A knee high wall of earth rose about two thirds down the length of the room where Zoe was standing. “So this is going to be the scale of our home, basically. It’s like a rectangle, and we’re trying to define the length of the shorter side, y’know?” Zoe gestured at the rudimentary diagram of their plans. “Do you think this is deep enough? Could we fit in a hallway, library and kitchen in this?”

Emma walked back and forth through the room with a flickering flame in her hand casting just enough light for her to see, humming and hawing as she did. “I think this is fine for the cats’ room, but another ten feet could be nice just to make sure we have enough space for the library and kitchen areas, maybe? I’m not sure. It’s a little hard to picture everything, honestly.”

“So extend it another ten feet and be good with that?” Zoe asked.

“I think so. If you can think of something to use those extra ten feet on then we could put in another room here. Otherwise the cats can just have an enormous amount of space I guess, no harm there.” Emma said.

“We could make like, the worlds’ biggest broom closet, I guess. Actually scratch that, some rich ass somewhere definitely has a bigger broom closet. But still, we could have space for a very big broom.” Zoe said.

Emma laughed. “A little pantry between the cats’ room and the stairs works fine for me. We could have more storage downstairs but it could be nice to have some stuff stored on the ground floor, too.”

“Alright,” Zoe said as she pushed the wall another ten feet further back and added another knee high wall ten feet beyond the first one. “This all look good then? We’ve got cat room, closet and then staircase here.”

“I think so.” Emma said.

“Alright, then lets get to planning the cats room. I’ll have to take a break tomorrow to go visit Andrew by the way, but I’ll get you going on some menial chores before then.” Zoe said.

“Oh good, menial chores. The most fulfilling of tasks.” Emma groaned.

“Yeah, but they need to be done and you still don’t have the earth skill so you can’t help with shaping the room. You could spend some time drawing up plans for what you want too, though. But we’ll get to it. First off, what do we want the room to be made of?” Zoe asked.

“Well if it’s for the cats, then it should be comfy for the cats. A lot of ropes they can scratch on, some carpet for them to lie down on. Maybe some heated rocks in one of the walls?” Emma suggested.

“Ooh, yeah I like heated rocks. We could do little alcoves in the walls for them too so they can have their own hideaways.” Zoe said.

“And little tunnels they can go exploring in maybe?” Emma suggested.

Zoe nodded. “Yeah, alright. Okay, so carpeted floors, wooden walls. Or, maybe we could do some kind of climbable wall that they could claw their way up, too.”

Emma shook her head. “I don’t want them to get their claws stuck on the walls when I’m not around and then get hurt. Wooden walls I think is best, and wooden ceiling. But with holes and platforms for them to jump around on.”

“Good point.” Zoe agreed. “So we’ll need a lot of wood then. We’ll need a lot more for the other rooms too so I’ll walk you through preparing the planks.”

“Okay,” Emma agreed and followed Zoe outside.

“Are there rules about chopping down trees here, do you know? Are we allowed to just clear the forest if we want to?" Zoe asked.

“I dunno.” Emma shrugged. “Probably best to gather wood from further away, I guess.”

“Okay, well lets get to chopping then. You got an axe?” Zoe asked.

“Nope.” Emma shook her head.

“Got a skill that can make one for you?" Zoe asked.

Emma chuckled. "I wish, but no. Not unless I can use a bow as an axe.“

“Then I guess our first step is buying you an axe.” Zoe said.

The two wandered into town and through the streets until they found some stores that sold all the supplies they thought they would need for their renovations. Emma needed an axe, and Zoe felt it best to get a new set of carpentry supplies since the last time she’d even paid attention to hers was almost two decades ago.

When they had everything they needed, they ran over to the other side of the hill where Zoe had left the piles of lumber many years prior when she was digging her tunnel into the hill. The lumber itself was gone, as were the rudimentary support structures she made to hold them all. Though she hadn’t expected any of it to have survived for so long, anyway.

“Oh, is this the hole you dug before?" Emma asked when they arrived.

Zoe nodded. “I’m surprised the hole’s still there, to be honest.”

Some rocks and dirt had tumbled down the hill to cover up much of the entrance, but the enchanted stone wall had survived the years, though the air tight seal she had made was long gone by now. Many of the walls having cracked and broken apart from the years of wear.

“It’s just a hole. Would be weird if it was filled in for some reason.” Emma said.

“I guess so.” Zoe agreed. “But anyway, get to chopping. Fill up your storage item with as much wood as you can get. Thicker trees are better, and remove the branches and leaves and all that gunk before you store them. We just want nice thick logs to process.”

“Gotcha, boss.” Emma nodded and summoned her new axe. Zoe had enchanted it with Enchanting, Meditation and a slicing focused Elemental Arsenal which let it slice through the hard tree trunks like a magically enhanced axe through a tree trunk.

Filling their storage items, as well as the little capacity that Zoe’s Storage skill had only took a couple of the towering trees and they made their way back to just outside their home. Zoe created a platform to store the trees and got to work preparing a small workshop to process the logs at while Emma made a few more trips to the other side of the hill to grab more trees.

“Alright, so.” Zoe clapped her hands when Emma returned with the final log that would fit on the pile. “Let’s go through what we’ve got here.”

“First is this,” Zoe pointed at the largest piece of machinery she’d built. A long platform that could hold a single log, with a series of platforms on the side to stabilize a saw while they cut off planks from the log. “This is how we cut the logs down to planks. You’re going to move one log into this machine and then cut along the length of the log using these platforms to get somewhat even sized planks that we can then cut down to size for the walls and ceilings.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Hopefully you have a skill to help with that, but I’ll enchant a saw for you anyway. After we have the planks cut to size, we’re going to store them over here on this other platform that I’ve made. There will be three different thicknesses of planks. The tops and bottoms of the logs which will be used probably for furniture, and then there will be slightly thicker boards which go on the left side of this platform and thinner boards which you’ll place on the right side.” Zoe explained.

“Okay, chop the logs, thick boards on the left, thin boards on the right. Easy peasy. Where do the tops and bottoms go?" Emma asked.

“Oh. Shoot.” Zoe said as she pushed mana into her Flora skill to build up another platform of wood and earth to keep the boards away from the ground. “They go here.”

“Alright. What’s the difference between the two thicknesses anyway?" Emma asked.

“The thicker boards are for the frames, internally. We’ll also use some rock to help support everything, so it will be very sturdy. But we need a bit of a gap for insulation from the cold rock as well as for air flow from my enchantments. The thinner boards are going to be the actual floor boards, walls and ceilings.” Zoe explained.

“Ahh, okay. What do I do after I finish that up?” Emma asked.

“That’s where things will get a little more complicated. You’re going to have to start planning the actual room out because next is cutting the planks to the right length. The thicker boards are going to surround the room on all sides with about a foot and a half between each board.

“So you’ll need to figure out how many of these boards we’ll need, and how long they need to be cut to fit in the chunk, and make sure you also plan for any holes that are going to be going into the walls for alcoves for the kittens, because those will need to fit between these boards, with similar structures around them.” Zoe said.

“That sounds like a lot.” Emma said.

“Yup.” Zoe said, grinning. “It is. I’ll get everything secured in place with some hooks out of the stone when it’s all done, but your job while I’m gone is going to be to try and do as best you can to get all of those thicker boards cut to size. If you do get them done, you can start cutting the thinner boards however you want. Make some designs out of em or something, they’ll be the walls, floors and ceilings.”

Emma nodded. “Alright, I can do that then.”

“Good.” Zoe said. “In that case, I’m gonna go see if I can find this Andrew person and harass him politely for a while to teach me some light magic.”

“Be nice,” Emma said.

“I’m always nice.” Zoe replied.

“Yeah and it’s a problem sometimes, but have fun!” Emma said.

“Thanks. You too.” Zoe said.

“I will most certainly not. Unless I get distracted with the cats instead of working. Then I will.” Emma said.

“But then the cats won’t get their fancy cat room.” Zoe said.

“That’s true…” Emma groaned.

Zoe laughed and Cosmic Stepped away towards Foizo proper, then walked the rest of the way to Joe’s inn.

“Hey Joe!” Zoe called out as she entered.

“Back so soon? Give up on the renovations?" Joe asked.

Zoe shook her head. “No we’re actually getting underway with them already. Emma’s back there working on processing some logs.”

“And you’re off having fun?” Joe rose an eyebrow.

“Yup.” Zoe grinned.

Joe chuckled. “What do you need?"

“I wanna find Andrew, see if I can learn some light magic from him. He went to the library right? Do you know where that is?” Zoe asked.

Joe nodded. “It’s just a couple streets over. Head down the road here until you get to Cindy’s Furniture and then take the alley behind it. Cross the street, head through another alleyway and the library will be right in front of you.”

“Alright, thanks Joe.” Zoe said and walked out down the road, following Joe’s directions. The second alley way wasn’t quite straight ahead of her, but with a little floundering around along the street she managed to find a way through to the other side and ended up just outside of a rather simple looking library.

The building was two floors, quite square and constructed from a dark tinted wood. Rows of windows lined both of the floors, letting Zoe peer into the vast assortment of books on display within the library.

Zoe walked in the front door and nodded to the receptionist sitting at a desk just off to the side, then wandered through the mess of bookshelves until she spotted Andrew sitting at a table reading through a book about Flester’s Might, with three more books stacked up next to him. One was about fire elementals, one was about elementals and the last seemed to be a book about Zoe, which made her a little uncomfortable.

“Hey,” Zoe walked up next to Andrew.

Andrew looked up from his book. “Oh, hello. Did you need something?”

“Yea, Joe says you’re a light mage?" Zoe asked.

“I am, why?” Andrew asked.

“I wanna learn some light magic. Think you could teach me?” Zoe asked.

“I could, but what do I get out of helping you?" Andrew asked.

“Hmmm,” Zoe pondered. “I can pay you?"

Andrew shook his head. “I don’t so much need money, what can you give me in exchange for my time and expertise?"

“I could take you through Flester’s Might, if you’re interested in it. A nice tour of the dungeon, kill the boss. All that good stuff.” Zoe suggested.

“Hmm, I don’t need a tour of the dungeon, but you could be my bodyguard while I get some levels.” Andrew countered.

“For how long?" Zoe asked.

“For however long you’re going to be learning from me, plus a week.” Andrew said. “For the time lost teaching you.”

“Deal.” Zoe agreed.

“Good, I’ll be leaving for the dungeon in two days time, so we’ll begin then. For now, I still have more research to do.” Andrew said.

Zoe nodded. “Alright. Meet up at Joe’s inn in two days? What time?"

“Morning.” Andrew said. “We leave in the morning.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll see you then.” Zoe said.

“I look forward to it.” Andrew said.

Zoe smiled and Cosmic Stepped far into the sky, then back down outside her home next to Emma. “Just spoke with Andrew, looks like I’m going to be on an escort mission for a while.”

“So I’m on my own here then?" Emma groaned.

Zoe laughed. “I’ll be here for a few days to help out before I’m gone.”

“Oh good, so you’ll help with the easy stuff then leave me with all the tedious planning.” Emma said.

“Something like that, yeah. But in exchange I’ll hopefully get to learn the light skill and make some really awesome enchantments for our home. We might even be able to move the garden inside, which would be cool. Or at least make another separate garden inside.” Zoe said.

“That would be pretty cool. I’d love to have some herbs grown inside if we could manage that, just to make cooking a little more convenient. Plus they smell nice.” Emma said.

“Then I will do my very best, just for you.” Zoe smiled.

“And I’m sure you wanting a new skill has nothing to do with it, right?” Emma asked.

“No, no. Of course not. It’s just to make you happy, of course.” Zoe laughed.