( Before anyone comments it was three days, I'm gonna count it as 2 since technically all he did on the first day was run from the werewolf and sleep so he was there for less than 5 hours)
Waking up the next morning was an experience in absolute, unadulterated suffering.
Before I even opened my eyes, my brain rang the morning alarm of agony which came from my left forearm. It throbbed with a heavy, sickening rhythm that perfectly synced with my heartbeat. The air in the clearing was cooler than the humid swamp of the deep forest, carrying the fresh, earthy scent of morning dew and the faint, coppery tang of the blood that had soaked through my bandages.
I cracked one eye open. The golden sunlight was filtering down through the leaves above the Great Tree, illuminating the massive, minivan-sized corpse of the six-eyed mutant wolf that had nearly turned me into its midnight snack. The system hadn't technically "eaten" the corpse; when I sold it for 150,000 Yen, the system had just extracted the valuable materials—the magic core, the acidic glands, the pelt, and the prime meat—leaving behind a deflated, grotesque mountain of bone and leftover worthless bits.
"Ugh," I groaned, my voice sounding like a rusty gate hinge.
I tried to sit up. My abdominal muscles, currently buried under a generous layer of insulating fat, seized up in protest. My back cracked so loudly it sounded like a firecracker going off in the quiet clearing.
"Okay," I wheezed, falling back against the massive, mahogany-colored root of the Great Tree. "Okay. Note to self: surviving a werewolf attack is significantly less glamorous than anime makes it look. I feel like I was put in a blender without the lid on'."
I carefully cradled my left arm against my chest. The thick gauze I had bought from the AEON digital storefront was stained a dark, rusty brown. I couldn't move my fingers without a sharp, shooting pain rocketing up to my elbow. I was practically a one-armed man in a forest where the wildlife looked like sleep paralysis demons.
But I was alive. And more importantly, I had more money in my bank account.
"System," I rasped, my mouth dry as sandpaper. "Check time and cooldowns."
The familiar, sleek blue holographic screen hummed into existence.
[Local Time: 07:14 AM]
[Common Skill Creation: 1/1 Charges Available]
[Common Item Creation: 1/1 Charges Available]
"Yes," I breathed a sigh of relief. A full twenty-four hours had passed since I arrived in this nightmare. My daily freebies had reset.
I needed to fix my arm. Surviving with one arm was impossible I had no transmutation magic and no labrinyth to build an arm like Hajime Nagumo; I couldn't even wield the All-Purpose Farming Tool properly, let alone build a cabin. But the AEON grocery store didn't sell magical healing items. It only sold modern, Earth-based pharmaceuticals. Ibuprofen and bandages weren't going to knit shredded muscle tissue back together in a timely manner.
"System," I said, focusing my mind and praying to my absent goddess wife that this would work. "Activate Common Item Creation. I request one Common-Tier Low-Grade Magical Healing Potion. Just enough to heal deep tissue and muscle lacerations."
The system hummed, a small loading circle spinning on the interface. I held my breath. Was a potion considered a "Common" item in this world?
[Processing Request... Low-Grade Healing Potion falls under Common Tier classification. Item Synthesized.]
A flash of soft green light illuminated my lap. When it faded, a small, corked glass vial filled with a glowing, viscous red liquid sat resting on my legs.
"Oh, thank you, sweet merciful system," I practically sobbed.
I picked up the vial with my good right hand, popped the cork with my thumb, and brought it to my lips. I expected it to taste like strawberries, or maybe cherry syrup.
I tipped it back and swallowed.
"BLAAARRRGH! MY MOUTH IS IN HELL!!" I violently gagged, my eyes watering as the liquid hit my tongue.
It tasted exactly like battery acid mixed with expired, lukewarm grape soda and a hint of sweaty gym socks. It was the most foul, repulsive thing I had ever put in my mouth—and I used to eat convenience store sushi that was three days past its expiration date!!!!
But the effects were amazing!
As soon as the vile liquid hit my stomach, a wave of intense, itchy heat radiated outward, shooting directly into my left arm. It wasn't a soothing warmth; it felt like a thousand tiny, hyperactive fire ants were suddenly marching around beneath my skin, aggressively stitching my flesh back together with hot needles.
"A-Ah! IT HURTS! IT HURTS SO BAD!" I whined, kicking my legs and frantically using my right hand to slap at the thick gauze wrapped around my forearm.
The intense heat peaked for about thirty seconds before rapidly cooling down into a dull, manageable ache. Carefully, heart pounding, I unwrapped the bloody gauze.
I gasped.
The gaping, shredded bite marks were gone. The missing chunks of flesh had miraculously filled in. It wasn't pretty—my forearm was now covered in a massive, jagged, angry pink scar that looked like a permanent starburst of mangled tissue—but the muscle was intact. I slowly curled my fingers into a fist. No blinding pain. Just a tight, stiff sensation.
"I have two arms again," I laughed in sheer relief, tossing the bloody gauze aside. "I am whole! Ugly as sin, but whole! Okay. Next order of business."
I had my Item Creation. Now I needed my Skill.
If I was going to turn the base of this Great Tree into a fortress, I needed to know what the hell I was doing. Back on Earth, the closest I had ever come to carpentry was putting together an IKEA bookshelf, and I had ended up with three extra screws and a shelf that slanted at a fifteen-degree angle.
"System. Activate Common Skill Creation. I want the skill [Basic Woodworking]. I need to know how to fell trees, notch logs, and build a sturdy structure without it collapsing on my head."
[Processing Request... Basic Woodworking falls under Common Tier classification. Skill Synthesized.]
[New Skill Acquired: Basic Woodworking (Lv.1)]
Once again, that sharp pressure blossomed behind my eyes. Information—techniques, measurements, structural concepts, the proper way to swing an axe, the knowledge of how to cure wood—flooded into my brain like a massive zip file being uncompressed.
I blinked, shaking my head to clear the dizziness. I looked at a massive fallen branch nearby. Before, it was just a stick. Now, my brain immediately highlighted its potential as a load-bearing beam if properly stripped and dried.
"Whoa. that was super handy," I muttered, thoroughly impressed. "Alright. I'm healed. I'm smart...er. Now, let's check the stats. Tell me I got something for nearly dying to a demon dog."
'System. Open Status.'
[STATUS]
Name: Ard Voldigoad
Level: 1
Strength: 1
Speed: 1
Stamina: 1
Endurance: 2
Vitality: 1
MP: 1/1
I stared at the screen. I rubbed my eyes. I looked again.
"Two," I whispered. "Endurance is at two."
It was a single point. In any normal video game, a single stat point increase would be completely unnoticeable. But to me? To a guy who started with straight ones across the board? That single point was a monument to my suffering. It was proof that the system wasn't broken. It was proof that near-death experiences, physical trauma, and agonizing pain actually yielded results. My body had recognized the sheer trauma of the wolf bite and forced my endurance to adapt to survive it.
"YES!" I threw both fists into the air, completely ignoring the stiffness in my scarred left arm. "I HAVE DOUBLED MY ENDURANCE! I AM BECOMING UNSTOPPABLE! TAKE THAT, REALITY!"
I did a little celebratory wiggle on the dirt before my stomach loudly growled, abruptly ending my victory dance.
Right. Calories. Building a house required fuel.
"System. Open Online Grocery."
The familiar AEON digital storefront replaced my status screen. My wallet balance gleamed like a beacon of hope at the top corner.
[Balance: 156,500 Yen]
I had roughly a thousand bucks if we're talking american currency. It was time for a shopping spree.
First, I needed to get out of this shredded, muddy Kuoh Academy uniform. It was tight, uncomfortable, and frankly, smelling a bit worse than the monster I had just killed. I navigated to the clothing section. I didn't care about fashion; I needed utility.
Click. Set of 3L size heavy-duty denim work overalls. (4,500 Yen)
Click. Pack of three thick, sweat-wicking t-shirts. (2,000 Yen)
Click. Steel-toed leather work boots. (8,000 Yen)
Click. Five pairs of heavy cotton socks. (1,500 Yen)
Click. Thick leather work gloves. (1,200 Yen)
Next, I needed shelter while I built the cabin.
Click. Large, 4-person waterproof camping tent. (15,000 Yen)
Click. Portable butane gas stove with five extra fuel canisters. (4,500 Yen)
Click. Basic cookware set (pot, pan, spatula). (3,000 Yen)
Finally, food. I wasn't settling for convenience store bentos today. I needed raw protein to build muscle and repair tissue.
Click. Three kilograms of premium Wagyu beef cuts. (12,000 Yen)
Click. Five-kilogram bag of white rice. (2,500 Yen)
Click. Two-liter bottle of sports drink. (300 Yen)
Click. Pack of jumbo chocolate chip cookies. (Because I deserve a treat.) (400 Yen)
"Purchase!" I slammed the button.
[Balance: 101,600 Yen]
A massive pixelated box opened up above my lap, and an absolute avalanche of plastic bags rained down, burying me in consumer goods.
I spent the next twenty minutes stripping off my ruined uniform, using wet wipes to scrub the worst of the grime off my body, and slipping into my new gear. The overalls were a bit snug around my midsection—I really needed to lose weight—but the material felt practically indestructible. The steel-toed boots were heavy, grounding me, making me feel like an actual construction worker.
I set up the four-person tent directly between two of the Great Tree's most massive roots. The roots acted like natural, ten-foot-tall wooden walls on either side, providing incredible cover from the wind and any ground predators. I set up the gas stove on a flat rock nearby.
I cracked open the sports drink and chugged half the bottle in one go. The electrolytes hit my system like a jolt of electricity.
"Phase One of the my life in a new world is complete," I declared to the empty clearing, strapping my survival knife to my thigh over the denim overalls. "Base camp is all set. Now, it's time to gather materials."
I picked up the All-Purpose Farming Tool. "Axe form," I commanded.
The heavy wooden shaft shrank slightly, the metal head morphing and expanding until it became a heavy, perfectly balanced lumberjack's axe. The blade gleamed with divine magic.
I walked past the boundaries of my golden, sunlit clearing, heading toward a cluster of moderately sized, normal-looking trees (which in the Forest of Death meant they were only about fifty feet tall and three feet thick). Thanks to my new Basic Woodworking skill, I knew exactly which trees to pick. I needed straight trunks, minimal low-hanging branches, and solid, healthy bark.
I approached a straight, tall pine-like tree. I planted my heavy steel-toed boots in the dirt, took a deep breath, and swung the axe.
SWISH!.
The divine magic of the tool was frankly absurd. The blade completely ran through the wood like a hot knife would go through room temperature butter, the massive tree began to tilt. I stepped back as it crashed to the forest floor with a thunderous boom, kicking up a cloud of dust and leaves.
"Oh, yeah," I grinned, resting the axe on my shoulder. "I am the god of lumber. Look upon me and despair!"
I walked over to the fallen tree. My woodworking knowledge told me I needed to strip the branches and cut it into manageable, ten-foot logs.
"Saw form," I commanded. The axe shifted.
Within ten minutes, I had perfectly sectioned the tree into five beautifully straight, uniform logs. It was incredibly satisfying. I felt productive. I felt manly. I felt like I was actually conquering this world.
And then, reality—and my pathetic Level 1 Strength—came crashing back down to ruin the fantasy.
"Alright, log," I said, rubbing my gloved hands together. "Time to go to the construction site."
I bent my knees, keeping my back straight just like the safety videos taught me, grabbed one end of the ten-foot log, and heaved.
"HNNNNGGGGHHH!"
My face turned purple. The veins in my neck threatened to pop out of my skin. My boots dug trenches into the dirt.
The log didn't even twitch.
"Oh, come on!" I gasped, dropping my hands and panting heavily. "It's just wood! How heavy can it be?!"
Very heavy, apparently. The Farming Tool might make cutting the wood effortless, but the laws of physics still applied when it came to moving the damn things. My newly upgraded 2 Endurance might help me last a little longer, but my 1 Strength meant my lifting capacity was roughly equivalent to that of a new born sick toddler.
"Think, Ard, think," I muttered, wiping sweat from my brow. "I can't carry them. I can't even drag them properly. How do people move heavy things without machinery?"
I looked down at the Farming Tool.
"Hoe form."
The tool shifted back into its original shape. I wedged the heavy metal blade under the log, using the long wooden shaft as a lever. I pushed down on the handle with my entire body weight.
Creak. The log lifted just enough for me to kick a few thick, cylindrical branches underneath it.
"Rollers!" I laughed triumphantly. "The ancient Egyptians built the pyramids, and Ard Voldigoad is going to build a cabin!"
Using the hoe as a lever and the branches as rollers, I began the agonizingly slow, painfully exhausting process of moving the logs back to the Great Tree clearing. It was brutal work. Even with the mechanical advantage, my fat body was drenched in sweat within five minutes. My thighs chafed against the denim overalls, my lungs burned, and I had to stop every twenty feet to wheeze and drink from my sports drink.
By the time the sun had reached high noon, baking the clearing in a warm, golden light, I had successfully transported exactly ten logs to my construction site.
"I'm dying," I moaned, collapsing spread-eagle onto the cool grass next to my tent. "I am physically perishing. My stamina gauge has been entirely depleted. I am running on fumes and sheer willpower."
I lay there for a solid thirty minutes, just staring up at the impossibly green canopy of the Great Tree. The ambient mana radiating from the roots gently washed over me, slowly easing the burning cramps in my muscles.
It was slow. It was humiliatingly slow. Any other reincarnated protagonist would have just cast 'Create Fortress' and had a majestic castle pop out of the ground. I was literally inching logs across the dirt like a prehistoric caveman.
But as I looked over at the neat pile of timber I had gathered, a genuine smile touched my lips.
I did that. Me. The guy who used to get out of breath walking up the stairs at Kuoh Academy. I had felled the trees. I had dragged the logs. Every ounce of sweat equity was mine.
"Alright," I grunted, forcing myself to sit up. "Lunch break. Then, foundation."
I fired up the butane gas stove. I slapped a massive, thick slab of Wagyu beef straight onto the pan. The sizzle was the most beautiful sound I had heard all day. The rich, fatty aroma of the cooking meat wafted through the clearing, making my stomach roar in anticipation.
I ate the steak straight out of the pan with a pair of cheap wooden chopsticks, stuffing massive mouthfuls of white rice in between bites. The high-quality protein hit my exhausted system like a freight train of pure energy. I washed it down with the rest of my sports drink and treated myself to two jumbo chocolate chip cookies for dessert.
"I am a machine fueled by beef and sugar," I declared, slapping my knees and standing up. "Back to work!"
For the rest of the afternoon, I focused on the foundation.
Using the Farming Tool in its shovel form, I easily leveled the ground between the two massive roots of the Great Tree, creating a perfectly flat, ten-by-ten foot square of packed earth.
Then came the actual carpentry. My Basic Woodworking skill guided my hands flawlessly. I shifted the tool to saw form, cutting precise, Lincoln-log style notches into the ends of my timber. Because the divine tool made the cutting effortless, the hardest part was just maneuvering the heavy logs into place.
I had to use the hoe-lever method to roll the logs over to the foundation, inch them up onto the starting row, and push them into the notches.
It was a grueling cycle. Roll, notch, push, wheeze, pant, eat a cookie, repeat.
By the time the sun began to dip below the horizon, painting the sky above the canopy in brilliant shades of violet and orange, I had managed to lay down the entire first layer of logs, creating a solid, knee-high wooden perimeter.
"It's a start," I breathed, leaning heavily on the Farming Tool, my muscles shaking uncontrollably from the sheer exertion. "It's just a square, but it's my square."
I was completely, utterly drained. My overalls were stained with sap, dirt, and sweat. My new leather gloves were already scuffed.
The nocturnal sounds of the forest began to echo in the distance—the horrifying screeches, the low growls, the rustling of massive predators waking up. But standing here, within the comforting aura of the Great Tree, surrounded by my first ring of defensive logs, I wasn't nearly as terrified as I was yesterday.
I walked over to the gas stove. I was too tired to cook another steak, so I used the system to buy a simple pre-packaged beef bowl for dinner.
As I sat in my folding chair, eating the warm food and watching the glowing purple mushrooms in the dark forest flicker to life, I remembered my other goal.
Magic.
My MP was at 1/1. I had failed this morning, passing out from trying to create a single spark. But I needed to drain it to expand my capacity. It was like working out a muscle.
I set my empty bowl down. I focused on my breathing, tapping into the Natural Flow sub-skill. The world lit up in my mind's eye again, vibrating with that thick, shimmering ambient mana. The Great Tree behind me was like a blazing sun of pure magical energy.
"Okay," I whispered. "I don't need a fireball. I just need something useful."
I looked at the butane gas stove. I reached my right hand out, pointing my index finger at the burner.
"I have High Magic Affinity," I reminded myself. "I understand the concept of friction, heat, and ignition. I just need to translate that into mana. I remember that in some animes reincarnators used thier real world knowledge to influence their magic."
I pulled the single point of mana from my core. I visualized a tiny, intense spark of heat, not just raw fire, but the specific chemical ignition point of butane gas.
I pushed the mana down my arm, out through my finger, and willed it toward the stove.
FZT-POP.
A tiny, crisp blue spark jumped from my fingertip, perfectly arcing onto the metal burner of the stove.
A small, triumphant ring of blue fire flared to life on the burner.
"I did it," I grinned, my eyes wide. "I actually cast a spell that wasn't just static electricity! I am a wizard!"
And then, exactly like this morning, the metaphorical plug was yanked from the wall.
The world tilted violently on its axis. The horrific, nauseating wave of absolute lethargy crashed over me, instantly turning my bones to lead. I didn't even have time to turn off the stove. I slumped sideways out of the folding chair, hitting the dirt with a heavy thud, entirely unconscious before my head even settled in the grass.
I woke up a few hours later, shivering slightly in the cool night air. The gas stove had run out of fuel and extinguished itself. The forest was howling, but I was safe between the roots of the tree.
I groaned, pushing myself up onto my elbows. My head pounded with a dull mana-exhaustion hangover, but it wasn't as severe as the first time.
I sat up, crossed my legs, and immediately called up my interface.
'System. Status.'
The blue screen hummed into existence. I scrolled past the level, past the pathetic strength and speed, past my newly minted 2 Endurance, and looked at the very bottom line.
[MP: 2/2]
[Level 1: 5/100%]( the 5/100 is his innovation percentage to level up)
A massive, exhausted, deliriously happy laugh bubbled up from my chest, echoing loudly in the quiet clearing.
"Two," I giggled, wiping a tear of joy from my eye. "I have two MP. I have doubled my magical power."
It was pathetic. It was literally the smallest possible increment of growth a human being could experience. But it was growth.
He then noticed the percentage beside level 1.
Ard:" Woah, that's new. What is it ?"
He tapped on it and a notification popped up.
[ Innovation points: In order to level up the host must innovate, create and grow is the truest path forward for the wielder of Innovate Clear.]
Ard:" Innovation huh...So what I build will influence my level huh, HAHAHA"
I looked up at the stars peeking through the canopy, the pink silhouette of my goddess flashing in my mind's eye.
"I'm getting stronger," I whispered into the night, clenching my right fist. "Just you wait. By the time I'm done with this forest, I'm going to have double digits. I'm going to be a god."
I unzipped my tent, crawled into my warm sleeping bag, and fell asleep with a massive, goofy smile on my face. The grind was real, but for the first time in two lifetimes, I was actually winning.
Hi everyone, if you're enjoying this story so far and hope to read more faster, then for every 10 power stones I recieve I will post 2 chapters in a single day. So every 10 power stones is a day where i'll post twice ! Thanks for your support !!!