The first thing he did was go through the group of wood he’d sectioned off for future use as a handle. Some of them were smaller pieces, intended to be used for chisels or small knives, so he sorted them away without paying much attention to them. Once he had the larger, thicker pieces laid out removed the first [Otrogon Incisor] from his inventory.

Without all of the other teeth surrounding it, it was far less daunting to pick it up, but the material itself felt heavy. He moved the piece of bone over to lay beside the potential handles. Only three of them were anywhere near the size required to even house the thing, and all of them would probably end up breaking due to how much material he’d be forced to whittle away.

Stuck for a moment, he decided to take a couple of larger branches and whittle them down into a shape that worked better. He eventually found something about the right size, and leaving the head of it wide, he tapered it down to a thinner handle. He held the incisor up against the handle. He spent a moment marking out how big the hole was going to be on each of the handles and then used his [Flint Chisel] to start whittling it down.

He followed the same process he’d used for the other axes he’d built so far, tapering the hole’s down to ensure the incisors would be pushed further into the handle with each strike. Given that, in this case, the bone was actually far more durable than the wooden handle, he was a bit worried about it coming free during use. He’d have to see how much twine he had left to help secure them and use it to properly bind the tooth.

Once he had something substantial started in each handle, he took a coal from the furnace and dropped it into one of the holes, carefully blowing on it until the surrounding material began to charr. He worked at it, alternating between weakening the wood with the fire and carving out large sections with his chisel until he’d made it through to the other side.

August continued working, whittling them down and measuring the tooth until he’d gotten the end of it through the handle. Then it was much easier work, as he could start hammering it in properly. Once it was in there good and tight, he dove into his inventory, removing the lengths of twine they hadn’t used yet. He bound the head of the axe, crossing back and forth, keeping it as tight as he could manage before tying it off. Then he repeated the entire process with the second handle until both of them were in the same finished state.

There was no new blueprint unlocked upon completion of either of them, but considering he hadn’t really deviated from it in any way other than to use a bone instead of flint, he wasn’t too surprised. He cleaned up his mess and then stood up, attempting to drag the two axes up with him. The longer handles and the weight of the teeth made it an annoyingly difficult task.

He made a stop by the cube and dumped his regenerated mana into it, bringing it up to [61/80]. He hadn’t noticed it, given his back had been to her, but Haiko had returned to the shore, leaving the [Kiln] to fire the containers she’d placed inside of it.

He readjusted his hold on both of the axes, closer to the head, and then hefted them up before setting off towards the distant sound of chopping. He shouldered the two axes and then started off in their direction. Ladybug waddled along after him, and if not for the axes, she might have tried to catch a ride on his shoulder. He stopped by the still growing pile of trees, counting the ends of them as he went—10 in total, two less than they needed for the undercover area.

The two of them had been pickier about the new trees they’d chosen. Most of them were roughly the same length and thickness. Some of the first ones would need to be trimmed down, but otherwise, they’d done a far better job than he would have managed, and in a fraction of the time. August spotted Kalter and Rittan about a hundred meters away from the camp, working on two different trees. Rittan, the one who was actually facing him, looked up when he first spotted him, and Kalter turned a moment later.

“I know it’s a bit late now, but I come bearing gifts,” August said, deliberately crossing over the invisible threshold.

The two of them burst into existence in his mind, and even though he’d been prepared for it, he still wasn’t able to brush it off. Still, he had some hope that continued exposure to it would help acclimate him to the feeling.

“Not at all, my friend,” Rittan said, straightening up. “You used the creature’s teeth?”

“Yeah, no idea how well it will work, but I’ve seen them bite through bamboo without taking any damage, so it’s at least as strong as that,” August admitted, forcing a smile. “It’s also a lot heavier than the ones you’ve been using, so you should be able to use a lot more force without it shattering or chipping off.”

Kalter, the one of them who was closer to him, reached out and took the offered [Bone Axe]. He was glad to be rid of the weight, and even more so when Rittan took the other one from him. Neither of them seemed to be bothered by the weight, but he’d come to expect that by now.

“Feels better than the little ones,” Kalter said, holding it up with one hand. “Way more solid.”

“Indeed,” Rittan said, investigating the handle. “We are just about finished collecting the twelve trees, and this should speed that along—thank you.”

The Voithos kept his eyes on the axe as he spoke, and August had a feeling he was using the knowledge of the gifted [Basic Axe Blueprint] to figure out the entire process.

“I marked out the holes,” August said in response, “I started digging them up, but Haiko kind of bullied me into making the new axes first.”

“That sounds like her,” Kalter said, watching him. “She told us about that cube.”

“It’s almost tamed—maybe half an hour left,” August said, finally taking a step back out of range. “It seems to be regenerating the more mana it’s exposed to, so we should have another Efkini on our side soon, provided it can actually fully rebuild its shell.”

“Two of them working together might be able to clear out the forest around the camp,” Kalter said, eyeing the trees. “If they all have those cubes inside of them, we could potentially build up a significant force of them.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” August agreed. “Metal tools will have to be pushed back for now. At least until we can get a hold of another cube.”

“Can’t access the chains if the monster is moving around,” Kalter murmured.

“Something to think about,” August said, rubbing his neck. “If there’s something wrong with the axes, come get me, and I’ll try and fix it—for now, I’m going to go back and finish that hole.”