The npc-maker Stardust took some of his rabbit pelts and tried placing them on Freya to get a better understanding of her body size. Freya saw that he was being a pervert and snatched the rabbit pelts from his hand and held it against her body to protect herself from his lustful gaze. Stardust did admire Freya but he wasn’t going to rape any of his NPCs.

“ Freya what skills do you have? Do you think you can make the clothes yourself?” asked Stardust.

“ Hmmm I don’t think I have any useful skills and...I cannot,” said Freya.

Stardust wasn’t bothered by this as NPCs created this way don’t start with any skills but rather base stats from their base biomaterial. He crudely created the proper clothes for Freya since she was willing to trust him a little bit to get her proper measurement. Afterward, they enjoyed cooked rabbit meat in silence.

When they were done eating. Stardust explained the situation to Freya, she later apologized to him for misunderstanding and wanted to properly work together with him to survive the desert. Freya was also blessed by the desert fox to have good stats to survive in the desert, and won’t suffer in the heat like a normal person would since it gets as hot as 40C here. All of his NPCs created have the same general knowledge that the npc-maker has so Freya quickly understood most of what he was saying. It was possible for the npc-maker to create NPCs more intelligent or knowledgeable than himself if he had the proper materials to make it like books filled with knowledge. Certain NPC types aren’t able to handle a huge amount of knowledge while others can.

Stardust’s feet were still quite burnt from the hot desert sand and he realized he could make crude shoes with bones and pelts. He also made shoes for Freya who happily accepted it, her feet were more resistant to the heat than his so it wasn’t burnt at all when she walked on the hot sands.

Despite Freya having the general knowledge of things, Stardust had to teach her the skills to help her survive the desert, like how to shoot the cactus needles, skinning the animals, and some basic sewing skills. The next several days were spent training Freya in the safe zone and warning her to never ever attack the green cactus monsters that were all around them if they wanted to live. She was proving to be very useful to the NPC-maker and she had nearly the same amount of skill and power as her master. 2 competent people surviving together was better than 1.

“ So how come there’s only 1 type of monster around, shouldn’t there be more?” asked Freya.

“ Well you see… My theory is that these cactus monsters are scaring away all the other monsters and that is why it was very peaceful here. Although I think if we venture into the wetter areas, more types of monsters and plants could emerge there,” explained Stardust.

“ Why are we planning to head into a more dangerous area instead of finding somewhere safer?” questioned Freya. “ Wouldn’t humans make a village or town in a safer area than a dangerous one?”

“ Because then I can find more potential resources to create more NPCs to increase my power.”

“ Right… you just want your NPC’s to do everything for you while you sit on your ass, taking it easy in the safe area.”

“ You saw right through me,” admitted the npc-maker.

“ Anyways I need to take a number 2,” flustered Freya.

Freya walked behind a large cactus monster to take a shit. Apparently, Stardust randomly discovered that taking a shit close to the cactus monster made it happier as it was gaining more nutrients back into the soil. How did he know? He doesn’t but reasoned that it was worth doing anyway even if they get nothing back in return.

She hated taking a shit in the middle of a desert with nothing to clean her ass and body with. Although the npc-maker had given her the excess rabbit pelt to wipe with, she still felt extremely dirty. Freya wanted to live in a proper house, take a proper bath, wear clean fitting clothes, and not be this fucking filthy all the fucking time. She cursed her master for bringing her into this shitty world despite knowing his circumstances. Even then she doesn’t slack off in her efforts to survive in this desert, she was doing her absolute best to survive in the desert to hopefully one day, live a normal very clean life. Away from all of the dirty sand, dirty insects, and dirty animals.

After she was done taking a shit, the cactus monster behind her, waved its many green arms to indicate happiness as described by her master. She was somewhat creeped out by the cactus monster and quickly ran back to the temporary camp.

On her way back to the temporary camp, she noticed an injured fox pup in the distance, running towards them, it most likely smelled the cooked rabbit meat and thought it could have some. She smiled at the little fox’s foolishness as it got closer to her. It had a nasty fox bite onto its little body. Before the injured fox pup can steal their food, she flick-shot a needle to its head, killing it in one shot. She then grabbed the dead fox and carried it off back to the camp to enjoy its meat. Freya loved eating the fox meat the most out of rabbit and mouse around here, as she thought the other meats were inferior.

“ Don’t worry little fox, your precious pelt will be used to wipe my ass when I need to take a shit in the future.”

They enjoyed eating the rabbit meat and fox meat together. Although Freya hated drinking raw blood, there weren't any other sources of water so she had to bear with it for now.

“ Let’s go Freya.”

“ Peehh,” whined Freya as she didn’t want to venture into the more dangerous area.

Stardust gave a salute and bow to the cactus monster, “ thank you for protecting us from all the stronger monsters, I hope our shits and rotting corpses were enough to satisfy you guys.”

The green cactus monster responded by waving its many green arms before remaining still again.

“ Do you really have to do that?” facepalmed Freya as she thought it was a pointless thing to do.

“ Well of course, these cactus monsters could easily kill us in 1 hit. We need to kiss their feet here to survive in the desert. Even if they cannot understand our words, they will understand our actions towards them as kindness.”

“ Sure,” said Freya as she didn’t even believe him one bit.

Stardust wanted to run deeper into the more dangerous area but Freya wanted to walk, so they compromised to a light jog through the desert.

2 hours of light jogging, they encountered more types and bigger insects. Some of the desert beetles were now the size of their head! Instead of desert mice, they were more like large desert rats! Normal cactus and monster cactus were 3 times bigger here. Rabbits and foxes were 2 times their size here. A new desert carnivore also emerged, it was the desert tiger. While the large insects were creepy looking according to Freya, they posed no threats. The rabbit reached half their height while the foxes slightly above it were still no threat to them. But the desert tiger that was taller and bigger than them was a scary threat. The cactus needle shots they used won’t be effective at all.

“ THE INSECTS ARE SO FUCKING DISGUSTING!” yelled Freya. “ Let’s get the fuck out of here before we get killed.”

“ But my potential to make a stronger NPC using the tiger biomass. I already got the best plan to hunt those tigers down.”

Freya didn’t want to argue anymore as she knew that her master was an idiot who loves taking huge risks for no reason, “ Alright let’s see if your amazing plan will kill us or not.”

“ First we hunt down these huge rabbits and foxes to create a huge bone shield. Then we stalk down one of those desert tigers and attack a nearby cactus monster making it shoot thousands of needles in all directions. Since we are both behind a bone shield, we will be protected while the tiger will die from its poisonous needles.”

“ Heehhhh that sounds like a wonderful plan,” admitted Freya. “ I can put my bone shield behind you so I get a double bone shield with your body shield in between.”

“ Of course,” said Stardust. “ I don’t want to let any of my NPC die foolishly because if I die…. Well you NPCs will still live even without me.”

“ Oh cool, so I don’t have to ever worry about you dying on me,” smiled Freya.

“....yeah,” said Stardust.

“ Well if you die, I will certainly remember you with all my heart when I get out of the desert alive and well.”

“ I won’t die,” affirmed Stardust with determination in his eyes. “ I promise to give you the best life possible in my empire.”

Freya blushed and turned away when he said that. It gave her a little hope that he would be able to give her a better life than this shitty desert lifestyle.

In the distance, a stampede of giant desert centipedes was charging in their direction. They were poisonous and one bite from them would end their very lives. Stardust and Freya ran away as quickly as they could, and they dropped the dead rabbit that was supposed to be their ration, behind them to leave behind as bait for them. It worked as the giant desert centipedes happily devoured the rabbit meat.

“ Hmm well we still have 4 dead rabbits and 3 dead foxes for our ration, so we should still be good,” said Stardust.

“ Yeah… look there’s another group of giant centipedes chasing after us!”

They ran again and had to lose another dead rabbit to them as they had no means of effectively fighting the stampede.

“ These fucking centipedes!” shouted Stardust. “ Taking all of our shit.”

“ Living is more important than dying,” said Freya. “ Oh fuck! A desert tiger is staring at us.”

The desert tiger stared at them before charging right at them, it was extremely fast. Stardust and Freya had to drop their entire ration behind if they wanted to run at full speed and if the tiger would stop and eat their bait instead. The desert tiger didn’t want to expend any more energy and happily ate all of their dropped rations.

“ Great and the king of the desert gets to eat all of our shit,” complained Stardust.

“ Guess we are heading back to the safer area to restock up huh?” said Freya.

“ Yeah…”

They ran back to the safer area to restock on their lost food supplies. Instead of depending on using needle shots which were effective at killing small things, they crafted 2 bows with some bone arrows and wooden arrows with a sharp tip on it. They were practicing their aim with a stationery cactus. The bow and arrow gave them greater attack range than simply shooting the needles with their hands.

“ These bows and arrows are nice but not enough to kill the tiger, we need to make it poisonous somehow,” said Freya.

“ Hmmm we can try collecting poison from the weaker centipedes or the desert scorpions but maybe we can ask the monster cactus for it’s poisonous needles?”

“ PFFTTT! you think a monster cactus would even give us its poison?”

“ It’s worth trying!”

The npc-maker ran up the monster cactus before offering it a dead rabbit, “ please accept my offering and offer me some of your poisonous needles that I can attach to my arrows!”

The only response that the monster cactus gave was waving its many green arms and nothing else happened. He reached towards its needle with his bone knife, trying to pry some needles off, but the moment the knife touched the monster cactus, it retaliated by shooting hundreds of needles in all directions. Stardust was once again suffering from the poison and was about to die again. Meanwhile, Freya was far away, watching the demise of her master.

When the cactus monster stopped attacking, she ran up to him, “ YOU IDIOT! WHY ARE YOU LEAVING ME ALL ALONE IN THIS DESERT! Please….. Come back to me.” She crouched at his former corpse when all of a sudden, a new smaller person emerged underneath her master’s corpse.

“ OH MY GOD! STARDUST! You created another NPC before you died? Don’t worry, I promise you I will take good care of this little boy in your stead.”

“ It’s me…. Freya”

“ You’re not Stardust!.... Wait, you are Stardust! That’s weird, my instincts are telling me you are him!”

“ Well yes, all my NPCs will always know their true master. Anyways things didn’t go as planned but at least we got all these thousands of poisonous needles on the ground to use for our arrows.”

“ HAHAHAHAHAHA YOU’RE SO SMALL NOW!” laughed Freya. “ But welcome back Stardust!” as she gave him a big hug.

“ Ehhh I didn’t want to reveal my ultimate survival ability to any of my NPCs but this is the only exception since we are in a dire situation. Please don’t tell any of the new NPCs about this okay?”

“ Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me,” smirked Freya. “ Hehehehehee.”

> ( NPC-MAKER)

They collected the poisonous needles that were all over the ground, careful to not accidentally poke themselves with them. They tied it to the arrow tips with the string-like fiber they collected from the desert grass and practiced shooting them into the desert rabbits and foxes, aiming for their non-critical points to see if the poison was still working or not. The poison worked very well! But they were too afraid to attempt to eat the poisoned creatures even if they cooked them, so they left their corpses to rot in the sun or the other creatures that will come along to eat them.

As Freya was busy attaching a poisonous needle to her arrows, she accidentally pokes herself with it and felt the little poison spreading from her finger, “ OH FUCK!” Instead of panicking, she quickly grabbed her bone knife and sliced off her right index finger with her left hand to stop the poison from spreading.

“ FREYA!” shouted Stardust as he ran over to her while carrying a dead fox.

“ Arrgrhhhhhhhh it hurts!” Freya quickly grabbed a spare pelt to stop the bleeding on her finger. “ Living is more important than my finger. I WILL LIVE IN A FUCKING CLEAN PLACE THAN THIS FILTHY SHIT HOLE!”

The entire dead fox was consumed as the npc-maker used his healing ability on her, the lost finger on her hand quickly regrows. “ I can heal you an unlimited amount of times as long as I have the resources to… but I can’t revive you.”

> ( npc-maker)

“ My finger is back!” beamed Freya. “ Don’t worry Stardust, I promise you I will never die! WE ARE GOING TO LIVE IN A PROPER FUCKING HOUSE!”

“ YOU BET!”