Vol 2 Chapter 21: The Under-Bath

A new morning; though it was difficult to tell the time underground, Foin felt that it was morning when he woke up. As he looked around in the cave, he noticed that the goblin and Énilo were still fast asleep, as well as the barely burning fire.

There were only a few almost entirely burned pieces of wood burning, which were most likely placed there by either Gobu or Énilo previously. Seeing how the fire was about to die out in the near future, Foin quickly got up.

He brought a few smaller twigs and roots and put them on the fire. He noticed that the temperature had dropped since the boiler had already cooled back down. It was still quite comfortably warm in the underground base, but he would soon need to start the boiler again.

As he sat by the fire, waiting for it to start burning with greater intensity so that he could put a larger piece of wood on it, he looked at his hands. They were dirty, as well as his clothes.

Down in his new base, there was no means of washing or bathing, so soon they would get quite stinky. On the surface, they could at least use the river to wash off, but here, he could put down water, but that would be cool, as well as would flow away.

Out of his many plans, the next one he thought of was bathing. He needed to solve that as soon as possible, as that could also be a way of extra relaxation.

He quickly stood up, walked over to one of the walls, and touched it. It was solid and cold, quite cold to the touch. As a result, he sighed, grabbed a well-burning root, and put it under the boiler, as well as a few extra smaller pieces of wood, as well as a larger one on the main bonfire.

Once he was done, he quickly fetched his wooden shovel. It had seemed better days, as it was already quite damaged and cracked and even missing a few smaller portions around its head, but Foin was not picky or one to waste precious material. Also, it was one of his first tools, so it was a tool with sentimental value.

He planned to create another room for the bath, so he carefully, using his shovel, drew a line for a door and then started working on removing the dirt. Since he had worked on removing dirt like this before, he carefully put his inventory panel under his work area so that every piece of dirt was stored neatly in his skill.

As he was removing the dirt, he occasionally looked back at the fire, waiting for the larger log to start burning properly. And once it was fully engulfed in flames, he stopped working on the door.

Instead, he took out some potatoes and peppers from his inventory, and with the help of a few sticks, he started roasting them.

The ones that were done, using the length of the stick, he stuck into the ground. All in all, he prepared quite a number of sticks full of potatoes and peppers. From which, he took two and ate them as he walked back to continue his dirt-removing process.

He made the walk roughly a bit over a meter thick, and then he was about to start working on the room itself, but he heard a yawning sound coming from the main room, so he quickly stepped back. Énilo woke up, and she was stretching her arms.

"Oh, good morning, Master!"

She said with a wide grin. She quickly looked at the goblin, and her smile shifted. She slowly flew over the snoring goblin and glared at her face.

"Morning! I have prepared breakfast. Eat it while it is still hot; I will keep working here. Oh, and please, could you start working on the grass clothes soon?"

"Of course, Master!"

She responded instantly. Then, Foin stepped back to dig the room. He deliberately started digging a bit lower just to make a noticeable divider between the rooms. As he was working on clearing the dirt, he heard another yawn from Énilo and then some munching sounds.

He only chuckled as he just kept removing the dirt. From time to time, he checked how solid the dirt was above his head, but it seemed quite solid, so he was quite confident in digging. After he had dug a larger room, he received a new notification, which he had not expected.

"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."

"Notice! You have gained a new skill: Cutting Edge!"

"WHAT? Just from digging dirt?"

Foin thought to himself as he paused for a brief moment. He just stared at the panel, which soon vanished.

"Cutting Edge, huh?"

He mumbled with light excitement. At that moment, both of his hands started glowing with a greenish colour, and the shovel which he held in his hands was destroyed. It sustained many large cuts where his fingers held its handle.

He could just watch in shock as the pieces of his tool fell to the ground through his inventory panel. He couldn't believe what had just happened right before his eyes. He was about to lean down and grab the intact part of the shovel, but then he remembered that he might damage it more.

He slapped the dirt in front of him in anger. He wanted to inflict some pain on himself, but instead of pain, his fingers slid through the hard dirt. The debris fell straight into his inventory.

"Wait, what?"

He murmured as he looked at the mark his fingers made on the dirt. His anger nearly instantly vanished, and then he moved his hand closer to the dirt once again. He slowly pushed his finger into it and then pulled it out. He was fascinated by how easily and efficiently it worked.

He had already learned that the skill worked on wood and dirt as well, but he still wanted to try something else: peteach. That was quite a valuable resource he had, and he needed to test whether he would destroy it unintentionally.

Foin walked over to his peteach axe with great haste. After he had kneeled down beside it, he looked at his finger, which was still surrounded by that green aura, and then he gently touched the very end of its handle's tip. Much to his release, it did nothing. He could touch it just fine as he did before, and even after he examined the place where it should have been damaged, it was perfectly fine.

Although he lost his tool for digging, Foin gained a new skill which he could use both for digging and woodwork. With renewed energy, he rushed back to the construction area with such haste that he didn't even notice Énilo and Gobu, who were working together. Gobu was helping Énilo make the requested set of clothes.