Calvin had no idea how long he'd been asleep. Charlotte usually a spoiled bratwas. But In his dream, hugging him affectionately. Gone was her usual bossy attitude. Instead, she held him gently, her eyes full of tenderness…
At the same time, she kept moving her lips, as if trying to say something.
But Calvin couldn't hear a word of what this sweet version of Charlotte wanted to say.
"Forget it, just holding her like this isn't so bad…"
Dreams are always beautiful.
When he woke up, the sun had already set.
Charlotte, the brat in real life and the sweet girl in his dream, was fast aslee, right on top of him.
She was using his stomach as a pillow,
drooling all over his clothes.
Both of them were lying on top of the Blue Wolf. Although the wolf was dirty and still stained with blood,
they hadn't bathed in three days, so they couldn't care less.
"She's so carefree… not even afraid of wild beasts or monsters showing up."
Calvin patted Charlotte.
Charlotte rubbed her eyes,
and when she saw he was awake, she lit up with joy but then immediately pouted, clearly remembering something.
"Calvin, how dare you wake up!"
"???"
"Don't play dumb, you dumbass. You were never even hurt, were you?"
Blushing, Charlotte pressed on,
"And you… you even…"
Just as she was about to continue,
Calvin scratched his nose, speechless.
"You're the one who's dumb. How is that my fault? Did you catch any fish? I think we both still have seven chances left today, right?"
Charlotte mumbled under her breath, cheeks red,
"If you want to hug me in the future, just do it. You don't need to come up with excuses. It's not like I'll say no."
"What did you say?"
Calvin didn't quite catch that.
"Forget it if you didn't hear! Hmph!"
Charlotte huffed, then shut her mouth and said no more.
Just then, a cloud slowly drifted toward them.
[A Blueprint Cloud]
"Time to fish, Charlotte!"
Seeing the cloud appear,
the two of them scrambled to grab their fishing rods.
[Obtained Dagger Blueprint ×1]
[Obtained Towel Blueprint ×1]
[Dagger Blueprint:
Requirements: Refined Iron ×10]
[Towel Blueprint:
Requirements: Cloth ×2, Silk ×2]
They exchanged a glance.
They didn't have enough refined iron, and they couldn't build anything with cubes.
Since they had upgraded their fishing rods,
their platform was now only seven square meters.
Still too cramped!
According to the game's hint, it looked like they could land on a sky island tomorrow.
But without a way to get more cubes, they'd be doomed.
No idea if cubes could even be found on the sky island.
So they had to save every cube!
"What should we do, Calvin? That dagger will definitely come in handy. Should we check the trading market?"
Calvin thought for a moment.
"Yeah, let's do that."
Soon, they exchanged water for refined iron at the market.
It went smoothly. Refined iron was pricier than wood or stone.
They had to spend 500ml of water to get ten units of refined iron.
Calvin then used the iron to craft a dagger.
[Obtained Dagger ×1, Attack +4]
Just as Calvin was considering whether to duplicate the dagger for extra protection,
a message popped up about the Blue Wolf, which was taking up most of the platform.
[Blue Wolf Meat Available for Harvest]
Without hesitation, Calvin grabbed the dagger and began carving up the wolf!
After all, this was meat, real, rare meat.
Apart from that one barbecue feast and a bento, they hadn't eaten meat in three days.
Both of them were serious meat lovers, especially Charlotte.
Her eyes sparkled as she stared at Calvin.
"Calvin, are you… cutting up the Blue Wolf?"
"Can you not ask dumb questions? Obviously I'm carving the Blue Wolf what, you think I'm carving you?"
Calvin snapped back.
Charlotte gave him a speechless look.
She only asked a simple question,
and he was already being impatient.
"I was just curious. I've never had wolf meat before…"
Ten minutes later,
the collection was finally complete,
and the Blue Wolf's corpse mysteriously vanished.
"So that's how it works..."
[Obtained Blue Wolf Meat ×30]
[Obtained Blue Wolf Bones ×10]
[Obtained Blue Wolf Fangs ×10]
[Obtained Blue Wolf Hide]
Although collecting these resources required gathering,
and tools were needed during the process,
just like in a game, the items disappeared once the gathering was complete.
"Could it be that in the future, tools like shovels, pickaxes, and axes will appear for gathering specific resources?"
In certain games,
a shovel digs soil, a pickaxe mines metal, and an axe chops wood...
"Forget it. These tools aren't easy to get anyway. I'll worry about it later."
Calvin had a feeling that these tools would be important. Not only to boost attack power but also to gather the corresponding materials.
So, after thinking for a moment, Calvin used today's duplication skill and duplicated a dagger.
"Here, this is for you."
Charlotte took it and curiously twirled the dagger in her hand. When she found out her attack power had increased by five points, she became visibly excited.
With the dagger, her attack rose to 11 points!
No longer a single-digit stat!
"Let's duplicate water tomorrow. This dagger is more useful for defense. It takes priority," Calvin explained.
"Mm-hmm! Thank you, Calvin!"
Charlotte beamed at him like she had just received a precious treasure.
"No need to thank me. Just don't drag me down when we run into enemies, alright?"
Then Calvin pulled out the Blue Wolf meat from his inventory.
The inventory had only 20 slots, and about half of them were already filled.
Blue Wolf meat, fangs, bones, hide, and all sorts of miscellaneous items, hammers, daggers...
[Blue Wolf Meat: Meat from a Blue Wolf. Consuming it restores 10 HP and instantly fills your hunger.
Since it's raw, it might cause mild diarrhea.]
Calvin thought for a moment, then handed some to Charlotte.
She hesitated slightly.
"Calvin... are we really eating it raw?"
She was very hungry, but had never eaten raw meat before.
And the description mentioned it could cause mild diarrhea...
If that happened next to Calvin, it would be so embarrassing.
Just imagining him hearing that kind of noise made her blush furiously with anxiety.
"What are you scared of? If we keep starving, we might not even have the strength to board the Sky Island tomorrow."
Without hesitation, Calvin chomped down on the raw meat. Then he continued persuading her.
"Besides, didn't you say you're a bit constipated? Eating Blue Wolf meat might balance things out! Haha!"
"Shut up!! Don't make fun of me!!"
Charlotte was furious.
Especially when she remembered that awkward moment this morning... and Calvin saying something about " Want me to cool you down with a breath of air."
What a weirdo!
Still, with no other choice, she also ate the raw meat.
After all, it was a game-like world. There probably wouldn't be parasites or weird bacteria, right?
After eating and drinking,
the two of them sat on the platform, staring at each other in silence.
Charlotte suddenly said,
"Calvin, why don't we get some materials to make towels? I feel so filthy... Especially the smell..."
Calvin sighed.
"What can we do? This is survival, not a vacation.
Just having food and water is already lucky.
We only get 1000 ml of water a day. It's barely enough to drink. How could we spare any for towels?"
"Yeah, you're right..."
Charlotte nodded and didn't say anything else.
But soon, she added,
"C-Calvin, when the time comes, you can't dislike me... or make fun of me, okay?"
She looked at him pleadingly.
In the past two days, Calvin had commented on how she smelled and even said her breath was off. So mean!
She knew it was true...
But did he really have to say it out loud?!
"Honestly, it's not that bad. I was just teasing you. You still smell nice. It's just been a few days without a shower, that's all."
"Really?"
Hearing his reassurance, Charlotte sniffed herself.
A mix of sweat and strange odors instantly reached her delicate nose.
She looked at Calvin in shame,
wondering if he was just telling a kind lie to make her feel better.
But then she saw him holding his nose and giving her a speechless look.
That was the final straw.
Ahhh!! Calvin, you're messing with me!!
Truthfully, before traveling here, Charlotte was soft and sweet-smelling. Even her hair carried the scent of flowers.
Her natural scent had hints of gardenia, which Calvin really liked.
But now…
She hadn't bathed in three days, spent hours under the scorching sun, and even fought wild wolves today.
It'd be strange if she didn't stink.