After lunch.
It’s finally time to start making charcoal.
First, I stuffed the furnace with lumber, then I lit the bundle of weeds and pile of branches that I’d gathered. Dinome-san gave me a magic igniter as a free sample, so I used this opportunity to give it a try. It had a long handle, so it was easy to use.
After that I waited for the furnace to get hot. White smoke gradually billowed out from the chimney, the flames eventually turning into a partially blue transparent flame, then when the smoke changed, I blocked the entrance and chimney of the furnace with a couple of red soil blocks.
It might sound simple, but the timing is rather difficult to grasp unless you’re used to it already.
The first time I made charcoal was when I came to this world. Back in my past life, I neither had the environment nor time for it, so I always just looked on in awe whenever I saw people making it in television or in the internet. When I first tried it out myself, there were a lot of times when I carelessly burned everything in the furnace or the opposite case where the fire died before the wood could become charcoal.
But I’ve already gotten used to it by now. I know from experience that the smoke will still change some more, so I can just watch for now and wait.
“…I need to get stronger.” [Ryouma]
I have to go to the Great Shurus Forest. Gathering information and hunting monsters is fine and all, but it’s hard to say that just that would be enough. Isn’t there something else I could do? I doubt I could get through the forest with a hasty preparation, so I figure I might as well try to improve my skills.
To that end, I thought of four possible aspects where I could improve myself in.
One was equipment.
I mainly fight using my body and my weapons, so providing myself a set of good weapons and armor should help but. But this is pretty basic…
The second candidate is to develop and train my magic.
Frankly, I’m not very good at offensive magic. Despite my All-Attribute Affinity trait, an adventurer that specializes in magic is still far and above me. There’s no other way to it. I have to train myself and slowly learn the techniques.
But I have an advantage from my previous life. If I use that, I might be able to come up with new spells. Only, I don’t exactly know how I’m going to accomplish that. I need information on the environment oft the Great Shurus Forest too, so I guess I really need to rely on the guild’s information.
The third candidate is research on medicine and poison.
I received medical knowledge when I came to this world. I haven’t used it for anything other than medicine, but I should be able to make poison too. The slimes are experts in poison and medicine too, so they can definitely help. Also, I should be able to procure the necessary ingredients right now by ordering them. If I choose this path, I’ll be able to add poison to my arsenal.
Grisiera-san, Fei-san, and Leelin-san are also around to consult.
The last candidate is the development of tools.
I don’t know if any of the tools I develop will be new to this world, but I could certainly bring some survival tools and convenient tools from my previous life to this world. If the tools already exist in this world, then that’s fine, but if not, then that will be my fortune. I don’t have any concrete plans yet… Ah.
I could hear the sound of metal from the distance.
“Did they fall again?” [Ryouma]
I wonder which one fell this time. I know both variants can’t get hurt by falling, but I’d really appreciate it if they could stop. I know they’re happy since they learned to roll and move quickly and all, but…?
“Wait a moment. Transforming their body into a ball is no different from the other slimes transforming parts of their bodies into tentacles. The only difference is that their body is made out of metal. If so, then…” [Ryouma]
Does this mean that they could change into other shapes too? Like a sword or a hammer? In the first place, the reason they learned to become a ball is because I rolled them up, so if I shape them into what I want them to transform themselves into and slowly train them, it should be possible.
The moment I realized that, I had to try it out.
I immediately called two types of slimes over and shaped the iron slime into a knife while keeping an eye on the furnace.
“Ohh! This can work! It definitely can!” [Ryouma]
Turning into a ball day after day seems to have improved the slimes’ abilities, and I was able to mold one into a rough shape after supporting it just a little. All that’s left now is for the finer details. I need to make the blade part thinner.
“I guess this can do for now?” [ryouma]
After shaping the slime, I ordered it not to move, then I tested it against a bundle of dried weeds.
“…I see.” [ryouma]
I’m definitely grinning right now.
The iron slime knife is terrible at cutting. There are too many parts in the blade that’s either thick or bent. If a store were to sell this, it would definitely be labeled a broken product.
But it was able to cut the bundle of weeds. That might not be wholly true, but it was definitely able to cut it; hence, if I am able to forge it into a better blade, if I am able to train the slimes and correct the mistakes, then they should be able to transform into a promising product.
“Let’s do this!” [Ryouma]
Like that I focused wholeheartedly in polishing the iron and metal slimes while keeping an eye out for the furnace.
As a result, the charcoal making was a failure.
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