The grappling hook, the socks and the bottle are equippable. She has a feeling that the socks and the bottle are using up part of a limited space. When she equips the grappling hook she has a feeling that she could launch it in any direction whenever she wanted.

"So how exactly do I use this thing?"

"You aim it in a direction and it'll fire out for a ways. If it hits something solid it will anchor into that surface and then pull you towards it. You can release the hook and reel it back in whenever you want."

"Hmm. Okay. ...if I ask you why there's different tools for trees and for everything else will you even have an answer?"

"The closest I have is that the axe will chop down the entire tree at once instead of a cube like the pickaxe does. Though the pickaxe also does a whole piece of furniture at a time even when the furniture is big. Later on there are tools that can do both."

"...oh? How do I get 'em?"

"Tools that combine an axe and a hammer are fairly common but the first one is made from meteorite and none of those have fallen yet. Tools that function as a pickaxe and an axe are pretty rare and they're only available after you've defeated the mechanical terrors. You have a long way to go before you can even challenge those. Well... in theory you could do it quickly but it's much harder if you do things out of order."

"...fair enough. What's an appropriate challenge for where I'm at, then?"

"The truth is that your current sword isn't sufficient to beat any of the challenges unless you're already extremely skilled at combat. I'd recommend searching for better equipment before proceeding. You probably want armor, a better weapon and some talismans before summoning a challenge. Metal is what you probably need the most of. Gold and Platinum are the best metals available to you at present. Though pumpkin armor is potentially worthwhile if you can avoid being hit."

"...pumpkin," she echoes. "I, uh. How? Why, but also, how?"

"While wearing pumpkin armor you deal 10% more damage than you would otherwise. It's a significant boost. As to how? There are pumpkin patches in the forest. Harvest enough and you can craft armor out of them."

"...all right, that sounds like a good idea to start with. I'll keep an eye out for pumpkin patches next time I go mapping."

"If you're going out I'd also eat at least one of the Red candies. That allows the nurse to come. If you find a bomb the demolitionist might come, and if you pick up a strange plant the dye trader will show up. If enough people show up then the painter wil arrive and he sells the paintball gun which is a very useful early weapon since it has infinite ammo. We'll build some more housing so that they have somewhere to live if they come. Or we can hold off if you want to do your own architecture."

"Feel free to build houses, you know what you like better than I do." She pops the candies out of her inventory and, after only a moment's hesitation, tries one.

It tastes like cherry and as it melts in her mouth there's a rush of energy and she feels somehow healthier it's a little like the rush from touching the pillar but more focused on wellness than raw strength. "Good luck in your travels."

...all right, that sure didn't suck. "Where would I get more of these?"

"The red ones you can find underground they're in the core of giant red hearts. The blue ones are made from fallen stars. They fall during the night and disappear at sunrise."

"Anything I should be worried about if I start digging around underground looking for giant red hearts to plunder?"

"If you stay in the underground under the forest it's pretty safe. Watch out for pressure plates and giant worms. If you go swimming be careful about jellyfish and sharks. If you get deep enough you might run into harder foes. Bats are a pain, skeletons explode when they die, salamanders can turn invisible and if you run into a skeleton wearing a wizard hat or a nymph you should probably just run."

"...what do nymphs look like?"

"They look like lost women with damaged clothing until you get close and then they drop that illusion and show their teeth claws and armor when you get close or attack them."

"...yikes."

"It is a cruel design in many ways. A trap for the compassionate. We try to warn people before they encounter them it tends to upset them otherwise."

"No kidding! Wow. How far down do I have to go to find them, can I just avoid them by staying high?"

"They start showing up 100 meters below sea level we're at 10 above sea level right now. If you're staying up that high you probably won't run into mushroom biomes and definitely won't run into spider nests but those are both pretty dangerous you might want to steer clear. There are also Marble and Granite caves those have their unique challenges."