"Fine," he said, then stood up.

Emm led the way back and explained.

"So, I was thinking, our tents are pure crap, yeah? Feels really claustrophobic sleeping in there, it's like a coffin. And they'll break under the slightest nudge. I'm not sleeping in those for a month, no way. So I want to upgrade them."

Jonathan was nodding along. He looked Emm up and down.

"That's gonna take a while. You're not joining the hunt? You'll fall behind in levels."

I would if I could. Even if I got no experience from it, I'd still make money.

"Don't worry about that, I got it covered," Emm lied. "The Guide ordered me to stick around camp for now."

"Why would she do that?" he asked.

"Not sure, she's kind of pissed at me. But it's only temporary. I'll find a way to get her to change her mind."

After all, if she could see other's [Status] screens, he could prove to her that he didn't siphon off any of the experience from battling monsters. There was no logical reason why he shouldn't be allowed to help the others hunt. She was just crazy.

He needed to convince her quickly, too. The more time it took, the more he would drift apart from the others. He was already a full day behind, in terms of socializing. They were all out fighting together, bleeding together, winning together, while he was stuck laying in his tent, unconscious.

Emm was definitely feeling some of that. He didn't even know most of their names yet. He got funny looks.

They didn't have much, so they had to have each other's backs. In an ideal world, the locals mistreating one of them would cause an uproar. They had the number advantage, they had the [Hero] perk boosting their growth. They wouldn't stay the underdogs for much longer.

And Emm didn't want to be left behind, either. Despite not being able to [Level], he could be useful in other ways.

They reached the place Emm's tent had been.

"This log. I marked the locations down, I need a cut here, and here," Emm pointed. "All the way through. Think you can do it?"

Jonathan blew air from his nose. "Sure thing," he said.

Spreading his legs into a wider stance, he drew out his sword in a fluid motion. He grabbed it with both hands as he raised it above his head.

It began to glow white. Jonathan swung down, and his weapon blurred.

The wood didn't offer any resistance to his mighty attack. His blade sliced it apart like a hot knife through butter. It even cut deeply into the ground beneath it.

Emm's mouth went open as Jonathan calmly pulled it out and moved toward the second mark.

What the hell? Already?

Jonathan repeated the same sequence again, effortlessly cutting through the thick branch again. Emm noted that he didn't speak his [Skill]'s name out loud as he used it, unlike the others.

"You're only [Level] 3, right?" Emm asked, just to double-check. He knew he wasn't the strongest, but the difference was too shocking. Emm didn't have a tenth of that power himself. Hopefully, a [Level 3] monster wouldn't be able to do something like that when they fought.

"Yup, [Level] 3. But not for long, hopefully. I'm gonna go now, don't want to waste too much mana on this," Jonathan said, a proud tone in his voice. He strapped his sword back to his belt and started to leave.

"Thanks a bunch. And don't forget about the discount, fifty percent off on your tent upgrade!" Emm remembered to add.

The bald warrior gave him a salute and left to rejoin his party. They set out as a group of five.

If he was this strong, Emm wondered why Jonathan even bothered teaming up with the others. He could just go out on his own to earn even more skulls and experience. That [Skill] had to be strong enough to one-shot the weak snakes.

I'm falling behind even faster than I thought. I need to hurry up.

With that thought in mind, Emm used his spear to carve a few thin furrows at the ends of the two support pillars. Those would be the slots into which his main "beam" would go. He found that the easiest way was to use the blade of his spear as a chisel. Emm would put the very tip of it against the wood, then bash the blade repeatedly with a small rock.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Each smash pushed it down deeper, prolonging the thin cut the blade left.

Emm's heart broke at the abuse he was putting his dear weapon through, but fortunately, it didn't break. The blade was sharp enough that carving out such a shallow hole wasn't a problem. He did a few more cuts at different angles, to turn the slice into an actual hole, and then proceeded to do the same thing to the other log.

The next step was to dig a hole. Again he used his trusty spear as a tool; he didn't have much else. It was proving its worth ten times over. It occurred to him to try to make some more tools, but this wasn't Minecraft. He couldn't make all that much out of sticks and stones. A rudimentary hammer, maybe, but he didn't need it yet. No nails. It wouldn't be so high level as his spear anyway.

Emm repeatedly stabbed the ground to loosen it, before hauling the dirt out with his bare hands. A strong earthly scent filled his nostrils.

It was actually more work to bring the dirt out than to stab in deeper and deeper. The soil was wet and cold to his touch, but not too compact. He didn't come across any large rocks either.

Digging around, Emm thought about how their camp had a [Water Mage]. That implied there were things such as [Earth Mages] too. If they could manipulate walls of earth or stone, a whole base could be raised at a moment's notice. He was working his ass off for something a single [Skill] could accomplish if it existed.

Each one of them could have had a whole muddy house for themselves. And Emm would be out of business.

Before long, his hole was so deep it went up to his shoulder. He widened it just enough so the log would fit, then heaved it up and pushed it the way inside. Lifting the thick piece of wood took all his strength, but he managed to do it. Dragging it around on the slippery grass had been a lot easier.

It took some more effort to get it to stand up straight. Emm had to shove a few more pieces of wood into the hole to seal the gaps and somewhat secure it. Ideally, he'd pour in some concrete on it. But it would do the trick. It was mostly stable, and he would support it with a few more sticks.

He repeated the process about ten feet away, on the other side of his ex-tent. First digging a hole and then putting the other pillar in.

At this point, both Emm and his clothes were quite literally dirty. He didn't care about the state of his clothes at all, though. They'd vanish into thin air regardless, in a few days.

That realization stopped him from using his old bandage trick. Emm had been tempted to cut another thin strip of fabric from his clothes. Yes, he could use it as rope to help secure the structure he was building, but such a temporary method made no sense. He'd risk a collapse once the knots frayed away.

Next, he prepared his longest, straightest branch. The one he'd use as his main beam. He shortened it to the exact length he needed, then chiseled another series of shallow furrows all across its sides. The idea was to slot the other sticks in so that they wouldn't dance across the surface. It was only a few minutes of extra work for what Emm felt was a big improvement in the overall integrity.

The last thing he wanted was to build it all up only for the goat to stroll by, kick it once or twice, and for it all to come crashing down like a house of cards.

He put the main beam on top of the two thick support pillars, which marked the end of his preparation. The next step was easy. He began putting the walls of sticks in place. He stabbed the ground with his spear once for each stick, then stuck the branches in, leaning diagonally against the main beam at the top.

The whole building took a simple triangle shape. At its center, it was taller than him, and extended downwards at around forty-five degrees.

Emm stacked more and more sticks, setting the skeleton in place. He used the dirt he had dug up before to reinforce the base. After that, he simply threw more and more leaved branches from all sides to fill in the gaps and make the walls as thick as possible. It would help with insulation. He weaved the branches together where he could so that they wouldn't simply slide off.

He left a small hole on one of the sides to serve as an entrance.

The final part was covering it all with his furs. Like shingles, Emm placed them from the bottom towards the top, to help keep the rain out. He lightly pierced them with his spear in a few places to attach them to a few of the branches.

There weren't enough pieces of furs to stack multiple layers like with the crappy tent, but that was fine. Emm saved a few pieces for his bedding and used the last piece to cover his door.

Looking back at his finished creation filled with heart with pride. It took him several hours of continuous work, and he was pleased with the final result. If they huddled together, the new tent could hold at least three people sleeping side by side. If Emm had any real belongings, he now had a place to store them in.

The tiny tents next to his were laughable in comparison.

Emm entered inside and just laid there for a moment with his hands on his stomach. He smiled. It wasn't nearly as suffocating as before.

Not clearing out all the grass was a conscious choice on his part. It was soft and he didn't mind it much. He was worried that ripping it all out would leave behind a depression, which could start to collect rainwater and turn his home into a mud puddle.

He could always cover the floor with sticks, but his supply was running out for the time being. Emm didn't see it as a priority anyways.

What was important was to get more wood, maybe even by convincing Jonathan to help him with it, and then find people willing to pay him to upgrade their tents.

It wasn't a very long-term plan, since he couldn't just keep building infinite structures and there were only about twenty of them, but even getting "only" five sales for five skulls would be enough money to last him for a good while.

And he was hoping to sell his service for more than just five skulls. It was far easier to hunt and kill five snakes than to build something like he did. It would take less time, too. So Emm thought he could ask for more.

It was the main way he saw himself providing value, for now. Even doing it for free wouldn't be so horrible, helping others out would earn their trust and support. Improving their living conditions was a niche he would try to fill.

But he needed to get the word out first.

The most important thing was that the others' time was better spent hunting and collecting experience. They couldn't waste a moment, so they couldn't retort with an "I'll just do it by myself". Not without having [Skills] that considerably helped them do it faster than Emm.

He was interrupted from his rest by his stomach growling.

The bowel movements weren't caused by hunger. His face darkened at the realization. He was doomed.

Where am I going to get toilet paper?