I Built This City Chapter 68: Chapter 68

Read chapter 68 of I Built This City by ThePudding on NovelPedia.

Merchant Ellen It was chilly this day, more so than the recent spring days. Still well above freezing, so only a few dwindling mounds of snow remained in the more shadowed portions of the forest, fallen from the branches to collect in heavy piles. Warm enough to melt snow was still well below comfort for a human, though. Ellen rubbed her hands together and puffed on them to warm them up. She was ready, and had been ready for several minutes now. The magnitude of what she was about to do was nerve-wracking, and she knew she was just procrastinating in giving it a try. “Stop procrastinating,” Hunter grumbled. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll just figure out something else. It sounds like it should work, though.” “Yeah, I know,” Ellen sighed, crossing her arms and looking out over the “road” in front of her. Not that it resembled a road much. She knew that’s what it used to be, eighty years ago, and she could see it on her map in the Settlement Interface, but it was a lot harder to see in person. All the Ellens had been gathering their wood from the trees on this road, chopping them down in an attempt to clear it enough to make the road visible and—hopefully—usable. This was where the bulk of their wood over the winter had come from, and with so many Ellens working at it she’d assumed they’d made good progress. Now, looking at it, Ellen realized they’d barely made a dent in the progress needed. She glanced behind her at the large space that she’d flattened, making a platform in the slope of the hill that would keep any logs from rolling away. It was a pretty large log pile, two dozen meters square, but currently almost empty. She had just created it, after all. “I guess we’ll see if we have enough for it,” Ellen sighed, pulling up her Settlement Interface. Specifically, a new option that hadn’t existed until she’d gotten her Level 12 Ability. Settlement Energy Settlement Points: 137 Land Mana: 500 / 500 She’d used several Settlement Points already to flatten the area for the log pile, but the Land Mana had already regenerated from that use. It had been a decent test of the new Ability, but this next feat would really stretch what she thought it would be capable of. “If you’re sure it won’t be a problem for you, I’ll start now,” Ellen muttered to Hunter. So far, their logging hadn’t disrupted the Landkeeper in any way, but the scale was very different. “Get on with it!” Fisher called out, and some of the other Ellens chuckled. Every one of them knew why Ellen was nervous, but that didn’t make it easier to wait. The only one who seemed patient and quiet was Scholar, whose eyes were unfocused from staring at the Settlement Interface as well. Ellen sighed again, but she concentrated and spread her will over the area she’d identified as the road. Her Ability used Land Mana and Settlement Points, but it also drained her personal mana as well. She was unsurprised to feel the chill spread through her as her mana drained out and triggered the effect, plummeting rapidly. Within moments, she was well below half her reserves. She could feel the basic shape of the road, and where it used to be. Even after nearly a century, the forced reshaping of the earth left lingering tells. It hadn’t been a stone road, merely packed earth… but loosening that packed earth had taken time and the growth of numerous trees and shrubs. The top layer was thoroughly loose dirt, but further beneath some clumps remained. The difference was subtle, and Ellen wasn’t sure how she could feel it, but she could. The ground rippled as Ellen added a slight bulge down the center, to let rainwater slide to either side instead of forming puddles. She’d seen that done in other roads, so at least wasn’t totally inept at making a road. She added two ditches, one on either side, to collect spillover, but wasn’t sure where they should lead. She’d have to add proper drainage later. All of her attention was on forming the road. Earth compacted and clenched, crushing or forcing out the roo