Ozzy sat for a while sipping some of his newly acquired water. It was odd how even though the cores helped him stave off the worst of starvation and dehydration, there was always a nagging feeling in his stomach of something hollow. There was a feeling of fullness but a lack of substance and satisfaction. Like he’d been eating nothing but puffy unseasoned rice crackers for the last couple weeks. The sandwiches and tea had helped but he was still craving more. Sipping water didn’t mean he couldn’t do other things though.
While his hands were idle his domain was as busy as ever. All of the things he’d learned so far went into what he was currently testing out on one of the trees. He’d added teeth to the disk he’d made earlier and utilized some attributes he’d learned while examining Benjamin’s haven to make them even more solid and permanently physically present. To either side of the sawblade he created a cylinder of membrane with a depth matching the domain of each of his particles. Inside which he crammed as many particles as would fit. He’d found through further testing that the tradeoff with the membranes was that their domain strength and size was sacrificed to increase their other attributes. It was a bit like the compression Vonder mentioned, but clearly of a different type.
With this setup he was able to bring millions of the tiny little cores strength to bear on the blade. Which resulted in some insane speeds. He wasn’t actually able to count the number of rotations but it very much looked like any saw blade he’d ever seen, although much thinner. Maybe he’d eventually be able to create some kind of tally machine to count its rotation but for now he had a new tool to play with. Bringing the blade up to speed he passed it vertically through the center of one of the trees. While it kicked a bit and made a lot of noise it went through quite smoothly. Smiling like a madman he began to plan how he was going to use this to make himself something a little more homey to live in.
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Ozzy had found that if he wasn’t fast enough cutting away at the tree, it was able to heal itself absurdly fast, leaving only a minor scar. After enough time even the scar diminished and blended into the rest of the bark. Which turned out to be helpful in the end. There was a reason fruit trees were not known as common sources of lumber. The trunk was only about 20 centimeters thick at the base, and more like 15 at the top. It took duplicating his contraption several times on either side and adding a much smaller version at the top to create something that could cut out a whole board from the center of the tree trunk in one go. Once he pushed the section out he watched in amazement as the middle of the trunk began to fill in looking like spray foam insulation expanding. Thankfully the cut out piece of tree somehow knew it was no longer a part of the whole and didn’t also expand into another tree.
Repeating the process along the line of trees then again on the underside of his haven he soon had a pile of sixty reasonably well cut two by sixes. Granted it was tapered to one end, the larger side being closer to two by eight. But he could work with that. In fact it took a minor adjustment to the tool he’d built to shave the sides of them all leaving an almost perfect stack. They were actually much better than some of the twisted and bent lumber he’d seen in hardware stores when he’d visited with his dad. There was no need to rummage through a pile to find only a few good pieces. He was quite impressed with himself until he realized he didn’t have anything to secure them with.
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The frustration at realizing his accomplishment was useless made him pace about trying to find a work around, and eventually got him back to growing his pile of cores. Even without a current use for them it was always good to have a stockpile. It was only when he got thirsty again and went to drink some water that he realized he may have a solution after all. The tile of murky water he’d pulled the water from was already nearly refilled. Whatever the haven’s and subsequent squares did to restore their state was able to replenish supplies from thin air. Well literally in this case as they absorbed energy to restock themselves. Which had him staring at his initial square. On the corners were not only nails but brackets as well.
Moving the clay and water tiles to different locations he reached out with his domain and pulled out the nails from one of the brackets. They were about eight centimeters long and there were six on each side. After pulling the nails out and removing the brackets from each corner he had a small pile of forty eight nails and the four brackets. He sat and stared at the edge of his initial square for quite some time before eventually giving up. The trees had already healed enough for another round of coring them so he added another stack of them to his stockpile. When he was finished he found there was one bracket and two nails on one corner, but that was it. Apparently this wasn’t going to be that quick of a process. It was likely the metal took significantly more energy to recreate than a bit of water. The brackets were a big chunk of that. Once he had another set of them available he’d leave the brackets to see if the nails alone reappeared faster.
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Ozzy found himself following a pattern for the next few hours. He’d add to his ever increasing stockpile of cores for a while. Once he confirmed the trees had regrown enough he would cut out another set of boards for himself. With them stacked along the path along with his growing pile of scrap wood, he would then check his nails' progress. It was over an hour before the first full contingent of brackets and nails all restored themselves. Once he’d found this he pulled out ten nails from each corner and got back to grinding. At some point he’d run out of room under his recliner so decided to move his giant pile of cores to the pathway. It took over the rest of the pathway after the pile of boards and scrap wood utilized a good portion of it.
The third set of nails had spawned in less than half an hour. Confirming that leaving the brackets had significantly increased the respawn rate. That and taking only ten out of twelve nails per corner helped as well. After the fifth set of nails he had over two hundred to work with. That and nearly a thousand boards now. The nails had also started appearing sooner with the last couple sets. Apparently the increased density of energy in the air was helpful for the squares.
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As he’d worked a plan formed in his head with some variations which he could follow to build himself a little house. While he’d never worked on a construction site his father had forced him to help doing repairs around the house, including building a shed and a root cellar, which were both larger than what he was thinking of. He was no architect or framer, but he knew enough to keep a small building from falling apart. There were so many different ways he could build something for himself. What it came down to was what he wanted it for. He didn’t technically need a place to sleep, nor did he need it to protect him from the nonexistent weather. There were no drastic temperature swings to adjust to.
More than anything, what he wanted out of this was a place that could meet his emotional needs. There was something unsettling about sleeping under the sky every single night weeks on end. Sure it was fun for a day or two, but it just felt like he’d never gotten the reset that comes from returning to an enclosed, secure space for the night and going to sleep. The fact that he’d made the place with powers he knew others had in excess of his own didn’t really deter the desire. While his logical mind knew this his emotional side still wanted the feeling of security even if it wasn’t real.
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Ozzy had initially planned out an elaborate contraption to expand off of his initial square. Using leverage with the brackets in ingenious ways to allow him to construct something that on first inspection would appear to simply be nine squares but being made entirely out of his new stockpile of boards. It was only after he’d gone through his fourth entirely separate iteration of plans that he realized he was just daydreaming increasingly overcomplicated options instead of taking action with what he knew he could do. He wasn’t after architectural elegance and grace, just something to make this place feel a little more homey.
After bringing himself back down to touch grass for a moment he evaluated his options. As much as he felt the need to hide his capabilities to a certain extent, he had ways to make this so much simpler. It only took another fifteen minutes utilizing the different havens he had connected with to produce and transfer their offspring to result in a three by three set of the reddish stone tiles from the imps. Setting it up behind his recliner opposite the pathway he began a much simpler construction. The frame had only one opening, that being the doorway. He ripped a chunk of the boards into thinner versions for flooring, siding, and roofing.
While he worked he was initially transferring loads of wood over toward his new construction with his domain when he was struck with a thought. Moving the grass squares with the trees around resulted in both the trees and grass moving along with the square. That would suggest the same could be done with the boards. The only caveat being they were sitting on multiple squares at once due to their length. Testing that out was simple though. Using his domain to communicate with the haven he moved all three of the tiles at once and was thankful to find that the boards also came along with them. Which meant that down the line he should be able to move his house around without much trouble.
Before finishing the walls he moved his recliner into the house. Which made him wonder if the floored square had somehow associated it with itself and would restore it after a time. Though over the next few hours as he continued his work there was no indication that such a thing was happening. Which suggested it was more like the branches, sticks and plants he’d found in the rat’s havens. Something he’d brought along with himself but hadn’t convinced the square it was a part of its structure.
The shack took far longer than he’d expected to finish. Even with his new methods of utilizing his domain as different tools. Not to mention the ability to move things about the haven with both his domain and riding atop the squares like a magic carpet ride. He’d had to jerry rig several different things to get them to work the way he needed. Fashioning hinges out of the brackets was actually one he’d thought would take longer. When beginning this project he hadn’t even thought of how he’d get the door to work, but the idea came almost without delay and then using his domain had made the process laughably easy. Driving the nails was also as easy if not easier than pulling them out. He didn’t even need to make some specialized tool for it, simply applying his will directly to them to force them in worked like a charm.
Regardless of how fast some of the tasks were, the overall construction took nearly a day. It hadn’t helped that he’d added a few late additions while working on it. Such as the counters he’d built inside and started moving his stockpiles of cores into. He’d also made shelving above them and placed his single cup inside. His jug he set on the counter below it for easy access. He’d added a small side table next to his recliner, which he ended up moving his cup to in case he woke up thirsty in the night.
As he stood in front of the shack looking at his accomplishment he felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him. The fact that he had somewhere he could enter into and close the door had probably released some pent up tension that was keeping him from fully relaxing. That and the fact that he was pretty sure he hadn’t sat down and relaxed in nearly two days. Stepping inside and closing the door he was bathed in a comfortable darkness and security he hadn’t felt since arriving here. Stepping over to his recliner and lifting what was left of his plush throw blanket he sat down and got comfortable. Adjusting his blanket and nuzzling into it he nearly got worked up with all the things he could get started on tomorrow. Though faster than he even realized he was out in a way he hadn’t experienced in far too long. His snores joined the chorus of the breeze swishing the leaves outside his little shack.