Seeing the pieces before him must have triggered some kind of inbuilt shape system within his mind because all of it just clicked. Not in the same way that a blueprint would dump information on him, but the more natural rush of understanding. He could see it within his mind now, how the pieces fit together, how the top cage would rotate around on the pole, trapped and unable to be dislodged.

August took a series of branches of varying thickness out of his inventory, placing the end of each against the holes in the plates until he found three that were each slightly larger than the holes themselves. Once he had his selected pieces, he dumped the rest back inside of his inventory.

“Alright,” August said, riding the high of understanding. “The larger branch is the pole that emerges from the base plate; we need to stick the thinner end in the hole and then hammer it through until it’s in tight.”

“Ah, now I see,” Haiko said, raising an eyebrow. “It will become lodged inside of the hole, and that will work to secure it in place.”

“Yeah—we’re going to do the same for the other pieces as well,” August said, nodding. “That’s why the other two branches are so long; we’ll need to cut them off near the plate after they’re stuck properly.”

August turned the large base plate on its side, holding it up with one hand, before using his other one to push it into the hole. It went in about halfway before getting stuck, at which point he had to stand up in order to make any more progress. Haiko stood, her bottom set of hands taking hold of the base plate, and relieving him of the burden, while a third hand came to assist in holding up the branch it was balanced on.

“Thanks,” August said as the two of them pushed down on both sides of the plate to work it down further. “That’s as far as it’s going on its own.”

August removed a shorter, thicking branch to use as a club before lining it up beside where the branch was emerging from the hole and then struck down, lightly, as a test—the plate moved a fraction downwards. He observed that the vibration from his hit didn’t seem to overwhelm Haiko’s hold on it, so he ramped up the strength of the hits slightly, each one pushing the base plate further down the branch. It took about twenty hits before he couldn’t seem to move it any further, leaving it a few inches shorter than he would have liked.

“You’re stronger than me,” August said, handing the club over and taking hold of his side of the base plate again. “You want to try?”

“Certainly,” Haiko said, taking the club.

August watched as she followed his own method, lining it up for a moment before striking down. The entire plate shook from the hit, and while most of the vibration carried down through the branch, he did feel some of it in his hands—he was once again reminded of just how outmatched he was. It barely looked like she was exerting herself, and yet where he’d maxed out his strength trying to lower the baseplate, Haiko was managing to move it with a fraction of her own.

“Is this far enough?” Haiko said, hesitating. “I’m worried if I go further, I may end up splitting either piece.”

“That’s fine like that,” August admitted, pulling himself out of his thoughts. “Good work—now we need to do it to the other two pieces.”

They set the impaled baseplate down on the ground and repeated the same steps with the first of the other cross-sections, only this time it was impaled by the two much longer branches. August let her take the lead on this one, aware of how weak his own attempts were in comparison. Once both branches were through, they took the second cross-section and threaded the ends of the two branches through the holes before hammering it down onto them. The end result was two circles of wood held together and impaled by the two too-long branches.

“That’s the two pieces done then,” August said, turning it onto its side on the ground. “We just need to cut off the overhang—you want to do this part as well?”

Haiko agreed, following his instruction, using the [Wooden Chisel] and the piece of wood they’d used as a club to sever each branch close to the baseplate. They did the same thing with the baseplate before standing it up on the ground beside the [Kiln]. August lifted the circular cage before dropping it down over the pole in the baseplate and leaving it hanging afloat.

Kick-Wheel Blueprint Unlocked

August wiped the back of his hand across his forehead to clear away some of the sweat and studied the finished project.

“I’m surprised at how well this actually went,” Haiko admitted, running a hand along the top of it.

“So am I,” August nodded, “It’s not perfect, but it should work for now—we’ll need to add another plate on top, though.”

“Yes, the protruding branches will make using it quite difficult to work the clay,” Haiko admitted, tossing a glance back over at the others. “Shall I retrieve another cross-section?”

August nodded, busying himself with checking the inside of the [Kiln] while she set out to do just that. The interior walls had dried significantly during the time they’d been busy, and he judged that the first new layer could be added soon. Haiko soon returned with another cross-section, and they marked where the two branches were before carving two shallow holes out of the bottom of the new plate. Once they were done, they sat it down on top of the top piece, giving them a completely flat surface to use.

“Now we just need to finish closing in the top of the Kiln,” August said, rubbing at his neck. “After that, we can actually make something.”

“You must leave newly worked products out to dry for many hours before firing them,” Haiko said, glancing between the fire and the [Kick-Wheel]. “Perhaps at some point, we should prepare something for when the Kiln is complete.”

August couldn’t miss how much of her attention had remained on the [Kick-Wheel] after it had been completed. Given that it had been her chosen hobby back when she’d been alive, he couldn’t exactly blame her for being drawn towards it.

“Why don’t you go ahead and test it out?” August said offhandedly, “I’ll finish off the Kiln while you’re busy.”

“Are you sure?” Haiko said hesitantly. “It’s probably not an appropriate time for me to—”

“We need containers for water and other stuff—besides, you said it yourself,” August said, interjecting. “If we need to spend hours drying them out first, then we should probably get started on that early.”

“I—I see,” Haiko said, looking somewhat abashed. “Then I shall work towards that end—thank you, August.”

August approached the [Kick-Wheel] before dumping a bunch of the clay he’d collected down on top of it for her to use.

“No need,” August said, inspecting the [Kiln] once more.

“August,” Haiko said, appearing to judge the distance between her and the lake. “I need access to water—would it be alright if I were to move the wheel closer to the water?”

“You really don’t need to ask me about stuff like that,” August reiterated, “You’re free to do whatever you want, Haiko—just be careful of the lake; there are other monsters in there besides Neptune.”

“Then I shall endeavour to remember,” Haiko smiled.