They started bright and early the next day. As promised, Josh guided Ruth through some basic exercises. Crunches, push-ups, a good run, that sort of thing. He warned her that she wouldn't see major gains early on, especially since they didn't have weights. She just seemed excited to be included, and didn't mind.
As it turned out, the chores around their land were decent training themselves. They had to spend an hour cleaning up saplings and new shoots, because they had forgotten to burn what they had cut last night. Mary stomped over to the nearest store, Darius trailing behind her. They came back with enough oil to at least burn out the new growths. It cut into their savings, but no one complained.
Thankfully, besides that, the work went well. Josh cut through the trees at a mad measure, his [Chop Tree] technique ranking up step by step. By the end of the day it was rank 8, and he could cut down a small tree with a single swipe. Combined with [Hands-Free Crafting], he just had to touch a tree and it almost fell over on its own.
Ruth was slower in comparison to him, but faster than both Mary and Darius combined. She didn't have the Perception and Sensitivity scores to use her techniques and spells so casually, so she had to swing her ax normally. Still, Josh managed to convince her it was good Strength training. Which was true, even if it would take an absurd amount of exercise before she received a boost to her score that way.
Darius and Mary ended up mostly using the cart to get the logs out of the way. They were collecting quite the stack. Darius estimated that they had almost two hundred trees total on their property. Even though most of them were on the smaller side, they piled up.
They took breaks every once and a while to learn their own techniques and spells, since they weren't gaining any experience from the tree cutting. Well, Josh and Ruth weren't getting any experience from the actual tree cutting; that was a [Gatherer]-role activity. Still, they were gaining experience from improving their abilities, and from the occasional crafting they had to do. They only had to pause to meditate for mana every once in a while.
So, Mary and Darius trained. They set up targets, and Mary worked on infusing mana into her gunshots. She managed to gain the [Pyro Shot] spell on her second try thanks to already having the Archer version of the spell.
Darius still didn't have the materials to make shroud focuses—what little money they had needed to go to food and supplies—but he did discover that he could learn plenty of [Defender]-type spells. He might not have taken the Shrouder class before, but he had been prepared. He had a literal checklist of spells to learn, and instructions on the best ways to do so.
By six o'clock, they were about two-thirds of the way through their property. Considering that this was only their second day, Josh thought they had done a good job. If they really pushed, he thought that they could manage to finish it up tonight, but it wasn't worth it.
“Reckon we can manage the houses tonight,” he said confidently. He wiped sweat off his forehead. “Ruth, you agree?”
She dropped his hatchet, breathing heavily. “Maybe? Phew, I don't know.” She looked at the very large pile of logs stacked up next to the palisade. “We can at least try, right?”
Josh nodded. He walked over to one of the larger logs and activated [Hands-Free Crafting]. There was a sound suspiciously like a buzzsaw for a few moments, and then the log was a few planks. The sawdust had even been collected in a nearby bucket that they had prepared.
This wasn't a technique, though he did have a technique for sawing planks. This was a blueprint for wooden planks. It was interesting, because if he didn't use the spell, there wouldn't be any real difference between him and a normal person doing it. He'd have the blueprint in the forefront of his mind the entire time, so he'd know the process perfectly and know how to follow it, but he still had to follow every step normally. It was only with [Hands-Free Crafting] that he could skip all of that due to not actually needing the tools. He assumed [Instant Crafting] would be even better, but he didn't actually have the right tools for this since he left the vanguard outpost, so he couldn't test it.
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Ruth helped with her own spells, and in a few minutes they had a nice stack of planks, plus some posts and beams. Everything they needed to get the frame of a house up and at least get started on the walls.
Digging the holes for the posts was harder than he had expected—he'd never used the tool before, and it was awkward—but they managed it. They didn't have any cement, so they had to dig deep in order to make sure that the posts would be properly anchored. Josh made sure to focus on every step of the process as they dug the hole, set the post, and filled it back in with hard-packed dirt. Once they were sure it was solid, he got what he had been hoping for.
CONGRATULATIONS! Due to experimenting with your designs, you have learned the blueprint: Foundation Post (wood) (variant). It's a post in the ground. Don't get too excited.
The fact that it was labeled as a variant meant that it was treated the same as his basic post blueprint. He didn't gain any experience for inventing the new blueprint, and his rate of gaining experience from crafting it would decay along with the basic post. He wouldn't level from this.
Of course, that wasn't the point.
It had taken over an hour to plant this first post. Mostly because they hadn't really known what they were doing. He suspected they could cut it down to half an hour now, maybe fifteen minutes if they got good. Instead, they dragged another post over to where they wanted the corner of the house to be, along with all the necessary tools.
“Here goes nothing,” he said. He made sure that everything was within hand's reach. “Instant Crafting.”
There was a flash of light and a cloud of dust that made them cough and wave their hands in front of their faces. Once they blinked their eyes clear, they saw it:
A stable post, sitting there in the ground as solid as if they had spent over an hour ensuring it.
[Instant Crafting] had cost more than usual. Josh expected that was because the blueprint took longer. However, it also cost less than he would have thought for a full hour's work. He expected that was because the work, while long, was easy.
He grinned wide enough that his face hurt. He was still grinning as he sat down on the ground to meditate and recover his mana.
Mary waggled her eyebrows at him. “Oh? You ready for another go?”
Darius pushed his glasses up. “Don't make it sound so... tawdry.”
She punched him in the shoulder. “That was you, you muppet.”
“I'm ready,” Josh said, still grinning. He stood up. “I've got a few more shots in me tonight.”
Mary pointed an accusing finger at him. “Now that was tawdry.”
They didn't do anything fancy. They just wanted four rooms to sleep in. They'd deal with kitchens and so on later. Putting up the remaining posts took a grand total of half an hour, including waiting for his mana to recharge. While they waited, they started on all the supports and so on, making sure that the foundation was steady. Then they put in the planks for the floor, and finally the walls. It required loads of nails, and Josh briefly considered just stacking up logs instead. But nails were cheap, even on their budget, so it probably wasn't worth what they'd save.
All told, the first little one-room shack took about three hours to build. It was a terrible house without even a door, but it would keep the wind and the rain off. Josh had never been prouder in his life.
“Oi.” Mary punched him in the shoulder. “Wipe that grin off your face. You look like a man with a hen that just laid three eggs.”
He laughed. “C'mon, can you blame me?”
She snorted. “Suppose not.”
“Now for the real test.” Three hours was an incredible speed for even something this small, but he might be able to do it faster. Because he had received a blueprint when they had finished the house.
CONGRATULATIONS! Due to combining various different designs, you have learned the blueprint: Small Shack (wood). This is the kind of building you use to store yard tools you don't care about. Or the crazy uncle who won't leave your property and never bathes!