DAY 3:
Kenan could not believe his eyes. After yesterday, he and Kate had been stable enough to spend the rest of their time training and trying to understand their skills. He'd also taken the time to give her some pointers on how to use her spear in the event she was forced into close-quarters combat. It had been particularly difficult since Kate was rather rigid in her approach. Kenan had to teach her to rely on her feet—movement and placement were one of, if not the most important aspects of combat. But that was neither here nor there, because what surprised him the most was the fact that he was looking at waist-high corn stalks.
But then again, these didn't look like corn stalks. The corn grew from the tip in bunches of five to ten, and they grew from a single focal point similar to how palm kernels grew. The way the corn grew out made them look like the stalk was wearing a hat, which pretty much explained why it was called Bonnet Corn. There were at least ten stalks, with no fewer than five ears of corn growing per stalk. There was a notification hanging above the pylon as he stepped out of the cabin. Kate was still asleep, and the sun was just rising. But Kenan hadn't had the time to measure the sun's journey across the sky, so he wasn't sure which side was east or west. He'd have to handle that today.
He shifted his attention fully to the notification over the pylon.
[Quest 6: Home-maker III (Complete): Successfully grow 1 plant in your garden. Reward: +200 exp each! +100 Garden exp]
[Your Bonnet Corn has germinated. +100 Garden exp. Time until harvest: 4 hours 12 minutes]
[Pylon has gained 100 exp!]
Kenan blinked in shock. He wasn't exactly sure what to say or how to react, but their theory from the previous day had been proven. They could grow food far faster than normal due to the existence of exp. As if summoned by his thoughts, Kate stepped out of the cabin, and just like Kenan before her, her eyes went straight to the waist-high stalks of corn.
"That's impossible!" she uttered, the same level of astonishment etched on her face as it had been on Kenan's.
Kenan chuckled. "You're blasting fire out of your palms and sticks, and this is impossible for you to wrap your head around?"
Kate opened her mouth to give a retort, but when there was nothing to say, she shut it with a huff. "With this, we only have two more quests to go through. You should see the gains we got from just planting this. We should be able to level the pylon up in a few days. Also, does it look smaller today than yesterday?"
Kate frowned at Kenan's question. "What looks smaller?"
He gestured around them. "The clearing. Looks like the whole reclamation thing is already in full swing. We need to clear all these quests quickly, or we're dead."
Kenan fell silent, choosing not to say anything else considering how delicate the situation was. Kate shrugged. "Let's get the pylon to level two first, then we can talk about... about the other thing." Her voice fell into a whisper at the end.
Kenan only shrugged. It wasn't useful to be bothered by anything that was outside of his control. He pointed in the direction where the corpses were piled up. "They're beginning to smell, and we need to find a way to dispose of them. It'll take the corn a few hours to fully grow. The system store will be reset since it's a new day, and we might get something useful. So I'll dig us a ditch to burn the corpses. We should get the bed and the storage cube. We don't have anywhere to store the crops we grow, so that's probably what the cube is for."
Kenan paused as if in thought for a second. He nodded to himself before adding, "You'll have to help me burn the corpses, and since we don't have any form of accelerants, you'll have to be the direct source of the flames until everything has been turned to ash."
"Looks like it's going to be a rather busy day," Kate muttered while Kenan shrugged, scratching the back of his head as he looked at the still-brightening sky above them.
"Yeah. Very busy."
From there, they both fell into a sort of routine. There were some changes to the pylon, but they decided to leave checking it until later when they were done with the chores. Kate got the bed and the storage cube. The storage cube itself was just a box roughly the size of a tennis ball. It had ten inventory slots, and each slot could stack similar material up to a stack of a hundred. The purchase of the storage cube meant they had a place to store the valuable and important things—the food they were growing especially.
Kate was left with figuring out where to place the bed, and while that was the only piece of furniture within the cabin, she seemed extremely insistent on making sure everything was in order. Kenan, though, spent the better part of an hour digging a ditch that was deep and wide enough to carry all the corpses. Kenan didn't have to dig it too deep, but at the same time, it still had to be at least two feet deep, if not more, to ensure the flames didn't spread out. The face-trees might be fireproof, but he was sure the cabin and other structures were not.
After the hour, it took Kenan another thirty minutes to start moving all the monster bodies into the ditch. It was very disgusting and smelly work. Many of these monsters were not whole or were in a rather terrible state—innards spilling out, blood and bodies already rotting, and the foul smell that went with it. Kenan really would like for their territory size to grow as quickly as possible so that he wouldn't have to deal with being so close to death.
Once the ditch was packed with the bodies, Kenan turned to find Kate, jumping in shock to find her standing right behind him.
"Where did you come from?" he asked with an amused tone.
Kate blinked, then pointed at the sky. "Earth?"
Kenan raised his head up to look at the sky. "Technically, I don't think Earth is in that direction."
"Technically, I don't think you know which direction Earth is. You're thinking we might have crossed universes. I, on the other hand, think that's crazy—though not entirely far-fetched. Everything that has been done so far has required exp. Bringing us here must have cost a ton. Then think about scaling. Wouldn't it be cheaper to drag someone across vast distances than across universes?"
Kenan had to bite back the urge to groan. Kate was in her work mode. She loved tech. Until Kenan came into her life, she'd had no one she could really trust. So Kate's philosophy had been that she trusted machines far more than she trusted a man—because at best, when they worked outside of set parameters, you could tell and have a logical explanation why. With people? You never could tell, not even when they smiled at you, only to hurt you the next moment.
Kate had no idea why her father loved her sister more than her, to the point that all he did was berate and belittle her. She was the one being starved and lied about, but she was never good enough for him. Nonetheless, it was just as annoying as it was endearing for Kenan to see Kate like this—setting her mind to a task and problem in order to figure out the best solution for it.
"Well, let's just get this burning out of the way," Kenan said, nodding and moving to the side for Kate to have a full view of the small mountain of corpses.
"You can use this opportunity to fulfill today's training quota. You can practice your skills, but mostly your fire magic skill on the bodies. Should give you some extra exp. I'm going to go take a shower. Are you good on your own?"
Kate shot him a frown. "I'm not a baby, Keys. I can handle myself."
Kenan raised both hands and gave Kate a smile so bright it seemed to twist and melt her insides at the same time. It was a sort of bittersweet feeling of longing and heartache. She smiled back at him, then turned, her hands shaking slightly as she pulled her wand and staff from her waist. She gave Kenan one last look before returning her attention to the bodies.
It was time for them to burn.