Dual World Apocalypse: My Harem Gives Me 10x Rewards

Meanwhile, back at the settlement...

Adrian woke up yawning, only to realize Amika was lying next to him. At first, he got worried seeing her sleeping so late, but relaxed the next moment after seeing she was already staring at him.

"What are you looking at?" he smiled, pulling her into his arms.

"Nothing," Amika smiled back, resting her head on his chest. "The others have gone outside, so I thought to keep you company."

"Outside? Where?"

Amika shook her head. She didn’t know where they had gone, so she told him the wanderers had taken them away.

Adrian nodded in relief. He had been asleep, but he could guess where the girls would take them.

Hannah must have taken them to fetch some coconuts, and Sera must have gone to bring clay, as I asked her to.

Now that he was up and everyone was doing their part, he decided to do something as well. After all, it was his last day there, and although he wouldn’t lose any time while he was away in some other reality, he still wanted everything to be in place.

I was a bit too sleep-deprived this morning to check the sulphur and obsidian mines. Oh, and there’s the geothermal bathhouse too.

Thinking of checking those buildings out, Adrian kissed Amika’s forehead and told her to keep resting while he left to check the underground facilities.

Adrian walked down the stone stairs leading into the lava ridge. The heat hit him immediately, but thanks to his newly acquired heat resistance, it was much more bearable than before.

So much so that he even had the time to appreciate the glowing orange cracks in the walls, which provided plenty of light as he descended deeper.

The first thing he saw when he reached the bottom was the sulphur mine. It was a small but efficient structure built into the side of the cave wall.

Yellowish deposits of sulphur were already visible on the rocky surface, and a simple mining tool was placed nearby, ready for use. However, he didn’t dare to get too close to it.

After all, it was sulphur, and he hadn’t heard too many good things about it. He had only combined it to epic grade and placed it because he wanted to improve his settlement score.

"It’s not like I haven’t heard good things about it," he mumbled, checking the mine from a distance.

He had seen sulphur being used in ointments to treat a variety of skin and insect-related issues. Also, they could be used to nourish soil as well.

These were just a couple of uses Adrian knew from the top of his head. However, Adrian did not dare to use them yet.

"Since I’ll be leaving soon, I should try to learn about those uses firsthand before trying to use the thing."

With one structure taken care of, he continued walking deeper into the lava ridge to the Obsidian mine. It was built into a large, dark rock formation on the far side of the cave.

The entrance was framed by sharp, glassy black rock that gleamed under the orange glow of the lava. Inside, the walls were lined with layers of the glass-like substance. Just like the salt quarry and the sulphur mine, the structure had its own dedicated tools to process the items with.

The only difference between the three structures was that he didn’t need to ’process’ obsidian to make it usable. He could just mine the stone through the veins and put it into desirable shapes for a variety of things.

"Like weapons! Not like I need them, thanks to the settlement rewards, but I could use them for arrow tips," he mumbled, scratching his chin. "All the arrow bundles I had got used up in the bird attack."

He continued, "Since I have to make new ones for the arrow tower, I might as well make many for the girls to practice archery with."

As he said so, he stepped closer and picked up a small piece of obsidian. The black glass felt cool to the touch despite the surrounding heat. He turned it over in his hand, appreciating its sharp edges.

"These are decently sharp, too. I could use them to make better crafting tools as well. Once that is accomplished, maybe I could use them to craft high-quality life items like mirrors or other things."

"I could then trade them here to maybe take them with me to other worlds. There has to be some world that might have some use of it, right?"

The more he thought about it, the more uses popped up in his head. The obsidian mine felt like a valuable addition to the underground facilities. Adrian spent a few more moments examining it before moving on to the final thing he had made down there.

A bathhouse.

The final structure Adrian had built down there was a geothermal bathhouse. Yup, an entire bathhouse that was carved into the opposite side of the cave from the sulphur and obsidian mines.

The most important thing was its sliding obsidian-crafted door. Adrian did not make it, it just appeared as soon as he combined it to reach the epic-grade.

"Let’s see what’s inside," he mumbled, excitedly rubbing his hands.

He slid the door aside to see the smooth floor made of pumice stone with several shallow pools fed by natural hot springs that bubbled up from the ground around.

He squatted down next to one such pool and noticed the crystal clear water being heated by the thin, glowing orange lines of lava underneath.

He dipped his hand into one of the pools and smiled at how perfectly warm the water was, not too hot, not too cold. It was the ideal temperature for a relaxing bath.

The natural geothermal energy meant they wouldn’t need to waste firewood or resources to heat the water. It was self-sustaining, just like the rest of the underground facilities.

It wasn’t just that. The walls were reinforced with basalt, like the fence outside, and small vents allowed excess heat and steam to escape without making the room unbearable.

There were even wooden benches lining one side of the room, and simple stone shelves held a few clean towels made of animal hide and soap made from animal fat, some medicinal plants, and ash.

"Holy shit! Soaps already!? I can finally bathe properly!"

Before this, Adrian had been thinking about making soaps himself. After all, he had various kinds of animal fats and knew the basics of making soap.

The only issue was that bathing with soaps made of only fat would make them smell like the animal whose fat the soap was made of. It could attract beasts while they roamed around the forest, and that was the only reason he had been holding off on the plan till now.

However, the soap in the bathhouse had medicinal and aromatic herbs added to it, which negated the scent of animal fat.

"It would be wrong not to inaugurate this thing..."

Just like that, Adrian took a dip in one of the pools.

The warm water enveloped his body as he leaned back against the smooth stone edge of the pool.

The heat slowly seeped into his muscles, easing the tension from the long night and morning of work. Steam rose around him, carrying a faint herbal scent from the soap on the nearby shelf.

"Man, this stuff hits different," he whispered. "Not going to lie, I don’t think I would mind it at all, even if I never leave this place."

Adrian stayed in the pool for several long minutes, letting the warm water soothe his body and mind. Even then, he couldn’t help but sing praises of the darn place. It alone was worth all the points he gained yesterday.

"Perhaps this is the best thing I have made in this place," he mumbled, already imagining the women using it after long days of work. "Thanks to the medicated soaps, we can even use them to clean wounds or just unwind after fights. No more going to the stream..."

Suddenly, his eyes shot open. Thinking of the stream reminded him of one crucial thing.

"Shit, the traps!" he exclaimed, jumping out of the pools to dry off.

Adrian quickly dried himself with one of the clean towels and got dressed. He had set up the fish traps in the stream yesterday, hoping to eat some fresh fish in the morning.

Thanks to his little adventure last night, he forgot all about them. Usually, it wouldn’t have been an issue, but since there were monsters everywhere now, they could break the cage to eat the fish trapped inside.

Adrian was more worried about losing a perfect trap rather than losing the fish inside it. Besides, there could be other survivors nearby who could find the traps and claim them as their own.

Given that the human population was already declining, he did not want any player blood on his hands anymore. That said, he won’t back away from a fight just because of that reason.

"I’ll worry about that later," he panted, climbing the stairs. "Let’s get the traps back first."