I had already let everyone know what I had gotten us all into, but it was a different thing to actually figure out something specific. Experience taught a lot, and though we won against the jumi tax collector, it was just uncoordinated and lucky. Even simply being superior counted as lucky, in my eyes. At least right now that's how it felt.

But since there were new spiders in the process of becoming drider, and our food was probably running low (it was hard to tell since everything just turned into Yuck expansion and we couldn't actually SEE our stocks or how fast it depleted, if it even did), it was probably a good idea to get more.

We'd need to grow the colony too. The borders were already spiderwebbed from my children working together, but the forest would have to be investigated better. If there was a +1 seed of whatever kind it was, then we'd need space to plant it properly, and there might even be more. Maybe just more normal things. Either way, there were those scalewolves, and those would have to be dealt with. I didn't like the idea of them being so close to that little friendly village anyway.

Getting rid of the scalewolves once and for all would be a good idea anyway- not only would the people be safe from them getting brave, but we would be in less potential danger, it would mean more food, it would get a good amount of battle training we would soon need, and we'd have more usable space for our own purposes.

But we were so underequipped! What kind of weapons did we have? Some crude tetsubos and a couple stolen weapons? Some badly fitting armor pieces? We didn't even have tools to build any replacements. That's when I decided to properly investigate the area finally. Maybe I should have months ago, but I just... focused on other stuff at the time.

Stolen novel; please report.

...

Inside the tunnel, I went to the part of the wall that looked like dirt. It was shaped a lot like an existing doorway, actually. Feeling it, it didn't feel like dirt. It felt different. I scraped some off as best I could with my claws, and took it outside to get a better look. It was clay! I didn't know how to judge quality, but it was mottled clay, combining light red and dark brown. I had taken a pottery class in high school in my first life, and knew that if clay was wet, it was easier to mold it, and if it was fired in a kiln, it hardened and became ceramic.

I think I just found how to get storage devices and flatware. Oh man, this would have been a good idea to have checked on earlier! Why did I waste this much time? I don't know how bricks were made, exactly, but I knew that stucco, or adobe, or maybe cobblestone or red bricks, were made of sand or clay or both or something that were heated together. I guess if there was enough of this, it could be building materials for outside the cave, too.

So much of human history and civilization started with mud. I'd probably have to make use of a few history and art classes rather soon, but at least I knew this stuff, at least somewhat. When I was in the medieval era, we had advanced beyond this, but in the prehistoric time, it wasn't developed yet. Too bad I didn't have direct experience no matter how you looked at it.

But just doing this wasn't a good idea. I needed to give my children something fun to do, but just like any parent, which I had been one a few times now, the games should be training-in-disguise for life experiences they'd need. So, I thought of bowling. I wonder if I could find a coconut...