Alright!

I think it’s time to start sorting out my priorities. I already wasted time with my current skills after all – I couldn’t help it. You understand right? It’s Magic! Dedicating a good chunk of my day to skill grind is important.

But still… I should wait till I’m more stable before spending this much time practicing and experimenting.

Anyways. Plenty of time left in the day. Morning work and midday play – the afternoon can be given to planning.

I wonder how long it will take snow peas to sprout? I’m hoping it’s a week or two – I don’t want to wait months… it's definitely going to take months isn’t it? I need to find some seeds and plant them in the second bed – two garden beds do not a farm make so I’m going to need to start scaling up soon.

But all of that is a different sort of planning. Before that, I have something incredibly important.

The biggest priority I can think of is my living situation. Not necessarily making a shelter but…well you know?

Okay. So! It’s a nice temperature right now – one I barely notice – and I don’t even know if my space can rain. It doesn’t really feel real right now – it’s kind of like I’m indoors.

So, making a house is totally a goal that I definitely want to get around to…But it's not the #1 thing I should be working on. Not if everything stays how it is.

On the other hand, I need a toilet. I’m not used to roughing it this badly. High priority. Even camping has outhouses and I already feel like I’ve spent more time stressing over this than necessary.

Something else I don’t need right away but it would be nice to have a shower or nice bath. My hands and knees are coated in dirt and I don’t want to start making my bed dirtier than it already is. I feel like a sink is attached into this whole bathroom package. To make proper ones I’ll need to learn how to set up plumbing…running water for both of those unless there’s a way to do it with magic. Medium priority.

It would be nice to figure out more renewable sources of water than just buying bottles on the market. Bottled water is great for drinking – I should stockpile some as well while I’m on this note. I’m kind of counting on the store having water bottles and I’ll be screwed if they suddenly stop selling them. Anyways, it's not enough for agriculture – especially as I start scaling up. I need a good way of dealing with water. If I can get away with not having to water the same plants every day that would be great – I’m thinking a bunch of tubes of water filled with holes maybe?

I need to set up a proper workshop for all my experiments. A place to actually start doing all that crafting I’m planning on doing. A nice comfortable chair. A desk. Some small tools.

What else? You have any input? Yeah I can’t think of anything else for now. That seems like all the important things.

In general, my long term goals are #1 a house – I want to actually live and be happy in my new life. #2 expand my passive income by making more and more farm stuff and then seeing anything I can craft and sell…farming might not be the best way of doing it but I really want to try at least to start.

Finally #3 is definitely being able to do quests for the goddess – and yeah they prioritize in that order not that I’d tell her she’s the lowest priority and #2 affects the other two. Don’t rat me out. I won’t ignore her.

In general I need to get better at building things. I also need more supplies. I can get some stuff from the market but not a lot…maybe I should check out the divine shop for the first time?

I quickly navigate to the divine shop and find a barebones sort of representation of things.

It’s a tree of options – each area expanding out when I click it unlocking more and more and more…

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Divine points: -100.

--Sign/system

---Buy new stores/Upgrade connection Range.

---Buy money.

---Buy a storefront/Upgrade transfer system.

---Buy custom addons.

---Upgrade inventory

--Land

---Grow space

----Buy specific type of land.

-----Buy forest.

-----Buy lake.

-----Buy fertile earth.

-----Buy custom request.

----Buy random cheaper land.

-----Buy random cheaper and vetted/safe land.

-----Buy random land with vague requirements.

---Move space

----Move space to specific place

----Move space to place with requirements

---Buy environmental mana.

----Buy specific affinities of environmental mana.

-Person

--Create a skill.

--Remove skill.

--Help upgrade skill.

--Upgrade body.

--Custom request.

…well. Looking at this list nothing has prices. I have a debt…that is either a lot or a tiny amount and a list of things I can do.

There are suggestions of what I can ask for, but the most important note is all these custom request lines. The goddess is like a landlord I can send emails to hoping she’ll fix the leaky pipes or replace my fridge.

I really don’t know the extent of the custom requests…its basically whatever the goddess can do with her power right? So anything because she’s a god?

I could try and ask her specifically for a way to solve my problems but I also immediately see some options that might help.

I can buy land. Don’t know how much land is but there you go. That’s an option and it's right there!

I can expand my space as needed – and I don’t have to stick with this flat soccer field style default either. Let’s see. She gave me two important looking pre-sets. Forest and lake. Both would be great. Forest would give me wood…after I get better at chopping down trees and stuff…could use that to make campfires and build my house – not that I have to use wood it just seems like a good option…

And lake would give me water that I could use for all my needs from drinking and watering my eventually massive garden to making a bath.

How…how expensive are those? Considering there’s all those options for random land after it…

I should check shouldn’t I?

Before I do that…environmental mana. I can buy environmental mana…which reminds me of that section of the status screen. What did it say again?

I back out and stare at the space note.

Space status (click to expand)

Tier 1.

Mana saturation: Tier 1.

Size 1 unit.

Environmental mana. 10,141m

Upkeep: 10,000m. Critical minimum 2000m.

Deficit. 41mana/day (leaking from atmosphere due to spatial location.)

Access inventory

Access the divine personal shop.

Access the tier 1 interdimensional shop.

Something…something seems wrong.

I stare at everything. There’s an ominous sort of feeling that fills me as I look at the information.

It was already scary looking but I don’t like that 41mana/day leaking somewhere. It’s something that seems really bad but because I started with it it's…not as bad? It’s a problem but one I can’t solve?

The ‘problem’ though is in the environmental section…10,141 mana in the environment. I really wish I noted down how big that was day 1, but but it’s down. You see that right? I’m not misremembering it? I don’t remember the exact number but I remember thinking it was over 5 days till it dropped below 10000 if I lost 41 a day.

Now it's…well it's under 4. It's 3 something. I don’t know exactly how off it is but only a day and a bit has passed. Why did I lose 2 days of mana?

…

This is bad. I have a new priority. Something that’s more urgent than anything else. Where is my mana going?

…I’m not stupid. I’m pretty sure I know why its disappearing when I really think about it.

You can probably figure it out too if you stop and think for a second.

My skill…the mana crystal one. It's…”crystalize environmental mana”. Not "make something from nothing" or magically summon stones. I’m now nearly 100% sure I’m gathering the mana my space needs to stay…upkeeped. That’s not a word is it? You know what I mean. Upkeep normally means that something is consumed but that’s taken over by the deficit bit. Upkeep here just means I need to stay at that level for things to work properly.

I’m getting flustered and I need to confirm that’s what’s happening.

Focusing on my hands I find them shaking slightly. Why is this making me so nervous? Is it just because of the time limit? I know I hate being put under pressure – I also know while I love the unknown when its simple or benevolent I hate the unknown when it might be dangerous.

What happens when it drops below 10000? What happens when it drops below 2000?

I feel like hyperventilating as I continue to form the mana stone. It forms and I shove it into my inventory.

Unstable quality fear-bent mana stone.

10,140

Okay…okay breathe. With 41 a day and 24 hours…it’s just a bit more than once every half an hour. It could have just been the deficit.

I focus and spend another ten minutes to make another pearl.

10,138

Okay. That confirms it. The skill the goddess gave me is a curse. It’s ruining my environment!

Now…the real question is if she set that up maliciously or not.