Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! Chapter 116: 116-You Can Feel It Too, Blue?

Read chapter 116 of Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! by A_Random_Turtle on NovelPedia.

Merlin hardly wanted to seem or sound petulant. In a sea of sand, they had found water and greenery. He should be happy, glad, joyous—whatever other word that signified the exhilaration that came with ecstasy. However, somewhere deep down, he couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed that they had not just stumbled upon an abandoned house instead. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have to comb the woods for what Sofia had called hosta leaves—large leaves that were shade tolerant, extremely hardy, and required little maintenance. They would be serving as the shades for the homes the party crafted after all. If it was any consolation, Sofia was with him. Apparently, she and her father were quite the hiking and camping duo. In other words, she knew all about sleeping in forests. For what it was worth, despite their current circumstances, Merlin did think that camping was fun, and he would have loved to have done something like that with his family. But he couldn’t be greedy now, could he? Who was he to request for a bit of fun when his parents were saving lives. “You don’t like this, do you?” Sofia asked as Merlin reached for her hand and helped her over a log. “What do you mean?” Merlin asked with a slight frown. “That.” She pointed at his face—his expression in particular. “Your face has been alternating between furious and frustrated ever since we came to the woods. No. Ever since we found this…weird place.” Merlin chuckled. “You know it’s a crime to spy on someone, right?” Sofia’s cheeks turned red a bit, but the tint disappeared as soon as she cleared her throat. “I was not spying,” she said in her defense. Merlin gave her a wry look. “I was just curious.” Merlin shrugged. “Well, truth be told, I was hoping we’d find abandoned houses instead. Crafting our own homes just feels—” “...Crazy,” Sofia completed Merlin’s words. Merlin blinked owlishly at her. Perhaps his thoughts bled out, because she added immediately, “My father and I went with tents. We didn’t make our homes out of wood and leaves.” Merlin pursed his lips. “Oh. Then how did you?” “We were hiking one day when rain suddenly poured down heavily. We weren’t with umbrellas, so we sought out shade beneath a hosta tree. He told me then about how they were very good shades,” Sofia narrated with a smile, and Merlin listened attentively. “So that’s how I know.” “I see…” Merlin nodded when Sofia was done. “It’s nice that you do,” he said. “I wonder what we would have done without you.” His words did what he had intended for them to do, which was fill Sofia with a sense of usefulness, because she blushed even harder now, and finished it off by pushing him by the shoulder. They both laughed and continued their searches. At the end of the day, they didn’t find hosta leaves, but they found a different type. Which exactly, they didn’t know, but Sofia compared them to the design and texture of hosta leaves, and they went ahead with it. Maybe they had been way in over their head expecting to find the exact type of leaves that grew on Earth in a Tower. But, anyway, all’s well that ends well. They were the last of the shared groups to arrive back in camp—a small space near the center of the forest they had found, just close to the bank of its stream—and everything was set for their house crafting process. Sun-Hee, Park Yuri, and Man-Shik had gone wood gathering, while Senior Hyunwoo and Daniel had gathered vines instead. With the presence of everyone and the materials required, they got to work. Their home crafting process was simple in theory. Set up the thin trunks of wood gathered in a cone like shape, and bind them together with the vines, then cover its spaces with the leaves gathered. That way, they would be protected from rain, and have some privacy. No one said anything about the homes being perfect, but it would serve them, at least until they found something better, or just cleared the first floor of the Tower. The quicker they got that done with, the faster they could go back to