Sitting in the middle of the apple orchard, bathed in sunlight, Edart was pondering his next steps. There were a few things he could do now, but he couldn't decide what to do.
He was torn between going after the slimes, to try to gain a few more levels, setting up a new camp here, or exploring the region to the east and seeing if he was really on an island.
— "What should I do?"
Hearing this, Eris spoke, trying to help Edart decide.
— ["The slimes aren't going anywhere, all this time we've been here they've never left the plains, we can go after them after we have a place to stay."]
Edart didn't know why, but the slimes seemed to love staying in the plains and there were few cases of slimes entering the forest.
— "I just hope I have time for that." He spoke quietly, a little afraid at the thought of the bear.
— "Then let's explore a little and see if we can find a good place to create a new camp."
— ["Yes, it would be sad to mess with this place."]
After working in the orchard, removing weeds and taking care of the apple trees, the place looked very pretty and had a beautiful landscape to relax in. It would hurt to ruin this view.
Having made up his mind, Edart got up and prepared to leave. He would go east this time, besides the north where the bear went, that was the only direction he hadn't explored very well.
Grabbing his club, he set off to explore.
…
The forest in the eastern region was not much different from the other regions, tall trees dominated the entire horizon, even though there was a lot of space between them, the view was blocked after a certain distance.
On the ground, the already familiar red mulberry bushes filled the empty space between the trees.
So as not to lose his way back, even with Eris being able to guide him, Edart was making marks on the trees, this took time, but it would guarantee a way back.
— "Eris, have you seen any good place to set up camp?"
— ["Nothing special, everyone is the same, we can just set up camp near the orchard."]
Edart was looking for a place that was more enclosed, with some hills around it or with denser trees. That way, he could create a defensive camp, where it would be easy to defend himself if he was attacked.
The ideal would be to have only one entrance, so he wouldn't have to worry about being attacked from all sides.
— "We can just create earth walls, it will take time, but in the end it will work the same way."
He was afraid of creating the same shelter as before and being cornered inside with no way to escape.
After walking so much, Edart lost hope of finding a good place for his camp, even if he did, it would be too far from the plains and the slimes. However, he didn't turn back immediately, he continued forward trying to find a beach, which would confirm that he was on an island.
…
Time passed and Edart continued advancing into the forest until changes began to occur.
— "This feeling, are you feeling it too?"
— ["No, other than the forest that seems to change, I don't see or feel anything out of the ordinary."]
— "I see, it must be all in my head."
Edart stopped to rest. He didn't feel tired from walking. However, in the last few minutes, a feeling of oppression began to affect him. To better understand this, he stopped and focused on this feeling.
Edart didn't know what it was. He didn't understand it, because he had never felt it before. It seemed as if something wanted to push him away and stop him from advancing through the forest. As much as he tried to understand where it was coming from, he couldn't find anything that could be the cause of it.
Not reaching any conclusion, he began to advance again. With each meter he walked, the sensation he felt grew. Intrigued by this, he forced himself to continue.
— "Éris, pay close attention to our surroundings. There's something very strange around here."
— ["Yes, I'll pay attention, but what's strange here? I don't see anything different."]
Since she didn't have a physical body, it seemed she wasn't affected by this, or perhaps whoever caused this didn't realize she was here. Edart didn't know what it was and became more instigated to find the cause of this.
— "It's a feeling that increases as we move forward. This feeling seems to want to stop me from moving in this direction…"
After a pause, he continued.
— "If they don't want us to go in this direction, there must be something valuable. It could help us in the next battles."
As he advanced, the oppression tried to stop him, but it couldn't stop him.
— ["I understand. Be careful, if it gets too dangerous, we'll go back."] Eris said with concern.
— "I'm not going to do anything crazy, I just want to see what this is."
Edart advanced through the forest, at the same time, the sensation grew. It tried to stop him and make him retreat, for a moment it worked, however, when Edart felt trapped, what was stopping him began to disappear and didn't get in the way anymore, all that was left was the sensation, telling him to retreat.
As he walked through the forest, the trees became smaller and fewer and fewer were seen. Soon, Edart was standing at the edge of the forest, with wide eyes in surprise.
Edart rubbed his eyes several times and looked ahead again, because he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
— "Eris, this… this is real. I'm not dreaming, am I?"
For a while there was no response, which left Edart thinking that this was a dream.
— ["No, you're not dreaming, and that is really there."]
Edart let out a sigh of relief and turned his attention to the scene in front of him.
As the forest ended, a meadow took over the landscape. With a slight slope, the terrain rose until it reached a small plateau, where a small hut was built.
Looking beyond the hut, a large mountain range stretched from north to south, it seemed impossible to pass through there.
— "I hope it's still habitable."
Unable to wait any longer, Edart began to walk quickly, almost running. As he began to run, that feeling grew and stopped him from walking for a moment, resisting it, he forced himself and kept going, soon the feeling disappeared almost completely.
Soon he got close to the hut and began to see the details of the construction. At that moment, he saw a small stream coming from behind, passing to the right of the hut and heading towards the forest. This was probably the same stream he had followed the night before.
— "At least there is water nearby," he said with a smile on his face. He was already convinced to make this hut his home.
Looking at it, he saw its shape. Its larger structure was L-shaped, with the entrance to the house being at the top of the L and the base being at the back. On the side, there was an annex that was smaller and seemed to be built later. (Shape of the house. -L).
It was built of wood and stone, the foundation of the house was made of stone and a small part of the wall was 80 centimeters high.
The roof was also made of stone, and the stones were small rectangles stacked evenly, like the roof of a modern house. On the opposite side of the annex, leaning against the wall, there was a stone tower that Edart deduced was a chimney for a stove or oven.
The rest of the house was made of wood, from the walls to the door and windows, some of which were leaning and about to fall. There seemed to be some broken tiles as well, other than that, the hut seemed to be in good condition.
— "It's better than I imagined, with some work it will be fine."
— ["I'll be careful when entering, there may be some danger."]
Hearing this, Edart, who was advancing towards the door, stopped, checked his surroundings. Holding his club tightly, he went to the door. In front of it, Edart saw how the door was open with a small crack. Without waiting, he raised his club and forced the door open. Eris had already checked the inside and there was no sign of mana. As soon as the door suffered his force, it began to fall backwards, the hinges that were on their last legs couldn't take it and broke under his force.
"Bamm!"
As soon as the door hit the floor, a thick cloud of smoke rose, there was so much dust that visibility in the house became zero. Seeing this, Edart stepped back and waited for the dust to settle.
—"It must have been abandoned for some time. The owner here probably owned the apple trees."
The dust didn't take long to settle, as soon as it was possible to see inside the hut, Edart wasted no time and began searching.
Upon entering, the first thing he saw was a table with four chairs, three of them next to the table, apart from the dust on top of them, nothing seemed out of place. The last one was lying on the floor with one of its legs broken.
Edart didn't know if it was time or something else that broke it, but that didn't matter.
Against the wall was a wood stove with some clay pots on top. Beside it was a stone table, which would probably be used to prepare food. Below it was a cupboard with slanted doors. Edart missed a sink, but he could make one there later. For now, he would wash the dishes in the stream.
'It's better than nothing.' He thought as he looked at his new kitchen.
Heading towards the back, there was a door on the right that led to the annex. Further back, there were two other doors, one on the back wall, far to the right, and another on the left wall. These doors should lead to the base of the L.
— "Éris, do you want to guess what's behind these doors?"
— ["A bedroom, a bathroom, and a laboratory."] She spoke without hesitation.
Edart didn't know why she seemed so sure, but he cared.
— "It could be two bedrooms instead of a laboratory."
— ["Want to bet?"]
Edart felt something strange about this, thinking it best not to risk it.
— "Better not, let's just see who's right."
— ["Coward!"]
— "You said something." He hadn't heard her properly, because she spoke very quietly.
— ["I said: continue."] Since he wasn't sure what she had said before, he decided to continue.
The first door opened was the one at the back. This room was a bathroom. There was a bathtub at the back of the bathroom and a shelf near the door. On the floor, near the bathtub, there was a drain, which was supposed to be used to take the water out of the house when he finished bathing. Unfortunately, there was no toilet. Edart would have to keep going out into nature to do his business. If he could heat water, he could take a hot bath and relax a bit.
The next door was on the left wall, which led to the base of the L. When he opened the door, a huge bed appeared in his view. There were four pillows, very soft armrests, and the bed linen was white and very soft. Edart couldn't take it anymore and threw himself on the bed.
—"I'm going to stay here forever!!"
At that moment, he felt like sleeping and almost did. Lying on the bed, enjoying every moment, he looked around. The room was very simple. In addition to the bed, there were two dressers, one on each side of the bed. At the back of the room, which was the end of the L-shaped leg, there was a circular extension made of glass with a dome also made of glass that gave a 180-degree view of the entire exterior. That was all in the room.
— "It's simple, but it has everything a room needs. But there's something strange here."
Getting up, Edart looked around, approached a dresser and ran his hand over it.
— "There's no dust! How is that possible? Could someone be living here? But why would you only clean this room?"
Eris stepped forward and spoke.
— ["There seems to be some kind of mana control here. I could see a weak mana circulating in the room. That might be what's responsible for keeping the room clean."]
Upon hearing this, Edart went to the kitchen, gathered the dust and went to the bedroom door. Without entering the room, he threw a handful of dust inside. Upon entering the room, the dust began to disappear, soon there was no longer any trace of dust in the room.
When the dust entered the room, Eris watched the mana move around the room and reported it to him.
Seeing this, Edart was fascinated, he didn't know how it worked, but he kept thinking about the possibilities and facilities that magic could create. A house that didn't get dirty was just a minor thing, what a major spell could do.
— "I need to learn how to do that."
— ["Maybe the laboratory has books about it."]
As he thought about the remaining room, Edart hoped, from the bottom of his heart, that this room was really a laboratory.
Wasting no time, he went towards the last room. Standing in front of the door, he grabbed the handle with enthusiasm. As he opened the door, it creaked a little and soon the interior of the room appeared.