The next day:

The day before passed quickly. After resting we woke up early in the morning.

“Hikaru, wake up”- Hana poked me repeatedly.

I slowly opened my eyes. I looked around the cabin.

The cabin looks more like a square, 2 beds are aligned but on different sides, I took the one close to the windows and Hana took the one closer to the stove. The stove is placed closer to Hana’s bed, and the heat isn’t spread evenly to us, but I can’t complain about it. I hate heat. Aside from these things, the cabin didn’t have much else. In its current state, some things could collapse. We are lucky that the roof of the cabin is still holding on.

“Now, just give me a minute”- Slowly I rose from the bed. My eyes are closing on their own. Why am I so tired?

!Answer: Using too much of your mana to enhance your skills. At your current level, you used too much mana to enhance your shadow magic skills and now you suffer from insufficient mana to operate. Demons have a special feature that they can generate a lot of mana when they are in danger but will feel very tired a day after the danger passed. In your case, you fought the most monsters and used the most mana!- That explains it, or at least I hope. I want Sia to be right.

“Easy there. We still have some leftover food from tomorrow. Let’s eat outside and then get to work”- Hana grabbed my hand and guided me outside. In my current state, I need a few minutes to be fully awake.

Hana stopped a few meters away from the cabin. She already had the food there.

I sat down with her and we ate.

“So, how much can you remember from our old world?”- Hana stopped eating and looked at me. Her eyes shone in the morning light.

“Well, a few things. I didn’t forget things that happened recently which is good. Seems like that god that reincarnated us truly cured my condition”

!Answer: Due to your condition in your previous world you have gained a resistance type skill called Mental Attack resistance. It allows you to stop any kind of mind manipulation that uses Legendary skill and below!- Sia spoke in her usual monotone and cold voice. I like her to speak in a warmer tone of voice if possible

“Thanks, Sia. You have been useful since we arrived in this world. Mind if I ask you to sound a bit more human?”- I hope I don’t ask too much of her. I hope she knows what being a human means.

!I understand. I will sound more human, Hikaru!- Well, looks like she understood. Even this sentence here makes her look human.

“Well, that is good. I am happy!”- I looked at Hana, she had a warm and pleasant smile on her face, I can say, but this time, her smile made my day. I made Hana smile and not cry for the first time in years.

We stopped our conversation here and continued eating.

I still don’t know how Hana put up with me. I only caused her extreme pain with all of my suicide attempts. I can tell she isn’t the same person she was when we were little kids or the same person she was before my first suicide attempt.

We finished eating, and putting all the bowls and containers we used back in the cabin.

“Now we have to reinforce the house, we will need wood, then cut that wood into planks, then nail them to the windows, but how do we get nails> How will we get the planks ?”- Hana looked at the house and then at me.

!I can make nails and weapons for you Hikaru with one of my sub-skills. I can freely manipulate iron from different sources. I can only gather it and change its shape but it will do just fine!

"You are great Sia"- I praised Sia in my mind. There only had been a few days, I don’t think Goddess Ifrit will resurrect soon, but you can never be too sure about things like these. If we can get nails from Sia’s sub-skill then maybe I can cut trees with my shadow tendrils and see if I can cut the trunks into planks to use. We need to board up some windows, fix the door, and then fix the bed. The bedding on the bed is old and pretty worn down. We can’t complain but we need to find new bedding soon.

“Sia, can you teach me to make some makeshift bedding?”

!Sure. There is a plant that grows here that is similar to the plant in your world that has the name Hemp. You can extract the fibers directly from the one in this world and spin them into threads. I also gave you the knowledge on how to make everything you need to process the fibers. For now, it’s best to focus on reinforcing the house!

"So, what did Sia tell you? Is there a way for us to get planks and nails in the first place?"- Hana put her left hand on my right shoulder. She looks around with intent in her eyes, trying to find something that we can use in our current situation. But it’s to no avail. It’s pretty empty where we are, well, there are plenty of edible herbs and wild vegetables. But nothing more than this.

"Well, Swia says she could manipulate a few solid objects like iron. So we got to bet on her for this. I can cut the trees using my shadow tendrils and then cut them into planks using my shadow tendrils. It won’t be hard, but it will take a lot of time."- Looking back at the house I can see its condition again. I am reminded that we need to be fast. We need to board up and reinforce as much as we can.

"The house looks bad. Hikarum we need to hurry. But where can we get iron from? There aren’t any sources here”- Hana scratched her head while looking a bit tired. Maybe she is overthinking things.

"Sia, can you manipulate materials other than iron?"- I am looking at the ground at some stones, I grab a sturdy stick that I see and I look at them in my hands

"Sia, can you combine them?"- I asked her to see what she can do if it is true

!Yes. You are correct. Wood, Stone, Iron, and other materials that are lighter or easier to work with can be manipulated by me. But you will need a special skill if you want to manipulate higher-grade materials!

*Use Skill: Lord of Wisdom Sia*- The piece of stone floated into the air, and a polishing-like sound can be heard coming from the stone after that it’s enveloped in white light. In a matter of seconds, the stone took the shape of a knife head, the same happened to the stick I grabbed but this time both of the tool parts floated in the air and got enveloped in white light, but this time around the result was a knife with a handle. It’s similar to modern knives in Japan, the only difference is that it’s made out of stone. If this is what she can do with stones, then I wonder what the iron tools will look like

!For clarification, this skill allows me to manipulate the shape and state of 1 single element at a time. Keep in mind that the sub-skill Material Manipulation can only be used once per material and the original can’t be modified unless you have another skill!

“I will keep that in mind

"Ok, that’s quite handy. Hikaru, I know now, that you can find iron in stones. If there is a river nearby, maybe we can make the tools that we need!"- Hana’s face lighted up, and she moved her hands while talking going from right to left. She looked pretty excited, you can read it on her face, and a wide smile is plastered all across her face.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

!A river is about 200 meters North of here!

“Well, the river is about 200 meters from here. We can find some stones there, a lot. We will be in luck if they have a lot of iron.

“Yeah. Let’s go!”

To make a long story short, the road to the river is behind our cabin, 200 meters behind there is a big flowing river, and the current isn’t bad enough to drag us.

The river isn’t that wide but wide enough, around 2 meters wide I say.

“Well, you know what we have to do here Hikaru”- Have I arrived at the location of the river we looked to see a lot of stone, most of which I recognized from my previous world, maybe they did hold some iron.

“Sia, which stones should we gather?”- I betting on the red ones since they look very similar to the hematite in our world

!The red ones!- I was right.

“The red ones.”- Hana nodded. She looked at the river.

Hana leaned down and pulled her pant legs up. I leaned down to pull my pant legs up. After that we took our shoes off, we got to preserve them since we didn’t have too many supplies here, plus I don’t want to get wet when going in the river. Most of these stones are in the river, we are lucky that the water is clear.

“Well, we should get on gathering. We have a lot to do today.”- Hana and I walked into the clear water. We leaned down and gathered as many red stones as we could.

We didn’t stop until a few hours later. The stones were small but visible, some were bigger than, some smaller. We also saw a few fish swimming by, good to know the river has fish, but I doubt we will be able to stay here for long.

“Did we gather enough?”- Hana slowly walked to the shore, she was shaking a little bit. She sat on the ground looking at me.

I followed her and put the other stones in the stockpile.

“I think so. It hurts like hell to sit on stones with your bare feet”- I understand why Hana walked on the shore. My feet are killing me, it hurts when I walk, but I guess we had to do this. I am more concerned about Hana than anything else. I dragged her into this, I need to take responsibility.

I looked at the rock pile and extended my left hand toward it.

*Use skill: Lord of Wisdom Sia*- All of the stones in the pile began to float in the air, the sound of a hammer heating a metal could be heard and a bright white light enveloped the stones. The iron started to separate from the rock slowly. The same thing happened to the heap of iron fragments that we got. Most of them got turned into nails, more than we need.

“Sia turned the last bit into a Katana”- I don’t know if that is possible with the amount of ore we have but it’s better than nothing. Hana had attended kendo classes along with some other classes that taught her to use a katana. She can only use weak fire magic now, well my shadow magic is also weak but no one seems to dodge it. I wonder why.

!Understood. And to answer your question, shadow magic is invisible to anyone who can’t cast it or has it as a skill. Cast shadow magic is inferior to shadow magic acquired in the form of a skill.!- Huh. That’s why my magic wasn’t dodged by any monster, they couldn’t see it. Well, I think it’s useful, every other monster will think I am defenseless and will let their guard down.

We spent quite a lot of time making the tools, the process is slow, and it’s easier to say what the process is than describe it in detail. It’s pretty boring.

We walked back to our house, we entered the home and we found the stove broken.

!The most likely cause is wear over time. You can repair it with some clay and stone!- Well, that’s bad.

“I hoped the stove would last a little longer. This was the thing that we needed to work on. That’s what I was talking about at the river”- Hana gathered all of the pieces that fell from the stove.

“Ok, let’s go gather some clay. I seen a patch not too far from here”- I followed Hana around 100 meters from the front door of the cabin. I looked down to see a patch of brownish-red dirt.

“Is that clay?”- I did see clay before but not in this form.

“Yeah, there are more types in our world. But this will do”- Hana sat on her knees near the clay pile. She dug her hands into the pile and started to gather clay.

“Hikaru, you can go gather some large stones, I got this”- I nodded and then got to work. Gathering stones isn’t as interesting. I just went back to the river and got the biggest stones I could find. Helped by my shadow tendrils I gathered all the stones I could.

It was quick and now I am back to Hana, on my knees digging clay with my hands. We didn’t have enough iron to make a shovel.

1 hour later we are fixing the stove. Hana is stitching the stones together with clay and I am just placing the stones. Hana has more practical skills than I do. I don’t remember when she gained those skills but, she has them nonetheless.

“We need to clear the chimney and then we are golden. We should let it dry before starting the fire”- Hana looked at me and then looked at the stove

“Can your shadow tendrils clean the chimney? Or maybe you can use your shadow hands.”- She handed me a rag found in the house. I grabbed it with 1 shadow hand and began clearing the chimney, it took me around 2 hours to get it done. That thing was nasty, there was a lot of ash built up, and a lot of black grime. When I was done there might already feel. Looks like we are going to work through the night.

"So, Hikaru, how are we going to cut the planks? It’s already night. I didn’t expect it to get like this so soon" – Hana and I walked outside. When we stepped outside our vision started to look different. We could see in the dark but it was different from the days, most colors were a lot colder than usual,

!Monsters have universal night vision built into their eyes from birth!

“Makes sense”

“Well, we can see in the dark, huh? Well, we need to get this over with quickly.”- Hana pointed to a tree that looked sturdier. We can get a lot of planks from it.

"Let's see"- We walked to a tree. I extended my left hand in its direction

*Use skill: Shadow Tendril*- The shadow tendril slowly begins to slice the tree from the bottom. After a few minutes, the tree fell. We need to get on with the repairs before anyone wonders here

"Ok, so by the same principle, you can make the planks as well. Now, get to work, I am standing guard to see if anyone is coming."- Hana took a quick look at the fallen tree. Her gaze is now fixed on the treeline. She slowly started to patrol the trees.

!It works the same as cutting the tree, but you can summon more tendrils to have more planks at once to be cut. But first, you need to debranch the tree. I can make the process more automatic if you will allow me to take over your skills for a bit!

“Ok”

Allowing Sia to take over my skills was the best choice. The process became more automatic, I only had to summon the shadow tendrils

*Use skills: Shadow Tendrils*- After activating my shadow tendrils I waited for around 20 minutes and the whole tree got turned into planks, I didn’t even look at the tree. I just started into the tree line.

After 10 more minutes of waiting Hana walked up to me, she saw all the planks and grabbed half of them, I grabbed the other half and we are now headed to the cabin.

Hana and I started to board up the cabin. The cabin was boarded up faster than we expected. I used my shadow tendrils to hold and place the planks and then I did the same with the nails.

"Well, we did good work I say"- Hana is so optimistic, this house won't stop stronger monsters from tearing it apart. That is my biggest fear right now, if we meet a stronger monster we are done for, these planks will buy us a few minutes at most

"You are optimistic about this, aren't you? These things will bring us only a few minutes to escape. There could be monsters stronger than us for all we know now. We should lay low for a little bit."- I pointed at the planks, it doesn't look sturdy but good enough. I then pointed toward the deeper forest

"Don't be such a killjoy. Let's eat and sleep. Let’s try to get stronger than the monsters that you are worried about. We won’t have a problem then.?"- Hana looked and slammed her right hand on my back

"Yes, we better get stronger. But first, we must make sure that we are safe and that we take on monsters that are on a level with us. If we aren't careful, we will get killed for sure. Especially when that goddess revives. Our best bet will be becoming demon lords but that’s almost impossible!"-. We entered the cabin. I sat down on my bed. We were hungry, or at least I hope Hana was as well. I can feel my stomach eating itself.

“Demon Lords, huh? Well, maybe you are right about this. I am more concerned about goddess Ifrit and what King Wieka told us.”- Hana lay on her bed looking at the ceiling

“Maybe we should make becoming demon lords our primary goal. I don’t know if I should get too attached to this world, maybe there is a way to go back to our original world, but at least we should get strong enough so people can’t mess with us or people that we will end up caring about.”- Us becoming Demon Lords will be too much to handle, but it can bring us and the world benefits, only if you can call what we will do benefits. Going back to what King Wieka said, we will need to kill a lot of people, I don’t know if I am up for that, I know Hana is not. None of us have ever taken a life. Seems like life is still bad no matter which world you are in, on Earth or this world, I am already sick of people, but the only thing that keeps me going is the fact that I can get stronger, unlike on Earth where I am limited by multiple factors. Everything back there sucked a lot, it seems here I gained a new reason to live and exist. We will see where tomorrow brings us.

Although I don’t have too much hope for the future, I want Hana to survive and live a happy life in this world.

We shall see more tomorrow, from now on, I will go to sleep.