CH 41

Here’s the chapter, enjoy~

Now… I said it was a battle against time, but the Great Omit Wilderness is a kind of wicked land in the end. It was originally a country called the Omit Kingdom, but as a result of a war with the elves of the Black Forest and forced them to take it seriously, it was rained down with attacks of the disintegrating phenomenon caused by spirit stones, and the land was turned into nothing.

The multiple uses of spirit stones beyond the limits of power disrupted the spirit’s power, making it impossible for proper plants to grow and turn it into a wilderness.

It is said that if you are lucky enough to win the first prize in the lottery, you may be able to dig up the ground and unearth some of the treasures of the time, but the Great Omit Wilderness is filled with large numbers of Gizma, giant ferocious insects that do not care about the disturbance of spiritual power.

I’ve given a long explanation, but what I want to emphasize is this.

“There’s no one who likes to come to the Great Omit Wilderness. The only prey available is Gizma, and while Gizma is reasonably profitable, the materials are really bulky. The meat goes bad very quickly. Even if you go to the hinterlands, you’ll only find Gizma.”

Shumer, a former adventurer, said.

“In addition, beyond the Great Omit Wilderness lies the Black Forest, which is notorious among the Holy Kingdom people. There’s no reason for us to enter the depths of the Great Omit Wilderness.”

Qubi also quivered as he said this. In other words, as long as we do not go beyond the center of the Great Omit Wilderness, it is unlikely that the Merinard Kingdom will be able to detect our movements.

So, what’s the situation now?

“I think they’re gathering from afar.”

Isla, who has blasted several Gizma out of existence with thunderbolts from her mithril staff, lets out a small sigh.

Yes, we’re in a battle with a bunch of Gizma.

Three days after the meeting, the fifty Merinard citizens, myself, Sylphy, Danan, Melty, Isla, Qubi, Shumer, and Pirna, left for the Great Omit Wilderness. We arrived at the first base that day, and for three days, I was forced to expand the farmland in the base.

Three days later, we left Danan, Melty, and fifty Merinard citizens at the first base, leaving the harvesting and future testing to them, and the rest of us started moving deeper into the Great Omit Wilderness. After several hours of walking, Pirna, who was out scouting, discovered a large swarm of Gizma.

We could have bypassed it, but after some discussion, we decided to eliminate the Gizma. This area would be the route between the first and second bases anyway. There was no better way to eliminate danger along the way.

There were six of us, and we were told that there were about 30 to 40 Gizma, so we decided to quickly build an interceptor base on the spot and eradicate them.

The construction of the interceptor base was simple. First, use the block jump to pack brick blocks 4 meters vertically, and then use that as a starting point to make a 10-meter scaffold with brick blocks on each side. The scaffold is made up of only one brick pillar, and it’s a structure that can’t be supported by the four corners, but the bricks I’ve placed have the property of ignoring gravity and staying in the air.

After I finished building the scaffolding, I set up a ladder on the pillar and asked everyone to climb up. Then, I’ll go down and destroy the pillars as I go back up. With this, a floating interceptor base was created at three meters above the ground.

There was no doubt that anyone could sneak underneath, so I made a four-block hole in the center of the scaffold to create a narrow chest wall. I also made one at the edge of the scaffold. Now it was perfect.

Sylphy, Qubi, and I will use the improved crossbow. Isla will use her attack magic to repel the Gizma. As for Shumer? Shumer is throwing a lot of large stones that I had in my inventory with one hand. I wonder if she’s using a stone thrower or something.

It’s no use using aerial bombs against an enemy of this caliber, so Pirna is in quiet spectator mode. I sometimes ask her to fly over and check the surroundings.

“However, this interception base is… rather one-sided.”

“You don’t even have to fight the insects properly.”

Intercept the approaching Gizma with three improved crossbows, Shumer’s stone-throwing, and Isla’s magic. Even if we can’t intercept them and they close the gap between us, we are on a floating base, and Gizma has no way to attack us. Besides, the antennae are not designed for attacking enemies who are taller than themselves, and their accuracy is not very good.

Even if they crawled under the base, we could repel them through the hole I made in the center. I can retrieve the bodies before they pile up. There was nothing Gizma could do.

“Even though a lot of they surround us, there’s no sense of tension.”

“I’m sorry, but this is the way I fight. I’m not a fan of the tense exchanges of life.”

“Well, that’s your personality, isn’t it? I’m not going to deny it.”

While saying this, Shumer laughed and threw a stone at Gizma. It’s definitely more powerful than the improved crossbow. It shattered Gizma’s tough shell and penetrated it.

“Kosuke, wouldn’t it be faster to use a gun?”

“Yes, it’s faster. But if it can be done with a crossbow, then it is cheaper to do it with a crossbow. It’s overwhelmingly cheaper.”

“That’s true too.”

It took us well over an hour to finish eradicating the Gizma. In the end, other groups of Gizmas gathered, and eventually, we killed about fifty of them.

“The material of Gizma is saturated.”

“You can’t get magic stones from Gizma. That’s why it’s not popular.”

“Magic stones?”

I tilted my head at Isla’s words. Is it possible to use it for summoning magic? Or is it used to negotiate with the devil?

“It’s a crystal form of magical power from the body of a monster. It can be used as a material for magic tools, a catalyst for magic, and an alchemy ingredient.”

“Oh… so Gizma isn’t exactly a monster, then?”

“One can’t be defined as a monster just because it can produce magic stones. All creatures that harm humans are lumped together as monsters.”

“I see.”

That’s a rough classification. I think it would be better to classify them more finely.

“In some cases, magic stones can be found in monsters that do not possess them. That’s why it’s difficult to classify them clearly.”

“I see.”

Did the question appear on my face? Isla gave a supplementary explanation. Certainly, it is not easy to classify them if that is the case. I think even I would handle it with such a rough classification.

While I was talking with Isla, Pirna, and Qubi came back from their scouting trip.

“It seems that Gizma is no longer in the vicinity.”

“The direction we’re going is fine. We can head for the next point.”

“Umu, let’s keep going then. Kosuke, take down this scaffolding.”

“Aye aye, ma’am.”

After removing the floating base, we once again started to conquer the wilderness. The base that I will be building today is going to be a small one for now and will be able to accommodate about 100 people. It will be about a third of the size of the first base. We plan to use this as a stepping stone to search for a suitable place to build the main base in a wide area.

However, there is a possibility that this base will later become a base for various interactions with the elves of the Black Forest, in which case we will probably have to expand it. In any case, it was decided that the first priority should be to build the main base.

We took a lunch break on the way, and after another two hours of travel, we found a suitable place to set up our base. As the first base, it was hilly terrain. This one is much gentler, though.

“This is where we’ll camp.”

“I’m sorry to say this with a stern face, but you’d better get to work. We don’t have much time before the sun goes down.”

“Ah, yes.”

I’m sad that I can’t get my story across. Well, I don’t want to stay out in the open either, so I’m going to do as Sylphy says and start building. I can now use symmetrical mode and group installation mode, so it won’t take too long if it’s a simple building.

“It’s amazing. The brick buildings are coming together in no time at all.”

“The carpenters and plasterers are going to be so disappointed.”

“Haha, that’s impressive.”

Qubi and Shumer, who are out scouting the area, are walking down the hill, watching me work. Let’s build a perfect fortress before they come back.

“You’re building really fast, aren’t you?”

“It’s just insane.”

Sylphy is impressed, but Isla’s statement is really frank. Yeah, it’s definitely abnormal for an ordinary person to see, isn’t it? Isla is always able to give me a general perspective of this world.

But I’m going to use this ability to the maximum.

I quickly make quarters and dig around with a shovel for a place to build a wall. Isla and Sylphy also helped me with magic for this. Sylphy used her earth spirit magic, and Isla used her earth magic to dig a hole five meters deep and three meters wide while I dug with my shovel.

Once the hole is dug, the wall will be up in no time. First, I made a relatively complicated gate, and then I made a wall with a simple structure. Now that I can use symmetrical mode and group installation mode, it’s effortless to set up symmetrical structures. It didn’t take too long to build a 7m high wall with two gates. Each side is 50 meters long, so it is simply a quarter of the first base size. It’s probably big enough for fifty people to stay here.

Having consumed their magic, Sylphy and Isla rested here for a while. Pirna is out scouting again. I will continue to build a toilet, a watering hole for the infinite water source, a two-story dormitory, and a warehouse. After that, when I was about to build a field… someone pulled my sleeve.

“What’s that?”

Isla is pointing at the infinite water source with a blank stare. Oh, she noticed. It’s too early.

“It’s the water source. You’ve seen the pump, right?”

“I know that. That’s not the point. You should know that.”

“Hahaha. The world is full of wonders, isn’t it?”

“I think what’s mysterious is Kosuke’s very existence. If you don’t want to talk about it seriously, can I just dissect it?”

“I’m sorry, please forgive me.”

I explained the infinite water source to Isla, who stared at me blankly. However, even I don’t understand the principle or mechanism behind it. If you sprinkle water with a bucket, somehow the water just keeps coming out! Combine the two, and you’ve got a spot that can pump water endlessly! It’s not my fault!

“This is one of the most absurd things I’ve ever seen.”

“That’s good. This is a miracle, a miraculous power given to me by some divine or spirit-like being.”

“Miracles… It’s certainly the domain of sacred magic when I think about it…”

Isla pondered over my words. In the meantime, I plowed the field.

I’ve learned a lot about farmland in the past three days. First of all, it’s best to use my ability to plant seeds on the land I’ve plowed in the farm block. Most of the crops can be harvested in two to three days.

Secondly, if I plow the farm block and someone else plants the seeds, the growth rate is not as fast as if I plant the seeds myself, but it is still fast. From the growth looks, it looks like it will be ready to harvest in about two weeks. This seemed to be the same growth rate when someone other than me plowed the farm block and planted the seeds.

The other thing was that when I plowed the ground in the normal wilderness instead of the farm block, it seemed like it would take about two weeks to harvest the seeds I planted. If someone other than me planted the seeds, it would be about the same as normal farmland.

Conversely, if I plowed the ground with my hoe, even the roughest and thinnest land would turn into the soil as good as a normal field. I was able to remove pebbles and other things up to about one meter underground. This hoe is so amazing.

In other words, there is a high possibility that the factors involved in accelerating growth are either the farmland block or my planting the seeds. If the two were combined, I could harvest the crop in about three days. If either of these elements is present, it will take about two weeks to harvest. That’s how I see it.

Melty was smiling all the time while we were doing the verification, and Isla’s eyes were dead all the time. Please don’t give Isla more trouble… Melty scares me, so I’ll stay away from her for a while. I did mention that I need the rich soil of the Black Forest to create the farmland blocks. I don’t think she’s going to dig up the roots, and I don’t think she can, but I’m a little worried.

“Like the sacred magic, spirit magic draws its power not from the magic of the practitioner, but from some other place… In the case of sacred magic, it is said to be from God, and in the case of spirit magic, it is from the spirit world… Kosuke’s power may also be…”

Isla was mumbling something that sounded difficult as she put her hand on her small, thin chin. Is there an explanation for my crafting abilities, including the infinite water source, in Isla’s mind? Okay, keep up your good work.

With Isla mumbling beside me, I plowed the field and came up with the idea of making a bathing place. I need to think about drainage, but what to do? For now, I’ll just run a drainage pipe through the wall and let it flow down the hill. I’ll build a tank-like structure on the roof of the building and set up a water source there. I could run pipes to each shower room from the tank so that a certain amount of water will constantly be flowing, like a hot spring.

As for the pipes, I could make holes in the block and install them. The fact that I can change the shape to some extent with my imagination is very useful in this kind of situation. Oh, the holes don’t line up properly! Let’s retry, retry!

After a lot of trial and error, I was able to get the pipes to work, but the sun had set by then. We ate dinner with Qubi and Shumer, who had returned before I even realized it, and went to bed for the day.

The bathing area was a big hit with the ladies.

“Kosuke, whether it’s the toilet or this bathing area, you love to keep it clean. I’m so pleased.”

“It’s wonderful that we can use water so luxuriously in the middle of the wilderness.”

“It’s good to be clean and refreshed, isn’t it? It’s not easy being an adventurer, but I appreciate it.”

“It’s really nice to be able to bathe in water. When flying in the wilderness, the sand and dust can make my wings rustle.”

Besides, the fluffy Qubi looked like a different person when he was drenched in water.

“It can’t help but look like this. But if I don’t wash it properly, I’m afraid of ticks and fleas.”

“I guess you’re right. I’ll wash your back.”

“Sorry. I’ll take care of the tail myself, so don’t touch it. I get an itch in my butt when someone else touches it.”

The two of us even washed each other’s backs. It’s not so bad to have naked relationships.