Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Watch your hands, please!

Anne walks away from the settlement, everyone’s busy getting everything ready to start the construction. Her main task since she came to this world has been to explore and gather, but she felt that her talents were not put up to good use.

One of the things that worries her the most is that she’s supposed to be an archer class, even so, she doesn’t have a bow. For now, the only way she’d get a bow would be to ask Ryu to make one for her, but she wouldn’t fall so low as to ask him for help.

It’s not really that she despises Ryu as the others think, she knows that he’s capable and that without him they would have been lost at this point. The real problem is her own uselessness.

Since she was little, Anne has always lived surrounded by superfluous people, even as a child they always instilled in her that appearances were everything.

She was a completely normal girl, very energetic and sincere with her feelings. She loved to play in the dirt, in the field, running everywhere. like any child her age, and just like every child she couldn’t help but get dirty from time to time but, when that happened, her mother would beat her mercilessly at home, caring not to leave marks anywhere visible.

The situation only got worse over time, as she grew into her teens, whenever she left home and whenever she returned, her mother performed a complete check on her outfit. If she found even one defect, the consequences would be dire.

She grew up to become a superfluous girl and, just like her mother wanted, she hid her true feelings behind an emotionless mask to protect herself. when interacting with others, she was never able to form a true bond with people, although this was not her fault since her whole life was woven out of falsehoods, for this very reason the only thing she could offer to others was her appearance.

.....

Despite the difficulties she faced in her family, she always kept the hope of being free someday. Thanks to social networks, she finally got her mother’s approval to dedicate herself to activities in nature.

With the excuse of going to take photos to gain popularity among her peers, she visited all kinds of places, forests, rivers, caves and, as soon as she came of age, she even ventured to other countries climbing mountains and challenging all kinds of climates .

She never dared go against her parent’s will, with her father’s political career at stake and her mother’s cruel punishments, there was too much at stake to do so.

Although during her life she had taken dance, modeling, art classes, she never really enjoyed these activities so much. Her greatest passion, always, was nature and her adventures abroad became her reason to live.

Unfortunately for her, although everything finally seemed to be going well in her life, it was precisely one of these adventures that would seal her fate.

In an attempt to reach the top of a mountain in Latin America by herself, she managed to reach the top in record time and left behind an extensive video record that would serve as a witness to her success, but also her demise. The world would mourn the death of a young woman with a promising future, although her family secretly celebrated the great political boost they would receive in exchange for losing one of their five daughters.

But no one knew that this wouldn’t be the end of Anne, who after descending from the summit faced a drastic change in climate that threatened her safety. With no means to protect herself, she tried to dig a shelter to temporarily shelter herself from the snow, but while looking for a suitable place she fell down a slope. At that moment she was transported into this world, giving her a new chance in life. This would have been the dream of her life a couple of years ago and even now she is optimistic about her situation, but she never got to experience the freedom of being a normal girl.

She was always smothered by her family, the only way she could be somewhat free was to go as far as adventuring into places that not even locals dared to. Thinking back, the only thing she wanted was to get a taste of what a normal girl would call an average day.

Now, she’s watching a tall young man wash a clay pot on the shore of a lake. In other circumstances she would’ve loved to be asked out by him.

“Everything would be easier if I could be useful too” Anne sighs as she looks at Ryu with a complicated expression on her face.

“You should be more honest with your feelings”

Ayumi who was behind Anne says behind her back, who felt as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown at her in surprise.

“You!? What are you doing here?”

“I left the group to practice magic as Ryu asked”

“Why did you need to come so far? do you think it’s dangerous? haha, They’re basically just party tricks”

“It’s because I don’t want to make Bob feel bad, he wanted to be a magician so badly. anyway, don’t try to change the subject so blatantly”

Anne blushes as she does her best to hide her expressions, although she can control her gestures, her body responds even if she doesn’t want to.

“Ah, if it’s because of Bob that’s ok”

They’re both silent for a moment as they watch Ryu carefully wash the pot.

“He tries really hard, you know? yet you and Luke have been mean to him, even though he could have managed on his own, he still goes above and beyond and helps all of us all the time”

“I know, I know”

“Yes You know, then why don’t you talk honestly with him? If you don’t hurry, Helena will keep him for herself”

“That’s enough, Ayumi!” exclaims Anne stomping her feet

“It’s none of my business, but he’s quite handsome, even if its not Helena, sooner or later they might take him away from you”

“Are you saying that you’re interested in him too?”

“What are you saying crazy girl!? talking nonsense to a married woman like that! I have Hiraku and although it may not seem like it, I’m much older than all of you. however, seriously speaking, the truth is that I’m very grateful to Ryu. He didn’t just help us when we were at our worst, he also gave me a task that I can actually perform well... perhaps you could ask him what to do... Oh! and I almost forgot that he cares for everyone too. When the jackals attacked you, he acted as bait so he could save you all, right? I wasn’t there but Hiraku told me everything.”

“I’m not sure if I want to be asking Ryu any favors, it’s true... he does care for all of us, but I’m just worthless. I... nevermind. Weren’t you going to practice magic? I’d like to see if it’s possible”

Ayumi takes a little distance heading towards the shore, the first thing she does is extend her hand forward but nothing happens. after a long minute Anne loses patience.

“what are you doing? I don’t see anything.”

Ayumi, who was trying to hide her failure, blushed completely and waved her arms energetically.

“Be patient, this isn’t easy, you know?”

“What exactly do you want to achieve by flapping your arms like that? are you trying to fly or something?”

“Oh, shut up would you! That’s the problem, I can’t really imagine anything... when I manipulate fire it feels natural. The first time I did it, it could be said that it was a mere coincidence. We were desperate trying to light a fire and, when it was my turn to try, no matter how hard I rubbed the sticks, nothing happened. Then, just before I gave up, the fire just ignited as if by magic. No, rather, it was lit precisely by magic”

“Perhaps if you try something similar, it could work. Maybe you could try digging to manipulate the earth or drink very hot water and try to cool it down”

“Forget about hot water, seriously but maybe digging could be a good idea” Ayumi answers without expression on her face and bends down to start digging with her bare hands.

“Wait! you’re going to get completely dirty, last time we spent half an hour trying to clean your hair and not to mention the clothes! you better take everything off first”

“But what if someone comes? besides, Ryu is close”

“Calm down, let’s wait for him to go away, he’s cooking remember? the others are busy building, the only one who could come is Helena and that shouldn’t be a problem”

While they waited for Ryu to leave, they both spent the time to looking at the landscape. In their old world technology was advanced to the point where it was easy to get almost anywhere by car, natural places were increasingly scarce. Especially where Ayumi came from, the few places that had not been ruined by man became nature reserves.

As soon as Ryu returned to the settlement, Ayumi stripped naked and began digging with her hands. Not really knowing what to expect, she tried to replicate the same feeling of the first time she made fire, but to no avail. As much as she had the intention of digging a hole, she had no real need and therefore could not evoke same feeling as before.

After a while, they had no choice but to surrender. After taking a quick bath, they both headed back to the settlement and when they were close, a cry of pain from Luke urged them to speed up their pace.

*****

After returning from the lake, I hurriedly grind the elven wheat fruit in the grindstone. From my position I can clearly see how everyone works in the construction. This process is actually quite interesting:

Bob goes back and forth with logs at an impressive speed, placing them on top of each other. Although the one who surprises me the most is Hiraku, who untiringly hits the trunks using the imperial stone chisel and the wooden mallet, making them flat enough so they fit perfectly together.

After the week we spent collecting wood, we could say that we have a decent amount stored, not enough for the construction of two cottages, but we decided to start building now. Our wood stockpile occupies more and more space in our settlement, maybe it would not be a bad idea to expand it.

At first we used the chisel by hitting it with a stick, but the sticks broke too quickly. The wooden mallet allows us to hit the chisel hard without fear of breaking it. It’s common for a weapon or tool to lose a point of durability with each hit, but this is not the case for tools made of higher quality. Not only they have a higher amount of durability points, they also don’t always lose a point when landing a hit.

I can’t be sure yet, some testing is still needed, I think the hardness of the material also affects it. For example, a wooden stick hitting another results in the durability of both being reduced. The one being used normally would lose one point of durability and the one being hit would lose points of resistance depending on the force of the hit. This results in the tools resisting somewhat more than the object being hit, regardless of whether they both have the same maximum durability.

The idea seems simple, but it is not easy as it seems. Because that’s only the case if you are dealing with two objects with the same hardness. If a stick is hit with a stone, sometimes the stone does not lose a point of resistance when hitting the stick. As if that were not enough, the imperial stone has a physical resistance.

At the moment, I’m the only one aware of this characteristic of the imperial stone. There’s too much information that I keep hidden from the rest of the group. I don’t do this with bad intentions, first, I’d like to check the limit of the skills before sharing them. Second, I don’t want them to be overly confident in my abilities, they’ve gotten so responsible I wouldn’t want to ruin that by spoiling them too much. Lastly, since they don’t know how do skills even work, they’ll try to investigate for themselves, that way they could give me new information.

The one who has come closest is Luke, who apparently spends most of his time looking for creatures to hunt and investigating what he calls ‘the system’. There’s not much information that he’s willing to share with the rest either, but he has told us about the classes and the supposed roles they should perform. He sounds particularly annoyed when Bob attempts to do his enchantments and every time he sees him practicing, he scolds him saying that a warrior has no talent for magic.

Despite this, Bob works hard day after day, even if his efforts are in vain, I still find it admirable. Although Luke scolds him, Ayumi makes fun of him and Helena looks at him with compassion, day after day he continues with his magic practice without letting anything discourage him. Not only that, he’s always the most lively and enthusiastic of all.

A dry, rhythmic sound runs through the settlement as Hiraku painstakingly goes about his work.

“If we continue at this rate in a couple of days we will finish building”

“I’m not sure about that, Hiraku, you see... when I built the cabin I didn’t think long term. I thought about creating enough space to live alone, it was supposed to be just a shelter. For that reason it’s not so high, I never meant to have guests either. because of that we, can’t turn on any kind of heating inside now. With the number of people who sleep there, without proper ventilation and the low ceiling, air would be consumed too quickly”

“So, will the new ones have heating?”

“Well, we did speak about this, Ayumi is currently looking for a way to make a fireplace out of stones. Problem is that clay is not suitable for that. Speaking of which, where’s Ayumi?”

As I chat with Hiraku about the progress his wife has made, I realize I’ve already completed my task. Hiraku, who is a little tired, hands the chisel to Luke and gives him some instructions on how to shape the logs so that they can later be made to fit together when building.

Luke climbs on top of the upper wood log in the wall that’s currently being built and starts following Hiraku’s instructions.

Now that I already have a considerable amount of elvish wheat fruit flour I can get started with cooking. This time I know I’ll be successful so I did three times the amount I made before, that means I’ll need a lot of water.

The mixture of warm water with flour begins to look good, this flour rapidly absorbs all the moisture and begins to grow in size little by little until it reaches an incredible volume.

After letting the dough rest for a moment, I realize that even now it’s still expanding. That must be the reason why, despite having so much water inside, once the mochi is complete it is lighter. Although I didn’t get to eat it since the ungrateful cat took my portion, I managed to feel the smooth texture it had with my hand.

Lunch time is over and I’m very hungry, I’m the only one who couldn’t even grab a bite.

With the pot completely empty, I have no choice but to go fetch more water. I wonder if it would be possible to create a bigger water container or maybe dig a well so I don’t have to go to the lake every time water is needed.

As I get closer to the lake shore I notice Anne who’s looking at the ground with a curious expression on her face. I keep going further and only then I realize what’s she looking at, it’s Ayumi... she’s completely naked playing with mud. Just what’s going on?

I can’t let them know I’ve been here so I use my stealth to walk away and go somewhere further away on the shore to fetch water.

Once I’m back, I put the pot overflowing with water on the kitchen stove, it will surely take a long time to boil and I don’t think it’s convenient to put the dough in cold water. it would spend too much time submerged in water and risk disassembling or absorbing too much water.

Helena, who’s making plant fiber as always, stands up and approaches me.

“Let me help you, Ryu, I’ll bring some branches to feed the fire”

“Thank you, Helena. Sometimes there are so many things to do that my day flies by before I manage to finish anything”

“I know what you mean, though I usually get up later than everyone else”

Helena goes to the woodshed with small steps but very quickly, giving the impression that she’s in a hurry even though she’s not running. After a minute she returns where I am with a few branches.

“I’m sorry, that’s all I could get, woodshed’s empty now so I’ll go gather firewood right away”

.....

sometimes she’s just as giddy as the rest, but she’s right. What she brought me is enough to get the pot to boil, but if there’s no more firewood it can be a serious issue.

Nevertheless, now we have the possibility to cut down larger trees and, technically, we could make enough firewood to get us through the winter in a few days. Truth is that it wouldn’t be possible, fresh wood doesn’t burn properly and produces way too much smoke. It should normally be allowed to dry for a period of time before it can be used.

Due to this, it’s much more convenient to gather firewood on a daily basis, fallen branches are a good source of dry firewood. unfortunately, we need to venture a little further everyday to gather firewood, but as long as the others help we’ll be ok, since they can bring large quantities much faster than me.

I quickly split the dough into small pieces while making spherical shapes, immediately throwing them into the pot now that it’s boiling. It doesn’t take long and its pretty easy. When I was finally done, I used a stick to scoop out the ash-covered dough I previously threw into the fire.

I shake off the ash that envelops it and I’m greeted by what I could only describe as a lump of charcoal. yes, it was in the fire for too long. Still I don’t give up and use my obsidian knife to split the blackish loaf.

To my surprise, when I cut it, some steam begins to come out and the same aroma of mochi tickles my nostrils. I scrape off all the burnt crust and what hides beneath that unpleasant appearance is something similar to a bread, with the texture of a cookie.

The smell alone whets my appetite immediately and after the first bite, a heavenly taste runs through my palate. Although its somewhat crunchy and dry, its not really difficult to eat. its sweet and aromatic flavor is incredibly delicious.

I walk away from the kitchen since I was a little tired of the constant heat, and there’s still a while for the mochi to be ready. As I eat, I watch carelessly how Luke works.

It seems that my presence annoys him as he starts to work slower and slower until he finally explodes into rage

“Hey! why do you look at me so much? do you like me or something? I’m sorry but You’re not my type, and even if that were the case, I definitely wouldn’t get near you”

“there’s no need to be so offensive Luke, I know you don’t like me but... i was just curious”

It’s like talking to a tree, he ignores me completely and continues his work. I stay in the same place watching him while his blonde hair shakes with every movement he makes. this seems to unnerve him until he loses concentration and suddenly hits his own hand with the wooden mallet.

“AHHH!” luke yells as he carelessly falls off the trunk he was on, tripping over his other hand that held onto the chisel tightly. A small pool of blood forms beneath him, lying face down on the ground.

Everything happened so fast that it was impossible to avoid it, also I never imagined that events would take such a dark turn. Part of me wants to say ‘oh well, he was a good man, may he rest in peace’.

Seeing him on the ground in such a delicate state makes me think, just for a brief moment, a mere instant, that it’d be easy to put him out of his misery right now.

Luke 67/100 (bleeding)

thief

consider 1%