Chapter 195: Simultaneous Progression
Today is another day I’m spending on the house in the forest. The rainy season is over so I want to finish working on it while the great weather lasts. The roof is already done so I feel relieved, but I still have to work on the body — half of it is made out of wood after all.
I slathered some dirt in between the pillars, and also some on the thin branches that had been tied together. Actually it’s not dirt, it’s clay made by fermenting a mixture of straw and soil. I adjusted the viscosity with water according to what I need.
I’ll apply plaster over the clay later. The upper part of the house is white plaster wall, while below waist level it’ll be a stone wall. The interior is supposed to have thick dark brown pillars and white plaster walls and ceilings but it’s not really noticeable because the steep sloped roof covers a good part of the house.
The first coating of clay will have huge cracks on its surface after it’s completely dried, so I’m going to spread soil mixed with sand and fine straw onto the fissures. The second batch of clay has more sand in it so it’s not gonna crack. That’s because sand has a lower expansion and contraction rate. I’ll push the soil into the cracks so that it won’t peel off.
Smear, slather, dry, smear, slather, dry. Actually, there are many other ways to do this, but even doing the prime coat already takes up so much time. It’ll be a struggle before I reach the plaster stage.
Riche is munching on X-Stick again. Snow Leopard and Deer would come rushing here and things would get chaotic if he so much as took a step beyond the barrier but nothing happened yet.
This place is nearer to the north so the air is cool and nice. I can hear the birds chirping and the monsters doing whatever sound they make. Hmm, what should I do with the backyard? This is the only area in the forest that basks in the sun as if it has its own spotlight so maybe I can plant some flowers to emphasize the difference even more?
With that said, I went to the island tower to get some work done while waiting for the wall to dry. I’ll be working indoors so I simply 【Teleport】 directly over there. By the way, I reserved a room — actually, I think one floor is the right term — and didn’t put anything in it for 【Teleport】purposes.
Let’s see — a bath, a bedroom, an empty room, a kitchen, a guest room, a hall, a storage room, another storage room and a living room with a view of the sea, right? Hmm, would’ve been better if this place was a little bit closer to the sea.
So first, the bedroom. I mark the place where I’m going to put the window with chalk. It should be level with the bed. I’m going to install some cooling stone pads on the floor. It’s nice to have the luxury of enjoying a refreshing coolness after a bath, right. Winters are warm here so I don’t think I need to consider indoor heating.
So, I have to add plumbing and it should reach the kitchen. The kitchen’s chimney is inside a thick wall, and I also want to install plumbing there too. But before that —
「Are you there? 」
I knocked on the stone wall.
A blue lizard poked his head out of the wall.
「Hi. 」
「You see me? 」
The lizard looked puzzled when I greeted him, then he crawled out.
「I can see you, can hear you too. 」
「Hello. 」
The lizard bobbed his head.
「Are you the spirit living here? Things might get a little noisy here and we’ll be smashing the walls. Is there anything you don’t want us to do? 」
「Ah, just don’t demolish the tower please. I dwell here, but I’m not that strong, so please leave a bit of wall and I’ll be fine. 」
The fortress is crumbling, so there aren’t any powerful spirits living on the island. Big spirits are usually limited to wind and sea spirits that drop by from time to time.
「I’ll be doing some reconstruction here and there, but don’t worry, I won’t tear the entire tower down. I’m in your care from here on. 」
「I’m in your care. 」
I finished greeting the spirit and former occupant of the tower, so I returned back to work.
Many spirits in my mountain house — my original house — and in Canum wander about wishing to be 【Release】because their hiding spots have been discovered, but this island is pretty quiet. Ah, but then I also have spirits come to me wanting to be named from time to time. I don’t really stop them from coming unlike in Canum, so this place might reach the same level as my mountain house.
Okay, I’m going to start on the plumbing first. I’m seriously working on the forest house so it’s a bit compact, but I’m sorely tempted to go all out with my abilities and turn this place into a fantasy tower.
I went to the balcony on the top floor and made a hole using magic on the stone spot I decided to install it on. Even if there aren’t too many named spirits over here, this much is easy, I just have to ask an unfamiliar spirit to do it.
Picture it like this — the heated ball of stone will immediately melt its surrounding and fall down right away when dropped on ice, right. Same concept, but instead of ice, I’m dropping it on the floor above the parapets, which are thinner than the tower walls.
I took a pocket watch and set it where I could see it.
A red-hot sphere appeared on my palm. It easily created a hole in the floor when I dropped it, then it continued falling while slowly melting the stone around it.
The scarlet ball’s speed is exactly what I wanted. The pocket watch didn’t have a second hand so I made the ball’s descent slow. I calculated the numbers while watching the pocket watch and managed to measure the time and distance.
I stopped the spell at exactly one minute. I need two pipes, one to pump water from the aqueduct’s intake and another one for drainage. The intake continues on to the kitchen,and there’s already drainage there so I didn’t move the kitchen somewhere else.
The reef and tidal currents here make it impossible for boats to pass directly below – or maybe it’s more accurate to say that the only course they could take is one that makes them easy targets for shooting arrows. The drainage falls over the cliff and into the ocean, so even if water splashed out of it spectacularly, it wouldn’t bother the boats passing below.
I was a bit worried at first. I also considered whether I should purify the water first before it falls into the ocean but they’re using ash or soapberry extracts instead of detergents… so, combined with food scraps it’s just fodder for fish.
Next thing I did was measure the kitchen sink, the shelves I’m going to install in the storage rooms, and the size of the furniture and equipment I’m going to put in. I already measured the interior of the tower once but I had to do it again since I already decided where to put the big stuff.
Okay, let’s add some beams to the ceilings for installing lights. We can only open the windows after the interior has been finished to a certain degree.
Hmm, what flowers should I grow on the rooftop? Yeah, it should be rose, huh. Ah, are there any varieties that can survive the sea wind? We have a gardener so it’ll be a shame not to ask him. Okay, let’s ask Charles later.
Ahh, both the tower and the forest house are really fun.
NEXT CHAPTER
RELEASE RATE
I Got Transferred in the Middle of a Mountain
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
Current schedule: Every 80 hours
Thanks for the chapter.