Carefully piling mud bricks into the shape of a furnace, Carl looked at the brick kiln that had already taken shape, and muttered to himself helplessly.

But there was nothing he could do about it, because Carl had nothing but mithril and no other good raw materials. He took out the finest piece of mud and kept slamming it on a wooden board.

The mud was kneaded like dough, and then gradually shaped into the shape of a crucible in Carl's hands.

The clay ball that became the crucible had a smooth and shiny surface due to repeated beating. Carl made six in a row before giving up because of insufficient raw materials.

Walking back to the brick kiln, Carl injected a little spirituality into each of the four mithril alloy plates.

Instantly, a wave of heat emanated from the metal plate.

Although there was no flame, the color of the four mithril alloy plates had gradually begun to turn orange-yellow.

After putting the extra mud bricks and crucible mud into the brick kiln, Carl used the discarded mud to seal the entrance of the brick kiln.

Next, these mud embryos will face the fate of either transformation or destruction under high temperatures.

"Thank goodness this giant mushroom has been completely petrified, otherwise I wouldn't dare to perform high-temperature firing on it."

After washing the mud off his palms, Carl sighed and went into the house to process the wood.

It will take some time for the brick kiln to fire.

"Ka, Karl! Have you finished your work over there?"

Seeing Carl walk into the room, Hope, who was measuring his body there, put down his hands in panic and spoke haltingly.

"Well, that's enough for now, let's process the wood!"

Pretending not to see anything, Carl asked Hope to turn the gears while he continued to process the wood.

'If I have a chance, I should use those materials to make two pocket watches to check the time. Right now, I can only roughly calculate the time based on the time when the alchemy pot updates its cooldown. I don't know exactly how much time has passed.'

Time passed by little by little as I processed the wood at the same time.

When the room was almost full of processed wood parts, Carl signaled Hope to stop turning the gears.

"Okay, this should be enough to build the right wing. Let's get started."

"Eh? Why do you build the right wing first?"

"Because men are on the left and women are on the right, haven't you always wanted a room of your own? Then build yours first."

Carl's teasing made Hope's already red skin even redder.

Looking at Carl's expression that didn't seem fake, Hope pursed her lips, wanting to say something but not knowing what to say.

She can't say, "Because my bust and hips have been growing recently, I feel a little embarrassed to live in the same room with you, so I'm in a hurry to sleep in separate rooms," right?

After opening the door, the two men transported the parts back and forth.

Carl had already reserved the framework for the left and right wing rooms, and all he had to do was install the parts of each unit.

The first time is new, the second time is familiar.

With the previous experience of forced installation on a rainy night, Carl was much more skilled in installing the various mortise and tenon parts this time.

With Hope's help, the right wing was installed quickly.

Using Hope's axe, Carl removed a section of the wooden board between the right wing and the lobby, and then used a lathe to directly machine a door and installed it back.

Coincidentally, after doing all this, the spiritual energy in the four mithril alloy plates was almost consumed.

Carl left Hope to clean the right wing, while he himself went to open the brick kiln.

As soon as he opened the mud that had been applied earlier, a wave of heat forced Carl to take several steps back.

Seeing this, Carl had to use the Mage's Hand.

Put the bricks directly into the water tank next to it. As the water vapor rises, the temperature of the bricks drops rapidly.

Thus, a blue brick was made.

After taking the finished product out of the water, Carl bent his fingers and tapped on the brick.

"Ding ding ding"

The crisp sound sounds like knocking on iron, which proves that the material of the brick is quite good.

Nodding with satisfaction, Carl followed suit and did the same with the remaining bricks.

However, not all the bricks in this kiln were completed. In addition to some that were broken when the kiln was just opened, some were also broken during the water cooling process.

All in all, the success rate is only about 40%.

Only two of the crucibles were successful, but any success was actually a good thing because it meant that Carl could smelt metal.

Thinking back to the position of the broken bricks in the kiln when they came out of the kiln just now, Carl felt that next time he fired bricks, he could consider the impact of the distance between the mud bricks and the rune plate on the yield.

Using the Mage's Hand to take out four rune plates, Carl used intact blue bricks to build a smelting furnace that was very much in line with textbook requirements.

He injected spirituality into the rune plate again, and the scorching temperature rose.

Throwing the broken parts and sawdust from the goblin weapons into the crucible, Carl controlled the wizard's hand and put the crucible into the smelting furnace.

Under the continuous high temperature, the wood chips turn into carbon powder and begin to react with the rusted metal parts.

Before long, the solid metal began to melt and turned into a cup of molten iron emitting an orange-yellow glow.

Seeing this thing, Carl finally smiled with relief.

…

"Gujiji~"

It was another good day for hunting. In the mind flayer base deep in the woods, the brain eaters left the base one by one and searched the forest for fresh brains.

However, in the deepest part of the base, several brain-eating monsters were gathered in front of a transformation chamber, communicating with psychic power.

"It's out, it's coming out soon! After half a year, we finally succeeded in transforming a mind flayer!"

In the chitinous transformation chamber, a mind flayer with the characteristics of a hobgoblin still remaining on its body was sleeping with its eyes closed.

The tentacles on his chin were wriggling slightly, as if reflecting his experiences in his dream.

"The old master hasn't contacted us for two weeks. It seems that something unexpected happened. We must let the new Mind Flayers develop more of their own kind and strive to cultivate a main brain as soon as possible so that the old master's thinking can be revived in the main brain!"

Directly opposite the transformation chamber, a brain floating in an orange solution was bobbing up and down.

This is the mind backup left here by the mind flayer who captured Carl and implanted the mind flayer larvae.

According to his plan, even if he died outside, as long as the base here developed normally, his mind would be reborn in the main brain here!

The brain-eating monsters were discussing heatedly. In the conversion chamber, the mind flayer, who had completely accepted the memories of his time as a hobgoblin, opened his eyes.

Surging spiritual energy emanated from his body, the door of the transformation chamber opened, and the brain-eating monsters prostrated themselves on the ground, as if welcoming the birth of a new king.

"I'm hungry~"

Looking leisurely in the direction of his former tribe, the Mind Flayer narrowed his eyes and slowly floated up.

(End of this chapter)