Chapter 230: Building a Kiln and Making Wooden Furniture

After the soil was mixed, it was molded. Sane chose a batch of newly mixed soil to act as sample soil, teaching everyone how to mold adobe bricks.

He had pre-made a stack of rectangular wooden molds. He just packed the dirt into the mold, leveled the surface, then flipped it upside down onto the sand to produce an adobe brick.

The Golden Bull people tried it out. A large beastman excitedly lifted the mold, and the brick underneath was flattened like a pancake.

He looked down blankly.

Kaelen coughed once, "Be gentle. The dirt is still wet and cannot stand yet."

He did it again. This time he was gentler. The brick was still flattened.

By the third time, a Golden Bull Sub-Beast could not bear it anymore, pushed him away, and personally lifted the mold. The brick lay neatly on the sand, square and sharp-edged.

The beastmen fell silent. From then on, the molding task was entirely handed over to the Sub-Beasts, while the beastmen were only allowed to carry dirt and fetch water.

"Molded adobe bricks need to be moved to a shaded place to dry for about a week before they can be fired."

Bertram wanted to see clearly so he leaned down. His belly was huge but it completely did not affect the flexibility of his waist. Bertram observed for a while, not asking the things everyone asked, but asking what kind of dirt could not be used, how long it took to dry, and how to cover it when it rained.

When Kaelen started building the kiln, Bertram only stood aside observing, not asking any questions at all.

"The kiln is built with double walls, with loose dirt packed in between to retain heat." Kaelen held a branch and drew on the ground, "The firewood door is at the very bottom, the brick-stacking door is in the middle, and this is the chimney."

"Why does this chimney have to be so tall?" Maxwell scratched his head, "Smoke can fly anywhere."

"It’s not to let the smoke escape, but to draw the fire." Kaelen said, "The taller the chimney, the stronger the draft, the fire gets pulled up so it burns stronger and more evenly. With the same pile of firewood, a good kiln can fire twice as much as a bad kiln."

At noon, everyone returned to the communal house again. Kaelen took out the wheat flour from yesterday to make vegetable and meat steamed buns, steaming them in large pots. With many people, he consecutively steamed three pots.

The old Sage took a bite, the soft and fluffy bun crust instantly melted in his mouth, he happily narrowed his eyes, "This is delicious! This I can eat!"

Bertram held the steamed bun, examining it even more carefully than when he examined the brick, "Is this flour white rice flour?"

"It is wheat flour, a crop we found near the Illusion Forest. The Snow Wolf tribe and the Golden Bull tribe are both planting it. This thing can only be ground into flour to make bread and noodles, it cannot be cooked and eaten directly like white rice."

"During the Autumn market we went to the White Lion and Golden Lion tribes, saw white rice, and exchanged a large amount to bring back. But we did not see anything like this."

Kaelen nodded, "Of course, because the climate and soil are not suitable. Previously only the Snow Wolf clan in the temperate climate zone could plant it. Now the northern land bordering the Golden Bull tribe’s snowy mountain can also be planted with it."

"Temperate climate?"

"It is a cool climate, not too hot nor too cold."

Bertram let out an "ah" as if he understood. He finished eating the bun, carefully wiped his hands, then spoke to Chief Maxwell:

"From now on you guys remember to add wheat flour to the exchange goods list, we will exchange for it. Compared to that sticky white rice, we like this soft and fluffy bun better."

Chief Maxwell snorted heavily, "You long-toothed bunch have blessings but do not know how to enjoy them. Fragrant and filling white rice you don’t eat, choosing to eat this soft bun that is gone in two bites!"

Bertram lifted his chin, "Mind your own business! You guys still gnaw on raw tubers with dirt still on them, we didn’t criticize anything."

Seeing the two sides preparing to rush into a fight, the old Sage laughed boisterously, "You two go to that half-reclaimed field over there and fight, maybe you can conveniently loosen the soil while you are at it."

Yet these two truly listened. After stuffing a bunch of steamed buns into their mouths and chewing loudly, these two immediately jumped down to an empty patch of land far away and threw punches wildly. Kaelen did not feel any Martial power fluctuations; it seemed they were purely using their fists to compete.

Because making bricks also had to go through many stages and required a long time, in the afternoon Kaelen switched to guiding them to make wooden furniture.

The Golden Bull tribe inherently did not lack wood, it was just that their way of using wood was extremely primitive: chiseling holes, threading leather straps, tying them tightly. Or even more primitively, uprooting the whole tree then cutting it into sections.

Sane placed a wooden board on the sawhorses, taking out his tool set.

Saw, chisel, plane, square ruler. All were made of iron.

The White Elephant people sitting on the ground simultaneously pushed themselves up; or to be precise, the two young ones jumped up first, while Bertram and the older ones struggled to roll sideways once before they could stand up.

He stepped forward, resting his hands on the table, his eyes glued to the saw blade, "What is this thing? Looks like a Martial weapon...?"

Sane smiled, handing the saw to Bertram, "This is a saw, forged from a special material. Try using it."

Bertram lifted the saw with both hands, his fingers trembling tracing along the evenly spaced row of teeth. He turned it back and forth, holding it up to the sunlight, tapping lightly on the blade and hearing a ringing sound.

Then he placed the saw on the wood piece and tried pulling a stroke.

The saw blade smoothly ate into the wood grain, sawdust pouring out on both sides. In just a few strokes it was cut through.

Bertram stood stunned. The White Elephant clan did not have claws like other species. Wanting to cut a wooden board, they had to use a knife made from a Demonic Bird’s wing bone to split along the grain; ruining ten boards would only yield one usable board. Demonic Birds were not easy to hunt, therefore only those specializing in woodcutting work had them.

Bertram began cutting the board following Sane’s instructions, planing it flat, then began chiseling.

"This is called a mortise and tenon." Kaelen explained on his behalf, "The end of this wooden stick is carved into a tenon, the other stick is hollowed out into a hole, joining them together is tight, no need for tying cords. The longer they are used the tighter they get, because the wood expands."

Sane joined the two wooden sticks together. A click sounded.

The old Sage had wanted to see this woodworking method since yesterday, today he was finally satisfied. He clicked his tongue twice:

"Oh my, so that is how it is. Like this, one needs to calculate the cross-sections very accurately. A hot-tempered and hasty person would not be able to do it, right?"

Bertram grabbed the two wooden sticks and struggled to pull. They did not come out. He twisted them. Still did not come out. He gaped, "Truly miraculous, no tying cords, no resin glue, yet they are tightly locked together like this!"

Two young White Elephant clan beastmen also squeezed in. The two of them, one holding each end, pulled back and forth like playing tug-of-war with a fish. At this moment Kaelen discovered, the entire bodies of the White Elephant clan from top to bottom were muscle. They did not eat themselves into obesity, but their bodies had an extremely massive muscle content, so massive that they bunched together into a lump. No wonder Finnick commented that Bertram’s belly was as firm as a jar.

Finally, the two young men used all their strength to chip a corner at the joint, Sane took a hammer and tapped it in reverse once, and the two wooden sticks finally separated.

Bertram immediately took it, pressing his nose close to the wooden tenon, his eyes seeming to spark with two blazing flames.

"Lord Priest, please teach us, we would like to pay with one hundred thousand primeval stones."

One hundred thousand primeval stones in the Eastern continent was a huge number, equivalent to one hundred thousand US dollars. Yet Kaelen shook his finger:

"What are you saying. You can learn this method yourselves, it is exactly the agricultural tools made for the Golden Lion tribe. It is merely changing the material and operation method."

Afterward Kaelen sat down parallel to the old Sage, talking about the insights he distilled from the weapon forging instruction books. The task of teaching the White Elephant people and Golden Bull people to make wooden furniture was handed over to Sane.

The White Elephant people and Golden Bull people finished learning, still not recovered from the shock.

Such precious knowledge, they learned it without spending a single penny?