I Built This City Chapter 47: Chapter 47

Read chapter 47 of I Built This City by ThePudding on NovelPedia.

Carpenter Ellen Ellen stared at her options, tapping the small knife on the badly-mangled attempt at a flute that she’d made. It had been done on a whim, after chatting with Healer about a possible Performer Class, and had been an abject failure. Even with the skill she’d gotten for woodworking, making a delicate instrument had been far different from carving supports and shutters. She was pretty sure she had the steadiness of hand to do it, but without the know-how of how a flute was made it had been… messy. But the failure had given her a small amount of experience, and that had been enough for the Level to tick over to 12. She took a quick look at her Status before turning back to her options. ATTRIBUTES Strength: 8 Agility: 8 Endurance: 8 Willpower: 10 Affinity: 8 Perception: 9 SKILL ENHANCERS Carpentry 1 STAMINA: 83/86 (+8/minute) MANA: 94/94 CLASS: Woodwright 12 (PENDING) EXPERIENCE: 320005/640000 PERKS Efficiency Rangefinder Mana Manipulation ABILITIES She’d thought it was a sort of bad build, at first. Putting another into Perception or maybe Strength would have been better, but the System had automatically placed points into Willpower for some strange reason. That had opened up the Woodwright Class and Mana Manipulation that she had eventually taken, but she wondered what would have been available if she’d had a higher Perception upon reaching Level 11. It didn’t matter, now. She had the Class she had, and the options for her first Ability were definitely interesting. “I know that look,” Mason purred, pulling up a stool. She shook it and settled onto it carefully—one of the hastily-made stools Ellen had made for practice had a wobbly leg already. It was a miracle they’d trusted her to make the roof after that, but she had been much more careful doing that. “Yeah, I got to 12,” Ellen confirmed. “The options it’s giving me are weird, though. I mean, some of them. The first one is pretty normal, but the others are really… really tempting. Way more tempting than I’d thought they’d be. I know which one I should pick but…” Mason grinned, leaning in to take Ellen’s arm. Abruptly, Healer and Apprentice were there, with the former dropping down onto the furs beside her, and the latter sprawling across Healer’s lap. “Don’t leave us in suspense!” Healer demanded with a laugh. “We’ll probably cross over soon and I’m curious what our Classes will give. I don’t think any of us have a normal one!” Ellen looked around the common room and frowned. Merchant would probably have opinions… but Ellen knew what they’d be. Hunter and Smith were absent, but they’d probably side with Merchant. It couldn’t hurt to take their desires into account, but with four of the seven Ellens in Onroc Anroll here, it was enough if they wanted to vote. Though she couldn’t actually remember the last time they’d needed to vote on anything consequential. Not since the first split of Ellen One and Ellen Two. “It’s four choices, like normal. It’s just the choices are strange… well, some of them.” Ellen sighed and pulled up the list again, letting it fill her vision instead of hovering just to the side and out of the way as the lists usually did. Then she read what she saw of her choices. ABILITY: CARVE WOOD I Cost: 5 Stamina (+3/minute) Effect: While active, the user may cut and shape wood as if it were softer. This does not actually soften the wood, it only allows easier cuts and shaving to the subject. This does not work on wood attached to a living plant. Further ranks decrease Stamina cost and increase the effect. “So, typical Carpenter Ability, yeah,”Apprentice agreed. Her voice was muffled, but this time it wasn’t from being facedown. She was trying to speak around one of the local cats, who had decided her face was the most appropriate place to sit down and relax for the night. It reminded Ellen to set aside some of the sawdust for the next time one of the cats decided that inside was still the same as outside when they got the urge to re