Chapter 29 – 30

Chapter 29 – I had water pipes made!

"Is this…a hot spring!?"

As Fule asked the question, the sounds of rushing water echoed throughout the cave.

There was a small hole in the spot that I was digging, and hot water was flowing out of it.

"Hot spring? That's like a natural bath, right?"

I asked. Fule nodded cheerfully.

"Yes! There was a hot spring in our homeland. That's where everyone would go to bathe!"

According to Fule, the Berdan goblins bathed there every day.

I had noticed that the goblins liked to stay clean more than most. So, there was a reason for that…

"Huh… If we use this properly, it would mean we don't have to use magic water anymore. And it won't be cold either…"

However, what was happening underground?

Was there a lot of hot water being stored below…

Was it connected to the sea?

No, as far as I knew, the sea didn't get this hot…

In any case, the last thing I wanted was to dig into the sea.

Though, it was likely that Cave King's support features would help me avoid that…

But more importantly…wouldn't the cave become flooded if the water kept coming out like this?

Then Erevan called from behind me.

"Ah! What a wonderful thing you've discovered, Chief!"

"Yeah. But I think we'll have to inspect it to make sure it's safe to drink or bathe in… Ah…"

Once again, a man who was boldly willing to be a test subject had appeared.

Before I could tell him to stop, the man, who was indeed Mappa, started to drink the hot water.

I prepared to use healing magic, just in case… But Mappa did not collapse this time.

If anything, he seemed to like the taste, as he smiled and drank more of it.

So, I suppose it did not have any harmful effects after all.

Though, it was also possible that there were less immediate effects that were still harmful.

And so I used a spell called Extraction, which detected poison.

"…It seems like there is no poison either. Haines."

I turned to look at the kobold who was behind me.

Haines had a very good sense of smell.

Yesterday, I had been told that he had the 'Hunter' crest, and was also very skilled as an archer.

But more importantly, 'Hunter' enhanced your ability to differentiate between smells.

And kobolds already had sharp noses from birth, so Haines was known as the best hunter in the Tibris tribe.

"Can you smell anything strange?"

"No, there is nothing odd in particular… But, uh. With Mister Mappa here… Uh, never mind. I didn't mean to be rude."

Haines seemed like he wanted to say something but stopped.

I knew what it was.

Mappa was made to bathe regularly, but he sweated more than anyone since he was a blacksmith.

It wasn't so bad for us, but the smell would probably come off more strongly to kobolds because of their noses.

Well, that was just another reason that we should make a hot spring.

"I see… So it's harmless after all. But how can I do this…"

Turn it into a well that we could draw water from?

But we would have to constantly be taking water out or it would cause a flood.

Would it be possible to make something like the raised aqueducts in the royal capital?

However, those slowly carried water down from the mountains.

It would be difficult to carry water upwards without using magic.

Even as I considered this, the water kept pouring into the room.

It was starting to reach my feet.

While I did not have high hopes, I decided to ask Mappa about it.

"Mappa, listen to me."

Mappa stopped drinking the water and turned to look at me.

"Would it be possible to carry this water out of here?"

I pointed at the water and then pointed towards the entrance of the cave.

Then Mappa folded his arms and seemed to think about it with a serious expression.

It wasn't that he didn't understand what I was trying to say. He was trying figure out how to accomplish it.

Finally, he nodded.

"Oh? You can do it?"

Mappa nodded again and gestured for me to follow him.

He led me back to the smithy.

Then he turned to me and started to hit different kinds of ore.

"Ore? Okay, wait a minute."

It seemed like he wanted me to give him some.

We had gotten to the point that we understood when the other person wanted something.

And so I took out the desired items from my Inventory.

As he wanted Stone Blocks, I made them with the workshop feature.

However, Mappa continued to slap different types of Iron Ore as if to say he didn't have enough.

And so I continued to give him Iron and Sand.

It seemed like he was going to use a lot of it…

Before I knew it, there was a mountain of Iron Ore beside us that was the size of a small shed.

I looked up in amazement at just how much we had mined. Then Mappa finally raised his hand for me to stop.

He then started to separate the ore by type.

And then just like he always did, he processed them into metal.

I never ceased to be amazed by his skill… When that hammer was in his grip, he looked like a legendary craftsman.

Well, maybe he was, in a way…

Fule and I could only gasp repeatedly as we watched him work.

And when the metal was ready, Mappa used several of his other tools to work on it even further.

He was making parts that I had never seen before.

Many of the pieces looked like round pillars that were about as tall as a person.

When I looked inside, they were hollow.

Mappa made a large number of these before wiping the sweat off his forehead with a sigh.

Then he picked one up as if it weighed nothing, and headed towards the cave.

I kind of felt bad that he was doing everything by himself…

And so I tried to pick up one of the pillars in order to help him…but it was too heavy to even lift.

"Oh! I'll help too!"

Said Fule and the surrounding monsters. But even with their help, we could barely get it off the ground.

And so it was determined to be impossible, and we let it down.

"It's too heavy for us… I know. Surely the Golems would be able to help?"

And so I ordered Shiel to go and call all of the Golems.

I then ordered them to carry the iron pillars, which they picked up without any problems.

"I guess we should just leave this kind of work to them from now on…"

"It makes me sad, but it's beyond what we can do…"

Fule agreed.

It was the same between humans as well, but everyone had their strengths and weaknesses.

And so it was important for everyone to do what they were good at.

"Well, there doesn't seem to be anything we can help with now… I suppose we should focus on gathering materials then."

"Yes. I'm sure Mister Mappa will come to us if anything happens."

And so Fule and I decided to leave the matter to Mappa and return to digging.

But I first ordered the Mithril Golem to help Mappa, and to tell the other Golems to do the same.

While I had never taught them anything, the Golems were able to understand my commands.

And so I thought that they could probably understand Mappa's will as well.

I had no idea if they really did understand, but either way, they started to carry the metal pillars down into the caves.

"Alright, we should go too… Huh?"

I looked around.

It seemed like the ground was shaking from the direction of the sea.

But when I looked towards the reclaimed ground, I saw that Rienna was watering the plants as if nothing had happened.

"Fule, did you feel that shake?"

"Huh? Shake? Maybe it was from the Golems walking?"

"I see… But I thought it was from the sea…"

While it was quite strange, I returned to the caves with Fule.

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Chapter 30 – We played in the water!!

"Ohh!"

I couldn't help but raise my voice.

After mining all day, I had walked through the branching passages and gone up the stairs that led to the cave's entrance.

What surprised me here, was that I could see the iron pipes along the walls.

These were the iron pillars that Mappa had been making.

There was something like a metal ring between each one that was keeping them fixed together.

Fule noticed them too, and said,

"I don't know what this is, but it looks amazing… I've never seen anything like it."

I had never seen anything like it either.

But since they had been hollow, I supposed the water was going to travel through them…

"Me too… But how will they carry the water?"

In any case, we would probably find out if we returned to the surface.

And so we continued to climb the stairs.

When we came outside, it was already nighttime.

However, the area around us was bright as it was lit by torches made with Shining Stones.

We didn't have to search for the others, because they were all noisily gathered together close to the cave.

And so walked over to them and pushed our way to the center.

That's when I saw Rienna and Baris.

And just as I thought, they were all looking at something that Mappa had made.

The end of the pipes that led out of the caves…it was a 'T-shaped' object that stood on the ground.

There was also something that looked like a wheel and levers nearby. That was where Mappa was standing.

Mappa then bowed grandly before everyone and then started to turn the wheel.

Then he put his hand on the lever. However, perhaps he enjoyed creating suspense a little too much because he would pull it half-way and then go back.

For a while, he enjoyed seeing everyone's reaction, until people started to shout, 'hurry up!' And so Mappa sighed as if he had no choice.

Then he pulled the lever all of the ways.

And with that, a gush of hot water came shooting out of the end of the 'T-shaped' object.

Everyone gasped.

He really did it…

But I didn't understand how it worked.

However, the hot water from the caves was being carried to the surface.

I doubted that even the most skilled engineers in the continent had the ability to do something like this.

I suppose this showed how advanced dwarven civilization was.

As everyone cheered and applauded, Mappa gratefully bowed in all four directions.

But then he suddenly grabbed the end of the faucet and pointed it upwards.

And with an evil grin, he began to turn the wheel again.

A torrent of water shot up into the sky.

However, it quickly lost momentum and spread outwards in a circle.

And like that, the hot water rained down on all of us.

Everyone began shouting excitedly at this artificial rain Mappa had created.

"What the hell are you doing!?"

Erevan shouted angrily. But Mappa directed a different, smaller pipe towards him and unleashed a stream of water.

Anyone else who tried to interfere was also equally drenched.

The goblin and kobold children scooped up the water with their hands and threw it at each other.

My hair and clothes were already drenched.

Perhaps the kobold baby had never seen such a thing before, because he was looking up at the rain of hot water.

Mappa was probably trying to help everyone have a good time.

While I was also able to make water with magic, we generally believed that water and food should not be wasted.

And yet, there was now some hot rain…

It was quite a luxury.

However, Fule then noticed something.

"Hey, Lord Heal… This water…doesn't it look like it's shining?"

"Huh? Really?"

I tried cupping my hands together to store some of the water.

And then, I did notice that there was something sparkling inside.

Was it flakes of metal?

Thinking this, I moved away from the rain in order to find out what it was.

Slowly, I let the water pour out without losing the thing that shined…

But when all of the water was gone, the thing started to float up into the air.

I frantically reached up to grab it, but the small light blinked once and then disappeared.

"Wh-what was that…"

The only thing I did know was that I felt warmth.

My entire body felt a similar warmth after being drenched by the hot water.

Obviously, some of it was because of the temperature of the water, but even when I moved away and the wind would hit me, I didn't feel cold at all.

Furthermore, my body seemed lighter than before… There was something about it that was similar to how I felt near the World Tree.

When I looked at my hands, I saw that the small scratches I had got today were already healed.

Considering how Mappa drank a lot of it, maybe this water had healing properties?

"If we made a hot spring with this…it would be so nice… Huh!?"

As I was thinking this, I felt a strong splash of water hit me in the back of my head.

When I turned around, I saw that Mappa was pointing a pipe at me.

This guy…he really just…

I looked over to the children and saw that they were now using buckets to pour water onto each other.

The adults were not spared during this merciless play either.

To the children, there was no difference between goblin and kobold.

When kobold children would throw hot water onto the goblin adults, they would just laugh and throw the water back.

Even Erevan was laughing now and pouring water on them.

The slimes and Cave Spiders soon joined in.

After watching them, I wanted to join too.

But first, I directed my palm towards Mappa.

You may have that pipe, but I have magic.

And so I visited upon Mappa, a water magic attack.

Of course, I held back a little.

But Mappa would not back down. However, he was simultaneously being attacked by the children, and so he launched a counter-attack on them as well.

And so I sprayed water on everyone, not just Mappa…

The slimes were also able to store a lot of water inside of their bodies and then spray it over everyone.

We all became obsessed with playing like this for some time.

However, no matter how long we played, we did not seem to get tired.

This was probably because of the hot water. Regardless, I ended up having to declare to the others that it was time for bed.

And so Mappa turned the wheel again and the water stopped.

The children looked like they still wanted to play, but it really was getting late.

And so I consoled them by saying that they could play again tomorrow.

That being said…

While I had said it was time for bed, everyone was soaked.

Some people took their clothes off and tried to wring them dry.

I was wet too.

And then Rienna said to me,

"Lord Heal! I will bring you the new clothes!"

I turned around in order to answer her.

But…I noticed that her clothes were also wet and parts were vaguely seethrough…

Her hair was also dripping wet in an alluring way…

My face turned bright red as I froze up.

"Lo-lord Heal? Are you ill?"

"…Huh!? No, no… Uh, sorry. I'm fine."

I turned away from her and shouted at the others.

"Everyone! Direct your clothes to me!!"

They looked puzzled at this but did as I said.

And so I unleashed the 'Wind' spell at them.

But I adjusted it so it wasn't so strong that it would blow them all away.

They seemed to understand what I was doing and were able to dry their clothes.

Rienna also took off her clothes in order to dry them.

And while she did not seem self-conscious, I decided to close my eyes anyway.

When everyone was finished, Rienna unleashed Wind towards me so that I could dry as well.

While I dried off, I could hear the voices of the others as they walked back to the caves.

They were talking about how much fun they had, and the goblin and kobold children seemed to be getting along.

It looked as if the ice had been broken a little.

I wasn't sure what Mappa's intentions had been.

However, he looked a little disappointed now that everyone's clothes were dry.

Had he just wanted to get everyone naked?

Well, that aside, I felt as if I had learned something in terms of making everyone get along.

It was with such thoughts in my head that I returned to the cave.

～～～～～

As the royal marine bell rang loudly, an orc shouted from the crow's nest.

"Boss!!! This time it's from the right… No, three ships have been eaten!!"

However, the orc's voice did not reach the deck.

Because the deck was buzzing with the sounds of orcs who ran around throwing weapons and all manner of supplies into the sea. And the sounds of them moving drowned out his voice.

In the far off distance, there were echoes of screaming orcs and the breaking of wood.

There was a tall orc who stood on the quarterdeck. He was shouting in a low voice.

"Hurry!! Throw it all into the sea!! The gold and silver! All of it!!"

There was fear in his voice that did not match his imposing stature.

And his face was deathly pale.

"We can't beat such a monster as that… I've been on these seas for thirty years… The royal navy never scared me. And yet…"

The orc's legs were shaking.

However, he looked at the worried faces of his crew and somehow steadied his feet.

"All of you. Listen well!! We are going to escape this no matter what!!!"

The orcs shouted 'aye!' as powerfully as they could muster.

But the sweat could still be seen dripping from their foreheads.

This was all happening close to Sheorl Island.