Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

Chapter 136 - Tannery Construction (3)

Armed with new tools to work with, the nine spectres gathered in Rino's little stone cottage for a briefing. Aiden and Griffith put together a simple design for the tannery after Rino told them it was located furthest from the town's centre.

Without a need to design underground tunnels and ventilation shafts, the tannery's concept was fairly simple.

There were five main stations and one storage building. Rino never felt prouder of the pygmy dwarfs for coming up with an idiot-proof design. Unlike the barn that was split into different floors for different purposes, the tannery's storehouse was for finished products only.

"Een, Twee and Drie will mine for salt. Bring as much salt as you can back using these sacks."

Passing the three shapeshifters cloth sacks that the fairies spun quickly for him, Rino explained the tanning process briefly.

On average, leather would take anywhere from two days to two months to process from start to finish. Rino broke the lengthy process into a few steps.

The first and most time-consuming part that could not be hastened with magic was the salt bath. The animal hide or skin has to be soaked in a clay vat for a day in very intense saltwater as preparation for the rest of the leather tanning work. Seawater could not be used because of the impurities. Otherwise, Rino would have created a teleportation pad by the sea to toss his leather preparation workshop there.

After soaking in salt water for one night, the leather should be rinsed and soaked in bone ash water. According to the tutorial, this was called liming. It helped to remove the grease from the skin of the leather and hair more easily. Unlike the salt bath, liming took less time, but it would still take half a day of soaking that could not be shortened using magic.

The part that could be shortened with magic was the separation and cleaning of the leather by hand. Normally, leather workers used a knife to scrape off all the stuck hair and meat. The process was known as scudding, and depending on the skill level of each worker, speed could vary.

Rino estimated that the spectres would not take longer than ten minutes to scud the leather with their multiple tendrils.

Then, the bating bath came. Rino didn't want to know why leather tanning had so many baths involved. However, there was a way to make the bating process faster using magic. Traditionally, bating was done using plants, and the process could take weeks. To make leather soft and protect its quality for longer, tannin was required. 

An alternative provided by Rino's tutorial included boiling the treated leather with animal liver, brains and fats for a few hours with salt. This reduced the lengthy tanning process to something that could be completed in under a day. Needless to say, the boiling mixture would smell revolting, but it was a small price to pay when Rino could save a lot of time.

Then, the treated leather should be rinsed clean and left to dry properly before storing away or crafting into something useful. Dyeing was optional, but Rino knew that most tanners would add dye colours to the treated leather after the bating bath. The dyeing process varied greatly, and Rino did not factor that into the time taken to produce one piece of leather.

From start to finish, Rino would estimate about two days for one piece of leather. There really wasn't much magic could do to shorten the time needed for nature to do what it has to. If Rino used time acceleration magic, he might see miraculous results. However, with his limited and depleted mana supply, the lich should be mana savvy for a while.

Nobody had any questions about the leather tanning process. Even if they had questions, they knew better than to ask now. It was wiser to move along and cross the bridge when they got to it. 

For now, Rino assigned the nine bandits their tasks, splitting them into three teams. Een was already leading his team out to gather salt with the hoes Rino passed them.

Acht, Negen and Zeven were in charge of digging six pits for the different leather baths. Rino handed them reinforced shovels that should make the job a lot simpler. He would mark the space out later for them to work on. Hopefully, they would complete digging up everything before night.

The last team led by Vier was in charge of constructing the storage house. Vier looked a little dense, and Rino was worried about this team. Vijf and Zes did not look any brighter, so Rino would work with them during the day, instructing what needs to be done while he conserved his mana to recover what he used in two teleportation trips.

As the group split up, Rino looked at the fireball in the sky. It was late afternoon now, and he hoped they could start the salt bath tonight. He could not wait to see the lamia skin in his shadow sack transform into a beautiful pair of boots.

Rino unloaded the cargo and instructed the two teams staying in the town to help him carry them all the way to the building site. It wasn't easy transporting all the wooden planks, but the spectres somehow managed to find a way to pile everything they needed on the wooden planks, carrying the wooden platform carefully so that they did not have to make too many trips.

Rino knew that Acht was the brightest of the lot and made up his mind. Acht was going to become the tannery manager after everything was operational. These ex-bandits should be duly rewarded once the tannery was completed as the first residents of his new town.

Unwilling to risk burning in the sunlight, Rino held a strange device that Aiden designed in one hand, known as an umbrella. It was one of the prototypes for products that could be made from paper. While it wasn't very water-resistant, it created a good portable shelter.

Rino had to thank the pygmy dwarf for such a handy creation as he walked behind the spectres holding a black paper umbrella behind them.