The next day:

  The day before passed quickly. After resting, we woke up early in the morning.

  "Hikaru, wake up"- Hana poked me repeatedly.

  I slowly opened my eyes. I looked around the cabin.

  The cabin looks more like a square; 2 beds are aligned but on different sides, I took the one close to the windows, and Hana took the one closer to the stove. The stove is pced closer to Hana's bed, and the heat isn't evenly spread to us, but I can't compin. I'm not too fond of heat. Aside from these things, the cabin only had a little else. In its current state, some things could colpse. We are lucky that the roof of the cabin is still holding on.

  "Now, just give me a minute." Slowly, I rose from the bed. My eyes closed on their own. Why am I so tired?

  !Answer: Using too much of your mana to enhance your skills. You used too much mana to enhance your shadow magic skills at your current level, and now you suffer from insufficient mana to operate. Demons have a unique feature: they can generate a lot of mana when in danger but will feel very tired a day after the threat passes. In your case, you fought the most monsters and used the most mana!- That expins it, or at least I hope. I want Sia to be correct.

  "Easy there. We still have some leftover food from tomorrow. Let's eat outside and then get to work"- Hana grabbed my hand and guided me outside. In my current state, I need a few minutes to be fully awake.

  Hana stopped a few meters away from the cabin. She already had the food there.

  I sat down with her, and we ate.

  "So, how much can you remember from our old world?" Hana stopped eating and looked at me, her eyes shining in the morning light.

  "Well, a few things. I remembered forgotten things that happened recently, which is good. Seems like that god that reincarnated us truly cured my condition."

  !Answer: Due to your condition in your previous world, you have gained a resistance-type skill called Mental Attack resistance. It allows you to stop mind manipution that uses Legendary skill and below!- Sia spoke in her usual monotone and cold voice. I like her to speak in a warmer tone of voice if possible

  "Thanks, Sia. You have been useful since we arrived in this world. Mind if I ask you to sound a bit more human?"- I hope I don't ask too much of her. I hope she knows what being a human means.

  !I understand. I will sound more human, Hikaru!- Well, it looks like she understood. Even this sentence here makes her look human."Well, that is good. I am happy!" I looked at Hana. She had a warm and pleasant smile on her face, I could say, but this time, her smile made my day. I made Hana smile and not cry for the first time in years.

  We stopped our conversation here and continued eating.

  I still don't know how Hana put up with me. I only caused her extreme pain with all of my suicide attempts. I can tell she isn't the same person she was when we were little kids or the same person she was before my first suicide attempt.

  We finished eating and putting all the bowls and containers we used back in the cabin.

  "Now we have to reinforce the house. We will need wood, cut it into pnks, and then nail them to the windows, but how do we get nails?

  How will we get the pnks ?" Hana looked at the house and then at me.

  !I can make nails and weapons for you, Hikaru, with one of my sub-skills. I can freely manipute iron from different sources. I can only gather it and change its shape, but it will do just fine!

  "You are great, Sia"- I praised Sia in my mind. There have only been a few days, and I don't think Goddess Ifrit will reestablish soon, but you can never be too sure about things like these. If we can get nails from Sia's sub-skill, I can cut trees with my shadow tendrils and see if I can cut the trunks into pnks. We need to board up some windows, fix the door and then fix the bed. The bedding on the bed is old and pretty worn down. We can't compin, but we need to find new bedding soon.

  "Sia, can you teach me to make some makeshift bedding?"

  !Sure. There is a pnt that grows here simir to the pnt in your world, which has the name Hemp. You can extract the fibres directly from the one in this world and spin them into threads. I also taught you to make everything you need to process the fibres. For now, it's best to focus on reinforcing the house!

  "So, what did Sia tell you? Is there a way for us to get pnks and nails in the first pce?"- Hana put her left hand on my right shoulder. She looks around intently, trying to find something we can use in our current situation. But it's to no avail. It's empty where we are; well, there are plenty of edible herbs and wild vegetables. But nothing more than this.

  "Well, Swia says she could manipute a few solid objects like iron. So we got to bet on her for this. I can cut the trees using my shadow tendrils and then cut them into pnks using my shadow tendrils. It won't be hard, but it will take a lot of time."- Looking back at the house, I can see its condition again. I am reminded that we need to be fast. We need to board up and reinforce as much as we can.

  "The house looks bad. Hikarum, we need to hurry. But where can we get iron from? There aren't any sources here." Hana scratched her head, looking a bit tired. Maybe she was overthinking things.

  "Sia, can you manipute materials other than iron?"- I am looking at the ground at some stones. I grab a sturdy stick that I see, and I look at them in my hands

  "Sia, can you combine them?"- I asked her to see what she can do if it is true

  !Yes. You are correct. Wood, Stone, Iron and other materials that are lighter or easier to work with can be maniputed by me. But you will need a particur skill to manipute higher-grade materials!

  *Use Skill: Lord of Wisdom Sia*- The piece of stone floated into the air; a polishing-like sound can be heard coming from the stone. After that, it's enveloped in white light. In a matter of seconds, the stone took the shape of a knife head; the same happened to the stick I grabbed, but this time, both tool parts floated in the air. They got enveloped in white light, but the result was a knife with a handle this time. It's simir to modern knives in Japan. The only difference is that it's made out of stone. If this is what she can do with rocks, then I wonder what the iron tools will look like

  !For crification, this skill allows me to manipute the shape and state of 1 single element at a time. Remember that the sub-skill Material Manipution can only be used once per material, and the original can only be modified if you have another skill!

  "I will keep that in mind."

  "OK, that's quite handy. Hikaru, I know now that you can find iron in stones. Maybe we can make the necessary tools if a river is nearby!"

  Hana's face lit up. She moved her hands while talking, going from right to left. She looked pretty excited; you could read it on her face. A wide smile was pstered all across her face.

  !A river is about 200 meters North of here!

  "Well, the river is about 200 meters from here. We can find a lot of stones there. We will be in luck if they have a lot of iron.

  "Yeah. Let's go!"

  To make a long story short, the road to the river is behind our cabin. A big flowing river is two hundred meters behind it, but the current isn't bad enough to drag us.

  The river isn't that wide but wide enough, around 2 meters wide.

  "Well, you know what we have to do here, Hikaru". When I arrived at the location of the river, I looked to see a lot of stones. Most of them I recognized from my previous world; they may hold some iron.

  "Sia, which stones should we gather?"- I betting on the red ones since they look very simir to the hematite in our world

  !The red ones!- I was right.

  "The red ones."- Hana nodded. She looked at the river.

  Hana leaned down and pulled her pant legs up, and I leaned down to pull my pant legs up. After that, we removed and preserved our shoes since we only had a few supplies here, and I wanted to stay dry when going in the river. Most of these stones are in the river, and we are lucky that the water is clear.

  "Well, we should get on gathering. We have much to do today."- Hana and I walked into the clear water. We leaned down and gathered as many red stones as we could.

  We stopped a few hours ter. The stones were small but visible, some bigger than others. We also saw a few fish swimming by. It's good to know the river has fish, but I want to see if we can stay here long.

  "Did we gather enough?" Hana slowly walked to the shore, shaking a little bit. She sat on the ground, looking at me.I followed her and put the other stones in the stockpile.

  "I think so. It hurts like hell to sit on stones with your bare feet"- I understand why Hana walked on the shore. My feet are killing me; it hurts when I walk, but I guess we had to do this. I am more concerned about Hana than anything else. I dragged her into this, and I needed to take responsibility.

  I looked at the rock pile and extended my left hand toward it.

  *Use skill: Lord of Wisdom Sia*- All the stones in a pile began to float in the air, a hammer heating a metal could be heard, and a bright white light enveloped the stones. The iron slowly started to separate from the rock. The same thing happened to the heap of iron fragments that we got. Most of them got turned into nails, more than we need.

  "Sia turned the st bit into a Katana"- I don't know if that is possible with the amount of ore we have, but it's better than nothing. Hana had attended kendo csses and some other csses teaching her to use a katana. She can only use weak fire magic now; my shadow magic is weak, but no one seems to dodge it. I wonder why.

  !Understood. And to answer your question, shadow magic is invisible to anyone who can't cast it or has it as a skill. Cast shadow magic is inferior to shadow magic acquired as a skill.!- Huh. That's why any monster didn't dodge my magic; they couldn't see it. Well, it's useful; every other monster will think I am defenceless and will let their guard down.

  We spent a lot of time making the tools; the process is slow, and it's easier to describe than to expin it in detail. It's boring.We returned, entered the home, and found the stove broken.

  !The most likely cause is wear over time. You can repair it with some cy and stone!- Well, that isn't good."I hoped the stove would st a little longer. This was the thing that we needed to work on. That's what I was talking about at the river." Hana gathered all of the pieces that fell from the stove.

  "OK, let's go gather some cy. I have seen a patch not too far from here"- I followed Hana around 100 meters from the cabin's front door. I looked down to see a patch of brownish-red dirt.

  "Is that cy?"- I did see cy before, but not in this form.

  "Yeah, there are more types in our world. But this will do"- Hana sat on her knees near the cy pile. She dug her hands into the pile and started to gather cy.

  "Hikaru, you can go gather some rge stones; I got this"- I nodded and then got to work. Gathering stones could be more enjoyable. I just returned to the river and got the most enormous rocks. Helped by my shadow tendrils, I gathered all the stones I could.

  It was quick, and now I am back in Hana, on my knees, digging cy with my hands. We didn't have enough iron to make a shovel.One hour ter, we are fixing the stove. Hana is stitching the stones with cy, and I am just pcing the rocks. Hana has more practical skills than I do. I don't remember when she gained those skills, but she has them nonetheless.

  "We need to clear the chimney, and then we will be golden. We should let it dry before starting the fire." Hana looked at me and then at the stove.

  "Can your shadow tendrils clean the chimney? Or maybe you can use your shadow hands?" She handed me a rag found in the house. I grabbed it with one shadow hand and began clearing the chimney. It took me around two hours to get it done. That thing was nasty. There was a lot of ash built up and a lot of bck grime. When I was done, there was already a smell. It looks like we are going to work through the night.

  "So, Hikaru, how are we going to cut the pnks? It's already night. I didn't expect it to get like this so soon" – Hana and I walked outside. When we stepped outside, our vision started to look different. We could see in the dark, but it differed from the days. Most colours were a lot colder than usual,

  !Monsters have universal night vision built into their eyes from birth!

  "Makes sense"

  "Well, we can see in the dark, huh? We need to get this over with quickly."- Hana pointed to a sturdier tree. We can get a lot of pnks from it.

  "Let's see"- We walked to a tree. I extended my left hand in its direction

  *Use skill: Shadow Tendril*- The shadow tendril slowly begins to slice the tree from the bottom. After a few minutes, the tree fell. We need to get on with the repairs before anyone wonders here

  "OK, so you can also make the pnks using the same principle. Now, get to work; I am standing guard to see if anyone is coming."- Hana quickly looked at the fallen tree. Her gaze is now fixed on the treeline. She slowly started to patrol the trees.

  !It works the same as cutting the tree, but you can summon more tendrils to have more pnks at once to be cut. But first, you need to debranch the tree. I can make the process more automatic if you allow me to take over your skills for a bit!

  "Ok"

  Allowing Sia to take over my skills was the best choice. The process became more automatic. I only had to summon the shadow tendrils*Use skills: Shadow Tendrils*- After activating my shadow tendrils, I waited for around 20 minutes, and the whole tree became pnks. I didn't even look at the tree. I just started into the tree line.

  After ten more minutes of waiting, Hana walked up to me. She saw all the pnks and grabbed half of them. I grabbed the other half, and we headed to the cabin.

  Hana and I started to board up the cabin. The cabin was boarded up faster than we expected. I used my shadow tendrils to hold and pce the pnks and did the same with the nails.

  "Well, we did good work, I say"- Hana is so optimistic; this house won't stop stronger monsters from tearing it apart. That is my biggest fear; we are done if we meet a stronger monster. These pnks will buy us a few minutes at most.

  "You are optimistic about this, aren't you? These things will bring us only a few minutes to escape. There could be monsters stronger than us for all we know now. We should y low for a bit."- I pointed at the pnks; they didn't look sturdy but were good enough. I then pointed toward the deeper forest.

  "Don't be such a killjoy. Let's eat and sleep. Let's try to get stronger than the monsters you are worried about. We won't have a problem then.?"- Hana looked and smmed her right hand on my back.

  "Yes, we better get stronger. But first, we must ensure that we are safe and take on monsters on a level with us. If we aren't careful, we will surely get killed, especially when that goddess revives. Our best bet will be becoming demon lords, but that's almost impossible!"-. We entered the cabin. I sat down on my bed. We were hungry, or at least I hope Hana was as well. I can feel my stomach eating itself."Demon Lords, huh? Well, maybe you are right about this. I am more concerned about goddess Ifrit and what King Wieka told us."- Hana y on her bed, looking at the ceiling.

  We should make becoming demon lords our primary goal. I don't know if I should get too attached to this world. There may be a way to go back to our original world. Still, at least we should get strong enough so people can't mess with us or people we care about."- Us becoming Demon Lords will be too much to handle. Still, it can bring us and the world benefits, only if you can call what we will do benefits. Going back to what King Wieka said, we will need to kill a lot of people; I don't know if I am up for that, but I know Hana is not. None of us have ever taken a life. It seems like life is still evil no matter which world you are in, on Earth or this world. I am already sick of people, but the only thing that keeps me going is that I can get stronger, unlike on Earth, where multiple factors limit me. Everything back there sucked a lot; it seems here, I gained a new reason to live and exist. We will see where tomorrow brings us.

  Although I don't have much hope for the future, I want Hana to survive and live a happy life.

  We shall see more tomorrow; I will go to sleep now.