I Built This City Chapter 78: Chapter 78

Read chapter 78 of I Built This City by ThePudding on NovelPedia.

Bookkeeper Ellen Even with the windows open, Ellen would have preferred some more light. The thought occurred that they should have held the meeting outside, but she quickly discarded that. The problem was just the angle of the sun, and this particular building. The longhouse just was not situated to get light properly through the windows, at least not in this season. "We need a table," Ellen muttered aloud. All the other Ellens—excepting Village, Whisper, and Stage—were in a loose circle sitting upon the various pelts. Over the winter those pelts and blankets had gotten both dirty and threadbare… a situation that became a reminder that a single hunter couldn’t provide for all their needs any more. Even with Fisher helping tan the hides, it was a strain with this many people to just get that many hides. “Most of our wood is put toward construction,” Carpenter answered, even though Ellen had been clearly rhetorical. “And a table would need to be seasoned. We can get away with a lot of green wood in construction, but furniture really needs to be properly prepared. I’m only one person so even my Ability can’t handle too much.” Ellen waved a hand. “That isn’t even the real problem. Everyone quiet down and I’ll try to put this in terms we can all agree on.” Every other Ellen settled themselves, tucking legs under or crossing them as they got comfortable. It was a nice change from how other places might operate… every Ellen here knew that Ellen wouldn’t call them together for a talk like this if it weren’t something important. Ellen might need to defend her position, but none of them would question her motives unless she said something truly unhinged. Merchant crossed her arms, as she probably had a good idea of what Ellen was about to say. They’d thought of it while they were both Merchant, before she had died, but never managed to organize things properly. The Founder Class was powerful, but it wasn’t one that actually focused on organization… just administration . That sounded similar, but it definitely was not. “I’m not happy to say this, but I think we need to have an Ellen or two that gives orders and organizes the rest,” she began. “Not a leader exactly, just someone to more efficiently line up effort so we don’t keep running into things that need done. We have a half dozen different but related goals, and nobody is helping one another unless you count the Adventuring Party over there.” All four of them lifted their hands to give a wave to the others. Hunter sighed and raised her hand. “You were just assassinated, according to you. Shouldn’t we be thinking of that, first? We may not be the most efficient at it, but we’re making progress. I’m worried it won’t be as fun if we’re forced to do whatever.” “I’m getting to that,” Ellen countered. “You’re not wrong, but that assassination is exactly why I think we need to organize. I’m hoping it will be temporary, so we can get something established before we’re inevitably discovered. We have so many strange talents and work together so well, there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to do things in a fraction of the time this number of people would normally do it.” Mason stopped playing with her hair. “I’m listening.” Ellen gestured outside. “Think about if we all worked on the new checkpoint outside the dungeon at once. Not just as a group laboring, but lining it up. Whenever we needed new materials, use the Settlement Interface to put the order in. Someone closer to Onroc can notice it and get to transporting the materials right away, or getting them ready for preparation by a specialist. We don’t need messengers to explain what’s needed, we can just do it.” “This is almost like how we fight,” Scholar noted. “We know what needs done and start it before being asked,” Scout agreed. “See?” Ellen pointed to the quartet. “We know we can do it, the problem is we’ve all been doing our own projects and just helping as convenient. If we focused on just the dungeon checkpoint, for example, I b