22 Moving

Having finished with her examination of the small island, Astur wasn't able to a suitable area with a large open space. Thus her thoughts move forward from finding a good spot to creating a good spot to move her house to. The island is only about 600 metres both long and wide, but it's more than enough for Astur's house.

Sitting atop the stump of a tree she blew up, Astur thinks on the best placement for her house. Having narrowed it down to two choices, either by the water's edge or in the centre of the island near the Blast Trees and mushrooms. Each placement having its downsides and benefits.

The centre of the island has the benefit of being near some useful ingredients. More than just the Blast Trees and mushrooms, there are also things like Mandrakes, Silver Blade Grass, and a patch of wild berries. Setting up her house around here would allow for the easy construction of a garden to cultivate these ingredients, but the downside is the distance from water.

The benefit of placing her house directly by the water is simply easy access to water. But this one benefit has multiple uses. Being by the water, Astur won't need to construct a system to draw water to her house as she would if she placed her house in the island's centre. And while minor, it also allows Astur to keep an eye on what's going on beyond her house. But as a downside there exist the potential of the water overflowing in the event of heavy rainfall or other environmental factors.

"Hey Liz, what do you think is better, a view of the water or being surrounded by the vegetation?" Astur asks.

"*Yawn* before it was destroyed, I used to live in a lakeside town. So I would place preference in the water. But can we hurry this up? I want to go back and sleep, not everyone can stay up for days on end like you," Elizabeth says.

"Just sleep on the ground if you're tired," Astur says, walking over towards one of the edges of the island.

Astur decides to use the northern edge of the island at the location for her house. Her reasoning behind choosing the northern part of the island is because it sits at a higher elevation compared to the rest. Beyond a small beach area at the southern part where Astur and Elizabeth landed, the island's elevation gradually raises until it reaches its highest where Astur is now. Although it isn't much, only about 1.5 metres above the water.

Using her Big Blast Balls, Astur begins blasting the trees in her immediate area away. Since this move wasn't originally a part of her plan for the day, Astur didn't bring any proper equipment for clearing out trees. However, the original purpose behind Blast Balls was for demolition, having just enough strength to take down old buildings with ease. Astur's item affinities allow her to repurpose them into weapons that can effectively be used against monsters, but that doesn't mean the Blast Balls can't fulfil their original purpose as well.

After half an hour of Astur blowing up trees and Elizabeth telling her off for making too much noise, Astur finally clears the area clear of any obstructions.

Looking over her work, Astur says, "nice."

"Like hell it is! In what world does a person look at these craters and think it's nice!?" Elizabeth asks.

"Me."

"Ok, I'm the fool for trying to argue… but seriously, what are you going to do about those craters? I don't think they'll be a good thing to have a house on top of."

"On the contrary, they're actually rather important, but you don't worry about it. But I've finished up here and considering that the sunrise is approaching in a couple of hours it's probably about time to head back to the house," Astur says, moving towards the south beach of the island.

but as they arrive, they find themselves in a bit of a predicament. Beyond swimming, Astur and Elizabeth don't have a way back across the reservoir. The bear is gone and they still don't have a boat.

"Up for a swim?" Astur asks.

"Not real-- ah!"

Not giving her any time to react, Astur shoves Elizabeth into the water before jumping in herself.

For a moment, Elizabeth only glares at Astur before saying, "sometimes, you're a real piece of shit."

"Sometimes?" Astur asks.

"No, more like most of the time," Elizabeth says as she makes her way towards the opposite shore.

"Thanks, I try my best after all."

Making their way back to the house, Astur decides to leave a few of the Grand Evolution Elixir open around the reservoir and on the path back to the house. One by the edge of the reservoir, one in an area with particularly thick vegetation, but the last one Astur intended to leave behind she actually dropped and spilt over a large tree. Whether or not whatever decides to drink them survives, that's not her problem.

Passing through the barrier of Astur's house, Elizabeth yawns and says, "finally, I can't wait to lay in my bed."

"Yeah, you do that. I'm going to prepare things for the move."

"Are you finally going to tell me how you're going to move everything yourself?" Elizabeth asks.

"Don't worry about it, I've got everything under control. I made sure to bring some shrooms back with me, so I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Honestly, that's what I'm worried about the most," Elizabeth mumbles as she quickly returns to her room, unwilling to be in the same room as Astur while on shrooms.

As Astur gets herself high, several hours pass by, but she still isn't able to get what she wants. Eventually, the sun rises and Elizabeth is awoken from hearing some strange laughter coming from Astur on the floor below her.

"HAHhAaHAhahaAhA! Finally! Quick I've only got a few minutes with this! Oh, but there is so much I want to do with it!" Astur chaotically shouts.

"This can't be a good thing…" Elizabeth thinks as she reaches to her nightstand for a pair of earbuds to block out the sound before trying to go back to sleep.

---

After a few more hours, Elizabeth wakes up a bit past noon. Still drowsy and half asleep, Elizabeth gets out from her bed and stretches in front of her window, but is instantly awoken from her drowsy state as she sees something wrong. Water. A whole lot of water.

"..."

For a moment, Elizabeth is stunned into silence as she soon realises that outside of her window is the reservoir from the previous day.

"Astur! What in the world did you do!?" Elizabeth shouts, running out from her room, still in her nightgown.

It doesn't take much effort for Elizabeth to find Astur. But once again, Elizabeth is even more baffled at the sight before her in the living room than when she saw the reservoir outside her window. Sitting around the table in the living room is Astur… and two more Astur's playing a game of old maid.

"Can someone explain what in the world is going on!? Why are there three of you!?" Elizabeth asks.

"Quiet down, Miss Bedhead," one of the Astur's say.

"We're playing some old maid. Want to join us, Miss Exhibitionist Vampire?" Another Astur asks.

"Hurry up and take your turn, we don't have much time left! Ignore the washing board!" The Astur on the far side of the table yells.

"Hey, I'm still growing!" Elizabeth shouts on instinct upon hearing Astur's insult.

But Elizabeth also realises that she ran out of the room before putting on any proper clothes and returns to her room. After a few minutes, Elizabeth comes back down to the living room, but instead of seeing three Astur's playing a card game, Elizabeth only sees a single Astur in her chair with a glass of what she presumes to be alcohol.

Walking over to Astur's side, Elizabeth asks, "do you have anything to say?"

Astur looks at Elizabeth with her brow half raised as she says, "I moved the house and the barrier to the island in the reservoir."

"You're not going to explain anything, are you?" Elizabeth asks, crossing her arms.

"Nope. Oh, I made a bunch of new fun stuff, make sure to take it with you the next time you open the stall in the town."