Chapter 10 – Building Hippolius’s House

There was something that I needed to check before I started to build Hippolius’s house.

“Hippolius. Put down that tree and come over here.”
‘Whaat?’
“I need to check something.”
‘Kyuru. Okay.’

I put my hand on Hippolius and studied the dragon carefully.
Its skin felt quite wet.

“You must be sweating after all that tree gathering.”

It seemed like there were thick layers of fat underneath the skin.
The fat likely helped Hippolius maintain its body temperature.

“While you seem fine during the warm season, it will probably be cold during winter.”
“Kyu?”

Hippolius enjoyed being petted, and it wagged its tail happily.
It even started to rub its head against me, and so I studied the head as well.

“Now open your mouth.”
“Kyuoooon.”
“That’s a big mouth. You really are just like a hippopotamus…”

Only the teeth were quite short.
The hippopotamuses that I knew had longer teeth.

“Do Sea Hippos just have smaller teeth?”
“It’s because this one is still a child.”

Kelly seemed to have appeared out of nowhere as she stated this.
Then she stuck her hand into Hippolius’s mouth as well.

‘Fushuuu!’
“Kelly. Hippolius doesn’t like you doing that.”
“Oh, very sorry.”

Kelly did not look particularly affected as she removed her hand from Hippolius’s mouth.
Then she patted its head.

“It’s not the same with hippopotamuses, but this is how you can tell young and adult dragons apart…”

And so Kelly taught me this trivia about earth dragons.
Apparently, the shape of their horns and tails were different.

“I see. So Hippolius is just a child.”
“Kyu?”
“Then I’ll have to make a very big house so that Hippolius can grow inside.”

Dragons grew very slowly.
So perhaps it wasn’t actually necessary to worry about that and make a large house.
But I just wanted to be sure.

“A large house and with good insulation.”

Hippolius did not have any fur, and it would not do if it caught a cold from a draft.

“Well, they live in the cold sea, so I’m sure it will be fine.”

Said Kelly. But I still wanted to make a warm house just to be safe.

And so I started to create a detailed image of Hippolius’s house in my mind.
Hippolius was over ten meters long. And so this house needed to be three times as long on each side at the very least.
And the roof should also be high.
The door also had to be wide enough for Hippolius to walk through with ease.

As for the floor, it would have to be reinforced in order to carry Hippolius’s weight.

This would use a lot of wood.
But Hippolius had gathered so much wood, so it would probably be just enough.

“Hippolius. Can you help gather some rocks?”
‘Okay!’

And so we started gathering rocks.
But pretty much all of the rocks in the surrounding area had been used to make the other houses.

And so we would have to go out a little farther in order to find more.
Kelly, the scholars, and Victor also helped with gathering the rocks.

“Thank you. This should be enough.”
“Kyu.”
“I’m glad that we could help you.”

Hippolius and Victor said with a smile.
The geologist was also very interested in the rocks.
He was inspecting them carefully.

“There are a lot of volcanic rocks here. There must be a volcanic mountain close by.”
“Is it that mountain?”

In the distance, I could see a tall mountain with a snow-covered peak. The monsterologist, Kelly, was pointing at it.

“It’s possible.”
“I would very much like to go and study the beasts there. Yes, I will go soon.”
“Aye, and I would like to study the climate. And so I’ll go with you.”

Said the climatologist. The scholars then excitedly made plans for their trip to the mountain.

“These investigations will have to wait until we finish building our home base and life here is stable. And that won’t be any time soon.”

Victor said with a consoling smile.
They could not just allow the scholars to go out on their own.
Who knew what kind of monsters were out there?
And so they would have to send them out as a party with Adventurers.
However, the Adventurers were an important work force for building our base and creating a stable life here.
And they could not be easily sent on some faraway expedition.

“I know that. And so I’ll just study Hippolius and the nearby wildlife while I wait.”
“Thank you for understanding.”

By the time Victor was finished talking to them, we had finished gathering the rocks.
As these rocks were also good as building materials, you could not have too many of them.

Once I had gathered all of the materials, I used the appraisal skill on everything, just like before.
And then I used all of the concentration that I could muster in order to process the vast amounts of information that flowed into my brain.
It was exhausting, but not something I could cut corners with.

After the appraising was finished, I needed to create an image for the crafting skill.
As Hippolius’s house would be much larger than the others, it was difficult to create an image of it.
Now only that, but since I wanted it to be air tight, the image had to be even more precise than usual.

Once I had the picture in my head, it was time to activate the crafting skill.
I would use a lot of magic energy and make it starting at the bottom.
As an earth floor would get muddy when it rained, I had wooden panels.
It would be similar to the other houses.

However, it also had to be able to carry Hippolius’s great weight.
And so the structure had to be altered.

With the Adventurers’s houses, I had several posts holding the floor above the ground.
This way, they would be strong to the rain, and would be less damp.
And while this structure had its conveniences, it would not be able to support Hippolius’s weight.

First, I hardened the earth below and then lay stone over it.
I was able to use the crafting skill to process the rock so that they were flat.

Once I was finished laying them down, I put the wooden panels over them to make the floor.
And from there, things were generally the same as the other houses.
I made the walls, ceiling and roof.

In order for the giant Hippolius to be able to move around comfortably, the house was not only big, but there were no walls.
That meant I had to have extra beams that were stronger, to help support the roof.
I would have liked to use metal beams instead of wood, but this would have to do for now.
However, I did use the lighter, more durable wood for the top.

“Alright, that should do it.”

At last, Hippolius’s house was complete.

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