Chapter 108: Task Complete, Brain Offline
The mostly flat stones they had gathered and cracked would be used for the base of the channels, packed tightly along the bottom and lower walls like rough pavement. Smaller bits of stone and gravel would be jammed into the spaces between the larger pieces, filling gaps and creating a dense, interlocking surface.
A mixture of clay, soil, and the finest stone fragments would be combined with water and worked into a thin paste. This paste would be smeared along the surfaces of the walls and pressed into any remaining gaps between the stones, sealing the channel against water absorption.
The stones were packed tightly enough that the clay mixture didn’t need to do all the work. It only needed to fill what the stones couldn’t cover.
For the most critical sections of the channels, where the water flow would be strongest and the risk of leakage highest, the lining was entirely stone. These sections received the densest packing, the thickest layer of sealing paste, and the most careful attention.
The same was done to the holding basins at the settlement.
Every single surface was then smoothed down until they were as watertight as Tera could make them with the materials she had.
The edges of both channels, which had already been raised during the digging phase, were built up further with packed earth to prevent debris, mud, and loose soil from washing into the water during rainfall.
Additionally, Tera had the males create barriers, flat plates from the clay, soil and stone mixture that could be placed at specific points along the channels before the basins. These barriers could stop the water flow at any point, allowing the clan to control how much water reached the settlement and to shut off the supply entirely if repairs were needed.
This painstaking work consumed the fifth month and a part of the sixth.
Throughout it all, the system had been uncharacteristically quiet in its commentary but loud in its assessments.
[This system did not anticipate Host developing thermal fracturing techniques]
[This system’s projections for task completion have been revised upward significantly]
[Host continues to exceed expectations]
Tera didn’t have time to dwell on the compliments. She was too busy watching the calendar.
The project was finally completed at the start of the sixth month, but Tera did not let the water from the stream flow yet.
The waterproof paste needed to dry first.
The channel was dried under the sun for two weeks.
The deadline was approaching, and the waiting was almost worse than the work.
Tera felt the stress pressing in from every side. She paced the length of both channels daily, checking for cracks in the drying paste, testing stones with her fingers, and having the system scan section after section for weaknesses.
Some nights she barely slept, lying in the shelter with her mind running through every possible failure point.
Xavi and Ermin noticed her anxiety and did their best to ease it. They brought her food she forgot to eat. They distracted her with the twins, who were growing rounder and more opinionated by the day. They held her at night when the worrying kept her awake.
But nothing would fully ease her mind until she saw water flowing.
The day came one week before the deadline.
Tera stood at the stream’s edge, looking at the bark blockers that had been holding back the water for months. The entire clan had gathered. Males, females, cubs, and even Puff Dumpling, who had waddled out from the settlement as if he had sensed that something important was about to happen.
The bark blocker was pulled away from the first channel.
For a moment, nothing happened. The stream continued flowing past the opening as it always had.
Then the water found the gap.
A thin, exploratory trickle crept into the mouth of the first channel, running along the stone-lined floor as if testing it. The trickle widened, deepened, and within seconds, a steady flow of clear water was moving through the channel.
The water reached the first step-down and spilled over the lip into the second section. The second section filled, and the water crested the next lip and poured into the third.
Tera started walking alongside the channel, following the water’s progress. Everyone moved with her, their eyes fixed on the flow as if watching a living thing make its way through the landscape.
It wasn’t leaking, and the step-down lips channelled the overflow exactly as they were designed to.
The water reached the first holding basin at the settlement and started to pool.
And the water made its return back to a different part of the stream.
The second channel was opened too, and the same process repeated.
Within the hour, both channels were flowing freely.
Water had reached the settlement.
Not carried in skins or hauled from the stream in tired arms. It had flowed there on its own, through channels that a shiftless female had designed.
The clan erupted in cheers and excitement. The cubs, who didn’t fully understand what was happening but could sense the excitement, started screaming and running in circles.
Bessier dropped to his knees at the edge of the basin and scooped water into his hands. He drank it, and his face went through an expression that suggested he had just tasted something divine.
"It is cold," he whispered, as if this were the most miraculous revelation of his life.
[Ding!]
[Tasks Complete!]
[Establish a Secure Nursery / Cub Den: SUCCESS!]
[Develop a Reliable Water Transport System: SUCCESS!]
[All objectives have been met!]
[Rewards granted!]
[Construction +35, Influence +15, Nipples +140, Charm +30]
[System Shop: Tier 2 has been Unlocked!]
[Host may now purchase even more useful items to aid in tribal development]
[Bonus rewards granted for innovative problem-solving!]
[Nipples +50]
[Thermal stone fracturing technique: Logged and preserved!]
[Multi-material channel lining: Logged and preserved!]
[Sectioned gravity-flow design: Logged and preserved!]
[These innovations have been recorded in the System Archive!]
[Channel structural integrity has been reinforced and fortified by the system!]
[These channels will not degrade under normal environmental conditions!]
[Host has exceeded every projection this system had]
[(..◜ᴗ◝..)]
[This system is proud of you, Tera]
The notification blurred.
Tera’s vision swam, and to her shock, she discovered she was actually in tears.
[( ˶°ㅁ°) !!]
[Host?!]
Xavi reached her first, Nadia still cradled in one arm. His free hand found her shoulder, and his face was tight with alarm.
"What is wrong? Are you hurt?"
Tera shook her head, still crying, still unable to form words.
Ermin was there a moment later, Althea pressed against his chest, his golden eyes wide with panic. "Tera? What happened?"
She tried to speak. She tried to tell them that nothing was wrong, that everything was right, that she was just so tired and so proud and so relieved that her body didn’t know how to express it except through tears.
The world tilted, and Tera fainted with a tired smile.