Chapter 34: Making A Camp

Madly looked at Arthur in question, while she replied:

"My grandpa Regil taught me how to forge, as he intends to make me his heir, hehehe, that's of course before meeting you boss."

Arthur's smile got bigger, as he finally made up his mind. "Do you have any forging equipment here?" he asked, eagerly. Even if she didn't, he would seek and bring everything himself.

"I have some here in my bag," she said, as she pointed to a tattered backpack thrown on the cart, "why do you ask? Do you want to repair your sword?" she asked.

Arthur just chuckled, but he said nothing, as he went to the cart, took the bag, and gave it to Madly. When he carried it, he sensed how heavily it was. Madly noticed his reaction, and she laughed at him while saying:

"Sorry, my grandpa always insisted on having my toolkit everywhere I go. never knows when you might need your skill, he always says that."

She laughed shortly while Arthur commended that old man's wisdom. They would be saved now and acquire many gains thanks to his far eyesight. Arthur watched Madly unpack her bag, taking out many items, strangely familiar to Arthur, who took them one by one and inspected them carefully.

'forging here looks like forging there,' he muttered to himself, with much content. He now had secured one of the most hard conditions to be met if he wanted to forge a ring, a forging tool and a blacksmith apprentice to help.

He then glanced at the group of pythons, lying on the ground weakly, motionless, with faint hissing sound every now and then. Their leader, that special mother, was alone in her place, with no other lowly python coming near her.

She was a defeated queen of snakes, but she had an ego that Arthur admired. What left now was to plan out his priorities first, starting with the most easy to do, and leaving the most difficult to the last.

Coupling with the snake queen was a must, as he had to raise his strength by thresholds if he wanted to be able to forge a fair spiritual ring. He had a large number of pythons, dead or alive, and so he needed to postpone the step of coupling to later.

Though these pythons were weaker than the queen, they were fairly strong in their own aspects. All of them were one horned monsters, and they could use fire attributes in their attacks. Their defense was good, speed was superb, and they had poison too.

Thinking here, Arthur felt some headache regarding the poison he inflicted upon them. this poison was unknown to him, and it was strong enough to affect grade four monsters. It was quite risky eating meat without finding a way to neutralize the toxins.

This started to make him feel quite pain in his head, but soon he found a solution to this. Snakes were famous for toxic glands, where there lied another, not widely known, glands to neutralize toxins. As far as he recalled, he needed to carefully unplug these glands, crush them on the meat he would cook, and then everything would be fine.

He also could eat the glands if needed, but they alone were toxic, and if eaten without being poisoned, you would end up poisoning yourself.

Arthur then moved to check the gains he had, it was really great. The living pythons only numbered forty something, while the rest were all killed, mostly incinerated by the fiery attack that landed upon their heads. As everything was arranged in his mind now, he had only two problems left.

He had to leave the group and enter into slumber to couple with the queen. If this ended up like before, he would take roughly twelve hours to wake up, and even more. Leaving the group undefended, alone, all this time was risky. So, he had to think about something to help in their defense.

He observed the area they were not at. It was a long, irregular shore, made of hard slippery rocks in most parts. The forest was roughly three hundred meters away. The area they occupied was like a gulf in itself, as there was a long protrusion of land, forming like a large triangle here.

Easy place to defend for sure, but he couldn't be so sure of that. He was old enough to realize things could go out of hand in mere minutes, so leaving the group exposed here, with all this monster meat and blood, was something dangerous.

He sighed, making defenses was never his style at all, however that didn't mean he lacked the knowledge regarding a defensive trick or two.

'A lot of work,' he murmured, as just thinking about this already made him exhausted. He looked around, if he put the place of the village he came from, then this spot would act as an adventurer's rest place. it wasn't that far from the village, and it was close to the higher grades monsters.

The place was simply perfect, near a water stream, nature defended most of it, building a post here would be ideal, so perfect.

He already could picture the money flowing in his pockets, or even monster products if he needed. That idea alone gave him a boast, as he looked towards his team, who was now eyeing him suspiciously.

He was acting weird, that was everyone was thinking of. Arthur just sighed, as it seemed great minds thought alike, and there wasn't any great mind here, except for him.

"Listen up," he started saying this, "I know I might seem weird, but we have a lot of work to do."

"What work?" Ron asked, as he was the closest to him, or that what everyone thought.

"We need to transform this place into a small post," Arthur said, but when he was met with silence, he added, "a place where we can rest without the need to be worried from any attacks of any monster."

"Really?!" Madly asked, as she added, "Is this why you asked about my toolkit?"

"Well," Arthur said, as he was about to explain. "Let us start doing this post then," Ouly said, in a tone full of excitement.

"Wait!" Arthur had to shout to make them calm down. "I need to explain, as it seems you don't know what post means," he said, as he went to the forest, grabbed a long branch, used it as a long stick, and started drawing on the ground, in front of everyone.

"A post is a place lined by natural and human made defenses. This place is perfect, as we are lined by water from most of the sides. what remains is the area adjacent to the forest, which we will need to dig deep, cut some trees, and insert these trees into the holes we dug."

He spoke, drew, but when he finished, he sensed none had understood what he said. "Fine," he yelled, angrily, "Don, you will go with me and dig the ground," he ordered Don, as he moved towards the area adjacent to the forest. "Edwar, Ron, and Drago, move to the forest, cut thick trees down. Ouly will be watching you, in case any monster decided to attack."

"What about me?" Madly hurriedly asked.

"And me?" Lily jumped like a little child, raising her hand to the air.

"Ladies, stay here, guard the pythons, and make places for us to sleep."

Arthur gave the two girls the easiest missions between them. He wasn't that soft towards girls, but there was no need to push them now, especially someone was needed to watch out the precious cargo.

Arthur was aiming for something simple at first, but when he thought of the strategic importance of this place, he shifted his ambitions to be quite higher than before.

So, when he made Don hit a tree, to make it fall on the ground, and made a rough, bear usable shovel, he didn't let Don dig only at the order of the forest. He pushed him to dig around the whole place, a task that took roughly five hours from this bear, and many dirt that formed a hill-like existence, lining the trench.

Arthur made Don throw the dirt inside, not outside. So, when Don finished this physical labor task, it wasn't that exhausted like Arthur thought. That made Arthur move him towards the forest, where many trees were now missing. He used the fierce paws of Don to cut the trees into, roughly, similar logs, and then Don carried them in group towards the post.

When the wood came, Arthur didn't move at once to insert them deep into the hole, as he used the sword to make them look like a spear. This task took longer than he expected, and so he needed the help of Birdy, the flying monster, which used its sharp claws to make spear shaped ends of the wood log faster, much faster, than Arthur.

The night was about to fall when Arthur finished the last preparations for the defensive wall of the post. He then called the boys, who came, panting, with much anticipation, waiting to see what this place would look like eventually.

Arthur then did it in the simplest way ever, as he moved with the help of Birdy, which carried the log perpendicular to the hole, with the sharp edge downwards. When it left the log, Don's turn came to fist it heavily once, twice, and finally thrice, inserting it deeply into the ground.

The first log seemed illogical, with no purpose at all for the team, who was sitting beside the pythons, ready to start fire.

However, with the lapse of time, the defensive wooden wall of the post was taking shape gradually. When Arthur finished, he didn't leave any space to work as a gate, as the dirt inside the camp had formed a stepping hill towards the high leveled wall. That would be the way out, but to enter the place, help must be given from the inside, like a robe or something.

Arthur did this as he feared a hastily made gate would weaken the wall, helping in its damage.

Finishing the defensive wall in time, Arthur loudly declared, by actions, this piece of land was his territory. He stood amidst the emptiness of this place, marveling what would be here and there of various buildings, and trades that would make him rich, filthy rich.