[Facility "Simple Kiln" detected materials added—Redwood Firewood x6] [Can be fired into: Charcoal x12. Kiln temperature has reached firing standard. Estimated firing time: 6 hours. Start production?]
The Simple Kiln's internal space could hold a maximum of six pieces of firewood at a time. According to the synthesis prompt, one piece of firewood could be fired into two pieces of charcoal, though it took a bit longer.
Chuck took out his phone and checked the time. It was exactly 6:30 AM.
He would have the charcoal by the afternoon, and then he could immediately upgrade the kiln and prepare the clay for firing water vats. With water vats, storing drinking water and refining sago palm starch would no longer be an issue.
One water vat would kill two birds with one stone: food and drink.
He pressed the production button. Smoke, as usual, curled up from the top of the kiln. After giving Julia instructions, Chuck picked up the axe and walked down the stone slope.
The kiln upgrade needed to be done step by step, and the shelter upgrade to a wooden house was still halfway done.
Time was money. Pushing both tasks simultaneously was better than waiting for the charcoal to finish burning.
Chuck roughly calculated that including the wooden planks needed for the roof, he currently needed ten logs. If he added the new beds (or kennel) for the Gu mother and daughter, he would need eleven more logs.
However, due to the extensive logging recently, there were no tall trees left in the area near the stone slope. He had to venture further out for logging, which would increase the time and effort required.
Fortunately, Chuck was not short on time or energy.
Another morning passed in sweat and labor. Chuck's body, enhanced by the second round of elixirs, had far superior stamina than before. He barely rested in between, only stopping a few times to replenish water, and continued chopping trees and hauling logs, acting like a self-propelled logging machine.
Sweat covered his robust, muscular upper body, reflecting a healthy sheen under the sun, like a perfect sculpture. The foreign woman's eyes were filled with hearts, and she practically ovulated on the spot, several times feeling the urge to rush over and rip Chuck's pants off.
During this time, the Gu mother and daughter arrived with their miscellaneous belongings, moving from the dilapidated grass shed Gu Yitong had personally built on the Eastern Beach.
In reality, they didn't have much—just two life jackets, a palm basket used for collecting wild fruits and vegetables, some hollowed-out coconut shells for holding water, and a small number of wild fruits and vegetables they had been reluctant to eat.
Being newcomers, the mother and daughter were a little reserved.
The withdrawn small Loli, Gu Momo, was shy, and Gu Yitong had never felt this dependent before. Coupled with the memories of the previous night's madness, she felt awkward even when alone with her daughter.
But this awkwardness was quickly overshadowed by the shock of Chuck's rapid progress in building the wooden house.
With each trip to chop logs and each plank synthesized at the workbench, the previously stagnant upgrade blueprint progress soared quickly again. The palm-leaf roof was gradually replaced by solid, neat wooden planks, and the previously drafty areas beneath the roof beams on the other two sides were covered by stacked logs.
It is worth mentioning that during the wooden house upgrade, Chuck intentionally offset the original six support pillars away from the cliff face, moving the kiln—which was right against the cliff—out of the original shelter's roof coverage area.
Although this meant they would inevitably have to build a dedicated rain shelter above the kiln later, it was a necessary compromise. If the shelter was upgraded into a four-sided sealed wooden house, the heat and smoke generated by the kiln would surely affect their daily lives.
At the same time, gaps were cut in the wooden walls, which were made of horizontally stacked logs on all four sides. A large and a small gap were cut in the south-facing wall, which faced the ocean, to serve as a door and a window.
With this, the originally drafty shelter was finally transformed into a respectable, solid wooden house that could genuinely protect them from wind and rain!
The blueprint completion prompt subsequently appeared in front of Chuck.
[Solid Wooden House—Upgrade Complete! New Upgrade Blueprints added!]
[Blueprint Name: Wooden Bungalow, Type: Tier 4 Upgrade Blueprint, Description: Pour a foundation on top of the ordinary wooden house to improve interior tidiness and significantly enhance resistance to wind and dampness. Simultaneously expands with a side storage room for more spaciousness. Materials Required: Log x12, Hardwood x4, Wooden Plank x20, Lime Mortar x20, High-Strength Wedge x1, Hammer Tool x1]
[Blueprint Name: Wooden Doors and Windows, Type: Tier 2 Upgrade Blueprint, Description: Adds doors and windows to the wooden house. Materials Required: Wooden Plank x4, Cutting Tool x1]
[Blueprint Name: Stone Fireplace, Type: Tier 4 Upgrade Blueprint, Description: Build a stone fireplace inside the wooden house with an upward-extending chimney. Can be used for heating and cooking, and allows smoke to be smoothly vented outside, making the indoor air fresher. Materials Required: Stone x20, Lime Mortar x8, Hardwood x4, Quartz Sandstone x2]
A series of three new upgrade blueprints appeared, making Chuck dizzy.
But Chuck, already accustomed to extracting information from the workbench prompts, quickly grasped the most crucial details from these blueprints.
The Tier 3 blueprint turned his shelter into a wooden house. The next Tier 4 blueprint seemed to be moving towards more solid, stone-based structures.
Simultaneously, the Tier 4 Fireplace and the Tier 2 Doors and Windows blueprints were unlocked.
The most critical material for pouring the foundation and building the fireplace was Lime Mortar.
Chuck had already refined limestone, so when he placed it into the workbench, he quickly received the corresponding synthesis prompt: he only needed to mix it with sand and water in proportion to get the mortar he needed.
Although this material, once dry, certainly wouldn't be as strong as the modern cement used for the main structure of buildings, it was definitely far superior to wood and mud bricks. Therefore, it was the best choice for pouring the foundation and building the fireplace.
Thinking of this, Chuck couldn't help but look at the pile of unburnt coral reefs stacked in the corner of the room.
He truly had foresight.
With the wooden house upgrade complete, Chuck's island life officially moved away from the hardship of sleeping exposed. From now on, whether it was windy or rainy, a sturdy roof and frame would protect them!
Gu Momo sat cross-legged by the fire, looking up at the wooden plank roof. A hint of confusion appeared on her cute face.
Having just begun to get used to the open-air island life, she suddenly found herself inside a four-sided covered wooden house, which gave her a feeling of unreality.
Not just her, but her mother Gu Yitong, and even Julia, had a similar dazed look on their faces.
Julia, in particular, remembered clearly that only two or three mornings ago, she was woken up by the cold wind after a heavy rain, so she acted pitifully toward Chuck. He then promised her she would soon have a real home.
She didn't expect "soon" to be this soon.
The more Julia thought about it, the happier and more excited she became. She rushed straight to Chuck, throwing herself into his sweaty embrace. Then, she stood on her tiptoes, and her soft, tender mouth kissed his face, neck, and lips repeatedly.
This man was practically her God. It was as if any wish she spoke could be fulfilled by him.
Under the influence of this strong instinct for the powerful, the foreign woman's taut lower abdomen surged with arousal again. She hooked her arms around Chuck's neck, pressed her big white boobs against his chest, and asked charmingly.
"Darling, your work is done… Do you want to do me?"
Chuck chuckled at her words.
Although he felt a surge of heat in his abdomen, he still had much important work ahead. If he were to release his fire now, although the impact would be small with his current body, it would still affect his efficiency.
So, he returned her kiss, gave Julia's round, perky little ass a hard squeeze, and then laughed softly.
"You little slut, hold that thought. I'll fuck you tonight."
"Okay~"
The foreign woman reluctantly released his neck but wasn't disappointed. Instead, she giggled sweetly, anticipating the night.
This scene was witnessed by the Gu mother and daughter sitting by the fire.
Their reactions were remarkably consistent: both initially looked away in a panic due to Chuck and Julia's overly intimate behavior. But soon, they secretly peeked at the couple, blushing, and upon hearing their open arrangement for sex that night, their bodies simultaneously trembled slightly.
However, it was clear that the mother and daughter were excited for different reasons.
After another purely meat-based lunch that tasted bland, Chuck's craving for sago starch intensified.
So, he quickly finished eating and lay down with Julia for a brief afternoon nap.
As for the Gu mother and daughter, Chuck didn't rush to assign them work, deciding to place and play for a while to see if they would find something to do on their own.
Although Gu Yitong had never been dependent on others, now that Chuck had taken her body and she had become his dog, the last thing she wanted was to be abandoned by Chuck (her Master).
In this moment, her years of experience in the workplace provided unexpected help.
After half a day of observation, she saw that Julia handled gathering firewood, starting the fire, and cooking, taking excellent care of Chuck all by herself. Therefore, trying to steal those jobs from her was absolutely impossible.
But soon, she found something she could do.
Although Chuck's wooden house was getting better, an awkward problem had inevitably arisen: hygiene.
Various materials and supplies were piled up in the corner, dust and stones were scattered on the wooden floor, a large amount of ash had accumulated under the fire pit and hadn't been cleaned, and their clothes were hardly clean or tidy.
So, during the afternoon, she found a slender stick, made a simple broom from palm leaves and vines, and actively began to clean and tidy Chuck's wooden house.
Not only that, even though she still felt a little awkward with her daughter, she was still Gu Momo's mother. After finding her own "job," she didn't forget to remind her daughter to take her palm basket and go out to collect wild fruits and vegetables in the nearby safe area.
This unexpected development surprised Chuck with her initiative. He couldn't help but sigh.
This bitch, though depraved, was once a professional career woman. She certainly has some sense.
The brief afternoon nap ended. The charcoal in the kiln was finally finished after a morning of firing.
Chuck eagerly took out all the materials he had prepared over the past few days, directly opened the Advanced Kiln synthesis blueprint, and, like a wealthy patron bestowing gifts, dumped all the materials into it at once!
Honestly, it was the first time Chuck had seen the upgrade blueprint progress bar instantly jump from 0 to 100.
[Advanced Kiln—Upgrade Complete! New Upgrade Blueprint added!]
[Blueprint Name: Smelter, Type: Tier 4 Upgrade Blueprint, Description: Further expands the internal structure of the Advanced Kiln, adds a refractory inner wall and a blast air intake. Temperature can exceed 1300
∘
C, capable of smelting metal. Materials Required for Upgrade: Clay Brick x20, Fire Brick x20, Wooden Plank x5, Animal Hide x2]
After the Kiln, comes the Smelter?
Looking at the newly unlocked upgrade blueprint, Chuck's expression grew more excited.
It seemed that if he continued to upgrade to the Smelter, he would finally be able to smelt metal!
Copper, iron, various metal tools, metal weapons, metal materials…
It could be said that this Smelter upgrade blueprint was the key facility for Chuck to transition from the Pottery Age to the Metal Age—the crucial key to unlocking the subsequent technology tree!