At the back of the house, specifically at the end of the alley, lay a goldmine; a huge pile of broken wooden planks, used wooden pots, spoons, and even a poorly made stool. There was also a huge pile of wooden planks with scorch marks and chunks of charcoal that seemed to have fallen from above. Looking up, I could indeed confirm that my assumption was correct; huge sections of the alley's 'walls' were covered in scorch marks, as if a raging fire had run across them in the past. Some sections even had holes within them, but were patched out by fresh wood that seemed to have 'grown' out from the burnt one.

  It was odd, so odd that I couldn't help but inspect it.

  [Living AlleyWood:

  One of the many wondrous creations of Old Man Gru, the architect of Woodcity, capable of regeneration by absorbing nutrients, waste, and discarded materials from its surroundings, and is a vital part of Woodcity, as its primarily used because of strength, adaptability, and malleability; without it there would be no second and third floor.]

  Interesting, so this thing was actually alive! And this is the second time I've heard about Old Man Gru, just how powerful is he? If he could create such a massive structure, entirely out of wood, too, then his power level must be disgustingly high.

  'Though dark, I'm becoming increasingly interested in the workings of this world, would I be able to gain such power too, if I survived long enough?'

  I didn't know, but a part of me was excited by the mere prospect; attaining such levels of power wouldn't be easy, but, I felt like it was possible, as long as I didn't mess up too badly. But, I had to leave this place before that; Woodcity was just too depressing, no real source of light, mutated rat beasts, cannibalism, cults, schemes, betrayals, and the causal disregard for humans life was a little too heavy for me, to be honest. It wasn't a place to live, nor grow, unless one became even more ruthless than the people born and raised here.

  But, didn't that mean to get out, one had to be even more ruthless, powerful, and cunning than that? Just how vile were those at the top of this blood-stained pyramid, then? How many lives did they take during their climb?

  'One day, I'll end up like them, too, won't I?'

  I shook my head, dismissing the heavy thoughts; thinking about such things now didn't benefit me at all. Future me would tackle such complex moral dilemmas, not present me. Right now, I needed somewhere to stay, and something to eat and drink; my belly was starting to feel empty, and it wouldn't be long before it started grumbling in protest. So, I hauled over the surprisingly wooden planks one by one, stacking them atop each other before inspecting them.

  [Burnt Housewood plank:

  Planks designed for the construction of houses, heavy, durable, and mostly resistant to fire.]

  How exactly did the people on the first floor go about building houses, anyway? I feel like I'm missing a lot of core components, like what they used to hold everything together, and the specific type of hosusewood needed.

  I wanted to go inside, but the entire structure was lethal; I needed a way to remove the water within the wood first.

  'If this were a normal world, it would've evaporated a long time ago, but this place barely gets any light!'

  But, as I racked my brain for a solution, I realized it shouldn't be too difficult; I could just make a large enough piece of wood extremely absorbent of myriad river water and make it, like a wooden sponge, suck up every last bit, then discard it. Or, I could just edit out the section that said it was soaked in myriad river water, but I wasn't going to do that; I wanted to test the limits of my power so I planned to experiment with myriad river water. Not only that, it was a valuable asset to have, too; it was a potent poison, one that could end up being very useful for me in battle.

  So, I went back behind the hut, found a badly burnt piece of Housewood Plank, repaired it, and edited in the traits I desired.

  [Myriad river water wood:

  A special type of wood created for the sole purpose of safely absorbing and containing myriad river water from any piece of wood containing it. Once its limit have been reached, it'll turn pitch black, but is still safe to handle, however, please handle it with great care; if a large enough opening is made, all the contained myriad river water will pour out from said opening]

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  'Hehehe, I feel like those Gods in World creation novels, using their great power to think things into being when designing their own little world.'

  Next, I found a picked up one of the broken wooden pots I found while going through the trash earlier, made it into a large wooden soup pot, and then edited it once more to be completely impermeable to any liquid, but the lines glitched, and fizzled out, indicating that the skill level wasn't high enough, so I changed it to only apply to myriad river water, and it worked.

  [Large myriad river water pot:

  A fairly large wooden pot, made with a unique technique that makes it completely impermeable to regular variants of myriad river water.]

  Interesting, so there's more than one version of the same water out there, this had to be because of the Evolution Cult, didn't it?

  'Man, who knows, it isn't completely unreasonable for a gang or cult to exist out there dedicated entirely to procuring, refining, and selling variants of myriad river water.'

  But, that wasn't important, I got what I wanted, now, it was time to try something else: replication.

  This time, I wouldn't be changing the description, but the name. So, I changed it to [Two Large myriad river water pots] instead of [Large myriad river water pot.] Liquid TV static consumed the pot, startling me so bad I fell back, but I couldn't take my eyes off the scene unfolding; the TV static condensed into a ball, then, that ball split into another ball the same size, becoming two balls of liquid TV static before shaping themselves back into two large myriad river water pots.

  'Yo! That was both creepy and cool!'

  Why TV static? I had no idea, but my intuition told me that's the best representation my brain had of raw information for some reason, so that's how it manifested for me. Regardless of the reason, it wasn't important, what was the fact that I succeeded, and on my first try, too!

  But, a sudden wave of dizziness hit me, followed by the sensation of warm blood flowing down out my eyes, and nose.

  [Skill: View Information (1)> View Information (2)]

  [Skill: Edit Information (1)> Edit Information (2)]

  Before I could process what was happening, a wave of dizziness hit me, and darkness consumed my sight.

  .......................

  My consciousness groggily returned to me alongside my senses. My thoughts and my entire body felt as heavy as led, and I was thirsty, hungry, tired, and lazy.

  [Name: Eric Goldspoon

  Status: Minor soul exhaustion (Debuf), Deep exhaustion (Debuf).

  Race: Otherworlder

  Stats:

  Body: -5

  Mind: 1

  Soul: 4

  Skills:

  View Information (2)

  Edit Information (2)

  ]

  Only two debuffs, yet, their effects were undeniably potent, enough to knock me out and nearly kill me, apparently. Honestly, I wasn't expecting such a thing to occur; I never thought the backlash for overdrawing? Would be this severe, I wasn't even sure what was the cause; when I had attempted to use the skill to make the pot impermeable to all forms of liquid, it simply glitched, and fizzled out, so shouldn't the same thing happen here?

  Where lay the difference?

  'Honestly, this is bs, now I really needed to fully figure out how my power worked, and the limitations it had before I ended up killing myself somewhere, they'd be truly tragic. But, on the bright side, I didn't die, and I even gained a level in both my skills.'

  Putting a pause to the myriad river water and replication experiments for now, I shifted my attention to something else; getting rid of these debuffs, and getting inside the house.

  So, using my brain, I took out my bone machete, made a little slit on one end, put it in the one of the myriad river water pots, and placed the other on what remained of the hut, watching it suck it dry in mere moments, halving the pot with myriad river water. After that, I wished for the debuffs to be gone, and all but one did: the Minor soul exhaustion debuff, which wouldn't go away no matter how hard I willed it.

  So, I simply left it; it didn't seem to be negatively impacting me in any tangible way, and it wasn't like the debuff was permanent, after transporting the pot of poison to the back, I went inside what remained of my house, and began to look at how it was assembled, what was used, and so on. And, the first thing that became apparent to me was the fact that the 'foundation,' if you could even call it that, was not in the ground, but above it.

  From the outside, it wasn't that obvious, but the entire building was a few inches off the ground, and rested on four thick blocks of dark gray wood, one in each corner of the building. And, the only reason I was able to see it was due to the absence of a proper floor; from the looks of it, large thick sheets of wood used to be there, serving as a floor of sorts, but, they were gone now.

  Housewood planks ran across the floor, and where the walls were supposed to be, likely for structural stability, but, only the ones where the walls previously were were had anything holding them together; it was a cold, solid gray substance, one that smelled rather funky.

  [Woodglue:

  A vital creation of Old Man Gru to the populace of the first floor; without it, building houses would be impossible, as they'd simply fall apart. Once heated, Woodglue becomes very malleable and was designed to tightly bind to anything containing wood, and, its reusable, too! Simply heat it up and use it however you desire, no complex procedure necessary!]

  Interesting, another creation of that old powerhouse, he sure is powerful, and benevolent? Did he give these away for free, or did he monopolize and sell it? But, what could such poor people offer him other than their very life? Or maybe that's exactly what he wants, who knows. There's still too much I don't know about the world at large and this place, so, its best to keep the random judgments to a minimum.

  Now, all I needed was a way to fill in the floor, and I'd have a house, once I get around to actually putting it back together, that is.

  Hmm, couldn't I just replicate some Woodglue, and some planks, then, cut the planks into the right size, and glue them together until I was satisfied? And, couldn't the same be done for the walls also? I keep forgetting the sheer utility of my cheat; the only real limitations, from the looks of it, were the skill levels, and myself. Transmutation, creation, and destruction, all could be done very easily by it, even at such low levels, too.

  'Isn't this the pinnacle of alchemy? Did that make me a walking Philosopher Stone?'