Vol 2 Chapter 23: The Under-Bath part 3

For three days, Foin worked on the new bathing area. The room itself was greatly expanded, as was the bath itself. His previous bath design had been slightly altered.

The bath itself now had three noticeable and distinct steps. The first one was about twenty centimetres deep. Though for him, it was merely a step, for Énilo, it was most likely the one she could use without a problem, as the other would be too deep for her to just sit or ideally enjoy it.

The next one was for the goblin; that one was considerably deeper; he calculated that the goblin would be just about able to stay standing in that level of water, while he could use it for sitting. And then there was the last section, which even reached and went slightly under the wall as well. It was for him to stand. Depending on how well he filled it up, the water would just about reach his shoulders.

Though his main project was the bath, he had focused on other things as well. Foin had prepared multiple buckets, some of which were used to plant a few more peteach trees and élion. These buckets had been brought into the bathroom.

Gobu harvested the peteach each day, and the number of peteach just kept increasing. Foin noticed that they were not only larger but contained considerably more liquid as well. Before, he could only make a single bucket from a single fruit, but now he could make two buckets.

The following morning, when Foin woke up, Énilo and Gobu were already up. Due to the extreme usage of the skill, though he got used to it, consuming quite a lot of stamina, he started sleeping a bit more.

Since the project was mostly done, Foin planned to use his peteaches to cover his bath. It would not only make it sturdier but would most definitely not let it leak, and heating it would be much easier. However, before starting his work on that, he went to water his two new plants.

He had been expecting them to show their fruits or anything, but nothing really happened, though he noticed that their growth seemed to be considerably faster than before.

He walked over to them with the intent to water them, but it finally happened. The one which grew from the nut was now a tiny tree and was blooming despite being underground. That tiny tree had two nuts on its weak branches. Thanks to the small size of the tree, the nuts touched the container under it. As a result, the nut, which was considerably larger than the branches could hold up, did not break off any of the branches.

The nut was considerably different than the one Foin had planted. They were black and smooth, but upon closer inspection, Foin concluded that they were not as sturdy as the one he had planted. With great excitement, he grabbed them and started pulling off of the branch. Despite the tiny size of his branch, he needed to exert a bit more power. He thought he would grab it and slightly put it, and it would be off, but it was attached to the tree greatly.

"New species recognised, Huunt!"

"You have gained 10 Experience Points and 10 Points!"

"Notice! Huunt! Level: Rare. Tier: 1. Quality: F. Type: Food/Resource. Maturity:63%"

"Wow, this is also a resource, and is it food as well? Interesting..."

Foin said as soon as the panels had vanished before his eyes. He read that these were not fully matured yet. Still, he decided to harvest the other as well, as he was curious what this Huunt could be. It seemed nothing particularly unique other than its colour. It wasn't heavy like peteaches and didn't even seem that sturdy. But Foin still had another plant that bared its fruits.

The grape-like seed had grown into a much more extensive plant, but still, it was not that large. It had four main branches coming from the dirt and didn't look like a tree at all, yet these branches were quite strong and flexible at the same time. The plant itself looked like a grape plant, but the fruits were different.

There were two distinct fruits on the plant. One of them was yellowish white, while the other was purely white. And despite how the plant looked like, they were not in a bunch but separately. Foin first quickly touched them. The yellow was quite dense but was rubbery. The other was much easier to push in and was just as rubbery as the other. After testing their weight, Foin learned that their weight was about the same as well.

This was a first for him, having two seemingly different products on a single plant. Foin quickly harvested the yellow one first and then the white one.

"New species recognised, Platic!"

"You have gained 6 Experience Points and 6 Points!"

"Notice! Huunt! Level: Rare. Tier: 1. Quality: F. Type: Resource. Maturity:79%"

A new set of panels popped up for both products. And the fact that they were categorised as only resources surprised Foin greatly. They felt quite rubbery, so he though that maybe they would have some sort of liquidy inside which would have a unique taste.

As he gazed down at the two different coloured fruits, he started thinking. Since they were resources, maybe they did contain some sort of liquid, just like peteaches did, but without any eatable part. Althoguh he was thrilled to finally get to see his new plants finally bearing products, he decided to finish the bath first, since he only needed to add some final touches to that.

With one swift motion, he dropped the fruits into his inventory; in which he noticed that despite them being from two plants, they took up three slots. Platic was the one who had a slot for the two different colours, almost like the green peppers did, though he knew that they were of higher quality; in the Platic's case, they were of the exact same quality.

Énilo and Gobu were just looking at the fire both under the boiler and at the one not far from that while they were roasting some potatoes and peppers. That day they did not harvest the peteaches as it was so snowy outside that they decided it was better not to do so. But they did have a large number, so Foin was confident that it would be sufficient to cover the bath.

Foin quickly grabbed a bucket full of peteaches and walked over to the bath. He quickly started opening the fruits and pouring the dense liquid into the pool's far end side. The empty but delicious fruits were all put back into the bucket, and then he started smoothening the surface of the pool.

He moved slowly back and covered the whole area with the slowly solidifying liquid. He needed to hurry since the peteach liquid was getting harder and harder, but thanks to his previous experience, he was working fast. Using the first bucket of fruit was enough to cover almost half of the pool, although he did make the peteach layer quite thick just to be sure that it withstood the weight of the water since that was the deepest and widest portion of the pool.

After grabbing another portion of peteaches, he finished the rest of the pool in a relatively short span of time. Then he waited; he wanted to test it out right away; that way, if it was needed, he could make the peteach layer thicker, though he felt that the way he did was more than enough.

As soon as the peteach solidified, Foin quickly filled it with water. However, he did so in smaller portions to see how well the structure held together.

Once the bathtub was filled with water, Foin walked back to the closest bonfire. Since each of the firewood inside was either already burning or was just about to start to ignite, he put in a few smaller twigs. While he was waiting for them to ignite, he used up another two peteaches to make a sheet that he would use as a door.

Although one would need to enter the room in order to see the bath, it was better to put some extra protection there.

"Girls, the bath is almost ready. Would you like to give it a try once the water is heated?"

Foin asked as he put the sheet of peteach next to the door.

"Erm..."

Gobu spoke up and shyly looked at Énilo, who shook her head and glared at the goblin.

"I think you should be the one to try it first; after all, it is your work, so you should enjoy it first, master!"

Énilo said as she looked into Foin's eyes and hovered closer to him. Her previous cold gaze had completely vanished, and now she was smiling.

"Alright..."

He was slightly disappointed, as she believed she would jump at the offer and try it, but he didn't want to force them. So he grabbed a bunch of grass and carried them into the room, right to the stairs of the pool. He dropped them down so that when he got out of the bath, his feet would not get muddy, at least.

By the time he was done, the tigs had already started burning properly, so he quickly brought them over to the little box on the side of the pool to start the heating. Then he brought a few medium-sized pieces of wood and then a larger one. From which he put on a single medium-sized one.

He didn't know how long it would take for the water to heat up, but he was certain that it was much larger than the boiler. As a result, the heating area was larger as well, so he could fit in more wood.

Thanks to the boiler in the other room, the room had already heated up, so with the plate, he covered the door and sat down by the fire. Occasionally he put his hand into the water to check the temperature. And after quite some time, it had risen quite a bit. Around the heating area, it was quite warm, and on the other side, it was a bit warm, so he quickly got undressed and jumped in.

Though it was still cold, it was refreshing, so he started mixing up the waters by walking in circles at the lowest level. Eventually, he sat down by the wall and looked at the plants in the room, which he noticed were already blooming quite a bit.

"Phew, it is quite great! Though with élion, it would be much greater!"

He mumbled as he opened his inventory to put a few handfuls of élion flowers into the water, and then he closed his eyes.

The flowers started floating on the surface of the water, and soon, the redness from the flowers started spreading across the water.