Slight charge

Spent the night in the wooden house, woke up to aching joints.

I went to sleep right away yesterday after exhausting myself gathering materials, but I regretted it—should’ve made a proper bed or something before lying down.

Today, I just wanted to make a bed—something at least like a futon.

She stepped out of her own home and stood in front of Risha's house next door.

Knock, but no response.

“Risha?”

Call out loud—still no response.

What’s wrong with me, I wonder.

Entering.

She said a word—just one—and pushed the door open, stepping inside.

Risha’s form was visible, lying on the floor just like me.

For some reason, Risha looked pained.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

…my lady… forgive me…

Risha looks up, noticing me.

Purely nasal.

"Forgive me... I'm sorry, I'm sorry—"

"Fine, fine. Just stay lying there."

She pushed down on Risha’s shoulder as she tried to sit up.

Laid back onto the floor, but the motion made her cough.

A nasal cough—probably a cold.

“G-gobendaizai… o-dedzudai…”

“Just lie there. Fine, fine.”

She left Risha behind and stepped outside the house.

“Menu open.”

She opened the menu, spent 300 mana, and drew a magic circle on the ground.

No idea if it’d work, but it was a universal remedy circle.

Following the arrow’s direction, she gathered five Abnoi herbs.

Must’ve taken too many when building the house—she walked for ten minutes before finally spotting them.

Back at the house, she completed the universal remedy and stepped inside.

“Here, try it.”

“Yes….”

She nodded, voice hoarse, and drank it.

Her throat bobbed up and down.

“Phew…”

In an instant, Risha’s voice returned.

Perfect—medicine worked.

“Thank you, my master.”

"Medicine taking hold? Anyplace feelin' off?"

"Nothing at all. I'm completely better, thanks to my master."

"Ah, then it's fine."

We stepped outside the house together, Risha looking much better.

What shall we do today, my lord?

"Yeah... I guess."

She opened the menu, stared at it, thought. She looked at the open menu, thought.

From a quick glance, the menu has no beds or blankets. Nothing that could pass for bedding.

Recalling yesterday—right, the wooden house wasn’t there at first. We unlocked it after getting our hands on the abnoi grass, used it for the universal remedy.

Maybe once I gather everything, something’ll unlock.

"Good, let's gather the materials."

"What are you collecting, anyway?"

"Whatever. Gather first, think later. Split up—pick up anything that looks worth it."

Understood.

I'll help too.

Madway stepped out from the grass hut.

"Are you sure you're okay, physically?"

"Ah, no problem at all."

"Good. Then I'm counting on you."

With that, the three of us split up and started gathering materials.

We scoured every corner—picked up anything that looked useful, whether it was fallen or growing, and piled it all into the open space in front of my house.

The surrounding area was wasteland. Nothing much to find, but we gathered everything we could anyway.

By mid-afternoon, the pile of materials had grown into a small mountain.

Standing in front of the mountain with Risha, I checked the menu.

"Anything new?"

"Loads. Oh—look, we can make a steel sword now."

I found "Steel Sword" on the crafting list.

A name that made my fingers itch. I immediately spent 1,000 magic points to summon the rune circle.

The rune circle's arrow pointed straight at the pile.

"Needs twenty iron ore. The rock-like ones."

"Like these glowing stones here?"

"That's the one."

Risha tossed the stones one after another into the rune circle. Exactly twenty—plain, unremarkable iron ore, glowing faintly—vanished into the circle with a soft pull.

It became a sword.

She lifted it, drew it from the scabbard, swung it through the air with a sharp *whoosh*.

The iron block felt solid. Reliable.

This was a summoned foreign world. A place where demon gods had once walked.

Who knew what lay ahead? Better to have a weapon.

She checked the list.

"Still missing."

"Then I’ll collect more."

Risha shot off in a blur.

"Collecting things you haven’t collected before?"

She paused, glanced back, nodded once, then vanished again.

And so she gathered more.

By evening, the pile in front of the house had grown so large it looked like a makeshift trash heap.

But the more she collected, the more things she could make—everything, at least, was some kind of raw material.

Might as well tidy this mess up before it looks any more like trash.

Spent five thousand mana to try building a wooden house.

Abnoi grass, one hundred; lumber, six hundred; Bushino stone, twenty.

All the materials for two wooden houses piled up from the hillside.

The house was built right away.

One for Madway’s place, the other for storage.

I carried the supplies into the warehouse.

Just as I was doing that, Risha came back.

“Another house, master?”

“Yeah. Put the collected stuff inside here.”

“Yes!”

“…And what’s this?”

“Yes! Some bird’s feather.”

“Feather… feathers? Could it be?”

I froze. Opened my menu.

Scanned the growing list of creations carefully.

“There it is!”

“Found it?”

“Yeah.”

There it was—feather duvet—in the crafting list.

Rushed to lay down three magic circles on the ground.

Seven hundred mana each. Three total: two thousand one hundred.

And you need twenty-five of “Pelo’s hair” per one.

Risha dumped what she’d brought—done. One duvet made.

The other two still need gathering.

I told Risha, just then.

“Risha, take this to your house.”

“……”

“What’s wrong?”

Risha made a face like she’d swallowed something sour.

“No, nothing at all.”

She shook it off, then carried the duvet—straight to my house.

“Hey, Risha, why’d you bring it here? I told you to take it to your house.”

“Sorry… but I thought my master would prefer it.”

“Huh.”

“Yes.”

Risha nodded.

Silence settled in.

A bit disappointing.

Honestly, I’d been hoping for a mana charge. Thought I’d hand it to her first, make her happy, and get mana in return.

Guess I was aiming too high.

Oh well.

“Risha, the two remaining futons are yours.”

“Yes.”

“The second one’s yours, too.”

“I understand.”

Risha darted off.

Of course, no mana charge.

I stepped away from the spot, too.

Thought I’d gather a bit more materials before sunset.

While walking, I met my first monster.

Looks like a rabbit, but twice the size of a normal one, eyes sharp, fangs bared like it’s ready to tear you apart.

This’ll probably be some kind of material, too.

…Yeah, it will.

A hunch settled in me.

In cases like this, you usually get materials from monsters.

So, do it.

I drew my newly forged iron sword and lunged at the rabbit.

First time fighting a monster. Rabbit wasn’t much of a challenge. Managed to win, though.

I carried the corpse back.

Risha was carrying a futon toward Madway’s house, right in front of the house.

The magic circle was gone. Both had been completed, and she was in the middle of transporting the second one to Madway’s.

“Welcome home, Master! What’s that?”

“I brought it down. Might be useful as a material.”

“…a monster?”

Risha looked at me with awe. Was it impressive that I’d defeated a monster?

I’d check that later. I opened my menu.

I scanned it carefully, looking for anything new.

“One thing’s changed. Only one. And it says I can make it with one.”

“Should I make it?”

“Let’s make it.”

I channeled it into a magic circle, dropped the rabbit’s corpse in.

The circle transformed into a finished product. A white dress, magic power 950.

The result was a white, women’s dress.

“A dress.”

“Yes.”

“Women’s wear.”

“Yes.”

“So it’s yours.”

“Huh?”

Risha blinked, stunned.

"But you're the only woman here right now, aren't you?"

"Y-yes, that's true..."

She shoved the fur dress into Risha’s hands.

Risha looked flustered—though not entirely displeased.

A brief hesitation.

Then, softly:

"Thank you, Master."

——Magic power charged to 1,000.

Not a perfect result, but not bad either.