Tabitha wiped the sweat from her brow as she looked over her finished cauldron. It was big, shaped like a cauldron, had legs, and colored like purple-tinted iron. It also had a couple of handprints from Tabitha stuck in the underside of it that she forgot to smooth out before heating the cauldron again, but that was fine.

“Good job,” Joseph said. “Considering what you had to work with and how new you still are to this, it turned out great.”

“I’d cry if I wasn’t so tired now,” Tabitha replied.

There was only one thing left to do, and that was to use Analyze on it.

Item Information

Name

Coated Iron Slime Cauldron

A cauldron made from iron slime that has had its interior coated with an adhesive paste.

Rarity

D

Quality

29

Element

Earth

Bonus Tag

[Durable]

“Did you get a first-time bonus for that?” Joseph asked.

“A what now?” Tabitha asked in response.

“If you’re the first one to ever make something, you’ll be told about it and get an achievement.”

“Ah… nope.”

“Huh. Well, the world has been around for a long time. I can’t be too surprised that somebody else has made it before.”

“If I wasn’t so tired, I’d feel challenged to try and make up a bunch of unique items the world has never seen before. But I think I need to take a nap. Then I want to finish that quest ya gave me just to get it over with, and I need that glowin’ egg juice anyways.”

“Fair enough. You taking a nap will get you out of my hair so I can finally work on my orders.”

Tabitha stuck her tongue out at him before flopping onto her back. “I might just take a nap right here in the grass. I—”

“Tabitha!” Runa shouted. “Are—are you alright?”

Tabitha’s mind could only care about taking a nap, so she groaned when she suddenly heard her name get shouted even if she wasn’t actually upset about it. “I’m fine, Runa. Just, really tired. See that cauldron?” She couldn’t even point at it. “I’ve spent the last few hours on that. I need to nap now.”

“A-ah… alright. The cauldron looks good!”

“Thanks. Now, would ya both mind gettin’ so that I can take a nap? No offense, but my mind desperately wants some peace and quiet right now. All I want to hear is the river.”

Joseph was already leaving. As for Runa, her ears flattened and her tail hung low. “A-alright. You’re… not upset, are you?”

“Nope. Just tired. Wanna nap.”

“Then… can we do stuff later?”

When Tabitha thought about what she needed to do, she remembered that she needed the “glowing egg juice” for her gift to Runa, and she didn’t want to potentially give away any hints nor spoilers, so she shook her head. “Sorry, I’m probably gonna go off on my own as soon as I get up later. Got somethin’ I want to do. Consider this a day off where ya don’t have to deal with me.”

Runa’s tail moved between her legs as she hung her head a bit lower. Tabitha’s eyes were closed, though, so she couldn’t see that. Even so, Runa forced herself to sound a bit happier as she said, “Alright! I’ll—I’ll find something to do! Enjoy your nap, and I’ll see you… tomorrow?”

Tabitha rolled her hand upright at least so that she could give Runa a thumbs-up. “Count on it.”

With that, Runa hesitantly left, leaving Tabitha alone next to the river with her new cauldron.

It didn’t take long at all for Tabitha to fall asleep. Especially considering that she had the sound of the flowing river to help her out.

Unfortunately for Tabitha, waking up wasn’t as peaceful as falling asleep.

“Get up already,” Joseph said. “You’re going to be covered in bug bites if you don’t. And you want to finish that quest, don’t you?”

Tabitha grumbled as she wiped an arm across her eyes before opening them up. What she saw was that, apparently, she managed to sleep until the sun was going down.

Back on Earth, she would have been worried about messing up her sleep schedule, not being able to sleep, and then going into work with only one hour of sleep to fuel her, but she wasn’t worried about that this time. She had no doubt that she would be able to fall right asleep again the next time she tried to.

“Thanks for gettin’ me up. But uh,” Tabitha paused when her stomach grumbled, “got anythin’ to eat by any chance?”

“I have bread,” Joseph answered.

“Bread is good enough for me. Don’t wanna go out into the forest on an empty stomach. Don’t need any more nighttime accidents out there.”

Of course, before Tabitha could go inside, she wanted to look at her cauldron again. It ended up still being large enough after heating it up again that she could, if she really balled herself up in it, take a bath. Preferably a bubble bath. That sounded nice.

But she wasn’t going to defile her alchemy cauldron by using it for a bubble bath. She could always make herself some grand bathtub to take all the bubble baths she could ever ask for later. Though, it would have to be a mobile one since she planned on being on the road traveling a lot, and she wouldn’t want to leave her bathtub behind.

Well, that was something else for her to figure out later. A mobile bathtub.

For now, it was time to eat and get full on bread so that she would have the energy to be aware in the forest at night. The last thing she wanted was to make a stupid mistake and get knocked out by a falling tree branch again. There were plenty of other things that might happen, too, so she wanted to get as prepared as she could beforehand.

That just so happened to include eating almost a whole loaf of bread, which Joseph really wasn’t happy about.

Tabitha’s tab to repay Joseph grew larger by the hour.