"They glow in the dark—Bear, no! Don’t eat that!"
Lucian lunged forward, grabbing his black wolf by the scruff before it could snap up a cluster of mushrooms. Bear let out a soft whine, looking up at him with wide, guilty eyes.
Lucian sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "How many tis do I have to tell you? Stop eating random things! Just because sothing looks nice doesn’t an it’s safe. These mushrooms are poisonous. They might not kill a big guy like you, but trust , you’re not gonna enjoy what happens next."
Bear let out a low, dramatic huff and lowered its head, sulking.
anwhile, deia crouched beside the mushrooms, bringing her face closer to their caps. They didn’t have a distinct sll. She had no idea what they tasted like, but sothing about them told her they had potential—the kind of potential that could co in handy.
"What happens if a person eats one?" she asked, her voice casual.
Lucian gave her a pointed look. "Why? Are you planning sothing?"
deia rely smiled.
Bear looked relieved when Lucian turned his attention away from him and back to deia.
"It depends on the person," Lucian said, "Soone with abilities above Grade-A will probably just get a stomachache. But for anyone below that ..." He paused for a second. "They could die."
deia’s lips curled into a pleased smile. "Perfect! I can grind them into powder and keep them as my secret weapon."
The mont she reached for one of the mushrooms, Lucian smacked her hand away without hesitation. "No. Don’t touch it. I’ll gather them for you. Just sit over there with Bear and stay put."
With an exaggerated sigh, deia let herself drop onto the ground beside Bear, leaning back against the tree trunk. She folded her arms behind her head, watching Lucian do all the work.
With ease, he uprooted massive tree trunks, cutting them into smaller pieces of firewood as if it required no effort at all.
Her only contribution? Scattered applause and playful encouragent. "Good job!" she called out. "You’re amazing, honey!"
Lucian didn’t say anything, but she swore she saw the corners of his lips twitch, just the tiniest bit.
deia rested her cheek against her palm, a lazy smirk playing on her lips. Lately, Lucian had been spoiling her a little too much. Not that she minded—if anything, she was thriving. Still, if this kept up, she was going to turn into a full-ti slacker.
[Haven’t you always been a slacker, Host?]
deia scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Oh, shut up. What’s wrong with taking it easy after thousands of years of running hell? That job was exhausting, you know? No days off, no overti pay, and definitely no bonus for working late."
Besides that, she also had to constantly deal with the demon lord, who gave her a headache every single day.
Compared to those tis, living in an apocalypse actually felt more relaxing—well, at least for soone like her.
As the sun began to set, Lucian finally stopped cutting down trees. By now, he had taken down nearly two hundred of them. Luckily, the forest was so dense that it didn’t look like they had cleared out too much of it.
With that much firewood, they probably wouldn’t need to chop down any more trees for the rest of winter—maybe even for an entire year.
However, there was no way they could load all of it into their truck in one trip. They would have to make multiple trips to the forest to avoid suspicion.
Fortunately, deia had already stored most of their belongings in her Space Pocket and transferred everything to their basent. That ant she didn’t have to worry about running out of storage space anyti soon.
[Since each tree is massive, the system will count one tree as two units.]
[Would you like to store the firewood now, Host?]
"Yes," she responded.
In an instant, the enormous pile of firewood—practically a small mountain—vanished without a trace.
[Storage: 386/1,000]
"How much do we have now?" Lucian asked. "Is it enough?"
deia did a quick calculation in her head. She subtracted the survival items she had brought with her, then said, "You cut down 173 trees. That’s more than enough. If you keep going, this place will start looking like a wasteland."
Lucian was about to respond, but he stopped when a sudden gust of wind howled past them. They instinctively looked up, only to see thick, dark clouds gathering ominously overhead.
"Looks like a storm is coming," Lucian muttered, scanning their surroundings. "We need to find a cave or so kind of shelter before it hits."
If the storm turned out to be severe, staying in their tent wouldn’t be an option. And deia wasn’t keen on wasting her coins to teleport back just yet—besides, returning too soon would raise suspicions.
They spent so ti searching for a safe spot until Bear suddenly perked up, sniffing the air before bounding toward a partially snow-covered rock shelter.
Lucian wasted no ti clearing out the snow from the entrance before sealing the open side with large stones to block the wind.
The mont he finished, deia could hear the wind howling even louder outside. The temperature plumted within minutes, making the air inside their shelter feel like ice.
"Are you cold?" Lucian moved closer to her, gently brushing the snowflakes off her hair and clothes.
deia gritted her teeth, rubbing her hands together in a desperate attempt to generate warmth. "A little. We need to start a fire—now."
She pulled out so firewood, letting Lucian handle the rest. Soon, flas crackled to life, casting a dim glow against the cold stone walls.
The temperature inside the shelter gradually rose, but the chill still clung to her bones, forcing her to keep shifting to stay warm.
"Co here." Lucian tugged her closer, pulling a thick blanket around both of them. His arms caged her in, their combined heat making the cold more bearable. "Better?"
deia let out a slow breath, her body instantly relaxing against his warmth. He had subtly adjusted the temperature of the blanket, ensuring she wouldn’t be shivering anymore.
She burrowed deeper into his embrace, her face half-hidden against his chest. "Not bad," she murmured, her voice muffled but content.
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