Miria sighed and stretched, looking out the window as the suns light began to creep over the horizon.

*Waking at dawn? Uuuuugh, fuck me. Well, at least I went to bed early...*

She stretched again, just barely managing to keep her chitinous limbs beneath the blankets, before she sighed, threw them off, and climbed to her feet to begin the day. Breakfast was bread, cheese, sandwich meats, and fruit, all perishables they wanted to go through before they went bad. Miria made sure to to set some aside for Claire before she stretched her legs and made a short tour of the building, checking for signs of intrusion or unwanted guests. None appeared, and when she returned to the top floor, she heard Claire stirring, so she went to knock on her door. "Hey! I made breakfast, if you want it." She said, and received a faint groan and a low hissing in response, before she heard Claire climbing out of bed and the girl herself emerged from the door, bleary eyed, the flowers on her head mostly closed still, only just beginning to open up.

"Heyyyyy. Yeah, I like breakfast..." She said, blinking and yawning and rubbing her eyes.

Miria laughs. "Well, glad to hear it. Here's a plate, tuck in." She says, handing it off to Claire, who takes it and gestures Miria into her apartment.

"Mnnn, thank you. Come on in..." She yawns again and gestures Miria into the room. "Sooo. What're we doing today?" She asks, taking a seat and starting to nibble at her food.

"Well, a couple things. We should probably go clear the surrounding woods of monsters again. Then I'd like to find a decent source of water? We have a bunch of bottled water, but that won't last forever, and I'd like to have enough to use for bathing and cleaning and doing laundry, too. Oh, and I wanted to explore the surrounding woods, too."

Claire grimaces. "Yeah, we should do all that... Maybe sort out fire, too? It'd be nice to be able to make a warm meal. We have some firestarting gear in that camping equipment we looted, I'll see if I can figure it out..."

Miria nods. "I was also hoping you could like, see if you can make a plant that makes water or something?" She asked, and Claire frowned.

"Plants usually do the opposite... I'll see what I can do, though? If you can find a plant that does something like that, then maybe..." She says, tilting her head a little and shrugging her shoulders. "Oh, huh, before we go scouting, let's make sure to grind some essence and level up what we can."

"Sure, makes sense. I'll keep an eye out for any plants that look interesting too, if nothing else some fruit trees would be nice. Or better still, potatoes or something..." Miria replies.

"Alright, that's the last of the ones I saw on my first circuit. You ready to try venturing deeper? I think I hear flowing water over this way." Miria said, wiping off her sword as Claire followed behind her.

"Yeah, go ahead. I'll tell you if I notice anything." The dryad replied, eyes watching the forest while Chomper circled the pair of them.

"Awesome. Right this way..." Miria said, leading them forwards into the woods. She used the camping hatchet they'd looted from one of the apartments along with the rest of the camping gear to help cut a path through the understory where necessary, and soon the sound of flowing water was clear enough for both of them to hear it. They made their way deeper into the forest and the ground began to descend into a small valley, where a gentle stream flowed, easily small enough to wade through. "Well, here's water. We'll probably want to clean it before drinking, I don't know how to set that up... I guess we make a fire and boil it? Not sure we have a great way to transport it, either..." She said, cautiously approaching the water and checking for monsters. "...Maybe we can salvage some plastic containers? Or if nothing else, I guess clay jars? I'll have to put a lot of points into strength, but I suppose that works... Eh, we'll figure it out."

Claire nods uncertainly as they approach, before stepping forwards to run her hands over the plants they find waiting for them. "...I have no idea what most of these are. Lots of cool stuff though... I should spend some time just trying different plants out to see what they can do and how far I can push them." She says, a faint aurora of green energy reaching outwards from her hands to the plants, making them grow and spread. "Oh, I don't have all my mana back though, and I might want to stick to growing stuff by our building where we can get at it most easily, at least for a while? This is still a good find though."

"Alright, here's the last plastic bottle I could find in the building cleaned out and filled with water." Miria said, storing it inside the apartments first floor. "We'll probably want to boil this water before we drink it, but at least we have something. Now, you said you want to make a wall of trees around our building?" Miria asked, watching Claire plant her cuttings in the ground and grow them into full fledged saplings in moments.

"Yeah. Well, maybe more of a fence or a hedge, but, something that lets us step outside the building without immediately being exposed? I don't have the mana to finish it today, but I can get a start on it. Also gives us a ready source of wood, too." The dryad responds. "You want to make another circuit of the area?"

"Yeah. Grind up some more essence, and then maybe tomorrow I'll be ready to do some longer ranged exploration?" Miria says, stretching. "I bought up a couple of my physiology sub abilities, but I think if I raise the main ability, I can get the sub abilities up more without paying through the nose? And after that, there's really nothing for it but to grind until I can buy up my level, so."