Alicia had never slept better in her life, her as a Human nor as a Dryad. After making a of bs, and dragging Katrina inside of it, she’d done her best to avoid falling asleep instantly, but had failed miserably. As excited as she was to share her first real night with Kat, she was equally as exhausted from all the training she’d doh Tabitha.
When the sun started rising, Alicia’s body attempted to rise as well. This happened no matter what Alicia tried, but thankfully it was easy enough to get back to sleep. While she was awake, however, she took the time to appreciate her current situation; pletely ed around an unscious, and breathtakingly geous, Vampire. Alicia had no idea how heavy a sleeper Kat was, but she decided to take a risk and adjust her position slightly. Apart from a small grumble, Kat didn’t seem to mind.
Alicia cuddled even closer, resting her head in the soft spot just under Kat’s shoulder and closed her eyes. She felt Kat’s chest rising and falling as she slowly breathed, enjoying the calm tranquility of the moment.
She also noticed that, unlike most other partners she’d had before, they’d seemingly cuddled all night. In the past, mostly with Aiya, Alicia had gotteo cuddling up at the start of the night, then calling it quits o got too toasty to tinue. For some reason, cuddling with Kat wasn’t overheating her like she was used to. In fact, Kat’s skin was refreshingly cool, as if she were the cold side of the pillow.
Wait, she’s a Vampire, which means she’s undead! No wonder she’s not produg any body heat. Although, if she’s dead, why is she still breathing? I should ask her when she wakes up…
After a soft giggle, Alicia closed her eyes to try a back to sleep. Of all the possible bes ariments of being undead, she would have never guessed “perfect cuddle partner” would have made the list. She squeezed her girlfriend just a little bit harder and fell back asleep.
—
Before long, it was time for Alicia to properly wake up. She could tell from her bra was close to noon, and there was a limit to how te she could sleep in while the sun was shining.
As much as it pained her, she pulled herself away from Katrina, though not befiving her a quick kiss on the cheek. The Vampire stirred slightly, then quietly mumbled “M Alicia…”
“It’s still noon, sleepyhead, go back to sleep,” Alicia said.
Katrina mumbled something unintelligible, nodded, and turo her side. It took every ounce of restraint Alicia had not to squee with excitement over how cute the Vampire was.
She merged with her Heart Tree, but before departing for her m drink, she took a moment to examine how she felt. Katrina had mentiohe possibility that sleeping outside her Heart Tree might be bad for her, and the idea was w. At the moment, thankfully, Alicia felt well-rested, but she decided to tinue monit herself each m to keep an eye on things.
Outside, the sun was shining brightly, and her spirits were high. She stretched her arms over her head, her ag bones creaking and crag, and immediately felt the bitter reminders of her trainierday.
For hours, Tabitha had drilled her on the basics of close quarters bat; how to position her feet, how to hold a on, things like that. To her credit, the Foxgirl had been very patient with her, and had definitely been pulling her puhe more Alicia had learned about fighting, the more she reized just how fluid and precise Tabitha’s movements were. When Alicia had started with ORC, her basic training had mentiohat a person’s base ten attributes, only referred to as their Ten, always reflected who they were before the ge, but there were certain limitations. The on uanding, partially thanks to a study done on various Olympic athletes, was that peak Human performance capped out at an Attribute level of 20, at least before the ge. With that in mind, Alicia was absolutely sure that some of Tabitha’s Ten were above that; she was simply too fast.
As the Dryad walked further away from her house, she texted Tabitha to give her a quick update.
Alicia: M! I just got up, so you’re wele to e over whenever you like. Kat will be asleep until dusk, obviously.
Tabitha responded with a simple thumbs up emoji.
When Alicia reached her river, she eagerly sank her feet into the water and started drinking. She leaned back, closed her eyes, and happily soaked up the sun.
Feeling the water flowing around her legs, she thought back to her versation with Elias. They’d spent hours talking about how to alter the topography of the neighborhood, and it occurred to Alicia that she should probably put together some kind of a map so they could start pnning.
I should have Katrina fly up and take a picture! That way we’d have an up-to-date image we use for pnning, and I send it to Elias.
After taking in all the sunlight and water she needed, which took several hours, Alicia got up and started her day in ear. She wao start preparing for Elias’ visit, which meaurning to her previous task of ripping up all the gravel and crete in the area.
Over the st several years, she’d mao disrupt much of the stone herself by using the local pnt life. Whenever a particur remnant of civilization grew weak enough, and she was able to break it into smaller pieces, she would move them to a spot outside the neighborhood that she’d turned into a makeshift dumping site. It was far enough away to be spared the ravages of her nature recmation project, and close enough to a road that she was able to schedule regur pickups. Of course, given her perception of time, aively weak stature, the pickups only happewo or three times a year.
Most of the street in front of her house had been pletely stripped of asphalt, which Alicia had greatly appreciated during st night’s training. The path from her home to the river was also simirly bare, though not to the same degree. It was on that path, in a space that had previously been a three-way interse, that Alicia and Elias were pnning oing up a small pond.
To start, Alicia ected with all the pnts that she already knew were present. She examined how they were growing, if they had found any lingering bits of crete, and what the soil in the area was like. After not finding any surprises, she summoned a plethora of creeping charlie, plete with lush purple flowers, to mark the edge of the pond. She had to extend the radius a few times, as she was measuring purely with her eyes, but eventually she had ahat seemed appropriate for a mermaid.
, she sat in the middle of the designated area and once again reached out to the nearby pnts. One by one, she snuffed out the various weeds, roots, and vihat had taken up residenderground. After another hour had passed, Elias’ plot of nd was free of living pnts, which would make excavating much easier.
Alicia sidered pausing here, w if Elias would have Css Features that would make moving all the dirt easier. However, the more she thought about it, the less she wao use the System. She thought about the Key Dungeon, about everything Tabitha had taught her st night. Delving wasn’t just about clever use of Features, it was a grueli of strength, wit, and endurance. If she had a shovel, clearing out this dirt would be a great way to keep ditioning herself.
She walked home, rummaged through the gardening equipment she hadn’t touched in years, and grabbed a shovel.
Duriraining st night, while Katrina had been practig her new spells, Tabitha had expihat people could still train and dition themselves like they did before the ge. With enough time and effort, every one of a person’s Ten could be improved without the aid of magic or Leveling up. While the System made quite a few physical feats of prowess much easier, there was still plenty of space for hard work aermination.
Of course, Tabitha had brought it up as an excuse to keep smag Alicia with a stick, but it was a helpful lesson all the same. Plus, getting used to stick smacks would hopefully make it easier to withstand the assaults of Dungeon monsters.
Alicia spent the rest of the day digging. She was amazed at how much more energy she had during the day, and she now uood just how helpful her Seioure was. She regretted that the Dungeon was underground, and that they were delving at night, but she knew Kat’s help was worth far more than sistent regeion.
When her pho off shortly before su, she pnted her shovel in the ground, crawled out of her hole, and decided to take a break.
Tabitha: omw!
Alicia: Great! See you soon!
With a smile on her face, Alicia looked over everything she’d aplished today. Although it was nowhere near pletion, she’d made a sizable dent in the ground, and she roud of her work. She took a quick picture, sending it to Elias.
Alicia: Got your timeshare started!
Elias: XD
Elias: Sorry to miss the groundbreaking ceremony lol
Alicia: How was your day? Lake doing alright?
Elias: Nothing crazy. It retty windy, so the ke was a little aggressive. I’m a bit winded, but otherwise business as usual. I’m just trying to get ahead on my work so it’s easier to take time off.
Alicia: No monsters or anything? I feel like I remember hearing about monsters in the Lake
Elias: Yeah, people think there’s a Dungeon out in the Great Lakes somewhere, but normally that stuff doesn’t waoo close to shore. When it does, the aquatic Guilds are pretty qui the draw
Alicia: Well, I’m gd I’ve got someoo keep me up to date on curres
Elias: Hey I’m just calling it like I sea it
Alicia: It’s a shame you’re so busy, you sound really tide down
Elias: The trick is finding ways to streamline my work
After several minutes of giggling to herself while she tiexting Elias, Alicia started w where Tabitha was. The Foxgirl had texted a while ago, and Alicia was fairly sure she should have arrived already. She quickly checked the time, then looked away from her phoo see if Tabitha had arrived yet.
When Alicia turned around, she found herself face to face with the snow-white fur of their Mage Knight. Alicia yelled in surprise, dropping her phone before falling backwards into the pit.
