Published: August 2, 2025
Today, ten chapters were updated simultaneously.
This story is the first chapter.
“I'm home~”
The limule birds had all gone out together. The slimes were there, but they couldn’t reply.
I echoed my lonely voice through the abandoned mine shaft as I finished organizing my belongings and feeding the slimes.
“Now, next up is...”
I decided to expand the kiln for the cleaner slime that just started eating charcoal.
“Would this spot be good...?”
I chose a place on the rock wall next to the house, between the entrances of the parallel mine shafts.
Using earth magic, I dug a new hole parallel to the existing tunnel.
Starting from the narrow entrance, I gradually widened it into a spacious, almost elliptical area.
Since I only needed to reinforce the structure occasionally with rock, it wasn’t that much trouble.
Eventually, I secured a ceiling tall enough for a child to stand and walk and enough space for a tent for one or two adults.
From here, I relied on the slimes.
I summoned one earth slime and placed it on a huge scavenger, having it push straight up toward the ceiling.
There, the earth slime turned part of the ceiling into soil and dropped it down.
The scavenger would push the earth slime up again, and more soil would fall.
By repeating this endlessly, the slime quickly broke through the ceiling.
“All right! Well done!”
We emerged from a tunnel with an entrance one level below, connecting to the upper row of tunnels.
Since there was some leeway, I had them reinforce the walls on the way back.
This pretty much completed the flue and most of the charcoal kiln.
It felt almost too easy, but this method actually allows charcoal to be made.
Charcoal making involves digging a hole, building a frame, packing in the wood, then covering it with wood or soil from above—a traditional, labor-intensive method.
There are other ways too, like using a drum can or a campfire.
The crucial thing is to prevent heat from escaping and to control the airflow to steam and roast the wood.
Next, I needed to prepare a lid for the flue section.
For airflow control, red clay mixed with stone and water would suffice.
I finished the work here for now.
Next, I set out to patrol the mine.
Since management was poor here, the area just a little away from the house was still overgrown with weeds.
But viewed as fuel, these weeds weren’t so bad.
If I cut the weeds, which grew to cover the whole body, and placed them in sunny spots, they would dry and become good kindling depending on the weather.
They could also be used for charcoal making, so while patrolling, I trimmed the surrounding grass...
“Pirorororo!”
“Pi-pirororo!”
“Hm?”
I heard the voices of the limule birds.
Looking up, our limule birds were flying around en masse.
But something was a bit different than usual.
“A flock of birds?”
Though backlit and hard to see clearly, I could tell there were many small creatures flying besides the limule birds.
The limule birds seemed to be flying around them, enclosing them.
Were they using magic? The creatures couldn’t escape the enclosure...
Ah.
“Kukee! Kukee! Kukee!”
Ains cried loudly as the opponents were restricted.
Immediately, many small shadows fell at once.
“So it was a hunt.”
It was almost like how dolphins hunt, but these were birds.
They surrounded the target and used the mental assault characteristic of the nightmare limule bird.
The opponents seemed to faint.
One by one, they lost control and fell to the ground.
I even saw a few catch prey midair. A little snack, maybe?
“Let's go check it out...”
On a whim, I headed towards the top of the abandoned mine shaft where the creatures likely fell.
“Oh, there you are. Hey!”
“Piro!”
“Piroro!”
“Eat first, then talk...”
I accidentally made the birds respond at an awkward moment, causing a slightly gory scene with prey dropping from their beaks.
The prey were cave bats...
“Where were these caught?”
“...Piro!!”
At the question, one flew off, chirped at a tunnel entrance, then returned.
It seemed they were living in that tunnel.