Alicia had never slept better in her life, neither as a Human nor as a Dryad. After making a nest of blankets, and dragging Katrina inside of it, she'd done her best to avoid falling asleep instantly, but had failed miserably. As excited as she was to share her first real night with Kat, she was equally as exhausted from all the training she'd done with Tabitha.
When the sun started rising, Alicia's body attempted to rise as well. This happened no matter what Alicia tried, but thankfully it was easy enough to get back to sleep. While she was awake, however, she took the time to appreciate her current situation; completely wrapped around an unconscious, and breathtakingly gorgeous, Vampire. Alicia had no idea how heavy a sleeper Kat was, but she decided to take a risk and adjust her position slightly. Apart from a small grumble, Kat didn't seem to mind.
Alicia cuddled even closer, resting her head in the soft spot just under Kat's shoulder and closed her eyes. She felt Kat's chest rising and falling as she slowly breathed, enjoying the calm tranquility of the moment.
She also noticed that, unlike most other partners she'd had before, they'd seemingly cuddled all night. In the past, mostly with Aiya, Alicia had gotten used to cuddling up at the start of the night, then calling it quits once it got too toasty to continue. For some reason, cuddling with Kat wasn't overheating her like she was used to. In fact, Kat's skin was refreshingly cool, as if she were the cold side of the pillow.
Wait, she's a Vampire, which means she's undead! No wonder she's not producing any body heat. Although, if she's dead, why is she still breathing? I should ask her when she wakes up...
After a soft giggle, Alicia closed her eyes to try and get back to sleep. Of all the possible benefits and detriments of being undead, she would have never guessed "perfect cuddle partner" would have made the list. She squeezed her girlfriend just a little bit harder and fell back asleep.
---
Before long, it was time for Alicia to properly wake up. She could tell from her branches it was close to noon, and there was a limit to how late she could sleep in while the sun was shining.
As much as it pained her, she pulled herself away from Katrina, though not before giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. The Vampire stirred slightly, then quietly mumbled "Morning Alicia..."
"It's still noon, sleepyhead, go back to sleep," Alicia said.
Katrina mumbled something unintelligible, nodded, and turned to her side. It took every ounce of restraint Alicia had not to squee with excitement over how cute the Vampire was.
She merged with her Heart Tree, but before departing for her morning drink, she took a moment to examine how she felt. Katrina had mentioned the possibility that sleeping outside her Heart Tree might be bad for her, and the idea was worrying. At the moment, thankfully, Alicia felt well-rested, but she decided to continue monitoring herself each morning to keep an eye on things.
Outside, the sun was shining brightly, and her spirits were high. She stretched her arms over her head, her aching bones creaking and cracking, and immediately felt the bitter reminders of her training yesterday.
For hours, Tabitha had drilled her on the basics of close quarters combat; how to position her feet, how to hold a weapon, things like that. To her credit, the Foxgirl had been very patient with her, and had definitely been pulling her punches. The more Alicia had learned about fighting, the more she recognized just how fluid and precise Tabitha's movements were. When Alicia had started with ORC, her basic training had mentioned that a person's base ten attributes, commonly referred to as their Ten, always reflected who they were before the Change, but there were certain limitations. The common understanding, partially thanks to a study done on various Olympic athletes, was that peak Human performance capped out at an Attribute level of 20, at least before the Change. With that in mind, Alicia was absolutely sure that some of Tabitha's Ten were above that; she was simply too fast.
As the Dryad walked further away from her house, she texted Tabitha to give her a quick update.
Alicia:
Morning! I just got up, so you're welcome to come over whenever you like. Kat will be asleep until dusk, obviously.
Tabitha responded with a simple thumbs up emoji.
When Alicia reached her river, she eagerly sank her feet into the water and started drinking. She leaned back, closed her eyes, and happily soaked up the sun.
Feeling the water flowing around her legs, she thought back to her conversation with Elias. They'd spent hours talking about how to alter the topography of the neighborhood, and it occurred to Alicia that she should probably put together some kind of a map so they could start planning.
I should have Katrina fly up and take a picture! That way we'd have an up-to-date image we can use for planning, and I can send it to Elias.
After taking in all the sunlight and water she needed, which took several hours, Alicia got up and started her day in earnest. She wanted to start preparing for Elias' visit, which meant returning to her previous task of ripping up all the gravel and concrete in the area.
Over the last several years, she'd managed to disrupt much of the stone herself by using the local plant life. Whenever a particular remnant of civilization grew weak enough, and she was able to break it into smaller pieces, she would move them to a spot outside the neighborhood that she'd turned into a makeshift dumping site. It was far enough away to be spared the ravages of her nature reclamation project, and close enough to a road that she was able to schedule regular pickups. Of course, given her perception of time, and relatively weak stature, the pickups only happened two or three times a year.
Most of the street in front of her house had been completely stripped of asphalt, which Alicia had greatly appreciated during last night's training. The path from her home to the river was also similarly bare, though not to the same degree. It was on that path, in a space that had previously been a three-way intersection, that Alicia and Elias were planning on setting up a small pond.
To start, Alicia connected with all the plants that she already knew were present. She examined how they were growing, if they had found any lingering bits of concrete, and what the soil in the area was like. After not finding any surprises, she summoned a plethora of creeping charlie, complete with lush purple flowers, to mark the edge of the pond. She had to extend the radius a few times, as she was measuring purely with her eyes, but eventually she had an area that seemed appropriate for a mermaid.
Next, she sat in the middle of the designated area and once again reached out to the nearby plants. One by one, she snuffed out the various weeds, roots, and vines that had taken up residence underground. After another hour had passed, Elias' plot of land was free of living plants, which would make excavating much easier.
Alicia considered pausing here, wondering if Elias would have Class Features that would make moving all the dirt easier. However, the more she thought about it, the less she wanted to use the System. She thought about the Key Dungeon, about everything Tabitha had taught her last night. Delving wasn't just about clever use of Features, it was a grueling test of strength, wit, and endurance. If she had a shovel, clearing out this dirt would be a great way to keep conditioning herself.
She walked home, rummaged through the gardening equipment she hadn't touched in years, and grabbed a shovel.
During her training last night, while Katrina had been practicing her new spells, Tabitha had explained that people could still train and condition themselves like they did before the Change. With enough time and effort, every one of a person's Ten could be improved without the aid of magic or Leveling up. While the System made quite a few physical feats of prowess much easier, there was still plenty of space for hard work and determination.
Of course, Tabitha had brought it up as an excuse to keep smacking Alicia with a stick, but it was a helpful lesson all the same. Plus, getting used to stick smacks would hopefully make it easier to withstand the assaults of Dungeon monsters.
Alicia spent the rest of the day digging. She was amazed at how much more energy she had during the day, and she now understood just how helpful her Solar Regeneration Feature was. She regretted that the Dungeon was underground, and that they were delving at night, but she knew Kat's help was worth far more than consistent regeneration.
When her phone went off shortly before sunset, she planted her shovel in the ground, crawled out of her hole, and decided to take a break.
