot to water today. It looks so dry. That’s what I get for trusting a drug addict.

Walking around each bed I carefully check my first crop giving each row a sprinkle of water. They seem to be coming along well even if they weren’t watered today – the sprouts are definitely there and bigger than when I last checked. Each sprout rises maybe 3-4cm above the soil – but it looks like I’m going have to wait quite a while till I can harvest them.

I’m incredibly tempted to start time skipping – grinding phantom breath into a higher level so I can harvest but…I have a debt. A debt with a time limit. I’m going to have to wait till I pay that off till I can start experimenting more.

…

I buy dinner – do a round of checking everyone – and then sit on the corner of by bed focusing on mana crystal creation once more. My goal is to make a tier 2 pearl. It seems like I need to do it faster – if I take too long the mana starts to ‘set’ in a tier 1 pearl and it becomes much harder to continue compressing it after that point.

Thankfully I’m now level 4 in the skill and remember how the first one felt.

I fail once and then almost get it right the second time. Just before I get it right I try something fancy and fail. The main problem with my second attempt is I tried to ‘meditate’ on the task with phantom breath which ended up just backfiring and skipping through it me suddenly realizing I wasn’t using the skill any more.

Too soon for that.

It takes 2 more ‘failed (perfectly good tier 1 pearls) for me to finally get the hang of it. Instead of rushing – that was a false lead – what I really have to do is ‘squash’ the tier 1 pearl. Maybe squash is the wrong word? Basically I have to purposefully do a worse job at making the pearl – disturbing the gathering mana a bunch – so that it doesn’t ‘lock’ into its “starting to materialize” setting. Just as I can see the barest hint of the crystal forming I quickly squeeze my hands together – pushing it away and then return to packing stuff in.

This probably looks really silly from the outside. A girl staring at her hands in concentration and then suddenly squeezing them together like she is trying to smack an invisible fly.

Uommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm-meditatinnnn-uommmmmmmm-smack!

The first few tiers two crystals I make are ‘failed ones as well. They are not quite pearls and look closer to my original spiky crystals. Tier 2 unstable mana crystals. Making the denser pearls takes quite a bit more hand spinning – quite a bit more smoothing and squeezing I gotta tell you.

I almost don’t notice when the sun sets completely my focus is so great. I am the queen of focus! Mwahahahaha!

Timeskip the crystal creation! Annnnnnnd failed again.

…dammit.

I just can’t get the hang of trying to go further. You know…I figured out how to make tier 2 pearls – might as well keep the ball rolling and try for tier 3 right? I already figured out the trick for getting higher tiered pearls…just break any tiny crystals and keep squeezing.

Hey guys. I have a question.

Why is it so dark? Did I really waste that much time trying to time skip this? Did anyone else notice the sun disappearing?

I guess that’s a sign I should stop huh? I’m not actually as tired as normal…actually that’s a lie. As soon as I think about how tired I am my muscles ache and a yawn threatens to escape.

Yep! Time for bed. I was productive in everything but quantity of mana pearls…although it does look like each tier 2 pearl counts as 4 tier 1 pearls in terms of debt payment. I’ll pay off my skill removal with one of these first and see about listing the others overnight instead.

…I was pretty productive today. Lets check my gains before I head to sleep.

Self status (click to expand)

Tier 20

Status: Healthy

Skills 4/5 ->

[Triboadhesion] Tier 10

[Mana Crystal Creation] Tier 4

[The wings of fell] Tier 3

[Phantom Breath] Tier 3

Satisfying across the board. Phantom breath is probably the most surprising – I don't even remember when I got that level. Might have been hidden by the other...and wow thats even higher in Triboadhesion than I thought!

Okay I'm ready for bed.

I look up. High above me a fake moon sits. It’s a brilliant moon – the goddess really outdid herself while making it – but there’s something even more startling by the night.

There aren’t any stars.

It's just…black.

I guess she just didn’t see the need for those decorations? Now that I think about it I haven’t seen any clouds in the day time either. The lamp up there that flips between bright and dim light is all I have.

…Should I ask her to add some? Is that weird? I like the stars after all…maybe later. I don’t want to take on even more debt than I already have.

I’m going to go to bed for real now alright?

Hey. Can I tell you something?

It's kind of sappy but here it goes.

Thank you for being my friend.

I know we haven't been together for that long but it still means alot to me. Thank you for...thanks. Thats all.

Sleep tight.