CH6 I have made fire
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Alex headed out of the basement with a thoughtful look on his face.

 

Fufi asked, "What were you thinking about doing?"

 

Alex answered, "Well I was thinking about cleaning the fountain.  If we are lucky then cleaning it could get it working again and we wouldn't have to go as far to get water anymore.  Next I wanted to sort stuff in the basement.  I think there might be some things that could be used to start a fire.  Too bad there isn't a hearth in the basement.  I might have to try to build a fireplace with a chimney if we don't want to smoke out the whole basement."

 

Fufi smiled and said, "I know you like experimenting with that cleaning skill."

Alex grumbled, "Well, it's the best tool I have right now, so I have to make the most of it."

They headed to the stream, where they had another meal of berries, fruit, and fish. Alex brought a couple of thin, flat rocks that he used as plates and the paring knife he had just acquired. It was much easier for him to gut and prepare the fish with a knife than with a screwdriver.

As he ate the sashimi, Alex said, "It's a bummer not having any seasoning. Even a little salt would be nice. Do you know if the oceans on Terre are filled with saltwater, Fufi?"

Fufi replied, "They are salt water, just like Earth's, but the closest one is about 100 miles to the south."

Alex was disappointed that it would take more than a day trip to get salt water, evaporate it, and make sea salt seasoning. Fufi suggested that a skilled cook could achieve the same flavors without seasonings. Alex was shocked, saying that the entire culinary industry on Earth would be outraged if such a thing were possible.

He suspected that Fufi was encouraging him to get a cooking skill, which would allow him to create great meals without the proper ingredients. He felt that it would be wrong to do so, and he shouted to the heavens, "God or Goddess of cooking, the system of this world owes you an apology for its cheapening of the entire food industry!"

A few seconds later, his phone rang. "Hestia, goddess of home and hearth, is moved by your passion for culinary arts," the voice on the other end said. "You have been awarded the skill [cooking]."

[New Skill: Cooking level 1]

 

Alex glanced at Fufi, who was staring at him. He wasn't sure how to interpret her flamingo facial expressions, but he guessed she was smirking at him. Alex frowned and said through gritted teeth, "I don't want to hear it." After finishing breakfast, they cleaned up in the cold stream and set about their next task: cleaning the central fountain. The fountain was huge and took most of the morning to clean.

It was at the end of their cleaning spree that Alex noticed that cleaning the fountain wasn't enough to get it working again. The spigot that the water was supposed to come out of was clean, and the drain that likely led to whatever sort of sewer system this place had was open. "Of course it wouldn't be that easy," Alex grumbled under his breath.

"What's that, Alex?" Fufi asked curiously.

"I might know why it doesn't work. The water is supposed to come from the stream or something, but it's not making it all the way. Unless it's supposed to focus in some weird way, like water crystals," Alex replied.

"Water crystals?" Fufi asked. "What are those?  This could work on magic, I guess someone could use runes on a crystal to get it to produce water."

Alex pointed to a rusted grate near the fountain and said, "It looks like there may be some kind of sewer or maintenance tunnel here. Hopefully we can follow the pipe and see the problem. I'm not a plumber, but hopefully the problem will be obvious down there."

Fufi nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. But it's probably dark down there."

Alex tested the grate by pulling on it, but it wouldn't budge. "It's rusted shut," he grumbled.

Fufi snickered. "Think about what you just said."

Alex made an "O" with his mouth and pulled out his feather duster. He dusted off the dirt layer first, then kept dusting until the rust layer was also gone. It only took a firm tug to lift the grate up. Alex looked down and saw a rusted iron ladder attached to bricks that formed a wall. After that, it was complete darkness.

Alex said, "We'll find out soon enough."

Fufi's feathers ruffled. "Is there any light down there? I could use my gem to light the way, but my magic is low after summoning you from the dungeon. I'd like to avoid using any magic for a couple of days to recover."

"It doesn't look like it," Alex replied nervously. "Let's come back here when we have a torch, a lantern, or some other light source."

Alex put the grate back in place and stepped back. Happy to have an excuse not to go down there, he said, "Let's inventory the things we found in the basement in the meantime."

 

Fufi nodded her head in agreement and they headed back to the basement and inventory their new finds. Fufi started by talking about the firewood, "It is a pity we haven't been able to start a fire yet."

 

Alex agreed. "Yeah it would be nice to have a fire in here but it is going to be a little more difficult without flint and steel or some kind of tinderbox."

 

Fufi said, "There has to be something like that around here somewhere."

 

Alex said with little conviction, "We'll find it eventually, hopefully."

 

After an hour and a half they finish rummaging through the pile in the basement they find the following items:

 

[1x anvil]

[3x metal tongs]

[1x small metal pliers]

[5x swords]

[5x ceramic pots]

[2x quartz crystals]

[2x empty lantern]

[1x steel pauldrons (Lacking straps) ]

[5x iron plates]

[4x copper plates]

[10x empty potion bottles (missing lids) ]

[1x copper chain]

[8x iron cylinder]

[200x iron nails]

[50x iron screws]

[2x pick axe heads]

[1x war axe head]

[200x lumps of coal]

 

Alex surmised that the nails and screws were the only remnants of the furniture that littered the area as debris after his cleaning skill did its job. After Alex had finished looking over what he could salvage, he thought to himself, "There is enough here to make something, but I'm not sure if we have enough to finish a carriage or even a cart. And the lanterns are useless without some kind of fuel."

Fufi looked up from her inspection of the items they had found and asked, "What are you thinking?"

Alex replied, "I'm thinking that there is enough here to make something, but I'm not sure what."

Fufi said, "Well, what do we need?"

Alex thought for a moment and then said, "We need a way to get around. We can't walk everywhere."

Fufi nodded and said, "I agree. A carriage or a cart would be helpful."

Alex said, "But we don't have enough materials to finish one of those."

Fufi said, "Maybe we can find more materials. We can look around."

Alex said, "That's a good idea. We should start looking right away."

Alex and Fufi searched for materials to build a carriage or a cart.

Alex said to Fufi while they were sorting through some ruined furniture, "I thought at least this world doesn't use dovetail connectors."

Fufi was shocked. "What do people do with the tails of lovely doves in your world?!"

Alex grimaced. "No, no, you don't understand. Here, like this." He grabbed Fufi's tail feathers and spread them out, thinking the shape of her spread tail feathers would make it obvious what he was trying to say.

But Fufi misunderstood. "What are you doing? Don't just touch my tail feathers!"

Alex laughed nervously. "I was just showing you the shape. When you fly, your tail feathers spread out wide. A dovetail connection is just a shape where two pieces of wood fit together with angled cuts. In the old days, carpenters used that instead of screws, bolts, and nails." He released her tail feathers and patted her on the back. "Sorry for getting carried away."

Fufi shook her feathers. "It's okay. It was just startling to think people in your world were harvesting doves for their tails. I've never seen that shape before."

Alex explained, "It is just an old world way of building furniture."

 

Fufi tilted her and said, "If that is the case then please don't phrase it in such a disturbing way next time." She then looked back at her tail feathers and shook her head again. Alex smiled nervously at her and said, "Sorry about that again."

 

Alex pointed at a sword leaning against a wall and asked, "Think this will be useful in the sewers?"

 

Fufi said pensively, "Perhaps, though you don't have any swordsmanship skills."

 

"Fine," Alex said and took one of the swords from the wall to inspect closer. He examined the blade and found it wasn't rusty. After testing the edge of the blade he realized it is sharp.

 

"I can't believe this thing got sharp just by cleaning it," Alex boggled at the concept.

 

Fufi sighed at his amazement and said, "Don't underestimate cleaning."

 

Alex looked up at Fufi and asked, "Are you serious? How does cleaning sharpen swords?"

 

Fufi scoffed, "With your skill bonus from your equipment your skill is much higher than it would normally be.  Of course it would be amazing because of the bonuses."

 

"Wow that is surprising," Alex said while examining the blade closely. It isn't just sharpened, but also polished. The steel feels almost like it is glowing in his hand. He shakes his head and says, "This world really is full of mysteries." He then turned his attention back to his inventory and picked up one of the iron plates he had found earlier.

 

He takes a few moments to run his thumb across it.  As expected, he found no grime and no rust.  He suspected if he had a white glove it would pass the white glove test.

 

"What are you doing Alex?" Fufi asks as she watches him examine the plate.

 

Alex admired the plate, which had been cleaned to a high shine despite being destined for the scrap heap. He turned to Fufi and said, "That's all I had for today's investigation." Fufi looked at him curiously, and he asked, "Do you think there's anywhere we can find lantern oil or something that can work with the wick?"

Fufi nodded. "That's a good idea, but it might take a long time to find."

"We'll leave it for another time," Alex said. "I have other things I can work on today. I feel like the solution is right in front of us, but I'm just not seeing it." He pulled out the copper chain from the pile of items they had found in the basement and considered it.

Fufi tilted her head. "What are you doing?"

Alex held up the chain. "I'm trying to figure out if this could be useful."

"Fufi, you're brilliant!" Alex exclaimed, gesturing to the plate with his free hand.

Fufi looked taken aback for a moment. "I am? Of course I am!" She puffed up her feathers cutely at the praise.

"Well, think about this chain," Alex said, holding it up for Fufi to see. He then placed one of the iron plates on top of the anvil and folded the chain over it. He then grabbed a cylinder and draped the chain across the end. "We just need to shape the plate into a bowl shape, attach the chain to that and the iron cylinder, and we have a brazier."

Fufi smiled as she looked over Alex's work. "That is brilliant! I like it!" She then gave a few tugs on her tail feathers to straighten them out.

Getting right to work, Alex took the items he needed for his creation out of the dim basement and into a corner of the adventurers guild ruin that would function somewhat like a lean-to.  After about an hour of what was mostly hammering the plate on the anvil and a bit of fiddling around with the other tools he had a crude brazier hanging by copper chain from a metal pole.  Fufi spent the time watching him and preening her feathers. She had already done so much that her feathers were almost completely back to their usual pristine condition.

 

Alex held up the crude brazier to Fufi and said, "I'm finished with this." Fufi looked it over and said, "That is so clever of you." He placed some lumps of coal in it to show how it would work.

After a short while, Fufi said, "I have a question."

"What is it?" Alex asked nervously. He wasn't sure what Fufi would say, but he was pretty sure it wouldn't be good news.

"Why isn't it cute?" Fufi asked.

Alex sighed. "I didn't really think about making it cute," he said. "I was just trying to make it work."

"Oh," Fufi said. "Well, it works great. But it would be even better if it was cute."

Alex frowned. "I can try to make it cuter next time." His voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Thanks," Fufi said. "I'm sure it will be great."

Alex put a hand on his chest and stared at Fufi in disbelief, "And here I thought you were going to ask how I planned to light it."

 

"You were able to create a brazier though that is something now we can have two sources of light." She then giggled and added, "So, do you know of a way to light it with the things we have?"

 

Alex nodded and said, "Let me demonstrate."  He proceeded to take a smaller piece of the steel pauldron set with one hand and the quartz in the other.  Striking the steel to the quartz made some sparks when he did it right and after a few tries the sparks caught the soot and some dry leaves in the brazier on fire.  With a bit of blowing he is able to get the thing going.  It took longer than expected and he had to bring a bit of wood to the fire before the coal lumps were successfully burning.

 

"Wow that wasn't easy," Alex said as he looked at the flames dancing in front of him. He turned and saw Fufi looking at the fire.

 

"Not bad," Fufi says and gives Alex a nudge of her beak on his nose.

 

"Thanks," Alex said as he looked towards the fountain.  "Think we have time to explore the sewer and see if we can figure out our pipe problem?" He approached the fountain.

Fufi nodded her head and followed him.

 

Feeling upbeat, Alex opened the grate and headed down holding the brazier in one hand.  He had his feather duster and sword strapped to his side with the cloth belt of the robe he wore. Fufi hopped down after him.

 

The first few meters of the pipe appeared to be carved out of rock or perhaps hard clay, but then they began to encounter large sections that were smooth. "Hmm, they didn't use a metal pipe here. I bet it collapsed in on itself somewhere." There was a faint smell of sewer gas. This worried Alex a bit. He figured any sewer would have been washed away by rains flowing the water to the river or wherever the outlet was.

The smell was getting more intense, and Alex wasn't sure if he would be able to keep himself from gagging. He walked into what seemed to be a cave-in and noticed something big stuck in the passage.

His phone rung out:

 

[Battle Begin: Sewer Slime]

Edited 7-18-2023

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