nucmednet Chapter 8 What was that feeling again? Oh! It was hope!
Chapter 8 What was that feeling again? Oh! It was hope!
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Alex came out of her little cabin and looked at Thorne, who was sitting on a strange wooden box by the river, gazing at the water with a melancholy expression. She scratched her head in confusion.
Maybe she misses her mom, who knows?
After sighing, she looked at Thorne's workbench and saw a pile of stone tools neatly stacked next to it.
Stone swords, stone axes, stone picks, stone hoes, and the like.
Therefore, Thorne can not only control the specific shape of wood, but also freely manipulate the specific shape of stone.
Huh? So, does that mean he can also control the specific shape of iron? Isn't that an innate mechanical physique?
Alex walked to the riverbank and patted Thorne on the shoulder. Since the village didn't have iron, she couldn't have him hand-make the parts for her.
However, with the help of Thorne, it is quite easy to assemble a waterwheel and a watermill if you have stones and wood.
"I heard you worked all night. Did you achieve anything?" Alex asked curiously.
Thorne slowly shifted his position, revealing the box. He said with a dismayed expression, "Look for yourself. All I see is dirt, rocks, wood, and a huge pile of gravel... I've been digging all night, and I haven't seen a single piece of iron ore!"
"If you want to mine iron ore, you have to find specific iron mines and deposits. If you could just grab a pickaxe and dig down and find iron ore, then all those ore merchants would be starving."
As Alex spoke, she pulled Thorne, who was sitting dejectedly on the ground, to his feet.
"But these days, stones are very useful too. Come and help me make something."
"What do I need to make?" Thorne asked.
"Let's make a simple waterwheel. It's quite simple. All you need is a waterwheel to scoop water, a support structure to keep the wheel suspended at a suitable height so that the water can wash over the wheel and make it turn, then a drive shaft, and then a few simple gears and a transmission structure."
As Alex spoke, she took out a small stick and drew a simple sketch on the ground.
These were all quite simple for Thorne. He could make the supporting structure himself by using sticks and planks to create a fence, and he could make the water-collecting structure himself by using planks to make a boat and placing it horizontally to collect water. The gears were just a matter of controlling the shape of the planks.
These devices were quickly made by Thorne using a worktable or by hand, then assembled by Alex with a ping-pong motion, and finally placed on the riverbank.
She then used two gears to change the direction of rotation, so that by simply adding a locking spear under the gears to connect to the millstone, the millstone could be made to rotate.
As for the stone mill, Thorne had already started studying it with a large pile of stones. Although he had never made such a thing before, he had at least seen how pigs run.
It's nothing more than two rough discs, one on top of the other, used to grind wheat into flour when they rotate. This is quite simple for Thorne; it's just a matter of carving some grooves into two whole stone blocks and then arranging them neatly.
"But can a wooden drive shaft really hold this huge thing in place without breaking?"
Alex looked at the wooden fence used as a drive shaft, which was pitifully thin compared to the huge square millstone, and looked at Thorne with some curiosity.
"It's made of steel. You might not be able to break it even with a battering ram. However, this thing does have a certain durability. If you use it continuously, it will eventually break suddenly. But before it breaks, you can completely trust its strength," Thorne said confidently.
"Metal...wood...wood fatigue...I'm out of ideas, let's make up a new word someday..." Alex murmured as she climbed onto the waterwheel frame.
To prevent the stone mill from disturbing the residents all the time, she specially made something similar to a clutch between the waterwheel and the stone mill.
The clutch lever is only pulled down when needed to start the watermill connected to the waterwheel; otherwise, it is pulled up to allow the waterwheel to idle.
As the power of the stone mill and the waterwheel began to connect, the entire stone mill started to turn with a rumbling sound.
The commotion woke up the 11 villagers in the village, and they came out of their rooms one by one, still sleepy. They were all familiar with the noise.
The millstone for grinding wheat... but didn't they remember that it was stolen by those monsters? Or was it just their imagination?
However, when they saw the huge square millstone standing quietly by the river, and the waterwheel that was constantly being washed and turned by the river, they were all stunned for a moment in disbelief.
It is foreseeable that they haven't felt this way for a long time. It's not simply the feeling of having a waterwheel or a wheat field; it's a strange feeling that is purer and more general than those.
In their short yet long memories, it seems that they have been constantly losing things since birth: losing food, tools, parents, friends, and even, for some unfortunate ones, their lives.
These people seem to live only to lose things from birth. Even if they plant some food every spring, it's just to prepare for being robbed by those monsters a few months later.
But within these few days, their feeling of losing for the sake of losing seemed to disappear, replaced by a strange yet full feeling... what was it again?
From owning a house that doesn't let in any draft, to owning some strange tools, and then to owning a vast wheat field.
Now, when they wake up, they also have a waterwheel and a stone mill that doesn't need to be pushed.
So what will they have tomorrow? Right, they seem to remember what that word was... hope!
And who was the one who brought this hope here? They all subconsciously looked toward the tall figure sitting by the river.
Thorne noticed the gazes of his subjects and instinctively turned around, then gave an embarrassed smile.
Indeed, the people confirmed that the man was the one who brought hope, and besides him, there was another.
They looked at Alex again. At that moment, Alex was struggling to untie the leather straps of her overalls, then crossed them in her hands and pulled them sharply to the sides with a snap.
Well, although Alex was one of the people who brought all this to the fore, she didn't feel as warm as Thorne, the real lord.
Alex, who had just woken the sleepy villagers with the sound of her belt, remembered the task Thorne had given her the previous evening.
Organizing these villagers to make straw ropes is simple. She, who has been subjected to PUA by the mechanical bishop in the mechanical church for many years, is now finally able to turn the tables and sing her own song as a mechanical slave.
She immediately assigned the task of twisting grass ropes to the people, and one by one they slowly walked towards the woods not far away, looking back every few steps, as if they intended to gather some hemp grass to twist into ropes.
They just turned around and looked at something casually, I don't know what they were looking at.
Alex looked at the slow-moving citizens with a puzzled expression. Why did they seem even less energetic than yesterday after waking up? Did they not eat enough last night?
Just then, Thorne, sitting behind her, looked at the bright eyes of the group of people and still felt so embarrassed that his toes dug into the ground. To ease the awkwardness, he might need to say something to divert their attention.
"Thank you for your hard work."
As Thorne finished speaking, the group of people who had been looking back every few steps seemed to be satisfied. They stopped looking back and slowed their pace, walking diligently towards the woods. Then they sat down and started rubbing the grass they had been pulling.
Alex looked back at Thorne, somewhat bewildered. "What kind of magic was that? Or some kind of spell?"
"I don't know, it's just that they made me feel so awkward," Thorne said with a shrug and a blank expression.
After he finished speaking, he finally rested enough and stood up from the ground. He then used the workbench to make 11 small wooden boxes.
They started by distributing the stones from the large box evenly into 11 smaller boxes. Once the stones were placed into the boxes, they lost most of their weight.
You can have your people carry boxes to build the city walls, which is much easier than carrying stones directly.
Of course, it was also a laborious task, and they could only start working after the wheat was harvested in the evening and they had a hearty meal of bread.
Now, it's time to start planning the basic sketches for the city walls.