Without a doubt, the first course of action was to make the pickaxe. However, that came with the requirement of grabbing more glue… And he forgot to unplug the tree since emptying the cup.

Now, he’d need at least the night to make this, but that was fine in his opinion. It instead allowed him to focus on the new totem he needed as well as making the hemp shirt as well as any further clothing it unlocked.

It cost him 30 fibres per fabric. Meanwhile, the shirt required 5 fabric and 3 rope… a casual 186 fibres just to make it.

He had enough, but that didn’t stop the entirety from aching in his mind. “You’d think these reeds grew on– Of all the times that doesn’t work… Fine, I’ll just make more drying racks if I need it.

He rolled his eyes and spent the rest of the day separating fibres from the hemp stalks. The result was separating 18 more for a wonderful 200 fibres flat. From there, he created the hemp shirt straight away, and then one more hemp fibre as to reduce the fibres back down below 99. That had been a fair bit of work as well, but all of it vanished in the blink of an eye for a shirt.

When he withdrew it from his inventory, he found the thing a bit rough, but certainly wearable. This stuff felt more suited to being a washcloth or towel than something delicate like clothes, but that wasn’t enough to make him complain.

In cold nights this would help immensely, and he looked forward to what clothing came next. And there was one he really, really wanted.

“You’re kidding me! I need five more… I’m making another drying rack tomorrow. And throwing around some seeds.” He only added on that last portion in remembrance of the farmer’s words. If plants truly grew so quickly, the he could afford to throw around some seeds and hoped they grew, although, who knew if any of them needed to be germinated first.

He was yet to see any bees here, so it made more sense that seeds sprouted without the need for such things.

Actually, that reminded him of how a random branch on a tree actually counted as a sapling in his inventory. Chances are it too grew when simply planted in the ground.

However, as he stood in front of the 10th level of recipes, he couldn’t help but stare at the two branches available to him. One was a tiny stump, and the other a short branch which extended quite a distance, but he saw that the first recipe on it was about halfway down.

Chances are, there was only a single recipe on this branch, however, both of them only unlocked after crafting a hemp shirt.

And since he didn’t believe that a shirt would be used to craft anything yet…

“Please be right…” He went back to the crafting grid and sacrificed the hemp fabric to it. And breathed a sigh of release as the symbol lit up.

On the 10th level, he saw that the short branch’s recipe changed. While one of the ingredients were 4 pieces of hemp fabric, the two others remained unknown. However, this information was close to enough, as he guessed the other ingredient was hemp rope like the shirt!

This made the recipe a piece of rope on top of two fabric, in both the first and last rows. And therefore, should be either socks, leggings, or sleeves.

Either way, this meant the other recipe didn’t use fabric, but that’s not to say it didn’t use rope or string.

“One second… If I’ve sacrificed a material, does it reveal on recipes which weren’t unlocked at the time? Like if one of these new ones require fibres or wood logs.” He rubbed his immaterial chin for a few moments, and without anything to lose sacrificed one more log and fibre for the sake of testing.

He frowned once the tree lit up again, and he found out that the unknown recipes from the previous level revealed itself. By placing three wood logs in a flattened ‘V’ shape, he’d be able to get a wooden cup. However, he had no clue what the next one was, which required five of a material to take up the bottom slots.

Another container was likely, but after he tried clay, it was clearly going to be a massive guessing game of all his materials. And he really preferred avoiding that.

So he went home, after lighting the lantern, and focused on separating more fibres and carving the damn serpent totem.

Carving this one was slightly easier at least, as it lacked the intricate wings of the owl, but instead made up for it by requiring a rather precise, curved snake to be wrapped around the short totem three times without a change in angle. Then, the snake’s head rested on top of the totem, and its two defined eyes had to similarly stare into one’s soul like the owls’. Needless to say… He sucked at this once more.

Getting the snake to wrap around the totem adequately took loads of time, but the angle always changed back and forth along the way, it wasn’t truly a straight thing.

So, after the first attempt which took a bit over an hour, he finished stripping the fibres and finally create that recipe he wanted so badly.

Real trousers!

Wearing a skirt and letting his junk hang freely was… fun. But only at first. Now he just wanted to get it covered and stop loads of things rubbing against it annoyingly.

And so, with the last 15 stalks on him processed, he obtained 168 fibres as according to the cube.

With an additional 12 fibres from his store, he crafted the six fabric pieces he needed.

And finally. With one hemp rope made, he placed three fabric in the first and last columns, with that singular piece of rope in the top remaining slot. Then pressed down, with one new item appearing in his inventory.

It didn’t take more talking for him to untie the skirt and leave it to the side before shuffling into the trousers. Sure, it was restrictive, but it actually felt a lot more comfortable than he realised. Kind of like a rough yarn jumper.

“It feels damn good to have clothes. Now I just need some shoes and a helmet,” he spoke to Sal about his short term aspirations, and headed back into his inventory to see if a new recipe unlocked. However, he looked onto the middle of the tree with a bit of surprise and said, “Didn’t think I’d be getting another upgrade so soon. Guess it’ll have to wait till the morning though.” He shrugged his shoulders and left the cube, spending the evening carving totems until sleep overwhelmed him some hours later.

Not a single one of those totems reached poor quality…

* * *

The next morning, Joey pulled himself from bed and went to grab his phone from the bedside table as per usual, except it wasn’t there. Confused, he rubbed his eyes and finally looked around in remembrance.

Right… brought to this world after Earth was ‘destroyed’.

It took a few moments for him to come around and finally do some stretches to wake up better. This’d been the first morning he wasn’t extremely alert after waking, not that he minded much.

Once he remembered the plans for the day, he took the wooden cup but finally took out the stone pick and left it in the room.

“You were an excellent starting point, but it’s time to move upwards.” He wasn’t often sentimental with items… Normally. But this pickaxe had been a major stepping point in his tools, and from now he’d be switching between metal picks at about the same rate.

But none of them matched this seemingly rudimentary tool in importance.

It’s thick block head allowed it to stand on its own, and he headed off to the oak tree where a cup of sap awaited him. The charcoal in the oven combined with it in his crafting grid and he created another glue stick with the express purpose of this pickaxe.

The head, rivet, rods, and a hemp rope. All of it assembled, and now only waiting on his finger to press down. What upgrade would come out lingered on his mind for just a moment. But then he stopped holding back, pushing down once more and leaving the cube with the new creation to finally see it.

A shiny, metallic brown reflected his face, and he could feel how the top might easily penetrate through his skull with ease. This was just as much a real weapon as it was a tool. He felt just how sturdy and rigid the whole thing was with a few hard pushes on the rod and head. While the rod bent, it did not deform or mark, just returning to its original shape afterwards. This was the second step forward, from stone to bronze.

Next came iron, and then steel. But from there, he didn’t have the foggiest clue where the box would take him, but he looked forward to finding out.

Now came a moment of truth though, and he entered the box and clicked on the glowing tree… But there was no upgrade available on the 11th level.

In fact, there were no new recipes whatsoever.

Instead he saw an amazing sight as besides the second tree, two more sprouted in seconds and he watched their growth greedily. The first came with a blazing light, and as the tree grew, one could see that a bright light attempted to escape its trunk at all costs, but remained stuck by the bark. Only once it fully grew, did a massive sun form on top of the tree, much to his stupor.

However, the third tree appeared even more mysterious, as he saw no obvious changes until flower began sprouting off the trunk. Then he noticed that not only flowers grew, but a variety of fruits and vegetables were forming up and down its body. But up above on the branches, majestic fruits of gold began to form. Apples, oranges, pears, peaches, avocados, and some more… All in solid gold for some reason.

And then, for the first time, the recipe trees spoke words into his mind directly, no different to how the orbs informed him of the inventory or when he specifically requested a recipe.

It told him, ‘You may select one of the new paths… As nature magic has been unlocked naturally, it will not be locked once more. An unchosen path is not permanently locked.’

“I can just choose to have a new path of magic like that?” Of course, aside from repeating that line, it had nothing else to say.

He understood what it meant well enough. Just like how he unlocked nature magic by making that rune, he could do the same for other magics by creating some sort of object which initiated him on their path.

The first tree centred around the sun and its light, retained the black void, but now he saw a ball of fire and power hanging above his head… It willed for his submission, to recognise that a mortal could never possibly compare to its power.

But the way the tree opposed its deified stance, the way its branches touched the surface of that blazing glory… This was a way to touch the power of the sun.

The first two recipes two recipes required a special item called a ‘sun sliver’, what appeared to be a literal crystal condensed purely of sunlight. Even in the recipe he could see just how the light it gave off completely filled everything nearby.

With such magic he’d never have to worry about the dark again. And no doubt it would slowly allow him to create fire itself… But just how far did magic go?

Could he summon the power of the sun itself to raze the land?

Create miniature stars to bomb his opponents?

Its untold offensive powers excited him, he was at some point a boy who found nukes very interesting for a reason. Who wouldn’t find the idea of interest?

Besides the sun slivers, the first layer gave three recipes in total. A sun channeler, which required any shiny metal bars and some quartz to create a device, but he did not know its purpose.

The second was simply what he expected, a solar charm which he could attach to a necklace or bracelet, probably as a light source. Its recipe was just as complex as the lightning necklace.

But the last was called solar light, and was instead a drop of radiant liquid that he couldn’t identify. He certainly found the idea of solar magic appealing, especially since most monsters avoided coming out during the day. Perhaps sunlight harmed them greatly?

With the option in mind, he loved the idea but found it pointless without a way to create the sun slivers.

However, just as he wrote it off, the trees provided him a second line of dialogue. ‘Precursor recipe will be given on selection.’ A very obvious nod to the sun slivers in this case, but he kept quiet in case any reply here was accepted as a choice.

Then, he moved over to the tree covered in fruits and veg with golden fruits hanging from its branches.

The sun returned to its place above the solar tree, and he saw the background transform into an endless meadow in all directions. There were no sun or stars in the sky, just the same black void, but now, plants of all kinds sprouted up around him. Whether ordinary veg, cereals, fruit, flowers, herbs, or really any plant he could think up, all of them appeared…

However, some plants were very much not obvious to him. Some select ones which glowed strangely, or appeared vicious and scheming. As though they wished to eat him even as a mere decorate for this tree’s background.

“Are those alchemical plants? The notes said some can fight back, but that’s a bit far? They pretty much look sentient!” He frowned at the specific sight of a taller flower with a bright red bulb and thick thorns all along its stem. The flower head bent over, and rather than yet-to-bloom, he believed that the thing had merely ‘closed’ its mouth.

His gaze switched to the lowest tier of this new tree, where only two recipes resided. A hoe made from bronze, but it required a heart of flowers, which he imagined was the magical item. Additionally, there was fertiliser he could make by combining bones, manure, and any living plants, but also required a heart of weeds. It seemed that the gimmick, so to speak, of this magic was both farming and forming ‘hearts’ from some branch of plants. However, who knew how this all changed once he gained access to farming alchemical plants.

And just what were the golden fruits hanging from the tree?

He could only imagine their uses, from some sort of ultimate healing fruit, or even plants which directly empowered the body like Shalner’s concoctions. He liked the idea of setting up a rather easy-going farm, especially since it matched how casually he wanted to take things…

“It’d help if you didn’t make the other option so fucking appealing! But honestly, I only need sun magic for a light source, and there are plants which do that anyway!” He somewhat reluctantly picked the option which not only synergised with nature magic, but allowed him to eat a variety of delicious foods in the near future.

Unfortunately, for now he had to give up on the dreams of throwing fireballs.

What a sad day to be human.