Moving into the woods, Callie and I made a point of keeping our heads on a swivel. Constantly roving gazes to make sure we weren't being followed. Because of the size of the clearing they had been able to pull all the third wavers together around the edges and send them off in a different direction. While the third wave encompassed everyone in the top three hundred thousand there weren't actually many of us here to send out. Not many of the freshman had gotten into that covered third wave bracket.

The second and first would have been even smaller, and honestly I was kind of terrified to know someone had managed to hit the top hundred thousand in the Academy at all in this short amount of time. Nevertheless we needed to get farther out and set up a base. The next wave went out in an hour, and while it shouldn't be too big, it would most likely be bigger than the current one. We had three hours until Grimmengap moved out, and another few after until the rest of the team hit the forest, so we had to have a safe spot for them.

I turned to Callie. "So, what are we looking for during this little event, both on the list and in terms of a base? I mean there's the basic stuff like cover and water, but if you have any formal training in the woods you'd have a better idea than I would about what to look for."

That got a snort of laughter. "What? Why would I know anything about wilderness survival? I've left the city for brief periods of travel like three times in my life. You're the one who goes camping." She bumped my shoulder. "Just because I'm in charge doesn't mean I need to make all the calls and have all the ideas. I want you to share, not defer to me in everything. So, this one is all you. What were you saying about cover and water? Because that's a hell of a lot more than I know on the subject.

I smiled. I'd honestly figured she would feel like that, but I hadn't thought through the whole survival training thing, so asking her seemed like the right call. "Well somewhere cut off on at least one side is best. Cliff face or overhang. Three sides is better but those are tough to find. We also need to keep water in mind, but it's important to keep an eye on the local area, make sure some huge animal isn't nesting there. Trying to make a base in a bear cave would be a mistake, and with monsters I'm guessing that goes double."

She gave a thoughtful nod, clearly trying to remember all of this. Honestly I was only parroting back things Hector had mentioned off hand on camping trips. Benny's dad had been really into survival stuff and liked to give us lectures when we were setting up camp. Despite the way it sounded those lectures had been a lot of fun and were always interesting. Gave us something to focus on while we built tents and gathered firewood. I missed those trips, and part of me couldn't help but think of this as one big camping adventure with my friends. Only with murder cultists.

Callie seemed...not at ease, since she was pretty much never fully relaxed, but peaceful. Like she was enjoying this as much as I was. I decided I was going to make her something to eat once we setup camp, in the time before the others joined us. She was scanning the treeline, looking for some kind of structure or natural geological feature to use as a base. Which brought something else to kind. "Oh do you have the homing rock by the way?"

She reached into a pocket on her coat and pulled it out. "Yeah of course. These things are pretty neat, I can't believe you made them out of totally normal rocks." She held up a dull grey stone with some runes carved on it. It had a broken off section where pieces had been chipped off. I'd thrown it together on the way here. It was a homing beacon, the runes would glow when pointing toward the main body of the rock. I made it with enchanting, just a simple minor temporary enchantment using Perception as a base.

I shrugged. "They have like a two day lifespan, and only because the effects are REALLY basic. Even normal rocks can survive lighting up a bit. I'm just glad everyone has a way to find us. Anyway, with that we can range a bit farther. Grimmengap should be fine without us, the Heartrippers have no reason to go after them on their own, and Cark is with Benny and Jessie, so having a bit of a walk before reaching us won't be dangerous. So lets find something really good. We're probably going to be out here a while."

Suddenly her still roving eyes lit up. "Hey a cliff face!" She pointed off into the distance and I smiled. That was pretty good luck. She grabbed my hand and started dragging me along, and I swallowed hard at the feeling. It was such a stupid thing to read into, but she'd been so casual about it. It kind of got my hopes up. She barely seemed to notice, so intent on getting us to the cliff. "Once we get there we can set up and then go over the list. The stuff on there is all H and G rank but some of it seems uncommon."

That snapped me back to the task at hand. I was going to need to use my Seek Hidden to give us an advantage, but I wouldn't be able to find smaller objects unless I got close enough. We'd have to start with anything that was naturally large or usually found in one big spot like ore veins. We had to walk for like twenty minutes before we got to the cliff face, and when we finally reached it I surveyed what we had to work with slowly, trying to remember literally everything Hector had told us as kids.

I noted a few important spots. "Ok. Well we have water from that stream, that crevice will give us cover on two sides which isn't bad. Yeah this place will work, but we need to make sure it all settles into place properly. Building into the actual stone would take way too long and probably make it unstable. I say a triangular shaped hut with the corner pressing into the crevice will be the most stable. First thing though, we need to clear the rocks and dirt enough for a flat surface to build on. Can your shadows do that?"

Callie looked excited to be doing something to help, which I got. Building things was fun. I wondered if we would be able to mark this spot and come back to it someday. It would be neat to have a secret base in the wilderness. Stepping up next to me, Callie created a sort of plow that would level off the ground, and we both got behind it to push. With our combined Might it was an easy task, and we scraped away the top layer, tearing away dirt and rocks until we had level ground to build on.

Then I started pulling things from my pack. Boards and posts, some one long piece some that fit together or screwed in. Callie did the same, and I got started building. Rather than just using my Inventing Skill here and now I decided to hold off. You could activate the skill at any point in the crafting process. Once Jessie got here we were going to have her reinforce the whole structure with roots and vines before using it, hopefully the powerful life energy would add some Vitality stats to the construct and push it up a grade or two.

Again I had to marvel at the potential of the Inventing Skill. You could make powerful objects out of even basic items with no real Impact. The complete randomness was a small price to pay for that ability. I could see why Mad Scientists were so feared while still being so sought after. Making something from nothing was a big deal.

Until they showed up though we just stuck to putting the place together. We slotted in the boards in a triangular pattern before adding in the posts at the corners, crewed together and then screwed into the wood after Callie used the shadows to make a drill that gave us a proper threaded port. Once that was done we started hanging some of the sheets of thick canvas we'd brought between them, and then Callie used those as bases to establish thick walls of shadow to hold the thing up. It would add once more factor to the hut when Jessie got here to help us finish and Benny was able to use his Beginner Inventing on it.

Once we were set up we slipped inside and sat down. I wanted to try some Fantasy enchantments to obscure us, but I wasn't sure how it would interact with the Inventing Skill when Benny triggered it. Vitality and Creation were pretty stable, but I was reticent about mixing Fantasy into something this big and complicated. Luckily we were under the shadow of the cliff, and the shadow walls made us even less visible. While we waited I pulled out some food and started doing some cooking.

I'd brought some steaks, and Callie made a frying pan out of shadow. As I set up to cook thought her jaw dropped as she stared at me in disbelief. "Are you using a skill to cook without a fire?" She'd clearly been expecting some kind of lighter or mini stove, but I just grinned cheerfully. Consecration of Flame on the frying pan let me use the actual pan as a cooking instrument. I just had to control the amount of Might I used for the skill, tamping it back down to where I was at when I first got it.

With so many openings in the walls that it didn't get too smoky inside, though the smell of cooking meat did fill the hut, and I pan seared both steaks before Callie made us utensils and we both settled in to eat. Callie gave me a sly smile as she took a bite, making a noise of appreciation as she swallowed. "So, I guess this counts as our second date. Or third? Hard to keep track. I was surprised you had time to think about that kind of thing while we're out her hunting assassins. Not that I'm complaining, just wasn't expecting it."

I shrugged. "Always some new crisis, but we're out in nature, it's beautiful and quiet and we're spending time together. It's nice." We finished eating pretty quickly, and Callie crawled over and snuggled up next to me. I put an arm around her. and we laid back, staring up into the blue sky. Granted, half the view was blocked by the cliff overhang, but there was still plenty to look at. "Are you really that worried about the Heartrippers?"

Callie snorted at that. "Only you would have to ask that question. In general a bit, but for now no. We'll hear them coming if they show up, and until then we're just having a nice day out while waiting for our team. Now shut up and stop ruining my mood. I'm trying to see shapes in the clouds." I laughed at that but did as she asked, settling in to do some cloud watching of my own. Once again cultivation brought me one of the happiest moments of my life. I planned to enjoy this view again as soon as I could, and many others on many planets, and I had to admit it would be pretty nice if I could have Callie with me then too.