Chapter 38: A peaceful day

Opening my eyes, I find my bearings. Not expecting to be within my library. After a moment of confusion, I quickly recall falling to sleep here. A creak in my neck tells me all I need to know. I should avoid doing that in the future. I head to my actual bed, casting a sidelong glance through the window. Finding the rain has stopped; morning dew peacefully on the grass. A light breeze evident by the slight sway in the grass.

Enjoying the peaceful image, I head to my bed. Walking up the winding stairs; still partially asleep. I manage to get to my bed, even with a mind clouded with morning fog. I fall back into my slumber. A short, relaxing, dreamless rest; it didn’t last long, just enough to let my neck relax.

Waking up, my mind coming into sharp focus. I walk towards my kitchen; breakfast in mind. I wonder which book I was reading when I fell asleep. I neglected to check. Coming upon my kitchen; what I should make?

I only recently made omelets, so that’s off the menu. I did find some oats in the market, perhaps oatmeal? Sounds good, cooking the oats in a small quantity of milk. This results in a soft porridge-like consistency. Taking a cautious bite, I realize it's rather bland; if fulfilling. I sprinkle a small amount of sugar on top. I make a mental note to get some honey soon.

Feeling surprisingly full from such a small breakfast. Having eaten my fill, I head in a random direction. Just simply walking, an eye out for any of my pets. I am curious about what happened to Chic last night. She wasn’t inside the room when I woke up. I am sure she’s fine, although I still wish to check.

I went through all the most common places: Her nest, the cavern, and even her old webs. I don’t really know her gender, but she just feels like a girl. Sling is clearly genderless; if their asexual reproduction is any indicator.

I start walking outside, noticing the trees surrounding my island have increased. Spotting a few saplings, it seems they are just spreading naturally. Clearly assisted by this world's scary plant growth speed. Adding a further mental note to cut down a few trees. I pass my Botania area, finding my mana pools full; I will have to increase the pools soon. I pause the system; since it's tirelessly producing mana for it simply to go to waste.

After passing the botania area, I visit the farm. Still in awe at its quick and efficient speed; I’ll still improve it in the future, but it's definitely efficient. I lightly ponder how the building's decorations can be improved. It may be worth incorporating it within a larger building. Obscuring the farm from view. It would make it far easier to decorate; squares are boring after all. I’ll add a building when I need something. For now, I am the only person seeing it; slight eyesore or not.

I walk towards my witchery area, seeing some rather suspicious webs on the grass. Continue towards the area I see Chic dangling a bird above some ember moss. It doesn’t seem to be hurting the bird; simply scaring it. Walking up and freeing the bird. I kept eye contact with Sling while I did this.

Having freed the bird, I direct my attention to the troublesome spider. Taking a breath, I speak. “I think you know you shouldn’t bully smaller animals, don’t let me catch you doing it again. I guess I should have found an activity for you to keep you occupied.” An oversight I will be correcting.

Now, what should I do to keep Chi occupied? I never really kept a spider before. Maybe I should stop overthinking it and just treat them like a dog. Let's try it. If it works out, that’s for the best.

The best place to start for any dog; a ball! I find a simple ball made of wood. When I find a source of rubber, I will create a rubber ball. Actually, I could ask Jengal to find me either a rubber or a rubber tree sapling.

Handing the ball to the spider, it seems very confused. It at first poked the ball, which is then rolled away. Chi quickly followed it; poking it again. That should keep them occupied for now.

Heading to the town, I make sure to equip my Armor. Before heading outside, I check my mailbox. I found a letter inside, but not wrong Jengal. This is from the mayor. ‘Opening it’ while inwardly praying “Please don’t be bad” on repeat. Quickly reading it I find it’s a simple note detailing when I will be meeting Cassie – tomorrow.

That should be interesting, yet I inwardly dread it. I have never been a social butterfly, not before, not now. It seems my house is no longer a massive attraction; it gets a passing glance at most now.

Heading towards the market, I now, go-to place whenever I am in town. To be fair, it’s the most interesting place. Although I have neglected to thoroughly explore this place. I suppose I should do that at some point, but I find not being able to fly without becoming an attraction does but a damper on the idea.

Stolen novel; please report.

Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I begin walking through the market. Some new stalls have appeared, a few have disappeared. Although most have stayed the same. People are generally quite friendly to me now, although I think that’s because they know I have money. Word does travel like water.

Since I am in the market, I take the chance to stock up on food. Simple things like Eggs, milk, oats, and a few new spices I spotted. I never did get round to trying to generate chickens by throwing eggs. So much to do, so little time. I find a small café near the market. ‘Sitting down’ I order tea. They had an extensive tea menu, which I light skimmed before choosing the most basic type. I have plenty of time to experiment after all.

Taking out a straw from my storage, I carefully sip the tea. I was never a tea connoisseur previously but I like to believe I can tell the difference between good and bad tea. I found it comforting to drink; it wasn’t blowing my world; it was still good though. While I drank my tea, I took out my wizards handbook, idly flicking through the pages.

In the background, I hear a quiet “What are you reading?” I reply “The Wizard handbook.”

That was clearly an answer the voice was not expecting, hearing a louder “What! No way.”

Turning, I see a slender brunet with her own book in hand, a very thick book with well-worn edges. She has round glasses on, which compliment her face. I would call her a bookworm but she seems more sociable than one.

I reply “Here have a look” ‘gesturing the handing the book.’

She steps closer, taking the book from my hand. The increasing confusion on her face made me giggle slightly.

I was taken aback by her next sentence, “It was so simple, I had no idea! Wait, can you do magic?”

“I can do a little I suppose” slight caution entering my voice.

She looks at my masked face for a moment. “Can you show me?”

I respond easily “Sure.” Taking out my wand I cast the ‘block’ spell next to me. Promptly I sit on the block to prove it's solid.

Her face drew an O shape. She quickly says in awe “That’s so awesome, thanks for showing me.”

She starts poking the block as I reply, “No problem.” She leaves the café shortly after, not noticing till she's long-gone, she took my book with her, dame. Did I just get robbed by a pretty face or did she take it by accident? Now that’s the question.

Finding that’s enough adventure for today I head home. Once home I actually craft something I've had in mind for a while. An ‘ender mailbox’ It’s basically an interdimensional mailing system. I craft and place the mailbox; it had a little box on it where I could set a name for the box. I simply chose my name.

I produced over a stack of ender letters. This way I can give those letters to people so they can easily contact me. And potentially give them an ender mailbox so I can easily contact them.

A convenient system of communication, now it's not a replacement for texting; it's close enough though. Although I should look into if I can craft phones. That would be cool. To occupy my time for today; I think il build something cool. A replica Minecraft player’s body, pixels replaced by blocks. I've done it before. I create a small long island away from the main island. It was made quickly with little care.

I begin by working on the feet, building them block by block out stone brick. I have the dimensions memorized from making 5 of these when I was bored. It didn’t take long and now I have a cool statue overlooking my island. It was a fun diversion. I also create a few smaller broken off appearing islands. Planting a different species of tree on each. I didn’t completely overgrow each island so it will be interesting seeing how the trees spread and what fauna generates around them.

I also go into the nether and collect a few samples of the trees that live within that dimension, also planting those.

With my activity complete, I think it's time I tackle the twilight forest. Should be an interesting adventure. For now, I should at least make sure my portal is within a safe area and build a shelter around it.

Mindlessly, I check my items. Making sure I have everything I need. I am bringing oak simply to build a cabin around the portal.

I stand over the portal, looking at a swirling hole of purple. Bracing myself I step through, a falling sensation gripping my body. A unique and strange experience. After a short while I feel a rotating force and before I know it I am ejected out the other side. I can't help but feel like I went down the rabbit hole.

It's completely different from how I enter the nether, it feels deeper somehow.

Looking around, I am in a forest area, unsurprisingly. This place was all trees before and equally so now. I see many tall canopy trees, at the moment I don’t see any robust oak, but it wouldn’t surprise me to quickly find one.

It does ease my heart knowing I didn’t spawn inside a boss lair. That’s always a risk with these portals. I take out my building supplies and start building my cabin. While I am building it I notice it's very noisy here, birds, chirping, and a variety of natural sounds. It would be comforting if it wasn’t slightly annoying.

I build a rectangular log cabin, keeping the portal at the back I create a long wooden building. The corners logs, wood planks across the sides, and a wooden door. I added planks for flooring as well. I didn’t worry about heat sources as this place is a very comfortable temperature.

I didn’t place anything other than a chair as sleeping here would ruin my already terrible sleeping rota. With the portal nice and safe, I head outside. Taking the opportunity to survey the area I spawned in. I didn’t see much, just lots of trees. I did spot a robust oak a good distance to the north but other than that, very little.

It's likely for the best, spawning right next to a boss battle would be… inconvenient. I collect a few saplings from the canopy trees, I don’t plan to plant them for now but you never know when you want a new building material.

Looking out into the ever-expanding biome, I ponder when the last time I visited here was. It was a long time ago for sure.

I place down a Telepad, getting ready for an adventure. Now let's see if we can find a naga.