Shelter Renovation

The eleventh day of Desert Island Survival. Sunny.

Yu Hai got up early today. He rose at dawn to exercise, and he also called Poliwag up to run and practice walking on two feet.

He had trained too hard yesterday, leaving his whole body sore this morning. Still, as long as he kept exercising, the muscle soreness would gradually improve.

Since he still needed to finish the shelter today, Yu Hai only jogged for an hour before stopping. He gathered more scraps of cloth and rainproof plastic, stitching together several huge sheets to seal the top of the tree trunk.

The shelter was the most urgent matter right now. He did not want to get soaked like a drowned rat again, and that was what drove him to seal the tree trunk as quickly as possible.

His running workout then turned into supervising Poliwag while patching up the rainproof plastic.

However, they did not train too hard today. Since they had no food reserves, the Caterpie Poliwag had caught yesterday had become last night's dinner.

If Poliwag was exhausted this morning, how would they catch Caterpie?

Poliwag only ran for one extra hour before Yu Hai picked it up and placed it in the water bucket to escape the heat. Once it recovered some strength, they would head out to look for Caterpie.

During that hour, he had also finished patching the rainproof plastic and cloth. Taking the ladder and frying pan, he went to seal the top of the tree trunk.

He was still using the nails from yesterday. Sealing the top of the tree trunk would not take many nails.

After setting up the ladder, he first covered the top of the tree trunk with two layers of cloth. There was a large hole left in the center of each layer, serving as a skylight that could provide some light for the tree hollow during the day, so it would not be as dark as night inside.

After laying down the cloth, he nailed it to the tree trunk. To keep the nails from piercing through the fabric, he needed to place a wooden board underneath.

Once he had stretched the cloth taut and secured it to the trunk, he covered it with rainproof plastic, repeating the same process and nailing everything tightly to the tree trunk.

There were three layers of rainproof plastic. If it leaked, he could add more layers.

However, when he had smoothed the tree trunk earlier, he had already left it at an angle for rain protection.

When it rained, the water would run off along the slope at the top, preventing water from pooling on the roof.

The side of the trunk facing the sea was lower, while the side facing the forest was higher.

He also planned to put the door on the forest-facing side, since it would be easier to conceal there.

Compared with wild Pokémon visiting his new home, he was more afraid of strangers whose origins he did not know.

As the saying went, if you walked by the river often enough, your shoes were bound to get wet.

No one had landed on the island all these days, but there was no telling whether someone might land here later. Perhaps they had already landed on the other side of the island, and he simply did not know.

Rather than hoping whoever landed on the island would be a kind soul who would take him away from this deserted island, he trusted himself more.

As he had said before, aside from his Pokémon companions, he trusted no one.

After nailing down the rainproof plastic, he went to the forest-facing side of the tree trunk. Standing beside it, he compared the height against his chest and drew a line on the trunk.

That line marked the height of his new door. The door would be around one and a half meters tall.

After that, he began hammering nails again, punching holes one by one along the inverted U-shaped doorframe he had drawn until it was covered in small holes.

He had only finished half the doorframe before he ran out of strength. His arms were so sore that he could barely lift them.

He gave up on finishing the doorway that morning, returned to the temporary shelter, and called Poliwag out to find food.

"Poliwag, stop lying around. Let's go find lunch..."

When Yu Hai returned, he saw Poliwag floating in the water bucket. He could not tell whether it was Resting or spacing out.

"Yoyo..."

Hearing Yu Hai call, Poliwag immediately flipped over, jumped out of the bucket, and followed him along the edge of the forest in search of Caterpie.

They did not go far this time. They spotted a Caterpie as soon as they left.

"Poliwag, Water Gun, Hypnosis," Yu Hai said tersely, with little energy. The morning run, sealing the tree trunk, and cutting out the door had drained too much of his strength. He was starving now.

"Yo!" Poliwag immediately stepped forward and fired a Water Gun at the Caterpie eating leaves on a branch, knocking it down.

"Go after it. Don't let it get away," Yu Hai urged when he saw the Caterpie fall into the grass.

"Yoyo!" When Poliwag saw the Caterpie disappear, it immediately entered the grass and swung its tail at it.

Waiting outside the grass, Yu Hai only heard a series of smacks. Then Poliwag emerged, dragging out a foul-smelling Caterpie without even using Hypnosis.

Seeing the Caterpie, Yu Hai did not waste words. He threw a Poké Ball and caught it, then picked up the ball to inspect it. Its Potential was as mediocre as ever, only 23%.

"Let's go, Poliwag. We're heading back." Yu Hai called for Poliwag to follow as he dragged his exhausted body along.

After returning to the temporary shelter, he simply cleaned the Caterpie and put it into the stew pot to boil.

He told Poliwag to keep an eye on the fire, then leaned against the tree trunk and fell asleep. He was truly exhausted and needed to rest for a while. Once the water boiled, Poliwag could wake him.

He did not know how long had passed when Yu Hai vaguely heard Poliwag calling. He slowly opened his bleary eyes and saw the Caterpie meat rolling in the boiling stew pot.

"Yoyo, yoyo." Seeing Yu Hai wake up, Poliwag withdrew its little pink tongue.

"Is it cooked? Let me see." Yu Hai came to the fire, poked the Caterpie meat with his chopsticks, and once it felt somewhat soft, he lifted the stew pot off the fire.

After dividing up the Caterpie meat and broth, he took a huge gulp straight away.

Then he wolfed down the Caterpie meat and broth in just a few bites. Rising to his feet, he patted his pant leg and called to the stunned Poliwag, "Poliwag, once you're done eating, come help me. We'll have a new home to live in soon..."

To move into the new home sooner, he was really pushing himself. No matter how exhausted he was, he had to keep working on the shelter.

"Yoyo, yoyo." Poliwag nodded in agreement to help, but as it watched Yu Hai walk away, then glanced at the Caterpie meat laid on leaves, it wondered when its food bowl would come back.

It missed its bowl terribly.

Arriving beside the giant tree trunk, Yu Hai continued cutting out the door. Only half the work remained, so it was not as tiring as before.

Before long, he had punched all the small holes for the door and only needed to wait for Poliwag.

"Yoyo, yoyo..."

He lay on the grass and waited for a little while before Poliwag finally arrived. Then he explained what he needed it to do. "Poliwag, do you see these little holes?"

"Yoyo." Poliwag leaned closer and finally noticed the small holes Yu Hai had punched into the tree trunk.

"Those holes. Use Water Gun to attack every one of them..."

"Yo?" Hearing such an absurd request, Poliwag was completely stunned.

Had its Trainer's fever not gone down yet? Was he talking nonsense?

One hundred Book Coins from 2347. Thank you all for the many votes, thank you x3...

Since many readers were confused about the relationship between Abilities and proficiency, I added some setting details about their relationship [interested readers can check the Ability introduction in the work-related section]. I thought the percentage-based Ability setting should be easy enough to understand. It is like levels and moves: levels mean leveling up, moves mean faster, more accurate, and stronger. Abilities work the same way—just apply the setting...