Upon returning from the dungeon, Callum checked the area around his cave for any signs of disturbances. Reassured that nothing had been displaced, he set about fanning the embers of the dying fire into a roaring flame; warmth soon suffused his cave.
With the heat returning to the cave, Callum set all of his poorly made pottery items near the back of the cave where they could continue their drying out process. He just hoped the cold didn't negatively affect the final product.
In the end though, Callum accepted that, at best, he'd have barely passable crockery; the cold was just one factor as to why he'd be lucky to have any usable items by the time this set was done.
Callum admired the spear he had acquired from the goblins as he waited for his cold debuffs to slowly improve as he warmed up. He had briefly glanced at the spear during his trip back, but now he wanted to inspect it closer.
The edge was a little dull, luckily Callum had a whetstone and some oil to fix that. Trying to sharpen the edges could cause the item to lose durability, but Callum had plenty of experience with maintaining sharp edges for farm implements like axes or scythes.
Callum quickly worked to bring a sharp edge to his new weapon. His experience and previously acquired skills allowed him to do so without losing additional durability; the spear had been damaged in the battle.
Goblin Spear (Trash) (Durability: 12/15)
Deals melee damage equal to 1/4 user's Strength stat
Allows user to use
He was happy to see such a large increase in his combat power, despite the spear being (Trash) quality. Even damaged, the spear had over twice as much durability as his previous spears. And the damage had greatly increased.
Callum resolved that he'd bring his bag with him on his next run, so he could loot the bodies of the goblins he separated from the rest of the horde. He had planned to loot the goblins after the battle he'd had.
However, that was before the Witch Doctors had shown up and ruined his plan. He was left with a single spear instead of the loot of over a dozen goblins; that was not a mistake he would repeat!
Despite the challenge the Witch Doctor had presented and the lack of loot, Callum was still satisfied with today's run. His enclosure worked as intended and saved his life. Additionally, he had killed over 20 goblins before he was forced to retreat.
His new spear and the knowledge he had gained today ensured that the next dungeon dive would be even more profitable. All that experience and growth in skills would pay off once his quest was finished.
Sufficiently warmed up, Callum gathered the various animal hides he had been collecting since he had arrived; one elk hide, two deer hides, and one lynx hide. It was finally time to start making some leather!
Leatherworking wasn't something Callum had actually done by himself and his skill was fairly low. Leatherworking had taken place on the Murray farm, but he hadn't gotten around to actually working in that area of the farm operations.
He had helped occasionally, and hoped that he remembered enough to produce something workable. Leather could provide him with some basic armor and it'd help keep him warm, especially since his clothes had many new holes and tears in them.
He carried the hides to a nearby smaller cave that he had recently discovered. Once there, he dragged a large oak log in, raised a snow wall at the mouth of the cave, built another door, and created a fire pit.
Preparing the hides required him to soak them in water, so he needed to keep that water from freezing. He didn't have the space for this in his other cave, consequently he was forced to use another cave in order to soak the hides.
Ever since he had collected the Elk hide, Callum had been steadily using his knife and hatchet to hollow out a large space in the oak log. Now he finally had a large enough hollow for all four hides.
He worked for an hour to bring in snow to fill the makeshift tub. The log was close enough to the fire that one load of snow would melt as he left to gather the next one. It was a slow process, but soon all the hides were completely submerged.
He threw multiple slivers of oak bark into the water; the tannin found in the oak log and bark would slowly tan the hides as they soaked. This tanning process would often last many months, but he would settle for a couple of weeks.
The tanning helped preserve the leather, but he didn't have the time to wait that long. He needed additional warmth and protection now, even if the half cured leather would eventually fall apart.
"Good leather six months from now doesn't do me any good if I'm dead next month, I can always do a normal batch next," he spoke out loud as he glanced at his slapdash setup.
Callum hoped his adjusted method worked; normally the bark would be boiled, pulped, and then strained to give a concentrated tannin solution. However, he lacked something to boil the water.
The animal fur had also been left on all the hides in order to provide extra warmth, which added another complication.
"Well, just gotta hope that I can get something usable in a couple of weeks. Now though, I need even more firewood," Callum closed the makeshift door as he gave voice to his thoughts.
Once back in the main cave, Callum moved to place his whetstone and oil back on his storage shelf when a bundle of letters caught his eye. Sarah's letters.
He gingerly picked them up. Half of him wanted to toss the whole bundle into the fire and the other half wanted to sit by the fire and read through them once more. He eyed the fire, his seat, and the letters in equal measure.
She had been his childhood friend, his confidant, and eventually his lover. They had professed their love to each other during their last meeting, but those had proven to be empty words. He still loved her, but there was pain there, too.
He pushed aside those bittersweet memories as he often did when it came to Sarah. The letters were carefully returned, unread and unburnt. It was easier to push those emotions away than it was for him to deal with them.
He gathered his bag and headed back out into the slowly darkening forest. The fires set in two different caves and in the dungeon required an ever increasing amount of firewood. And night had not yet fallen, he couldn't afford to waste time.
Callum put the smaller branches into his bag and dragged larger logs back to his main cave; once there, he would process the logs into good firewood. He worked until he needed his
As his meal cooked, Callum's eyes often unconsciously settled on the bundle of letters, and he inevitably forced them to look elsewhere as soon as he realized what he was doing. He was very tempted to pick at those emotional wounds and read the letters once more.
He had successfully avoided thoughts of her for a long time. Callum had to be honest with himself. Ever since he received her last letter, a big reason he had thrown himself into trying to save the farm had been to banish thoughts of her from his mind.
Tonight was different though; her smiling face appeared too easily in his mind; he didn't know if it was the solitude or his recent brushes with death, but he couldn't divert his thoughts away from Sarah like he usually could.
Frustrated with himself, he eventually sought the sweet oblivion of sleep.
((A/N: Tomorrow will be the first R18 chapter. If you haven't yet read the auxiliary chapters, I encourage you to read 'Note on R18 content' so that you know what to expect. I will try to get two chapters out tomorrow so that those who aren't into such content will still have a chapter to read.))