Two weeks quickly passed by. For the past two weeks, he woke up before the village, carried dry-aged lumber from the sawmill, and started building the wood framing for the houses. Previously, he cast [Stone Wall] to build the houses’ foundations. He placed the foundations for the 15 new houses for the new villagers along the highway. Periodically, he left spaces in case he needed to build a shop for a tailor, cobbler, weaver, etc. His plan was for the village to run the length of the highway from the bridge to the fort. Then he would start expanding eastward to the mountains.
To the west of the highway, between his house and forest, he placed the foundations for the 30 laborers. Marcus and Oscar’s houses would be built behind the sawmill, south of the cobbled road that next extended past his shops and the church. He placed the foundations for Nathan and the ten loggers next to Marcus and Oscar’s houses. He also built another for the person he’d hire to operate the gristmill. North of the cobbled road, across the street from the loggers, he built the five houses for the builders and the rest of the laborers.
By the time the village was awake, he already finished the framing and exterior walls for the first house. His Level 49 strength and agility meant sped up his construction capability. In 11 days, he finished the framing and exterior walls for 32 houses. That was 3x faster than a month ago.
On the other hand, the five builders were still working hard to finish the roof of the night house. Thankfully, their work on building the barn gave them lots of experience. Compared to building a barn, building a house was much easier. The difference between him and the builders was just too much.
Fighting and combat really were the best to play Heaven’s Gate. The boost in leveling helped him in crafting and construction. He was able to get through his backlog of carpentry, blacksmith, and tanning orders. His villagers wanted chairs, tables, trunks, cribs, and fur rugs. Not only did he finish his orders, but he also had time to whittle animals.
After nearly four months, the average player was around Level 55. Players grinded nonstop to level fast. He didn’t mind being below average, but he was secretly happy he wasn’t far away. However, Ward spent time hunting in the forest trying to level. Thaddeus watched him, Andrea, Kast, and Brynn leave every morning and returned late in the evening. In the evening he’d return and drop off various pelts of boars, pronghorns, cougars, bobcats, skunks, squirrels, badgers, weasels, and possums.
Ward’s expression looked stern and serious. Like he had a goal in mind or a target. Everyone except Kara could guess what that goal was. Ward loved Kara and wanted to follow her to Redwood. If she desired to teach at the Imperial Mage Academy, he wanted to be an Imperial Knight Cadet. Love could move mountains and cripple heroes. Ward was set on moving mountains. He was one level away from reaching Level 125.
While Ward terrorized the forest, Kara terrorized the guards. Instead of patrolling the village, the guards ran laps, crawled, ran, jumped, and balance through an obstacle course, and lifted logs. The training was brutal. One guard even asked him for a transfer, but before Thaddeus could answer Kara dragged the guard away for extra training on the obstacle course.
The obstacle course was one of the first things he built after returning from the mine. Kara had asked for it and given very specific instructions on how it should look. According to Kara, this was the same obstacle course used by the guards in Redwood. Thaddeus had tried to dissuade her from needing such a severe obstacle course. However, Kara replied by asking him if he wanted guards or militia. He could only apologize to his guards as he watched them pass out or vomit.
Oddly watching the guards train became a source of amusement for the villagers. It was common to see them picnicking and laughing as the guards stumbled or were frozen by an angry Kara. They also clapped when a guard completed the circuit and Kara rewarded them either a pat on the back or a “do it again.”
Thaddeus found it amusing too, but he didn’t want to sit with his villagers. Truthfully, he found it strange sitting with them. They treated him formally. He found that keeping his distance allowed them to act more casually with each other. So instead of watching the guards with the villagers, he watched them while working in the barn.
After a month of construction, the barn was nearly built. Only the roof needed to be finished. Unlike the houses that had wood shingles or shakes. He planned for the barn to have corrugated steel roof panels. He had already made several 6-foot by 2-feet panels, which were nailed in an overlapping pattern. From his perch high above he had a perfect view of the landscape. He could see Kara grinning as the guards danced to her tune.
‘She does have a bit of a mean streak,’ Thaddeus laughed as the ate his lunch atop the barn.
As the watched the comedy below, he received a call from Sabrina. When he answered he heard Sabrina ask, “How was exploring the mine yesterday?”
“It went great, we discovered it was a gold mine. I don’t have to worry about financing the town out of my pocket,” he replied. He decided calling the gem mine a gold mine wasn’t a lie; it was just an omission of facts.
“That’s terrific! Thanks to my rich boyfriend, I can finally afford all the expensive alchemy ingredients and better caldron,” Sabrina said excitedly.
“In the future, let’s keep separate bank accounts,” Thaddeus recommended.
“I can pay you back when I’m a famous alchemist,” Sabrina promised.
“How can I deny you the privilege of struggling and rising through the ranks? There are already too many entitled players,” Thaddeus said.
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“Well, consider it my birthday gift,” Sabrina chuckled.
“Only grandparents give money as gifts,” Thaddeus explained.
“Ah, come on you’re not being a good boyfriend. You must treat me well. You own a gold mine. C’mon be my Sugar daddy,” Sabrina flirted.
“Okay, how about I craft you something nice for your birthday instead,” Thaddeus negotiated.
“I’ve been asking for a long time. Now, I’ll have something to remember you by when I look at it,” Sabrina said happily.
They continued to talk. Sabrina spoke to him about her alchemy success, and failures, and complained about the high price of ingredients and new alchemy instruments. She also discussed the drama in Pinewood. Three medium guilds were battling to control the cities and small guilds were battling to control the towns. Guilds were also fighting to build settlements in higher-level farming spots and charging exorbitant fees to non-guild members. When guilds were fighting to govern, they were off-challenging exotic dungeons.
Inevitably the conversation turned to the career fair tomorrow and approaching graduation. With graduation around the corner, Sabrina brought up their relationship, post-graduation. A conversation Thaddeus hopes to avoid. He had worked hard to evade the topic. Instead of engaging in hypotheticals, he did his best to pivot the conversation to her approaching visit to Woodhaerst. Not long after the call ended, Thaddeus returned to hammering the corrugated steel panels onto the roof.
At dusk, Thaddeus nailed the last panel. The barn was finally complete. The large, wide, pine wood barn looked impressive. With the first harvest around the corner, he could rest. Except for the silo, the rest farm was complete. The goats, pigs, and chickens were nice and fat. The crops looked hardy and abundant. Everything looked like it was going well. Everything was fitting nicely in place. All that was left was for the builders to finish the houses for the villagers and the laborers.
As Thaddeus walked back to his yurt, he looked at his hands they were rough and cracked like a dirt road. He could see and feel the callous from carving, hammering, and fighting. His thumb was an alarming shade of black, smashed from a hammer that he mistook his thumb for a nail. He was laughing at a guard who got an ice shard to the rear while Kara yelled at him to “run faster” But to him, his hands were a badge of honor. Thaddeus knew, for craftsmen, their hands are often the extension of their desires and their vision. That’s how they create, repair, and make an impact on the world.
One of his favorite quotes came from [Tailoring for Novices], a book Alice had given him. The book said, “He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head, and his heart is an artist.”
In Woodhaerst he had many roles, he was the lord, judge, village defender, and shopkeeper. But being a shopkeeper was his favorite. As a shopkeeper, he could focus on a product and pushes all other concerns to the margins. Working in the carpentry, blacksmith, and tanner shop and shutting everything else out was meditative. He easily got lost in his work, focusing on carving, hammering, or tailoring the work at hand. He knew there was an obvious conflict between focus and forethought.
The focus was on being in the moment, while forethought was about visualizing the future. But a craftsman needs to exist in both spaces: the single moment of the task and the future of the finished piece. It was tricky for him to navigate between the now and the later, but the truth was they actually feed on each other, like the Yin and Yang symbol. Crafting was balancing what was in front of him with the vision and imagination to see what doesn’t yet exist.
It was evening and Thaddeus sat at his workbench in the rear of his carpentry shop. Sitting in front of him was a plank of superior-quality walnut wood. For Sabrina’s birthday, he planned to make a recipe holder card box to help her organize her receipts. She often complained about how cluttered her workstation was, and how she wished he had something to keep all her recipes and notes in order.
He started by using his hand saw to cut the plank into the proper dimensions. When the finished cutting he had four panels of wood. The box measured 14-inch-wide, 4-inch-deep, and 6-inch-tall.
As Thaddeus worked, he fell into a trance. He used his hand planer to ensure the panels had an equal flatness and used the jointer to ensure his panels were level.
When he finished, he used a pencil to mark where the box joints were and cut them out by hand. Box joints interlocked two panels of wood. When he finished, he glued the box’s sides together. Glued box joints provided an ample surface area to create a strong bond.
While the glue cured on the box, Thaddeus worked on the lid. He repeated the same steps, except he glued, drilled, and screwed the box lid panels together.
When he finished, he set the box and lid to the side and went into the forge. He throws some copper ore into the fire pit to smelt. He refined the ore as Roy taught him to remove the waste until he had a nice copper ingot. He used that ingot to forge a matching floral engraved hasp latch, hinges, and corner protectors. When he finished, he quenched them in oil and brought them back to his carpentry workshop.
By the time he returned, the glue was tried and he was able to nail the bottom panel onto the box and attached the corner protectors, latch, and hinges. He liked the antique look, this would an item Sabrina could keep forever.
Across the front, he burned the words “ALCHEMY RECIPES,” and on top, he’d file two groves to allow the receipt cards to stand, hands-free. Inside he’d add a divider, splitting the inside into halves. Finally, polished the whole thing and added a clear protectant to highlight the walnut wood grain.
By the time he finished, it was screen read 3 AM in-game time. He analyzed the recipe holder box and to his surprise, he got a notification:
System Message: Word’s First Bonus
Congratulations you are the first person to craft a rare heirloom artifact. This artifact gives the user a 5% luck bonus Alchemy.
Reward: 10 gold, +5 fame, +1 rare set of carpentry tools.
“Alfred, what’s an heirloom?” Thaddeus asked.
“Sir, as you know there are five levels of raw resources: poor, good, excellent, superior, and perfect; and there are six qualities of finished goods: common, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary, and mythical. An heirloom is when an excellent or higher raw resource is crafted into a rare or higher artifact. There’s a 2% chance to craft an heirloom with excellent quality lumber and rare artifact. Likewise, there’s a 3% chance to craft an heirloom with superior-quality lumber and rare artifact. Each artifact is enchanted with a rare bonus,” he explained.
“I can’t believe I got a luck bonus!” Thaddeus said in disbelief.
Then he looked at the recipe holder box again, this time it seemed to tinkle. The wood was shiny and new, and it smelled as fresh as the outdoors. The burned font on the front seemed like a rich-black charcoal color. The decorative copper metal floral patterned latch, corner protector, and hinges looked bright and reflective.
He could help but feel proud of himself.