Six arrived at the site early the next morning, a tingly feeling of anticipation running through his body. He had wanted to be an artist when he was a young man and had wanted to switch careers into custom home construction but didn’t want to take the significant pay cut only to work his way up to a decent wage again.
This was going to be an interesting problem. Ravna showed him the sizable plot she had selected, it was next to the western most part of the river inside the palisade. Six talked with Ravna, inquired about her thoughts and desires, talked about the specifics of the furnace she needed, and then drew out some basic plans. Nothing fancy, kitchen, bedroom, forge, no indoor plumbing but maybe he could add an addition after the building became functional, he really needed his armor fixed and digging out a septic would just take way too much time up front. Maybe if he had a crew or excavating magic, but he didn’t.
One of his problem solving sayings ran through his head. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
He broke the task down into successively smaller tasks and started with the most pressing. Preparing the work area and materials.
Six began by using axes, hatchets and saws to clear the land of trees and brush. Rocks big and small went into his storage. This work made him think of home, it reminded him of his old profession of arboriculture. Most of the trees were old and large but his slightly increased strength and endless stamina allowed him to fall and buck them much faster than he could have normally. He created the face cuts with axes and pushed the trees with wedges and shims of wood he pounded into the back cut. It was very traditional tree work and he was still slower than using a chainsaw but he kept busy and the work progressed.
Some of the settlers watched as he cleared the land. Working by himself when most were working together. That was ok, he liked the focus and quiet brought on by solitary work.
After finishing with the removal of the green material he began digging up the footprint of the foundation. The soil was thick and weaved with what seemed like one cohesive root plate but a mattock made the job much easier
Six had begun to place the removed dirt into his spatial as Denny had demonstrated when Keegan came over and requested that the gathered soil and rocks be used to reinforce the palisade mounds. That made sense and it wasn’t like Ravna wanted to use the dirt for anything so he agreed for the dirt but Six wanted the rocks, never knew when you needed some nicely sorted rocks for drainage or aesthetics.
Six worked almost non stop, only taking quick breaks to observe the goings on of the settlement.
Franklin was an excellent leader, she led from the front and wasn’t afraid to delegate and request help. Many people lacked the skill levels required to really improve the quality of the construction but Franklin managed to keep almost all of the idle settlers busy. The second longhouse was already on its way up due to her efforts.
The soldiers were almost finished with their bunkhouse but still took time out of their day to train. Keegan, Narhurin and the girl called Tavi were pushing themselves extremely hard, running, wrestling, and sparring in full panoply with multiple types of weapons. Six looked on in jealousy at their superhuman performance, well, Tavi moved like a normal person, but Six could see the sweat on her face.
Narhurin had offered Six to train that one time and Six did enjoy pushing his body, perhaps he would ask next time. The digging was hard work but it lacked the enjoyment that came with the puzzle of sparring.
Alison wandered about giving direction as needed, many were still unsure as to their position or what would be best to do. Alison took care of that, assigning many to hunting and gathering, some were farmers and she let them go with a few guards to find where best to plant crops. She handed out deeds and titles and served as the de facto leader of this lively new place. Leoka Root stood at her side, helping as she could.
By the time he had finished digging for the day he had gained a level in Athletics by the time he fell asleep next to his lamp, a level in Masonry.
The next day he had a large flat pit to begin construction with. He began by creating large thin sheets of Stone Wall on the bottom of the pit, he jumped down and pulverized that layer with the maul he kept in his spatial. He did this eight times before he felt satisfied with all the shard-like gravel he had created. On top of the gravel went a layer of thick stone, Six placed the casts so Stone Wall would create large thick tiles, unconnected as the separation between tiles would hopefully help mitigate any cracking that could form with the expansion and contraction of one large piece.
Whenever he ran low on mana he would meditate until he was able to continue.
Skill Increase: Earth magic - Initiate - 9
This time, when Keegan and Narhurin began their midday training, Six approached them.
“Mind if I join you?” He asked the three who were limbering up.
Nar and Keegan both looked at each other and smiled. Tavi looked unimpressed and irritated.
Tavi shook her head and warded him away. “You don’t want to let these two get their claws in you. Their training is basically torture.”
Six nodded. “Perfect. No pain, no gain.”
“Yea that's the spirit!” Narhurin cheered.
Keegan began leading them with calisthenics, while wearing armor. He spoke as he moved, “I see that you still wear your armor while you work. This is good.”
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Six shrugged. “I’m still getting improvements in the Heavy Armor so I really don’t see a reason to remove it.”
Narhurin hummed in understanding, “Removing it for rest is good for the body, your muscles will knot if they are always forced.”
“You’re always wearing your armor though.”
“Can’t take it off.”
“Cursed?”
Nar smiled.
They continued to push themselves before Six asked a question. “Yo, question, why do you train if you can just put a bunch of attribute points into strength or constitution?”
Keegan nodded, “Ah, Your attributes are a measure of your limits and putting points into your limits increases them. But an ill trained body and mind can never truely access those limits. Without training the efficacy of your attributes is lower and thus the increases in performance from pure attributes is also lower. You may not like it but this leads to peak performance.”
Six waved the thought away. “Nah nah, feel the burn!” He was used to imposing demand on his body.
From there they went into wrestling. He paired off with Tavi while Keegan and Nar acted as coaches for them. Tavi was a young woman and didn’t seem to look like a grappler but she grappled well, with an almost supernatural mobility. When they started their bouts it was pure skill that allowed her to overcome Six’s slightly enhanced strength, but it was Six’s enhanced stamina regen that allowed for him to grind her down, eventually tiring her out.
Then came time for weapons training.
Narhurin pointed at Six. “Alright, so I see you use a glaive.”
“I guess.”
“Perfect! Well I’ll show you some moves! Do you know any maneuvers?”
“Nah no maneuvers.”
“What's your polearm skill at?”
“Uuuh,” Six checked his sheet. “Nine.”
Tavi snickered at him.
Narhurin waved it away. “Nine is good, Tavi and he will only get better.”
“Nine is not good, Nar. That is initiate rank, not even evolved,” she said with poorly disguised frustration.
Keegan began to talk in his rhythmic way. “And he will get better. It is within the pursuit of improvement that we become ‘good’. Simply having superior muscles is not the way, the pursuit of superior. muscles is the way.” He lectured Tavi in this way and she stared daggers at Six as if the lecture was his fault.
While Keegan lectured, Narhurin taught Six.
“Gonna teach me that Dragon Lance Advance move yah did that one time?”
“Hah, how about something a little more simple, with your Polearm skill so low you would find trouble performing the move. No, maneuvers right now, instead show me what you know.”
Six retrieved his glaive and showed Narhurin the stance and moves Jeffums has shown him. It was kinda like a silly dance but Six didn’t mind being silly.
Narhurin nodded in approval. “Basic, but it looks like you know some of the fundamentals. Now, defend yourself.”
Narhurin’s style of training was to push Six. Narhurin fought just hard enough to challenge Six, it was obvious he was holding back in terms of strength and skill. Six took the superficial cuts and bops, he tried to dodge or block them but Narhurin slipped a few strikes in periodically. Still, Six pushed forward even trying to weave in an ineffectual strike of his own and eventually Nar called for a stop. Six breathed evenly while Nar breathed heavily. They trained this way for two more bouts before Six switched to training with Keegan.
Keegan made Six switch to a longsword and then spent their time breaking down the basics for swordplay. Stance, hand position, sword position and basic strikes. Keegan was a skilled teacher and Six learned extremely quickly. The three levels in swords were evidence enough of Keegan’s skill in the sword and communicating.
Skill Increase:
Athletics - Initiate - 10
Unarmed - Initiate - 3
Heavy armor - Initiate - 14
Polearms - Initiate - 10
Skill gained: Swords - Initiate - 3
He thanked the three for allowing him to train and immediately got back to construction, his massive stamina regen letting him recover quickly.
He continued with using Stone Wall and by dusk he had created a fine floor. He was quite proud of this floor. He slapped it in satisfaction. It was built to last, and was a fine foundation. He was off to a great start.
Ravna stopped by and checked his progress. “You know,” she said, “I wasn’t expecting you to make something this nice, it's so… smooth.”
“Magic is very useful.”
“I was very skeptical of your confidence, now I can't wait to see the rest.”
“I can’t wait either, it's gonna be dope.”
She smiled.
“Thanks for the kind words, makes my job easier knowing I’m on the right track. Come look at what I'm doing whenever you want. I think this shouldn’t take more than four more days."
She thanked him and left him to make it home as darkness was beginning to set in. He would have to leave a bit earlier next time. He blazed some smokeweed and curled up with his book.
He awoke in the middle of the night to noises of something pushing and scraping at his door. He sat up and held his breath as he listened to whatever was outside try to get inside. Eventually it stopped and moved on but Six stayed up for a while after the noises stopped. He did fall asleep again but did not sleep well.
On the seventh of Broka Six brought some maple saplings he found on the way to the village. These would be the basis for the skeleton of the structure. They were tiny and he bound the soil of the root ball with twine and sacks he found in his ring. Trees didn't like it when you removed them from dirt completely. He planted a sapling at each corner of the floor plan and began to channel Plant Growth.
After the foundation came the framing and the maples would grow to become the frame. There was no plumbing, electrical, or HVAC, so all he had to focus on was creating something that could bear load. Traditionally that meant beams upon a load bearing pillar but Six was working with a tree. Branches were actually extremely well connected and inserted within the trunk so with additional load bearing pillars they could function as a beam. Thinking about the build a little more carefully, Six decided he needed more load bearing trees. He would get that tomorrow, today he began growing the four corners to about ten feet and making them nice and thick, little branches coming out every two feet or so. He used his two spears tied together to get a nice even height for everything, he decided he needed a level, wasn’t sure on how he could get one though.
Keegan, Narhurin and Tavi began to train so Six pulled himself away from his work to participate. This time Charles and a few others came to train and the two fighters accepted all.
Six took his lumps and dealt a few too, he fought endlessly just by nature of his endurance and although it wasn't a competition he still compared himself, finding himself near the top of his mental leaderboard, just under Nar and Keegan themselves.
Charles was skilled with the longsword, Tavi was good with polearms but Six felt like he could take them. especially with the level advantage. Both Keegan and Nar were skilled monsters and were both stronger and more dexterous than Six who just had a massive stamina regen.
Six went back to work cycling between casting Plant Growth and finding more saplings to form additional columns of the structure. By the end of the day he had framed out two doors, a few windows and a rough box shape that was broken into three rooms. There were no walls nor roof but it looked sturdy and should last for a while.
On the walk back to his home he had to fight some young bristle hounds but they scattered after a few Stone Spears.
He blazed some smokeweed and reclined near the mouth of his cave just relaxing. He felt strong and healthy, he felt confident. He began to target Plant Growth over his garden and coaxed some of the sprouts to grow.
He liked nature and being able to promote such growth brought a smile to his face.
He stretched and went to bed early, checking his skill prompts before passing out.
Skill Increase:
Earth magic - Initiate - 10
Meditation - Initiate - 5
Unarmed - Initiate - 4
Polearms - Initiate - 11
Swords - Initiate - 5