I knew there would be repercussions of what I did the other day, but I couldn't be bothered about that now. Now it was time to start working on getting tools and materials available so I could make use of the technology I was already aware of. The village had wooden planks, but they were all in use- either actively parts of buildings or nearby so repairs could be done. The arrow shafts of the other two arrows had become absorbed by the Yuck a long time ago, and I had to dig the arrowheads out. I just kept them in the pocket of my robe. The wax Mels had munched on and brought back had gotten misplaced; I'm not sure when. Mels and Sun had started to teach me the language everyone but me seemed to understand, and I taught them English... splattered with Spanish, Japanese, Dudbear, and Yittish.

Bander had found a lot of rocks. I don't know why he was collecting them, and it didn't seem like he did either, but at least they were there. Some of them were a good, sharp, flat shape, so I showed Laina how to tie a rock to a stick to make a prehistoric axe. I wouldn't have been able to do this half as well as I thought I could if it wasn't for actually watching cavemen do it in person. It was more complicated than I thought it would have been in the 2020s. She had finished bandaging Shore's arm, which was good. He wasn't able to harvest the corn very well due to his injury, but luckily others chose to help him. I was glad to see that happen without my involvement.

After I had a stone axe, I went over to the furthest tree, the closest one to the beach. It took me a few hours to get there, but it was necessary to keep the growing hive area secure. I let Aneis organize the widows into continuing their webbed path construction in the new direction I was heading. Mostly so when the infected crab became part of my hivemind, it would know how to get where I wanted it, but I also wanted a path to the lumber I was going to get. It took me awhile- the axe wasn't as sharp as I needed it, and the tree was at least twenty feet thick. I wouldn't finish the day I started, and in fact it took three days. Somewhere within that time, a few other things happened.

Sting had emerged from his cocoon, but he didn't look any different than he had before. I don't even know what was going on in that regard! The vision of the... uh... crystal caramel crab had given me a new window in my peripheral vision, almost like a internet browser tab. There wasn't space for a new window but it was stacked to someone else's. If I thought about switching which was on top and usable by me, they switched foreground and background. I was bored and thought it would be funny to give it a name that only I would understand- the girls and I were both learning languages, but that wouldn't teach proper names from pop culture unless I went out of my way to do it. My new member's name became Cletus. He wasn't as dumb as his name suggested. He was just the transparent caramel-covered crab he was before, so it would take quite awhile to get back to the nest in the back of the cave. I thought about helping him- but self-reliance was important and it wasn't dangerous around here, so I didn't. Laina did, though. Cletus had fully plated himself above and below, and the pressure distribution on the flat shells and small flat rocks kept Laina's fingers from sinking into him.

Later that night, when I switched to his perception window, it was dark. Hopefully that meant he was in a cocoon, growing into his cat-size... actually he wasn't that much smaller than a small adult cat, like one of those horribly ugly hairless Sphinxes so maybe he'd be dog-sized instead. Actually, thinking about it, my children had molted up until that point, so maybe he would too. Did crabs molt like a tarantula or expand like an orb weaver? I guess I'd have to let him teach me that.

...

I had Shore come with me. His arm was mostly healed now, only sore. That was good enough for me, and I made Bander come too. One person carried the logs as we cut them into manageable pieces back to the cave, though I made sure they weren't placed in range of the Yuck. That was absolutely not what I wanted. We would need the entire amount, but there wasn't a reason to waste time. We had three useful logs, and had started to work on one of them near the lake. I noticed some of the seeds we had collected earlier were gone from the little divot in the ground near the cave entrance that I had put them in, but at least I still had the unique one in my pocket. What was the point of collecting so many resource types if they were going to be stolen or automatically eaten? I'd need to start building a few stone containers and shelves or something so organic stores could be accumulated without them becoming endangered or left out in the elements.

It was a ridiculous amount of work since we didn't have any of the tools we needed, and making stone copies wasn't as effective as I hoped. I was never a tool-builder in prehistoric times, and unfortunately, that meant that my twenty first and twenty fourth century personalities trying to copy six hundred thousand year old technology was less than pitiful. But I knew what I needed, and I remembered from some history class that the ancient Egyptians had made sure the entirety of the pyramid bases were even by making short ditches and filling it with water- knowing that the water level would not only guarantee a level plane, but would account for the curvature of the Earth if the pyramid was long enough that such a thing mattered.

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I could make a new handle for the hoe. It was perfectly straight- that I was sure of. I broke the head off the hoe, planning on cleaning it and burning the stump out from inside the metal stabilizers. Using the obsidian arrowheads as knives to cut out a center of the closest thing I could make to a board, I finally had something that could act as a level if water was put in it. Using this as the tool it was meant to be, coupled with the other tools I had now, I was able to make a couple boards. Finally I could begin manufacturing things! I had Aneis come back from her other project and stay nearby not just to watch me, but to feel it with her own hands. She could always look through my eyes, or so I thought, but I wanted her to learn it herself directly too.

Using the only cup I had made so far, it was going to take awhile. It would probably be easier to... I had decided that moment to get some help digging a hole big enough for the big stone vat I had made a few weeks ago. If the hole was deep enough, the vat could be buried halfway and I could carve a hole into the side, and a little trench from the lake so it poured into the hole, though only a gentle flow. We dug out even more so we could build a fire below it and boil the water. The slight water inflow was necessary so that the new, cool water would both keep the water level stable while it boiled, and didn't cool down the water enough to cease its boiling. I'd need to make hinges and a wooden path, similar to a trough, so I could shut the water off and things, but that would have to be done later.

We had more than enough kindling and wood scraps barely bigger than sawdust now, so since I was the only one talented with firebuilding, I was the one to set it up. I didn't have anything to start it with, but it wasn't something I had overlooked. I didn't want to use the lantern's flame to start it because it would take a ridiculous amount of heat for an extensive period of time to get such a large, water-filled stone bucket to boil, but it was necessary. The dried-up leaf fragments were in the vat as I had earlier asked.

When paper was recycled on Earth, it was effectively just a big bucket of boiling water with paper in it, which broke down into a slurry. Step one, collect materials. Step two, I'm not sure. Step three, profit. I really didn't know what was done with that slurry to turn it into useful paper, so instead I thought of when I was younger and made things out of papier-mâché. I still needed cardboard to add in skills from flower-pressing, thus making even better paper, but at least I could finally get ready to start... if I could at least find some way to keep the fire going forever without having to burn the forest down for fuel!

I went and took a better look at my lantern. Its flame was still flickering just as well as it did when I had first gotten it- even an oil lantern can't possibly last over a month. I didn't know if I could even put the fire out or not, or if I could, if I could get it back, or if I did get it back, if it would be permanent like the current one was. Maybe there was some kind of ridiculous and hidden high-tech thing inside the metal loop at the top of the lantern... like a button or something and the fact that it hung from the chain, it was enough to press the button? It wasn't all that difficult to open the chain- one of the links looked like a combination of a 'quick link' and a necklace clasp, so the chain as a whole was able to be removed from inside the lantern hoop.

There was nothing. It was just a type of steel halfway between steel and cast iron, just like the rest of the lantern. However, as soon as the chain wasn't touching the hoop at all, the flame went out. I touched the chain onto the lantern again, but on its door, and not on the hoop. The flame ignited again. I went outside and made use of the last of the light of the day to see this better. If the chain touched the lantern at all, the flame was lit. If it wasn't touching, it wasn't ignited. I looked at the fuse sticking out of the little glass oil bottle inside the lantern, and it wasn't even singed! No trace of fire at all, and when I touched it, it wasn't even warm. There wasn't any oil in the bottle, either. I touched the chain to the fire pit I had made under the stone vat, and it ignited. I was getting very excited, but luckily, I had been a spider, and didn't get emotional about this kind of thing. I took the chain off of the fire pit again and none of the leaves, wood, or anything else showed any sign of ever having been lit.

Leaving the chain, now clearly having revealed itself as a magical item, outside... that would be stupid. It was chrome, so it shouldn't be able to rust, but I still figured it shouldn't be left outside. I don't think anyone knew about its magic so no one would want to steal it, and even if they did want to, we were really far away from everybody, and surrounded by a spider-webbed forest and a swarm of drider. Still, it would be better to do something else. I wonder if the chain only made flammable things ignite without using its own fuel, or if it had to do with everything that might illuminate. I didn't have any wire that might work as light bulb filaments so the entire cave could be illuminated, and probably the paper vat, and maybe even furnaces and forges once it became realistic!