I bolted upright to the loud clang of the heavy wooden door dropping onto the stone. The room was empty aside from a burnt and blackened meat kebab sitting on a river stone next to my bed for me.
As my panic subsided, it took some effort to eat breakfast. I'd gotten enough food and rest that I no longer felt that ravenous hunger from starvation and exhaustion, and the bland meat tasted awful. But I knew my body needed the fuel, so I pushed through.
"Eimear's already left to search for the rest of the party," Gormán said as he came back into base with a cartload of sand from the river.
I swallowed my last bite and stood up. "I hope she can find them."
"Me too, lass." He started to unload the cart. "Do you want to get more wood, and I'll gather that metal, and clay?"
"No. I think we should stick together. There are still monsters in this area."
"If they come, then I'll run." He slapped himself in the thigh. "They won't have nothing on me."
I gave him a look. "And when will you notice them? Do you have a skill to detect them." The guilt on his face told me he didn't. "I can concentrate on three spells. I'll keep a detection spell up, and a conjured tool for each of us."
He rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright. We'll go together." He laughed as we headed out towards the river to work on gathering the materials he needed for his forge. The smelter would need time to set once he got the clay, so that was our first priority. "You remind me of my daughter, ya know?"
I nearly stumbled as I heard that. "W-What?"
"Yeah. She's about your age. Always nagging me about some new health trend or whatever. I mean... She ain't as white as you, but still. I see her in ya. "
I nodded along, unsure of what to say.
"So what was life like for you in the (...)." He tried to say something and failed. He scowled as the system censored him. "Bah. In the, you know... You got yourself a man waiting for you? Or is that Sé? Y'all seem pretty close." He suddenly held his hands up defensively. "I ain't asking for myself. Like I said, you remind me of my daughter... Just making talk."
"No... He's... just a friend," I said slowly. I didn't know what to say. That this was only my third day being a girl? No way.
"You sure he feels the same way? You don't know how awkward young boys can be. They don't really understand their feelings, and all that. You should talk with him about it."
I laughed. "Yeah... I'm pretty sure. Can we... not talk about this?"
"Oh? Bad break up?"
"No..." I left it at that and an awkward silence followed us until we reached the main river. The corpses of the vinevargs we'd dropped here yesterday were gone. Something must've picked them clean in the night.
"Well, back in the before." He perked up at skirting around the restrictions. "Ha. I was facing down retirement. I know I had always talked about running off into the woods to build a cabin. But I never imagined I would be doing it like this."
I laughed weakly.
"My daughter..." He paused, his face paling, as he opened his mouth, closed it. He stopped walking entirely and dropped the cart. "I... I can't remember her name."
"What do you mean? She's your daughter, right?"
"Yeah, but there's a void. A haze. There's something missing. I can recall calling her Ana, but for the life of me, I can't remember what her full name was. I can still recall all of the love, and the emotions, but the details are just..." He flicked his hand out as though scattering dust to the wind.
"You sure you aren't going senile, old man?" I laughed as I tried to tease him and elbowed him. Trying to ease the tension and pain from the loss of the 'superfluous memories we had all been losing.'
He glowered at me, pursing his lips, his forehead going red, and it looked like he was about to explode.
"S-sorry." I bowed my head.
"Don't joke about that, lass."
I nodded. "Again, sorry. Just trying to add some levity."
"If'n you say so." He pointed to a small chunk of the riverbank that had already been strip mined. Deep chunks of thick clay were missing and water slowly trickled from the river into it. The nearest trees were thirty meters away, so even with the towering deciduous trees of the lush forest, we were left in the sun from the cloudless sky bearing down on us. "Over here, this should work for sand and clay."
The sun bore down on us and I prayed that elves didn't burn as easily as I did in the real world or I was going to quickly turn into a tomato. I pulled my sleeves down as much as I could, but I still felt way too exposed.
I conjured a pair of shovels, and handed one over to Gormán.
He shoved it into the ground and lifted up the wet clay. "Keep your eyes peeled for any metal, I can't use it yet, but I'll need a bunch."
"Oh, I found a vein with Eimear yesterday."
"Really? Where?" He perked up.
I pointed downstream.
"Well, what are we waiting for, lass? Let's go!"
"Don't you need the clay and sand?"
"Oh yeah. Can't smelt metal without a smelter." He blushed. "That first, then some bright and shiny metal."
We got to work.
We jammed the shovel into the clay, pushed it in as far as we could, wiggled it back and forth, strained to pull out the clay, walked over to the cart, and tossed it in.
Shove, wiggle, lift, toss. Over and over again.
It was exhausting. I felt I had undeniable proof that Eimear had been full of it when she claimed we were in a videogame. Sure, I could easily see my stamina plummeting and I had to take regular breaks for it to recover. But there was no way any game could create that deep seated ache in my muscles that I felt, the constant exertion must be building up enough lactic acid to fill a barrel.
I wished I could use a spell to lift it up and mold it.
Wait... I had the Shape Earth spell. I unsummoned my shovel and gave that a try, and it worked. I wanted to chain in Telekinesis to lift it up, but Gormán still needed his tool, and there was no way I was dropping Sense Monsters. Not to mention only five kilograms of wet clay was pitifully small.
"Can we try something?" I looked at Gormán. "Put your shovel there." I pointed at the ground next to the clay, and then used Shape Earth to have the clay walk itself up onto his shovel. He tossed it in the cart.
Working together went much faster than us working alone side by side, and before long we had a cart full of wet clay.
Over the course of the morning, we managed to gather enough clay and sand for Gormán to mix up a pseudo-concrete for his smelter mold. It would take a while to dry out, but he had a crafting ability that would speed up the process. It took up his only concentration slot, but to save us time, it was worth it.
A cooling breeze from the west gave us a reprieve as we finished our first load. It brought a scattering of clouds with it as it wicked away our sweat. Along with it came a full blast of jungle smells, the whiff of over ripe vegetation rotting caught me off guard, but fortunately there were sweet undertones all over a heavy layer of petrichor.
From there, we alternated trips to get wood and copper, taking a short break for bland boar kebabs for lunch. Then we transitioned to crafting. We wanted to finish the ladder so we could go topside, but as soon as we did, it started raining. Water rushed from above through a rivulet on the north side of the opening in the ceiling. It splashed into a hole from previous deluges and flowed down the little cave creak.
Neither of us wanted to get wet, so we delayed pushing the ladder into position.
Since we were trapped, Gormán spent some time looking at recipes, and deciding what he could do to turn this into a proper survival camp. He could make flint and copper tools, which was on par with my tier two conjured tools. But, to make something better, we were going to need bronze. Which meant finding tin.
I tried to see if I could grab a Sense or Locate spell to search for it. But it wasn't covered under any of my categories. I had options for various races, and the basic elements -- but nothing for metal, or any specific material.
In the meantime, I realized I had been neglecting my Amplification magic, it had been stuck at tier one. I repeatedly cast Static Illusion to get the skill up, as well as practice my visualization skills.
Over the course of the wet and dreary afternoon, I helped Gormán create basic molds that he could use for making metal tools and weapons, a workbench, a tanning rack that we set the boar hide on, and a set of shelves with wooden bins so we could start storing materials.
The weather outside turned from annoying to terrible as thunder cracked across the sky, a flash of lightning briefly brightened the cave.
With how heavily it all came down, we didn't hear as the door was raised. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest when I saw three hunched figures walking through the entry way backlit by a perfectly timed bolt of lightning.