Chapter 8
After resting for ten minutes, the boy and the girl started to get ready to go again. Aya didn't show a bit of displeasure, obeying Kenshin completely, following him without a backward glance, not thinking about how they would survive in the mountains. He in turn promised himself that he would take care of her at all costs and not let her starve.
After an hour and a half they reached the foot of the first mountain, but Kenshin didn't like the terrain, so they moved a little deeper into the mountains, and about fifteen minutes later they found a large network of caves, and boy did they decide this was it.
Leaving Aya outside, he grabbed a pre-prepared torch, lit it, and went inside the cave. About 20 metres from the entrance the tunnel split into two passages, Kenshin decided to check both. It took him about 2 minutes to reach the end of the left tunnel, and the passage split into two again. Deciding not to risk going deep into unexplored caves, Kenshin went back and checked the second tunnel, finding that after about 50 metres it ended in a dead end.
Deciding that this place was suitable, he focused on an ability he had superficial information about. The young man mentally activated "Sanctuary Creation", and his consciousness seemed to leave his head. He saw the immediate area within a radius of about 150 metres, and experienced a shock. Even though he knew how "Sanctuary Creation" was roughly done, knowing and experiencing were not the same thing.
He spent the next hour building up the "blueprints" in the allocated metre, having finished "setting up" he mentally approved everything, and confirmed the creation of the shelter, and then fell exhaustedly against the nearest wall. Sweat was pouring down his face and his head was throbbing.
The dead end in front of him glowed with a blue glow, and it lasted for about five minutes, and then it went quiet. Kenshin walked on shaky legs to the wall of the cul-de-sac and put his hand into a small, almost imperceptible notch. A second later, the wall rumbled, and slowly moved aside, no longer a wall, but a door. The door to his new home.
"I did it! It really worked!" - Kenshin thought, and couldn't hold back a smile. All his tiredness instantly vanished, and he quickly stepped inside, and took a quick walk around his new "home". Making sure everything was as he had planned, he hurried to the exit, where Aya was waiting for him.
Aya was alerted when she heard footsteps coming from deep within the cave, and Kenshin was barely out of sight before a fragile, blue-eyed brunette threw herself into his arms and kissed him.
- Oh my god, Kenshin, thank god you're okay! I was so worried..." she said in a shaky voice, her delicate face framed by two streaks of tears.
- Shh, it's okay, I'm okay, see? - He said with a smile, hugging her and pulling her close to him.
- Where have you been? I've had enough of this..." Aya sobbed, afraid to go back to what she was thinking until Kenshin returned.
- Building our new house. - He answered with a smile.
- A house? Built? - Aya didn't understand.
- Come on, I'll show you around! - Kenshin said cheerfully, smacking her on the lips, then grabbed the bags of stuff.
When they reached the "dead end" Aya looked at Kenshin incredulously, not understanding how a damp cave could be called home, but then Kenshin opened the door and the girl's jaw nearly dropped. The young man pulled the frozen girl by the arm, and they stepped inside.
There was no lighting inside their new "home" yet, but Kenshin was going to fix that soon. The Sanctuary Creation ability was only level one, so the resulting "house" wasn't as vast and magnificent. But it wasn't small either.
The prototype for Kenshin's "hideout" was partly a very prestigious four-room flat, but he added some modifications of his own, and created a near replica of a flat from his past world. The system was quite generous with the possibilities of furnishing the asylum, and allowed Kenshin to create parquet floors, carpets, beautiful concrete walls, lacquered wood, and the like. As a result, it was as if the young man had returned to his world. The only thing that reminded him of where he was was his rustic attire, and the homemade torch in his hand that smoked mercilessly from the beautiful ceiling of his new flat.
The young man was upset at first, but then he remembered that for the convenience of the "Patriarch" his shelter will self-clean every 2 days and return to its original state, restoring some damaged parts, but if more than 40% of the shelter is damaged - it will become unusable, and will stop restoring its integrity.
Kenshin looked at the Sanctuary Creation ability and saw a timer on the right side of the screen counting down the time until he could use it again, and realised that he wouldn't be able to remake this sanctuary or create a new one until seven days later, and it was impossible to create two sanctuaries at the same time, the old one would immediately fall into disrepair and turn into an unremarkable cave.
Kenshin's "new house" had four rooms. One large living room, and 3 bedrooms. There was a separate bathroom and toilet, as well as a kitchen, and one large training room the size of a school gymnasium. It was done in a completely different style. Thick concrete walls, a thick bare floor, a small tatami mat at the far end of the training room, a few makiwars, two punching bags, and an iron corner with a barbell with a set of pancakes and several different dumbbells. Kenshin didn't know what a shinobi needed for training, but he thought that this equipment would be useful for the first time, at least for himself.
The only thing that the system did not allow to create was electronics or any other technological things, so Kenshin built a "gas" cooker remotely similar to those in his home world, wishing to draw the necessary formation for heating in the future. The system created the pipes and the water tank, but it failed to heat the water, and Kenshin had to figure it out.
The reservoir from which the water was supplied was self-filled, apparently from a mountain river, and filtered by the system itself, eliminating the possibility of poisoning. The sewer drain went deep down.