บท 30: Kilning Business

The toe bone needle was finished very quickly. Rino was so happy that he almost cried in joy seeing how polished and smooth his first bone needle was. He could finally put the textile crafting skills to use and make his much-needed cape!

"Maybe I will make my boxer underwear first," Rino thought. "Noir could come back anytime, and it isn't appropriate for a cat to see me in such a scandalous state. Their pure eyes must not be defiled."

From above, Ace blushed and looked away. Rino's level of thoughtfulness was sometimes surprising. The lich was a very confusing person. For someone who wasn't willing to work unless they were able to laze in luxury after all that work, Rino was surprisingly hardworking and considerate when it came to cats. Did his love for feline creatures overcome the hatred for work?

The kiln was almost completed. Phil could finally see the roof take shape. He finally understood the reason for those squarish bricks now. Rino was definitely not a newbie when it came to constructing. He knew his materials and architectural designs.

Instead of following the half brick design method for a curved roof in the tutorial, Rino improvised and played with the size of bricks to create an effective staircase roof structure. Each brick was supported by the brick below that was firmly cemented to the bottom layer on half its length. The gravity did not put too much pressure on the bricks with a broader base, and Rino stacked them carefully in a zig-zag manner so that more cement could hold onto two different bricks at any one time should a brick break.

Eventually, the last few bricks were made, and the hole at the top of the kiln was sealed with a specially crafted large brick, slapped with ample cement mix. Rino's work did not end here. He reinforced the kiln with more cement before using magic to dehydrate the structure completely.

Just like that, the kiln was done. The sun was starting to descend, but Rino's ambition did not end here. Building this large kiln was only the beginning. Apart from bricks, Rino had to make more terracotta to smash for cement, some clay tiles for the roofing of his new farmhouse, as well as 40,000 more bricks for the farmhouse and luxurious bathhouse.

The large kiln was able to fire up at least 10,000 bricks at any one time, and Rino had faith that he would finish all the bricks he needed by tonight if he worked quickly. Time was ticking, and he did not know if he had enough time to lay those bricks for the farmhouse and decorate the interior before Noir returned.

The shadow tendrils picked up speed, scooping clay, moulding bricks, and arranging dehydrated bricks in the new huge kiln. Rino saw how he was already running low on wood and sighed. He had to visit the hemp forest quickly for a few more trees. While the large kiln baked his bricks. Rino could make enough wood ash in the smaller kiln. There would be no time wasted while waiting for his bricks to cook.

The Gods watched and yawned as Rino collected the materials he needed. The side quest was completed a few hours ago, but Rino refused to claim his sleep reward. The lich wanted to complete the chain quest to receive his sleep reward wallet before claiming it. Ace wondered how fast Rino would be able to complete the daily chain quest. He had a feeling the lich was going to complete the actual daily quest before the time limit.

The hemp forest looked a little bald at Rino's teleportation pad area, and Rino felt slightly bad about deforesting such a wonderful forest. He made a mental note to repair the environment once he was done with the major quests. It did not occur to him that nature did not grow as quickly as he could cut it down. Thankfully, he could use nature magic to fix this fairly quickly.

Phil felt a little touched when he heard how Rino was thankful and sorry for the resources nature provided. Landscaping was a complicated business, and Phil's powers were limited to designing. He had no real control over the speed of growth nature had. The most he could do was rearrange certain resources to make it inconvenient enough so that the resources would not be depleted as quickly and have sufficient time to replenish themselves.

The kilns were fired up at full power when Rino had his hemp wood. The kilning business was booming, and Rino estimated that he would have all the materials he needed for the building before the sun was up.

Rino took a look at the loom and fed it more silk. The spools he coiled were running low, so he decided to finish using what he had before making another trip to replenish the silk he needed for the cape. On the other hand, linen production was going very well. The fresh batch of black dye he made to dye linen worked like a charm. Rino didn't know if he should invest in another weaving machine to speed up the production of his interior design plans. He wanted blackout curtains so that the morning sun would not disturb him.

Ark watched as Rino clumsily held the bone thread, piercing the cloth with it. Despite the textile crafting skill, the lich still struggled to hold something as small as a needle with his bony fingers. The needles often slipped from his grip, and Rino sighed.

Thankfully, the shadow tendrils were very flexible, so Rino spent a lot of time staring at just where he wanted the needle to go. The painstaking effort Rino put into making his boxer underwear caused his production speed to drop at the kilns. Thankfully, the lich did not need too long to sew a decent pair of underwear, only to realise that he sewed the seams on the wrong side of his fabric. The inner drawstring holes were now visible on the outside, and Rino groaned. Thankfully, this was underwear. Nobody apart from him was going to know.

Up above, the Gods snickered.