Hen na Ryu to Moto Yuusha Party Zatsuyougakari, Shintairiku de Nonbiri Slow Life. - Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Base Making – Gathering Wood

As we discussed how we would build the houses, the other Adventurers landed.
Victor immediately gave the order for them to start cutting down trees.

“If you don’t hurry, you’ll have to sleep outdoors or on the ship tonight.”
“I’d hate that!”
“Yes. Let’s hurry.”

And so the Adventurers enthusiastically started to cut down the trees.
While they weren’t lumberjacks, they were quite respectable in their work.
That being said, it would be difficult securing enough wood to build six houses in just one day.

“Victor. Why don’t I make some temporary houses out of dirt?”
“Dirt?”
“Yes. I don’t think it’s possible to gather enough wood and build all of the houses before sun down.”
“I thought we could just build one or two and have everyone sleep on the floor for now…”

Victor’s suggestion was not a bad one.

“But if you used soil, we wouldn’t have to gather anything. Though, it might not be very comfortable…”

Soil wasn’t good for ventilation. And it was difficult to make windows. They were also weak against the rain.
However, if I made them with crafting magic, then they would be reinforced.
They wouldn’t just crumble out of nowhere.

“I see…”

As Victor thought about it seriously, Hippolius started to rub its head against me.
“What is it? Hippolius?”

I realized that Hippolius wanted to be pampered, and so I patted it on the head.

‘Theodore. Should Hippolius help too?’
“Could you help us gather wood?”
‘Yes. I just have to knock down trees?’
“No. They will be processed as timber, so breaking them like twigs won’t do.”
‘I see. Okay.’

Hippolius walked over to the root of a nearby thick tree.
Victor watched this and said,

“Indeed. But if we made houses out of dirt, we would have to take them down later…”
“That’s true. Perhaps it would be better to start with making something that will last longer…”

With all of this space we could probably gather enough timber to make six houses in about three days.
If we worked hard enough, maybe it could be done in two.

It was true that it would be rather inefficient to spend time creating a few earthen houses that would only be used for one or two nights, just to avoid having to sleep while huddled together like sardines.

Just then, Hippolius looked towards us and cried loudly.

“KYUUUUUUU!”
“What is it? Hippolius?”
‘Watch Hippolius knock down trees.’

Hippolius always wanted me to watch.

“Alright, I’ll watch you.”
“Kyu.”

Hippolius cried once and then its horns dug into the ground near the roots of the tree.
And then it pushed the trunk of the tree with its head. And like that, the tree was uprooted and fell over.

Victor was so surprised that he couldn’t move.
And so I explained it to him.

“I think that Hippolius was using magic at the same time while uprooting the tree.”
“How does that work?”
“I think that it shot magic from its horns that severed the thick roots.”

Once the roots of the tree were severed, Hippolius’s strength would be enough to knock it down.

“Kyu?”
“Hippolius, that was amazing!”

I praised. Hippolius wagged its big, long tail happily.
It would have taken at least ten people to carry a tree of that size, but Hippolius grabbed it with its mouth and ran towards me.

“Thank you. You’re a great help.”

I said with a pat. Hippolius purred very happily.

‘I’ll bring you some more!’
“Thank you.”

Victor watched Hipplius running energetically and said,

“What is Hippolius? These Sea Hippos are very strange…”
“I don’t know.”

I understood why he had questions. There were not many monsters out there who could use magic.

“Ah, Sea Hippopotamuses. They are, in fact, a new breed of dragon.”

Explained Kelly, who had suddenly appeared next to us.

“A dragon? Perhaps you are right?”
“What? Does it not shock you, Theo?”
“When I tamed Hippolius, the amount of magic energy that was taken away was similar to that of a high ranking dragon.”

At that point, I knew that Hippolius was a monster that was on the same level.

“What! You should have told me that sooner!”
“I’m sorry about that.”

After that, Kelly told us about the results of her observations.
It was her understanding that Hippolius was a kind of scaleless land dragon.

“A land dragon? But it was in the sea?”
“Sea dragons don’t have feet, but fins. While land dragons have feet but no wings.”

Apparently, that was how monsterologists categorized them.
But no matter what category it was in, Hippolius was Hippolius.
So it didn’t really matter to me.

Even as we talked about it, Hippolius continued to knock down trees and bring them to us.
Hippolius could knock down ten trees in the amount of time it took the Adventurers to do three.
Now only that, but Hippolius was carrying the ones that the Adventurers had cut down.

“Thank you, Hippolius! It’s a great help!”
“Kyu-kyu!”

Hippolius’s tail wagged happily when the Adventurers expressed their gratitude.
Clearly, this hippo liked to work.

And so I decided to start building the houses, now that we had gathered some wood.