Chapter 11: Mud

On the next beautiful morning, Foin started his day by eating a few of his peppers. This time, he put all of the seeds into a single hole as he had already planted plenty, and he had planned something else for that day. He still had two plastic bottles with him, one of which was full of water, and the other was full of some sweet beverage. Seeing how long it had been since he had bought the sweet liquid, he decided to drink it.

The taste was nowhere as sweet as he remembered and already had some kind of side taste, probably from not being touched for a long time. Feeling that the numbing effect had warred off, he decided to try something new. He filled his plastic bottle with water, almost to the brim, and then grabbed three flowers and put them into the water, then the bottle was left alone.

Then he expanded the clear around once again, but this time not towards his farming area, but around his storage area. Although it was only a few meters large expansion, it was plenty enough. Foin quickly moved the ground a bit. And then he poured the unopened water bottle water into the area. Once empty, he quickly refilled it from the river and watered that area once again.

His goal was to create some mud. After about five bottles of water, he stopped watering as the dirt was easily moldable now. He was able to easily form it however he wanted. So he quickly grabbed as much as he could and pulled it out. He slowly began to try and create a cube-like storage; although it was deformed, it had walls and a bottom. Once he was done with that one, he repeated the process as he knew that he was not very crafty.

He had crafted many different-sized and shaped ones just to test his skills. He created even tops for some of them, but they were very crude. They all had uneven walls; some had too thick walls, while some had too thin. But he didn't care and just placed them around the bonfire's place, which he once again prepared with some potato.

Not knowing how long it would take for the pots to dry properly, he decided to use some of the larger wood that the ant had brought him. At first, he grabbed the sharpest stone he found and sat down on the wood to have a better angle and better position, and then started hitting it with his piece of stone.

His plan was to cut off a larger portion, which would most definitely hold out for longer, and it would be the centrepiece of his bonfire. And at the same time, he could use the sawdust or even store it for later occasions.

Much to his surprise, he managed to work quite fast, although he did hit his hand against the wood a few times, but the result is what matters, and he did manage to cut off a quite large piece. Although he didn't think about whether that would light on fire, and his sticks were running quite low as well. As a result, he quickly removed the bark of the log he had cut off and then brought it to its place.

"Wow, it is surprisingly light... Well, this is another world, so it might just be some kind of light wood..."

He mumbled as he prepared the fire. After he had done the preparation, he lit the fire and then stepped back to the large branch.

Seeing how little wood he had to start another fire, with the help of his stone, he started clearing the wood of its bark and then collected it in one large pile. In the process, he also created some extra sawdust, but he just let it stay on the ground for the time being. As soon as he was done with that branch, he continued his work on the other one.

It was quite a long process, and he only worked on one large part of the log as he was unable to reach beneath the wood, and he didn't want to move it around just yet. While he was working on that, the fire soon managed to ignite even the larger log as well. As soon as it was fully engulfed by flames, the heat it produced was significant. Foin even needed to collect the potatoes and put on a few new ones just to use the already burning fire.

After having cleared down the second branch as well, Foin decided to look at the pots and the lids he had moulded. As he looked, some seemed quite dry already, but they were all in bad shape. They were full of cracks, and some even shattered. While the fire was still burning, Foin quickly made another bunch; this time, he put them a bit further away from the fire.

The area from which he started scraping and collecting the mud to use for pottery had now a quite deep hole, which would soon grow larger as Foin kept making more and more. He wanted to make sure that he made at least one which would be usable.

Dozens of pots made of mud were standing around the fire. From a bird's eye view, it seemed as if it was part of some kind of ritual, but it was just Foin's way of trying to achieve his goal.

This trial-and-error way of working proved quite useful, as he noticed that the lower he got in the hole, the mud he gathered changed and seemed somewhat more durable and resistant. Even moulding that was a bit different.

Later, he realised that it was truly better as they did not shatter and even had smaller cracks, but still, they were unusable. He kept trying till night, but he couldn't make anything usable. Much to his surprise, the wood was still burning even at night and produced great heat.

Just as Foin was putting the last pot he did for the day next to the fire, he received a system notification.

"Notice! The system is pleased with your progress, and as a result, you are given a reward. A random reward will be issued shortly!"

"Notice! The system is pleased with your progress, devotion, and patience, and as a result, you are given a reward. A special reward will be issued shortly."