Chapter 7 Glow

Chapter 7: Light

Sirius hesitated?!

Sirius was shocked!

Sirius was overjoyed!

Finally, he could do things in the long night that couldn't be done without light!

He decided to clear a path to the riverbank tonight.

Sirius reached the river in half the usual time, filled a bucket with water, and picked up some large stones.

Water-filled bucket +1.

Stones +5.

Before officially starting the path clearing, he needed some handy tools. Although the sword in his hand was sharp, the tasks it could handle were quite limited.

Returning to the hollow tree, Sirius began making tools.

The stones from the riverbank were specially selected—harder and longer in shape. With a little trimming, they took on the rough form of a hoe.

Sirius drew his sword and struck the first stone twice—*swish, swish*. A clear crack echoed, and the stone couldn't withstand the force, splitting into two when he tried to make a hole.

He switched to another stone and tried again.

Crack.

Again.

And again.

...

After much effort, the last stone was shaped into a triangular slab of moderate thickness, with a hole made at the back.

He still needed a suitable handle.

Sirius stood up and searched the nearby trees, swinging his sword to chop down a few branches to consider.

Thick branches +3.

He selected the branch with the most suitable thickness and length, trimmed off the excess twigs and bark, and smoothed the branch by rubbing it with bark until it was smooth. Then, using his sword, he made a shallow slit at the top, inserted the triangular slab with the hole, and drove a narrow triangular wooden wedge into the slit.

Simple stone hoe +1.

Sirius swung the stone hoe in his hand. The handle was smooth and didn't prick his hands, and it wasn't too heavy. The slab was tightly secured and wouldn't fly off. Now, he needed to test how well it worked.

He raised the stone hoe and slammed it hard into the ground. A clump of soil cracked open and was dug up as he lifted the hoe.

Good! Very effective!

Now he could start clearing the path.

Glowing, Sirius hoisted the hoe over his shoulder, gripping his sword, and began uprooting weeds, digging out shrubs, and felling trees.

The goal was a straight path to the riverbank, to be completed tonight.

Time to get to work!

Weeds weren't easy to pull out, so Sirius simply swung the hoe to dig up their deeply buried roots, then brushed them aside for later disposal.

He treated shrubs the same way. If they blocked the straight path, he first struck their branches and leaves hard with the hoe, then dug deep to find their roots.

Trees couldn't be handled this way. Without an axe, he could only swing his sword fiercely at the trunk, sending wood chips flying everywhere.

Although he had no experience felling trees, Sirius wasn't a fool. Of course, he wouldn't let a tree fall in just any direction. When the notch reached about two-thirds of the trunk's thickness, he gave it a hard kick.

The tree would then fall in the direction he wanted, sometimes triggering a chain reaction and knocking over the trees in front.

"Wow," Sirius exclaimed, shouldering his hoe.

The scene of trees toppling like dominoes was truly spectacular.

The surroundings were a mess—weeds and shrubs lay fallen everywhere, and broken trees shed large amounts of branches and leaves. He had to tidy up before continuing. None of this would go to waste.

Weeds +52.

Branches +37.

He bundled the weeds into bundles, stripped the leaves from the shrub branches, leaving only the stems, and carried them all back to the hollow tree. Then, he went to deal with the fallen trees.

This was tricky.

Sirius walked around the pile of collapsed trees and realized there was more work than he'd imagined.

To get several complete logs from a tree, he first had to remove its branches and leaves.

A tree had countless forks, with branches of varying thicknesses. If he could finish processing one tree tonight, it would be fast enough.

Sirius wasn't stubborn and immediately changed his original plan for a straight path to the riverbank.

Felling trees was too difficult. A slightly curved path wasn't unacceptable. The trees here weren't densely packed to begin with; he had only cut them down because he needed wood.

Although he needed wood to make furniture, that didn't mean he was willing to spend the next few days solely on logging.

He could always do it later!

Sirius gave himself a mental pep talk, feeling justified, and took a short break before continuing to clear the path.

He swung his sword again, cutting off all the branches from the trees.

These branches had too many leaves, which couldn't be cleared quickly, so he simply dragged them aside and piled them up for later.

The remaining bare trunk still needed further processing. Its top had crashed into two other trees, causing the wood there to split. Sirius swung his sword to chop off that section, leaving behind a complete log.

Log +1.

Sirius processed the remaining two trees in the same way.

Logs +2.

It was very late. He would leave everything else for tomorrow.

Dragging his exhausted body, Sirius collapsed onto the bed of dried leaves and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

A quiet night passed.

When Sirius woke up, his arms were sore from swinging the sword too many times the previous night, leaving him with the resulting soreness today.

This physical reaction felt somewhat novel to him.

Having lost his memory, Sirius was rediscovering the world. The soreness in his arms told him he needed a bit more rest, or the pain would worsen.

What if he didn't? Would he become stronger or strain himself to the point of disability?

Better to rest, I suppose.

Sirius decisively lay back down.

He hadn't been lying down long before sitting up again, this time awakened by hunger.

After casually eating some elderberries and hazelnuts, Sirius headed toward the riverbank.

Although the path wasn't fully built yet, it didn't stop him from picking out a site for a field.

The hollow tree wasn't too far from the riverbank. As Sirius walked, he considered where to clear the land.

It couldn't be too close to the riverbank. Rivers have flood seasons and dry seasons. Planting crops too close to the bank would risk the fields being flooded during high water.

It couldn't be too far from the riverbank either. With only a wooden barrel for water storage, he'd have to haul water for irrigation. Walking too far would affect his efficiency.

He also had to consider the soil condition of the chosen spot, the distribution of weeds and shrubs, whether there were large rocks, and how easily it could be cleared.

In a forest like this, he also needed to keep animals out. He could build a fence to enclose the cleared farmland.

Materials for the fence, however, weren't a big concern. There were still many cut branches left unprocessed, enough to circle the area several times.

He ran here, he ran there.

Finally, Sirius picked out a suitable patch of land to clear.

The terrain was flat, the trees sparse, the weeds low, there were no shrubs, no large rocks, it wasn't too far from the riverbank, and it was very close to the hollow tree.

"This is the spot!" Sirius said cheerfully.

He pulled out his sword and marked a large X on the few trees within the area, marking them for removal. He also cut down a thick branch, sharpened one end, and stuck it into the ground as a conspicuous marker to remind himself he had chosen this land.

Finish one thing before doing another. The path to the river wasn't finished yet. Sirius had to complete the work he hadn't finished yesterday.

He stacked all the logs neatly beside the hollow tree and dragged the remaining branches and leaves to the side, to grab them later when building the fence.

The remaining tasks were much simpler: shovel weeds, pull out shrubs, repeat.

Weeds +109.

Branches +89.

A whole morning later, Sirius had finally hacked out a path to the riverbank, about wide enough for two people walking side by side. The dug-up earth was rough, but walking back and forth a few more times would probably pack it down.

Returning to the hollow tree, Sirius couldn't help but envy Bob. "Bob, I really envy you for being able to sit here motionless. I've been exhausted these past two days!"

He even let his thoughts wander. "If only you could move and help me. You're a skeleton; you don't need to eat a single bite of food, you don't need to sleep, and more importantly, you don't have muscles. You could work non-stop, help me build roads, clear land, find food..."

Sirius didn't know that in the outside world, such practices would get one hanged from a lamppost.

Fortunately, Bob was completely incapable of responding, so this wicked idea had no chance of being realized.

He was hungry and needed to eat.

The only things he had for lunch were roasted mushrooms and roasted hazelnuts. His stomach was filled, but his mouth wasn't satisfied.

Man, he really wanted a delicious roast chicken!

Even a dry roasted rabbit would do.

Roast venison or wild boar would be even better.

He was craving meat, plain and simple.

He decided to go out for a stroll in the afternoon. Before that, he needed a nap.

With no imminent food crisis, Sirius became lazy. He dove into the bed of leaves and gave a happy roll.

He fell asleep quickly.

After his nap, Sirius decided to go to Delicious Roast Chicken Village.

He still needed more tools. Seeking help from the beavers would be better than wandering aimlessly in the forest.

On the way to Delicious Roast Chicken Village, Sirius stopped by the wild apple grove.

Some of the wild apples that had been slightly greenish a few days ago had turned redder, looking like they might be ripe.

Sirius still had his eye on these apples. He lingered under the tree, pacing back and forth for a while, and finally picked the reddest one.

Wild Apple +1.

He steeled himself and took a bite.

Crunch, crackle.

The taste was sweet and sour, the flesh was crisp in his mouth, and the abundant juice was refreshing.

Much better than the unripe sour apples!

He'd pick enough to fill a basket for Delicious Roast Chicken Village, hoping to trade them with the beavers for some tools or information.

Wild Apples +28.

Leaving the wild apple grove and following the marks he'd made earlier, he soon came to Delicious Roast Chicken Village.

As soon as he saw the riverbank, he also spotted a familiar face.

It was that Red Shorts Beaver again. This time, he wasn't in the river but squatting on the bank, busy with something.

Sirius didn't bother to quiet his footsteps as he approached. Red Shorts Beaver heard him, turned around sharply, and their eyes met. "Ahhhhh, it's a human..."

Sirius: "Yes, that's right, it's me, the human. I'm back!"

Why are you here again?!!!

Don't come any closer, ahhhhh!!!!

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