Construction Mage - Chapter 47: Learning

AN: Late, sorry, I know. Had to run for groceries last minute before closing.

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The timid man known as Eban stared nervously at Clay for a few moments while they shook hands. Then he waited for Clay to say something, but unfortunately for him, the novice earth mage was too dumbfounded to talk. He was caught between the desire to lash out from getting his hand smothered in gooey substances and wanting to connect with a powerful Delver.

However, there was no way for Eban to know what was going on in the mind of another. He soon turned back to his own matter, bringing out a large leather flask from his pouch as he turned to the remains of the ooze. He crouched down and carefully began to collect the viscous liquid, an action that finally parted Clay from his dilemma.

“What are you doing?”

“Umm, collecting ooze membrane?”

His words reminded Clay of the important step that came after combat—looting.

“Is it valuable?”

“Somewhat? I think about a silver coin for each large flask? I don’t like to be wasteful, so I, umm, collect it all anyway.”

Why are you phrasing it like a question?

Clay almost wanted to sigh at how annoying it was speaking with Eban, but he decided it wasn’t worth dwelling on it. He’s dealt with plenty of characters like him in his time at work, and it was always best to just let them be. The only reason he was irritated was because it was coming from what should be a respected veteran Delver. The gap between expectation and reality caught him off guard.

Not all veteran Delvers are the same, I guess. Sylphira and Dorgan have their own quirks, too.

Setting these useless thoughts aside, Clay turned his attention back to Eban, collecting the ooze membrane material. From what he could tell, while the sludge had been quite big, roughly one and a half meters wide, there wasn’t that much of the membrane left once it perished. The difficulty of collecting the liquid that had been splashed across the floor didn’t help, either. He tentatively set the price Eban gave him as two silver coins per liter, which meant each ooze was worth at least twenty silvers based on that alone.

Having killed four of these slimes, Clay could hear coins jingling. He would’ve taken action already if he had a container for it.

“So, Eban. What’s the situation outside? Is your entire party defending the perimeter?”

“Party? Oh, yes, other Delvers on guard duty are here. Most of the monsters in this area should be taken care of, minus whatever stragglers that had crawled inside.”

“Great. That means you have it all under control, right? Can I leave this place to you?”

“Um, yeah.” the thin man gingerly nodded.

Clay patted him on the shoulder before quickly taking off. He raced back to where the construction workers had been holed up. Within a minute, he spotted the large group of burly men gathered around the familiar man with a red mane. They were in the middle of some discussion, so Clay patiently waited off to the side while they talked.

In the meantime, he got a good look at the aftermath of the workers holding down their side of the building. Despite only having a narrow corridor to defend, he spotted half a dozen injured lying around. His eyes widened when he recognized one of them.

“Bradley?” Clay called out. “You okay, kid?”

The young teenager had some bandages wrapped around his left shoulder and the same side of his head. He was seated on the ground with a leg up, looking crestfallen. Upon hearing Clay call out, he looked up with an embarrassed expression.

“Hi there, Sir Clay. It seems like things went well on your end.”

“What happened to you?”

“Nothing much. Just decided to get some scars. Heard it’s what makes a man.”

A group of three workers nearby cheered at his words. They supported the boy with comments like ‘That’s right!’ or whistled. All it took was a quick glance from Clay to shut them up.

“Getting hurt is nothing to be proud of. Tell me. How did you get hurt?”

“I said it’s nothing, sir! It’s—”

“The brat got reckless, ‘tis how,” Garrick interrupted as he suddenly appeared. “Idiot who was too eager to contribute. Stood there like a scarecrow, chucking scrap at the thing, not realizing he became a static target instead.”

“I dodged!” Bradley cried, as if he had been accused of the most heinous crime.

“Dodged straight into a wall and almost cracked yer head straight open!” the foreman retorted with equal fervor.

As much as the conversation satisfied his curiosity, Clay could quickly see it was better not to let it continue. He wrapped an arm around Garrick and pulled him off to the side.

“Enough with this. Here’s a maul I picked up earlier,” Clay shoved his makeshift weapon into the foreman’s hands. “I also need your help with something. Got any large containers for storing liquids? Something a little better sealed than the buckets you use for fetching water.”

“There are a few empty casks from the oil we used,” Garrick said with a sigh as he fidgeted with the maul, evidently trying to move on from the earlier conversation. “You can have it if you want. Any new batch the church ships comes with the cask, anyway.”

“Got it. Thank you!”

Before Clay could run off, his friend’s burly hand gripped his wrist.

“What’cha up to now with the mess barely over? I can’t afford to have any more mishaps right now.”

“Don’t worry,” Clay defended. “I’m just collecting my spoils of war. Apparently ooze membranes are worth something.”

Instead of loosening his grip upon receiving an answer, it tightened.

“Damn right it is. Mostly folks in the second ring use it as a coating for their canopies and even buildings. It sticks to any surface and protects things from the environment quite well. If it wasn’t for the gooey texture, bet they would’ve coated it on their clothes as well.”

“Wait, you mean it’s like the linseed oil and beeswax combination you recommended before, but for all materials?”

“That’s right. You can sell it to me if you want. I could find some use for it. It’ll save you the trouble of going to collect it. It’s just down toward the main hall, right?”

Clay paused for a second as he pondered his options. It really was only for a second, as he had already been worried about his house withstanding the downpour. The ooze membrane had come just in time to solve his issue.

“Hmm, no thanks. I think I’ll use it for my house instead. You always said that my makeshift shack wouldn’t last for long, didn’t you? I fully agree and plan to upgrade it, now that I can.”

“Wow, that’s quite the change of heart,” the foreman snickered. “You’ll be splurging by using that ooze stuff, you know? I’m not kidding when I say it’s more of a second ring material. It doesn’t come cheap. You are forgoing a lot of coins by using it for yourself.”

“That’s fine.”

“Suit yourself,” he shrugged. “Come find me once you’re done collecting. Should be done sending everyone home by then. If you’re going to use the ooze membrane for yourself, you better do it right. I’ll tag along to ensure you don’t waste a drop.”

“Sure.”

With that, Clay was finally freed. He jogged over to where the empty cask was and hurried back to where he left the veteran Delver. Eban was still in the same spot when he returned, guarding the corridor between the left wing and the main hall.

“Everything clear?” Clay asked as he walked past the malnourished man.

“Um, I think so?”

“Well, cover me. I’m going to collect what’s left of my kills.”

“Got it!”

Clay stormed into the hall for the first time since encountering the oozes. He carefully examined the area where the monsters fell to his summon for any additional loot, but came up empty. Only the remains of the ooze were left. The green viscous liquid slowly lost color as time passed, likely to become transparent soon.

Perhaps it’s because the oozes aren’t independent monsters and offshoots attached to the wyverns, so they didn’t warrant a drop? Oh well, no need to get too greedy. The experience rewards are already more than enough. I can’t wait to see what kind of upgrade is available for the summon golem skill.

After all, it proved its usefulness with flying colors this time. I should lean into it more in the future.

***

“Well—umm, when I was saying yer little brick house wouldn’t last the year, I didn’t think it would end up this bad.”

Garrick’s words barely elicited a reaction from Clay, who was shell-shocked by the scene of his house. It was like one of those aftermath videos on the news after a flood. All the flooring in his place was damp. It had just been simple soil, heavily compressed by his summon, meaning his entire home was now filled with mud.

The cause was obvious, too. His brick home was level with the ground outside, but the sections where the hardened earth bricks were carried water. It allowed water to flow into the house, messing up the entire place.

What was worse was the putrid smell. His proud toilet was connected to a small container buried outside. As the soil soaked up the water, it eventually filled the buried bucket, and backflow invaded his home.

“I didn’t say this because my Thalia was here last time, but I planned to have a good laugh once ya suffered a little from not raising yer foundations. However, this is a little too much. I’m sorry this happened,” the towering man patted his friend on the shoulder.

It finally got a reaction out of him as he shoved his hand aside.

“No, I had it coming. I should’ve invested more money in it as soon as I could. It’s not like I’ll get my hands on the stone spells anytime soon, anyway. I knew I would be stuck with the earth series of spells for the foreseeable future and got complacent.”

“Well, if ya want my advice this time, I’ll be happy to share. Lots of things ye could’ve done differently, but you still got some valuable experience out of it.”

“Right. And it isn’t like it’s a total loss. This is repairable.” The two men took a few steps forward and couldn’t help but raise a hand to their noses. “Well, maybe after some cleaning up. My water heater here is still fine. I’ll just give everything a thorough rinse before we get started with the repairs.

“Hm, I’d be careful if I were you. The rain may have destabilized your walls. You might as well tear them down and use proper mortar this time, after raising your foundations. Even if the earthen bricks themselves are somewhat weak against water, the mortar is always key.”

“I suppose so. However, once I coat the new walls with this ooze membrane, I swear this will never happen again!” 

“So, um, do yer need a place to stay for the night? Don’t think you’ll manage all that with the remaining daylight.”

“...Yes, please. As long as you and Thalia don’t mind, of course.”

“Nonsense. She’d be delighted to have you! An assistant in her home? What more could she ask for?”

“On second thought, maybe an inn wouldn’t be too bad. I did say I’d start splurging, right?”

Whether he was serious or not, it didn’t matter. Garrick wrapped an arm around him, sealing his fate. The two took one last cursory look at the damage before using the water from the magic crystal to purge the smell away. After breaking some sections of the walls for somewhere for the water to flow out, they called it a day and headed back into the third ring.

This day would inevitably remain in Clay’s memories for years to come. The lessons learned here would be used in every single one of his future projects.

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