The morning came with sour muscles and aching bones. Star opened her eyes with a groan and a grimace. The cold hard ground had not been kind to her. As she rose, stretching to get rid of as much of the discomfort as she could, she felt a warm breeze brush against her and heard the voice of her friend calling out to her.

“Good morning.”

“Morning.” Star mummered, shuffling over to where her friend sat with breakfast.

Salem handed her an apple without a word, indicating it would be her breakfest. The two ate together in a peaceful silence, munching on their food.

As Salem swallowed the last bite of her apple she spoke, “Alright, next order of business should be fixing up our shelter to the best on our ability. We can start by taking out the rotten boards and replacing them.”

Star nodded, “I can see if I can synthesis an ax or something, maybe even some boards as well? But we’ll still need a way to get nails.”

Salem hummed thoughtfully, “You might be able to synthesis those to, wood ones anyways. What do you think you’ll all need?”

“Well for an ax or a knife I’ll need a sturdy stick, a sharp rock or something else shard and some vine maybe? That will be a good start. We’ll also need a hammer, and for that I’ll just need wood and rocks. Also I might be able to make wooden nail as well but no promises.” Star responded, thinking each requirement over. “I still have a gacha to use today so I’ll see what I get.”

Salem listened intently, nodding along to Star’s request, “I’ll look for a sharp rock and some twigs then.” She stood, prepared to head out into the small forest.

“Be safe.”

“I will.” Salem disappeared behind the trees.

Star sighed finishing the last of her apple. She pulled the seed out and grabbed Salem’s as well, doing the same. Once the seeds had been safely removed and placed to the side Star examined the two apple cores. Noticing nothing out of the ordinary she nodded to herself and synthesized them.

Minor nutrient pill

A pill made of the extra parts of foods. Provides a minor calorie boost.

5% chance of minor healing

+2 health

Average then. Star sighed, placing the small light grey pill in her pocket with the rest. Next order of business, gacha system. She pulled up the correct screen, looking at her new point count.

Current points: 5

Points generated per day: 5

[Exchange]

Star pulled up the exchange window clicking the tier she wanted

Exchange

• F tier: 5 [1]

• D tier: 10

• C tier: 30

• B tier: 120

• A tier: 600

• S tier: 3600

Current points: 5 – 0

[Accept]

Looking the screen over briefly she hit the accept button. As soon as she did so a light appeared before her, dispersing a moment later to reveal what it contained, four plants. Star picked though them, separating them out. Star scanned each.

Common Fern

A plant species that’s been around for millennia

+2 purification

Common Blue Violent

A pretty plant the food for butterfly larva

+2 soil health

+1 butterfly growth rate

Common daisy

A flower often seen in gardens

medicinal

+1 health

Common Virginia Creeper

A vine plant that grows quickly

+1 potency

+2 binding

While all but one plant seemed useless to Star’s current goals they each would useful in their own little way, at least she hoped. Star dismissed the scans, then looked back to the notification she’d been ignoring.

Skill level up! Gacha Gathering System [1] - Gacha Gathering System [2]

That piqued Star interest, she dismissed all the screen pulling up her gacha system instead.

Current points: 0

Points generated per day: 6

[Exchange]

Well that's mildly disappointing. Star dismissed the screen again, turning back to her plants. She had a new question. Could she propagate these plants? She hadn’t seen them on the island, well aside from the fern. The answer quickly turned out to be a no as she realized she had not way to do so.

“Damn it…”

“What’s got you down?”

Star snapped her head up at the sudden sound of her friend’s voice, heart hammering in her chest before calming, “I can’t propagate any of the new plant I’ve got.”

Salem dropped an armful of twigs and rocks, “That's a shame.” She didn’t sound very sincere.

Star rolled her eyes, “Nothing to do about it now, let me see what you all got.” She began picking though Salem's findings. She pulled over a particularly sturdy looking branch and two rocks. She scanned each.

Tree branch

A branch that’s fallen from a tree

+2 sturdiness

+1 attack

Common rock

Its a rock

+2 hardness

+1 attack

Star pulled the virginia creeper vine over, placing it a top the stone and branch. Then - after looking over to her pile of excess plants she’d picked up the other day - she grabbed a hand full of clovers, tossing them on top of the pill. She bit her lip as she looked at the pill internally begging for the synthesis to work. The ingredients were enveloped by a bright light, spinning around each other before dispersing, leaving her with the final product.

Fragile stone ax

It an ax, but might brake at a heavy swing.

Fragile

+2 cutting

“Well, its an ax.” Star said, “Mildly useless, but an ax.”

Salem picked it up, swinging it in the air a few times, “I think I can get away with it.”

“Good luck. I’m going to try makin’ a nail.”

The duo went their separate ways for the moment, doing their jobs. The sun lifted itself high into the sky before they returned to their eating spot once more. Star sat beside a pile of half successful experiments, while Salem sat besides a shockingly still intact ax and an entire tree with the branches cut off.

“How has your ax not broken yet?” Star wondered staring at it while munching on her apple.

“Well apparently my time magic can put it back together every time I brake it. Unfortunately I’ve more or less run out of mana again so I’ll have to take a break to regenerate some mana before I break it beyond repair.”

Star nodded, “I’ll try making one of the bigger branches into a board. There a 50/50 shot it works.”

“50/50?”

“Well more like 40/50… or 30/50…”

Salem winced, “Just try your best.”

Star shrugged finishing her apple. “Well only one way to find out.” She grabbed the log activating synthesis.

1x4x8 Pine wood plank

A plank of wood made from a pine tree.

“Aha! Success, yes.” Star cheered looking at the wooden planks, “Will these do m’lady.” She pushed the plank to Salem.

Salem chuckled, “Now make a dozen more.” She ordered.

Star’s face fell and she groaned turning her face to the sun. The rest of the day until night fall went with a sort of rhythm, Star making a few planks of varying sizes, Salem cutting them down to size with the surprisingly useful ax, albeit reinforced with a little space magic, pulling rotten planks off the building and floor, before replacing them with the new pine planks.

By the time the sun set in the west they’d managed to bust down most of the rotten siding and taken down the door to the house. The duo stood a few feet away look at their handy work.

“Its… alright…” Star tried, tilting her head, “If you squint.”

“I pray your synthesis will eventually just make us a whole new house I swear…”

“Yeah…”

They fell asleep on the cold hard ground for the second night in a row, but this time in a house. They’d need to make beds ASAP. Nearly a month passed like this, as the duo slowly built themselves up, creating and experimenting, surviving and thriving, building and tearing it down.