I yawned.
It has been quite a long time since I've been able to rest, and the thought that it didn't bother me that much until now was definitely proof that my body constitution changed during the event that brought me here.
While the bed was not as comfy as one would like, it was still a nice improvement from standing still in a cramped place, only enlighten from a single torch.
As I dug out the dirt used as my door, I saw the sun rose from behind the tree, slowly ascending and progressively bringing warmth to the world. Unlike the day before, the surroundings were calm, absent from any threat, which allowed me to use a more leisure pace before going to work.
As if it was waiting for my predicament to soften, an onion had sprouted and was coming out of the earth, waiting to be harvested. No matter how insignificant it would seem to the most experienced farmer, it was still the first time I've been able to organically grow a vegetable after starting this farm, as the carrots were artificially grown.
Looking at my food reserves, I wondered for a while about creating a more extensive farm, considering that my resources won't be enough to keep me alive and have enough variety so that I won't be quickly bored by the food in this world.
However, these thoughts would have been better accompanied by a kitchen. No matter how many raw vegetables there were that I could eat, it would have been better to cook really fulfilling meals.
Leaving these considerations aside for a bit, I took advantage of the quest I finished last night by crafting my bed to claim its reward, as I've seen I was owed a door.
Albeit simple, this door wasn't something easily reproducible with my current level of technology. The hinges were masterfully created from pure iron, and the whole object wasn't sloppy by any means.
I decided to immediately place it in the hole I was using before now to seal the entrance. As my house had grown larger, I couldn't possibly let it be visited by some monsters while I was away, which would enable them to ambush me.
Having secured my new stronghold, I decided to visit the closest real one, situated in the village. Even if the travel wasn't taking long, the path was obstructed by many trees and spanned several elevations, making it tedious to go back and forth between my house and the village.
Arriving in front of the village gate, I was surprisingly tense, considering I was about to enter a friendly territory, whose inhabitants were happily trading goods and where I could probably find some help. However, far from brimming with life, the wall's surroundings were calm, as only the birds could be heard.
I decided to pay no mind to this oddity and crossed the wall's gate, readying myself to be welcomed by the patrolling guards positioned here at any time. But no one came to me, be it solider or villagers. The main street seemed empty, and the only thing that could be clearly heard, loudly resonating between the walls, was the crushing silence that comes with the discovery of something you can't fully grasp.
Astounded by the eerie scene left by a village stripped from its inhabitants, I decided to take a better look at the whole situation from a higher point of view, which was provided by the stronghold's tower.
Walking on the main street while going to the fortress, I saw abandoned houses with doors open, like people left in a hurry or were surprised in their sleep. The fort made no exception with the rest of the village. The door was left entirely open as usual, but no one present to defend, and the places I couldn't go before were unguarded inside.
After having finished my ascension, I could finally grasp the village and its surroundings in their entirety. As I found out earlier, the vicinity was bared of any souls, and the silence was made even heavier because on this tower, the area I could have heard a sound from had grown larger. It was quite astounding to witness this ghost village.
Climbing down the tower, I didn't think long at whether or not I should settle here instead of my modest hut in the forest. When I took this decision, the village was bordered by a high wall, could be easily secured by installing a barricade at each gate, and was already inhabitable in houses styler than the one I built.
Looking around for a while, I set my sights on the only house with a sloped roof as my new base of operations. It has a certain nostalgia in it, as this was the house I first slept in when arriving in this world and was comfortable enough to provide me a suitable shelter for whatever was to come.
After deciding that this house was the one, I went back to my forest cabin and took the chests and the bed to peacefully sleep in the village this night and store items I would undoubtedly gather today. The inside of the house was enormously wider than the one I previously built and as such, even placing many pieces of furniture wasn't enough to reduce the living space much.
After moving into my new place, I thought that if I was to reclaim this village as my fortified base, I would need to make it suits my needs, remove hazardous elements and build better infrastructures. One of the best examples of dangerous elements I decided to remove was the entrance well.
Placed most weirdly, as if the engineers that built this village were rolling dices each time they were designing a living place for the citizens, it was directly blocking the entrance and would prove to be a hurdle. Would I try to use some maneuver while escaping an enemy attack at the village entrance, I'd likely end up falling into the waters.
I decided to remove the stone enclosure of the well first and the beams holding the structure together. The only thing left was the water stored in the ground. However, moving the water would be difficult as I had nothing to use to drain the pool at hand. I could still fill the hole with stones and gravel, but I would lose a precious amount of water, as the nearest pond is the one by my hut.
Having removed the well's stone blocks, I decided to make one trip back to the forest's shelter, partly to destroy it and somewhat gather the materials to build new infrastructures in the village.
As I readied my pickaxe to tear apart the building, I figured my tool was in bad shape, having lost most of its sharpness and cracks appearing everywhere on the flint tool head. I wondered whether I would be able to remove the whole building without having to recreate another tool.
And as I suspected, while removing the last bits of my now almost destroyed home, my tool break into multiple pieces, which didn't even leave me the option to repair it. Taking into account that I wouldn't be able to destroy the rest of the house using my feeble fists, I unrooted the plants that were on my farm, as making regular trips from the village would be a hassle in the future, so that I could replant them in a farm I'll make in the town.
On my way to my new home, I stopped at the entrance gate for a while. Even though the sun was rapidly declining, I wanted to secure my position a bit more than just using these walls, as the gate was like a massive fault in this primitive security system now that guards were no more.
Having no mean to automatically defend me as I would have in the modern world, using turrets and such, I decided it was the best course of actions to fill the hole with another small scale wall but leaving a properly closable door so that I could go in and out of the village without having to destroy this barricade.
While self-absorbed in my urbanization work, I took the chance to fill the potholes in front of the entrance to create an effortless flat terrain suitable for tired people having walked a long way, thinking I could one day be one of them. I completed my task hastily, as the sun was disappearing behind the trees, only lightening the walls by its last rays.
I hurriedly rallied my home as the darkness started to engulf everything on my way, fearing that monsters might appear any moment soon since the bulk of the village wasn't really lighted enough.
Fortunately, I entered my new base soon enough, and its comfy atmosphere immediately appeased me, as several warm light sources were gently lightening the mood. Like the previous night, as soon as I set my sights on the bed, a surprisingly powerful slumber came, making me want to immediately drop all things, lie down on the bed, and sleep.
While I was accomplishing what my mind had set me to, I wondered what the next day will be used to, and despite the growing numbness I was feeling, I couldn't help but worry about the food supply I'll try to make growing in the village.