"I'm going to go save my game before I forget. Do you want to drop the bucket down again and see if there's anything else down there? Maybe it'll give something different if you're the one cranking the handle."
Dex glared at him, making Hugh laugh as he walked over to the pup tent and crawled inside to belly flop on the bedroll. He was pleased to find the tent was just long enough to shelter him from head to toe with an extra foot of space on the end for him to put his boots when it was time to sleep. The pitch of the roof was ridiculously low, making it impossible for him to sit up inside, but he thought both he and Dex could squeeze in together in an emergency.
It'd be a tight fit, though. Perhaps too tight of a fit if Hugh wanted to keep his sanity around a man like Dex who could oh-so-easily say things like 'everything about me belongs to you' and acted like sex was a certainty rather than a wishful fantasy.
Hugh instantly knew what he was missing—a bigger tent, soap, and towels. There was no way in hell he'd survive living in close quarters with his Navigator unless he had all three. In the morning, he'd make it his first order of business to have Dex duplicate a second bedroll, as well. That should help stave off temptation.
Determined not to question himself on the matter, Hugh rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. He must have drifted off to sleep, because there was a holographic hourglass over his head when he opened them again. It read twenty minutes exactly.
The sight of it startled Hugh, making him scramble off the bedroll and out of the tent. Dex must have heard him thrashing around, because he ran over to kneel at Hugh's side while Hugh stared at the tent like it was demonically possessed.
"What happened?" Dex asked.
Hugh opened and closed his mouth several times as he searched for the right words. "I think the bedroll forced me to fall asleep."
Dex stared at him for a long moment, then snorted. "It what? No, it didn't."
"There was a timer over my head!" Hugh exclaimed, thrusting an accusing finger at the tent. "Stuff like that only appears in games where you can set how long your character sleeps."
Dex ducked his head into the tent and barked a laugh when he glimpsed the timer as it faded from view. When he pulled his head back out, he pressed a hand over his mouth to unsuccessfully hide a grin. Hugh glared and the Navigator lost it. He laughed so hard he lost his balance and fell to his knees, clutching his stomach as he struggled to breathe.
"It's not that funny," Hugh grumbled.
"Sorry, sorry," Dex gasped. "It's just you looked so upset, but it was only—" He snickered and wiped a tear out of his eye. "Oh hell, it's not what you think. The timer shows up to let you know how long you've been asleep. It counts up, not down."
"You're telling me I just happened to sleep for exactly twenty minutes?" Hugh asked in dry disbelief.
"It's coincidence, I swear. Just like when you fall asleep in the real world, how long you stay asleep in Thrive depends on how tired you are. If the timer freaks you out, you can turn it off in your Book on the Calendar page. Just press the sundial and you'll reach the clock sub-menu. From there, you can change the timer options."
Cussing under his breath, Hugh reached into the tent and pulled out his Book. The sub-menu was exactly where Dex directed. He paused with his finger over the drop-down menu to turn it off as something occurred to him.
"Will this make it invisible to everyone or just me?"
"Everyone," he replied. "It won't show up at all."
Knowing that, Hugh decided to leave it on, but changed the visibility to 'only me'. He did the same with all the other timers, ensuring no other players would have information about his actions unless he gave it to them or they personally watched his movements.
"When you're done with that, you should know both Macro and Scout are back and waiting to report."
"I'll be right there," he replied. He turned to the page holding the full version of a System Log and read the text output counting off the minutes he slept. A minute before that started, it showed his save point in bold green letters.
Going back even further, the log showed where he'd gotten the Prize Bag 'Lich Sword' from the Wishing Well, opened it, and took possession of the items inside. And prior to that, he'd received the Achievement 'Book of Life Novice' for unlocking all of the first section.
Having reached his goal, Hugh shut the book and went to see what the afternoon had in store for him.