Chapter 3: The Morning Mist and the Foundation Stone
The first thing Kael noticed before he even opened his eyes was the smell.
In his old apartment, mornings smelled like stale coffee grounds and the dusty heat of the radiator. Here, it smelled like damp earth, pine needles, and a crispness so pure it felt like drinking cold water just by breathing.
He stretched. His joints popped satisfyingly.
Usually, sleeping on the ground—even in a good tent—meant waking up stiff. But Kael felt incredible. His body felt light, humming with a strange, vibrating energy centered just below his navel.
"The cultivation," he murmured, rubbing his stomach. The warmth was still there, a tiny pilot light burning inside him. "It actually worked."
He unzipped the tent door. Zzzzip.
The morning mist hung low between the massive trees, glowing softly where shafts of pale yellow sunlight pierced through the canopy. Dewdrops clung to every blade of grass like tiny jewels. It was painfully beautiful.
"Okay, Day Two," Kael whispered to the quiet forest. "Don't die. Build a house."
His first stop was the stream. The water was so clear he could count the smooth, multi-colored pebbles on the bottom, even though it looked at least three meters deep.
He knelt on the grassy bank and cupped his hands, splashing the freezing water onto his face. It was a shock to the system, instantly waking him up completely. He scrubbed the sleep from his eyes and took a long drink.
The water tasted sweet, with a faint metallic tang. As it went down, he felt a similar sensation to the spirit meat last night—a tiny jolt of energy.
"Even the tap water here is high quality," he marveled, shaking his wet hands dry. He noticed tiny fish, no bigger than his fingernail, swimming near the bank. They glowed with a faint, pulsing blue light. "Bioluminescent minnows. Neat."
He didn't realize that these "minnows" were actually infant Mana Eaters, extremely rare fish that only lived in water with lethal concentrations of magical energy. To Kael, they were just pretty aquarium fish.
Breakfast was simple: cold leftover Horned Rabbit from last night. Even cold, the flavor was intense, gamey, and rich. He finished one thigh and felt his energy reserves top off completely.
[Current Mana: 120/120]
He stood in the middle of the clearing he had chosen yesterday. It was flat, close to water, and surrounded by those super-hard Ironwood trees.
"If I'm building a log cabin, I need a foundation," Kael planned aloud. He liked talking to himself here; it didn't feel crazy, it felt like narrated strategy. "I can't just stack logs on the dirt. They'll rot."
He needed to clear the area of brush and grass, level the ground perfectly, and then dig holes for foundation posts.
He looked at his hands. Soft, barista hands.
"System, I need tools for manual labor. Heavy-duty ones."
He closed his eyes, visualizing the tools he'd seen in gardening centers.
'Create: Spade Shovel. Logic: Reinforced steel head, ergonomic grip.'
[Cost: 8 Mana.]
'Create: Heavy Garden Hoe. Logic: Sharpened edge for cutting roots.'
[Cost: 7 Mana.]
Two sturdy tools appeared, clattering onto the grass. Kael picked up the hoe. The weight felt good. Real.
He began to work.
Chop. Drag. Chop. Drag.
The hoe bit into the thick, wiry grass and the dense underbrush. It was monotonous work. In his old life, he would have been bored and exhausted within twenty minutes.
But here, the rhythm was soothing. The smell of turned earth was rich. And thanks to the Horned Rabbit meat and his fledgling cultivation, his stamina was ridiculous. He worked for two hours straight, sweat dripping from his nose, but his muscles didn't burn. They just felt warm and capable.
By mid-morning, he had cleared a perfectly square patch of bare earth, about six meters by six meters.
"Phase one complete," he wiped his forehead with his sleeve, surveying his work with immense satisfaction. It was just a patch of dirt, but it was his patch of dirt.
"Now, post holes at the corners."
He swapped the hoe for the spade shovel. He picked the northeast corner and drove the blade into the ground. The soil was dark and loamy, easy to dig near the surface.
He dug down about two feet. It was meditative. Dig, scoop, toss.
He moved to the southeast corner and started digging the second hole.
Clang.
The tip of his shovel hit something hard. A rock.
Kael sighed. "Of course. There's always a rock right where you need a hole."
He leaned his weight on the shovel, trying to pry the obstacle loose. It didn't budge. It felt solid, deeper than a normal stone.
He got down on his knees and started digging around it with his hands, scraping away the damp earth.
It wasn't a normal gray rock.
It was smooth, almost perfectly spherical, and about the size of a grapefruit. It was a deep, obsidian black color, but when the sunlight hit it, faint crimson veins seemed to pulse beneath the surface.
Kael pried it free and held it up. It was surprisingly heavy and felt cool to the touch, like metal that had been left in a freezer.
"What are you?" he whispered, rubbing the dirt off the smooth surface.
As he held it, he felt a very faint vibration against his palm. It was humming, almost below the threshold of hearing.
Ding!
The System window popped up, but it was different this time. The blue light flickered slightly.
[System Analysis Attempt...]
[Analysis Failed.]
[Object contains dense, unknown energy signature. Too complex for current System Level.]
Kael stared at the notification. "Unknown energy? Even the cheat system doesn't know what it is?"
A smarter person might have thrown the humming, unknown black sphere as far away as possible.
Kael, however, was a collector.
"Well, it's cool looking," he shrugged. "Maybe I can use it as a decoration for the mantelpiece once the house is built."
He shoved the heavy, humming stone into the deep pocket of his apron, which he was still wearing over his clothes.
He picked up his shovel. "Back to work. This house isn't going to build itself."
He didn't notice that as he continued to dig, the soil around him seemed slightly darker, slightly richer, as if the presence of the stone had been feeding the very ground he stood upon.
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