I concluded my explanation at the same time we finished our simple dinner of cup noodles and a couple of apples. Masa looked thoughtful as he digested what I had taught him. I gave him some time to ponder while I cleaned up after our meal by tossing the empty cups back into my Void. It wouldn't do to litter here after all. I then headed to the stream to wash the chopsticks. These were metal ones I had brought from home and always used to eat my meals here. I had sworn off disposable wooden chopsticks ever since I got a splinter in a finger once.

The water was nice and cold and I couldn't resist splashing some on my face too. A thought suddenly came to me. We had set up the fire and settled down like it was normal, but how were we going to bathe and sleep outdoors? Well, I hadn't really perspired in this cool weather, so maybe not taking a full bath would be all right, but we did need to clean up. Would one of us have to keep watch in case monsters came? No monsters had attacked us while we ate, but it would be too naive to think they would give up on a free meal while we slept. Maybe Masa would have an idea on what to do since he had obviously camped out here before.

"Oh, I usually just do this," he said, gesturing at a short distance from the fire. "Stone Tent."

To my astonishment, thick slates of stone emerged from the ground and joined together to form a hexagonal tent-like structure with an opening at the top for ventilation. The "tent" was slightly less than two metres tall, about a head taller than Masa, in fact. However, I couldn't see any openings. "T-that's incredible, but how do you get in?" I asked.

He gestured again and one of the panels slid down back into the ground. "Okay...but if you made one for me, wouldn't I be trapped inside?" I asked. "What if...y'know, I needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night?"

"I could just make yours with an opening and you do something to block up the door with your Conjuration magic?" he suggested.

I snapped my fingers and nodded. "Great idea. That solves the cleaning up issue too. We could just do that in the tents."

"Ah, right, I hadn't thought about that problem," he said, looking away.

I couldn't see his expression clearly in the dim firelight, but maybe he was looking embarrassed? I quickly changed the subject, not wanting him to remember the posters in my room. "By the way, you're pretty good at making these tents. Is the Earth aspect your strongest magic?"

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He thought for a while before he said, "I've certainly had the most practice with it. I use it for blocking attacks too, which is why I know it can be used as protection against monsters at night. Here, I'll make yours too."

"Great! I'm so glad you're my party member," I told him, grinning widely as he suited word to action and set up a tent for me next to his. "Your elemental spells are so useful!"

Masa gave me a wry grin. "I could say the same for your Conjuration. The grass is greener on the other side, I guess."

"Well then, should we leave the fire as it is or will it attract monsters?" I asked, poking at the blaze with a stick.

If we were going to sleep in our own tents, we wouldn't need a fire outside anyway. Masa could make his own light and I had my smartphone to use as a torch in my Void. We decided that we could just bring some glowing embers inside the tent for heat. Masa made small containers by moulding earth like plasticine and we placed some still burning pieces of wood in them before putting one inside each tent. I then conjured a thin mattress and a blanket for myself while Masa brought out his sleeping bag from his backpack. Now we were all set.

The mattress was too big for my Void so I was going to have to create it each night and then uncreate it in the morning. That would take quite a bit of mana, but fortunately it could easily be recovered as I slept or while we were on the move. Before we went to bed, Masa asked me a lot of questions about the Conjuration affinity and what it could do. I couldn't even answer some of them as I didn't know how the magic worked myself.

I countered by asking him questions about his own Elemental affinity, but only ended up frustrated when he managed to find answers for everything I asked. The worst thing was that I couldn't even tell whether he was just bluffing his way through since his answers sounded logical to me and I couldn't do the magic myself. Feeling somewhat annoyed, I went to the stream to get some water in a basin to clean up.

When I returned, Masa was just about to extinguish the fire. Instead of kicking sand over it, he clenched his right hand into a fist and said, "Kesu," which I understood to mean "extinguish" in Japanese.

The fire simply disappeared without a sound, leaving the charred wood behind. It also left us in pitch darkness until I took out my phone for some light. There was no moon tonight and the stars weren't bright enough to see by. I had always slept in the mansion whenever it was night here, so I couldn't help feeling a shiver go down my spine at how dark it was.

Seeing me just standing there, Masa tapped me on the shoulder. "Don't worry, it's going to be fine," he said with a smile. "Don't forget to make your tent door though."

"Ah, right," I said, snapping back to action. I placed the basin of water inside the tent, then went outside to stare at the opening. I imagined a sliding door with a triangular frame fitting into the earth walls of the tent. It took several tries to get right, which left me even more tired than I already was, but at least I was satisfied that my tent was secure. We bid each other good night and I entered my tent to pass my first night in the Shyi'eldian wilderness.