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The little hill I chose for my campsite wasn’t all that tall. Several ridges around here rose higher, making mine look buried from a distance.

Down the ridge to the north was where the Safe Zone ended. And up on that northern ridge, I could see Aria and the others stationed there.

I guessed they’re guarding this side, watching over the area outside the Safe Zone for me.

The sun was now directly overhead—around midday.

I had finished pitching my tent, and preparations for camping were more or less done. Aside from losing some time dealing with the Brown Crawlers, things had gone pretty smoothly.

The tent was strung between two trees with a rope, and I hung a triangular canvas over it. It was like a triangular prism tipped over on its side. Since the rope ran east to west, I made the eastern side the entrance. I also put together a small hearth right beside it.
And yes… I made a toilet. Ideally, I would have put it on the north side, where the sun hardly shone, but that was where the ridge with Aria and the others was. They’d totally see me! So absolutely not!! The sunny southern side didn’t feel right either, but there was no helping it. So I dug a hole to the south, surrounded it with stakes made from felled trees, and left it at that. It was only supposed to be a temporary setup for a week, but… it was starting to feel a bit elaborate.

When I had camped out before, I hadn’t even thought about toilets.

I had always been near water, so I just… went there. And besides, I had done some pretty embarrassing things back then, shouting stuff like, “A woman’s body is amazing!” Now that I thought about it, what the heck was I doing?! That had been just perverted!! My face got hot just remembering it.

(Why on earth did I do that?! Ugh, so embarrassing!)

But back then, I’d thought it was all a dream at first. But if I hadn’t gone, the bed would have been in big trouble! Wetting myself at my age? No way! So I’d hold it until the utmost limit, and once I crossed that limit, I’d “let it go,” so to speak. It had been truly awful. I must have been stupid or something. I couldn’t believe the me from back then!

But thinking back, that camping trip had been basically cheating due to me using a ton of useful items. I’d managed to set up and take down my tent instantly with little to no effort.

But this time, I was doing it properly, from scratch, with my own two hands! Growth! Yes! I could even butcher my prey now!

What kind of spoiled brat would toss a whole bird into the fire without even plucking it?! You had to first strip it down and dress it.

While mulling over all this, I started heating water in my stone-built hearth to prepare a meal. My stomach had been growling for a while now. Good thing no one was around to hear it… What an impatient thing it was.

And yet… It felt like this camping trip was still kind of me cheating. After all, Magic made things way too convenient.

Even the water in my pot was conjured with water-element magic. I could call up just the right amount now—impressive, right? I was not that same idiot who had once summoned a water sphere the size of a compact car!

Being able to fine-tune it like this… made it feel like this really was a “cheat” style of camping.

Digging holes took just a second with earth magic, too. I assumed being an all-attribute wielder made me like a magical Swiss Army knife.

Anyway, I made some tea, opened my lunch, and decided to have a proper meal.

This was the only food from home I was allowed to bring. Seasonings like salt, pepper, and a few herbs were permitted, but food had to be sourced locally—so this is my first and last “normal” meal during this trial.

It was the lunch Mama Sonia had handed me, saying, “Make sure you eat it slowly, okay?” Opening the small basket, I found venison cutlet sandwiches and BLTs inside. *It was* the same lunch she had made for me the first time ever.

One bite, and the sweet-and-salty sauce filled my mouth.

(Ah—yes, it tastes exactly like that day.)

Happiness welled up… and then my vision blurred.

“Uh… uhhgh… e, uhh…”

A sob escaped my throat on its own. Tears spilled over, one after another. The taste brought something overflowing to the surface.

For a while, I wouldn’t get to eat Mama Sonia’s cooking. Until the trial ended, I wouldn’t see her or Papa Howard.

Just thinking that made the tears keep coming.

It was only a week, so why was it so easy to cry like this? Crying just because I wouldn’t see them…

I had thought the same thing at dinner that day, but I really was like a child. Maybe this new body’s mind was just that immature.

With my heart aching from the loneliness, I kept eating my lunch. Biting slowly, swallowing along with my tears, bite by bite.

By the time I sipped my after-meal tea, my heart had calmed down again.

No matter how rattled I got, I could return to calm pretty quickly—something I was proud of.

It was not that I was emotionless. I let myself feel every wave fully, but my mind would still steady itself afterward. Maybe this was what it means for the surface of the “water” that was my mind to have grown deeper and wider.

Still… that had been careless of me. Letting a single cutlet sandwich make me cry like that… It had only been a few hours since Papa Howard worried about me as I left, and now look at me. He mustn’t find out! This had to stay top secret!

(Wait—oh no! This spot is in Aria’s line of sight!)

When I’d cleared away the bushes and branches earlier, I’d made it so they could just barely see me—figuring it was better than being completely hidden from them. But that meant they had a clear view while I was eating… and crying!

(Nooo! Aria, please don’t tell Papa! He’ll worry himself sick! … Sigh. Well, I can’t mope forever. There’s work to be done.)

Even so, setting up camp in just half a day was fast. Normally, preparing the base of a campsite took a whole day—magic was cheating.

Even though I had just eaten, I figured I should start thinking about gathering food. That lunch I just had was the last of my brought-from-home supplies. Given I could only bring that much, from now on, for the rest of the week, I would have to gather everything locally.

For now, I would tidy up here a bit before heading out to hunt.

First, I would take the leftover wood from fencing off the toilet and turn it into firewood. It wasn’t quite enough for a week, so I would need to cut down a few more trees.

I picked ones about twenty centimeters thick, since they would be easy to split. This time, I tried cutting with my bush knife wrapped in Chi. I couldn’t put as much into it as a sword, but it still sliced cleanly.

Maybe if I channeled Chi through a stick, it could cut just as easily. It could be worth trying that next…