Chapter 62 Project "Settlement -> Village" (2)

"Get away!" he shouted towards the leafings at the bottom, before tossing the rock to the ground. Due to its layered structure, it broke into multiple plates, with a few crystal chunks sprawled here and there.

"Perfect," he whispered, before getting to the ground.

He collected the small pieces that had broken off from the main plates, putting them aside to use as chisels later on. After which he began collecting the bigger plates to use for the tool heads.

The edges of the plates were especially sharp, so he ended up with a few cuts here and there, but it was nothing that solar cleanse could not heal.

After an hour of work, he had ground up two shovel heads, three axe heads about the size of his head, and two long knives that could act as both weapons and cutting tools.

"These will probably be too big for Pagan to use," he whispered to himself before looking towards Pagan who was currently playing with his crux again.

"But I don't think that he will use them anyway. I'll just give him my old stone tools to gather some vines," he decided a moment later.

Next, he collected large twigs to use as handles and carved holes into them using the crystal chisels, before inserting the stone heads and fastening them with a few vines.

"Pagan time to get moving," Lucius ordered once he had finished with all the tools, the leaflings following his every move with interest.

"Can we help?" one of them asked excitedly, to which the others began jumping up and down shouting 'me too! me too!'.

"Sadly this job is a little too hard for you guys. Once you guys grow a little I'll work you to the stem, so just work hard at photosynthesis until then," Lucius replied in a cooing tone, to which the leaflings let out sounds of dissatisfaction. However, they were content with just watching for now so that when their turn did come they would know what to do.

"Still trying to find a way to do everything with magic, huh?" Lucius asked as he handed Pagan a stone knife.

"Can I heal your cuts?" Pagan asked. looking at the sap-covered cuts on Lucius's hands.

"Be my guest."

A moment later, Lucius's wounds began to heal, without even a single chant being whispered by Pagan.

"How did you do it?" Lucius asked in amazement, looking to make sure that it wasn't some illusion.

"I realized that you don't have to chant the spells, you just have to think about them and they activate themselves... like this," Pagan replied excitedly, before his crux pulsed with magnificent luminosity covering a small area around him.

"What did you just do?" Lucius asked, unable to feel any difference.

"I don't know yet, but I can tell I'm close to something," Pagan replied with crazed mirth.

~It's just been a day,~ Lucius thought to himself in surprise. But then it wasn't too surprising. It wasn't as if he had made a new spell. Perhaps if Lucius himself had spent some time tinkering around with the crux, he would've found out about this eventually... maybe.

*

By the time Pagan finished collecting the vines, Lucius had already chopped up a good number of branches for construction.

He had gained 5 stamina points for his efforts, which seemed like all he was going to get as the work was tiring at best, but not at all difficult.

After Pagan dropped off the vines he had collected, he went back to tinkering with the crux, while Lucius began chopping up the branches he had collected to his liking.

The work took a total of 2 hours before he had 113 pieces of chopped and stripped planks for construction.

He asked Pagan to heal him so that he could continue without feeling tired, to which Pagan healed him using spacial solar cleanse. The toll of the spell was way higher than regular solar cleanse, but Lucius guessed he had his reasons so didn't think much of it.

Lucius then began work with the foundations. He used the spades he had made earlier to dig a hole about the same depth as his height. After he had finished digging the rectangular trench, he placed the planks into the ground one by one, covering them with dirt one side at a time.

Not long after he had completely planted all the necessary planks and had something similar to a miniature cottage, big enough for him to fit in even while standing up straight. The build was the equivalent of a three-story building for him, and perhaps a near skyscraper for the leaflings.

"Perfect," Lucius whispered as he admired his work.

N0 v el Next. CoM

"Are you going to use the pulley to build the top?" Hannibal asked, coming to look at what Lucius had completed so far.

"Indeed I will," Lucius nodded in agreement, inspecting the tree to see where he would put the axle.

~There probably,~ he thought to himself, referring to a branch a little high up. ~I just need a really long vine.~

After searching the surrounding area he returned with a vine long enough for the job, and quickly set up the make-shift pulley.

After trying to stack the planks on top of the build one by one, he realized that it was too tricky and opted for a different method.

Instead, he constructed the roof first, and only then did he lift it up to place it on top. He decided on building an angled roof instead of a flat one to account for rain. The clouds were becoming thicker with every passing day, and he didn't want water to collect on the roof and collapse the entire structure.

After he was done with the build, he hooked it up to the pulley and began trying to stack it neatly on top. He ended up having to repeat this process a few times, as it seemed his measurements were always slightly off.

Sometimes the roof was too small in comparison to the space available, which was mostly due to the angling involved. And other times he would find an issue with the stability of a certain area.

Without proper measuring instruments, everything was an estimation, which didn't always end well. However, after a few tweaks here and there, the roof was completed and placed on top of the build.