Tecnomagic Engineer

During my rest, which should have lasted only a few minutes, I ended up falling asleep. Perhaps due to the lack of a good night's sleep the previous night or maybe because I had just eaten something and was more relaxed since I had been starving before.

During my sleep, I felt an inexplicable calm, and the feeling of tiredness, which was tremendous before, slowly dissipated, giving way to an energy I hadn't felt in a long time. When I felt that energy, the tiredness and sleep vanished, as if I had had a great night's sleep, and then I woke up and quickly got up.

- "...Zzzz..."

- "...Hu… huh? …" I thought as I suddenly lost sleep.

- "...What? Did I... fall asleep? How much time has passed?" I asked myself, quickly standing up, jumping, and landing on my feet.

- "...Damn… Estalyrion is already pointing to 3 p.m.?" I murmured, not realizing that I was now moving much better.

- "...Wait a second…" I said, noticing that my agility had improved and that I no longer felt the exhaustion from before.

- "...Incredible… I don't feel tired anymore… THIS IS FANTASTIC!" I exclaimed, excited to be moving as well as before.

- "...Sigh… all thanks to the Thyrekon… wherever it is, thank you very much..." I thought as I bowed in respect.

With my energy replenished, I started preparing to get back to work. First, I went to the cave with a water container to check on the dragon eggs. Upon arriving, I found them fine, so I just moistened them and left to start repairing the fence protecting the cave entrance.

- "...Okay, I've checked the dragon eggs, moistened them, and now it's time to work on the fence again..." I said, reflecting on the tasks I still needed to complete.

- "...Alright… first, I'll inspect it..." I thought while observing the damage around.

...After a few minutes...

- "...Sigh… at least it wasn't too bad. But it looks like at least 30% of the fence was damaged, and of that part, 15% is irreparable, even with the help of the Vothrial... I'll need to remove those parts and remake them, and for that part, I can still reuse the resources, using the Vothrial to extract the necessary primary materials..." I thought as I planned the fence repairs.

- "...Alright, I've done what I could with the fence. Now I'll go to the forest to get more Thalbûren and Thalvarýn to make ropes..." I thought as I grabbed my Vothrial crystal, along with the stone axe and other items I made with the help of that crystal.

With the items ready, I put them in the Thalvarýn bag and headed to the forest, choosing an area where I could still have a good view of the cave entrance.

When I arrived at the spot where I usually collected Thalbûren and Thalvarýn, I noticed that the resources in the area were almost depleted. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as the forest was vast and these plants grew everywhere. However, that spot was the only place where I could maintain a clear view of the cave, and if the plants ran out there, I would have to move further away, which meant leaving the dragon eggs unattended — something I wouldn't do, not even in my dreams.

...Sounds of footsteps in the vegetation...

"...Sigh… the smell of vegetation… it's only been a day, but I miss this… maybe because, under normal circumstances, I would still have several broken bones and exhaustion would be killing me, but thanks to the heavens, I'm fine and alive..." I thought as I ventured deeper into the forest.

At that moment, I stopped and looked around, searching for Thalbûren and Thalvarýn.

- "...Hmm… where are you, huh?" I thought as I searched around.

- "...Aha… found it..." I said excitedly after finding more of those plants.

- "...Hmm… but this is getting bad... this is the only place where I have better access to the forest and can still have a clear view of the cave entrance..." I said.

- "...But… all this time, I've used most of the Thalbûren and Thalvarýn reserves in this area... now, they're running out here..." I added.

- "...Tsk… and if they run out, the only way to get more is to go deeper into the forest, but that would make me lose sight of the cave entrance and, consequently, leave the dragon eggs to their own fate... something I wouldn't do, not even in my dreams." I concluded.

For a moment, I thought about a way to solve this problem without having to move away from the cave, while still being able to harvest those plants whenever needed. However, after some time, no immediate solution for obtaining those materials came to mind, so I decided, for now, to follow a path that, even though longer, would still allow me to gather more of those plants without moving far from the cave.

- "...Tsk… there must be some way to get these plants more easily without having to wait for them to grow back or go deeper into the forest..." I thought.

While collecting the remaining plants, I kept trying to think of something, but without success.

...Sounds of an axe striking the Thalbûren...

- "...huff… huff… Tsk… I couldn't think of any way to obtain these plants faster without having to wait for them to grow again or venture deeper into the forest... huff," I said, panting from the work I was doing.

- "...huff… maybe I could... huff... use the Vothrial... imagining the molecular structures of the plant changing until they became mature… but that would consume all my energy, just for one Thalbûren or Thalvarýn plant, not for an entire group…" I thought.

- "...Tsk… it seems I'll have to wait until they grow naturally... or until I can think of a way to bring the dragon eggs with me on my explorations..." I thought, but quickly abandoned the idea.

- "...No... it would be too dangerous for them if I took them with me on forest expeditions... after all, I could face very dangerous situations, and if they were with me, I'd have even more to worry about..." I said.

- "...Agh… Damn... I'll have to think of another way to obtain these much-needed fibers..." I thought.

- "...Sigh… but for now, let's do what we can and ensure that, even in the future, while waiting for them to regrow, I can obtain more of them, but in an area closer to the cave..." I said while tying the Thalbûren I had gathered and wrapping the Thalvarýn threads I had collected to take them back with me.

From that point, I decided to dedicate a small part of my farming field to planting Thalbûren and Thalvarýn, ensuring that I would stay close to the cave and have access to those essential materials. Alongside this, I also knew that during the time I couldn't gather any of these materials, I would have to find other ways to obtain them, either with alternative plants or through other means.

However, the first thing that required my attention was the destroyed protection around the cave, so I decided to finish that before thinking about anything else.

- "...Sigh… Alright... let's try an approach where the gains will be more reliable, which is by waiting in the long term..." I said as I walked toward the cave and, on the way, thought about how I would solve the problem of the lack of these plants.

- "...Hmm... if I set aside a part of the field I had been preparing earlier for planting Thalbûren and Thalvarýn... this could help a lot, as I wouldn't have to leave the vicinity of the cave..." I thought.

- "...However, during the time they're growing, I'd be without those resources nearby and would need to find other ways to get similar fibers..." I thought.

...After a few minutes, I arrived at the cave...

- "...Well... but first, let's solve this problem, and then think about the rest..." I said as I put the materials on the ground and went to drink water.

After hydrating, I returned to repair the protection around the cave. Throughout the rest of that afternoon, I worked on fixing the protective screen, and when I finally finished, the day was already ending. Tired but happy to have completed it that day, I organized my tools and materials and went to check the fish I had placed in my fridge earlier. Looking inside the fridge, I noticed it had been successful in maintaining a cooler temperature than usual, but not cool enough to preserve the fish properly. At that moment, I remembered that the pot-in-pot fridge doesn't lower the temperature enough to preserve meat, only other foods like vegetables and fruits, but not meat. Therefore, the fish I had caught earlier were no longer safe to consume, as several hours had already passed since then. However, I didn't give up on the idea of preserving the fish meat I would catch, as I would need it not only as a supplementary food source in the near future but also as a primary food source while the vegetables and fruits I planned to grow hadn't yet matured. For a few seconds, I thought about alternative ways to preserve meat.

- "...Tsk… Damn… I knew I forgot something with this fridge... it doesn't preserve meat very well, as it lowers the temperature, but not enough to keep it safe..." I thought as I stared at the fridge.

- "...But I can't give up on finding a way to preserve it, not only because this meat will be a necessary food supplement, but also because it will be my primary food source until the first crops bear fruit... which will still take some time..." I said.

- "...And fishing every day takes up precious and necessary time..." I added.

- "...Alright... Let's go, Dravyn... there must be another way to preserve this meat that is accessible to us right now..." I thought.

Finally, after some minutes..

- "...Wait... I know... since preserving meat requires making it difficult for fungi or bacteria to invade it, and to do that, the meat needs to have as little water as possible... all we need to do is dry it..." I remembered.

- "...Yes... and, in this case, it would be very useful to do it with salt... but... there's no salt around here... if only we were near the sea... Tsk... but we're not, and I can't leave here..." I said.

- "...But salting it isn't necessary. Well... salt helps a lot with preservation, but we can do it without salt too, by using a specialized oven for that..." I said, continuing to think.

- "...Alright... and once we remove most of the water until it's dry enough... brittle is the word... then we could store this meat in the pot-in-pot fridge, huh?" I concluded.

- "Yes... that's a great idea..." I thought.

As I would be much more alert that night than before, given what had happened the previous night, I took advantage of my fully charged energy reserves and started working on this other oven. Even if I didn't finish it that night, I could still speed up its construction so that by the next morning, I'd have less work to do and could eat more quickly.