She blinked a few times and hid somewhere nearby. She looked at the black smoke billowing out and shrugged. She found a place to rest and observed her space, wondering if there were any changes.

Now that she knew that the gold and others could affect it, she didn’t prohibit the space from absorbing any of the new entries, as long as they weren’t part of an assembly. She didn’t want her precious guns to lose some precious parts.

She left just enough gold and jewelry to sell later, amounting to a few million danas. The rest—which she estimated to be a few hundred million worth of items, if not more—were absorbed by the space.

Interestingly, even some of the antiques this time had an effect, but were a bit different and more subtle than others.

She found it odd at first. In terms of materials and age, antiques should not match the materials that had been forming under the earth for millions of years.

Then she thought about it: Such old pieces of work had been through a lot of life and death, history, and passed through many hands. In terms of grit and resilience, few could beat the antique.

Another interesting difference was that the antiques retained their forms, just losing an energy of sorts. This was unlike the stones, gems, and metals, which were absorbed physically.

She waited for a while before heading in, curious about the changes that amount of money brought about.

She looked at her small stagnant area. A portion was dedicated to newly slaughtered meat, but most of the rest was dedicated to ready-made food she bought from restaurants and stalls she liked. There were also several layers of bakery stuff, along with different flavored cakes. If she found herself craving for a flavor, she just had to take a slice.

She increased the area for this before looking out, realizing that her hundred square meter area was expanded to an acre! That’s several folds larger!

Combined with the new 10-meter ceiling height, the volume of the new space had increased to five-digits! Her mango tree could finally breathe! Her bugs certainly were very happy. Several butterflies were circling around in approval.

She giggled. "I like it, too!"

...

As for what the antiques changed, it was...vitality, though just very little. It added vitality. Rather, it seemed like her space was full of it, but the power from the antiques allowed it to be used more and more efficiently, like finding conduits.

While the antiques would take up space and seem like a waste, it didn’t matter if they didn’t exceed, say, a cubic meter or two. It was good to preserve this bit of history. As someone from a world where nearly everything had been destroyed, saving what she could was already a win.

She looked at the building bellowing with smoke one more time before entering the forests. She used too much of her power in the assasinations so she had to go on foot for a while. It didn’t matter, she finds walking along forests very relaxing.

Her ability was loosely related to the wood element, too, so while she couldn’t control the plants in the way the legitimate wood users could, she still felt a certain affinity to them.

The first few minutes were peaceful, and she’d retrieve some random plants, flowers, fruits, and the like that she encountered.

For example, she found a plant called the Calendula, also known as the Pot Marigold. It was a distinctive bright orange or yellow daisy-like flower.

According to whatever book, the petals could be used for wood salves and were anti-inflammatory.

It could also heal skin burns and rashes to a degree. It could also be made into antiseptic tea. And then it was also a source of yellow-orange dyes. See? Useful

Another notable plant was the yarrow, also a flower, which was a flat cluster of little white flowers and feathery leaves. The crushed leaves could apparently stop bleeding, were a fever reducer, a digestive aid, and could be used for wound cleaning.

She took the plants she was interested in straight from the roots. The world had long been integrated, and the plants from various nations mixed especially at the borders, so she could really find a variety despite her lack of knowledge.

Of course, she wasn’t careless as to just take a plant and shove it in her space. She also studied the references on the distance requirements and so on. It was an interesting subject.

She continued to walk ahead, looking for some more interesting things. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Her feet stopped in front of a bamboo forest, and she found herself in a daze. It was very pretty. Without another word, she took tens of square meters worth of it and placed them in her space.

An acre might seem big, but that’d depend on what she’d do with them.

At least Bamboos didn’t take so much space and had so many uses. They could also be used for construction like poles for simple houses, ladders, fences, ropes, and so on. With the space’s regeneration rate multiplying the bamboo’s innately fast growth rate, then it could be said that she’d have unlimited construction materials.

Bamboos could also be used for containers like cups and the like. They could even be used for baskets, mats. Even their leaves could be used for tea.

She could also get bamboo shoots here. She had tasted them in restaurants a few days back, and they were glorious!

She heard there were countless ways to cook/eat it that she had not yet tried. If the apocalypse happened before she could taste more, wouldn’t that be a tragedy?

She excitedly exited the bamboo forest, though with the intent of returning home to civilization.

It was just that before she exited the bamboo forest, she felt a slither on her leg. She gulped and lifted her machete.

She looked down and was ready to attack. However, the snake—not too big, but not small either—was looking up at her and she felt no hostility at all.