Volume 2 Chapter 10.2

Volume 2 Chapter 10.2

「So what kind of monster was this squirrel anyway?」

「Remember all the squirrels we beat down on our way here fer dinner? Them there squirrels’re like two meters tall. They seemed to have a colony of about a hundred so I made sure to catch the whole herd with one pom.」

「That was quite the sight to behold……」

「But ain’t it efficient?」

Her comment practically disregarded, Archem could only make a dry, awkward smile. She was particularly well-suited to attack these unusual monsters, and yet they had been defeated without even giving her a chance to shine. Of course she would feel a little desolate.

「By the way, the meat’s edible but the innards’re a little odd with their usage ‘n the bones ain’t really suited fer soup stock so I left ‘em. Now, the pelt seemed like it could fetch a purty penny so I made sure to take all the safe parts.」

Everyone just stared dumbfounded at Hiroshi for his insistence on stripping monsters of everything they had. Makoto and Mio had also obtained some slime mold from the midboss, but they hadn’t taken away nearly that much. Haruna and Tatsuya, on the other hand, never made an effort to gather anything from monsters.

「I took a buncha other stuff too so it’s work when we git back.」

「Speaking of ingredients, how much can you make using evil ent oak?」

「Right, so if ya want a bow, it’d be 3 ranks higher than that of a hunter tree. Then in terms of furniture, you could use that stuff fer a thousand years.」

Presently, the only wood-made weapons in their team were bows, whereas every other wood item tended to be furniture or tools. If they got their hands on better metals, then they would have to also get good wood supplies for hatchet or ax handles, but as of right now, there wasn’t any problem with regular wood material. Haruna’s rapier or Makoto’s longsword happened to have metallic handles, with leather wrapped around the grips without any wood whatsoever. Tatsuya’s staff was a short iron weapon that was refined with a high magical frequency, so that one also used no wood.

「Speaking of wood, do you think we could make a loom？」

「Sure we can, but we’d hafta seriously strengthen auto-repair and resistance about three times. Only after two days can we even manage to make enough spirit cloth for a set of clothing.」

Spirit thread had always been a concern in terms of storage. Haruna had been wondering how to produce more, but all she got was an unsatisfactory answer.

「Incidentally, how much time does it take to make them?」

「If it’s just weavin’ then ‘bout 10 minutes. They get purty darn worn out durin’ that time so the rest of that time is used fer repairs.」

「……Yeah, I dunno if it’s worth it.」

「Yup, might not be. If ya mess up on shuttles, it’s not like ya keep ‘em. Plus it ain’t exactly carrying size.」

It was truly a bothersome affair striving to go after the highest quality materials. Come to think of it, there had been similar issues with processing magical steel, so it was probably reasonable that trying to process superior materials using tools made from inferior materials would end up this way.

「Anyhow, I’ll think ‘bout what to make after we git back to the village. Right now we gotta eat.」

「Yeah.」

Simply agreeing with Hiroshi’s words of postponement, they said “itadakimasu” and then got straight to eating. Other than the seasoning used, it was a simple meal that anyone could make, but its simplicity was precisely what gave it its delicious flavor. Surely the oktogarls must still be making a racket, but when they looked, the oktogarls had suddenly gone off to their posts, not leaving a single trace of them behind.

「You know, if they didn’t play tricks on us, those kids would be pretty great kids.」

「They are great kids, as long as you don’t mention anything weird in an association game.」

As expected of a god’s pets, their nature was truly benign. Although they spoke in annoying tones and were oddly mischievous when it came to their curiosity, their pranks were more on the level of something a dog or cat might do, so there were usually no problems if you just let it slide.

「But wow, this squirrel meat is delicious.」

「Just keep in mind this might not taste the same as them real life varmints.」

「True.」

Hiroshi and Haruna were reminded of all sorts of actual things whose appearance and taste were quite different, adding in their own unnecessary comments in response to Archem’s exclamation. As she listened to what they said, Archem still couldn’t help but think that both the appearance and taste were superb in this case, so she was happy. Thanks to plenty of tasty food and newly discovered wheat shochu, Makoto’s mood improved just a bit.

「Kinda looks rusty, mate.」

「It has been thirty years after all～」

The next morning, Hiroshi and Archem let out their honest impressions of the temple they had finally arrived at, Aranwen Temple. Thirty years ago, it had been dangerous to even get through this back entrance to the temple, so as a result, the temple maintenance had become sloppy over the years. This temple had been built using both wooden and stone materials, so it had become quite a sight to behold with all the surrounding vegetation infiltrating it.

「……Alright then. We came all the way here, so in addition to havin’ Haruna-san ‘n Mio train, how ‘bout we repair some things on a grander scale?」

「Wha？」

Haruna exclaimed in a parched voice at Hiroshi’s sudden change of plans. She had certainly not expected him to discuss something like that over here.

「Uhh, are we doing it right now？」

「Well yeah, it’d be a darn drag to try it later, mate.」

「Wait, we’re the ones doing this?」

「I just get the itches when I see this sorta thing, mate.」

Haruna and Mio let out a simultaneous sigh at Hiroshi’s total switch.

「Sure, we can do it, but do we have enough ingredients?」

「Pffft, we got plenty o’those suckers from Bro huntin’ them monsters. And besides…」

「Besides？」

「It’s practically assured that we’ll always have enough hunter tree ingredients.」

Tatsuya simply agreed with Hiroshi’s persuasive words, not having the strength to argue. After all, just from the large amount of natural wood obtained from fighting hunter tree bosses, they had essentially over thirty large trees. They would unmistakably have tons left. It wasn’t all that large of a temple, so they could easily repair it with what they had.

「And can we actually use the ones that Archem dried?」

「Well, sure ya could.」

「In that case, I guess it’s fine.」

「Alright, so let’s git started on the operation after the ritual. First, we gotta check the status while measurin’ the dimensions.」

After making various offerings at the altar and conducting a simple ritual, Hiroshi took out a tape measure-looking device and went around checking the area. Following suit, Haruna and Mio began measuring the area fairly accurately. Tatsuya and Makoto had time to kill, but doing nothing wasn’t exactly their style, so they began doing things like pulling the grass surrounding the temple or cleaning around. Archem simply helped out wherever it was needed.

「Archem-san, couldja hold this down real quick?」

「Kaaay」

「And after yer done with that, couldja help support this lumber?」

「All right.」

Matching Hiroshi’s rough diagram, everyone briskly worked on the project. They had quickly given up on dealing with the big tree piercing through the temple, instead using it as a part of the building. After removing sections of pillars or walls that had corroded and hammering in hunter tree stumps that had been processed for preservation, they put in several varieties of reinforced steel and strengthened the aforementioned areas before hardening them with makeshift water-repellent cement.

Next, after leaving the minimum framework and repairing the pillars, they took everything out from the roof and wall, bundling the pillars together in order to install them and strengthen the right locations. In order to prevent water flowing up from the ground, they had filled in the gaps up to a certain depth with stones and gravel, once again hardening them with the makeshift cement. Once they had finished that, they hardened the boards made from hunter trees without using any nails, finally getting the temple in order.

While everyone could of course install the fixtures, Hiroshi was as usual the only one able to process the fixtures in question. Consequently, the installation instructions were given by Hiroshi, while everyone else moved accordingly. The oktogarls, who had been off somewhere else while everyone was moving to the temple, had suddenly come back and began working on the roof and all the high areas, which was truly a big help for the Japanese people. After the distribution of the planks had ended and they made some finishing touches to the roof to prevent leakage during rainfall, spreading rot prevention liquid over its entirety. At last, the temple maintenance had been completed.