After Running for a while, Cashew finally made it back to his new home, an Ancient Fortress built into the side of a mountain.
Cashew: I really hope Billie Nelson was able to hold them back...
Cashew spent a few seconds to catch his breath and looked around.
The Outside of his Fortress was a courtyard of sorts, it was about 30 Meters wide and 17 meters deep from the largest points. The wall wasn't a perfect square or perfect circle, it was uneven in certain areas. The part of the wall that a gate should be at had two guards towers on each side, the walls themselves were thick enough for people to walk on, but the walls had two areas that were completely collapsed. Along with the gate itself being missing.
Looking at its size, the gate should be about 4 meters wide, and starting from the gate, the door to enter the fortress was at a 75 degree angle from the gate. Or if the gate was 12 o'clock, the fortress entry was around 10 o'clock. With about 15 meters of distance between them.
Cashew: Since I've potentially made an enemy, I should fix the walls and build a new gate. Cell 3 had its iron bars damaged. I can probably recycle that and use it to reinforce a temporary new gate. I saw a battle axe in the storage room, it's not a wood cutting axe, but it should be able to cut a tree down. I'll see if the Stone Golems can turn Stone into blocks and use that to rebuild the damaged parts of the wall.
After coming up with a plan, Cashew called his 6 Wood Golems and two remaining Stone Golems over, he told one of the Wood Golems to get the battleaxe out of the storage room and use it to cut down trees. He ordered the two wood Golems with Pickaxes to start clearing the Rubble from the collapsed walls, after waiting about 5 Minutes and letting the Stone Rubble build up, Cashew ordered his Stone Golem to try and turn that rubble into stone blocks.
Unfortunately, the Stone Golem couldn't do it.
Cashew: Can you turn a body part into a square block?
Cashew asked the Stone Golem,but it seemed to not understand the question.
Cashew: Take your arm for example, can you change its shape into a block?
The Stone Golem seemed to understand now and turned it's entire arm into a somewhat thin Rectangle.
Cashew: Good, like that, but can you make it thicker?
The Golem made the Rectangle thicker. The Stone Golem was about 3 Meters tall with almost 2 meters long arms. The Rectangle it shaped its arm into was about 2 meters long and 1 meter thick.
Cashew: Perfect! That thickness is perfect! Now. Can you cut that rectangle into two halfs and disconnect them from your body? Also, the Rubble from the old wall, could you absorb that into your body and keep making blocks with that?
The Stone Golem nodded. After a few moments, it's arm was severed and cut, producing two perfect Stone blocks, 1 meter thick and 1 meter long.
Cashew: hm... It's basically a square, and not a brick... Stone Golem, keep doing that, but don't bother cutting the brick in half.
As of right now, the Stone Golem started absorbing the Stone Rubble from the old fortress wall and reshaping it into stone bricks at 2 meters long and 1 meter thick. Cashew now had a way to repair the walls.
A Wood Golem had just head outside the Fortress with a battle axe to cut a tree down, and when Cashew looked to see how far it was going, he noticed that Billie Nelson had returned.
Cashew: Good! You held them off. They didn't follow you, right?
Billie Nelson shook its head, indicating they didn't follow. He also handed Cashew a sheet of paper, more specifically, a thick purple envelope with a Red candlewax seal.
Cashew took it and looked at it.
Cashew: Hm. I feel like this could be good fire fuel. Thanks!
Cashew put the envelope in his shoulder bag and waited for the Wood Golems to comeback with a cut down tree.
20 minutes later, a Wood Golem was dragging a fresh Tree trunk back to the Fortress, Cashew was happy, but then had a look of realization on his face.
Cashew: How am I gonna cut the wood? I was gonna turn that trunk into wooden planks for a door, but I don't have anything... The axe is too inaccurate for that type of job...
He was stuck in contemplation, trying to think about how to do this. He can't have the Wood Golems do what the Stone Golems did because the door has to be about 5 meters tall to fit.
Cashew: Dammit... I remember passing a Mining Village, maybe they'd have tools to sell... Dammit. That's almost a 10 hour walk!...
Cashew Cursed himself for a few moments before walking over to the Wood Golems with Pickaxes.
Cashew: Hey, I'm gonna be gone for a while, keep breaking down the Rubble for the Stone Golem. When you Run out of Rubble on this side, go to the other hole over there. When you run out of Rubble on that side, go start mining out the mountain side for more stone.
Cashew said that and walked to the mountain side, pointing out where they can start mining. It's about 8 meters away from the Fortress door. The Wood Golems acknowledged the orders.
He then approached a different Wood Golem and ordered it to follow him to the mining village that's a 10 hour walk away.
Cutting through the Forest the way he did when he first discovered the Fortress, Cashew lead his Wood Golem towards the Mining Village, and after a 10 hour walk. They finally made it. It was almost dark out, but the village was still somewhat active.
It was a small village, with maybe 7 Cabins and some tents nearby the mines. Cashew entered the Village and everyone was immediately eyeing him warily.
Cashew approached the first person he saw, an old man, probably 70 years old, big bald spot and thick beard, he looked really healthy for how old he was. Not at all feeble looking.
Old Man: What do you want, Kid?
Cashew: I was hoping to buy some things from you or this village. Is that an option?
Old Man: That depends on what you want.
Cashew: Ideally, id buy a Map, 4 Pickaxes, 1 Woodcutting axe, and a handsaw. But the Map and Handsaw are the only things I'd really like to buy.
Old Man: I can sell you a map, but the Tools aren't mine to sell. We have a limited number of Pickaxes, Woodcutting Axes, and we only have 1 Handsaw. Selling it to you would leave us with nothing.
Cashew sighed at his words, rubbing the back of his neck.
Cashew: I see... Would I be allowed to borrow the Handsaw? I ended up using a Battleaxe as a makeshift Woodcutting Axe, I have 1 tree cut down, but I need a Handsaw to cut the tree trunk into planks.
Old Man: You got the tree with you? If you bring it here, then we don't mind you borrowing the Handsaw.
Cashew: Dammit... What a waste of a Ten hour walk... Could I also borrow the Woodcutting axe and take one of your trees? Save me the 20 hour trip.
Old Man: Uh, sure. But people are going to bed soon, so you'll have to be quick and not disturb them.
Cashew: Good thing I brought my Wood Golem...
Old Man: How many trees you need?
Cashew: I need to make two doors, each 5 meters tall and 2 meters wide, as well as about 20 Centimeters thick...
Cashew stopped talking as he realized something else.
Cashew: And I completely neglected that id need hinges for the doors ...
Old Man: You also need nails. As well as reinforcement for such a large door.
Cashew: My new home has a Jail cell, I was gonna recycle the Iron from that for reinforcement and nails. Its only a temporary door as I'm kinda in a rush. Cant spend over 24 hours hauling the tree over here to cut it,
Old Man: If you're gonna do it, do it right. Don't bother with a temporary door, make a good door and don't waste resources.
Cashew: This is actually my first time building a door, so I figured it would be difficult to make it good the first time either way.
Old Man: Fair point, first time at anything is never perfect, but I gotta ask why you need such a big door in the first place.
Cashew: Long story, plus I'm afraid you'll change your mind about letting me borrow the Handsaw if I tell you.
Old Man: Aren't you afraid I'll change my mind after you said that?
Cashew: I am now!
Cashew had a worried look on his face, the Old Man laughed.
Old Man: I don't care what you do as long as you don't bring me or this village into it. But if you can work quickly, the you can borrow the tools and use them here.
Cashew: Thank you. Can I buy Iron Hinges while I'm at it? 4 of them? Ill also need nails that can go through Stone.
Old Man: Stone? You at a fortress? 10 hour walk ... You're staying at that Ancient Fortress? Dont bandits live there?
Cashew: Like i said, long story. I killed the Bandits there, found out they had a girl hostage, I carried her to the nearby city, guards thought I was the kidnapper, I had to run away and now I'm using my Golems to patch up the holes in the walls and build a new door out of fear they will show up and cause problems again. Thats why I came here for materials instead of there.
Old Man: I see... Well, we can sell you the Hinges and nails, if you work fast enough, we can let you borrow the tools. It's no issue.
Cashew: How much for the Hinges and Nails?
Old Man: Hinges, 4 of them would be 80 copper coins, the nails that can be used in stone will be 300 copper coins for 8.
Cashew: Nails are expensive... Can you throw in some regular nails while you're at it?
Old Man: Regular nails, 30 of them would be 30 Copper coins.
Cashew: 410 Copper coins total? Uhm. I only got Silver Coins... How much for a map?
Old Man: 3 Copper coins.
Cashew: What else can you sell me to bring the cost up to 1 Silver coin?
Old Man: I can charge you for borrowing the tools.
Cashew: Fair enough. Thank you.
Cashew then handed the Old Man a Silver coin. The Old Man was surprised, but didn't argue and lead him to a tree to cut down, as well as leaving to get the Woodcutting axe. The tree was about a meter thick and a good 20 meters tall.
Seeing the Old Man come back with a Woodcutting Axe, Cashew asked.
Cashew: Do you want any excess wood for fire fuel for example?
Old Man: You can leave it if you want, but i won't make you.
Taking the axe and handing it to the Wood Golem, It started chopping immediately, and the tree was soon cut down entirely within a minute.
The Old Man was surprised at the speed, Cashew handed him the axe back.
Cashew: The battle axe took 5 minutes... That's a good axe you got!
Old Man: Not really. The handle has been replaced plenty of times over the years, but the axe head is older than me.