Adam built the second purifier before the day’s first trade.
Five wood, two scrap and one rope went onto the clear tile beside the old box.
He confirmed the lit recipe and left the System to assemble it while he filled the first purifier from the bucket.
The process no longer needed watching.
Ten minutes later, a second wooden box stood on the deck with a clean metal basin and an unmarked clear sheet.
[Basic Water Purifier 200/200.
Output: 1 unit every 2 hours of daylight.]
Two boxes could produce twelve units on a clear day.
They also occupied half the original raft between them.
He laid four more planks and a rope against the north edge.
The new tile stitched itself into the six already there and brought the raft to seven tiles, five hundred and twenty-five kilograms of buoyancy and the same Low stability rating.
He mounted the purifier on the new tile with open sky above it.
Nothing held it down.
That problem went onto the receipt.
The sun had climbed high enough to heat the back of his neck.
He took four Cloth Scrap and two wood from inventory and confirmed the Cloth Shade recipe.
The poles formed first, a simple frame above one empty tile.
Blue cloth stretched across it, patched where the scraps joined, and cast a square of shade over the deck.
[Cloth Shade 100/100.
Sun exposure reduced within covered area.]
Adam moved the storage crate beneath it, sat with his back against the wood and drank.
The difference was immediate.
The air remained hot, but the sun stopped pressing directly on his skin.
Two purifiers fogged in the light.
Their first units arrived eighteen minutes apart because the new box faced the morning sun more squarely.
Adam poured both into the jerrycan and refilled the intakes.
The kelp from the south edge of the Debris Field had not dried.
It had spent two days under hauled plastic and wet tarp while he worked.
When he lifted the bundle, the leaves had collapsed into a dark mass that smelled sweet and foul.
[Kelp (Rotted) ×6.
Compost input.
Barely edible.]
Compost was closer to soil than anything else on the raft.
He opened Crafting and searched planter.
No recipe appeared.
The seed labels still said soil or planter.
Chloe had put radish seeds into wet kelp and produced a root before Reeve could call it rot.
Adam took the guano bottle from the crate.
One unit, collected from the nesting stack.
He placed it beside three rotted kelp on the working tile.
The items sat there without a lit recipe.
A container.
Plants needed something to hold the medium.
He added the Storage Crate recipe to the layout: six wood and one rope.
The ordinary crate line lit.
Beneath it, a second line appeared in grey, then brightened.
[Improvised Planter (Poor Medium)]
[Requires: Storage Crate, Kelp (Rotted) ×3, Guano ×1.
Capacity: 4 plants.
Growth time: ×1.5.]
It was not a blueprint.
The combination had been there whenever someone possessed the parts and tried them together.
He confirmed.
The six planks and rope became a low crate, broader than the storage box and open at the top.
The rotted kelp lifted from the deck in heavy clumps and settled inside.
Guano disappeared through it in pale streaks.
The smell remained.
Adam pressed a finger into one corner.
The surface sprang back, but underneath it was packed tight and wet.
He broke the larger clumps apart with his hands and spread them across the crate.
The material stuck to his fingers.
He wiped them on a scrap of tarp before touching the seed packets.
[Improvised Planter (Poor Medium) 100/100.
Empty.]
Poor meant slow.
The radish packet promised twenty-five days in proper soil.
Thirty-seven and a half here.
He counted forward from Day 16 and wrote Day 54 beside four circles on the receipt.
He opened the radish packet.
The seeds were small, brown and angular.
He pressed four shallow holes into the damp surface, spaced them across the box and dropped one seed into each.
The medium closed over them under his fingertips.
One seed stayed on the surface when he lifted his hand.
He pushed it in again and covered it with a loose piece of kelp.
He could still see the four places where he had planted them, though the System showed no difference between one corner and another.
[Plant: Radish ×4.
Medium: Poor.
Estimated maturity: 38 days.]
Six radish seeds remained with the lettuce and broad beans.
He pressed one finger into the medium near a corner.
Water gathered in the hole.
The kelp had already been wet when it rotted, and the guano had added more liquid.
He poured half a bottle of clean water across the surface and stopped when it pooled instead of soaking away.
There were no drainage holes in the wooden bottom.
Adam tipped the planter a little.
Water slid across the top and collected against the far wall.
He set it level again.
He had already put the seeds in and did not want to wash one into a corner.
A thin film remained on the surface for several minutes before it sank into the kelp.
The System offered no care instructions.
Adam marked the water he had added on the receipt.
The remaining rotted kelp went into the storage crate in a tied scrap of tarp.
He rinsed the empty guano bottle and added it to the other containers.
[ChloeB] mine has two leaves now.
yellow ones.
Reeve apologised to it.
[Reeve] Did no such thing.
[Kessler] Found a planter combination.
Storage crate, 3 rotted kelp, 1 guano.
Poor medium, 1.5 growth time.
[ChloeB] you had GUANO and didn’t lead with that?
yes that is fertiliser put a tiny bit in my bottle next time we meet please
[Reeve] Told you the gull muck was worth taking.
[Kessler] You called it climbing a rock for bird filth.
[Reeve] Both can be true, lad.
Adam moved the planter under the edge of the shade.
The new shoots still needed light, but less direct sun.
The box did not attach to the raft.
He set it against the shade post and added rope to his list.
The new planter reduced the walking room to a narrow strip.
Adam moved the knife and fishing line into the crate and set the planter under the shade.
It was still loose.
The regional filter on planter filled after his message.
Three people asked whether fresh kelp worked.
Someone else had a crate and soil but no seed.
Adam answered only what he had tested: rotted kelp, guano and a storage crate.
He did not guess about substitutes.
[ChloeB] how rotten is rotten because mine is brown at the edges and Reeve says that’s just old
[Kessler] Panel has to label it Kelp (Rotted).
Mine took three days wet under a tarp.
[Reeve] Weather’s changing.
Swell’s longer from west.
Tie the boxes before you grow a garden.
Thin cloud lay along the western horizon.
The swell lifted the seven-tile raft gently, but each rise travelled through the new joint with a short creak.
The clean cut on his palm had closed enough to leave uncovered.
The System no longer listed Laceration.
He coiled the bandage into the medical corner of the new crate rather than throw it away.
The raft creaked at the new joint when a swell passed under it.
Adam caught the loose planter before it shifted away from the shade post.