Linyer looked at Foin as he suddenly rubbed his eyes. She believed that he was still slightly tired, so she leaned back, just like Foin, and stared out the window.

Foin, however, was quite curious. Now that he had levelled up once again after that strange phenomenon, he opened his status window, which he had not seen in quite some time. He remembered that during the last few weeks before the winter, he went all out preparing, so when he finally looked at his stats, he was not that surprised.

His level was 9. The number of Experience Points he needed to level up was 2563, from which he only had 5. The points under it showed that he, at that time, had 7394. Such a large number he did not expect would show up, but then again, the required Experience Points were not small either.

Going further down, his stats were all at 9, just as he had expected, and in total, he also had 9 ability points. He started to grasp what they were used for. He probably wanted to increase the stats further, though he did not want to spend them yet.

His stats were Strength, Endurance, Agility, Charisma, and Luck, which, although at the beginning, didn't make much difference, now made a considerable difference, with them being higher.

He felt that his physical strength had greatly improved, as he could chop and cut trees quite easily, and his stamina was much better than before. Although he didn't quite notice the difference with the other two, those were not exactly easy to use.

However, there was something missing. He felt like his creativity increased somewhat with each level up. He would not have been able to come up with the idea of the boiler that easily if it was not for the help of the system; at least, that is what he felt.

On his panel, going once again lower were his skills, which grew in number. Pepper was at level 4 with 305/506 Experience Points; Potato was at level 5 with 65/759 Experience Points. Seeing how they didn't change much, he instantly jumped to his appraiser, which was still at level 2 and didn't have an Experience Points counter next to it, just like his other skill, Inventory, which was at level 2 without any extra detail. Even Cutting Edge with level 1 was no exception.

Foin closed his panel and then sighed. He was quite curious how he could increase the level of his skills if that was even possible. The fact that the previous quest rewarded him by upgrading his inventory meant that there was a chance, but at the same time, there was still the fact that he wanted to acquire new skills as well.

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In the meantime, Gobu started getting active as well. The first thing she did was start the fire under the boiler and in the bath. She brought some pieces of wood from the storage; she even put some smaller ones on the fires.

Since Foin didn't harvest the potatoes and peppers, Gobu figured that she would do that while the boiler and the water were heating up. Just as she had observed, as soon as she had gathered the products, she plated back the potatoes and broke a few peppers to replace them as well.

And once she was done with that, she just prepared to get into the water. She slowly climbed on the thumb and sat down on her own level. She was so small that the water reached the level of her jaw. The water was still quite cold, but since she had nothing better to do, she just enjoyed the slowly warming water as she leaned back, against the side of the bathtub.

"Bathing is the best... Especially when I am alone, Énilo will not tickle me this time... Sometimes, I feel as if she was just a child..."

Gobu mumbled as she rubbed her arm in the warm water. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The great and relaxing feeling caused by the élion flower mixed in the water; although its strength had already decreased over the past week, she was still feeling it.

She slowly gave in to the smoothening feeling of the warming bath, and as she closed her eyes, she zoned out, almost falling asleep. She spent at least an hour in that zoned-out state without doing anything. But then she finally opened her eyes and jumped out of the bathtub.

"Oh, damn... It was so great bathing alone that I almost forgot about the fire!"

She mumbled as she hurriedly left the bathroom and looked at the still-burning fire in the centre of the main room. She quickly grabbed a larger piece of wood and a few smaller roots. She immediately dropped the roots on the fire and waited patiently for them to start burning.

She was in such a hurry that she had forgotten to put on anything, and water was still dripping off her body, especially her hair. However, she was not bothered by that as she was so focused on keeping the fire burning. On top of that, she knew she was alone.

Once the roots had been properly ignited, she dropped the larger piece of wood right in the middle of it and then returned to the bathing area. Her feet were covered with mud, but it washed away as soon as she once again sat back into the warm bath.

On Gobu's side, time flew by quickly. Since she had nothing to do, she only harvested the plants she was left to tend to, and she also replanted the basic ones she could. Fortunately, food was not a problem, as the plants produced more than enough food for her to eat.

As days went by, she noticed something; it was that the plants she replanted, the peppers and the potatoes, seemed to have slowed down in their growth. Their product was not as large and as densely packed with energy and flavour, but still, it was great.