How long have I been digging?

Evelyn moved mechanically as she shoved rubble to the side, installed wooden supports, and dug again.

The sound of wood snapping didn’t surprise Evelyn. Looking at the tool in her hands, she knew that it was broken. The wooden shaft was shattered due to constant usage and her own strength. It didn’t help that she couldn’t make quality tools like Michael.

Michael…

Fury courses through her veins, and she hurls the broken tool at the wall of rubble. Some of the debris scatters, but she successfully shatters the tool's fractured shaft into pieces. She retrieves the carved stone that was on top of the tool and removes the remaining wooden fragments from it.

Tossing the ruined piece of wood aside, Evelyn picks up a carved shaft and effortlessly inserts it into the tool. Thanks to her newly evolved body, this task proves to be a breeze, and she doesn't require another tool to forcefully secure the shaft to the toolhead.

With the newly repaired tool, Evelyn returns to work, creating a path deeper into the shattered mountain. The sunlight leaking from the outside of the artificial cave eventually disappears as night comes. Despite the darkness making it impossible to see, Evelyn continued to work, unaffected by the lack of light.

Michael didn’t have the ability to see in the dark… I wonder why.

She continued to move away the rocks embedded with each other. It’s been a week and a few days since the fight. Common sense indicates that Michael is dead but Evelyn refuses to believe it.

He's the one who showed me that nothing here is ordinary. With more people arriving, a new set of common beliefs will appear. I... I'll have to guide them.

Evelyn continued to work but even her evolution had limitations. She started to feel hunger pangs and sleep deprivation while working. Sighing, she sets down the tool and follows the path leading to the outside.

Her eyes adjust to the slowly growing amount of moonlight, illuminating her vision.

She exits the cave and looks upward, admiring Teremarae’s beautiful twin moons. Despite the peace, Evelyn couldn’t find it in herself to enjoy it. Once she’s done admiring the moon, she turns to look at the state of their home.

There were shattered trees, burnt furniture, and trampled plants scattered everywhere. It was a mess. Evelyn felt her hands tremble but she quickly suppressed the incoming emotions.

No time to muck about.

Walking through the wreckage of their home, Evelyn goes to one of their intact storage areas. She rummages through the storage boxes but finds nothing edible there. Still, she knew Michael was very meticulous.

There should at least be one more box here of food. If not, I’ll have to stop digging for a while and hunt.

Sighing, Evelyn searches the entire storage area for anything to eat. Eventually, she manages to find a small sealed box. Sniffing it, she could smell the scent of dried meat. She silently thanks Michael and breaks it open. Taking a few deer jerkies, Evelyn starts to eat but she doesn’t sit down or stay still. She returns to the mouth of the artificial cave.

Taking into account the box of dried meat, I have 2 days left… If Bob returns-

Evelyn's thoughts turned to Bob. On the morning following the third night of digging through the mountain, she woke up to find Bob had vanished without a trace. There was no letter or any sign to hint at his whereabouts, not that she expected any written letters from him. For the fourth and fifth days, Evelyn tirelessly combed the nearby forest in search of Bob. With her superhuman body and defensive gift, there was no danger toward her. Yet, after two days of fruitless scouring, Evelyn had to reluctantly return.

Evelyn grits her teeth, feeling a wave of sadness overcome her. She punches a nearby wall, causing the stone to crack ever so slightly. She internally curses herself.

Stupid. You don’t want to suddenly collapse the artificial cave just because you’re sad… Dumbass.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Evelyn delayed grieving for Michael but losing Bob was soul-crushing. She no longer had anyone to share the grief with.

Taking a deep breath, Evelyn pushes away the dark thoughts and focuses on eating. Once she silences the hunger pangs, Evelyn goes inside the dark cave and sits down on a relatively soft area. Leaning on the wall, she crosses her arms to go to sleep.

Just… a 30-minute nap will do.

Evelyn immediately falls asleep without any difficulties. And right on time, she wakes up 30 minutes later. Standing up to stretch, she feels all the fatigue from earlier disappear.

I’m still not used to recovering this fast. Must be why Michael was always awake. He barely needs to sleep.

Once she’s done stretching, Evelyn enters the cave again. Picking up the tool, she returns to her work, exhuming an alive Michael.

----------------------------------------

Another week passes by.

Evelyn continued to dig in the dark, her ability to see in complete darkness making it easy for her. She feels herself become hungry again.

Oh. Food.

Dropping her almost destroyed tool, Evelyn exits the cave. She’s made a good deal of progress causing the walk inward and outward the cave longer. Once she’s out of the cave, she goes to the storage room and looks for food.

No more jerky. No more fruits. No more crackers. No anything.

Despite doing her best to ration the dried food, all of her supplies were gone. Sighing, Evelyn turned to the edge of their home, taking in the vast expanse of Teremarae’s forest. Since the demise of the Draco, the world has seen a sudden surge in the population of creatures. Without a tyrant suppressing potential evolutions, a wide array of animals, spanning various types and variations, had begun to emerge all over the place.

Watching the dipping sun, Evelyn sits at the edge of their home, dangling her legs. Ever since her body and gift’s evolution, she didn’t really have much to fear. She could fall down their home and emerge unscathed.

But I can’t be careless. Michael would scold me if I stopped treating things seriously.

Waving her legs, Evelyn contemplates hunting for food or letting the hunger pass.

I don’t want to leave.

Raising her legs to hug them, Evelyn tries to find some warmth in her arms but fails to conjure any heat. She buries her face on her knees, trying to become as small as she could. She stays like this for a while.

Eventually, she falls asleep, only to wake up when the biting cold of Teremarae’s nights enters her body. Looking up, Evelyn sees the planet’s twin moon once again.

Michael.

Feeling a warm wet touch on her cheek, Evelyn stands up and wipes it off. Without giving notice to her surroundings, she starts to stretch, waking up every part of her sleeping body.

Well, it’s dark out. I can’t hunt in the dark.

Turning around, Evelyn returns to the cave to work on exhuming Michael out of his rocky cage. Her work was monotonous as per usual but she continued to labor. The sound of stone striking stone continued to echo through the long cave.

Eventually, the sun rose once again to this monotonous sound.

Leaving the confines of the earth, Evelyn looks at her hands. Despite her constant hammering, her hands are free of any callouses.

Why is that? Michael would have an answer.

Unfortunately, despite the absence of physical marring, Evelyn’s body was still caked with dirt. Turning toward the bath area, Evelyn contemplated taking a bath. She shakes her head and goes toward the edge of their home. Looking down, she sees the large pool of water where slayed the Draco. While the elevator didn’t suffer direct damage from the Draco’s onslaught, it was apparently hit when Evelyn and the Draco fell to their deaths, causing it to be unstable.

Evelyn then turns to the stairs. It was a long way down and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go down. Returning to the edge, Evelyn stares at the distant ground.

She closes her eyes and jumps off. The feeling of weightlessness envelops her and gravity pulls her down. Air moves around her as she starts to accelerate. Then she hits the ground, causing a powerful shockwave in the immediate area, as if a boulder was the one that fell instead.

Yeah, not painful.

Standing up and dusting off the embedded rock and dirt on her body, Evelyn walks toward the large pool of water. Almost instantly, large silhouettes appear just under the water.

Tsk, I forgot to bring their meat.

Looking toward the forest, Evelyn couldn’t see any nearby creatures but her senses were telling her that there were at least a dozen rabbit-sized animals observing her. Concentrating her thoughts, she tries to find the creature with the largest movements.

There.

Putting immense strength in her legs, Evelyn leaps forward but she immediately stops after a few meters, causing every animal nearby to run away in fear. Sighing, she sits down again which then turns to her lying down on the forest floor.

Looking at the bright blue sky, Evelyn takes a deep breath. After a minute or so, she stands up and walks toward the forest, keeping an eye out for anything to eat.

Eventually, she returns to the base of their home with a lot of fruits. She didn’t recognize them and without Michael, she wasn’t sure which was edible and which wasn’t.

Looking up, she sees the unstable elevator. She shakes her head. Turning to the stairway, she groans. She climbs up while sorting through the fruits in her arms.

In the middle of climbing, she finds an apple-sized nut. It had a thick shell but had a line in the middle similar to a peanut. Using one hand to snap it open, she finds a spherical brown nut.

Looks edible enough.

She bites the nut but finds that it's tough to shatter normal teeth. Unfortunately for the evolved fruit, Evelyn’s physical strength could be pushed farther than Michael’s physical ability due to Evelyn being able to flat-out ignore damage. The nut cracks and Evelyn chews through the hard and barely edible fruit. The sound of loud cracking and crunching echoes around Evelyn as she continues the climb.

“Stupid stairs. Why did we have to live up there anyway? Stupid height. I’m going to have to annoy Mi-”

Stopping herself, Evelyn spits out the inedible remains of the nut. Sighing, she climbs up again. She continues to eat, gaining some energy from the fruits. Eventually, she eats something that’s poisonous. Her stomach aches in pain but quickly disappears due to her evolved metabolism.

By the time she’s reached the top, she’s managed to eat her entire haul. Throwing away the seeds and shells, Evelyn returns to the cave.

Traversing the darkness, she walks through dozens if not hundreds of broken tool shafts. She picks up her familiar tool and hefts it in her hands.

Looking at the darkness in front of her, Evelyn swings the tool with all of her strength, causing a sizeable amount of embedded rubble to fall. She’s about to swing the tool again but finds something on the ground.

Turning downward, Evelyn could see half of a singed pillow.

Michael.