If they were to follow the regulations of this place and not use mana, it would take some time to build a house. Thus, they had to divide up the task.
It wasn’t a simple one-night tent for one person. Since they had to build a tent for five people that would be used for several days, there had to be enough space to rest comfortably after playing outside, even if there weren’t individual rooms for everyone.
“While I go and gather wood, Yeorum and Kaeul, go and look for broad leaves that look like this.”
He showed a leaf from a broad-leaved tree that he had picked up on the way back.
“It like, looks like a big fan right, unni?”
“It does.
“Scissors paper rock,” Yeorum suddenly blurted that out and showed a rock while Kaeul, in a fluster, made her fingers into scissors on reflex.
So Kaeul was suddenly made to fan Yeorum. Her pouting mouth suggested that she was rather dissatisfied with the situation and thus, her arms also ended up moving unenthusiastically.
“What are you doing. Fan it up properly.”
“What. Why. I’m doing it right now…”
“Do you think that will dry my armpits?”
Yeorum threw her arms into the air.
“Uuuh. So disgusting. Seriously…”
“If you don’t do it properly, you’re kissing my armpits.”
Left with no other choice, Kaeul had to bite the bullet and wave the fan properly. Lying on the ground, Yeorum twitched her toes and giggled. Her arrogant posture made her look like the queen of a country and made Bom and Gyeoul laugh as well.
“But why this? Is it a special leaf or something?”
“Yeah. It’s waterproof and bugs don’t really like it. It’s tough and even after the leaves are plucked, they don’t dry easily because they have a lot of moisture in them.”
They were perfect for the roof.
“Bom and Gyeoul can come with me. You can look for thickets in the area while I do the trees.”
“Okay.”
He told them more things that had to be gathered on top of that. Building a decent house required quite a lot of things.
“Uwang. Why do we need so many things?”
“Wait, so how are you going to make a house with these things? You can’t use magic here according to the rules right?”
“What are the thickets going to be for?”
They asked endlessly. Dragons spent most of their lives inside their lairs, and because of that, it seemed that they were very interested in housings. He used a stick to draw a rough blueprint on the ground.
A fire pit, a cooking facility, windows, an opening roof, light source, individual beds and cupboards, as well as a makeshift sewage system were included inside the house.
It was an effective use of space and the perfectly matching structure surprised them.
“Uwah, that’s crazy. It’s amazing…”
“…How do you know all this?”
It wasn’t anything great, because anyone would be able to do this after living for over 10 years in the field.
“You know, can I just ask you something. Was there a time where you needed all this? Like, building houses? And making food? Lying down on thickets to avoid moisture and chill on the ground?”
“There was.”
“When you were young?”
“Yeah.”
“Also ahjussi, were you a baby when you were born?” interjected Kaeul.
Her question was a little bit weird but it was apparently so for just him. Yeorum nodded her head in agreement while Gyeoul was surprised.
Bom was also wearing a look of intrigue.
“There is no human who’s an adult from birth.”
“Hul. That’s super crazy…!”
“…!”
Kaeul and Gyeoul’s eyes flickered.
“Then, then, were you cute as well, ahjussi!?”
“Probably not.”
“…Were you small, like me?” asked Gyeoul.
“Probably. And probably was even smaller than you.”
“…!”
“Was your dic* small as well?”
“What?”
“Did you have a mum as well, ahjussi?”
“What is that question meant to be.”
“Aht…! That was a weird question. Sorry…!”
“I probably did.”
“Did you want to become an adult?”
“Who knows.”
“Think about it.”
“I would assume so.”
“…Did you, like gummies?”
“No.”
“…”
“Did you cry when you were scolded at school, ahjussi!?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why?”
“Because I was quite prideful.”
“Then were you annoyed and jealous when someone was better than you, ahjussi?”
“I would’ve. Probably.”
“Uwahh… Then did you have a first love that you flirted with?”
“…First love?”
“I can’t remember.”
“…I’m curious.”
“Like I said, I can’t remember.”
“…Hing.”
“So how was your dic*?”
Why the hell are you asking that in the first place.
That was when Gyeoul tilted her head.
“…Di*k?”
“Hukk… unni! Please don’t say weird things in front of Gyeoul!”
He wondered what was wrong with them today. When Yu Jitae was struggling to defend against the onslaught of questions, Bom giggled.
“Guys, how about we ask after we build the house first? The sun’s going to set soon and it’s going to be night at this rate.”
Her words contained a mysterious power. “Uh, you’re right!” Kaeul immediately threw the fan away and stood up.
And after around 2 hours, Yu Jitae started building the house with the materials gathered by the kids. He flattened the ground and set the groundwork by setting the frames and the pillars, and started wrapping the long vines around as the wall.
“Is this how you do it?”
“Yeah. Make it tight. But don’t stress it too much either.”
“Nn.”
Yeorum helped him build. These vines, which were fibre itself, were in fact the insides of a tree that contained air inside. So they were light yet tough and were great insulators.
After that, he wetted some clay and applied it to the wall and since it was hot and humid, he had to set fire at an appropriate distance and dry them. There were dry leaf crumbs in the clay mix, in order to stop them from cracking.
“Make the ends of the leaves into circles and hang them.”
“Okay.”
While the wall was drying up, he covered the roof with the broad leaves brought by the kids and created a sewage system so that water would flow to a lower area even if it rained. Meanwhile, Bom and Yeorum attached the door and windows to the frames albeit awkwardly.
“Uhh…”
Kaeul stopped her hands and heaved a deep sigh. She appeared mentally exhausted. Well, it was understandable because she probably never worked like this before.
“…”
Gyeoul didn’t receive any particular task so after pondering on what to do, she took charge of clapping from the side. And by the time they finally covered the floor inside the house with thickets and clean moss, it was nighttime.
Clap clap clap. A small pair of hands gave an applause.
Right before the sun set completely, the house was finally finished.
“Uwaaaahh-! Unni!”
“Good work. Kaeul.”
Cheerful voices and proud faces. For a house made in a rush, it was quite wide inside and was quite well constructed.
“It’s crazy. Crazy! It’s super soft!”
“Ah, that’s good.”
He covered the thick thickets with a blanket and unexpectedly, Yeorum appeared quite content with the snug bed.
“Thanks for your hard work.”
“Thank you for your hard workk!”
He shook his hand.
Perhaps exhausted, they no longer dwelled on the topic they had been blabbering about a few hours ago. Instead, they laid down on the long bed and played with their watches.
He was lying down on the far side and lying next to him was Gyeoul. It was rare for him to lie down on the bed with the child.
When it was about time to sleep, Gyeoul naturally rested her head on Yu Jitae’s arm and fell asleep.
“It was hard while working, but now I feel really proud, you know?”
“Hmm…”
“Don’t you feel the same, unni? It’s my first time feeling like this…”
Kaeul clamoured until Yeorum turned her back to her. After that, Kaeul started taking a video with her watch and talked about the things that happened that day like a diary entry. It was probably a video meant to be sent to the underground labyrinth.
Outside the window was a large moon. Distant growls of animals and bugs continued but as the night was nonetheless silent, the Regressor could tell that the small child’s breath was at quite the regular pace.
Like that,
The first day at the deserted island, Peace City, came to an end.
***
Fruits would be good for breakfast. Getting out of the bed before others, Yu Jitae left the house.
Meanwhile, Bom slowly woke up and gave a stretch before glancing around. She could see kids that were still sleeping. Gyeoul turned to the other side after Yu Jitae disappeared and was buried inside Kaeul’s hug in her sleep.
Soon, her eyes met with Yeorum’s. She waved gently and Yeorum returned a nod.
Bom carefully opened the window.
The morning sun was warm.
Yu Jitae came back with his arms full of fruit. They were either poison-free or edible once the seeds were gone. The sweet and refreshing taste of fruit bloomed a bright smile on Gyeoul’s face.
While he was out looking for fruits, Yu Jitae had found something the kids would like.
“There was something interesting.”
“Ohh! Something interesting?”
There was a unique plant on the mountain ridge.
After having breakfast, he took the kids and headed to the mountain. Yu Jitae embedded killing intent into the jungle knife and led the way. Welcoming the warm spring breeze, the kids chattered noisily.
“It’s there.”
There was an open area, a rare sight in the middle of a thick forest. As if other trees and plantations had avoided that area, there was an open land with a diameter of around 5 metres.
The kids peeked with their heads above the thick bushes and since Gyeoul was too short, Yu Jitae carried her up with one hand and placed her down on his shoulders.
In the middle of the open area was a blue tree. It was so small that it would barely reach a person’s waist level.
Identification Number. EE-50888.
Field operation soldiers referred to this as the ‘Spirit Tree’.
“Unni. What is that?”
“Mhmm. It’s my first time seeing it as well… it’s a good tree though.”
A tree even Bom did not know of – probably because it didn’t exist in her world.
“Lower your heads guys, and try to kill your presence as much as possible.”
In response to his words, the dragons closed their eyes and hid their class. Gyeoul held onto Bom’s hand and awkwardly imitated her.
That was when something incredible happened.
Thinking that there weren’t any humans, the tree started moving.
‘Ohh, what is that? It’s moving…!’
‘…!’
Kaeul whispered her admiration. Its movement followed a certain rhythm. 1 2 3 1 2 3.
‘Hul. Is it dancing? That’s so cute.’
‘Cute? More like retarded…’
Their opinions criss-crossed.
In any case, the spirit tree was famous for dancing but was even more famous for something different.
When Yu Jitae stood up from the bush, the flailing branches of the dancing tree suddenly stopped. It was a very awkward position if those branches were to be considered as human arms.
“This guy pretends like a tree when someone’s nearby but it actually has ears. Go to a branch and say something good. After a few days, there will be a fruit matching those words.”
But since sound would get transferred to the sides, they had to whisper it and keep them apart. Intrigued, they walked to the tree and each whispered something to a branch.
They decided to share what they said once it actually bore fruit.
***
In the evening, they headed to the beach.
It was because of Yeorum who seemed to have found a strange light source at the depths of the ocean after following a sea turtle. Bom and Kaeul didn’t look too intrigued, so he headed to the beach with Yeorum and Gyeoul.
“Oi, it’s probably better off for you to stay back you know?”
“…Why?”
“I said there was a light source but it’s really dark. It’s pitch-dark in there.”
“…And?”
“Kids like you will be too scared to go there, you know?”
“…No?”
“What ‘no’. You little kid.”
“…Why, are you picking a fight.”
“Don’t whinge and say you’re too scared. I hate someone whinging next to me.”
“…Whatever, you red boar.”
“What did you say? You little pig?”
“…Hmph.”
He sometimes forgot but Yeorum and Gyeoul were in fairly bad terms when it was just the two of them. It followed the historic strife between the red and the blue race.
Yeorum was really unbiased when it came to things like that. Whether the opponent was an adult or a kid, she didn’t care and treated them equally.
“…”
Gyeoul whined after being hugged by Yu Jitae. She. Called me. A pig. That bitc… She was saying something along the lines of that but it was a whimpering voice so he couldn’t really tell what she was saying.
In any case, Yu Jitae entered the ocean with the two of them.
Despite being a man-made island, the sea was quite deep. It was at least 150 metres deep.
Corals and tropical fish beautifully decorated the ocean plateau but it soon created a deep slope and soon became almost impossible to walk.
As if there was a microorganism devouring light, it suddenly became dark when they were just 20 metres below the surface level. That seemed to be the end of the man-made environment – the waters were silent and he couldn’t spot any organisms.
“…”
Yeorum gestured, saying it was this way. Yu Jitae also felt something with his senses.
He followed that feeling and travelled deeper down. Bubble bubble~. Bubbles of air were coming from somewhere and they could also see the faint light source that Yeorum had mentioned. Yu Jitae inspected it closely.
Beneath the cliff of sedimentary rocks that were in a deep slope,
There was a small cave.