Chapter 25: The Sweat part 2

Foin worked on expanding the pit. As he worked, he noticed that he felt stronger than before, as if the weight of the dirt he was moving was much lighter. And with the energising effect of his tea, the combination was great. He could not only work without stopping but also work faster.

The pile of dirt just kept growing. Soon, Foin realised that he would no longer be able to expand to one side, as he needed to keep throwing the dir out, so instead, he kept making the hole wider and wider. As soon as he was satisfied with the width, he started digging deeper. Despite the fact that he felt both stronger and more energised, the deeper he got, the harder it was for him to throw the dirt out.

He drew the line when he could just barely throw the dirt out. At that point, it was about twice as deep, four times wider and a bit under twice as long. Though he thought that the pit was finished, there was one factor which he didn't calculate. Stairs. Now, the pit was so deep that he couldn't just climb out without pulling in a great amount of dirt from the side.

So he spent some extra time carving out a few stairs so that he could climb out without much problem. Once out, he just stared at the massive pile of dirt. With one quick movement, he planted the shovel into the ground and used it to hold his weight up as he leaned against it.

"Now I just need to fill it up with water, and in the meantime, I should be focused on more bricks..."

He mumbled after a minute of gazing at the pile of dirt. With a single movement, he removed some dirt from the side of the river, allowing water to flow into the pit. Seeing the massive size of his new pit and the slow speed of the water, he expanded the gate through which the water could flow.

He let go of his shovel, fetched his bucket, and then stepped over to the Élion plants. Fortunately, he had previously planted many new plants, so now he had a great number of flowers to be picked. With great determination, he filled the bucket with flowers and then dropped them into the filling pool.

Once empty, the bucket was once again filled, but this time not with flowers, but with water. Foin continued working on his brick production. Since he had done many dozens of bricks, the process went smoothly and quickly. The pile of dirt was shrinking, but its size was still quite massive.

The mudbricks produced freshly were placed into a separate pile so that Foin wouldn't mix up with the previously made ones, though they were visible brighter and seemed sturdier.

Time went by quickly, and Foin just kept on making his bricks; he didn't know how many he needed; he only knew that he needed a great number. Once he was done with a large portion of the dirt pile, about a third, he took a breather. Although he was not tired, thanks to his tea, he started thinking about his house.

Originally, he planned his house to be used as a shelter only. Since he had no glass and was unable to make glass still, he didn't plan with windows, as through holes, the heat would escape if there were a winter season in this world.

But now that he had time to think more about it, he realised that he would most likely need to add an addition as if there really is a cold season, he would need some sort of place where he could have a fire. And having a fire in the middle of his house would be foolish. Since he wanted to make his floor out of the grass, that would burn quite quickly; also, although the smell of the fire was quite nice, he was not sure whether it would be harmful if he kept it in a closed area and breathed it for longer periods of time.

With a determined movement, he grabbed a handful of dried bricks and transported the mover to his house. Since the entrance was planned to be on the garden side of the house, he had decided that on the opposite side, he would have a fireplace. He grabbed and removed a few of the bricks on that side and put down the extension's base.

With another turn, he brought a full bucket of mud and then started laying bricks. He used the mud as mortar, and as he had experienced when he removed the bricks, they held together quite well. He was still sweating as he was laying his bricks. He purposely focused mostly on the backside as he wanted to finish with the fireplace, and the remaining brisket was used on the other two walls. He decided that he would leave the wall on which he had planned the entrance to be the last he built.

After having laid all his premade and dried bricks, he quickly went to the river to clean his bucket and his body as well. He was still quite sweaty, and his hands were muddy from his fingers all the way to his elbows, which needed some thorough cleaning. He even had some mud in his hair, so he washed that in the river as well. The cold water felt nice against his skin.

The last thing he did before going to sleep was stop the gates to the pool, which had been filled to about 80%, and he could see it reddening, both from the flowers and since the sun was already going down, which also played a big role in painting the pool red.

He slowly walked back to his bed and lay down. He just stared at the sky as it gradually grew redder and redder. All he could do was sigh.

"I should only have a single page left in that manual... But today, I am not feeling it. I will do the last page tomorrow..."

Carefree, happy, and excited are the words that could most accurately describe Foin's current state. He was happy as he was able to expand his farm further, continue building his house, and manage to survive that dragon.

He was excited because he believed that if he gave enough food to the dragon, it would help him and even protect him. Also, since the manual was given by the system, he had hoped that it would be quite useful to finish that truly. Though he was unsure what it would provide him, he was expecting something great.

As he lay half-naked next to his shirt and trousers, he didn't care about anything. All he was concerned about was his farming life. He remembered where he started, using a few peppers and potatoes to start his brand new life in this world.

He was so content with his life here that he didn't care about the rest of the world. He was oblivious to the creatures living in the forest since he was convinced that with the help of the dragon, he would be perfectly fine and protected.

How foolish he was; in the world, size mattered little. Power was not represented by one's muscles; it was measured by something entirely incompressible to Foin currently. He has yet to realise just how dangerous this new world is compared to his previous world.

In this world, there are no real laws; there is no real order. The strong trample over the weak to survive. So far, he was lucky, but will he be so lucky in the future as well? What will he do now that Aier knows his existence?

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This is the end of the first season; thank you for reading, and please tell me what you think/thought of it.