Chương 54

Mason Ellen"Needs more insulation." Carpenter's muttering was followed by the ephemeral image of the structure they were working on together gaining a second, thinner layer of slats on the roof, with some kind of filler substance between the two layers. The components list called it… dirt. Ellen didn't disagree with Carpenter's decision. She'd known they'd needed it, she was just letting her more specialized self handle the wooden parts.

By now this was the fourth building they'd put together in the Settlement Interface, laying out the groundwork for a workshop, a tanning shed, dry storage for grains, and now their latest design… an icehouse. This one was important, since middle of winter was the best time to get ice. If they could get it built swiftly enough, they would be well-stocked for spring and summer. Carpenter's work made plenty of sawdust, so a place to put the ice was the only thing left to create.

Fortunately, though building techniques had advanced in the last eighty years, the basic idea of an icehouse remained roughly the same. Old Onroc's previous icehouse needed major repairs, but the Ellens didn't need to dig out a part of the mountain or anything. That part was already done for them. The old stone walls needed some repairs and mortaring, while the roof needed completely rebuilt.

With Carpenter's wood seasoning ability, this shouldn't be too bad, as most of the wood for this roof didn't need to be cut with any precision. Mason could tell that much easily.

"We'll have to shovel some coals in there and keep it hot for a few days to set the mortar," Ellen mumbled.

"But we should probably work on this one first, now that we have it planned, so we can take advantage of the river ice."

"Makes sense to me," Merchant murmured, standing behind Ellen and Carpenter. She probably had the Settlement Interface up as well, looking at the plans they'd made. Ellen wasn't sure how this interface was supposed to work normally, but the ability of every Ellen to view it—including the planned construction illusions it provided—was phenomenally useful for getting things built and functional quickly.

"Do you have enough wood for this?" Mason questioned, but she was already looking at the inventory in the interface. She knew the new Fighter Ellen was already cutting trees on the old road to clear it as part of her Strength training, but Carpenter's wood-drying power could only be used on so much in a day… and she still needed to do her woodworking on top of that. As useful as it was, it didn't fully solve the materials issue. Fortunately, only a portion of the lumber needed seasoned.

"It'll be fine," Carpenter assured.

"Cobbler and Fisher said they'd help… though I'm not sure if they're really in shape for this kind of work." Merchant shook her head.

"I wouldn't worry about that. Village Ellen was on her feet all day, every day, and worked at the mill for a while as well, remember? She's gained a little weight and looks softer, but it's not like the two new Ellens have Attributes that are different from the rest of us, starting out. You're closer to them than I am, you should know." She was right. Ellen was really only twice-removed from the two newcomers to their little city.

Builder had been the sister-self of Village, who was the progenitor of the two new Ellens. That was closer than she'd realized, and Ellen just hadn't considered that she'd been living in Onroc so long that she'd started thinking of Village Ellen as different. The two newcomers had been a little hesitant at first, but were already integrating well into the Ellen community. Had they not drifted as far as she'd thought? Or did their assimilation at a low level help them to adapt better?

How much does our Class decision change our outlook? Ellen wondered to herself. She stepped back and shivered. It was a relatively mild day out… but still below freezing. The chill mountain air blowing through the ruined city made every day feel colder than it was, so Ellen tried to keep her face and hands away from the wind. The angle let her inspect the remnants of the old town, including the ghostly images of the buildings they'd planned.

SETTLEMENT ORDER [Ellen Greylan] has put in an Order for: Wooden Crossbeam, 16' (x6) for [Icehouse] The interface flashed a notification, and Ellen knew every Ellen in the settlement had gotten the message. It wasn't all that necessary for a simple order for that, but she was sure Merchant Ellen wanted to get used to the system, in case they needed to get other parts delivered that were harder to find. It was an interesting feature of that new interface they were all still learning to use.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Ellen left her own additions vague, instead of refining the walls that she needed to rebuild. Until she could find the proper stone to repair it, adding more specific detail would just make it harder to match.

"We'll need to burn the fire inside for… three days, I think. That should be enough to set it," Ellen said aloud.

"Better be prepared for longer. At least it looks like my work is pretty minor. I can probably get this fixed in two days, so we'll start setting the mortar as soon as you can place a door." Carpenter nodded.

"I'll go down to Pauley's mill and get some fresh planks for us. I'll pay for them by seasoning some of what's there… it might take a day or two if it goes through my mana too fast." Ellen did sometimes wonder if she'd have gotten some neat Ability like that if she'd taken a more magic-forward Class, but she was pretty satisfied with what she got. Her own Ability at her recent Level 12 increase had given her the capability to carve stone chunks into precise size.

Reducing the error from accidental splits or chips while fitting stones was still a very worthwhile Ability.

"We did it!" Two voices in unison cheered, drawing Ellen's attention—and that of Carpenter and Merchant—to the nearby duo of Acolyte and Scholar. Both of the new Ellens clapped their hands, turned to one another, and hugged. Then they went right back to staring at the rock they'd been practicing on for the last hour. Practicing what, she wasn't sure. Even Ellen could guess what was on another Ellen's mind normally, but anything Class-specific would naturally escape her.

It was also hard to tell if they'd done something as a team, or if only one of them had succeeded. Ellen had noticed that the four in the Adventuring Party—as they'd been dubbed—tended to use "we" as a means of speaking about any of them, even when alone and discussing things only one of them had done. It was a little disorienting at times.

"I'm not sure I want them going into the dungeon," Carpenter muttered… which echoed Ellen's own thoughts on it.

"I worry it will make more just like them, too." Merchant's comment was, again, an echo of internal thoughts. On matters like this, it was easy to get the various Ellens aligned.

"I think I understand why they're like that, though. I gave it some thought." Ellen and Carpenter looked at Merchant expectantly. They were far enough apart in generation that they couldn't guess this… but Merchant was much closer to the quartet.

"They don't care about being individual," Merchant explained.

"They're solely focused on being a good adventurer… so they've done what they could to do that. That's what's important to all of them, and so they're just… arranging things to make that goal. If you think of us all as a single person just doing different things, their perspective makes sense." Ellen looked back at the two who were… staring at the rock. She couldn't fathom what they could possibly be doing that would help them take on the dungeon.

"Do you think they have a chance?" Carpenter's question slipped in before Ellen could ask hers. Merchant gestured around vaguely.

"You do know Scout's around here somewhere, right? Do you see her?" She waited a moment, but it was rhetorical. She knew none of them had spotted the fourth of the quartet.

"As long as they stick to the first floor, I think they'll be fine. Their predecessors both challenged the dungeon with Hunter and later with Uncle Anroll, they're pretty familiar with it. Also, they're from the Adventurer that survived the run with Edmund." Ellen tapped her lip, then nodded. That made sense.

"Now that I think about it, Apprentice and Healer were a lot like that as well. Apprentice looked careless because she let Healer be her careful half. She didn't need to think, she let someone else do it for her." Merchant nodded at the insight.

"Yes… but enough about that." She turned to face Ellen and Carpenter.

"This Settlement Interface is a lot more powerful than any of us thought, I think. We can probably plan out the whole town like this, if we wanted. But what I'd really like to do is annex the village so we can use it there, too. We should find a way to make that happen."

"Yes Overlord Ellen, your will is ours!" Ellen said immediately… and heard Carpenter do the same thing. Both of them burst into giggles at that. Merchant just rolled her eyes, but her lips quirked up in a hint of a smile. Unsurprisingly, she had a similar sense of humor.

"Not right away," she clarified.

"I'm not sure if they'll be able to see the Settlement Interface as well. If they do, it might get confusing… but I'm also not sure what makes it decide someone is a resident or not. Speaking of that…" Merchant frowned as her eyes unfocused, looking at something in the interface.

"Who has been naming the cats? They're showing up as pets now! But I can't actually track them…"

"Really, it's strange that we can all use the interface, even new Ellens," another voice cut in. Ellen looked over her shoulder to see Hunter trudging through the snow, hugging herself. She'd been out a lot longer than the rest of them, and was likely looking forward to a warm room and some hot stew or something.

"That's true," Merchant muttered.

"And we really might want to figure out why Village duplicated without dying. I think none of us want to die." Ellen fidgeted uncomfortably. She didn't consider Builder to be separate from her… she and Carpenter were just a continuation. She tried not to think too much about how there were two continuations, as that skirted areas that made the Adventuring Party look normal by comparison.

"I'm not sure we should," Hunter countered. Ellen looked up in surprise, since actual disagreements were so rare between Ellens. Professional differences were one thing, because training differed… but opinions? Hunter waved away Ellen's stare.

"I've just had more time to think about it. I think a lot, you know that." She let out a sigh, watching her breath fog the air.

"According to the others, Village claims that the System even gave a message that this 'failsafe' activated prematurely. It might be a one-time thing. And even if it isn't… do you really think we should make more Ellens? It's fine if we make use of having more bodies due to an accident, but should we really make more people?" Merchant frowned, but didn't contest that.

"Even if we did, would we end up like the Adventuring Party? I've had my own questions," Ellen huffed, rubbing her hands together for warmth.

"It… made me wonder a little bit. We've all been doing things differently and sometimes getting stranger and stranger, like the Party. It bugs me because I wonder…" Carpenter nodded and finished the statement.

"What would Ellen have been like if we didn't split?"