To his surprise and elation, Mike was busy steaming up some sweet potatoes only three days later, less than half the time he had originally predicted. A grater made from Quicksilver allowed him to easy for the hash, some salt and pepper that he had thankfully had on him would be used the flavor the hash… and the only thing missing was oil, which he was determined to get.

He had spent the last three days digging towards the cosmic water while he waited for the tubers to mature, and he was ready to take a break and do some home maintenance. He had another 9.5 years in the zone, so he felt no need to rush this goal towards completion, especially since he suspected once he drained the cosmic water, the giant bird would be onto him. He had no illusions that even his highly leveled Rock Tunneling could dig faster than talons that were as big as he was.

Covering his sweet potatoes in some water to prevent them from browning in the exposed air, he exited his home and scaled down the cliff until he stood on the rocky edge separating the plateau from the wurm nest. Feeling an eagerness to see how much he had grown in the past few weeks, he stepped off the rock and into the sand.

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It was nearly sunrise when the savory smell of hashbrowns filled the tunnel system, enough so that Autumn and Ash came to investigate.

Mike’s clothes were even more shredded than before the night began, and he was covered in the visceral remains of the many wurmlets he had killed. Apparently, they had been waiting for him to return, as he had no sooner entered the sand before he was eaten whole. He had been suspecting this, and quickly dispatched the predator, but he wasn’t prepared when he was eaten whole again shortly after that. It was only due to Sonic Sounding and Unflinching Meteor being higher leveled that he had managed to escape alive… after killing 4 wurms in a row. He would have stopped there, but he had yet to get any of the wurm meat in his bid for survival. So after recuperating, he tried again. And again. And again.

Between each iteration, he pushed the kill energy into Hardened Skin, giving him a measly 4 Toughness, but managing to bring his blunt damage reduction all the way up to 60%. That mattered little against the much larger and stronger enemies, but owing to the amount of time he found himself being nearly crushed to death in the last 6 months, he felt like it was a smart choice.

Finally, 8 hours later, he had collected enough small bits of wurm that he was confident he could get enough fat to cook his hashbrowns. And he had been right.

The sweet orange tuber mixed perfectly with the unique, gamey taste of wurm oil, and he couldn’t help but feel that had his life with the System gone differently, he might have become a wurm-oil monger, taking this delicious delicacy around the world.

After finishing his food, he took a small nap, and upon waking up, he double leveled Impervious Skin to Level 3, gaining 2 more Toughness and bringing his reduction to bladed attacks up to 30%. After studying how the System interacted with his body to increase his stats, he headed to the chasm to work on his pet project: basket weaving.

The large leaves of the potato plant, which had been strengthened by the cosmic energy infusing their capillaries, made for the perfect basket fibers. By tearing the leaves lengthwise into strips, and then weaving them together, he was able to create a service basket very quickly. It wasn’t a basket that could hold water, but it would work perfectly as a basket to store blasting stone.

After weaving two baskets, he carved away some more space and expanded his garden of sweet potatoes. Between the leaves that could be used for baskets and as a fuel source for fire, and the fruit which could be used for hashbrowns, it didn't feel like he was wasting his cosmic water with the endeavor. More importantly, he wanted to create some sweet potatoes that he could store with him for the future. If everything went according to plan, he would never have to live on only wurm meat ever again.

With his baskets drying and hardening, he descended into the gorge and began mining for rocks. It was about the only thing he could do during the daylight hours, and thanks to his skill, the process of removing rock from its surroundings was near soundless… the other half of his ability was that he had to be supremely careful mining Blasting Stone with his ability. He didn’t know what would happen if he accidentally took a scoop out of a large piece, and he didn’t want to find out.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

After returning to the caves and mining through the night, he went to bed, with the anticipation of eating more hashbrowns the next morning.

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Within two days, Mike’s effort to mine blaststone had already provided dividends. The glowing purple rock allowed him to mine during the day, without fear of the birds being attracted to exposed cosmic water. Because of this, he was able to spend even more time mining, his distance to the water source getting palpably closer. The only downside to mining during the day was the inability to offload the debris easily. He feared dumping it into the crevice, and outside of the plateau wasn’t an option–though the birds had seemed to tire of searching for him of late, he had no illusions that he wouldn’t be spotted if he ventured out during the day.

With this in mind, he simply filled up a bunch of space in his tunnels during the day, and then spent a few hours taking out the trash each night. It wasn’t the best case scenario, but it was faster.

Two weeks later, small baskets holding the light source could be found in each room of his tunnel, which now extended nearly a full half mile. As far as he could tell, he was about halfway to reaching the water.

In addition to the blasting stone providing light, another major development was a torrential rainstorm that had come through the area. The water cascaded down into the chasm, pulling down all of the bird feces, feathers, and other trinkets that can be found in a nest of thousands

In the fading light, he had surveyed the cesspool, trying not to gag as he formed a plan for saving as much of the precious resource as he could. The plan had taken several days to enact, and involved a large Quicksilver basin which he had filled with small pebbles and sand. A hole at the bottom led into a second Quicksilver basin, where the strained water was stored. At the far end of the second basin, was a small tunnel, which led to a stone shamber he had mined in the floor of the chasm.

Creating that much alone had taken him the better part of the afternoon–mostly due to needing to carve out a large basin in the middle of what seemed to be a blasting stone vain. He had an overabundance of both sand and pebbles from his digging, and his affinity with Quicksilver made forming the vessel easy.

Working through the night and into the next day, he shoveled water into the vessel, until the basin was at capacity–which he estimated to be around 300 gallons.

With a large storage of water, he spent a good chunk of time on each of the days following, purifying the water through evaporation as he had at the oasis several months earlier.

As he watered his garden with fresh water, he was reassured that it had all been worth it. 300 gallons was enough to last several months if he was careful, and that represented 300 gallons of cosmic water that he wouldn’t waste on watering plants or drinking himself.

A week after the rainstorm, Mike made his first real progress in regards to understanding his skills. One day, while comparing Unflinching Meteor to Rock Tunneling, he had noticed that some portions of the form seemed slightly related to the latter, and it occurred to him that the definition of hardness might coincide with rock. Doing his best to extract that portion of the symbol, he carved it into a piece of Quicksilver and pushed cosmic energy into the pattern. Nothing seemed to happen at first, but after a moment, the metal flashed brightly, obscuring his vision completely. When it dimmed only moments later, in front of him lay not a piece of Quicksilver, but a piece of ordinary rock. He might have lost it had the symbol not remained in it and the color of the rock not matched the color of his surroundings.

A pinprick of energy caught his attention. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was definitely System related. He had spent enough time leveling skills to recognize its influence.

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Sector Assimilator and Junior Administrator looked on earnestly as metal glowed brighter and brighter. After weeks of watching, it appeared that they would finally learn something. In the darkness following, it was impossible to properly see what changes had occurred, especially on the viewing screen.

Sector Assimilator prompted the System to identify the object:

[Object identified: common stone.

Mass: 1 kg

Surface Area: 200 cm^3

Volume…]

An unnecessary amount of information popped up, all of it confirming that the piece of metal was now a normal stone. Both of them stared at the screen in wonder. They had learned a base concept of the sacred language. An actual word. True, it might not be enough to topple empires, but for a new mining faction on the Outskirts, it would be worth a lot. Suddenly, all of their days silently observing seemed worthwhile.

“Not even privacy in my own home.” the anomaly mumbled, and both Sector Assimilator and Junior Administrator were startled when they noticed he seemed to be staring right at them.