Day 91 of Banishment: Fall, and Preparing for Winter (3)
At the moment, Marylia's house is missing something crucial.
That is, a proper floor.
… Well, bricks had been laid on the ground and mortar spread over them to level it. Even so, the floor was at the same height as the ground.
And what happens when the floor level matches the ground?
“This house isn’t really suited to be a warehouse, is it?”
When the floor is at ground level, it’s difficult to keep out moisture. Additionally, insects and small animals can more easily invade.
Currently, the house where Marylia lives is maintained through her daily presence—she sleeps, wakes, cooks, and burns wood, using the smoke to repel insects. The heat circulates, drying the air. However, a house without residents becomes vulnerable to moisture, mold, bacterial growth, and damage caused by small animals and insects.
Moreover, with fall approaching and winter food supplies needing storage, a warehouse becomes essential!
There’s no room to share food with pests like insects or mice. Hence, Marylia needed to build an elevated warehouse!
Island Day 92.
That morning, Marylia left the pond construction entirely to the golems and turned her thoughts to architecture!
“Okay, I’ll erect pillars, brace them midway, and then lay the floor on top… That’s the basic idea. I don’t intend to overcomplicate the design, though…”
Marylia immediately began designing a raised-floor warehouse.
While constructing the brick house had posed challenges with wood processing, the situation was now different. After all, she had iron tools. Processing wood had become much easier and more precise!
“I suppose I could make nails… Oh, that’s right.”
Marylia remembered the importance of nails in wooden construction and came up with an idea.
“I can reforge nails from the washed-up debris.”
Indeed, iron wasn’t solely obtained from iron sand. It could also be sourced by reforging iron scraps from wreckage.
That day, Marylia focused on design, instructions, and nail production.
She decided to model the warehouse construction after her previous firewood shelter and old bed—erect pillars, span rods between them, and lay floorboards across the rods.
Following this design, she directed the golems to erect pillars, create a raised foundation, and install floors and walls.
“Oh, floorboards are wonderful!”
The advent of iron tools and saws, which allowed the production of planks, made construction significantly easier.
Laying the floor? Simple. Building walls? Just as easy!
Even roofing could be completed with wooden planks. How efficient and convenient!
“Wood is less durable than bricks, but that’s something I can compensate for with some ingenuity.”
While having golems produce planks, Marylia instructed others to char the surfaces of these planks.
By charring the surface, the wood becomes carbonized, which repels water and prevents decay. Additionally, smoking the wood with campfire smoke further enhances insect resistance.
Furthermore, to thoroughly dry the wood, the golems arranged planks around a fire, drying them slowly while charring and smoking them.
“In terms of durability, bricks or stone are superior, but for food storage, wooden structures are the way to go.”
Why did Marylia choose a wooden warehouse?
Wood, as a material, is particularly suited for food storage.
Food’s primary enemies include pests like insects and small animals, but moisture-induced mold and decay are also significant threats.
Moisture fosters mold growth and accelerates decay. However, wood has the excellent property of absorbing some moisture, mitigating these risks.
This is something stone buildings lack. Even with good ventilation, stone structures tend to retain moisture, making wooden, raised warehouses ideal for storing food.
“It’s great to have so many helpers. Hehe…”
With the golems handling plank production, processing, and transport, Marylia could focus solely on making nails. Meanwhile, the construction progressed rapidly, which she found thoroughly enjoyable.
Thus, Marylia advanced her wooden construction project, completing a splendid food storage warehouse by Island Day 95.
“Haha… Now I can properly store the food I gather…”
On the 95th day of banishment, Marylia’s day started by storing food in the warehouse.
The afternoon began with the new warehouse glowing under the slightly weaker sunlight of late summer and early fall. Its charred wooden roof gleamed, supported by pillars equipped with mouse guards, forming a sturdy raised-floor structure. This warehouse was poised to play a crucial role in preparing for the winter.
Inside, clay pots glazed and fired for storage lined the shelves.
Though some experiments with glazes had failed, others had succeeded. Ash and clay mixtures seemed to work best. Marylia resolved to continue experimenting casually as she went along.
“Tomorrow, I’ll finally start foraging. I wish I had an Iron Golem for the gathering phase, but I suppose the iron sand supply isn’t there yet…”
Marylia sighed with a bit of worry.
She had started a simple form of iron sand gathering two days prior—creating a pond, filling it with water, mixing in excavated sediment, stirring thoroughly, and draining it quickly. This rudimentary method had slightly increased the yield of iron sand, though the efficiency was still limited.
Still, it was better than nothing. She will collect enough iron sand for an Iron Golem eventually… Probably by mid-fall.
“Well, let’s take it slow. It’s not even half a year since I got here. Let’s aim for three years.”
With a cheerful “No need to rush,” Marylia brushed off her concerns.
“Alright, let’s go gather and dig!”
Marylia went gathering with a cheer.
“Ah. There they are. Ehehe, I came at the right time.”
This day, Marylia’s main target was lilies!
“I’ll just take some roots… Oh, these look tasty.”
She wasn’t after the flowers or stems but the bulbs—the edible parts.
“They should be delicious just boiled. Hehe…”
Using a small shovel crafted from wreckage, Marylia efficiently unearthed lily bulbs and tossed them into the baskets carried by golems.
“Ehehe, it will be nut season soon, so I need to wrap this up beforehand. It’s going to get busy!”
Humming cheerfully, she searched the forest for the next lily.
… Late summer is when lilies are no longer in bloom. During flowering season, their crisp white blossoms stand out clearly and it's not hard to find them, but now that the flowers have already bloomed, it was a bit difficult to find the lilies.
However, if you use the long, slender stems of the lilies, their distinctive leaves, and the scattered remains of decaying flowers and the seed pods that remain there as landmarks, you can find them surprisingly quickly. Besides, every time Marylia went exploring she would remember thinking, "Ah, there are lilies growing here. Let's eat some sometime," so...
By evening, she had collected an abundant haul of lily bulbs and returned to her base. There, she brought out her grindstone.
“These need to be made into preserved food.”
… That's right. The lily roots wouldn't last very long like this.
Since lily bulbs don’t store well in their natural state, Marylia needed to process them.
Using the stone mill, Marylia crushed the lily bulbs.
The stone mill was something she had made some time ago by having the golems endlessly grind down stones. Combining it with a jade hammer, Marylia steadily ground the lily bulbs.
"Once they're crushed, start squeezing them out."
The crushed lily bulbs were passed on to the golems, where they were squeezed using cloth.
They were squeezed thoroughly. Water was added to the leftover pulp, which was then squeezed again. She ensured that not even the tiniest bit of the lily bulbs was wasted, squeezing and squeezing some more.
The resulting juice from the lily bulbs was collected in containers. Water was added to the containers, mixed thoroughly, and then left to settle.
"When the starch settles, we'll pour off the top layer and dry the remaining starch to harden it."
Yes, Marylia was making starch.
Once starch is fully dried, it can last a very long time. To ensure a supply of starchy food through the winter, this method of preservation was essential.
"I wonder if the same thing could be done with Man-Eater roots... If I happen to find one, I’ll give it a try."
Marylia cheerfully resolved to take down a suitable Man-Eater for this purpose.
Because... starch is undeniably delicious!
What do you think about this chapter?
