Building a house, in the end, was not an overly difficult task. Or, at least it wasn’t depending on the type of house. Had I needed to adhere to local building codes and wire in electrical lines and figure out a plumbing system, things might have been a bit tougher. In fact, even had I been trying to make something particularly good looking, I might have had a real challenge on my hands.
As it were, though, I had a bunch of logs and only the most basic of tools. I was building a simple log cabin. It was a good, thoughtless task, and I felt that even if my mind slowed to a crawl, I’d be able to do most of it on autopilot.
The foundation proved to be the most difficult bit on account of the lack of a good shovel. A good deal of prep time was spent using Arcane Armament to summon different spears, tweaking the spearheads closer and closer to a proper shovel.
Ultimately, though, we settled on a slightly less conventional solution, with Verin expertly materializing ice in the desired shape and letting it creep up the shaft of my standard spear. Normally, the ice would have been a ridiculous material to use to scoop up the earth, but Verin was more than capable of reinforcing her conjured ice to withstand a little dirt. She did have to refresh the shovelhead a few times on account of it melting, but between her skill in Frost Magic and a few judicious casts of Chill on my part, I was able to get a full hour out of each shovel.
On a few occasions, Verin volunteered to help with the physical labor, having to tap out shortly after she began. Cal, for her part, lounged off to the side, occasionally cheering us on and offering “moral support.”
Once the first four logs were in the ground, things grew far easier.
Notch the logs. Cut them to length. Stack. Even outside of my decent level in Construction, I thought I would have been able to handle this, my memories going into the distant past to a childhood spent playing with Lincoln Logs. An overloaded conjured sword was all I needed to cut them, my enhanced Perception, Intelligence, and Dexterity making any measuring tools, straightening levels, or power equipment unnecessary.
The more I worked, the more I fell into it. And strangely enough, it was… good? Or if not good, at least not bad. Simple, repetitive tasks. No real mental energy required. The basic satisfaction of watching something take shape in front of you, bit by bit. It was the sort of routine I thought I might be able to slip into for a few days or months or decades, even in my current state.
Even better, neither of the others used my working time to socialize with me too much. I could feel that Verin was holding herself back, seeming to view my recent forest adventure as a sign that I was almost back to normal. Still, whether she was afraid to snap me out of my productive reverie or could otherwise sense that I wasn’t looking for conversation, she relented.
At least, she mostly did. The first few times I ran out of logs, she was very vocal about coming with me to get more. Her claim was that if nothing else, she could use her ice magic to reduce the friction under my sled on my way back. While not an awful idea, I’d done fine the first time with my raw Strength, a few casts of Lighten, and the increased traction of my Mana Feet variants. Mostly, though, I just wanted a bit of time alone, and when I pointed out how much walking it would be, she conceded.
That didn’t mean I’d been forgiven for my earlier unannounced outing, however. Words like “dangerous” and “worried” and “communication” were thrown around with a bunch of promises wrung out of me not to do something similar again.
It was fair, I supposed. Next time I’d at least leave a note.
After the foundation, the roof was the most difficult to build. Given the temperate climate and lack of any rainfall so far, I decided to be lazy and go with a flat roof. It was here that my work with Tuk and my construction class in Sylum paid off, letting me know just how to set up the joists to make such a thing happen.
Here, I was finally stymied by my lack of actual construction supplies. While the logs were easy to stack, a real wooden roof needed some nails, at the very least.
Thinking myself clever, I recalled the first evolution of my humble Summon Pebble skill which allowed me to slightly alter the shape of my summoned stones. A few shattered pebbles later, however, I learned the futility of trying to use rocks for nails. That didn’t mean the idea was fully unsalvageable, though.
With Arcane Armaments, I summed up a mana dagger as thin as I could, puncturing the wood with the stiletto-like blade. From there, I summoned each pebble directly into the hole, altering each one to fit the crevice as best I could. I wasn’t sure if it was as structurally sound as using a real nail, but it seemed to do the job.
Flooring, I decided to do at a later date. With three precise cuts, I opened up a doorway into the interior, and at last the cabin was complete. Not having used any schematics, I wasn’t greeted with any system notifications listing out bonuses, but that was fine by me.
Good. Done. The accomplishment didn’t exactly leave me glowing with pride, and if anything, I felt a strong desire to fall asleep. Still, the same part of me that had pushed me to build it in the first place had more to say.
A celebration, right? I think I’m supposed to celebrate something like this. It was a task I felt slightly less excited for, but if necessary, I would do my best.
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“Tess, have I ever told you I love you?” With all the etiquette of a barbarian, Cal bit into another chunk of meat, sliding it off the skewer it sat on and barely chewing before she swallowed the greasy panther meat. She chased it down with a sip of moonshine from a cup of conjured ice, quickly setting the cup aside and holding her hand over the fire to warm it from even the short amount of contact.
I opted not to respond as my mouth was currently full. Herbalism hadn’t been able to identify most of the plants I’d found while walking through the forest, so I was still working to figure out which ones were best for cooking. I slipped a few sprigs of a spiky, red-leafed herb into my mouth, finding the taste surprisingly refreshing.
You have been poisoned!
Ah well. I doubted the other two would enjoy it, but perhaps I’d set some aside for my own meals. Their loss.
Combined with my use of Conjure Liquid — still bound to the moonshine in Emer’Thalis — I’d managed to make a passable celebratory meal, or at least Cal seemed to think so.
“Lady Calilah, I do not believe the meal is going anywhere. Is there a reason you are eating as if you’ve never seen food before?” Verin gingerly held the skewers I’d fashioned, the method of eating clearly not something she was accustomed to. Delicately, she wrapped one of the chunks of meat up with a leaf before pulling it off between her thumb and forefinger.
The response came out slightly muffled, delivered with a full mouth as Cal rapidly moved onto the next piece on the skewer. “Not far off, honestly. I think I’ve eaten maybe nine or ten meals in the last year, all of them in the last week? Hexaura wasn’t as big on cooking as Tess is.”
For once, it seemed that Cal had managed to take Verin off guard, whatever retort the noble had been preparing dying on her tongue. If nothing else, she eyed the cube of meat more appreciatively, though.
“I do not believe I understand. Do you have some form of hunger resistance skill? Perhaps something to do with your class? Or is eating not required in deific realms? I do not believe your Endurance or Constitution could possibly be high enough for that to be possible.”
Cal only shrugged. “Something like that. Don’t worry about it. Maybe I’m just trying to make you feel guilty for nagging me. Is it working? Anyway, loosen up. None of us are going to care if you get some grease on you.”
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Whatever momentary concern Verin had shown flitted away as she grumbled something unintelligible under her breath. “Lady Calilah, Etiquette is one of the skills I have class quests for. If it is easier for you, simply think of this as a form of training for me. Would you deny me that?”
The loud chewing abruptly stopped as every muscle in Cal’s body seemed to freeze at once. For a moment, I even wondered if Verin had cast some sort of ice spell on her until Cal unfroze, if more subdued than before.
“Damn. You know that’s kind of sad, right?”
If the question struck a nerve, then Verin didn’t show it. “It is what it is. If anything, I view it as a positive that I am able to gain more experience from a skill I would have needed to learn regardless. Trust that I do not require pity for such a thing.”
The two slipped back into silence after that, and even I could feel that it was more the awkward type than the companionable type. With some mental effort, I pulled myself from my herbs and returned to the fire, raising my hand into the air between the others.
“Cups.” Having said all I needed to, I cast Conjure Liquid, an orb of potent-smelling booze coalescing before me. Neither wanting to waste the limited resource, they obediently scooped their cups into the sphere, carving the liquid out for a refill. Each took a sip, wincing as they did so.
“I will confess, this is truly a horrible brew,” Verin bemoaned.
“I’m with her. Who would want to drink this stuff?”
Having left my cup back by my makeshift cooking station, I opted to sip directly from the floating sphere, the close contact almost singing my nose hairs.
“Bad,” I concurred.
We let the collective agreement hang between us. Despite it, or perhaps because of it, we did the only sensible thing.
At once, the three of us drained our drinks dry.
Happy housewarming, you two.
It was a pleasant thought, and had I had my way, it would have been the thought to end an equally pleasant night.
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
Though she had restrained herself admirably thus far, it seemed that my show of building and cooking and filling everyone’s cups had made an impression on Verin -- one that compelled her to finally get me back into the loop.
That, or it was the moonshine. Who could say?
When at last we’d all had our fill, she pinned me down with her eyes, not giving me any chance to slink away.
“Lady Tess. Should you be amenable, I believe now may be an opportune moment to discuss our future plans. In fact, we even have a lovely new command center to use for such a conversation. Does this sound agreeable to you?”
I briefly wondered if making the cabin had been a good idea before snapping myself out of it. I had decided to make an effort, and an effort I was making. If perhaps with a bit less enthusiasm than was ideal, I meekly nodded.
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Lacking any sort of real seating or tables, the three of us sat in the dirt, although this time, inside. For the first time since I’d woken up, Cal and Verin spoke to me about more than basic trivialities.
I didn’t expect to hear too much that I didn’t already know, but almost immediately, I learned something surprising: I’d been out for some time after the grand magus had healed me. A full day and half, in fact. During that time, both Cal and Verin had gained important information, if of very different sorts.
“Woodland, mountain, desert, lake. That’s what we’re working with.” For Cal’s part, she’d spent most of her time scouting out our surroundings. “I don’t think pocket dimensions have norths or souths or any of that, so we’re just going to say that north is the woodlands, east is the mountain, west is the desert, and south is the lake.” She used a dagger to draw a small diagram in the dirt, her work leaving much to be desired, especially by the resident artist.
“I only managed to check out the forest and the desert, but the first is crawling with wildlife. Toughest thing I saw was some sort of jungle cat, which I’m pretty sure is what Tess fought while gathering wood. I don’t actually have any sort of Identification skill, but I placed their strength a little below the gryphons we saw on the mountain. Similar story with the desert, except giant scorpions.” She drew the aforementioned scorpion in the desert section, or at least she tried to. What came out ended up looking like some bizarre scaled dog.
Before Cal could further offend Verin’s sensibilities, the noble plucked the dagger from Cal’s grip as she feigned offense. Even as Verin began to draw a far better scorpion, she also began to deliver her news.
“While I stayed with you, Lady Tess, I took the opportunity to ask the grand magus more questions. His answers were illuminating.” Already done with her tiny scorpion, she added four arrows to the diagram, straight through the four surrounding biomes. “As best as he can tell from the spellwork of the gathering array, the grand magus believes that there are likely to be four of these ‘mana-storage sites’ that we will need to visit, all of which are in entirely separate directions. To assist us, he returned this.”
She slid her hand to the center of the diagram to reveal the gem-inlaid locator badge that had brought us here. With a tap, the badge came to life, spinning about until the top of the gem aligned with one of the four arrows. Verin tapped the badge three more times, and it spun to face the other arrows as well.
“A compass. The enchantments have been modified to follow the flow of mana to the four storage locations. It also has a fifth setting to lead us back here should we require it.”
It was certainly far better than us having to wander around blindly, though I couldn’t help but wish he’d given us something more substantial. Sadly, Verin’s final piece of information prevented me from asking the man for just that.
“Lastly, given the array he is contained within, he said he had spent far too much mana healing you and teaching you spatial magic. He will need to hibernate for a time, and in no unclear terms, he kicked us out of the room and informed us not to bother him lest it be for an urgent matter.”
A bummer, but that made things easy, didn’t it? There was pretty much only one thing to do. Summoning up the energy, I made my first contribution to the gathering.
“So? Which direction are we going in first?”
Rather than applaud me for my efforts, Cal chuckled while Verin furrowed a brow.
“Uh, not to burst your bubble or anything, but none of them. Admittedly, you did do a pretty good job with the panthers that attacked you, but still.” Snatching her dagger back, Cal crossed out Verin’s scorpion and circled her own scaly abomination. “Remember this guy?”
Either to comment on the artistic desecration or to take over, Verin tried to interject. Before she could, Cal forged ahead with a wide grin.
“Basically, if we go in any direction right now, we’re all going to die.”
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The meeting had ended shortly thereafter, and Cal’s cheery analysis had made one thing abundantly clear: We wouldn’t be doing much traveling any time soon. As an extension, that meant that we were likely to be here for a while. Instead, the final plan had three main goals.
One, level up. If Cal’s scouting revealed any place where we could safely fight monsters near our level, we would do so, but that was seeming like the less likely option. Instead, we’d be focusing heavily on skill levels and class quests where possible. Only once we had a few more levels under our belt would we consider venturing off on some grand adventure.
Two, settle in. If we were going to be here for months, then we needed to do better than an empty cabin. That was doubly true considering the presence of a princess and a high noble. Verin, in particular, hadn’t been willing to sleep in a tent back in Emer’Thalis. Now, she didn’t even have that. Some thought would have to be given to dwellings and amenities more comfortable than a dirt floor and some bland panther meat.
Three, stay sane. Arguably, that ship had already sailed for me, but I understood the sentiment, at least. Days or weeks or months on end doing nothing but skill training was not how healthy minds were made. Given that Cal and Verin had yet to have their minds melted from their trauma, we had to figure out any and every way to keep it that way.
Even if I silently thought they were making too big a deal about these “horrible monsters,” those felt like decent goals. Unfortunately, by the time our meeting ended, I was far too drained to actually act on any of them. Partially, I assumed it was from all the building I’d done, but more so, the long conversation had sapped what little energy I’d had left. As the other two spent some more time brainstorming solutions, I begged off to head to bed.
As drained as I was, it wasn’t long before sleep finally claimed me.
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With a start, I threw myself from the ground, jolted awake by a strange sensation.
Under the circumstances, I would have normally wondered what had woken me. In this case, however, the mystery was immediately solved as a notification accompanied my abrupt awakening.
Skill Imprinting complete. Your weapon is now ready to use. Open now?
Right. The weapon we’d created in the dungeon’s hidden room. Despite the mixed feelings I had about it, I wasn’t about to ignore the weapon outright.
A quick scan of the room revealed a sleeping Verin and an absent Cal. Whether she was scouting or she liked to sleep in the open, I wasn’t sure, but she was nowhere to be seen.
No point in waking Verin. I had no idea what sort of lightshow or noises the weapon’s unveiling would result in. Rather than checking on it immediately, I stepped outside and started walking off towards the tall grass.
At the last moment, remembering the earlier wave of admonitions I’d had to endure, I conjured a sword and left a note in the soil.
GONE FOR A WALK. BE BACK SOON.
-TESS
Satisfied I would no longer get in trouble, I ventured out until the humble cabin was far behind me. When at last I was truly alone, I summoned the plain black rock that was supposed to contain my weapon.
Focusing on the prompt once more, I gave it the confirmation it was looking for.
Open.