With her overwhelming need for hygiene taken care of Angela can finally turn her attention to other things. The surrounding area seems to be roughly at the centre of the island which, given that she is searching for a 'core', seems to be a good place to start.

Angela leaves the water; her wet dress clinging to her tightly, accentuating her curves. She takes a look around before doing a search of the nearby area but doesn't find anything particularly noticeable.

With a frown on her face Angela returns to the pond and looks down at the water. She sees a reflection of herself staring back up at her "wait... how have I not realised this earlier, I can use the water like a mirror". Angela bites her lip in frustration at her slow thinking and puts her face close to the exceptionally clear water.

With high cheekbones; large, round eyes and luscious, full lips Angela's face could be considered breathtakingly beautiful. She brings her hands up to her face in disbelief; she wasn't exactly ugly before but at best she would be above average. This however... the person staring back at her was completely a different face; Angela couldn't even recognise herself.

As she was lost in thought a glimmer catches Angela's eye, snapping her out of her reverie. Growing up next to a lake, Angela was a strong swimmer; something that comes in handy at this moment.

Diving deep into the pool, Angela swims towards the glint with powerful kicks. Stroke after stroke she dives down, upon reaching the bottom she sees the source of the glimmer: a large blue orb about the size of a fist.

Angela grabs the orb and quickly swims up towards the surface; she only has a limited amount of oxygen. Breaking the surface of the water Angela gasps and heads towards the shore. She pulls herself up before inspecting the orb and unexpectedly a notification appears.

[low grade water core: said to be the hearts of sea dragons, water cores allow the users to gain the ability to condense anima into pure water. Consume to unlock low grade water sources.] [consume? yes/no]

Angela selects yes and the orb shatters into pieces before darting towards her. The pieces pass straight through the hastily outstretched arm Angela uses to intercept them and fly directly into her body. Strangely enough Angela feels no pain, despite the definite sense she had of the pieces being solid.

[absorption complete, low grade water source unlocked: added to blueprints, water has been added to the earth category of the creation menu, +1anima/h, total 2.1 anima/h.]

Angela bounces in excitement, she finally has a reliable source of water. She wouldn't have to keep coming back to the pond every time she needed to wash or drink. Although she preferred being around plants rather than the rather ugly and plain dirt platform she had it was still the only structure she had.

Eventually, once she had enough anima, Angela planned to build a house somewhere more pleasant; by which point she hoped to have access to some more aesthetically pleasing materials to work with. For now though, she would have to settle for what she had.

Sighing wistfully, she remembers the quest she had; it was the entire reason she was here. Sadly she hadn't completed her secondary goal which was to find more rank one plants. She heads back to her shack before bringing up the menu.

Quests:

Kill 5 rank one demon beasts: 4/5, reward: 30 anima, +0.1 anima/h

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

Register 5 rank one plants: 3/5, reward: herbalist's bench

Explore rank one demon island and retrieve its core: 1/1, reward: system help function, anima gathering pool schematics (complete)

Construct a rank one anima gathering pool: 0/1, reward: magika arcanus

Angela selects the completed quest and a golden glow surrounds her for a moment before disappearing. A scroll made of sturdy paper appears in front of her as a monotone voice sounds out in her mind.

[system help function unlocked; how can I serve you today]

Angela blinks in surprise; this is the first time the system had actually spoken since she first arrived. She tries asking a question by thought and, as she hopes, the system responds.

[yes, I can read your thoughts.]

Looking at the scroll Angela ponders how to use it.

[the schematics provide instructions on how to manually construct an anima gathering pool, once the construction is complete it may be constructed using blueprints]

"Of course", Angela thinks; she still wasn't used to being able to ask questions.

She thinks for a minute, compiling a list of questions in her head. First was the questions she most wanted to know: "what are you?", "where am I?" and "who made you?" to which the answers were rather disappointing.

[I am the Big Bang system]

[you are in void no. 107034325]

[I'm sorry, I am unable to answer that question]

Next came the questions that were more pressing to her situation: "What are island cores?" and "can I get back to earth?". The answers to these are a lot more useful.

[island cores are the crystallisation of anima over time, they can be used to upgrade my functions as well as unlock new ones. Cores are usually guarded by the islands that form around them]

[in theory it is possible, linking teleports could be created; it would however only be temporary and there would be a limit to what you could bring back.]

Hearing this Angela sinks into thought; there was hope at least. She hopes the limitations won't be too strict. Either way it is a matter for the future, for now she turns her attention to the scroll in front of her.