Shopping for a not so watertight plan.

John checked that the charm was working properly for the eleventh time just before they entered the Tool Barn, Sylvia still looked like a normal girl, at least for a hippie.

John had locked his ride on the bike rack and picked a shopping cart in front of the entrance. Sylvia was amazed at everything and was asking so many questions, he only hoped that she would remember to stop doing it once inside.

"Wahoo this is so big. And so bright! I thought it would be darker inside, there aren't even that many windows." she whispered to him when they finally got in.

John advanced between the aisle he now was familiar with and turning in the one for yard work tools he stumbled upon Donna the sales assistant that helped him previously.

" Hi John. So you need more stuff for your project? Did you bring your girlfriend this time?" she asked him.

"Hi Donna. Yeah I need some things and I stupidly broke my pickaxe, I need a new one. This isn't my girlfriend, just a friend. We met in the forest while she gathered plants and she agreed to help me if I let her plant an organic vegetable garden on my plot. " he explained.

" Hello, my name is Sylvia Sun-kiss, nice to meet you. " she said. It was a bit awkward but sounded human enough.

"Interesting. Let's see what you need, maybe a new tent? The one you bought last time was for only one person..." said the redshirt with a smirk. She assumed (correctly) that he was boning her, or would soon do so.

John bought a new pickaxe, a few climbing picks and gear, a sledgehammer and yeah a bigger tent with a inflatable mat and sleeping bags.

Sylvia nearly feinted when she entered the aisles containing the seeds. With John's approval she started throwing in the cart nearly everything she could find, flowers, vegetables, trees, even a few potatoes to grow some. It had taken time to explain to her that John and other creatures he would maybe bring here would eat some of the plants, just like the animals did. She finally understood the concept of agriculture when explained properly and her bond to John made her accept this fact. John realized that if he managed to grow enough crops in his realm it would be a great step in making it independent from the outside ressource wise.

After Donna left him, John picked up a few other things. Half a dozen rolls of neon orange thin nylon rope, a couple of high power flashlights, 5 spraycans of glow in the dark yellow paint and a two boxes of 20 chemical glow tubes. Not having to actually carry this stuff home and is current wealth encouraged him to spend a lot. He also went back to the camping aisle to buy more cooking stuff and a few more gas canisters for the camping hotplate. After a secondof thinking he also took a few bottles of firestarter for barbecues, he planned on crafting incendiary projectiles for his slingshot.

He left the store with a large quantity of gear and 350$ less in his interface.

"So many seeds, so many plants! Your kingdom will become a paradise with those! You will go for the underground Altar, right? It's what all this stuff is for?" she asked. John had been astonished by something, Sylvia could read! That made little sense, she wasn't even human and lived in a totally natural environment before meeting him, how could she know how to do that? She had a natural understanding of many things she should know nothing about.

They quickly returned to John's kingdom and after stashing most of his stuff John geared up to go hunt those altars.

He had to be at June's place for 2pm, to keep on the safe side it meant that he had to leave his kingdom at 1pm, with he time dilation it left him four and a half hour to find one altar or one of the tributes to give them.

The most obvious path would be to go check the lake, it was close to the mountains and it was the only place where an altar and its offering would be gathered. If it failed he would be able to look for minerals in the nearby mountains before coming back home to explore the Shadow Maze.

The ride towards the lake was pleasant, Sylvia's naked body hugging him from behind. The forest had grown, life was everywhere. The flowers and the wild weat that Sylvia had created while they fucked outside had spread and he could see rabbits and other critters munching on them.

John really was jealous of Moira's bike, his own was practical but gave nothing like the thrill he had felt on the Harley. He would probably invest in a real motorized bike soon and he had a plan for that.

The lake was beautiful, a shore of fine sand cut only by a few huge black rocks, the crystal blue water perfectly translucent which turned ink black at the center as the depth increased.

John clipped the strange collar around his neck and instantly started to suffocate. He removed it in panic.

"This is really stupid. This thing let's me breathe underwater, but it stops me from breathing air." he cursed.

"I need to breathe too, I won't be able to go with you." warned Sylvia.

"Yeah, seems like it won't be as easy as planned." he replied.

He walked to the water and though about something. Drenched with water his leather armor would make him slow and sluggish underwater. He removed most of it, keeping only his harness and weapons, with his trusted armored boxers.

Face above water he put the collar on and dived in. He wasn't used to swimming and breathing water was really weird. Each time he exhaled water was coming out of the gills on the side of the collar.

He realized soon that he had missed a few other factors. The lake was big, really big and it would take him a while to get to the bottom of it. He also had to constantly swim down to stop himself from floating.

He saw the eels he had received recently, they gathered in the kelp growing underwater. As he advanced to get over the deep bottom he saw something worrying. A huge shadow passed under him.

John decided to give up on the Coral Altar for now. He got back to the surface and swam to the shore.

"It won't work, we should try something else." he told Sylvia who was planting some seeds near the lake, waiting for him.

Hi, Funatic had the nice idea to create a Discord chat for the whole story. It is a really nice addition to it and will give a better way to communicate than the comment sections or messages here on Chyoa. Go there to get a link to it: https://chyoa.com/chapter/PUBLIC-QUESTION%21.359141