I wake up and stretch a bit. Hello Mr Alarm clock. Bright as always. Gnome you here? Seems he's somewhere. I'm sure the little guy will show up later. I reach down and under my bed feeling about for that soft morning ritual.

Hey Dairy. You there? Oh you are!

That’s a good slime. That’s a good slime. Oh, you’re jiggling now? I’m pretty sure those count as purrs. Such a good slime. What have you got for me. Breakfast? Yes, sorry more pets. There you go.

I finish petting our mascot and squeeze her silky body a few times for good measure. The slime rolled over in his sleep and allowed me to start stroking his belly. I stop and then go back for a third petting session I jiggle him around until I can pick hir up and start bouncing.

…

Is it night time already? Guess I lost track of time!

I lower my hand from my face revealing the morning light – tired of my silly bit – and start scrolling through amazon, one arm still wrapped around Dairy.

My tier 2 pearl sold for quite a bit. 1500 monies. Almost 5 times as much as an average tier 1 pearl. I’m not sure if that’s the market price or if it will balance out when I start making more of them…but definitely worth focusing on selling tier 2 pearls instead of tier 1s even if it takes me more time. Math checks out.

There isn’t really a full catalogue when it comes to food. Like, Space Kijiji has bread, sugar and protein bars while Fairy Kijiji has mushrooms, human hair, full course meals and gummies…that I’m not allowed to buy those anyways.

Buying another fresh loaf of bread and collecting Dairy’s cheese egg for a cheese sandwich, I check about for Firestarter’s. Today I’m going to grill this bad boy and elevate it into the stratosphere. Flint and steel should work sure.

Let’s see, anything new while I’m here? I do my daily check for building supplies then close out of the shop and head to the beach for a gooey treat. I think this morning I’m going to spend 3 hours building my house, 3 hours ‘working’ to fuel my uber eats addition and crippling homeowner debt. And the last however many hours of the day can be practicing my other skills. That’s a good split.

I’m looking forward to that last bit the most actually.

Gathering some of my worst branches together into a pile on the beach I place a piece of parchment and start scraping my recently bought flint and steel. Sparks fly and my eyes glint. Sparks are pretty. Theres something hypnotic about every bit of a fire. Does anyone else love fires?

Okay. Why is this so hard? I scratch and scratch and tons of sparks have appeared but the parchment refuses to actually light! Come on you have one job! Why didn’t the store have matches? Lighters? All they had was expensive magic firestarting balls and I’m not spending 99moola for a single fire no matter how good this grilled cheese is going to taste.

Finally it catches and I woop in glee. We’re cooking, we’re cooking.

Bending a pair of metal rods and gluing them to the end of a stick I start roasting my morning sandwich dancing about the edge of the flames and trying not to burn my log. Sandwich can burn a teasy tiny bit I like a little char…

And done!

I burn my hands slightly while extracting the sandwich then take a massive bite.

…

Bliss.

…

Oh…oh this is even better than I thought. I wish I had ketchup. I wish I could give you a bite. This tastes so freaking good you wouldn’t believe. I don’t think I’ve ever had a grilled cheese this good in my life.

Before I know it breakfast is gone. It was worth it. It was worth everything. All the scrapes of the sparks.

Yall let your girl cook and she delivered.

Best day yet. Let’s start on the walls.

…

The plan is simple if a bit repetitive. I’ll spare you the biggest grind but what I’m doing is placing two long boards and two small end stops on each of my four walls one at a time. The mold embeds the columns completely and only leaks a bit at the start in my first bucket dump. I then mix up cement and pour it into each wall almost on autopilot. Wing bucket is the MVP here I’m saving so much time by being able to fill the buckets up completely.

I also drop plenty of stones in the wall – mostly to save time. I don’t think it will hurt the construction. If anything it might make it stronger.

After an hour of this grind, I try to timeskip the physical exertion of being a construction gal and find its too hard to build and actually design something at the same time. I keep stopping to breathe and suddenly realizing I’m no longer working. I’ll figure this out soon see that I don’t – I then end my construction for the day my wall half a meter in height all the way around and move to my next task.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

After creating a few tier 2 pearls I try to timeskip this job and suddenly make a tier 3.

What?

...

No seriously. What?

Okay. I think I've figured out what happened. I started making a tier 2 mana crystal at noonish. Concentrate, squish before it grows. Concentrate, squish before it grows. You know my drill.

I focused on maintaining that so hard I stopped focusing on well…the time. Who knows how many times I did that cycle.

It’s now night. I spent like 7 hours on this single bead. That’s my entire day. Completely wasted! A faint part wonders if more than a day had passed – that would be scary to do by accident – but the part that had noticed too much time had passed had been because the sky had turned off.

I stand up stumbling slightly as blood starts flowing to my knees.

Ho.

Okay.

I should probably go to bed now. Today was more of the same – but I’m happy enough with it. Where’s Mr Gnome? I haven’t seen him in a while…

Mr Gnome?

He’s gone.

I can’t find him anywhere. I’ve searched end to end and haven’t found the little guy. Maybe he was tired of being overworked? I collect a new bucket of water and head back to water the crops in the dark.

I’m still not tired.

Picking a spot by my bed I pet dairy a bit and then go back to mana crystal creation breathing and focusing on my two skills. I try and apply the same sort of technique from Triboadhesion – hold it back and weaken it – attempting to skip forward while staying conscious.

Breathe. Breathe.

My eyes droop. I yawn and feel the world stutter. I keep at it.

If I can’t help myself from activating this skill I might as well use it all night huh?

I drop mana crystal creation. It’s only making my job harder – like my hands are ripping away my focus or tearing the skill off me or something.

I breathe.

Innnnnnnnnnn and out. Innnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn and out.

As I breathe and focus completely on phantom breath, I watch the way moisture floats out on each exhale. I can see my breath as if it were cold out. It’s white and floaty – the breath keeps flowing out and lingering in the surroundings. A visible cloud is actually building – mist wrapping around my body the longer its active. This hasn’t happened before. I’m pushing the skill more than ever and it’s only in this heightened state that I realize the world is gone. Has been gone this whole time.

It's like someone took a picture of my surroundings and then printed it out and taped it up…like I’m sitting in an empty expanse and my brain is filling in what my surroundings should look like.

It's scary suddenly realizing everything is gone especially as me noticing it has caused it to vanish even harder.

My body feels strange as well.

What did the skill say? I had to maintain a perception of what I’m skipping by? It feels like I’m doing the opposite. My breath hitches and starts coming out faster as anxiety spikes.

Breath. Breath. Calm, you don’t have to breath so fast. You’re okay.

I watch the mist as it touches the invisible ground and suddenly feel a movement float past. A blur. A monster! I’m in danger.

How do I stop! How do I deactivate the skill! I hold my breath in panic and stare about wildly mentally relaxing as the world returns.

It’s morning. I’m safe. Daytime – and dairy is rustling away on a path towards the lake.

That blur was dairy. I saw Dairy as he woke up. Of course. I’m safe in this home.

I’ve skipped most of the night.

And I’m starting to feel tired. Of course. Now I feel tired! Now that it's morning!

Can I mess about with the system and have it decide to start nighttime early? I didn’t see that option but there’s plenty of settings I haven’t explored fully…If I really wanted that I could definitely ask the goddess for those controls to be added as well. Can’t be harder than flipping a switch to turn off the lights no?

And yet wouldn’t that be rude to dairy? He just woke up!

I’m going to be a good slime mom.

I check everything yawning a bit and then consider what the consequences are. I’m still ahead of schedule on my debt repayment. It won’t harm my house to let it sit for another day unfinished. It really feels like I should just keep working on phantom breath, doesn’t it?

Checking my status, I am now tier 4 in the skill proving the nights work did have a result. I got myself into this mess and nothing is urgently taking up my time. I should just continue until night appears.

I breathe softly and nod. Today is probably the first day I finally list Dairy’s cheese on the market. I check to see my tier 3 pearl sold for 7021 moola and nod. Considering it stole my entire day it better sell for a lot. I almost wish I could see the history – in my head there's some bidding war between two wizened old men raising little paddles excitedly. They kept pushing and thats why there's some 21 extra. They were like "Yes yes, Give me that beautiful artifact! I simply must have it" Mwhahahaha.

Okay. Phantom breath it is.

My back hurts from how I was sitting last time so I get into bed and try and breathe in as relaxed a manner as I can.

Imagine if I did this forever. A sleeping beauty – that’s me! Awake me with a kiss my prince.

The world fades as I breathe and this time I notice right away. I focus on the mist that surrounds me – you know I think there’s a tiny bit of vibrant hue hidden down there beneath the white exterior. It’s slightly slightly blue. Slightly turquoise actually. Not white as I first thought.

Slowly I become aware of my bed beneath me.

That’s a good start.

I breathe and turn my head back and forth carefully watching my blue mist cling to everything. How will I tell when it’s nighttime? My head feels weird. At once it is a slow-moving careful spin and almost like I'm whipping it back and forth. There's a huge disconnect on that feeling.

I focus harder. My eyes are squinty little things as I glare at the bed. I should be able to see if it gets darker. That will be my sign. The bed will be cast in shadow when night hits.

I lean slightly further into the skill taking longer and deeper breaths as I do. My mist darkens – the blue becoming more obvious. The mist billows out harder.

My body feels strange. Heavy and constricting. My eyes threaten to shut. I’m so tired. Oh so hecking tired. Why is it exhausting to simply breathe? Each exhale is laborious. I thought I was moving my body and now I can’t tell if I was.

Finally the bed darkens considerably in a blink.

Done!

I hold my breath and feel the world come back into focus.

…I have to water the plants before I go to sleep don’t I?

Uggggg. I don’t want to. How bad do you think it is to leave them for just one night?

…they will be fine. I’ll water them twice tomorrow.

Good night Dairy.

Good night you.

…

I fall asleep before I even remember to thank you for the support.