Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

The main thing about the bed storage, is that she didn’t need to have it big. She didn’t have too many things that she wanted to keep close. Sure, clothes and such would be nice, but she could also leave it on the edge of the bed and call it a day.

”Maybe I should extend the frame?” Aiko tilted her head. That was possible, and it would allow her to make the storage flooring quicker.

”I don’t know...” Aiko groaned unhappily.

She could extend it by making it a large X between the bed frame and the side beam pillars. This way she could easily put ’floor’ down and leave it as is.

The size was a bit iffy, since she would have to adjust the supporting beams of the bed further to make it smaller, but that was a minor issue at this point.

”Let’s just cover one side.” Aiko nodded her head. She would also add some rails, just in case she accidentally rolled off the bed. The main headboard could be the actual wall, or she could just make a partial wall, where only the top part, where the bed was, would be covered.

With that in mind, Aiko got to work.

The wall behind the bed was easy, since she could use the bed frame as the ’floor’ for it, making the whole process very easy. As for the actual floor that she wanted near bed, that one was a bit hard.

It was not particularly hard to make those parts, but nailing them down was the tricky part.

The bed frame was reinforced on even ground and then pulled up by ropes before being nailed down. Aiko tried to use the same on the X, but it didn’t work out well enough. The X was light, so adjustments were difficult to do without pulleys, but Aiko didn’t have any pulleys, and she didn’t want to leave this place when she was almost finished.

However, she then got an idea.

In one of the shops in the safe area, there were beams connected without any nails.

Aiko found it fascinating, but quickly lost interest, since she didn’t think she would use it in her own home.

However, that part was now perfect for what she was trying to create. Well, somewhat.

Her plan was to make grooves to slide the X frame into and then nail it down, but the precision required to do this was steep considering her materials.

One bad move and the whole beam under the bed frame would have to go.

As you might expect, that’s not the best idea since the nails sank deep into the wood and pulling them out was not really a realistic thing.

Shaking her head, Aiko prepared smaller materials. She would practise on those before making the final grooves. This would allow her to test things and maybe even learn something new.

”But it will be less tedious if it’s small.” Aiko nodded her head. Instead of carving a big piece of wood, a smaller one would suffice.

This would also allow training her precision, which would be needed on the big piece.

And now it was time to train...

...

Aiko spent many days on the small pieces of wood as she connected and disconnected them.

”Hehe~” For some reason Aiko liked to play with those small pieces, since not only did they make a satisfying pop if they were done correctly, but the further satisfaction from seamlessly connecting things was ecstatic.

Aiko kind of forgot what she was doing over time, but looking back at her bed, she already had some more ideas on how to make it better in the future.

This wood was dry from the moment she cut into it. It kind of felt like this whole forest was not living, but she would ignore that part for the time being.

What she was trying to say was that this wood would never ’work’. It would not move around during the drying process because there was nothing to dry and rain, which never came here, was also not an issue.

In theory, you could say that this piece of wood was like a metal that would never rush.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Going back to her point, it was possible to build most of this caravan without using nails. Sure, the structural integrity might be slightly compromised due to lack of nails, but if done correctly, that wouldn’t be an issue.

Thinking about it, it would require a lot of tools, but it would be aesthetically pleasing.

Aiko nodded her head as she used a small knife to make a mark on the beams under the bed. She would then later cut it once she measured it a few more times, to ensure that she was correct about the distance and everything.

Thinking about it, the smaller version was really nice in this, since she could get softer wood and make a small makeshift, like those blueprints she would do with her illusions or thoughts, but in real life and others could touch it and edit it very easily, without the need for abilities and skills.

Nodding her head, she slowly carved the beams that hoisted the bed above the main flooring.

It was a slow and careful process, since she didn’t want to mess this up.

There was a worry over the middle part of the X that she would be placing here, but considering what kind of wood this was, it should be fine. She wouldn’t place anything too heavy on this anyway, so there was that too.

The X could be slid into the grooves that Aiko made into the beams and thanks to the stiffness, she could easily nail those nails from both sides to make it firm and secure.

It was easier to slam the nails from the X side instead of the beam, since you didn’t need to risk exposure of the nails that way.

However, Aiko was careful enough that that was not an issue, and now she had a working frame for the small flooring.

The floor boards didn’t need to be thick, since the X frame was sturdy enough, and while it was long, due to the decreased width, the durability increased.

”I wanted to make the whole floor, but it might seem strange, so I did only a part.” Aiko inspected the flooring that she just put down. She didn’t nail anything down, just in case she wanted to add something.

However, the floor was pretty much perfect.

”And because I nailed it through those grooves, I can later expand it if I wanted or needed.” Aiko nodded her head slowly. This type of craftsmanship was really cool and made many things easier, especially since she didn’t have any helpers in here.

”I wonder how long it will take for the slime to grow up.” Aiko tilted her head a few times before adjusting the floor and nailing it down.

With the flooring and bed frame done, she could place the mattress in and roof too.

This pretty much concluded her work for the time being, and it was time to return to the safe area with everything.

”Armour can be thrown to the storage area and hehe~” Aiko chuckled sinisterly. She would teach those damned uglies later!

The armour and some heavy weapon would be perfect to wreak havoc. She would be both protected and having devastating damage, which Aiko liked a lot.

Nodding her head gently she stored everything in before trying to pull the whole thing.

The wheels rattled as she tried to drag it away.

”Yep, this needs new wheels.” Aiko clicked her tongue. This thing was rattling like it would fall apart any moment, but it was not the actual caravan, but the wheels that made those noises.

Maybe it was too heavy for the wheels, but Aiko didn’t really know how to make wheels from wood that would bend. And not to mention, crying to adjust the wood to be round was such a pain in the ass!

”Not doing that.” Aiko would rather buy just those wheels, since everything else was simple enough to do.

The journey to the safe area was uneventful. The number of villages also didn’t increase, but there were many of them.

”It kind of seems like I will be doing raids...” Aiko pondered how that would feel if it happened to her, but eh, she would prepare enough traps so that enemies wouldn’t be able to approach her, so~!

The safe area was adjusted while Aiko was working on her caravan.

There was now a main road and side roads and everything had its own path, but there was one important thing about this.

Gravel part, rock path and dirt path.

Gravel path, or the main path led from the entrance to the palace or castle, whatever that was. The rock paths then led to different shops or anything that Aiko could use, while dirt paths were there and Aiko could use them, but it wouldn’t lead her to anything interesting, so you could say that those were useless.

However, just knowing that there were different paths, this would save her a lot more time when she was looking for anything new.

She could ignore those dirt paths and take the rock paths first.

Nodding her head gently, she pulled the caravan to where she purchased the old one.

It had many different caravans, carts and other things inside, but Aiko was not interested in those.

”Each wheel is 5,000...” Aiko groaned, but then paused. ”Are they sturdy?”

[Yes.]

”As much as my caravan?” Aiko raised her eyebrow.

[Almost.]

”How much would my caravan cost?” Aiko narrowed her eyes.

[Around 1.2 million.]

*Pffft*

Aiko coughed up blood. So much work and it was only worth that much!? That was a travesty!

[It’s done by an unknown novice, so that price is actually accurate.]

”Do I have to build up fame to sell things for more?” Aiko blinked her eyes.

[The more widely known you are, the more you will be able to do. This is a separate metric to your Level.]

[Fame is something that is solely used inside the safe area, while Level is used only outside.]

The system explained the main gimmick behind this.

”But I can’t see fame.” Aiko clicked her tongue.

[There are many things that we can’t observe directly, but looking around indirectly, we will be able to figure out many things.]

”You want me to guess how famous I am?” Aiko rolled her eyes. She was not interested in others, and there was actually nobody there, so she couldn’t even listen to gossip which would make everything easier.

”I swear you are trying to make my life difficult...” Aiko sighed, shaking her head.

[That is not the case, Princess. We are merely adjusting the system so that we don’t lose too much ’currency’.]

”Right...” Aiko sighed. Anything and everything needed to be powered by something and her system wouldn’t be an exception. She would have to figure out a way to get more energy than the system consumed, so that she could get more goodies, but she didn’t know HOW the system actually worked, so that would be her long term goal...