After leaving the Hut, I got moving right away.

With Crafting Ability—I generated a stone wall.

A wall made by stacking stones.

The amazing thing about Crafting Ability is that it even handles the “stacking the stones” part for you.

When you generate it, you decide the scale, and the number of stone it consumes changes accordingly.

Not just around the Hut, either—I enclosed the whole area we could reasonably move around in.

The back of the Hut didn’t need it because the cliff was there, and I left one opening for us to use as an entrance and exit.

There, I set up a separately generated wooden fence.

It was a single gate, and you could lock it by inserting a wooden board into the fastener that connected the fence to the post.

This post alone needed to be buried, but since I’d unlocked the ability to generate a Stone Shovel, the work wasn’t that hard.

The handle was wooden, and the spoon-shaped part extending from it was stone.

“Alright. That should do it.”

When I finished, Chiyu clapped and went, “Ooh.”

“As expected of you, So-kun. This should keep out intruders.”

“The Hut and the stone wall can both go into Inventory, so even if we move, it won’t be wasted.”

The fence had become connected to the ground because we buried it, so if we wanted to store it, we’d have to yank the post back out.

Depending on the situation, but... if it’s just something like this, it’d be fine to leave it behind.

By the way, if you store something you generated, it doesn’t get broken down immediately—it shows up as “Hut,” “Stone Wall,” and ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) so on.

If you want to break it down, you can, and it doesn’t turn into scrap or garbage. The materials you used come back to you, which is an incredible feature.

There are exceptions, though.

If the generated object itself is damaged, that portion doesn’t get converted back into materials.

Say you made something using Ordinary Lumber ×100, and about three of the parts had rotted or burned.

Only Ordinary Lumber ×97 would be returned, and the three would be lost.

While I was testing that, I also discovered a really nice way to use Inventory, but...

“As expected of you, So-kun—shortened to ‘as-ex-So.’”

“Don’t shorten it.”

“So then, Basic Heal.”

It wasn’t serious fatigue, but thanks to the white light, it slid away cleanly.

“As expected of you, Chiyu—shortened to ‘as-ex-Chi.’”

Chiyu went silent for a few seconds, then spoke.

“I feel like I’d be happier if you didn’t shorten it.”

“Yeah. Same.”

I mean, as long as the gratitude is there, I think it’s fine even if “thank you very much” turns into “thanks.”

But still, when someone says it properly, it makes you happy anyway.

“By the way, Chiyu—do you get tired when you use your ability? Like usage limits or something.”

Stuff like this, early on, it’s standard for people to struggle with MP depletion or limited casts.

“So far, I’m fine. Thanks for worrying about me.”

“No, if you’re okay, that’s all I needed. My childhood friend being overpowered really helps.”

“I’ll throw the exact same line back at you, then. Are you okay, So-kun?”

“I’m completely fine, actually.”

I’ve been using it so much it feels like I should be anxious, but using the ability itself doesn’t make me feel fatigued at all.

It almost makes me scared that later we’ll find out something like, “Abilities work by borrowing from your lifespan.”

Well, there’s no point thinking about it right now.

“If that’s the case, then there’s something I really want you to make.”

“What is it?”

My childhood friend looked straight at me and said it like she was delivering something major.

“A bath.”

“Ah...”

I’d completely forgotten.

If it were just me, I could do a quick rinse, wipe down with a damp cloth—hell, I could even put up with it for a day.

But making Chiyu do that feels wrong.

Especially when it’s not like we don’t have options—I have an ability now.

“Is it hard?”

“No. A bath like we used at home is impossible, but something like a drum-can bath should be doable.”

“Ooh...!”

Maybe she was that happy, because her eyes looked like they were shining.

We don’t have a drum can, but I’ve got stone and Crafting Ability.

I made a base, then set a stone cylinder on top of it.

I didn’t forget to put a round wooden board inside, either.

If you don’t do that, your feet get so hot you die.

I filled it with water using the placement function, and then it was time to get a fire going.

I brought out the huge stone-paved platform and the fire starter again, got an ember while sneaking a glance at Chiyu’s bold underwear exposure, and started heating the water.

“Chiyu, can you watch it until it boils?”

I placed firewood near the bath and called out to her.

“Leave it to me.”

I left my childhood friend there with her thumb raised and guarding the bath, and since I had the chance, I took some fire and got a dinner campfire going too.

I put a log chair I generated near it and sat down, focusing on Crafting Ability.

My Recipes have increased a lot.

It feels like too many to have increased just from my imagination alone.

So that means exploring paid off.

But there was one thing I was aiming for.

This time, I wanted to make Soap.

Out of all the plants we gathered, the recipe for oil had been unlocked.

Probably vegetable oil.

But because of the plants we picked, there was a note saying not suitable for eating.

Not every oil can be used as cooking oil, I guess, so it can’t be helped.

The road to tempura is still a long one.

Still, even being able to get a little is helpful.

After that, I added ash, water, and Lime, and the Soap recipe filled in.

The Lime came from generating it out of a Seashell.

Come to think of it, this Crafting Ability will casually generate things that need heat too, like earthenware.

But on the other hand, it won’t automatically turn mushrooms into roasted mushrooms, and it won’t turn water into hot water.

Maybe mushrooms fall under “cooking,” and boiling water “isn’t crafting.”

Where’s the boundary between what counts as Crafting and what doesn’t?

That’s something I want to probe from here on out, too.

Anyway—Soap, complete.

And one more thing.

I took off my uniform and dress shirt, and stored my undershirt in Inventory.

Then I formed it into something like a face towel and placed it in my hand.

It’s not as absorbent as a towel, but it should still let me wipe my body down.

I stored my uniform and dress shirt in Inventory too, then placed them back out in the same shape as they were.

“And what do you suppose happened?”

Even though I’d sweated a ton all day and explored the forest, they were now clean as if they’d just been washed.

That’s right.

The dirt got registered in Inventory as a very small amount of the material dirt, and sweat and the like got removed as “unnecessary things.”

The result was that clothes with nothing on them got taken back out.

Was it the same phenomenon as how only salt and water were produced from seawater, and bittern didn’t appear?

You take things in, or you generate them—and yet there are things Crafting Ability doesn’t recognize.

You could call this a way to do laundry by taking advantage of that.

“So-kun, it’s getting warm.”

I heard my childhood friend’s voice from the bath.

“Oh—coming.”

Thinking about how she’d react to the Soap and this laundry method, I stood up.