Chapter 17 Oven
At the moment, Alex only had three simple goals.
To survive, to improve his living condition and to eat good food.
Now, his survival was ensured due to the protection of the tribe.
Also, by slowly increasing his physical strength, he could get strong enough to survive on his own.
And the quality of food can be improved by relying on the interdimensional farm. Due to the intense exercise that he was doing, consuming nutritious food was important to him. Just eating meat was not optimal.
But, to improve his living condition, he has to take action on his own. He cannot rely on others to do it.
So, without any delay, Alex obtained permission from both the chief and Mani to build his own house.
The village was small considering the population of more than two thousand people. Everyone lived inside the perimeter walls. So, Alex had to take extra time to procure land to build the new house.
Thankfully, The land next to Mani's house was vacant. He quickly got permission to use that land.
The plot was about a hundred square meters in area. It was large compared to the henhouse that Alex called home in his previous life. Rent in the city was astronomical. So, he had to live like that.
But now, He has more than enough area to make a small house for himself. So, he carefully planned its outline. Still, it was impossible to make everything he wished for.
When he began making his design, he realised that most of it would be impossible to build.
Even a toilet would be impossible. Fortunately, he made one near a cliff far away from the village and the people. He has to use that until he can find a replacement.
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After completing the design, it was time to make it a reality. And he needed manpower for that.
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"Unda, can you help me with something?" Alex asked the little kid.
"What do you need, big brother Meru."
"Can you bring me to a place where there are a lot of stones?"
"It's easy. Follow me." Suddenly, As if he realised something, he turned towards Alex. His little eyes shone mischievously.
"Tonight, I want more meat." He declared solemnly.
The control over food in the winter season was strict. Due to that, the tribe was using a rationing method to allocate food to each family. And most of the meat was preserved for future use. So, the little glutton was having a hard time. It was why he asked for meat from Alex. And Alex was happy to trade information for some food.
"Okay." He said while nodding with a smile.
"Hi hi hi…Towards the north, just outside the village, there is a mountain path. Walking around there, you can find all the stones you need." Unda giggled while describing where to find the stones.
Stones were essential for Alex's plan to make his new house. But before that, they had even more important use. He was going to use it to make a makeshift oven.
From his experience, Alex learned that food was very important to the people of the tribe. And he technically had an unlimited source just waiting to be used. And the only thing he lacked was a workforce.
So, If he could trade food for that. He could not just make houses, he could even build cities.
And making an oven was his first step in village domination.
He wanted to bake some sweet potatoes and use them as currency to buy manpower.
But never did Alex think that his sweet potato fuel ambition would radically change the village.
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Just as Unda said, Near the mountain path. He found a lot of large stones. He moved some of them into his inventory. After making sure that no one was near him. He entered the interdimensional farm.
Without wasting time, he took out a large stone as tall as him and began smashing it with the pickaxe. At first, the stone didn't budge at all, but after hitting it with body enhancement. Alex was happy to find that the stone began splitting from the middle.
Now, he had two pieces of stone with flat sides. Alex plans to use it as the bottom and top layer of the oven. Two more stones sandwiched between them will prop them up to make a stone oven.
He can burn wood in the farthest end to heat the oven. And let the hot air rise and leave from the top. He could also feed air from behind through a small hole.
By closing the front side with a similarly cut stone, he could make a stone oven easily. This was the perfect way to cook sweet potatoes.
And an even better idea was to use hot air from the top to dry meat and other things. This was an all-in-one cooking contraption made to improve life. Alex was happy with his design.
He never learned to make something like this in his entire life. But that didn't stop him from trying.
He was used to facing problems head-on and solving them.
He didn't need a perfect solution. He just needed a working contraption.
Improvements can be made in the future.
'It just needs to work. And it will work.'
After building the new oven. Alex went back to his home.
He took out one stone at a time and began building the oven. No villagers bothered him.
Alex was just a kid rolling stones around to make something. Why should they care about him? It was how the villagers thought.
Finally, after a couple of hours of intense work, Alex built a stone mound near his house. To not make the villagers suspicious, he had to manually drag stones from outside the village. It was hard work.
After chopping up some firewood. He lit them inside the oven.
Now, occasionally, curious glances were directed at him. Yet Alex was not bothered by it. He placed some sweet potatoes inside and left.
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After some time, a sweet savoury aroma of the sweet potato permeated the surroundings.
Unda, who was nearby was salivating, looking at the stone oven.
"What is that big brother Meru?" He asked.
"It's something used to cook food." The tribesmen have never seen a cooking contraption like that before. They only used clay pots and fire to cook their entire life. If clay pots are not available, they barbecue the meat and eat them.
Vegetables were often consumed raw and seldom cooked. So, Alex could only explain it as something used for cooking.
"What are you cooking right now. It smells so good. Can I have one?"
"Of course, you can have one. It's something really yummy." Alex smiled and replied. That smile did have an underlying meaning behind it.
While he cooked sweet potatoes, he cooked up a plan to attract the people. And the simplest and most efficient way was by giving it away for free.
Like a drug dealer, giving freebies to addict his customers. Alex was planning to use freebies to make them work for him in the future. It was a sinister plan.
"Ku Ku Ku…" He laughed.
He wasted no time in taking out the baked sweet potatoes.
"Unda, take this. This is called a sweet potato. Eat it while it's warm." After slightly cooling it, he gave one to Unda.
"And give these to our neighbours. Deliver it quickly. If you do it. I will give you more, later." Seeing Unda enjoy the baked sweet potato, Alex coaxed Unda to work for him.
His plan was already half complete.