Chương 60

Carpenter Ellen Ellen tossed another log of firewood onto the 'finished' pile. In some ways it felt a little demeaning to be using her incredibly useful Ability to just dry out firewood, but with how her and Mason had been using it to help set the mortar on the buildings they'd been working on, she supposed it was important. They would really use up their supply fast, otherwise, even with recent enhancements.

It was fortunate that Cobbler and Fighter were willing to do some logging, because otherwise they wouldn't have nearly enough firewood, even after buying fresh wood from the mill and hauling it up to the town. It would also be nice to have a place for Melissa, but they had nowhere near the lumber required to make a stable yet. They didn't even have enough to get more than a start on the granary.

"How does that look?" Mason's question tugged Ellen's attention back to the nearby workshop, where she'd just finished hanging the front door. The planks forming the door were new, and she could tell they were from lumber she'd artificially accelerated the aging on. She doubted the others could tell, but this was her job.

"That does look good, now we just need to cover the gaps," Ellen said, looking over the door as Mason closed it. One of the hinges was new—one of Smith's contributions—and the other was a cleaned up and repaired hinge they'd found in the town amongst the ruins. Despite being almost a century old, it was sturdy enough to use. The planks weren't properly grooved to fit cleanly, so they'd been forced to use some of the squirrel and rabbit pelts to fill any gaps.

That was the next step, but for now the workshop was built, and once they set the mortar it would be finished. That would be a difficult part, since they were burning through firewood so fast. Finding enough to spare that they could keep the walls warm and allow the mortar to set instead of freeze would be a challenge. They had to prioritize keeping the longhouse heated, which was why Ellen had been using her own wood-drying magic to stockpile more logs.

"Maybe wait for tomorrow to start the mortaring," Ellen muttered, shivering as she tugged the cloak around herself. It was incredibly cold today, even for mid-winter, and she didn't relish trying to fit the mortar even if it only applied to two walls. The third stone wall was fully intact and just needed repointing, and the front of the workshop was entirely wood. Not the best insulation, but the workshop didn't need to be as warm as the homes, and they could add insulation later.

EXPERIENCE AWARDED: Constructed a building For constructing a fully-functional building, you have gained 1000 Experience. EXPERIENCE AWARDED: Constructed a Workshop For constructing a [BASIC] functional workshop, you have gained 1500 Experience.

"A little more each day," Mason sighed, breath misting the air. She stepped closer and tugged on Ellen's cloak, opening it to the cold briefly so she could squeeze in and tuck it around herself as well as Ellen. Warmth huddled against Ellen as they both observed the new workshop with the Settlement Interface overlay. [BASIC] Workshop Functionality: 53% Insulation: 37% Description: A poorly-constructed one-room workshop for general crafting purposes.

Ellen wasn't too keen on seeing that it classified it as "poorly-constructed" in the description, but it wasn't actually finished so maybe that was fair. She'd had to make some compromises to get it functional anyway. The shingled roof used a thin layer of earth for insulation instead of the reliable thatch that they'd used for the longhouse.

With the longhouse, the tanning shack, and the icehouse already done, this was the fourth building that Mason and Ellen had managed to complete into some semblance of functionality. It wasn't much, but soon enough they'd get their five-time bonus, and hopefully push them that much closer to Level 13. Probably over the threshold, for Ellen. She tucked an arm around her sister-self to enjoy the warmth in the bitter cold, lifting up the scarf so Mason could wrap it around.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. It was a good day. An accomplished day.

"Looks like Cobbler will have a place to work soon, huh?" Ellen and Mason both jumped, turning about in surprise to find Scout there, staring at the workshop. She was all bundled up as well, with a light dusting of snow on her cloak… and a black cat slowly easing from one shoulder to the next. The only concession Scout made to the cat's presence was a slight tilt of her head forward, to make it easy for the feline to stalk back and forth from one shoulder to the next.

"Do you always have to sneak up on us like that?" Mason grumbled, shuddering again.

"Do your sisters mind?"

"Our other selves already know this self is there," Scout answered with a giggle.

"That is one of the perks of being a part of the selves. We anticipate what our other selves do." Ellen shuddered again, but since Scout seemed talkative she asked the question that had been on her mind.

"Do you not have any actual… individuality? Do you think this is how we should be operating? The way you speak makes it sound like you think all of us Ellens shouldn't be different aside from Class." Scout walked forward, finding a spot to sit on one of the crumbled walls near the firewood pile. This particular ruin was practically gone, so Mason had been using it as a source of spare stones. The Shadow Striker took a seat there, and the cat on her shoulder immediately hopped into her lap for some lazy petting.

Scout had actual gloves, and did not take them off despite the warm fur of the cat.

"You Others don't understand," Scout finally answered.

"We are not like this because we have no minds of our own, we just accept that we are all Ellen. All of our selves have the same goal, and work toward that. Ellens like Village Ellen work toward a different goal, she has no need to be in the us." Blue eyes flicked between Ellen and Mason, where they were closely huddled under the same cloak.

"The two of you have very similar goals. If you would like, we could show you how to work as we work. It would make your own work move more smoothly." Ellen glanced at Mason, but before she even met her sister-self's eyes, she felt the faint tremor against her, and through her arm where it hooked around her other self's back. She nodded, then just smiled at Scout.

"I don't think we're ready to go that far, we do a lot of things differently." Ellen sighed.

"I'm sure that we could build our houses better if we acted like you and the others in the Party, but just because we're all Ellen doesn't mean we can't be our own people." Scout gathered up the cat she was petting, tucking her into her cloak so only the feline's head was peeking out. Over the faint whistle of the wind, Ellen couldn't tell if the cat was purring, but it certainly wasn't squirming. Some of the cats had not taken well to the Ellens, but this one didn't seem to mind such attention.

"We are each our own Ellen, but our other selves also know what we need and want. We cannot think the same as the others, only understand." Scout tapped her temple with one finger before going back to cuddling the cat.

"We act as one. We are one. But we speak to one another so we understand. We can't say that is the way we should be… none of us understand why this happens either." It was frustrating for Ellen to talk to any of the Adventuring Party, but she did catch something there. She raised an eyebrow, then adjusted her scarf with a little huff. Mason squirmed some and gave Scout a curious look as well—she'd caught something off there, as well.

"Do you mean you don't actually want all of us to join your little collective?" Ellen asked cautiously. Scout tilted her head and laughed.

"Do you think that Village Ellen would ever let herself be one of many? Or Hunter Ellen? They are who they are, they are completely Ellen without another Ellen helping them." Her smile faded.

"Each Ellen has to figure out who she is. For us, we decided to make our Ellen all of us. You worry too much about what we do, when you should just be the Ellen you want to be." How did this Ellen become so much more confident about who she was than me? Ellen thought to herself. Aloud, she huffed.

"I'll think about that. Why are you up here anyway? Didn't you plan on trying for the second floor of the dungeon soon? Shouldn't you be practicing?" Scout just gestured vaguely toward the smithy, where smoke trailed up from the chimney.

"Smith is going to try making a circlet that grants Darkvision. She needs our Scholar to cast the spell, and then once it is ready we can take it into the dungeon. If we can get two more of them, we will not need a spell or torches or lanterns." Ellen squinted at the smithy.

"Already doing enchanted items? I guess her Class is pretty much built on it, but… you know I was hoping for some spells, instead of magical abilities. Why else do I have Mana Manipulation?"

"Maybe we shouldn't have all taken really weird Classes," Mason mumbled as she extricated herself from Ellen's cloak. She tugged her own around herself, now warm enough that she didn't need the extra body heat. Ellen just huddled her own cloak close, letting out a long breath.

"They were really tempting. How are yours turning out, Scout? You work closely enough with the Party to get a good idea of the Classes, right?" Scout shrugged." Shadow Striker is about what you'd expect. We aren't… actually all that comfortable with it, since it really seems more like an assassin Class than a dungeon crawler. The Delve Weaver is interesting for handling the dungeon. We think the most fitting two are Lifebinder and Ironblood, and we would choose those again."

The fascinating sight of Scout having an opinion of her own kept Ellen's attention.

"Does Scholar think differently about the Delve Weaver?"

"Hmm…" Scout scratched behind the cat's ears while she thought.

"Scholar is very happy with her Class choice, and we do think it is best for what we want to do. We are… the Scout is less comfortable with Scholar being so specialized. What will we do once we have done what we need to do? Our Scout and Scholar are not really needed for long term Ellens." Mason glanced at Ellen, who flinched. That was… unpleasant. The idea that some of her duplicates were basically disposable was the situation she knew Hunter had been warning about for a long time.

These fifth-generation Ellens weren't reassuring her… but weren't Cobbler and Fisher fourth generation? They seemed… normal. They'd diverged almost immediately, though both had taken a path that was in line with Village Ellen's desires to stay out of trouble. Scout shook her head, "We can tell you do not like it, but this was our choice. Some Ellens had to try it, and we think it was something we should have tried a long time ago. We can't all be Hunter or Village."

She took the cat out from behind her cloak and set it on the wood pile.

"It looks like we are finished with Smith. We need to discuss with ourselves how to approach the dungeon. Keep up the good work, you two."

"Thanks," Ellen and Mason mumbled at the same time. That fatalistic viewpoint had cast a shadow over their entire day.