Fearsome Farmer - Chapter 56

Chapter 56: Strategy for Building a Well

If a map of Li Siwen’s territory was drawn, the location of the treehouse was definitely the center and heart of the territory, and also the highest spot in the territory. When during the flood last time, the maximum water level it reached was still three meters lower than the treehouse. This was a huge advantage.

However, when it comes to digging a well, this advantage became a disadvantage.

50 meters south of the treehouse was the five acres of farmland he cultivated. 50 meters east from the farmland was a huge lone tree that required five people to hug. At least for now, Li Siwen didn’t plan on cutting it down.

Now, with his hands behind his hand, Li Siwen walked back and forth between the treehouse and the farmland, observing and considering, then finally deciding to dig the well at a spot 20 meters from the farmland. It didn’t matter if he could dig out the water; it was more important that the strategy location was correct.

Sticking his shovel into this spot, Li Siwen walked 20 meters towards the treehouse, leaving a distance of 10 meters between him and the treehouse.

“I can build a brick kiln here. If possible, I must continue to build and extend the treehouse to cover this spot too. However, if the bricks are not made by mixing rebar in it, the hardness will be too poor. Therefore, I have to build a solid stone wall around the tree house first.”

“Yup, no point thinking too much on it, better start working.”

Li Siwen went to the well digging spot and started digging with the shovel. With his 24 points in strength now, the shovel was as light as a toothpick to him. He easily flung away the soil he dug out dozens of meters away. This was also why he could easily dig five-meter deep moats. He was simply—too remarkable.

Ha, let’s not talk about it, it would easily expose his king-like mannerism.

Actually, a matter like digging required technique too. When Li Siwen dug four to five meters deep and still didn’t see water, he instantly climbed out and carried over five 10 meters long, bucket thick logs. Then, he smashed them down into the hole, and tied shorter logs to them horizontally, to form a fence. He knew stuff about collapse prevention.

Then, he continued to dig deeper, waving the shovel at a rapid speed, throwing out shovel after shovels of soil. The hole visibly became deeper.

Finally, when it was about seven to eight meters deep, mud appeared. Li Siwen instantly breathed a sigh of relief. Could he reveal that he was panicking too?

Of course not.

He stopped digging and climbed out of the hole. Then, he carried over dozens of stones weighing 100 to 150 kilograms from the valley and threw down some of them into the hole before he went inside again.

He laid the stones into a circle and continued digging again. More and more mud appeared, and when the stones were submerged in mud and he couldn’t dig out any more mud and only muddy water was left, he stopped. Climbing out of the hole, he threw the remaining stones inside and laid them against the logs he smashed down. It formed a simple well.

In total, he used about five hours.

25 Stamina Points were depleted—perfect.

Resting for an hour at noon and recovering all of his stamina, Li Siwen continued to carry some more stones over from the valley, throwing them into the well and placing them against the edges, at the same smashing down more logs.

Basically, it didn’t matter that the technique was poor. Great strength creates miracles!

During the evening, a slightly ‘ugly’ square-shaped well was successfully made. Li Siwen threw back some soil, made it compact, and everything was settled.

Having no time to be pleased with himself, Li Siwen started thinking about the problem of obtaining water from it.

First, he needed a pail. But embarrassingly, he didn’t know the legendary wooden bucket making skill, and if he wanted to make one through pottery, he would need to continue waiting.

“Let’s check the situation of the well first. If the water quality is okay, at least I need not collect dew water anymore.”

Next, making use of the remaining evening light, Li Siwen went to the farmland and did the daily weeding and loosening of the soil. This was basic work that he couldn’t skip or miss.

After weeding, he did the daily routine of catching grasshoppers and rats, finding bird eggs, digging wild vegetables, and killing mosquitoes.

The effort he spent in this routine not only determined how much food he could have for dinner but was currently also an important source of Spirit Points.

When it was about 10 PM or so at night, Li Siwen finally returned to the treehouse and had dinner, which couldn’t make him full.

As for the dry fish and pork, that wasn’t something to be easily used. He only had some not so perfectly dried ones during breakfast and lunch.

Once they were fully dried, he would stock them to eat during winter.

Up to this point, Li Siwen had stocked up 200 kilograms of dried meat, 500 kilograms of dried fish, and 25 kilograms of dried mushroom. These were all important strategic reserve materials. He would stock count them once per day to check for mold or imperfect drying.

During the day, he would use the stove to burn some stalks and leaves from the anti-inflammatory grass to smoke them.

This was mainly to prevent insects. When burned, the stalks and leaves of the anti-inflammatory grass would give off a fresh and bitter smell that had a miraculous effect on repelling insects.

Basically, he would definitely not allow insects to eat his dried meat and fish!

Other than that, the fire would also get rid of moisture in the treehouse. After all, the treehouse was newly built and there were a few rainstorms these past few days. The humidity was inevitable.

“Therefore, after making the bricks successfully, I must make more tiles to prevent rainwater from leaking inside. If not, no matter how good I store them, the dried meat will also become moldy!”

Li Siwen solemnly thought to himself. He must do his best regarding protecting the safety of his food.

After thinking for a while about the development matters of the territory and possible flaws, he put out the fire in the stove, closed the skylight, and extracted one Spirit Point.

This was something that he did every night. The side effect of adding one Spirit Point to Spirit Development was slightly weaker. Stacking up the progress every day, he would be able to bring the Spirit Development to 50% quickly.

After some pain, he quickly entered dreamland.

Maybe it was because of the increase in Spirit Development, Li Siwen only slept for about five hours and woke up spirited.

It was about four or five in the morning now. He would collect dew water at this timing every day, and today was no exception.

Because the water in the well still needed some time to become clear. However, he didn’t need to collect too much dew, the well water would probably be drinkable by noon.

Also, the process of collecting dew was also the process of him doing his patrol of the territory. At the same time, he could also practice his spatial judgment, so he could achieve the stage of closing his eyes and still walk freely in his territory in the future.

Basically, out of heaven, earth, and human factor, he had already controlled one factor now.

As per usual, he lighted up the two stoves and threw in some stalks. Then, he carried the mountain axe, brought two water gourds, went out of the treehouse, and started collecting dew water.

About an hour later, the two water gourds were full. Just as he prepared to straighten up his body and stretch, something suddenly flew out from a bush a few meters in front. Its speed was very fast. When he just caught sight of it, it had already come right in front of him.

Subconsciously, Li Siwen hurriedly stepped half a step back, turning sideways to protect his vitals, and punched out like lightning, knocking this thing onto the ground.

This set of movements flowed like water, originating from the result of his spatial judgment and his Stable talent.

However, before he could start being pleased, a sharp sense of pain came from his fist.

“What the heck! It’s poisonous?”

Li Siwen was slightly shocked. Looking towards the ground, he saw a black insect only 30 centimeters long. It looked like a scorpion on the outside, but it had wings. It was fully black and it looked hideous and evil.

This was something he had never seen before in his territory.