Chapter 7 – Base Building and Sleeping Comfort

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After having our meal, we resumed collecting berries, mushrooms, rocks, and stuff. In addition to these, I got my hands on a lot of 『Wood』 when I turned a fallen tree into an item, but it apparently was being treated as something like a low-ranked, interchangeable version of 『Regular Wood』.

It can be used to make firewood and wooden tools, but not as a building material, for example. Oh well, having is better than needing.

Anyway, I think it’s fine to postpone doing a more careful selection of the items in my inventory once the capacity limit comes into sight.

Soon we returned to the cliff we had found earlier.

“For the time being, dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast will be mushrooms.”

“Right. We also got some edible wild plants, but…it’s still not enough to make tempura…”

By the way, my inventory comes with the convenient feature of time being stopped inside. Thanks to this, we’ll be able to eat the fresh berries and grilled mushrooms anytime we feel like it.

When I attempted to turn the campfire’s flame into an item, it failed. I managed to get 『Ash』, but I suppose it means that 『Fire』 cannot be turned into an item. Is that because it’s a phenomenon rather than an item?

“We could also go with chopped veggies in sauce, but the variation of ingredients would be lackluster.”

“So far as it goes, we’ve also got some ingredients that can be eaten raw.”

“We’ll eat during dinner. Nutrients are important.”

“Okay, let’s fly with that.”

We had been transferred to this island in the morning, but now the evening was around the corner.

“Taking out the hut soon?”

“Yeah, let me give it a try.”

I deployed the hut, which I had crafted with my Crafting Ability, beneath the cliff. An instant later, a wooden hut manifested in front of us. It was so perfect that it’d be unfair to call it a mountain hut or a shed.

Given that I picked a place as flat as possible, the hut didn’t seem to slant either.

It might be different from a genuine hut, but since it’s easy to store in my inventory and set it back up after moving, it will do nicely for us. Digging a hole and building a foundation…is one of the things I cannot handle with my Crafting Ability. And because we don’t have any labor force to spare for this either, it is what it is.

I think describing it as temporary housing fits the bill.

“I wanted such a secret base,” Chiyu said something childish.

But, I nodded deeply, “I totally get you…If I had discovered such a hut during my childhood, I’d have visited it as often as possible, I’m sure.”

I went inside at once. Its size was around six tatami. It also has a window with two doors that open from the center, but it’s also made out of wood. Naturally, something like glass would be asking too much here.

No, wait. Can I actually create glass with my Crafting Ability as well? The ingredients were what again?

…Sand…and lime? Also…oh well, whatever. I’ll discuss this with Chiyu later on.

“It’s plenty as a secret base, but it’s a bit too cramped for us two to live in there.”

“No problem. We’ll eat outside. Also, we have your inventory as a substitute for shelves, drawers, and so on.”

“I see. If we don’t need furniture, this much space should be okay, I guess.”

Chiyu’s positive attitude is a big help.

“We don’t need a bed either, but I feel like I’d like to at least have a mattress.”

“Ah, I fully agree with that, but this is all I could construct with what we collected today.”

I took out a certain object. It looked like a rush mat. I made it out of the huge amount of grass we collected. Basically, it was a thin tatami where grass had been woven together.

So far as it goes, I made sure that it’s wide and high enough for both of us to fit on it, but…

“Hoh,” Chiyu immediately lay down on it.

“Besides a mattress, I’d like to have a change of clothes too. Cloth…threads…fiber… hmm, I wonder whether this island got hemp or cotton?”

I’m not very knowledgeable about plants, so I don’t have a clue at all. If I knew that this would happen, I’d have read the stuff said by survival manga protagonists a bit more seriously.

“Either way, for today, we have no choice but to huddle together. A truly inevitable development,” Chiyu said while lying.

“Yeah, well. You’re right about that… But, we still must quickly resolve the matter with the mattress and clothes to avoid catching colds.”

Just because Chiyu can heal it, we don’t need to deliberately get sick or injured, right?

“Fur would be an option as well?”

“Ah, you mean for wool?”

“Cashmere, too.”

My childhood friend’s eyes lit up as soon as she heard that name.

“Are cashmere goats really here~?”

“We haven’t seen a single animal thus far to begin with.”

“Right. I’d love to have knowledge that would allow me to estimate the location from the climate, vegetation, or such….”

“Sou-kun, no high-schooler can do something like that.”

“Yeah, you got a point there.”

But if the mysterious blackboard wants to test our real abilities, it wouldn’t have teleported us here after letting us first choose something we want to take with us. Maybe we’re being tested on how we manage to survive with what we chose or what we actually chose to bring with us.

“By the way…Sou-kun, you’re not going to test whether it’s comfy?”

“Uh.”

Chiyu had finally noticed that I’ve been standing all the time while she was lying on the mat. A normie might have been able to easily say that he’d test it out as well, even without being told so, but it was impossible for me.

“N-Not yet. There’s still stuff I have to do.”

“Okay.”

My childhood friend bobbed her head and got up.

“Just now we talked about animals, so I started to think about creating a beast repellent.”

“Hoh, I see.”

“I’ll go and set it up right away,” I said and tried to leave the hut.

But before I could, Chiyu brought her lips close to my ear, “Alright, we continue with this at night then, right Sou-kun?”

With those words, Chiyu left the hut first. I stared at her back while covering my face with a hand.

“Ah…damn it.”

During our kindergarten days, we slept together, but that’s a distant memory. Sleeping together in a hut after having become second years at high school…such a chance to quickly get intimate wouldn’t be possible during a normal high-school life.

Feeling happy despite the situation being what it is might not be the best, I think.

While the desire for night to come as soon as possible and the hope that night wouldn’t arrive for a long time wrestled with each other inside me, I also left the hut.

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