Chapter 8

While discussing the accommodations, the adventurers landed, and Victor immediately instructed them to start cutting trees.

"We have to hurry, or we'll end up sleeping in the open or on the boat again tonight."

"That's not good!" "Yeah, let's hurry."

The adventurers enthusiastically started cutting down trees.

Despite not being professional lumberjacks, they were quite efficient.

Still, it would be difficult to secure enough wood to build six cabins in one day.

"Victor, should we build temporary shelters out of earth?"

"Out of earth?"

"Yeah. It would be difficult to gather enough wood and build six cabins by sunset."

"I was thinking that if we could build one or two, we could all sleep together in them..."

Victor is right; that would work.

"Using earth, we can use the materials right here. It won't be as comfortable as wood, though..."

Earth has poor ventilation, it's hard to make windows, and it's weak against rain.

However, if I use my crafting magic, the earth shelters will be reinforced with magic and won't collapse suddenly.

"That's true..."

While Victor was seriously considering this, Hippolyus rubbed his head against me.

"What's wrong, Hippolyus?"

I decided he wanted to be petted and started stroking his head.

"Theodore, can Hippolyus help too?"

"Hippolyus, you want to help cut down trees?"

"Yeah. Just knock them down, right?"

"No, we need to turn them into lumber. Don't snap them and break them."

"Got it!"

Hippolyus walked over to a thick tree nearby.

As he did, Victor said,

"That's true, but building earth shelters would require a lot of effort to dismantle later..."

"You're right. It would be better to build something that can last longer from the start, but..."

At this rate, we should be able to gather enough wood for six cabins in no more than three days.

If we work hard, we might even manage it in two.

Building earth shelters to avoid a couple of nights of cramped sleeping is indeed inefficient.

Just then, Hippolyus looked at us and let out a loud call.

"Kyuuuuuu!"

"What's wrong, Hippolyus?"

"Hippolyus wants you to watch him cut down a tree."

Hippolyus always wants me to watch him do things.

"Alright, I'll watch."

"Kyu."

With a call, Hippolyus inserted his horn into the base of the tree and used his head to push the trunk, leveraging it to fell the tree.

Victor was so surprised that he froze.

So I explained to him,

"Hippolyus seems to have used magic to fell the tree."

"What kind of mechanism is that?"

"He shot magic from the tip of his horn to cut the roots of the tree."

Once the thick roots are cut, it's not difficult for Hippolyus to knock down a large tree with his strength.

"Kyu?"

"Hippolyus, that's amazing!"

When I praised him, Hippolyus wagged his long tail.

Then, he picked up a huge log that would be difficult for ten people to carry and ran over with it in his mouth.

"Thanks, this helps a lot."

When I praised and petted him, Hippolyus purred happily.

"I'll bring more trees!"

"Thanks."

Watching Hippolyus run off energetically, Victor said,

"What exactly is Hippolyus, or rather, the Sea Hippo species...?"

"I don't know."

I understand why Victor is curious. It's not common for magical beasts to use magic.

"A Sea Hippo is a new species of dragon."

Kerry, who had appeared beside us, started explaining.

"A dragon. That makes sense."

"What? You're not surprised to hear it's a dragon?"

"When I tamed Hippolyus, I felt a level of magic power comparable to a high-ranking dragon."

At that point, Hippolyus's status as a magical creature is on par with a high-ranking dragon.

"Really! You should have told me that sooner!"

"I'm sorry about that."

After that, I learned about Kerry's observations.

Kerry thinks Hippolyus is a type of land dragon without scales.

"Even though he lived in the sea, he's a land dragon, not a sea dragon?"

"Sea dragons have fins instead of legs. Land dragons have legs but no wings."

That's how the magical beast scholars classify them.

No matter how they classify him, Hippolyus is still Hippolyus.

I think they can classify him however they want.

While we were talking, Hippolyus brought back more trees.

He had felled about ten trees while the adventurers had only managed three.

Moreover, Hippolyus also helped carry the trees the adventurers had felled.

"Thanks, Hippolyus, this really helps!"

"Kyu kyu."

Hippolyus wagged his tail happily when thanked by the adventurers.

Hippolyus seems to be a hardworking hippo.

With the gathered wood, I decided to start building the cabins.