บท 33: A Mansion In The Forest
____________
POV Astaros
____________
We decided that we should leave the city now as opposed to waiting till dawn. It would take us the entire night to reach the Island that I had chosen so long ago. The moment we arrived I raised the depths of the lake to the surface, breaking the calm surface with stone and silt in a makeshift cobblestone path from beneath the sediment layer of the lake. Upon our arrival I immediately began splitting us into groups.
"Fillia, Nikky, Oadry and Dryis go eat and the rest on the east bank we'll need you guys once I finish building the actual house. Katia, Christine would you two be willing to help me do some forestry?" {Astaros}
Katia nodded blankly while Christine responded enthusiastically to my request.
"Sure!"
I then pulled out several pouches of food from the damage core and handed them to Fillia.
"Sorry about all this. I didn't expect Kali to act that fast with the request and everything." {Astaros}
She took the food and smiled at me with circles under her eyes.
"Just don't make the same mistake twice, buckethead." {Fillia}
She walked off leading the others to the left side of the island. I had been really unfair to Fillia and everyone else recently due to certain events and even though she wasn't showing it she was trying her best to handle one crisis after another. I needed to make that up to her. I turned to the forest with Katia and Christine at my sides. Part of that would be making a suitable home for us all.
I then drew the shattered star in an arc of crimson light. I would cut down as many trees as possible in a couple of swings while Christine would deal with the remaining stumps. Katia would go and begin taking up the logs to use as materials. I would then shape the log materials and repair the land with earth element, something that would offer us a better foundation. After that it would be up to me, Katia and Christine to put it all together. I then explained the full plan to her and Katia to which they agreed.
And so it began. I used the lengthen ability on the shattered star, cutting down large trees with slashing scarlet energy. On the other hand Christine and Katia were busy cleaning up after me, Christine using a levitation spell to tear up the ground while Katia was easily lifting logs with her bare hands. It was a slow, arduous task that required a large amount of physical labor. I however had the easier job up until now and had finished up earlier than everyone. I had cleared about two thirds of the islands trees to make way for the house and now began picking up logs and hoisting them over my shoulder to join Katia as she worked. We finished around the same time as an extremely out of breath Christine who had exhausted more mana than originally anticipated. I guess being a beginner spellcaster means you exhaust a higher mana count through waste and byproducts. Well that's fine because I have a plan to circumvent that later. However to get started on anything else I would need to finish readying the materials.
I allowed Christine to take a break while me and Katia began to cut the trunks into planks and simply turn some into pillars for the internal structure. Occasionally I made some specialty pieces for things like stairs and roofing which required more precision. I would use wind mana for this process with blades of condensed air cutting and drilling holes into wood where the undexterous Shattered Star couldn't reach. On the other hand Katia simply wielded a large axe made of ice and a similarly made knife.
When that was all complete I took inventory of what I had created. It was more than enough for what I had been planning. While Katia took her midday break and Christine continued to rest I reached into the dirt and pulled out a clay tablet I formed with earth element. I then began to etch the house into the tablet with earth element, creating a well printed recreation of the house plan from my mind. Bringing it over to where Katia and Christine rested I showed it to them and explained the plan. I was going to build a four wing mansion on the island with each wing going in a cardinal direction. Each wing would have different uses with the south being the entrance, the East wing being for rest, relaxation and the kitchen while the west would be a training space. The North will be for adventuring uses, boasting an armory, planning room and storage room. The core room would be the dining hall.
Katia simply got back up and smashed her fist to her palm while Christine pulled herself to her feet. Back to work it is. Christine used her abilities to get the pieces into place in a form of planning mode while I and Katia would put them together. Katia began with building the perimeter. She used Frostbite, the long handle hammer I made her to drive the support logs into the dirt. Given that the entire thing was two stories tall we had to start with the ground floor and the south wing. The main hall was composed of two staircases that went up to two walkways that would end up going into the core room and making a walkway that went around it. So really while it would have two upper walkways there would be no upstairs to the south wing.
We then move to make the core room which was a little harder to make with the walls being made of logs and having long stone dowels stabbing through the logs and hidden in the bulk of the large pieces of wood.
It was more than enough to keep the walls here stable making the core room the second strongest room beside what I planned for the store. It was large and spacious; it was an octagonal prism with a high walkway going around the internal perimeter and both a ladder on the west side and a staircase up on the east side. It was empty now but later I would put a table and likely a large chandelier made of crystallized mana.
The east wing was different and truly did have two floors, being split in half. Christine would be essential in making of the struts as she held up the strut for Me to solidify using stone to fill the gaps and secure the struts to the wall. With the supports done I made sure to wall off the kitchen on the ground floor and make a larger space for a bath. Well then let's get going on the upper floor of the east floor. This was easier as it was just putting in some roofing and making the rooms which were each pretty much boxes. How each room would be decorated and aestheticized would be up to its inhabitants. We then put a ladder in the main hallway and added some windows to each room. We didn't have any glass at the moment so I would make some when everyone else began to move in.
Before we left I dug out the bath and a small underground hole that flowed into the lake in the large bathroom. I would need both a fire and water mana crystal to get a good temperature and keep the amount of water in there neutral. I'll have to ask Oadry to help with the water mana crystal.
Thankfully the Training room was simpler being a simple large and spacious area with only a walkway near the entrance for people to watch from.
While we built it I decided to ask Christine some questions about her spell casting.
"So how exactly do you even go about creating a magic circle and chant in the first place? Is it instinctual or is it something you have to be taught." {Astaros}
Christine who was lowering the roof under Katia's direction
"Its not instinctual whatsoever. Though each mag-" {Christine}
"A little to the left please" {Katia}
She turned her attention back to the roofing and shifted it before continuing.
"Ah got it, yeah as I was saying it's not instinctive but must be taught. Most spells start from the basic magic circle which we modify and the chant is something we make to help us memorize the circle and really is just a form of grey mana instruction. So the same spell chanted by two different people can have slightly different chants but the same magic circle." {Christine}
I nodded now understanding the concept as I attached the rectangular based triangular prism roof with stone element.
"Why do you ask?" {Christine}
I finished solidifying it and once happy with its solidity turned to respond.
"I was wondering about how similar raw and grey mana were." {Astaros}
I was thinking of making a grey mana crystal but I was unsure if it was possible. If it came down to it though I would simply have Christine infuse grey mana into a raw mana crystal. This would reduce the strain she had on her when she used large scale spells.
Now that we had completed the western section we moved to complete the northern wing. The first area we made was the storehouse which covered the ground floor and was fully made out of stone and also had no windows. Once complete we added ceiling struts to hold up the second floor, using the same wood and earth element strategy as the eastern wing. Once that was complete Christine worked her magic and put together the plank for the second floor. Once we had stable flooring we walled off the upper floor and split it in two areas while Christine put on the roof. These two upstairs rooms would be the planning room and Armory.
When it was finally complete I allowed Katia to rest, giving her a blanket and letting her grab a room. On the other hand I and Christine had to furnish the place. Asomblus Futnrisn. This was the spell Christine used to assemble the furniture for each room. I instead focused on things like glass and mana crystal lighting, heating and cooling. I sent a soul link message to Dryis to tell Oadry to meet me by the lake while I went and made some mana crystals.
I would make mana crystals of fire for heating, wind for ventilation, light for lighting and raw mana orbs to cover all of these crystals and prevent the weakening side effects the crystals could have. After putting them all away I had Oadry help me by expelling water mana while I would crystallize it. Due to her water mana control being really sloppy and her raw mana pool being small it was quite hard to actually work with. But I continued to manage. After that I made some raw mana windows. Now why not normal glass? Raw mana was more durable and I simply didn't have the ingredients or facilities to make normal glass. This also had the perk of passively increasing the mana pools of those near the windows.
These were all placed throughout the house with my direction. I would use Oadry's mana crystals to fill the bath in the east wing while I placed a low purity fire crystal in there for heating. Ventilation crystals were placed throughout the house for hot days while low purity fire crystals were used for heating.
When the place was fully furnished it actually looked pretty good. In the main core room we had a large round table with several chairs surrounding it. A large crystal chandelier, encase in a ball of raw mana now hung above it from a chain made of the metal I had left over from making the armor. Within the east wing kitchen I we had an island and several drawers, cupboards and a sink which was powered with a water mana crystal. I planned on making a rudimentary freezer with a frost mana crystal from Katia's mana when I had the chance as well.
Upstairs in the rooms they were now fully lit and complete with dressers, bed frames, desks and night tables. The windows were now in thanks to Christine's magic as well. Though we lack mattresses and several other key item to help with the finishing touches around here it was looking good.
The Northern wing's storehouse was now fully complete and the shelving had also been installed. We also had several crates which I hopefully would have filled out one day. The upstairs now also had armor stands, weapon racks and assembly shelves for weapons that had many parts. The planning room was now full of cubby's and had a large circular table which in the center was made of raw mana glass. Under the glass was a light crystal which would allow the table to light up maps from below.
All in all though some things were missing we had basically built a mansion in a day. When we finished I called in Fillia and the others to explore their new home. I had far more plans for this island but I needed to finish this house before anything else. Tomorrow I would go with Christine to the town and grab some essentials. The fact that I could make basically everything else myself kind of made it worthless to buy things that required metalworking like cutlery but decorative objects and clothes needed to be bought from the town.
Things like the storage room and armory would be filled out as we brought back items. The planning room however would require me to buy maps and bestiary's.
While things were looking good I wasn't done just yet.
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
Blue_Robin
Blue_Robin Anotha chapter down.
Not a lot of talking in this chapter because I wanted to explain the ridiculous power of things like spell casting and elemental mana when used by powerful people. This is a hint by the way.
Seriously its like the biggest hint I have ever made. if you guys dont get this I'm going to be really sad.
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง