James wasn’t on a deserted island, but she was cut off from civilization all the same. Without any real tools, unless Skills counted, she was going to need to survive somehow. With both water and fish being plentiful at the river, she figured it was as good a spot as any to make her camp. Slightly more than a day of hiking through the forest and the river separated her from the clearing, and Arthur wasn’t a big fan of sending out scouting parties, so she shouldn’t be discovered. At least by humans. This area was as good as any.

Scouting around the land for a large tree that she could build on or modify, hopefully with small trees she could use around it, she found a spot two minutes away from the river. Unlike the other trees she had observed, this one did show up properly in her Mana Sense, though it would be hard to ignore otherwise too, with how large it was.

While the other trees seemed to shimmer, at least when her eyes were open, closed they were invisible to her, this tree registered differently. Small lines of orange went through it, into the ground, and through its larger branches. Touching the tree, James was elated to find that it was warm to the touch. And since it was so tall, all the trees around it were small, so she could easily cut and repurpose them, making her own little clearing. Leaving her shoes on the ground for better grip with her toes, she scampered up to see if there was a particular branch she would enjoy.

A couple of meters above ground she found the spot. The branch was almost level with the ground and had a thick vein of the orange mana. Its connection with the trunk was strong, and she was sure she could fashion some type of shelter there that would leave her at least somewhat protected from the elements. She figured she could create some sort of flooring with hardened mud from the riverbank mixed with some grass and baked in the heat from the tree. Hopefully, it wouldn’t smell and the whole project would only take a day to complete.

Getting herself down from the tree, she got to work, running to and fro between the river and the tree, climbing up to her designated branch and slapping the mud clay in. Soon enough she was building up a sweat and getting slightly bored by the repetitive nature of the exercise.

Continuing in the same vein, she began to Identify as many animal monsters as she could while she passed them by. The forest was teaming with wildlife she’d have never noticed had she not had her Mana Sense. While the small amount she saw was fine, she wasn’t intent on going to find larger gatherings of animals. While she didn’t have a particularly strong sensation from the animals, she was sure that together they probably left a headache. And while her previous headache perception wasn’t as detailed or strong as her current one, she had likely subconsciously walked around headaches. It also explained why she, Jean Paul, and Louis rarely saw groups of goblins.

Eventually she had a solid floor she would feel comfortable sleeping on, at least in so far as not falling off the tree. It would probably also help that she could properly see the tree with her Mana Sense with the orange going through it. She wouldn’t feel as suspended in space like the night before.

Moving on to the walls of her planned shelter, James rolled up her sleeves and looked at the young trees surrounding her chosen one. They were covered by the shade it provided and didn’t even look all that healthy, likely only growing because they were in a Tutorial Area, like the in between empty lots in her first Tutorial. She suspected something in the Tutorial area gave the trees more nutrients than they would gain normally. Most of the trees surrounding hers had trunks she could encompass with both hands.

Setting her sights on one particularly small tree, James grabbed its trunk and pulled. With a crack, it broke. Unlike the animals from earlier, James didn’t mind killing it. She knew this tree wasn’t really alive since it had no mana going through it.

Her own tree she wasn’t really sure about, but she wasn’t planning on damaging it anyway. With one final pull to remove the tree’s trunk from its fractured root network, it toppled down, and she hurriedly got out of its way lest she’d be crushed. Stats or not she would be out of commission for a while if that happened.

Wiping her hands down, James went to start taking off the tree branches so she could use it, putting pressure on each one until it came off. In under half an hour, she had one tree ready to go. Continuing to work until the mid-afternoon she was thankful the Tutorial setting was in a forest. At least there was some shade while she worked in the heat.

Finally having enough logs, she grabbed one after the other and stacked them into three walls on the floor platform she made earlier, leaving one side open as an entrance. In between every log she stuffed the mud from the river, using it to glue it all together. By the time she got hungry for dinner, she was only doing all the finishing touches in between Identifying animals.

And just like that, she was done. Her play at being Robinson Crusoe was complete. She had a place for the night, she had food, and she had water. What more could she ask for?

Your Skill Identify has increased to Level 2!

Well, that was satisfying.