For the next few days, Edart focused his efforts on setting up a base where he could sleep peacefully, away from the cold night wind, under a roof so that the rain would not bother him, and protected from other animals or monsters that could reach him.
The shelter he created was something simple, using his control over mana. Choosing a higher place, where water would hardly accumulate, Edart began by creating a hole in the ground, in the shape of an ellipse. It was 2 meters long by 1.5 meters wide, with a depth of 1 meter.
Leaning against one of the walls, he created a 30-centimeter elevation, which would be his bed, and 80 centimeters wide. On the other wall, he created small spaces that would serve as shelves to store his things.
To protect himself from the rain, Edart manipulated the earth and created an elliptical dome on top of his shelter. Creating this took a few attempts. At first, whenever it was about to be finished, the dome would not support its weight and would collapse.
To solve this problem, Edart began to inject his mana into the earth, which made the earth more compact and resistant, so that the dome could support its weight and no longer collapse. Seeing this effect, Edart made all the earth in his shelter more resistant and compact, so he hoped that his shelter would resist more and prevent water from accumulating in it.
To prevent water from entering when it rained, he created a ditch around the shelter, to collect this water and direct it elsewhere.
He also created small windows in the part closest to the ground, where the wall of the dome was most vertical. This location was chosen because it was easier to prevent water from entering.
On the outside, in each window at the top and on the sides, he created a gutter, in order to prevent water from running inside.
To close these windows, he created some wooden planks with mana, which were held by small Ls that were on each side of the window, except at the top, which was where he would place the wooden plank. The door also followed the same principles, however, he had to create a small square that extended from the dome to serve as an entrance and the door was tilted at a 45 degree angle.
All of this could not be created in just one day, as his mana could not keep up with all this expenditure. While his mana was recovering, Edart did other work such as:
He created a space for a fire, although there is no fire, he has already left the wood prepared for when he gets it.
He worked in the apple orchard, clearing the trees of weeds and bushes that had grown on the ground. It was important to eliminate these plants so that there would be no competition for the nutrients in the soil. This way, the apple trees could produce more and larger fruits.
One day, Edart injected some of his mana into one of the apple trees. He wanted to see if this could help the plant, as if it were an artificial fertilizer. He didn't have much hope that it would work. All he could do was wait and see if it would bear fruit.
In addition, Edart prepared and created other things. Near the stream, he found a plant that had large leaves that were over 30 centimeters wide and long. In addition to being large, they were also resistant, although not very strong. It would still take some effort to break them.
With this in hand, Edart took more cotton with the idea of creating thread. With the leaves and thread in hand, he improvised a wooden needle and began to sew. After many failed attempts, a small bag was finally standing in front of him.
— ["Name: Leaf Bag."]
— ["Description: A small, fragile bag made of leaves. Its capacity is no more than a cube with a 15 cm edge. It should not carry too much weight, or it may end up falling apart."]
Although it did not carry much, its 'Life Balls', slime cores, herbs and flower petals, and red berries would be light enough to be stored in the bag.
Edart took advantage of this and created a larger and thicker cotton rope to serve as the bag's handle, so that it could be tied to his waist without any problems. He also injected some mana into the bag to strengthen the leaf, making the bag last longer.
Using these large leaves, Edart took smaller leaves that were dry, spread them on his bed of compacted earth, and finally placed the larger leaves to cover them. It was no 5-star bed, but it was much better than sleeping on the hard ground or up in a tree.
Finally, as he had some free time, he made some spears. They were good against slimes, but after a few uses, they would break in some way and were impossible to reuse, so he stocked up for the next battles.
Thus, five days passed in the blink of an eye.
…
These last few days were tiring in a different way than fighting slimes. Manipulating mana to create things out of nothing was not an easy task, requiring a lot of mental effort from Edart.
However, he was rewarded with 4 levels in 'Mana Manipulation', which reached level 5. Although he had evolved quite a bit, the difficulty of manipulating mana did not decrease much. This showed how difficult it was to work with mana directly. This only made Edart more eager to improve this skill. Unfortunately, his amount of mana limited him in practice.
He learned that using his mana to manipulate the mana of the environment made the process much easier, but it also meant that his mana was consumed. So all that was left was to practice little by little each day.
Two other skills also evolved, with 'Gambiara' gaining two levels and 'Identify' reaching level 10, earning him 3 more points in perception. The day before, he managed to increase his level, which also reached 10.
He didn't gain anything different other than the two attribute points, which he allocated to resistance, making his stamina reach 40.
Today it had been two weeks since Edart had seen another living being who could talk to him, this left a strange feeling in him and the desire to find civilization increased.
Having finished his camp, he gathered food, some 'Super Life Balls', his club, two spears and his bag of leaves.
Edart could live for a while with the resources he had around his camp, he didn't run the risk of dying of hunger, thirst or cold at night, he decided it was time to explore further away from his base and see if he could find anything good.
— "I've been in this world for two weeks now. It's time to find people." Edart said excitedly.
With everything ready, he set off towards the 'Slime Plain' where there was a stream that ran between the border of the plain and the forest. The sky had just gotten light, he had a whole day to explore.
The stream ran from east to west, with the orchard to the southeast and no signs of people. Edart decided to follow the course of the stream. He walked in the stream, as the depth didn't reach his knees and most of the time it was below his shins. The bottom was also relatively flat, full of small rocks, suitable for him to walk there.
He walked along the stream for some time, to his right was the forest and to his left the plain full of slime. Edart didn't know why, but the slimes didn't approach the stream. This puzzled him for a while. However, this fact helped him advance quickly, so he didn't care much about it.
Time passed and without realizing it, he walked 5 km. The small stream skirted the entire plain, until it entered the forest again. Edart was thankful that this stream didn't cross the plain, or he would have to fight to advance, which would slow him down a lot and it would be dangerous if he went too far into the plain.
He also expected that this stream would meet a larger river, but that didn't happen.
When the stream entered the forest, it wasn't yet noon. Having a little time, Edart advanced, but more carefully.
…
Time passed and the sun reached its peak. Edart stopped and ate.
It was almost time to go back. If he went much further, it might get dark when he returned, which would be dangerous.
Even so, he decided to go on for a while longer. There was something in the air, a familiar smell. He couldn't remember exactly what it was. He had an idea of what it could be, but he needed to check to be sure.
Another hour passed, and the smell grew stronger. He continued following the stream, and soon the forest disappeared.
The stream continued for a few dozen meters, where it joined a larger body of water.
Seeing this, Edart felt a mix of feelings inside him. As he had hoped, the small stream joined a larger body of water, but it wasn't exactly what he expected.
Before his eyes, there was a white sand beach that stretched for about 50 meters. Soon after, waves crashed on the white sand. After that, a narrow stretch of water stretched for a long distance. Edart estimated that it was about 1 km.
After that, there was another beach and another forest.
Edart approached and carefully walked to the end of the beach, he reached where the waves broke and felt the water pass over his feet. After a while he bent down and ran his hand through the water, after that, he tasted it a little.
As soon as he did so, a salty taste filled his mouth. As he thought, this was probably a sea and the smell he had smelled in the air before, was the salt of the sea.
Edart looked to both sides of the beach, and it stretched for a long distance that his eyes could not see the end.
He looked at the land in front of him trying to figure out which one was an island. He was not sure if any of them were, but there was a feeling nagging at him, telling him that one of the pieces of land was an island.
Having no options, he turned north and started running, trying to reach the end of one of the beaches.
Forty minutes later, the beach he was on began to curve eastward, and he could see more water with each passing moment. Soon he stopped and looked across the strait, where he could see the beach continuing straight ahead, showing no signs of stopping.
Everything suggested that he was on an island, and from the signs of abandonment in the orchard, it would be very difficult for him to find people here. If he wanted to find someone, he would have to leave this island, which seemed impossible.
Although Edart knew how to swim, he wouldn't risk going into this sea, who knows what was waiting for him to come in to eat him, so he asked for a second opinion.
— "Éris, what do you think, can we cross this strait safely by swimming?"
— "I don't recommend it, as you ran, I could see large mana spots, I can't tell what it was, but it would be good to be careful, it would be better if you crossed by boat."]
Since Éris kept an eye on her surroundings all the time with mana perception, she could notice things that he couldn't.
Hearing what she said, Edart thought. 'We don't have a boat, but making a raft might be possible.'
Not having much to do here and with many things to think about, Edart spoke.
— "We'll solve this another time, it's getting late, we have to go back."
Edart wasted no time and retraced his path, heading back to his base.
He hoped to find a river that he could follow and reach a village, unfortunately he discovered that he might be stuck on an island, but he wasn't sure. He decided it would be better to go back and think calmly to find the best way to go.