Betta entered her new home with a twinkle in her eye, listening to Elia’s explanation of what was different there.
Visually, the house differed completely from the old residences in the village. The old houses had square shapes, a single floor, and a few windows and doors. They were like each other, with differences only in the little decoration each family had. The new houses, however, would each have two floors, a necessity given the size of the walled area, which was only a thousand square meters.
The other houses in the walled area would be quite similar to Betta’s. The difference would be in the position of windows and inner area because of the internal construction of the walled area.
With the separation into two floors, Betta’s house seemed much more organized than her previous one.
On the first floor was the kitchen/dining and living room and bathroom, where Elia showed a structure created by Tim. As she turned a small metal handle, the metal pipe-like structure made a subtle noise, and then water dripped from it.
“This is Tim’s piped water system, Betta,” Elia explained. “By controlling this little handle, you can open and close the connection, allowing water to flow through or stop it.”
Elia had a smile on her face as she explained, while imagining the wonders they would experience when they could all live in homes with this convenience.
‘Piped water will save us a lot of time. Old Tim said the animal power system will be enough to maintain a constant flow from the outside cistern to the upper cistern in the new village.
All the villagers will save time in their day and be able to focus it on important matters.’
The village had an old water system in which they collected rainwater and groundwater in an underground cistern. They would have to go to the cistern in the middle of the old village and use buckets to collect the amount they needed.
This was how it was in most of Valorian, not just in the Eternal Village. Except for wealthier groups in cities, few had running water in this world.
‘The elderly will no longer depend on the young, and everyone will have easy access to water from their homes.’
She moved on to the toilet, where the village carpenter had created a wooden bench with a hole in its center, where other metal pipes carried the waste to the communal pit.
“Tim and Urian used a special system in this toilet, Betta. You can basically use it here and pour a bucket of water down to dispose of the waste. It goes into an underground pit, and the smell doesn’t come back into the house.”
The middle-aged woman looked with interest at the seat in front of a faucet—the name Tim gave to the mechanism through which water came out.
She also looked at the tall pipe with many holes in its structure, something called a shower.
“You can wash here on hot days. But I’d advise you to heat the water as usual during the winter,” Elia recommended as she demonstrated the shower in operation.
The villagers usually washed themselves in wooden tubs. The idea of the shower was completely new to them, but Tim had insisted on including this feature in the design of the village houses.
The old blacksmith stood there with Elie, watching his creation at work, imagining he had achieved something akin to Hewet’s descriptions of a simplified bathroom.
Not even the village history books talked about showers. There were accounts of taps and running water on noblemen’s estates, but showers were new to everyone.
Betta’s nephew was eager to try out the shower, showing such an interest to his aunt for the first time.
After demonstrating the bathroom, Elia continued the tour with Betta, leading them to the second floor.
A bamboo wall divided this area into two halves, with two rooms offering views from small windows overlooking the outskirts of the village.
“This… is incredible!” the middle-aged, black-haired woman exclaimed, bringing one of her hands to her face, marveling at the view just over the already-built walls.
While someone inside the village could see the surrounding area outside the walled area, those outside would only see the roof of the houses—something carefully planned during construction.
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Given the village’s position atop a small hill, the walls concealed the greenhouses and animal area, and now they were visible only to those coming from the west.
Jonn realized this when he entered Betta’s room and saw the view.
The Celestial Magnifying Glass has helped us a lot here. We should be fine for now. There’s very little chance of anyone coming here from the west. And whoever comes from the east won’t see our plantation until it’s quite substantial.
Soon, all the members of the village stopped by Betta’s house to see what their future homes would look like.
The elders appreciated the concept behind the bathrooms and kitchen but requested Jonn and the others to build single-story houses due to the difficulty of climbing stairs.
There was enough room for a few minor changes. Elia and Jonn agreed to build three single-story houses for the families with the oldest members of the village, while keeping the model of Betta’s house for the other families.
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Over the next few days, two more houses were completed, and more villagers moved into the walled area.
Nine people were now living in the area under construction, while the rest of the village anxiously awaited the completion of the buildings there.
Tim and Urian had finished the animal labor system to enable piped water. Now, a group of caretakers for the village’s cows and bull would need to put at least one animal to work a few times a week to fill the village’s new water reservoir.
Meanwhile, Jonn discovered two more mines not far from the village. In both locations, he dug until he found rocks that were unfamiliar to Tim. He invested little in these new mines and only extracted a handful of material for testing.
His daily focus had been on studying the forge book, observing Tim at work, and attending to the matters he had already been devoting his time to recently.
However, as the harvest approached and the new village looked less like a construction site and more like a home for his people, Jonn felt ready to begin his experiments.
He had made significant progress in his weapons training after working alongside Petyr and the others for days, reaching a level in his combat techniques in which he feels comfortable enough to focus on other endeavors.
His attributes had also improved at a good rate recently, which helped him use more of the Celestial Magnifying Glass and his {Skills}.
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Clang!
The sound of clashing metals rang out from the back of Tim’s house as a tall, white-haired young man dressed in an old apron worked with a hammer and anvil.
After days of learning theory, Jonn had started practicing at the forge and was now under the close observation of Tim and the man’s two apprentices. In front of him was a brand new metal, made from a mixture of two minerals that the old blacksmith didn’t know.
Despite the sweat pouring from his body in the heat of the glowing piece he was working on, Jonn had a confident look on his face. He was gradually forming a new metal alloy for his village, something with properties even superior to those of Acelin’s weapons.
As he finished that phase of the forge, Jonn took a deep breath and stepped away from the furnace, his eyes shining without the expected tiredness.
“You have a really powerful build, Village Elder,” Tim said, nodding to the white-haired boy in front of him. “I didn’t realize you were so strong before. But your hammering carries a force greater than mine, even with all the experience I have.”
That’s because of the mana…
Jonn smiled at Tim, but he didn’t see himself as superior to his fellow villagers. If the others could use mana and self-improve at the same rate as him, the village would probably solve all its problems in less than a year.
“My size helps me a bit… Let’s continue later. I think we can have the first weapon from the new alloy in two days. We’ll see if it’s superior to the old ones.”
“It probably is,” said the old blacksmith, having already noticed positive differences in what Jonn was doing compared to his previous work. “But let’s see them in action.”
“Hmm.” Jonn looked at the two young men next to Tim and said, “I’m going to teach you two to fight starting tomorrow.”
Their eyes lit up with interest, while Tim asked, “Have you finished training with Petyr?”
“Yes. Starting tomorrow, the others will teach more members of the village. We’ll have more than half the village able to fight within two months!”
“Good. It’s about time we made use of the new weapons!” Tim also intended to learn to fight and make use of his strength built up through forging.
Building weapons for the village was good, but he didn’t intend to stand idly by when trouble came to them.
Jonn nodded in agreement, thinking of the over 30 different brand-new weapons the village had in its arsenal now.
Jonn set off from old Tim’s house, heading for his site outside the walled area, where the men were erecting bamboo gates today. The walls were already entirely up and some parts were being finished, while the men had already completed others.
Jonn could see the two observation towers of the walled area, where Wy stood guard in one and Eliot had his bow ready in the opposite tower.
Ice sat at the entrance to the walled area, while Phantom was likely accompanying Elise and Beri out of the village. They should be fishing at East Lake now.
The harvest begins in another 10 days… We’ll finally start expanding the fields, and I’ll be able to test one of the Aether Tears with one animal. Who should I let try the mana crystal?
I don’t know what might happen in this experiment. The red-haired enemy hoped to use the crystals one day, but he didn’t know how. My guinea pig might die, so it can’t be the wolves, the cows, or the bull.
He glanced toward the chicken coop and narrowed his eyes.
Losing a chicken would be unfortunate, but not catastrophic. We have enough roosters and hens to make up for any loss. It’s decided. It’ll be a hen!
Jonn wasn’t sure how to continue making rapid progress in his mission to save the village, but he imagined this experiment would take him another step forward.
When he returned home, he would rest for a while before setting off to find more mineral exploration sites in the Barren Hills of Deepshadow.
This was a slow job that didn’t yield quick results. But Jonn was in no hurry, and the more he used his skills, the more his [Intelligence] grew. The more he spent his mana, the more his [Wisdom] improved, contributing to his growth as a mage.
And so, the days would pass, soon bringing the time of the first harvest since the death of old Elder Hewet!