Departure

The next day went as he had intended, he slept like the dead, replied to some messages and prepared for his departure. Melissa would look after his phone while he was away and maintain the house etc. to avoid suspicion.

He read, ate heartily and relaxed, by the next morning he was fully ready to leave and determined to make the most of his time there.

"Even if I just hunt Slimes I can get to level 10 in under 2 weeks but the first day is going to be base prep, need to find out if my food stayed fresh in the storage"

The idea of spoiled rat meat made him less excited to head back.

Both Melissa and Tom arrived early, they all knew each other well and Melisa and Tom had spent a lot of time talking yesterday so the atmosphere was good. Daniel was carb loading between the various fruits Melisa had brought for him and Tom was excitedly explaining the importance of the slime cores.

"You should definitely go for larger targets, it's inefficient to farm low level mobs, I'm amazed there's no exp reduction for it to be honest but if you do still go for them then you need to save all of those cores, they don't give you any money and we already know you can use them as zombie bait but the biggest benefit is the enchantments."

"a stockpile of low level gear will be ideal for when everyone comes over and in most games low level magic gems can be combined to create higher level ones, 10 to 1 ratio or whatever, you need to explore the magic crafting, oh btw Melisa are you going to learn earth magic to use that staff or what kind of build were you thinking?"

With this they both began to discuss their new character builds again and Daniel was left thinking about how many gems he'd traded in for pennies.

"This time I'm going with a bank account though"

He would have over 100 silver when he arrived and Tom had explained to him how stupid he'd been to save his earth tools instead of trading them in, he'd even told Daniel to trade in the boxers he left when he got there and trade them for local ware. Daniel wasn't sold on this last point but had to admit he'd never even thought to check the local alternatives for tools. For now he'd get a good campsite ready for himself and focus on the grind.

"System, time before charge is ready?"

[12 minutes, 18 seconds]

"Ok guys, let's head upstairs, btw Tom take whatever exercise equipment of mine you want, I can't use it anymore and it would all feel to light now anyway"

His stats enhanced strength made the equipment useless even if he was around to use it, since Tom had found out about the starting stats being related to his starting body he was spending every spare minute meditating or exercising. He had already handed in his 2 weeks' notice at work to be able to focus on his training while he could. He didn't seem to have any reservations about going and was already planning to set up a fake holiday with prepaid postcards so his family wouldn't worry.

Not knowing where he might end up because of the relative planetary size difference Daniel didn't want to take any risks and stood by the wardrobe again, Melissa helped him get the jewellery on while Tom laughed.

"Mate, these are going to buy you the drying racks you wanted, besides you'll be doing the same soon enough"

With an indignant expression Daniel straightened his hair slides and checked the timer.

[12 seconds]

"Ok guys, I'm out. I shouldn't be back for a couple of weeks but I can leave any time if things change so I shouldn't be in any real danger."

With an exaggerated magic girl peace pose he blinked out of existence and all the jewellery and clothes he'd been wearing dropped to the ground.

"Damn"

"I hope it's not raining over there"

"I was going to take my good boots too"

As she began rooting through the clothes to find her jewellery she lifted out a frilly pink thong. Laughing, the two finished clearing up and left.

.....

"Yeah I figured. Ah! Well that's something!"

Standing naked in the strong sunshine and thankful he was lucky with the weather he picked up the phone he found on the ground.

"At least I know what happens to things in my storage space when I transfer, looks like it wasn't sunny the whole time I was away though"

The phone had not fared well being left outside for the last few days. He wasn't sure if it was weather damaged or out of battery but either way it was time to say farewell.

First checking his bank he found 106 Silver 42 copper waiting for him.

"No more shack tonight!"

Next he withdrew his tattered clothes and got dressed; while at the storage he withdrew the chisel and hacksaw and looked to the store panel to find their replacement.

Iron hand Axe (Fine) – 6 silver

"Oof, I hope he's right about this, that's literally enough for a home here"

Buying the axe he checked it over, it was well made with a patterned and comfortable handle, Tom had suggested just a good quality axe for wood gathering, paired with Daniels new much higher level of strength there was no reason to waste the valuable Earth tools that would just be worn away by the work anyway.

Selling the tools to cover the cost of the Axe he then sold the phone, even in its sorry state it still got him another 14 Silver bringing his remaining funds to play with to 120 silver 56 copper.

"Time to renovate, System, can I move the shack or do I have to build elsewhere?"

[All Colony construction built structures can be moved freely at any time by the colony ruler]

"Sweet, ok let's keep that as back up and attach a water but to it to make use of the rain"

Focusing while in the colony panel he swept the shack to the far side of the column and bought a water butt which he attached to the rain pipe.

[117 silver, 56 copper]

As he scanned through the options he found that he could add certain additional rooms to the structures of "Large hut" and above, scanning through the holographic depictions he convinced himself of the "log cabin" design which came with an odd bathroom attached, the bath facing a small round window and attached to a couple of water butts already attached to the house.

Adding another room and improving some of its other facilities he couldn't resist the real bed and fireplace with chimney and ended up spending a large chunk of his silver on the one property.

[12 silver, 56 copper]

"It's fine, I need a proper house and Melissa will like the real bed and bath, we can make food for everyone here and…"

It was then that he realised he'd bought this house with the intention of sharing it with Melissa, as close as they still were they weren't a couple anymore; he knew this and was ok with it but for some reason he'd been designing this cabin as theirs to share.

"Its fine, once she comes over I can stay in the shack until Tom comes, besides I can always just spend another day to get enough silver for another house, this is really cheap for what it is"

Looking around he was really impressed, the mattress was straw filled but firm, the bath was large enough for him and interestingly had what he recognised as multiple pathetic red gems inlaid into one of the taps.

"No way, magic hot water in a log cabin! It is, isn't it?"

Trying the tap nothing happened and he realised magic or not they'd probably need water to work.

"Soon as it rains though!"

He had hoped to build more but knew he needed his last few silver to buy clothes and new weapons, though at a push he would probably rely on his new axe.

He transferred his supplies, which had been scattered all over the building in the move, from the shack and into his new home, the furs and filled fire making it feel much more liveable.