NOVEL NEXT [Vol-2] Ch.10 Tree Experiments
Work on the pavilion has continued at a good pace for the last six days. A few of the goblins have gotten good at making rope, so I was actually able to get some goblins to help me heave the support pillars into upright positions in exchange for more crafted goods. With the major support pillars in place, I'm ready to start building the pavilion floor, which will also serve as the basement's ceiling. It's going to take quite a long time, but I've worked on quite a few projects that have taken a long time, so I don't mind. I suppose I'll need to look into an activity to spend my time on while I wait for mana to recharge.
One thing I wanted to spend time testing before, that I couldn't really risk at the time, was figuring out why the trees are difficult to cut down. I suppose I can try to fashion myself another axe and maybe a hand saw, and try my hand at cutting trees down again.
In the last six days, the pavilion floor has made decent progress. My tree experiments however, have not. My first test, if a saw blade could cut through the trees when they harden resulted in failure. I did learn a few new things, but none of it has resulted in a felled tree. First, the hardening seems to be localized on the tree. If I chop far enough away on the same tree, I can still get a single good chop in before that area hardens as well. Unfortunately that distance ends up being too far to be useful, being feet away in elevation. I did learn one thing that could eventually be useful. The hardening only seems to last for a day or so. By the next day, the already chopped area seems to lose its hardening property, at least until I chop into it again. I tried sawing into the soft area, but after the saw removes just a small amount of wood, it hardens, so I've given up on using a saw for now.
Which leads me to my current test. I've got ten trees that I'm chopping into once a day along a far edge of the clearing where the goblins stay. I'm trying to see just how feasible it will be to cut trees down. I think it's doable, but it'll probably be a little different than how it happened on Earth. Instead of going tree by tree, we're going to have to cut all the trees a little at a time, and then within a short period of time have a whole bunch of trees felled.
In the meantime, I've started trading the goblins for rope again. It's a good idea to have it stockpiled, but additionally, I'm thinking of teaching them how to make palisades once I've cut these trees down. If they can build some basic defenses for themselves, that would probably be beneficial for all parties. The less Zaka needs to replace his goblins, the less I'll be bothered moving forward.
It's now been eleven days, and the smallest tree has fallen in my wood cutting experiment. It was about 7" in diameter, so not very large. One thing that is interesting, which I sort of noticed before when I was gathering fallen branches, is that the wood is soft. I thought before it might just be the trees on the mountain, but even these trees seem soft. Mind you, it's not balsa wood levels of softness, but still fairly easy to work with, which is why I think I was able to fell this tree so fast. Each full power swing of the axe would gouge pretty deep into the wood.
The tree itself is about 20 feet tall, although most of the wood won't be useful. The downed part of the tree is actually all easy to cut now, which makes me think the hardening was definitely a defense mechanism. I cut an approximately 13 foot section of the main body of the tree, which I plan on sharpening the top of. This will be the first palisade piece when I'm done with it. Of course, there is plenty of branches and leaves which I'll need to remove, but I don't have much else on my schedule while I wait for mana to replenish, so I can remove all the branches while I wait. Most will probably be used to fuel fires, but if I find any good ones for tools or spears, I'll set them aside.
When I go to check my mana levels when I think they'll be full, I notice something a little off. Namely, before I cut the tree, I was level 37, and now I'm 38.
<LESSER EARTH DEMON>
Level: 38
HP: 1241/1241
MP: 448/448
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation
Magic: Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Earth Spike
I'll have to check after my next tree to see if maybe I just happened to passively gain a level at that moment.
I finished stripping the tree in five days, and as luck would have it, I did find a few branches that would be useful for making tools, and the hand saw actually came in handy after I made multiple tweaks to it. Namely, it actually needed to be better supported, as the blade would crack in half whenever a snag would get hit. So the final saw blade is shorter, and is more like a serrated knife than a saw, but it works well for smaller bits of wood. I also ended up stripping the bark from the tree as well since it was becoming loose as I worked.
I finished stripping that tree just in time, because I felled the next tree just that morning. Slightly thicker, at 9 inches, and it's a little taller, but sadly not quite tall enough to cut multiple palisades out of. Honestly, I think most of the trees we cut down should probably be about this size or a little smaller, the bigger trees are going to take a long time to cut down, and I'm not sure that they'll even be useful for this. Honestly, I'll probably just halt the cutting process on the bigger trees for now. I'm not sure what we'd use them for anyway, and it currently seems like it'll take between fifteen and twenty days to cut down trees about this size, which means I'll have to find new trees that are about the right size to cut down in the area.
I gained another level as well, which is really leading me to believe I'm gaining levels from cutting these trees down. Maybe for good measure, I will cut one big tree down in addition to the other trees, just to check. I've been marking down what levels I can along the way as well on some new tablets in my house, for recordkeeping purposes, obviously.
<LESSER EARTH DEMON>
HP: 1251/1251
MP: 453/453
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation
Magic: Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Earth Spike
Some other good news is the pavilion floor is almost done. I've ended up putting slits into the floor in places to let some natural light down into the basement, as it's starting to get dark in places underground there. The downside to this is obviously the extra cleaning that will need to occur thanks to extra dirt falling in. All things considered though, the extra lighting was very necessary. Many of the goblins are intrigued as to what it is I'm building here, as well as the why and how I'm cutting trees down. I'll be able to explain both soon enough. Especially if Zeb's language skills keep improving.
It took twenty more days, but I finally finished the outline of the pavilion. I've still got to build all the storage containers in the basement, but the firepit and roof are done, complete with cooking grills for the goblins. Most of the goblins are out hunting right now, so I get the wood piled in, in anticipation for them returning. I'm quite proud of my work here.
I have other work as well to do though. I've had a few new trees felled recently, and every day I'm getting a few more. Many of them are a little ways into the woods though, so I've basically left them where they lie. I also felled the one big tree that I was cutting down as a test, and sure enough, I gained three levels when that one went down. Between the small trees and the big one my level has grown quite a bit.
<LESSER EARTH DEMON>
Level: 57
HP: 1431/1431
MP: 532/532
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation
Magic: Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Earth Spike
I'm only felling 20 small trees initially here, because I want to show the goblins how to make a palisade, then let them do the work themselves to protect their village. Although, given the levels I've been getting, I might have to rethink that. I've also noticed that it seems to be raining less and less now, and the weather seems to be a bit warmer than it was. I wonder if it's a seasonal thing, or if this is how it's going to be from here on out. I just hope that with the changing weather there will be no more lizard attacks. We haven't lost any goblins recently, and I'd prefer to keep it that way.