kscans

Chapter 118 - The Yuri Village Renovation Plan 1. The Lumberjack's Secret

Autumn in the mountains is short.

In other words, winter was fast approaching. If there were things that needed to be done before it got truly cold, he had to act immediately. The current population of Yuri Village was just one, Yuri himself. There was no time to be idle.

Having somehow gotten a handle on his farm work, Yuri was now rushing to process lumber. Although he had bought a decent amount of planks and beams from Ems’s woodworking shop, when it came to repairing and expanding buildings, there was no such thing as too much wood. The reason for this lay in the unique nature of Yuri’s village.

Yuri, a former Japanese person, had never noticed it, but the fact that all the houses in his village were made of wood was exceedingly rare. In a world where monsters roamed the forests, obtaining lumber was no simple task. Normally, people would avoid the monster-infested depths of the mountains and limit their gathering activities to the shallower parts of the forest. Inevitably, the large trees suitable for building materials were all cut down, so most village houses used wood only for pillars, with walls made of woven branches plastered with mud. A top coat of plaster was considered high-class. Yuri had been impressed to see that most of the houses in End Village had a plaster finish, but he was surprised to learn it was actually a measure born of necessity because they couldn’t get wooden planks. The houses in Yuri’s village were wooden because, due to the location, they had adopted a so-called prefabricated construction method, bringing in pre-cut timber to be assembled on-site for a quick build. The investment was larger, but it was apparently expected that the profits from rock salt would cover the cost.

Though he didn't know the backstory, the fact remained that the houses in Yuri’s village were wooden structures. This meant that house repairs required planks, and until he could get them, Yuri had only been able to make temporary fixes.

"I think the amount I bought will be enough... but if I can prepare my own, I should make the effort."

Even with regular maintenance, a house with no one living in it deteriorates quickly. Even the house Yuri used as his own home, though in better shape than the others, had many spots in need of repair. The state of the other vacant houses could be easily imagined. That said, he had plenty of raw logs for the time being, set aside from the non-rotting dead trees he had felled in the forest. Storing them in his `Storage` would preserve them as they were, but on the other hand, they wouldn't dry out. For Yuri, who wanted to dry the wood for use as lumber, this was a problem. So, he used one of the larger, more well-ventilated buildings in the village, in other words, one that got a lot of drafts, as a makeshift warehouse to store the usable logs. Of course, Yuri wasn't relying solely on natural drying. He had been experimenting with various wood scraps to see if he could dehydrate and dry them with magic. As he initially expected, rapidly dehydrating the wood caused warping and cracking, making it difficult to use as lumber. Through trial and error, he discovered that by using a combination of Water, Wind, and Wood magic to dry the wood gradually, he could do so without causing any warping or cracking. Currently, his warehouse stored both naturally drying wood and magically dehydrated wood. Which method was better would have to await future testing.

"Well, I’m short on time for now, so I have no choice but to use the magically dried lumber," Yuri muttered to himself, then carried one of the dried logs outside.

"Alright, first... I’ll cut it into a more manageable length."

No sooner had he said it than he activated a new spell he had created, cutting the log into appropriate lengths. It looked like a simple task, but creating this spell had actually taken quite a bit of time and effort.

At first, Yuri had thought it would be simple. He’d just move a blade of Non-Elemental Magic to cut the wood, just as he'd conceived at the woodworking shop in Laurenzen. However, making a blade of Non-Elemental Magic move back and forth proved to be surprisingly difficult, and he eventually settled on a rotating motion like a circular saw. That part was fine.

What wasn't fine was what came next, or rather, the tangent he went off on from there. He had casually thought that a non-elemental circular saw could also be used for attacking by throwing it, but when he tried, he couldn't do it. To be precise, it was impossible with his skill level to throw it, while maintaining its rotational movement as a circular saw, and aiming it. Even for Yuri, who was adept at activating multiple spells simultaneously, activating Non-Elemental Magic with completely different vectors at the same time was... more difficult than he had imagined. After struggling mightily, he gave up. The breakthrough came when he thought, what if he used a different magic instead of Non-Elemental Magic? Instead of Non-Elemental Magic, he modified the Wind Magic spell `Wind Cutter` to create a circular saw of wind, and then used Non-Elemental Magic to throw it. By dividing the motion vectors between two spells, he finally obtained his long-awaited magic.

He tried using it for hunting the next day and it easily bisected a Bicorn Bear, which was good, but controlling it after throwing was difficult, and he ended up wasting most of the materials. However, he shouldn't dwell on the fact that it was unsuitable for hunting despite all the effort he put into creating it. After all, he needed to move the circular saw to cut wood anyway, so the spell `Ripping Circle` was necessary. He had initially thought of the name "Eight-Piece Wind Wheel," but decided against it as it felt too direct and gruesome.

Yuri activated `Ripping Circle` from a slight distance, taking care not to let it spin too fast. The first time he’d activated it right in front of him, sawdust and wood chips had flown everywhere, and it had been a terrible experience. Slowly, carefully, ensuring the wind blade didn't curve, he sawed straight through the log. Without rushing, without panicking, slowly. And then...

"...Done...!"

There were still some slightly slanted parts, but it would be fine for use as shorter planks.

After five long years of hardship since his reincarnation, on this day, Yuri had succeeded in becoming self-sufficient in plank production.