8 Broka 10,391
Six grew more load bearing trees and created walls with Stone Wall. the walls had no rebar but Six placed them right next to the frame and had the plants grow a lattice around the other side. The forge and chimney were created through precisely angled casts of Stone Wall, and Ravna would install her own bellows. Six wished he had some sort of vapour barrier, the best he could do was use grand fir and pine sap to seal the cracks and prevent moisture from creeping in.
He grew the roof in a peaked design with tons of struts. He wasn’t an engineer but he was sure that roof was going nowhere. During the build he struggled with deciding on stone or cedar shingles but eventually decided on a singular cedar roof. He grew a cedar sapling up the side of the building and across the peak of the roof. He then used Plant Growth to grow it down both sides of the roof. It was a singular piece of cedar kinda like a giant piece of plywood. He knew it would last a long time and not leak, that appealed to his sense of craftsmanship. He was also kinda trying to impress not only Ravna but the whole village.
It took three more days to actually finish growing the roof but on the tenth of Broka he called the project finished.
It was one story and looked like something out of a modern fairytale. Everything looked grown and sculpted, old yet lush.
When he completed it he received a series of prompts
Construction Successful!
-Smithy-
Quality: Average
Rarity: Common
Durability: 1100/1100
Traits: 25% production efficiency increase to all smithing related projects, fires burn hotter and hammers strike harder.
Skill Gained Carpentry - Initiate - 1
Each level provides an additional 1% to overall woodwork health and a reduction of 0.5% to the total work required.
Skill Gained Construction - Initiate - 1
Each level provides an additional 5% to overall building durability and an additional 0.5% chance to improve the quality of the structure by one rank.
Skill Increase:
Construction - Initiate - 4
Masonry - Initiate - 8
Carpentry - Initiate - 4
Wow, two new skills to level four instantly? This project had indeed paid for itself. Not to mention the skookum production bonus, that would really help the village snowball their production.
He invited Ravna to inspect her new home and workshop; she had no complaints and accepted it with a nod of approval. He helped her install the bellows and anvil and doffed his armor, handing her the ragged pieces.
She took them with an exaggerated look of disgust. “These aren’t armor, these are lumpy ingots.”
“That bad?” Six asked.
She nodded. “Bad.”
“Oh! Also, I need some new clothes.”
“I can arrange that.” She pulled out a tape measure and took his measurements. “This will help me size your armor properly as well.”
“How many sets can you make?”
“I didn’t bring that much material so three.”
“Make it so! How much do I owe you?” he asked, leaning against the wall smiling.
“Four gold for the clothes and the armor is commission one of twenty-four. I can’t help but feel like I got the short end of the stick here.”
Six lost his smile and passed her the gold. “You don’t have to do that many if you don’t want to. Twenty four does seem like alot, how about ten?”
“No no, a deal is a deal and my new smithy is so darn beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before. So, I’ll pay you back as we agreed.”
“Alright, twist my rubber elbow. Thanks.”
She grabbed his arm and wiggled it playfully but dropped it and then briefly adopted a super serious face. “Pick it all up in four days. Now if you’ll excuse me I would like to use my new forge!” She lost the seriousness as her excitement exploded with her statement.
“Alright. Message received!” Six left the lady to her devices and exited her smithy.
He had gained many skill levels over these three days of building for Ravna and training with the soldiers.
Earth magic - Initiate - 12
Meditation - Initiate - 7
Unarmed - Initiate - 6
Polearms - Initiate - 12
Swords - Initiate - 7
By now almost all the martials and hunters trained with the soldiers. Practicing with their neighbors and Keegan and Narhurin being willing to train them for nothing were good motivating factors.
Six went to see Alison and found her handing out farming implements to a few families. “Alison, how are things?”
“I’m busy Six, don’t have time for chit chat. I will thank you for getting that forge going though.”
“No problem. I took your free contracts from Ravna.”
“That's fine, it's more important that we have a running forge, I doubt you’ll be monopolizing it anytime soon. It looks adorable by the way, very quaint. Like a fey’s cottage.”
“Thank you, I worked hard on it. I just wanted to check if you need anything enchanted, then I’ll get out of your hair.”
She hesitated before looking at him, questioningly.
“For money or trade,” Six clarified.
“I have much that the town could use to be enchanted. I’ll get you a list of the people and what they want improved. We can’t pay much, but if your Mana Core trading scheme still stands I’m sure we could pay you in core easily enough.
Six nodded. “That’ll do. Also, if anyone is looking for a home builder, I’d be willing to do more like it.”
She relaxed at that, her face brightening. “I wasn’t expecting you to help like this but if you want to build houses I’ll let the people know and you can discuss the details with them.
“The smithy was pretty fun and construction is probably not gonna be a full time thing but I find it extremely relaxing.”
Alison nodded. “I’m excited to see what you make, I might just buy one myself. I’m still sleeping outside and everyone should be under shelter in another four days but I need some privacy and some real rest and we have other pressing projects to consider before my house.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“I have no current jobs. You can be next if you want,” he offered.
“I’ll have to find a good spot.”
“Lemme know when you do, until then, stay safe.”
Six left Alison to her administration and made his way out of the bustling settlement, going back to his cave. Nibbler must have felt his intention because she appeared when he had reached the edge of the small village. They walked into the forest and up the mountain. Six trudged forward in the ripped and stained clothes of Matt, he became lost in thought as he walked, thinking about the smithy and what he could have changed and done better.
Six was so lost in thought he didn’t notice when the big cat fell from the trees. It cut through the air silently, landing upon him and striking him to the ground. Fish hook claws sank into Six and his skin screamed in pain.
You have been afflicted with the condition bleeding2.
You are bleeding, you lose 50 health.
That was an escalation that needed immediate dealing with. Six tried to roll, he tried to push the creature off, the pain was intense and he panicked. He pulled a dagger from his ring but the cat had sunk its teeth into his shoulder and set its hind legs to shred his oblique, Six wasn’t in a position to leverage the dagger.
Nibbler screeched and jumped into the face of the cat, snapping her jaws and slashing out with scratches. The cat’s eye exploded and it yowled, leaping up and pawing at its face in pain. It went to lurch away but Six fought through the pain and leapt to his feet pulling his glaive out and slashing down. The slash cut deep and the back legs of the creature gave out. It still attempted to crawl away with its forepaws, crippled, yowling pitifully.
Six used his ring of healing to close his bleeding. He approached the cat and put it out of its misery with a swift stab to the head.
You have killed level 4 Mountain Cat. Experience gained 50.
“There it is… eaten by a cat indeed.”
Fifty experience points seemed like a small reward for what that battle was but he was a higher level than it and Nibbler helped. He butchered it and continued home, looking down at the ambling racoon. He was proud of her, happy that someone had his back. He wanted that relationship but didn’t like the conditions that came with it, it was incredibly conditional. Animals were near unconditional in their love and loyalty, it was generally easy to know where you stood with an animal. Food or not food.
He reached down and scratched her and Nibbler pushed up against his touch. It was nice to have a pet.
They reached the cave just at the sun was setting and Six ate a bit of food before barricading himself in and enchanting the rest of the night away.
He worked on his woodworking tools and gained another level of Enchantment. Enchanting the saws and hatchets and planes with force, increasing their sharpness and durability. A sharp tool was easy to use. He focused on perfecting the fundamentals of enchantment, flow rate and identifying the ideal amount of mana to be invested. Each tool was a success and Six couldn’t wait to see how they performed on the job.
He worked until he could no more and fell asleep.
He woke on the eleventh of Broka and spent the morning getting ready for the long task of channeling Plant Growth. He hydrated,stretched, soaked up some morning sun, and relaxed a bit before he psyched himself up. Going back inside and closing his cave up, he sat down and got comfortable. Six began the channeling, the mana draw was so little that he could channel indefinitely, it was his focus and endurance that was truly being tested. But the hours ticked by and he fell into the rhythm of the casting. The arcane gestures and incantations created a small loop and Six repeated that loop in the same meditative way that he went into the flow state with manual labour.
Time passed and Six felt his body change, a cramp in his leg, his throat was beginning to become somewhat dry but he kept chanting. There was a certain satisfaction from pushing himself in this way and the discomforts were tiny in comparison.
Eventually he was presented with a prompt.
Minor Aura of Plant Growth has been successfully cast. All vegetation in a two kilometer radius will benefit from a 200% growth buff for one month.
He sighed and relaxed his focus, and with the ease of focus he felt his body ease too. He wasn’t sure on how long that took exactly but his body had remained sedentary for many hours and had seized somewhat. Nibbler chittered for food and Six retrieved some dry bread and jerky for the both of them.
It was old bread and Six was running low on food. He could always grow more vegetables with Plant Growth but it was time he figured out the meat situation. He should have probably brought the meat of that cat along but he didn’t. So instead he washed down the food with some spring water and opened his home to a day more than half gone. Sunset would be soon, he had little time to set traps but Six made his way out and created some snares and deadfalls. Nothing that would stop a leveled creature but a regular animal would be trapped as intended. He ended the night with meditation and woke to a skill prompt.
Skill Increase: Traps - Initiate - 6
Did something settle into his memory during sleep or did one of his traps activate during his sleep? He stood, stretched, and left his cave. His breath fogged on the crisp morning air and he quickly went to check his traps.
He had caught a good sized rabbit in one of his deadfall traps and it had perished in the night. Didn’t even give him any EXP. Lame. Still, it was food. He cut and cleaned it before he tossed it in his ring. He had a few more hard loafs of bread that he wanted to get through and he gnawed one on his way to the village.
Six waved at the palisade guards and they waved back as he entered through the main gate. He pulled his list and started work immediately. He asked around and was pointed around to various people around the town. The list had been organized for him to do work for the fighters first and for the whole morning he improved weapons and armor for those who couldn’t afford to have him enchant on the march. A few hunters got enchanted bows and blades and all of them had their leathers enchanted with earth mana. All paid for by the village, Six would square up with Alison later but honestly the oohs and aahs of appreciation were almost enough compensation.
The group training happened and Six took a break from work to join in. Free training was free training and he enjoyed sparring. He tried to actively learn the names of everyone he sparred with, hitting them with an analyze and succeeding for the most part. Keegan, Nar, and Tavi remained impenetrable to his discerning stare though.
After training he found himself releasing a satisfied sigh. This was pretty alright, sure there were sporadic bouts of intense stress and pain but he was present and he was enjoying how he spent his time. He could get used to this, but that was dangerous, complacent. Once Ravna finished with his armor he would go and push himself higher in levels. He felt the familiar pressure come and released another sigh, a sad one. He thought of smokeweed, and considered taking a few puffs but decided against it. Being stoned and working on what basically amounted to a government contract was foolish.
Six felt a demanding gurgle emanate from his belly, he was hungry, and before he got back to work Six asked about for a cook and a baker. He wanted good bread and well preserved food. Denny didn’t get around to showing him how to do that, Six was pretty confident he could set up a smoke shack, he participated in some salmon harvests and knew a little about smoking fish.
After a few questions he found Min the baker and Jebbedo the soldier but now serving as the cook in the middle of the settlement. Min was a happy fellow, of average build and height. He was slapping wet dough against a hot skillet, making some kind of flatbread. Jebbedo was a sinewy little man who sang to the pot of stew he stirred, a rather large pot, it was really somewhat massive.
Six approached them, waving, “Hello there!”
“Oh it’s you!” Min said, waving back with a lump of wet dough.
“It’s me?”
“Yea, but I suppose I don’t know yer name. You were part of the scouting party yea?”
“Yea,” Six confirmed.
“Yea!” Min exclaimed, “you!”
Jebbedo pointed with his ladle and introduced them both. “I’m Jebbedo, he's Min, hungry?”
Six nodded at both of them. “Jebbedo, Min, I’m Six. I am hungry but I’m also looking for something that’ll keep for a while.”
Jebbedo shook his head and Min spoke, “best we can do right now is feed you here and now, if you really want I can sell you a few wraps but just so you know the wheat wont go very far. We’ve already planted some wheat but it will take a few months for it to be harvested. Till then baking will be shutting down once we run out of wheat.”
“What? Aw.” Six grumbled, nothing better than a good loaf. “If I brought in my own wheat could you turn it into bread?”
“Yes, the mill stone will be done before the first harvest so we could grind it into flour. You brought wheat with ya?”
“No.”
“Well you’ll be waiting like most all of us now. Wheat grows when wheat grows.”
“Wheat will grow when I tell it to grow,” Six shrugged.
“Very funny,” Min said, not amused at all.
“No Min,” Jebbedo cut in, he grew Ravna’s forge.”
“That was you? That’s a lovely smithy! How much did it cost?”
Six nodded. “We have an agreement between us but I think a building like that is worth at least thirty gold.”
“I think that's a fair assessment. Want to make me a bakery? I’ll give you free bread for three months too.” Min made the offer casually.
“Wow, that sounds great. I can have it done in a month or two, tops.”
“Two months?” Min seemed dismayed but he listened still.
“I can make you a covered area and some ovens tomorrow if you need something now, but I have to train and I don’t have enough time right now.”
“Also,” Jebbedo added. “Thirty gold for a building like that smithy is far too little, shame on you Min.”
“Oh is it? Am I being taken advantage of?” Six asked, crossing his arms with a smile.
“Thirty gold is fair,” Min insisted.
“For a normal building perhaps but that smithy has a quality of Average. Imagine the production increases she must have.” Jebbedo turned to Six. “Don’t let him use his trade skill to bully you! Something like that is worth at least 150 gold. At the minimum.”
A five times increase for what Six assumed was one increase in quality? Six liked what he was doing even more now. “No problem on my end, I doubt there is 150 gold in this village. How about you increase the free bread to a year? Eh Min?”
“Done!” Min said, slapping the dough with a clap.
Six smiled and inclined his head at them both. “I’ll take a meal and buy whatever you’re willing to spare.”
Jebbedo smiled and ladled Six a bowl, the Halfling grabbed a few of Min’s flatbread things and handed them over. Six was immediately slammed with the rich smells of earthy roots and fresh meats combined into a delicious stew. He began to salivate immediately. Nice.
Six also received a small stack of flatbread and a bit of cured meats. He put those away in his ring and pulled out the butchered rabbit and showed the cook. ”Caught this sometime during the night, freshly cleaned this morning.”
Jebbedo leaned in and gave it a sniff. “Next time bring it to me right away.” He grabbed it though and then began to cube it up.
“How much do I owe you?”
“Two silvers.” Jebbedo held his bloody hand out for the money and Six handed it over. Jebbedo just tried to protect him from Min so there was some trust given but he brought up the price.
“That seems expensive.”
Min nodded. “Yes, things are tight. The meal is free, everything else is going to be a bit more expensive.”
Six shrugged, that made sense. He thanked them and went a little ways away to eat. He dipped one of the breads in the stew and rolled it about, getting the bread saturated with flavour. Then he held it out to Nibbler who squeaked and grabbed it, the raccoon pawed at it before giving it a taste and pausing in shock before aggressively eating.
Six also ate fast.
Then it was time to finish as much enchanting as he could. He started working for Franklin by imbuing several long wooden beams with an earth aura enchantment. These Earthen Reinforced Beams had their durability enhanced and would be used for the eventual town hall. Six went on to enchant several farming implements, a plow, hoe and a few shovels. He had crossed off fifteen jobs today and that meant 45 mana cores. Time to square up.
Alison shrugged and looked a bit guilty. “I only have twenty-three. I’ll pay you the other twenty-two when the hunters bring more in.”
Six sighed, he was used to being fucked with by general contractors and this was to be expected. “Interest?”
“No interest.”
“Pay me the rest in gold?”
“No. We are on a tight budget.”
“Well fuck me,” Six griped.
Alison raised an eyebrow, anger rising.
“No. Not what I meant.” Six sighed. “Pay when you can.”
Alison had the grace to look a little bit guilty.
“It's whatever Alison. I’m still wearing Matt’s clothes, how can I be angry at you? We’re both just doing our best to take care of those we care about and at the same time not be totally evil. I’m just trying to care about myself, to be honest I’m finding it hard.”
“It’s good to care about others, Six. We need each other out here.”
Six nodded. “Don’t worry about it this time, the village doesn’t owe me anything. Next time I want material and payment up front though.”
Alison nodded with a smile. “Thank you for understanding."