Base Building

Food and water were mostly secured.

With the help of having my head attached directly to the internet, I managed to discern some edible species of wild potatoes and mushrooms.

Wild animals also exist in this world just like how they were in the real world. They act the same. They eat, sleep, breed, and survive.

The animals here were also somewhat similar to what might exist in the real world, surprisingly. 

I expected something more fantasy-like.

We left the hunting job to Lupina, since her beastly instinct works much greater in this scenario than the other two of us. Besides, I need to stay within our so-called perimeter of defense.

"Having the ability to ohrtend is really nifty, huh."

"Yup, it is as nifty as having a second chance in life if you messed up so badly, you wanted to die."

I watched as Verina casually frosted and defrosted a chunk of boar's meat in less than a minute.

Why was the meat defrosted immediately after frosting, one may ask?

"Next time, ask first whether I want the meat I'm grilling to be frosted when I asked if you are able to preserve the meat by frosting it."

"I thought it would be funny."

At first, I thought Lupina would be the troublemaker of the two.

I didn't expect Verina to be the actual menace all along. 

"Your eternal poker-face makes it harder to see whether you're being serious or not."

"I take that as a great compliment from you, miss fairy."

At least she could start the fire again as easily as she was breathing.

"Can you create molecular matter with your ohrtending?" I asked Verina while my hands were prepping our meal for the day at ten times the speed. "Something like conjuring dirt out of nothing, summoning water from thin air."

"As much as I want to create dirt and water directly on someone's nostril, no I can't." Her hand reached out for the plate that was meant for Lupina, pulling a rather small bit of the grilled meat, before eating it like a snack. "It will take a long time for me to learn another specialization, unless I got dosed in some kind of super drugs or affected by a spell=learning grimoire."

Apparently, it was normal in this world to consume performance-enhancing drugs to attain a great level of consciousness to perform an ohrtending, or even heightening the speed of learning one.

The first suggestion that Verina gave to me when I asked what to do if a normal person wanted to become an ohrtender was to get them high from any drugs or elixir that enhance their consciousness.

What surprised me when she said that, was the fact that Verina wasn't in any kind of influence after checking her Health detail.

"Miss fairy, in terms of your understanding for this whole psionic spellcasting stuff, how far are you in?"

"Surface level at best."

"How surface is this surface level we're talking about."

"I don't know if you have a specialization when it comes to ohrtending."

"So you barely even peek inside the rabbit hole, huh."

The info dumps that I received only covered the summarized things of many aspects in this world.

So it would be more beneficial for me to say that I'm a total beginner than acting like I know stuff that I don't.

"Then how about the whole wind shenanigans, the way you knew some bits of us right from the get go?" Verina asked. Her bodily gesture suggested an innate curiosity, despite her ever-monotonous face. "Was that not an ohrtending, or did you just do it out of instinct, miss fairy?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Is it dangerous?"

"It somewhat breaks your perception of reality, and you will probably suffer a severe existential crisis after I tell you how I managed to do it."

"I shall retract my question for that then," Verina shifted her gaze to the plates of food on the table. "I've read enough rumors to not challenge a fairy when it comes to forbidden information. You sharp-eared folks are so scary to me, that I'm not going to joke about it."

I guess a great survival instinct came from having a higher level of consciousness than normal people.

I was about to reveal to her how we were living inside a video game if she kept pressing further, and how there was this hyper civilization that simulated our entire meaning and existence as part of their entertainment.

"I'm done hunting for today!" Lupina shouted as she barged through the gate of the perimeter wall that I constructed. She was dragged by five boars that were strapped by vines. "Hmm~! I'm smelling something nice!"

"You have gone for a whole week, where the hell have you been?" Verina shouted without any intonation in her voice.

"W-What? A whole week?? But I've felt like only two hours have passed!??"

"Nah, I'm just playing with you."

"Verinaaa!!"

Yup, Verina was the menace out of the two.

While the duo travelers were having a meal, I proceeded to continue my progress in deforestation.

It was crazy how easily I was able to cut through the thick body of the tree with a mere makeshift stone saw.

"Crafting anything is possible with these impossibly dexterous hands."

Combined with the power of a literal internet, I could just search the most optimal design and reference of materials.

This made me wonder how far humanity had progressed in terms of knowledge and technology, to have the Library of Babel within the reach of a hand-press.

"Should I add another layer of fortified perimeters outside the first walls?"

I probably should.

There might be a chance that both Verina and Lupina stayed here for a while before they departed to the nearby civilization with proper defenses against the Ordeal of the Dusk.

If the map that was imprinted inside my head was right, it would take at least ten days in this world to reach there.

That would be twenty-days worth of time in real life.

"It's amazing how they managed to get this far."

The Log tab in the detail screen was only able to record the reports within 1 day before the current time.

They seemed to be utilizing some kind of barrier that would repel all sorts of danger throughout the entire 24-hours night of this world.

It cost a great amount of bloodie coins, however, and it would also render the caster incapacitated afterward, since they would need to stay awake throughout the whole night to keep the barrier up.

Atleast that was what happened to both Verina and Lupina when I checked their Logs respectively.

Though, thanks to Verina's high consciousness level, she didn't need much time to remove the fatigue in her sleep.

"And then some shenanigans happened."

They met a traveling merchant with a thief partner that snatched their whole savings of bloodies.

Now both of them were effectively coinless.

"What are you making right now, miss fairy?" Verina said after appearing out of nowhere.

"You can't tell from what it looks like?"

"Your hands moved faster than what I can see."

"Before I tell you what I'm doing, how's the meal?"

"Scrumptious." Verina gave me a thumbs up. "As expected of a fairy, I just hope that the food I ate wasn't laced with curses because of how good it was."

The power of herb-foraging and online wilderness cooking guides.

"Happy to hear that then. How is Lupina?"

"The moment her stomach was full, she immediately slept on the floor like a felled tree."

"Well, I guess that will give her more time to stay awake at night."

A long one at that.

"So, uhm, can I start teaching you about the basics of ohrtending?" Verina said. Her face was as normal as ever, but her fingers touched each other like a shy and fidgety person.

"Sure." I cast my warmest smile, knowing full well how this face of mine would look in front of her. "Is there anything to prepare before you start your lesson?"

Her eyes might be dull, but there was a sparkling twilight somewhere in her words. "We have everything in possession to make this crash course a success." 

All we needed to do was to take a seat on the ground.

For the material to showcase the essence of ohrtender already exists on the ground and inside ourselves.

"Ohrtending consists of the words 'ohr' and 'tending'." Verina's eyes stared directly into my soul as we sat in front of each other. "With 'ohr' means 'light' and 'divine influence', ohrtending is an act of skewing the improbable into a miracle, something that was unattainable from us humans as a whole.

"However, before even thinking of performing an ohrtending, one must learn the four basic building blocks of the universe."

Just as Verina was about to reveal the secret behind the creation of the world, my brain formed a tunnel vision with only this crash course on the other side of the elongated corridor.