Chipping away at Stone Walls

This thing weighed over 30 pounds, was ugly in appearance but fully functional, able to serve as both an iron chisel and iron rod, similar to the "jian" used by ancients.

Hefting it, the feel was pretty good. Swinging it made a whooshing sound.

If this iron rod was swung down, even the thickest armor would be useless, ignoring defense for true damage. Even a Malayan bear would probably have to kneel.

Unfortunately the four girls couldn't lift it up, otherwise with one jian per person, they'd never have to worry about Malayan bears again.

A new tool has arrived and potential points increased by 1!

Continue collecting ore to forge iron tools.

These past two days they hadn't done anything else, the six of them had basically become an iron-forging team.

Other than watching over supplies and three meals a day, they were busy with forging iron and iron-related tasks!

Picking up ore, making charcoal, setting up the furnace, busy to the point of great delight!

September 3rd, 86th day stranded on the deserted island, Lu Zhe finally forged his first iron hammer and chisel!

On this day, Tang Xiaoguo finally recovered to normal, no longer hallucinating little people.

September 4th, 87th day stranded on the deserted island, Lu Zhe finished forging five iron wedges of varying sizes.

The cattle they let roam also returned to camp.

At this point, Lu Zhe had all the conditions necessary to start carving out a stone cave!

September 5th, 88th day stranded on the deserted island, Lu Zhe began carving the stone cave!

He set the entrance to the cave to be three meters above ground level.

There were several benefits to doing this:

One was being able to prevent rainwater from flooding in during storms, two was to prevent crocodiles, komodo dragons and other invasive creatures from sneaking in at night!

Looking down from a high vantage point, easy to defend but hard to attack!

It was just a little inconvenient for people, having to climb up and down the bamboo ladder.

Lu Zhe started carving out the stone cave according to ancient methods.

He propped the bamboo ladder against the stone wall, climbed up, first used a charcoal stick to draw a 25 cm diameter circle on the stone.

Then he used the hammer and chisel to carve out a 5-6 cm deep groove along the outline, before wedging the iron wedges into the groove, putting pressure on the large piece of stone in the middle to break it off!

Carving in another layer, because of limitations in leverage, the difficulty increased, but it could still be carved open.

Reaching the fourth time, the hammer couldn't reach the chisel anymore, so the iron chisel had to be used to continue carving inward.

At this time the work progress looked to slow down significantly.

After busy working the whole day, Lu Zhe finally carved out a 30 cm deep, 25 cm diameter small stone hole in the rockface!

It looked like a round "closet".

Jiang Yao looked up at the "closet" and mused: "Could fit two bottles of wine!"

Tang Xiaoguo nodded: "Could also fit a few packets of instant noodles!"

Ning Shu also felt a little incredulous: "Lu Zhe, are you serious? Carving one closet a day, wouldn't it take more than a year to carve out a whole cave?"

But Lu Zhe didn't think so at all: "What do you all understand? This is just a beginning, gathering more firewood and charcoal the better!"

After speaking, he grabbed a bundle of kindling and climbed back up, then stuffed the entire bundle of kindling into the stone hole.

"Does this count as trespassing against the mountain?"

"Don't know!"

The "closet" was stuffed full with kindling.

Setting it on fire.

Not long after, the kindling on the stone wall was burning fiercely, charring the surrounding rock black.

Jiang Yao sighed emotionally: "The little hole turned all black!"

Ning Shu nodded: "This is a necessary process!"

Twenty minutes later when the fire burned strongest, it was at this time that Lu Zhe used the iron chisel to rake out all the burning kindling from inside the hole, then took a 2.5L Coke bottle, filled it with water and doused it in!

A spraying sound, and the stone hole gave off a puff of gray smoke.

Muddy water mixed with ashes flowed down, dirtying the stone face.

Lin Qianqian was confused: "Why did he wet the small hole..."

Ning Shu also shook her head blankly: "Don't know."

Just then, Lu Zhe threw down the bottle and started smashing the edges of the small hole with the hammer!

Strangely, the previously extremely hard bedrock now seemed to suddenly turn brittle, with large amounts of rubble clattering down. Not long after, this stone hole expanded five to six times in size!

"The sharp transition between hot and cold can cause the bedrock to rapidly and violently expand and contract in local areas. Compared to other locations, here becomes much more brittle!"

Lu Zhe continued his operation. Soon he carved out a 1 meter diameter, 0.5 meter deep bowl-shaped pit in the rockface!

By now the sun had already set in the west!

"Lu Zhe, how about we call it a day?"

But Lu Zhe shook his head: "Have to finish the stone cave before next rainy season arrives. You all sleep first, just leave me some food!"

Shen Bing disagreed: "No way, can't let you do such hard work alone! We'll take shifts accompanying you!"

Lu Zhe nodded with appreciation: "How thoughtful!"

"You girls go wash up and rest!"

Jiang Yao said: "Still need someone to pass things and clean up garbage and cook. I'll accompany Lu Zhe, the rest of you can rest!"

The other three girls had no choice but to lie down.

"Ah I wanna watch another movie so bad!"

"No electricity mah!"

"When can we make a generator?"

"At least after the stone cave is done ba!"

"Wouldn't that be next year..."

They didn't have to wait until next year. Early next morning, the three girls were happily surprised to discover the stone cave already had a landing dug out.

They could sit on it without needing a ladder.

And it could fit two people!

"Someone come up to help me burn the stone wall!"

Jiang Yao said: "I'll come!"

Shen Bing smiled: "You were up all night, go rest a bit!"

Then she told the three girls: "Qianqian, Xiaoguo, we're running low on food in camp, go find some! Ningshu, come help out here!"

Qianqian and Xiaoguo together: "Got it!"

"Sis Bing, you rest too, I'll help Lu Zhe don't worry!"

Shen Bing yawned: "Then I'll leave it to you Ningshu!"

"Leave it to me!"

Ning Shu thumped her chest and climbed up: "So what's the deal?"

Lu Zhe said: "I'll carve some crevices in the stone wall, you're responsible for stuffing kindling and tree oil into the gaps!"

"Sounds simple enough!" At this time, Ning Shu had another idea: "Oh Lu Zhe, how about we make some gunpowder? One big boom, maybe the cave will just blast itself open!"

While carving, Lu Zhe jokingly said: "Elder sis, you wanna 'boom' it open, how much gunpowder do you even know is needed? And are you sure it'll only blast open a cave, not blow up a Notre Dame?"

Ning Shu thought for a bit: "Should be... no way right!"

"Of course no way! And besides, hot days like this, best to save what little saltpeter we have left to cool down with!"

Ning Shu nodded: "Yeah you're right! If we use it all up, gotta collect shit again, truly unspeakable..."

As she was speaking, Ning Shu lost her grip and body tilted outward.

"Be careful!" Lu Zhe grabbed Ning Shu: "Don't fall down now!"

Ning Shu held on to a rock: "Phew, close call!"

Lu Zhe looked, even though it was only three meters high, falling would likely still sprain an ankle.

"Hang on, I'll tie a safety harness for you!"

"So much trouble!"

"No trouble, got one ready-made?"

Three minutes later, Lu Zhe tied a length of red rope over Ning Shu's shoulders and around her waist, with the other end tied to an iron wedge hammered into the rockface.

Ning Shu looked at the red rope Lu Zhe tied: "One harness, is it necessary to tie it so weird?"

"What's weird, I followed the manual exactly when tying it!"