The Peerless Kobold - Chapter 67
thunk pssshh thunk pssshh thunk pssshh
With the wooden stakes we made, I dug into the soil at the riverbank and eventually reached a clay layer in a shallow section.
“Gauh, gaoruuoann!” (Alright, we have the clay!)
However, the clay soil was a little hard, so I sprinkled some water from the river and softened it. When I looked around, I saw the group of 1-year-old kobolds single-mindedly digging the ground with wooden stakes as well…
“Waou, waou, waan waouh♪ “ (Dig, dig, let’s dig, dig, dig♪)
“Kuuwaou, wanwan♪” (Let’s dig here, woof woof♪)
Yes, we Kobolds love to dig holes.
“… Guruoa, gaorukua?” (… Guys, did you get the clay?)
“Wau!?” (HUH!?)
… It’s hopeless, these guys enjoyed digging so much they forgot their main objective.
“Kyuu, kyuuun…” (Big brother, I’m sorry…)
“Guruuoh!” (You too!?)
Despite all of that, we spent a fair amount of time digging in the riverbank and procured quite a lot of clay. The cat kin Blacksmith Barrack was currently checking the quality of the clay we dug.
“Nice, this is good quality clay! We could make a furnace with this type. As for the fire resistance… we won’t know how good it is until we make one…Well, the quality of the soil and the iron sand isn’t bad either, so this should be manageable.”
“Barrack, let’s try to make some sun-dried bricks first and see what we can do with the rest. I’m sure we’ll find plenty of uses for those.”
Grimer held a bunch of dried leaves as he spoke.
Hmmm…
I took out my slate pencil and wrote on the ground.
“Are you going to mix those with the clay?”
“Yes, but we need to grind it up first and remove the unnecessary parts and make it fibrous. Mixing it in the clay makes it harder for the bricks to crack.”
Grimer placed the leaves and stems on top of a semi-flat rock and used the stone axe to expose the plant fibers. Imitating him, we also reached for some leaves and helped out.
By the way, it seems that the floppy-eared Kobolds are more skillful than us… Looks like we made the right decision to take them in.
After carrying the clay mixed with plant fiber back to the village square, Grimer immediately set to work and began building their sleeping quarters.
Apparently, that was his first priority, and Joseph the Farmer who had returned ahead of us and Barrack the Blacksmith assisted him.
“Alright, let’s start with making holes for the pillars!”
thunk thunk thunk
As Joseph held the wooden stake in place, Barrack and Grimer each took a large rock with a flat face and used it to take turns driving the stake into the ground.
They finished by burying the wooden stake into the ground up to the line they had carved on it beforehand.
They repeated the process, and three holes were made in a straight line, and three more directly opposite it were finished.
“Next is the foundations for the pillars. First, we have to place the highest pillars into the middle hole. Then we need to remove the branches and cut a pair of posts into the same height.”
“Got it, I’ll take care of it.”
Barrack fashioned two logs to the same height and shaved off their branches with a machete. He then passed the crossbeams between the two completed pillars and tied them tightly together with ivy to create a sort of “torii”, which is a type of gate that is said to be found in an island country in the East.
This was then inserted into the middle holes. The left and right holes were filled in the same manner, and smaller “torii” were erected on either side of the central pillars.
(I see, so the reason why the middle one is high and the left and right ones are low is to make the sloping roof…)
Meanwhile, Smith who was watching them with sparkling eyes joined in on the work. Following his example, we also joined in to help out.
“… I appreciate you wanting to help out, but it seems to be slowing the work down.”
Barrack said.
“In the meantime, I’m going to make a rafter so could you make 10 wooden beams the size of this one?”
I handed Smith the thin piece of wood that I received from Grimer and only bent the thumb on my left hand. By the way, each of the fingers on the left hand represents the number 10, which means I meant 10 if I only bent my thumb.
“Wan, guruan!” (Okay, I’m on it!)
He enthusiastically cut off the branches with the stone axe he made and measured the length of the wood against the sample before cutting it. In no time at all, he had produced 10 pieces of wood with uniform length and thickness.
