CH 13

Here’s the chapter, enjoy~

“…..”

We returned to Sylphy’s house, but Sylphy sat down on her favorite couch and kept quiet as soon as we got home. She doesn’t even drink her mead; she just wrinkles her brow and keeps quiet. I’m not sure what to say.

“Aah… Um, AーYuーOーKe*?”

[T/n: He said it in broken English xD.]

“What is that? Is that some kind of spell?”

“No, it’s like, Daijobu ka*? I mean, it’s some kind of word of care or concern.”

[T/n: It means, Are you okay?/]

I think that’s the nuance. It must be right. Maybe.

“I’m fine. I was just thinking about what to do.”

“What were the elders saying? What exactly are they talking about? I somehow got the feeling that I would have to deal with the Gizma’s attack with my efforts.”

“I don’t know exactly what it was, but it sounds about right. In other words, to prove that you are a marebito, they told you to show your power and save the refugees.”

“I see.”

Apparently, I was generally right.

“As I recall, the problem was that the wall and housing were not yet completed, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. At the current pace, it will take at least another six months to complete. I don’t know when the Gizma is going to come storming into the Black Forest, but it can’t be later than six months.”

“Hmm, I see.”

At first glance, it seems that the wall that is being built in the expansion zone is made of stone or bricks or something. If that’s the case, I think it might be possible as long as the materials are available.

“I think I might be able to manage that.”

“What?”

Sylphy looked at me with a surprised expression.

“I think it’s possible to build a wall quickly with my ability. I haven’t tried it yet, so I’m not sure, but… I’d like to try out some of the functions. I was about to discuss it with you when we returned.”

“Tell me more about it.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am. But I think it’s faster to show it instead of just talk about it, so let’s go to the backyard.”

She nodded, and I led Sylphy out of the corridor and into the backyard. The ground is just as flat as if it had been trampled, which is just right.

“First, I need to make some materials.”

I said while setting up a simple furnace and pouring fuel into it to start a fire. The material to be used is clay. Of course, what I’m going to make is blocks of firebricks. At the same time, I set up a workbench, where I used clay and stones to make stone wall blocks. I made two types of blocks to show to Sylphy so that she could decide which one to use.

“Okay, I’m starting to make the main materials. Before it’s finished, I’ll show you an ability I haven’t told you about yet.”

In fact, I’ve secretly made a woodblock. It is the taste of a survivalist to have a building block in the shortcut so that they can quickly build a wall when the need arises.

When I select the woodblock from the shortcut, a translucent installation point appears in my field of vision like a hologram. The translucent block is floating in the air because I’m looking at it in the air, but when I focus on the ground, the translucent woodblock sticks to the ground as if it were absorbed. The basic shape seems to be a cube with a width, depth, and height of 1 meter, but it seems that the shape can be changed freely to some extent by focusing on it. For now, I’ll make the wall about 30cm thick and 1m in width and height.

“Hoy!”

“Wha-!?”

With a thumping sound, a wall made of wood appeared according to the hologram. I tried to push it with my hand, but somehow it didn’t move. It seemed to be firmly fixed to the ground.

“Hoyhoyhoy.”

“Wha?”

With a series of thump, thump, thump, the wall was completed, 2m high, 2m wide, and 30cm thick. The durability may not be that great, but this wall seems to be enough for security if we surround it with this wall.

I kicked the wall with all my might, but it didn’t falter at all with my strength.

“It’s like this. If I spend the right amount of material, I can easily build a wall. By the way, this is a deliberately thin wall. This is what it would look like if it were the original size.”

With a more thump, thump, thump, four unadjusted woodblocks were stacked on top of each other to create a wall 2 meters high, 2 meters wide, and 1 meter thick. I kicked this one too, but it still didn’t budge. It would take a lot of effort to destroy it without any tools.

“By the way, I can make a wall about the same size as this one with a single log.”

Apparently, there is no such thing as the law of mass conservation. Sylphy’s mouth dropped open, and she was in shock. Oh, I could make brick blocks and stone wall blocks as well.

“By the way, if you want to build a wall, I recommend these brick blocks or stone wall blocks.”

With a quick thud, thud, thud, I show her the walls of both blocks. Oh, she turned her head down, holding her eyebrows. So she can make a face like that during the day too, huh! Yes, I know, I know!

“Kukuku… my abilities govern both restoration and destruction――.”

“Shut up.”

“Yes.”

I was about to make a sudden chuunibyou remark when a terrifying voice shouted at me. Sylphy approached the wall I had set up with a scary look on her face and seemed to be checking the feel and strength of it. Looking at her sideways, I went to the workbench and made an appointment to craft a crossbow: one basic one, one regular one, and a dozen short crossbow bolts. By the way, bolts are crossbow arrows, which are made shorter and thicker than the arrows used in regular bows.

While waiting for the crossbow crafting appointment, I set up some logs for targets a little farther away. I’d really like to use Gizma’s corpse as a test target, but I’ve heard that the shell is valuable… I’d get beaten up if I made it full of holes.

When I returned to the workbench after setting up some logs at different distances, I found that two crossbows and bolts had already been finished crafted. I make an appointment to craft a dozen more bolts.

“What are you going to do this time?”

“I’ve got a new weapon I can make. I’m going to test firing it.”

I decided to try out the basic crossbow first. Yeah, it looks really shabby. It’s basically made out of wood, so I guess that’s what it’s supposed to be. There is a metal ring on the crossbow’s tip that you can put your foot on and use your back muscles to pull the string. Some metal parts are also used around the trigger and on the strings.

“Wow, this bow is surprisingly tough.”

I tried to pull the string, but it took a lot more force than I expected. After pulling the string, I set the bolt and was ready to fire.

“What a strange bow. I think a normal bow would be easier to use.”

“It’s true that it doesn’t fire continuously. But this one has many advantages.”

When I hold the crossbow, a reticule appears in my field of vision. As soon as I pulled the trigger, the bolt flew off with a sharp bang. And it generally sticks in the exact spot that I was aiming for with the reticule. , I tried to reload by command action with the left click in mind.

“Wow, seriously?”

My body moved on its own, and I pulled the string with my right hand alone to quickly set the bolt. It’s not much different from a bow when I do this. I tried to shoot one more time, but the bolt still pierced just as I aimed. It seems pretty powerful.

“For now, why don’t you give it a try? If you actually use it, you might be able to see the difference.”

“Fumu…”

When I handed her the basic crossbow, she took it in stride, looked at it closely, and then put her hand on the string.

“Muh… This bow is quite strong for its small size, isn’t it?”

“I know, right? So put your foot on the loop and use the power of your back to pull the string.”

“I see. So, when you draw it, you set the arrow and pull this protrusion, and the arrow will fly, right?”

Sylphy held up the crossbow as I had just done, took good aim, and fired the bolt. The bolt that flew hit the log without any problem.

“I see; you don’t have to draw the bow with both hands, so you don’t get tired of aiming deliberately. And if you draw the bow and set the arrow in advance, you can shoot it immediately.”

“That’s right. Besides, the crossbow is easier to train than the bow. If you have the ability to draw a bow, even if you have never held a weapon before, you can easily shoot it where you want.”

“…I see. So you’re saying that the refugees will be counted as a force to be reckoned with?”

“As long as we have a wall and enough crossbows and the bolts. This is the most basic one and the least powerful. I think it’s pretty powerful at the right distance, but a little inefficient against people wearing iron armor or against Gizma.”

“That’s true. It may just barely penetrate the reserve, but the power is a little weak.”

I think it’s enough to sting if you aim for the flesh and blood part. For example, if it is a human, it could be the eyes of the helmet.

“And this one is the regular one with the reinforced crossbow using animal bones… It’s quite difficult to draw this one.”

The structure of a regular crossbow is not much different. However, it’s a stronger crossbow because the part of the bow is a compound bow. Of course, you will need a lot of strength to pull it. After I managed to pull it, I set the bolt and gave it a test shot.

“This one is much stronger.”

“Yeah, I think it’ll work well enough against Gizma.”

“Let’s try it. Give me Gizma’s torso. Let’s see if we can actually shoot it.”

“Are you sure? The shell is worth something, right?”

“I don’t care. It’s more important to see how useful this weapon is.”

Sylphy said, so I put Gizma’s body out a little farther and tried to shoot it with the regular crossbow. The released bolt flew with a sharp sound and pierced through Gizma’s shell, penetrating deep enough to obscure the bolt itself completely.

“It’s powerful enough… Hey, do you still have any rusty armor left? If you have any left, let’s give it a try.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am.”

There was still some uncursed rusty armor left in my inventory, so I hooked it onto a log and tried to shoot it. The bolt seemed to penetrate the log with no problem. I also tried using a basic crossbow, but it seemed to pierce but lost most of its power.

“I have another crossbow with a higher power than this one, but I can’t make the materials… so I need to talk to you about it.”

“What is it? Tell me.”

“I want to set up my own workshop in this backyard. I’m probably going to have to build a larger manufacturing facility and more workbenches.”

I think there is a limit to the number of materials that can be kept in inventory. It’s not uncommon for survival games today to have an inventory function that allows you to hold an unlimited amount of things. Most of them have a weight limit or a type limit.

I have a few crafting items that I can use to store materials, and I want to make a place to put them.

“Fumu… Yes, that’s fine. You can use the backyard as you wish. I will tell you if you do anything that is out of line.”

“Okay. Then let’s get to work.”

First, I destroyed the wooden wall, brick wall, and stone wall with an ax and pickaxe, respectively. It seems that the blocks themselves will not be returned but will be returned as materials. The return rate is about 80%.

I also collected the logs, armor, Gizma’s body, and the bolts that I had shot into the target.

“What about that storage room?”

“Leave it where it is.”

“Roger that.”

If I get permission, I was going to demolish it and clear the land, but if Master says so, I’ll just leave it. The backyard is open like a playground, and the ground has been leveled, so I can start construction right away.

“The entrance to the workshop should be as close as possible to the corridor. However, it is better to have some space where you can move around, right? We might have to test-fire a weapon as we did before.”

“I think so. I don’t want the whole backyard to be covered with buildings.”

“Okay.”

I might bathe in the garden like I did this morning, so I’ll leave the area just outside the corridor wide open. The other thing to consider is the design of the workshop itself…

“I’m basically a tofu house* kind of guy.”

[T/n: I don’t exactly know what it means, probably the design is just like tofu.]

There are a lot of people who build amazingly spacious and well-designed buildings in survival games like this. These are the so-called “Architecture geeks.” They are indeed, impressive. I think it’s a form of art. However, such buildings are usually built in creative mode, where you can use unlimited resources. Of course, there are those who make them in normal game mode, where resources are not infinite.

I’m more of a player who focuses on the game, so I focus on functionality. It’s not like I’m giving up from the start because I don’t have any sense. It’s not like that. It’s just that I don’t like wasting time.

First, I lay the floor with wooden blocks. This is how I visualize the site area of the building.

“HoyHoyHoyHoyHoy.”

The blocks are laid out in a straight line while moving backward with a thump-thump-thump sound. The trick is to lay out the floor and walls while moving backward. Just like planting rice, I repeated this process to lay the floor. The thickness of the floor was set at 25cm for now. In other words, I made it only a quarter of the height and laid down the wood blocks as quickly as I could.

The next step was to build the walls. I didn’t feel the need to make thick walls, so I started building 30cm thick walls. The walls should be 3 meters on the entrance side and 2.5 meters on the backside, with a gradient. With the roof on, even if it rains, the rain won’t drip on the entrance side.

No, even though I’m a tofu house person, if I were to build a real house, I wouldn’t make the roof completely flat. If it rains, it will get wet, and if it snows, it might get crushed.

Lastly, I attached the door to the entrance and realized.

“Oh no, it’s dark.”

I should put in a window to get some light. I destroyed a part of the wall and replaced it with a light window with a hole near the ceiling. Hmm, it’s getting brighter. I looked around the cabin again.

“…This cabin makes me uneasy.”

It’s good that it doesn’t shake even though there are no pillars or supporting beams, but it’s not visually reassuring. I used wood blocks to make beams in the ceiling and placed wood blocks molded to look like pillars in eight places in the cabin. Yes, it’s just a decoration, but it gives me a mysterious sense of security. I guess looks are important.

In the end, I intended to make it into a tofu house, but it turned out to be a cabin that didn’t look too out of the ordinary.

I looked around to report, but before I knew it, Sylphy was gone. I thought she must be in the house, so I went in and found her preparing food. I wondered if she was going to cook dinner for me today.

“The building for the workshop is completed.”

“…It’s not even half an hour since you started.”

“If only I had the materials, I could do stuff like that.”

I went out to the backyard with a dumbfounded Sylphy in tow. Oops, let’s collect the workbench.

“It’s really done.”

“I used a lot of wood, though. I need to go back and restock.”

I used about half of the wood I picked up today. Not that I’m in a tight spot, though.

“Maybe next time.”

As she said that, Sylphy entered the cabin and looked around the interior.

“It’s a normal cabin, though it looks a little strange.”

“It’s not built in the usual way. Please bear that in mind.”

“That’s true, too.”

It seems that Sylphy felt so uncomfortable that she was convinced and no longer cared, so now she began to tap and push the walls and floor here and there. Apparently, she was checking the durability.

“It doesn’t look like it’s just a papier-mache, does it?”

“I guess.”

I don’t know how much damage this cabin will actually take before it collapses. Well, I don’t think it’s going to collapse under normal use suddenly.

“So we have to put the workbenches and stuff in here.”

“Yeah, do what you want. It’s your castle.”

“Thanks for that; I’m so happy. By the way, about building the wall――.”

As I was about to say that, Sylphy put her index finger to my lips. I guess that means stop talking, but what’s this all about?

“Let’s talk about it after dinner. I’ll do the cooking today.”

“I’m glad to hear it, but… what’s with this turn of events?”

Yesterday she said, “Are you going to make your Master cook you dinner?” What does it mean now? Sylphy smiled at me despite my thoughts and unexpectedly put her mouth to my ear.

“You’re still my slave, but… I’m also your wife, having given you my chastity. A wife is supposed to cook for her working husband, right?”

“Fuoooohh!?”

Sylphy whispered in my ear, and her breath hit my ear, and I couldn’t help but make a strange voice. Seeing me like that, Sylphy smiled with satisfaction and walked out of the cabin. The left ear that was covered with her breath felt strangely hot.

“What’s that…? Oh man, that’s really dangerous.”

My vocabulary exploded and dissipated at the sudden love-struck act. It can’t be helped.

I’ll go back to the house after I’ve calmed down a bit. If I go back now, I might attack Sylphy while she is cooking. I don’t want to get carried away and risk getting blown up.