By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 22

Chapter 3 Episode 22: Making Charcoal

I decided to use the entirety of the next day looking after the mine and making charcoal. I had been using my stockpile of charcoal thus far, but it was starting to run out. If I didn’t produce more before it was all gone, I wouldn’t have any to feed to the deodorant slime. The weeds I had harvested the other day were starting to look good, so it was about time to use them. We had a number of consecutive days without rain, so while I had planned to finish drying the weeds with alchemy, they turned out to be fully dried already.

I raked the weeds into a pile with my recently purchased pitchfork. By sending magical energy into a metal fixture on the handle, this tool automatically triggered the Physical Enhancement spell. It made the pitchfork feel weightless in my hands, as if it had disappeared. It made the job of piling up the weeds into a breeze. Particularly when I shoved the pile into my Dimension Home, it was so much simpler than it could have been. It was actually pretty fun.

Next, I wanted to harvest some weeds to be used for next time. I reached into my Item Box and pulled out the scythe. These had a tendency to be used as weapons in light novels, but this was a farming tool. It looked like a one-handed sickle but bigger. Sticking out of the handle, there were two rods that ran parallel with the blade. They each had a metal fixture like the pitchfork did, so I grabbed the scythe by those rods and held it parallel to the ground. I kept the blade facing forward and let it rest on the ground. I had never used a scythe before, but I was pretty sure this was right. I pushed my right hand forward and pulled my left hand back. The blade just pushed past most of the weeds, but a few were cut, so this seemed to be correct. The rest would come down to practice.

After an hour of trial and error, I was gradually getting more efficient. The most important part was the arc of the blade, much like when wielding a katana. When swinging, it was better to focus on the twisting of the hips than on the arms. All my arms had to do was maintain their grip. The part that hit the weeds also needed close to the tip of the blade. As long as I kept these tips in mind, the blade easily cut through the plants. Twisting my hips as I swung also gave me more range per swing. One-handed sickles only let you cut the plants right by you, so this was more efficient and more fun. It was a pretty solid purchase.

I decided to stop harvesting weeds for now and instead chop down some trees near the base of the mountain so I could have some wood for the charcoal. This, of course, called for the magic axe. Axes are fairly heavy, which is why they can exert such force, but thanks to the magic item applied to this axe, it could be easily wielded without removing any of the weight. I personally found these sorts of spells much more useful than offensive magic.

I wanted about four or five trees, which would have to be cut down and then carried to the mine. Then I would just need to chop off all the branches, cut them down into more usable chunks, and burn them. But then I noticed that the sun had risen to its apex and thought it might be a good time to take a break and have lunch.

Just then, I heard a sound. I stepped to the side, and a moment later, an iron ball flew right past my head. I told the iron ball, which happened to be my iron slime, to be more careful. It responded by sitting in place and not moving at all. When I told it that it could go, it went up the path to the mine, turned back into a ball, and rolled back down.

My iron and metal slimes had grown in unexpected ways as of late. I noticed it when they attended me to slay monsters around the mine. They seemed to have learned to turn into balls when I petted them. We practiced it for a while, and the metal slimes figured it out first, then the iron slimes. I just thought it meant that I was getting better at training them, but a few days later, the metal and iron slimes figured out how to freely roll around in ball form. After some research, I found that while their bodies were made of hard, heavy metal, their cores could swiftly move around inside, so the core could adjust their center of gravity and send them tumbling in the intended direction. I think it all started from a coincidence, but it led to them learning a faster way to move. They were the slowest of my slimes before, but now they were among the fastest. Not only that, but they both learned a new skill called Rapid Movement. They were only fast on flat surfaces or downward slopes, though. If they tried to climb a hill, gravity would force them back down. The slimes seemed to find that fun, however, and they spent a lot of time going up and down hills. Sometimes they would accidentally be sent flying, like what just happened. And they were made of metal, so that was pretty dangerous. Also, the abundant food I fed my metal and iron slimes caused them to increase in number day after day. All of them learned to roll. I considered trying to set up a course for them to roll through somewhere around the mine at some point.

■ ■ ■

After lunch, it was finally time to make the charcoal. First, I stuffed chunks of wood into the furnace, then piled the dried weeds and chopped branches on top. Next, I ignited the plants with a magic item for lighting fires that Dinome gave me for free. It placed a fair amount of distance between the user and the fire, making it easy to use. After that, I waited at the entrance for the heat to spread throughout the furnace. Eventually, white smoke began to rise up the chimney. I kept waiting until the billowing smoke became transparent and a little blue. Once the smoke had changed, I blocked up the chimney and entrance with rocks and red clay to limit the airflow. It was easier said than done thanks to how precise the timing needed to be.

I only started making charcoal after I came to this world. On Earth I didn’t have enough time or the right environment to do it, so I could only watch how-to videos online or on TV and wish that I could try it one day. Those memories were the only information I had to go on, so I had accidentally let the fire go too long or put it out too early several times. By now, I had gotten it down. I knew from experience that it would still take a while before the smoke changed, so I could take my time watching it. It got a bit boring just standing around, though.

I started to think about how to get ready for my trip to the Sea of Trees of Syrus. I planned on collecting information and slaying monsters to prepare already, but it was hard to say that would be enough. A half-hearted effort probably wasn’t going to cut it, and I wanted to polish my skills. I thought of four different ways I could get ready for the journey.

First, I could enhance my equipment. I primarily fought in close combat, so I wanted good weapons and armor. This idea was pretty basic.

Second, I could practice magic and develop new spells. Daily life spells were one thing, but my offensive magic capabilities honestly weren’t that great. I could use every element, but an experienced adventurer with magic as their focus could do a lot more than that. All I could do to improve was train. One thing that did give me an advantage, though, was my knowledge from Earth. That could potentially help to create some useful spells. I needed to learn what spells I would actually want and what kind of environment I’d be fighting in, however, so I had to wait until I got the documents from the guild.

Third, I could research medicine and poison. When I arrived in this world, I received knowledge of medicine. I only ever used it to create beneficial drugs thus far, but it could also be used to make poison. My poison and medicine slimes could also help. If I acted now, I could order all the materials I needed and get them quickly enough. Creating poison to be used in combat might be worthwhile. Thankfully I could ask Glissela, Fay, and Lilyn for advice about this.

Fourth, I could develop new items. Or maybe ‘new’ wasn’t the right word for it, but I could make survival tools and such from Earth that might help, assuming that they could be recreated from materials in this world. If it was something that already existed here, then that would be fine too, but if it didn’t and it’d be of use to people here, I could do a lot with it. I had no concrete ideas for what to make, however.

I heard a loud, metallic sound from far away. An iron or metal slime must have fallen again. I knew that falling didn’t harm them, so I wasn’t that worried about it, but I wished that they would try not to do it so much. I knew that their newfound ability to travel quickly made them happy and excited, but still. Then it occurred to me that this transformation was similar to how other slimes could sprout tentacles. Since they were made of metal, maybe it would be possible for these slimes to sprout blades or other weapons. If I could teach them to roll into balls, I assumed I could teach them to take on other shapes too. Now I had to give it a try.

I called the metal and iron slimes over and kept an eye on the furnace as I tried getting the iron slime to form a knife. It looked like this would work. After becoming a ball for days in a row, the slime itself appeared to have improved its skills. By guiding it with my hand, it didn’t take long to get it into the approximate shape I wanted. All that remained was to hammer out the finer details and make the blade thinner. Once I was done, I commanded the slime to sit still, then saw if I could use it to chop a bundle of dried weeds. When I saw the results, I could tell I had a dopey grin on my face.

The iron slime knife’s blade was phenomenally poor and did not cut well. It was uneven and twisted in some places. If this were to be sold at a store, it would be the cheapest of trash. With that said, it still managed to cut the bundle of weeds. I sort of had to use the blade like a saw to get it all the way through, but the end result was the same. If I could make this blade sharper and iron out the kinks, I thought I might have something here. As I waited for the charcoal to finish, I continued to polish the iron and metal slimes. I very nearly messed up and left the charcoal burning too long, but thankfully noticed in time.