Ashes of the Fallen

And in turn, take this campsite to the next level, as a named village, with a functional NPC-Recruiter amongst other things.

Sure it benefited me, but I didn't have to do it.

Even if they wanted to call me an asshole, I really wasn't that mean spirited.

Chapter 59: Foreign Construction

(Sunday, August 15th Game Day / Wednesday, March 17th Real Day)

An in-game day had passed us by as the warriors and I continued to chop down trees in preparation for the lodge. The hours went by rather quickly despite the monotony of it all. Roughly half of the time was spent chit chatting with the NPCs, while the other half was with the few guild members that wandered by.

All of that happening, in the middle of the logging process, of course.

Chopping and hacking down trees, only to roll and carry them off.

What a wonderful life, I was living.

It really wasn't the best use of my time, and I couldn't find a positive from it all, but it was mostly out of good will to help a partially friendly guild. Maybe it was selfish in some respects, what with it benefiting Ellieby, which in turn could guarantee me a slight profit over time. Yet, even so, I was wasting two whole days… and at least twenty four hours of my life, working at hard manual labor in order to get this done.

That was fairly generous, in my mind.

Especially when one considered that the work was being done for random strangers, plus two online acquaintances that I hardly knew.

Oh well.

I wanted to start construction as soon as possible, but lacked a few necessary tools to start, seeing as I wasn't expecting to build anything. I mean, it's not like I traveled around the continent with the intention of building homes for strangers, as if I were some TV host on a do-it-yourself channel.

Well, my lack of preparation led to Ellieby making a quick trip to a local NPC village to pick up a drawknife, so I could trim and shape the logs to fit.

She was running behind schedule, though... by about an hour.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to bide my time, a few of her fellow guild members gave me a hand with the dragging of the logs since they weren't as proficient in logging.

My skills were top-notch now after felling thousands of trees.

I was a one-man deforester, only lacking the title to hang above my head.

They could make a documentary about me, and how evil I was.

Hah aha hah… I laughed in my head, attempting to entertain myself.

I was incredibly bored now.

And then, as if right on cue, Ellieby's voice reached my ears.

"Hey Sigurd, will this do?" shouted Ellieby as she finally returned with drawknife in hand. "I had to go to another village since the first one didn't have anything."

Wiping the sweat from my brow and then setting my axe down, I gave her a nod as I eyed the tool in her hand. "That's the right one," I replied with a smile. Relief somewhat hitting me as we were now one step closer to finishing this project.

"Did you guys pick out a clearing to erect the lodge?" I asked with sincerity.

Ellieby smiled as if she had found the perfect spot, and simply waved at me, beckoning me to follow. Doing as the lady instructed, I grabbed my axe and headed off towards the destination.

"Lovely spot ain't it?" she stated more than questioned as she stood proud.

Eyeing the spot, I replied casually, "I think it'll work, yeah, should be good."

A large pile of oak wood had been stacked for me to begin working on, as I immediately sat down on a stump and tried to envision what exactly I would be making.

The oak lumber was considerably denser than most woods like pine, which meant it was not only stronger but heavier, too. A two-story building would take me quite a while by myself, but I had some help here from the others.

It seemed like a fun experiment, anyways.

"Alright, Roald, let the men know to bring over another fifty logs or so, then we'll be good to go," I instructed to the trade master who was busy chatting up the female guild members. The man had no discretion, even as an NPC, he hit on any female, whether they were an NPC or a player.

I guess, that added to the realism.

Though, I wish he was more productive instead.

Setting my workspace up, I began the steady process of debarking and shaping the logs to fit. Taking the drawknife and running it along the edge, a simple pull sheared off a small slice of wood. Repeating the process dozens of times per log, after a few minutes I had one clean, ready to use log.

The only thing it was missing was a notch on either end to hold it in place.

That would come later, though.

Continuing the process, it took me essentially another in-game day as I worked tirelessly through the night. Stopping only for short breaks to eat in real-life, I skipped out on sleep to try and rush the building phase.

I wanted to be done, and out of here.

But, I wasn't going to cut corners.