My latest plan is to rent a small cart from Raymond City, bring it back to the cottage, and then build a copy of it for myself.
The only problem is that the very idea is already giving me a headache.
“I’d have to take Noah, rent the cart, drag it all the way back into the Great Forest just to load my things, and then go stand in that enormous queue to get back into the city. What a pain!”
I really don’t fancy paying a rental fee every time, either, but I guess there’s no helping it for the first trip.
From now on, I need a proper base of operations here at the cottage. I gotta find a way to make all of this easier.
First things first, I need planks.
I take some of the trees I’ve already felled and get to work.
“Air Cutter! Air Cutter! Air Cutter!”
A few sharp slices of wind magic later, I have a neat stack of lumber.
This should be enough for a paddock fence and my little cart.
“The wheels are gonna be tricky, though…”
While I’m at it, I might as well cut some extra timber for renovations.
I’m torn between expanding the cowshed and building a proper stable for the two horses I’ll need to pull a cart.
“Noah must get lonely all by himself…”
Even if he’s just sharing a space with cows, that has to be better than being alone in the Great Forest every night.
“I’ll expand the cowshed,” I decide. “And I’ll add a space to park the cart.”
This is quickly shaping up to be a major project.
“I’ll have to buy a mountain of nails from the blacksmith in Lang Village. And an axle for the cart… Wonder if I could make one with alchemy?”
But the alchemy pot Selina has is tiny. The only thing I’ve ever made with it was a magic lamp, and that was just by following the instructions in a textbook. Selina mostly uses it for potion bottles.
“Selina. Do you happen to have a bigger alchemy pot?” I ask. “I want to make an axle for a cart.”
Selina just shrugs. “I don’t have anything like that. If you want one, you’ll have to buy it yourself.”
I sigh. I have no idea what a large alchemy pot costs, but I’m sure it’s way more expensive than an axle and a box of nails. It’s a magical tool, after all.
Looks like I’ll be asking the blacksmith in Lang Village. Maybe he could make the wheels, too.
In the meantime, my fence-making has gotten quite good.
I build the paddock walls high enough that Noah can’t jump over them, and this time I even add a gate.
I wouldn’t need one for myself, since I can just teleport inside, but Noah hates the sensation. He’ll put up with it when necessary, but for everyday life, it’s much kinder to let him walk.
The gate is just a simple section of fence that swings open, held shut with a rope looped around a post.
I’ve also discovered a super trick: it’s much easier to assemble the fence inside my Storage. Then, when I Discharge the finished section, I just slam it right into the ground, posts and all.
If I add some nails to my inventory, I bet I could build the expanded cowshed the same way.
The only problem is that my Storage isn’t very big. Selina used hers to move all three piles of fertilizer I’d stacked in the pit in a single trip.
“If my Storage were that big,” I muse, “I could probably fit an entire cottage inside.”
My own capacity has grown quite a bit this winter from all the time I’ve spent felling trees and storing the logs.
At first, the effort would leave me feeling overstuffed and sluggish. Now? I can chop wood all day without any trouble.
The other perk of this building method is that I can use as much magic as I want on the things inside my Storage, as long as I have the raw materials stored in there with me.
Though, it only works if I draw a simple blueprint first or hold a very clear picture of the final product in my head.
When I let Noah into the new paddock, he gallops around, looking utterly delighted. The freedom to move is clearly good for him.
I wonder… could I let the cows graze in here, too?
“The only person I know who could answer that is Matthew… The trouble with him is that he’ll just try to rope me into helping clear the trees around Lang Village.”
Coming to Raymond City has made me realize just how much trouble Lang Village and the town of Carlton are in. Although Raymond is also near the Great Forest, the woods aren’t pressing in on it.
“Is it the number of lumberjacks? It really does seem to come down to money.”
They could probably sell the timber they cut, but then they’d have to transport it. For a little village or town, hauling it all that way must be incredibly difficult.
I can certainly say that from experience now.
“I wonder if the man at the hardware store would know?”
The villagers in Lang must know all about horses and cows. At least, more than Selina and I do.
“First things first,” I announce to Noah. “We’re going to Raymond City!”
I need to rent that cart to use as a model and draw up some proper plans.
While I’m at it, I’ll pack twenty Almiraj pelts, twenty magic stones, and twenty stalks of mid-grade herbs in my wicker basket. I’ll need the money for those nails and the axle, after all.
I can’t help but sigh again. Who knew I’d need two horses just to sell wood.
Somehow, the road to the royal capital feels impossibly far away.
The expansion of the Great Forest is a huge problem. I know that, I really do. But I just want to go shopping in the capital.
And at this rate, I’m not sure I’ll ever have the money for it.