Chương 91: Chapter 90 The Iron Dagger in the River

The village remained busy even after the festival. As Karath had noticed while standing upon the platform, the relocation had only just ended, leaving much of the settlement unfinished. They allowed themselves one day of celebration to release their accumulated stress. Then construction resumed. Orga led part of the female workforce and continued strengthening the walls. They added more stone and earth to the existing structure, increasing both its height and thickness.

"Leave a road only at the main gate. Dig deeply around every other section of the wall. That will make it more difficult for monsters to approach."

"Oh! Such a method exists? The Grand Chief's wisdom is truly astonishing. Orga had only considered strengthening the wall itself, but his mind has opened once again today!" Karath also taught Orga several additional methods of improving the village's safety, including digging a moat and constructing traps. Orga would probably develop the ideas further after receiving only a few examples. Meanwhile, Krog and his mother, Gerina, led the remaining women as they continued building earthen houses.

The warriors hunted as usual. Since the village stood near the river and construction still produced constant noise, monsters continued approaching every day. The hunters rarely needed to travel far. After another fifteen days of construction, near the end of autumn, enough earthen houses had been completed for every household to possess one. No tribespeople froze to death during the winter. The river made water easy to obtain, and soap production continued.

The walls, traps, moat, and nearly one hundred warriors stopped every monster attack. As a result, almost no one died throughout the winter. Meanwhile, many women became pregnant or gave birth. At this rate, the population would continue growing. Karath had no intention of remaining satisfied with only one village. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. Winter passed without serious trouble.

When the cold winds finally began weakening, Karath led twenty warriors toward the Huge River.

"The river has finally thawed." The new settlement stood approximately five hundred metres from the water. Building directly beside it would have placed the entire village at risk during the monsoon. If the river flooded, months of work could have been destroyed. In the future, they might build a dam or embankment. For now, that remained beyond their capabilities. Instead, they cleared and maintained a path between the settlement and the river.

During daylight, women used it to collect water, while warriors washed themselves there before or after hunting. Karath had not come to drink or bathe.

"Grilled fish is a delicacy of its own. Heh heh." Eating monster meat every day became tiresome. Today, Karath intended to catch fish for the first time in a long while.

"Is that not right, Buddy?"

"Woof! Woof!" Buddy wagged his tail happily as though he understood. When Karath first found him, the Giant Wolf cub had been no larger than a small dog. Now he had grown to approximately the size of an ordinary wolf from Earth. He remained small compared with a fully grown Giant Wolf, but the speed of his growth was astonishing.

"Warriors, move downstream and wait there." Karath stroked Buddy's head and issued his orders. The warriors moved downstream carrying nets woven from vines and scoop nets resembling tools meant for catching insects rather than weapons. Were they planning to catch fish with those? That was only partly correct. The equipment would have been enough to catch fish for Karath and the twenty warriors. It could never provide enough for every tribesperson.

As Grand Chief responsible for the entire settlement, Karath could not favour only those who accompanied him. He intended to use a small trick to feed everyone.

"Hm." Karath concentrated and moved the mana gathered around his heart. The spell he intended to cast still exceeded his comfortable abilities, requiring a long period of concentration. Crackle. With nothing disturbing him, intense electrical sparks eventually formed above his palm. It was the Fourth Circle spell Chain Lightning. According to Renstein's book, the spell could electrocute at least three or four humans and, at maximum, more than ten.

After steadily gathering mana throughout the winter, Karath had finally accumulated enough to cast a single Fourth Circle spell. The spell alone would not catch enough fish. However, electricity interacting with water was another matter.

"Tonight, everyone eats grilled fish!" Crackle! The lightning Karath released spread across the river's surface with a violent sound. The noise vanished almost immediately. A moment later, fish began floating to the surface. Those near the point of impact had died and released a faint burned smell. Those farther away had merely been stunned and floated motionlessly upon the water. Both the dead and unconscious fish drifted downstream with the current.

"Catch them!" At Karath's shout, some warriors threw nets into the river while others scooped the passing fish from the water. As the warriors hurriedly collected them, Karath noticed something unfamiliar drifting downstream. The creature stood somewhere between one hundred and sixty and one hundred and seventy centimetres tall and possessed green skin similar to an orc's. Its body twitched repeatedly as the river carried it closer.

It had probably been touching the water upstream and indirectly exposed to the spell, leaving its body paralysed. Neither its appearance nor the trembling caused by the electrical shock surprised Karath most. Its right hand had clenched violently from the current. Something remained trapped within that hand. It was primitive and crudely made. Karath still recognised it instantly. Since being reborn in this world, he had searched desperately for that material at every opportunity.

The creature was holding a dagger made from iron.