I Built This City Chapter 60: Chapter 60

Read chapter 60 of I Built This City by ThePudding on NovelPedia.

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. 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