My territory is filled with block creations.

Chapter 7 The Stone Age

"Hello Alex, taking a shower?"

Just as Alex was secretly dipping her feet into the river water and making a comfortable sound, Thorne's voice suddenly came from behind her.

"???"

Alex, who was just about to marvel at how comfortable it was to soak her feet in the river, immediately changed her mind upon hearing Thorne's voice.

This river is really a river.

Should I turn back? No? How awkward! What if he asks me why I didn't wash before but am washing now? Who knows why leather boots are so stuffy! I miss sandals~

Thorne glanced at Alex, who was still soaking her feet and ignoring him, and casually shrugged. Maybe she was just missing her mother after being exiled here.

With an understanding look on his face, Thorne walked toward his workbench, which was not far away.

He had originally planned to get a good night's sleep and do any important work the next morning after he woke up. But unfortunately, there was no bed in this impoverished little village, only a large patch of thick hay that the villagers had gathered for him.

Perhaps this sounds a bit like "let them eat cake," but Thorne himself really couldn't sleep in that kind of bed.

So I had no choice but to do what I could during my free time in the evenings.

He quickly made a wooden shovel and a wooden pickaxe, then ran to the edge of the woods and began to dig downwards in a stepped pattern. He soon dug to a depth of nearly 6 meters, which is the typical depth of soil in this plain. Digging further down would lead to the rock layer.

As Thorne switched to the wooden pickaxe, he smashed a stone in a few blows, and the stone, as if guided by some mysterious force, transformed into a square, uncut rock.

With the acquisition of the first raw stone, Thorne and his territories were about to officially enter the Stone Age.

Thorne decided to dig out enough stone tonight to make most of the stone tools, as well as enough stone to build a wall to stop the undead mercenaries from attacking.

This wasn't difficult for him; the only challenge was how to persuade his people to take up stone swords and fight against the undead mercenaries who were neither afraid of death nor pain.

After all, even with a city wall that could stop the undead mercenaries from attacking, if the people didn't have the courage to eliminate the undead mercenaries and necromancers, what good would a city wall be? It would be more like a coffin with its top open.

Perhaps close combat was indeed too fast and too cruel for those people.

If we had bows and arrows, it would be even better. Standing on the city wall, we could easily eliminate those undead mercenaries without much danger.

The only problem is... I don't have a line right now.

He had experimented with this before when he was in the capital. Ordinary cotton and wool threads were considered synthetic threads that he could use, but once the thread was made into cloth or sewn into something else, it would be unusable even if the thread was removed.

So he never considered removing the seams from his own clothes, because it was pointless.

As for Alex, who was exiled here with him, he had asked her before, and the mechanical nun's job did not require the use of cotton thread, so she did not carry it with her.

As for the people under his jurisdiction, there's no need to mention them. When I was repairing their houses, I only glanced at them briefly. And I did ask them about it during the meal just now.

That group of undead mercenaries left them practically nothing, not even a needle or thread. Apart from Lester, who had been chopping down trees in the forest and had luckily left behind his axe, they left almost no tools or items.

"How about trying to make straw rope?" As the 59th stone was dug down with the wooden pickaxe, the pickaxe in Thorne's hand also shattered. He gathered all 59 stones together, held them in his hand, and walked towards the surface.

"It's a pity we don't have iron to make tripwire hooks. Otherwise, we could make a manual wire brushing machine and have the locals help with the shifts to use it for now."

Alex had just pulled her feet out of the river when she heard Thorne mutter this sentence behind her, and then walked towards the workbench on her own.

"What kind of machine is that?" As a mechanical nun, Alex, who was quite sensitive to machines, asked instinctively.

"A kind of alchemy machine that can mass-produce, no, I mean, cotton thread," Thorne replied casually, then suddenly noticed Alex, who was still awake.

Isn't this like a pillow being delivered when you're sleepy?

He certainly didn't want Alex to help him twist straw rope. After all, Alex was trained by the Mechanical Church and was a high-end mechanical talent. It would be a waste to use her for twisting straw rope.

What he really wanted Alex to do for him was to help him organize the villagers to make straw ropes, since he was somewhat socially awkward and not good at socializing with others.

My colleagues at the Alchemy Association were like this before, and so are the people within the territory now.

Alex's outgoing and friendly nature helps her make up for this shortcoming.

"By the way, Alex, could you help me organize the villagers to twist as much straw rope as possible?" Thorne asked.

Alex, who was using two large leaves as slippers by holding them between her toes, nodded subconsciously. Then she took a deep breath and planned to shout a couple of times in the center of the village to wake up the people who were about to fall asleep.

"Hey, hey, hey! No rush, no rush, we can wait until tomorrow," Thorne quickly said.

"Ah, alright then." Alex looked at the orange-red sunset that was about to disappear, nodded, picked up her boots, with large leaves stuck between her toes, and went back to her room.

Thorne quickly crafted a furnace on the workbench using eight Primogems, and then, with a mindset of boiling beans and burning bean stalks, filled both the top and bottom compartments of the furnace with wood.

As the wood below turned into flames, several shimmering points of light flew out of the furnace and merged into Thorne's body, while the wood above the furnace was slowly burned into charcoal.

Next, the charcoal and sticks are placed on the worktable and fused together to create four torches. These are permanent light sources that will not go out, making them perfect for working at night.

Without a bed, Thorne couldn't sleep a wink. So it was clear that tonight would be a sleepless night's battle, and perhaps with a little effort he could dig up all the stones needed to build the city walls.

As for the villagers waking up tomorrow, all they need to do is pick up the corresponding stones to build the city wall.

And you might even find some iron ore along the way, which would allow your village to evolve directly into the Iron Age and build some simple power-generating machines. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

And so, Thorne, with a torch in his left hand and a stone pickaxe in his right, descended once more into the stepped mine shaft he had dug out.