Aethelgard: The Survival Game (Chloe) novel Chapter 11

apter 11 Building The Cabin

Chapter 11 Building The Cabin

‘How did anyone even have that much soil sitting around?‘ Chloe had been grinding for two solid days and only had three cubic yards to her name.

The number floored her. She decided to test the waters.

Chloe: [Mind if I ask how you got your hands on that much? Are you sure you don’t need it yourself?]

Anonymous Player: [I’m good. Got more than I know what to do with.]

The other player sounded almost dismissive about the whole thing, like the soil was no big deal.

[Lately, every monster I kill drops cubic yards of soil. My territory’s already up to 20 yards. That’s plenty for me. Going any bigger just makes hunting a pain.

[Already swapped some of it for healing salves. If seven yards isn’t enough, I can front you more.

[I’ll trade nine cubic yards for the rare weapon.]

There was nothing to think about. Chloe agreed on the spot.

The game offered a system contract for trades like this. Both sides could put down a deposit, and if anyone backed out, the system handed the deposit straight over to the other party.

The anonymous player put up three Styptic Bandages and four liters of water as collateral. The system flagged the offering as more than enough to cover the deposit. The player was clearly grimacing the whole time the items went up.

The truth was, Chloe would have jumped on the deal at three cubic yards.

The Hound’s Fang Dagger was a great weapon, but for a ranged caster like her, it was basically dead weight in her inventory. She couldn’t tap into what made it special.

If a monster ever got close enough for melee, her hoe would land cleaner hits than any dagger ever could. One swing of the hoe carried way better accuracy.

Walking away with seven cubic yards felt like winning the lottery. On top of that, the buyer was willing to throw in two more as a buffer.

Luck was a funny thing.

She thought back on her own streak of pulling slime after slime. Maybe she just had a thing with slimes the way this player had a thing with soil.

After a moment, she sent a message back.

Chloe: [Let’s add each other as friends. I’ve also got a steady supply of water that restores 30 energy in one hit. Works as regular drinking water too. Could come in handy down the road if you ever wanna trade.]

They were only on day two of the newbie phase, but everyone had already figured out the pecking order. Water and food mattered, but energy mattered more.

The second your energy hit zero, you dropped into a comatose state. How long you stayed out depended on your endurance stat, but the minimum was 10 minutes flat.

Drop below 10 energy and the dizziness kicked in, along with a nasty ringing in your ears. Anything that restored energy in one shot was gold. Most players who had it kept it locked away and hardly ever put it on the trading post.

The friend request came through almost instantly.

Anonymous Player: [Hell yeah! Let’s do it!]

Once the friend request went through, Chloe finally got to see the player’s name, FrostTrace.

She uploaded the trade items to the system, hit confirm, and watched the contract finalize. The seven cubic yards landed in her inventory immediately.

[Trade complete. Seven cubic yards of soil received.]

1/3

Chapter 11 Building The Cabin

Chloe wanted to leap up and break into a victory dance. She bit it back almost immediately. Without hesitation, she tapped on the Cubic Yard Soil Plot.

[Use it?]

[Yes]

A wisp of mist curled up around the patch of soil. A heartbeat later, another seven cubic yards appeared right beside the original seven.

The system expanded territory in a square pattern. It started with a three by three grid, then filled in the edges to round it out.

Chloe now had 14 cubic yards in total, just two short of 16.

Even covered in dirt and grime, Chloe couldn’t keep the grin off her face. The space had more than doubled,

and she clenched her fists in delight before testing the ground with a small hop.

‘Solid, she thought. With enough room to work with now, she could finally build her cabin.

[Conditions met for the Custom Slime Cabin. Build now?]

Of course she would. Chloe tapped yes.

Eight cubic yards of space went hazy under a layer of soft fog, marked as a no–entry construction zone. Her tent, grill, and dew collector slid over to the other side on their own.

A countdown hovered above the mist: one hour until completion.

The night had grown late. The system clock read 2:30 AM.

‘I’ll deal with it in the morning. Today went well. Time to crash,‘ Chloe thought, already looking ahead.

By tomorrow, she would hit five attribute points and could finally activate her Sorceress’s Boon. She would also be able to build a proper bed. Today had been one full of promise.

Cheerful and content, Chloe burrowed back into her tent and tucked her extra supplies into the new storage chest.

That loot chest from before had dropped a 9–slot storage chest, and the timing couldn’t have been better.

Her inventory slots were nearly maxed out. Each slot held up to 99 items, but her system backpack had only 30 slots in total.

After basic supplies took up most of that space, she barely had room left for special items. Rare things like aqua essence crystals and slime essence had all been stashed inside the tent itself.

Chloe dumped everything into the new chest, which sorted itself automatically. She settled into her tent, closed her eyes, and smiled. ‘Tomorrow, a real bed, she thought.

Novice Protection, Day 3

Current Talent Points: 5

Chloe woke up stiff and sore. The exhaustion and the bruises from her fight with the slimes had settled in overnight, leaving her even more achy than before.

Still, none of it was enough to slow her down.

The moment Chloe crawled out of her tent, her eyes landed on the cabin in the corner.

The cabin spanned roughly 80 square feet, built entirely out of wood with a small glass window set into one side. The whole thing looked surprisingly well–crafted.

Most of the roof was wood, but in the gaps between, a layer of translucent slime ooze ran across the surface, glittering like liquid glass.

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