Shelter Construction Complete

Having spoken up to this point, the trio was pretty much informed on Kirou's proposal and now all that was left was for them to think it over on their own. Kirou wasn't in a rush to receive their answers so he gave them some time to think it over.

After everyone enjoyed another cup of tea, Kirou and the rest decided to end their break and started heading back to the surface. The girls had to go back to refining medicine and finding herbs to do so. As for the guys, Mistaken Fox had to go back and join his Stone Axe Minotaur in digging while Kirou had a construction project of his own.

The five players took a little over ten minutes to get back to the surface. By the time they got to the top, the group was greeted by the sight of all the NPCs resting. It looked like the former bandits were taking rests in shifts, giving those still digging more space to work and to ensure that the digging never truly stopped for too long.

Seeing everyone like this, a smile formed on Kirou's face as he began setting out some tables and chairs for them. Along with this, he also placed some snacks and tea on the tables as well.

When the former bandits saw this, they flocked to the tables and took a seat wherever free before sampling the snacks. If the delighted expressions were anything to go by, Kirou could positively say that these NPCs were satisfied with his creations.

With the NPCs now relaxing, Kirou decided that it was time to make good on his earlier promise. After summoning out Asura, Kirou made his way over to one of the various dirt piles on the surface. Looking over the pile for a few moments and checking his inventory, Kirou realized that he'll need a bit of wood. It's a good thing that he was currently situated next to a vast forest.

Removing an axe from his inventory that was giving off a faint blue-ish glow, Kirou went to work in chopping down a few trees. Following this, he used the axe to chop up the trees even further, turning them in planks of varying sizes before he finally obtained a suitable amount.

Satisfied with his work, Kirou then used the newly obtained planks and formed a few dozen rectangular moulds, each about the size of a standard brick on in reality. With the moulds now complete, Kirou then turned his eyes towards Asura that was looking at the moulds with a bit of curiosity.

Kirou smiled at this sight but said nothing as he summoned out three shadow clones, each equipped with a shovel or pickaxe. Asura then watched as Kirou and his clones got to work in breaking down the dirt piles and filling up the moulds with dirty. By the time all the moulds were filled, Asura was now looking at Kirou in confusion.

Seeing this confusion, Kirou finally decided to speak to his pet as he ran a hand through the badger mole cub's fur, "I want you to reinforce the piles of dirt in those wooden moulds until it matches that block you lifted out earlier. You think you can do that, Asura?"

Although Asura had no idea why its master was giving it such a strange request, it nodded its head slightly, enjoying its master's gentle touch, before going over to the mould. In less than a few seconds, all the moulds that were holding loose dirt were now housing solid blocks of earth.

A peculiar smile formed on Kirou's face when he saw this. While he wasn't expecting Asura to be able to reinforce these blocks to match the earth beneath his feet, it seems that his pet had done just that.

Going over to one of the moulds and examining the block inside it, the smile on Kirou's face grew bigger as he spoke up once more, "Can you lift out all of these blocks and stack them on the side?"

Once again, Asura looked at Kirou with a confused expression before doing exactly as Kirou asked, using its earth control to remove all the earth blocks from the moulds and stacking them next to the dirt pile. Kirou watched all of this happen and nodded his head before he and his clones went back to filling the moulds.

As Kirou and his clones went back to work, the others in the area took a glance at what he was doing. No one had any idea what Kirou had in mind with this but they decided to reserve their opinions until Kirou was done. As for the girls, since the blocks were designed based on their real-world counterparts, they had an idea of what he was planning but they chose to keep quiet about it as well.

As for Kirou, seeing how gifted Asura was in manipulating earth, he thought Asura could build a cottage for housing the NPCs directly but he quickly decided against such an action. If the extraction of that giant block of earth earlier was anything to go by, while Asura could have a cottage rise from the ground as is, structural stability was the least of the problems he would have to worry about with that cottage.

Just thinking of the potential problems that could crop up as a result made Kirou shudder just thinking about it. With that, he decided to take it nice and slow with his construction. Besides, him doing it this way gives him plenty of materials for future use and helps to raise his architectural skill.

And like that, Kirou and his clones went about filling up each mould with dirt from the various piles while Asura pitched in with reinforcing them into blocks and stacking them up. This carried on for so long that the group of NPCs that was rest had already changed shifts with the ones that were digging earlier.

*******

A few hours later, Kirou and his clones were now sitting with their backs to a few large piles of blocks. Through the diligent work of Kirou, his three clones, and Asura, the various piles of dirt on the surface had been reduced to just two. The remaining two were formed by the dirt currently being excavated from underground at the moment.

With the number of blocks behind him, Kirou had more than enough to build the shelter that he promised Warrior Jackson at the start. That being said, even though it is just a game, Kirou himself was suffering from fatigue after working for so long. With them being clones of him with lower stats, Kirou's clones weren't fairing any better and were currently sprawled out on the floor. As for Asura, it was currently messing around with some dirt and the moulds Kirou used to create the blocks.

Kirou and his clones rested for a bit before some energy finally returned to their bodies. Seeing the sorry states that they were in, Kirou allowed his clones to rest a bit longer while he himself stood up and removed a building blueprint from his inventory.

Looking over the blueprint and scrutinizing it for a few minutes, a smile naturally formed on Kirou's face. The reason behind this smile was that Kirou came up with a few ways in which he could complete the design without relying on the usual important steps. That being said, he still has to do it right or there will be consequences.

After waiting for a few more minutes, Kirou's clones were finally rested enough to stand up properly and were now awaiting Kirou's instructions. Kirou glanced at them slightly before turning to face an open area.

Just as he had done with the previous giant block of earth, Kirou removed a sword from his inventory and started drawing out a shape on the floor. When Kirou was done, he replaced the sword in his inventory and had Asura remove the earth inside the marked area down to three feet.

Looking over the empty space created by the badger mole cub, a smile formed on Kirou's face as he spoke out loud, "Ok, boys. Let's get to work. For now, just setting up the walls and support beams will be enough."

And like that, Kirou and his clones got to work in laying out the blocks in their designated areas. Asura looked at this and wanted to help but Kirou stopped him, saying that his chance would be coming soon enough.

Roughly half an hour later, Kirou and his clones had managed to set up all the walls and support beams for the housing area. It looked less than a professional construction project and more along the lines of a Tetris wall. That said, it was good enough for Kirou's plan.

With this part out of the way, Kirou then turned towards Asura and spoke, "Ok, Asura. Reinforce all of those structures like you did with the blocks earlier."

Once again Asura adopted a confused expression while staring at its owner before it did as it was told. It got the feeling that its owner was being weird... er, weirder than usual today. Although Asura had no problems with reinforcing these walls, it still took a toll on the badger mole cub to do so over a large area.

After Asura was done and off to the side resting, Kirou went over to the walls and support beams to examine them. If this was off by even a single centimetre, Kirou and his clones would have had to destroy these walls and start again. Luckily for him, there were no deviations with Asura's work.

Satisfied with the work on the walls, Kirou then turned his focus towards the roof of this cottage. He decided to make sure the walls and support beams were in place first before he started on the roof.

Before Kirou started on the roof, however, he got some blocks and laid them next to each other before speaking to Asura, "Can you fuse these blocks into a single slab, Asura?"

The badger mole cub didn't even bother to question Kirou's motives and just directly went ahead in combining the blocks into a slab. After doing this, the badger mole cub just walked over to the construct and awaited Kirou's orders.

Kirou got two clones to transport and place the recently created slab on a section of the roof and he watched as Asura just went ahead and reinforced the slab to the walls it was placed on.

After checking for any faults with the recent additions, Kirou nodded his head slightly before heading back to the piles of blocks. Kirou did some calculations and laid out the various blocks in the shapes he wanted for them to be combined.

He didn't even have to call over Asura to do the fusion as the pet came over on its own and fused all the blocks into the shapes Kirou wanted before heading back to the construct. Kirou could see that Asura pretty much knew what he should be doing now so he didn't need to waste any time in giving it any orders and could focus on the task at hand.

Like that, Kirou lined up the blocks, Asura fused them into slabs, the clones transported and set the slabs on the roof and Asura fused them to the construct. This went on for over an hour and finally, the finished product was presented to Kirou's eyes.

Kirou entered the construct, searching every nook and cranny he could find in the rooms on the inside before doing the same to the outside of the building. Feeling satisfied with his findings, Kirou and his clones got to work in laying down the flooring for the interior of the construct.

Roughly half an hour later, Kirou and his clones were done laying down the flooring and having Asura reinforce them. After a final inspection of the completed project, a smile naturally formed on Kirou's face as he looked at the newly constructed 'Stone Cottage' sitting before him.

It was about three sizes bigger than the ones found in Elderwood Village. Looking over the finished product, Kirou was satisfied with his work. Just as he was about to go find Warrior Jackson, Kirou heard a sound from behind.

*Whistle*

Kirou turned around to see Warrior Jackson getting an eyeful of the newly constructed stone cottage. The was a big grin on Warrior Jackson's face as he spoke, "I don't know how you did it so fast, lad, but this is a very nice cottage you've built."

There was a smile on Kirou's face as he spoke, "Consider it yours then. I've made it big enough to accommodate you and your men until I'm able to build more places for you on the surface or until we finish digging out the first floor and renovating it."