Chương 8: Chapter 7 - Debatable

"So, what kind of miracle flower is that?" I'd been walking along the dense treeline after yet another week of the crew working on clearing through my land. I was examining the different flora when the question had come out of seemingly nowhere, though the sudden intrusion didn't make me jump with shock like it might do for some people. I looked over my shoulder and found Willow standing a few paces back, eyeing the gold-and-orange flower that I'd stopped beside.

"Depends on who works with it," I replied, picking the lone growth in a sea of greenery.

"It's a Lion's Dawn. They have some powerful properties, but they can easily be mishandled and turned toxic. A Draught of Life could just as easily turn into a Plague of Waste capable of wiping out hundreds…" It was always fascinating to me seeing reagents like this. The fact that something could shift from being life-giving to deadly all because of how it was handled, regardless of where it came from…

That said, in my studies I'd found that this was almost always the case with powerful reagents, and the lone one sitting in front of me presented a rather interesting dilemma given just how rare I knew they were.

"Sounds dangerous. Even after that little salve of yours helped Danny Activate last week, I don't think he'd appreciate you accidentally mixing a plague," she said, shaking her head with a small smile.

"The salve wasn't responsible, random Activation is random," I insisted.

"Please, that's just what people with ash for brains say," she said, her nose crinkling the freckles across her cheeks. There were some green, yellow, and red flakes that covered her hand that glimmered under the sunlight, becoming hard not to notice as she waved her hand to dismiss my suggestion.

"If things were truly random, he'd have Activated after he cut down his fiftieth Great Oak, not after all the work he's done for you. Especially once that salve let him work, as he won't shut up about, five times faster."

"Still sounds pretty random to me…" I insisted again, causing her to roll her eyes.

"Keep telling yourself that. Now come on, we're bringing lunch to the field and Daniel was practically beaming when he asked me to fetch you," she explained, nodding over her shoulder. I pocketed the Lion's Dawn, depositing it into my bag the moment it was out of sight before I stood up and brushed my pants off. It'd been two full weeks since I'd arrived in Danwood and while I was finally wearing more appropriate clothing, I'd still frustratingly failed to reach level five.

Though I assumed that the Grand Oak Forest had some monster spawns in it, there hadn't been any powerful beasts I immediately noticed, nor was there an abundance of a resource I couldn't get easier elsewhere. And without a combat class, I couldn't reasonably prepare for all of the possible dangers the forest could hold if I'd tried to venture into it, so without proper planning, it'd be a fool's errand to just charge in headstrong..

And sure, I could keep Sleep Draughts and Poison Cloud Starter, but neither helped me in the event of an ambush and they certainly wouldn't help if dealing with one spawn attracted a horde of others. Which left me with slowly pushing my level up through plain old alchemy. I couldn't even just make hundreds of simple potions either, since the system's degrading experience system specifically worked to mitigate people from farming simple items for quick levels.

So while I waited for Daniel's crew to finish the work, having moved on from clearing the trees to clearing the rocky terrain, I'd taken to exploring the area, picking any and all unique reagents I could find. Not that the pickings were exactly all that plentiful.

"You're far quieter than most of the men my brother deals with," Willow said, breaking the silence that had descended on us after only a minute had passed.

"Quiet's not the worst thing I've been called," I said, looking down from the cloudy sky and back to her.

"Oh? And what was the worst thing?"

"Someone called me Freddie once," I said without thinking too much of it, eliciting a giggle from her.

"You're an odd one."

"So I've been told," I said, looking at the first of the homes we were passing. They looked similar-ish to mine, though mine had received a suspicious midnight "delivery" that Bram insisted he saw, despite the fact that I'd made the whole thing up when a few members of the crew noticed the table set and couch now sitting in my main room. I'd pulled the items from my inventory after only two nights had passed, desperately missing the feel of a comfortable bed.

Since most of it had ended up in my bedroom, which I had placed a lock on, nobody really questioned the sudden appearance of the main room furniture, or the desk in the spare room I'd turned into an "office" that I'd left a single picture frame and a handful of random papers out on. Especially since Bram's "memory" had seemingly backed up my admittedly odd claim.

"How did your brother get everyone to come out here? I mean… there's plenty of woodcutter jobs out there," I said, unable to staunch my curiosity.

"Most of which are run by rootrotted imbeciles who will happily take advantage of their workers," she said, her lips turning downward for the first time since she'd gotten to me.

"Our father left us an inheritance after serving and dying for the crown. Danny wanted to take a chance… He's been chopping wood since he was four-and-ten to keep us fed and the others were quick to follow when he offered equal profit for everyone once he'd secured the rights here last year." A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Equal profits?" I asked, my brow raising.

"After costs, yeah," Willow nodded, her braided auburn hair bouncing with the motion.

"Danny refuses to make more than any one of the other guys working with him."

"Huh, guess he's a pretty good guy then," I said with a feeling I couldn't quite place.

"That's why I think he likes you, if you don't account for you being here causing him to Activate that is," she said, smiling mischievously at me again.

"It wasn't because–""You're a good guy too," she cut me off, her smile growing warmer.

"That's… debatable," I said, slightly caught off guard by the suggestion.

"Not here it's not. You coulda tried to take advantage of everyone, offer them coppers for their help… but you didn't. Minimize things all you want, but I'm not sure how much longer Danny's promises would've kept the other guys here when their wives were starting to get nervous. Don't tell him, but I'd overheard Thomas and Hugh's wives making plans to convince them to move. And if Thomas left, Bram probably wouldn't be far behind…"

"Oh… was it really that bad?" I asked, despite my instincts screaming at me that learning any more about these people was the last thing I needed.

"Want to know what lunch was for the crew the day you got here?"

"Umm–""Just a bunch of jerky. We'd run out of sugar, grain, and basically everything else two days earlier… Danny was talking about convincing a few of the guys to carry one of the logs out to Gold's Lodge. They'd done it once before and nearly had to abandon the whole trip when a storm came through," she said, shaking her head at the frankly insane suggestion given the size of those logs.

"Really? But… all the lunches you've been bringing…" I said, taking another look around. The town didn't look like it was effectively broke, but I should know better than anyone that looks could be deceiving.

"Bought with your coin mostly," she said, her smile softening and she looked toward the crew waiting on the road ahead of us. When her attention turned back to me, her expression sharpened.

"I've been telling Danny we should charge you to eat since you're not technically part of the crew but he won't have it."

"Ah… well that would be fair when you put it like that."

"Yeah it would be," she said and then sighed.

"Too bad Danny actually likes you."

"Too bad," I agreed. We'd gotten close enough that Daniel had finally noticed and he–and Bram for some reason–were beaming. The fields, while empty of tree canopies, still had plenty of stone outcroppings and stumps scattered about them.

I'd briefly gotten my hopes up that Willow had been sent for me because Daniel had managed to get the last of the roots ripped from the ground with his Activated abilities from the entire field and tried not to let my disappointment leak, mostly since I knew that sort of speed was a bit unrealistic to expect from someone still so new to Activation. It only took focusing on Daniel long enough for his tooltip to show to discover why he seemed so happy.

I was about to congratulate him on reaching level three as a Woodwright when a different tooltip caught my attention and the young man in question was more than excited when he was sure I'd seen it.

"Call me Bram the Stonemason cause I've been Activated!" Willow crossed her arms, looking up at me and smiling with clear smugness.

"Random," I insisted.

"Uh huh, sure it is," she replied. Daniel's expression changed from excitement to confusion before Willow waved toward the picnic tables where the other women were setting up lunch.

"But a Stonemason, Bram? Really?"

"Was smashing through those big boulders when it happened, nearly scared the stars outta me. Suddenly I'm breaking them with half the effort and with much more usable material," he explained, bouncing on his toes as he sidled up next to Willow, more than eager to explain. I looked over at Daniel, smiling after the younger man eagerly before he noticed me.

"Have I told you that you're my favorite?"

"Not today, no," I said cautiously as we followed.

"But really, I haven't done anything."

"Keep telling yourself that," Willow called over her shoulder.

"I might've preferred another Woodwright, we've been making fantastic progress with the roots now that I'm able to loosen them with my abilities, but that's because I hadn't dreamed it possible that Stonemason was actually possible," Daniel said, choosing to thankfully move forward.

"Would you be open to negotiating a price for the stone we've gathered here?"

"Huh? I mean, just use what you need… you do see how big that pile is, right?" I said, looking behind my house where several stacks of cut logs and one massive pile of broken stone had been stored. My own Property Management interface was shaking, several new projects having been added now that I had a Stonemason on the work crew.

"What were you looking to use it for anyway?"

"Well… with a Stonemason, I was given some new Settlement Projects. With most of the stone we've gathered so far, I could have Bram take a few of the guys and improve the roads from here all the way to Gold's Lodge." I looked at the stone pile, then the road leading toward Gold's Lodge, then up towards the sky as I wondered if this was how Frederick felt when people Activated around him… No, he was far more smug about it, and I didn't have a Royal trait that made it happen either.

Roads were useful, and I knew the road was going to have to be improved one way or another eventually. I just hadn't expected the project to start before Dartigan had even managed to make his way back here. Daniel had promised to start working on those improvements for him, and with one that big, a formal trade route was practically inevitable. Roads were like rivers. They brought life to communities because they brought trade and supplies. But most importantly they brought people.

And while people were a good thing if I was going to start a tavern, they also brought questions. Most of which were bound to amount to one thing: how Danwood had turned around so quickly. Fantastic…

"Use the stone," I said, accepting the inevitable.

"A road is the best thing for everyone, and there'll be plenty more rock for anything I need. But maybe think of a good name before Bram does, otherwise the only road leading to Danwood is going to be the Bramway, and I refuse to hear that for the next fifty years."