by L. R. Wolf
“Ahh, much better.” Elohwa swam over to the side where she had placed her soap. “Come, my friend! The water is really rather lovely!” She started to rub the bar across her body removing dirt, crusted blood, sweat and the vile stench of the gnolls.
Aya finished slipping out of her Fire Cloth clothes and stuck a toe into the water in front of her. The water was actually warmer than she expected. With a sigh, she slid into the warm waters. “Oh, that’s nice.”
Elohwa laughed from behind her. “When you are done I have an extra set of clothes you can wear until I can get your fire cloth clean and mended.”
Aya hadn’t even thought about extra sets of clothes. She had completely forgotten about the clothes she had arrived into the world wearing. “I guess I should start carrying around a full wardrobe or something huh?”
Elohwa chuckled again, “That is probably a good idea. Next time we get to a city I will take you by a tailor.” Elohwa ducked her head back under water for a moment before reemerging, she began to scrub her hair with the bar vigorously, keeping her back to Aya the entire time since she knew Aya was uncomfortable around nudity.
Aya reached for the bar of soap she had placed close to the edge of the spring within easy reach. She brought it to her nose and sniffed expecting to smell nothing at all, but instead her nose was filled with the scent of sandalwood, she inhaled deeply from the bar before she started using it to scrub herself.
Behind her, Elohwa was going over her body and hair for a second time. Once she deemed that she was clean enough, she pulled her dirty smelly clothes into the spring and started to scrub them with the bar. She’d have to clean her armor with special items later, but at least she’d be able to get her clothes clean and dry before she would need to wear them again. “Throw me your clothes if you would and I will clean them.”
Aya put her hands on the edge of the spring and lifted herself half way out so she could reach her clothes. Unlike Elohwa, her armor was just plain cloth, so it was much easier and faster to clean than her companion’s leather armor. She put her boots to the side before dragging the rest closer to her so she could grab it. She hesitated a moment as she would have to turn towards Elohwa to hand her the items. After a moment, she steeled herself and turned around.
“Just put them there on the edge and I will get them in a bit.” Elohwa was still scrubbing away at her clothes.
“Thanks so much!” Aya did as she was told and tossed her dirty, rather fragrant clothes up on the banks near Elohwa before she swam her way back to her own side. She ducked her head under the water to wet her hair before she lathered it up with the soap. She massaged her scalp with her fingertips working the soap in before ducking under the water and rinsing the soap out under the water. She scrubbed her body and hair a second and third time to ensure the smell of gnoll was completely gone and replaced with the scent of the sandalwood soap. Once she was clean, Aya moved to the side of the spring, she lifted her arms out of the water and rested them on the side to use as a pillow. She rested her chin on top of her hands as she opened her inventory to peruse through the bag she had given Thorn, dumping the contents into her own bag. She gasped softly at the sheer amount of loot within. While some of the loot were items they had obtained in the Dead Fields, everything at the top of the inventory was brand new. The three items at the top glowed with a purple light indicating they were epic quality. A quick examination showed that two of the items were strength based so she quickly moved past them. The third item was a pair of bracers that caught her attention.
Ornate Bracers of Intelligence- +75 int These bracers were made by a master crafter.
The next ten items glowed blue indicating a quality of rare. Most of the items here were strength based so once again Aya just skimmed past them after her examination showed the strength stat. There were also a variety of crafting materials, different types of cloth ranging from burlap to silk. A few ore ingots dotted her inventory as well, but most of the materials consisted of leather. She set those items aside for Elohwa.
Finally, her eyes traveled to the bottom where the coins were displayed just under the inventory. An eyebrow twitched upwards. The coin loot from the bodies of the fallen gnolls that Thorn had looted amounted to nearly five thousand platinum. Humanoid creatures always tended to give the most money in other games, and it appeared that here was no exception. With a thought, she opened the City Interface and moved to the treasury button. There was nearly twenty five thousand platinum in there now, courtesy of the windfall from the King’s Bounty chest. She deposited the coins from Thorn’s bag, once again keeping only the twenty platinum for future expenses, a new wardrobe being one of those upcoming expenses.
Behind her, Elohwa had scrubbed the dirt, grime and blood off their clothes and had set them up on the edge, spreading them out to dry before she pushed herself up and out of the spring. She grabbed her towel, drying herself off before she wrapped the cloth around her hair to help it dry faster as it absorbed the water her hair had soaked up. Kneeling down, she grabbed one of the bundles unwrapping it to reveal white under clothes, a white shirt and black cloth pants. She quickly pulled the clean clothes on before she grabbed the second bundle and walked around the edge of the spring to where Aya was resting her head on her hands along the side. At first she thought Aya was asleep, but she noticed that the Dreamer’s eyes were open and unfocused meaning she was likely lost in her interface, probably examining the loot from the gnolls. She dropped the bundle by Aya’s boots before she switched those out with a new clean pair of brown leather boots. Their boots and her leather armor she dropped into her satchel to be cleaned and mended later.
“Sorry, I got caught up with my inventory.” Aya had been startled out of her trance when Elohwa passed directly in front of her eyes when she had moved back and forth to gather her boots.
Elohwa chuckled, “I figured as much. I changed out your boots and left you a bundle of clean clothes. I will have to clean our leather items later, but at least now we will not smell like gnoll dung.”
Aya shuddered at the very thought. Having access to this spring was certainly a gigantic stroke of luck. They still would have been able to bathe, but they would have had to travel down to the river which was most certainly bound to be ice cold. A chime indicated an incoming call. “I’m going to be a few, my husband is calling.”
“No worries, take your time and please tell him I said hello.” Elohwa turned her back towards Aya and sat down on the stone opening the city interface to check the inventory of the stockpiles that had been accumulated during the night while they attempted to take back the throne.
Stockpile 1- Intact stone blocks-2,284
Stockpile 2-Damaged stone blocks 23,591
Stockpile 3-Random metal materials-119,362
Based on those materials, they would have more than enough stone to build the stone cutters, and a few other buildings but unfortunately, they had no wood to assist in building a lumber mill as the wood used to build the city had long since rotted away. She continued to peruse some of the options within the interface, they could hire an assortment of workers and rent tools and wagons and the like, surely they could buy any materials they might need. As she thought it, a new tab came to the forefront of her interface.
Basic Materials-Allows the purchase of the most basic materials
Basic Wood Plank-Most basic crafting material. Buildings made with this are highly susceptible to fire. Susceptible to break in a few hits. 1s per Plank
Basic Clay Bricks-Sturdier than wood, clay can withstand most heat. While it is more resistant to attack than Wood, clay has ¼ the hit points of Stone. 2s per Brick
Basic Stone Block-Sturdier than Wood, Stone can withstand heat and is highly resistant to attacks. 3s per block
Basic Iron Nails-Used to hold items constructed of wood together. 1s per nail
Basic Stone Mortar-Used to hold items constructed of stone together. 1s per gallon of Mortar
Basic Clay Mortar-Used to hold items cons
tructed of clay together. 1s per gallon of Clay
None of the materials had any bonus stats like items crafted by specialists or with rarer materials. She checked through the list, but the basic materials were the only ones sold. If they wanted their buildings to be of the highest quality they would have to gather those materials and those specialized in their use. Even the basic ones here would at least allow them to start raising the buildings they required to start producing their own materials. The buildings may end up as a shoddy quality, but they could always tear them down and replace them with better materials in order to raise the building quality. She ordered the wood and nails that would be required to build the lumber mill and hired the Elven Woodsmen to build and man it which would raise the building quality due to the Woodsmen’s innate ability with wood. They could turn the worst piece of shoddy wood into high quality works of art. Afterwards, she hired the dwarves to build the stone cutter's hut and to work the quarry she had marked out. To make things easier and faster for the workers she rented tools and a few more oxen and wagons.
She refrained from erecting any more buildings until they had their own materials so they could get a much higher quality with the later buildings. She rose to her feet and started to make her way out of the copse of trees and away from the spring to go meet with the new specialist races that were arriving via portal.
***
Aya disconnected the video call with her husband. She’d gotten the chance to talk to the kids really fast before they began their day which significantly brightened her own day. Her stomach grumbled rather loudly reminding her that she hadn’t had much to eat and that it was time to eat a more hearty meal. She pulled herself out of the spring and started to dry off with one of the nice magical towels that they had received in their satchels a few nights previously. She wrapped it around her hair as Elohwa had done, the towel whisking away all of the moisture in her hair in a matter of minutes. She grabbed the brush she’d set out earlier and started brushing her hair. While it was the normal thing to do for her in her real life, it just seemed so surreal here in this world. She could feel each individual strand of hair. The wonders of the Dreamscape never ceased to amaze her. She opened the bundle of clothes that Elohwa had left for her. They were just plain cloth clothes, simple underclothes, a short sleeve shirt with laces in front at the neck and simple brown cloth pants. She quickly donned the new clean clothes before pulling the soft leather boots onto her feet. Her gaze was drawn to her interface where an icon was blinking furiously at her. A red colored 20+ was flashing indicating how many notifications she had waiting for her. With a sigh, she went into her options menu to look for some way of cutting down on the notification clutter so that she wouldn't constantly be spammed with multiple level up notifications for the same skill.
She scrolled through the options and found what she was looking for. She checked the boxes that would eliminate redundant level up notifications. She watched as the notification number dropped drastically, a vast majority of them having been repetitive messages. She quickly checked the rest of the notifications. Most of the messages that were left were what she expected, perception skill up, trap detection learned, trap disarm skill learned, various magical school skill ups, she dismissed those as she was more interested in any accolades she might have gotten since the bonuses they gave could be rather significant.
Congratulations Dreamer! You are the first in Infinity to discover a unique item. Unique items are the only one of their kind within the world of Infinity.
Congratulations Dreamer! You have earned the Accolade Unique-You have discovered a Unique item. Unique items are one of a kind items within the world and can not be reproduced or found a second time.
Aya closed out those notifications to read the next few regarding what Elohwa had been up to while she was in her video chat, judging from the amount of notifications, her Companion had been quite busy.
Your Companion, Elohwa, has purchased Basic Wooden Planks (1000). Total Cost 10g (1s per plank)
Your Companion, Elohwa, has purchased Basic Iron Nails (2000). Total Cost 20g (1s per nail)
Your Companion, Elohwa, has purchased Basic Stone Mortar (30) Total Cost 30s (1s per gallon)
Your Companion, Elohwa, has rented tools (500 Sets). Total Cost 10p (2g per set per day)
Your Companion, Elohwa, has hired Pair of Oxen (10 sets) Total Cost 2p (20g per set per day)
Your Companion, Elohwa, has hired Wagons (5) Total Cost 75g (15g per wagon per day)
Your Companion, Elohwa, has purchased and placed a Stone Cutter’s Hut. Total Cost 1p + 50 Stone Blocks + 2 gallons Stone Mortar
Your Companion, Elohwa, has purchased and placed a Quarry. Total Cost 1p
Your Companion, Elohwa, has hired Dwarven Stone Masons (160) and assigned them to build the Stone Cutter’s Hut, upon completion to begin refining stone and beginning work in the Quarry. Total Cost 4p (50g a day per 20 Masons)
Your Companion, Elohwa, has purchased and placed a Lumber Mill. Total Cost 2p + 250 wood planks + 750 Nails
Your Companion, Elohwa, has hired Elven Woodsmen (100) and assigned them to build the Lumber mill and upon completion to begin harvesting wood and refining it. Total Cost 1.5p (30g a day per 20 Woodsmen)
Your Companion, Elohwa, has purchased and placed a Smokehouse. Total Cost 3p + 150 wood planks +300 nails (High Priority)
Your Companion, Elohwa, has hired Nomads(40) and assigned them to build a Smokehouse and upon completion to begin processing any meats and smoking the meats. (High Priority) 50g (25g a day per 20 Nomads)
Your Companion, Elohwa, has purchased and placed a Hunter’s shack. Total Cost 2p + 100 wood planks + 200 nails
Your Companion, Elohwa, has hired Werekin Hunters(100) and assigned them to build a Hunter’s shack and upon completion to begin hunting game, processing the meat for cooking and harvesting any useful materials such as fur, leather, bone, sinew etc. Total Cost 4.5p per day (45g a day per 20 Hunters)
Your Companion, Elohwa, has purchased and placed a Fishing Shack. Total Cost 2p + 100 wood planks + 200 nails
Your Companion, Elohwa, has hired Merkin(40) and assigned them to build a Fishing Shack and upon completion to begin fishing and processing the fish for cooking and harvesting any useful materials such as bone,scales, pearls (from oysters), etc 1P (50g a day per 20 Merkin)
Your Companion, Elohwa, has purchased and placed a Temporary Kitchen and Dining Area (High Priority) Total Cost 5p + 300 Stone Blocks +10 gallons mortar +100 wood planks +300 nails
Your Companion, Elohwa, has hired Nomads (40) and assigned them to build a Temporary Kitchen and Dining Area and upon completion to begin preparing and cooking fulfilling meals. (High Priority) 50g (25g a day per 20 Nomads)
Aya was surprised at the sheer amount of buildings that her companion was placing and the amount of people she hired, but if they wanted to get buildings raised and materials coming in they would need to initially hire more workers than what they would need, they could always lay some of them off later. Aya was also pleased to see that some of the buildings were more for the people they had hired than it was for them. Though every worker they hired came with their own tools and their own rations, providing them with the upgraded rental tools as well as meals and wagons and the like greatly increased their morale and work speed. With a wave of her hand she dismissed the last of the notifications before pushing her way out of the underbrush.
Chapter 28: Building
∆∆∆
As soon as Aya left the copse of trees that concealed the hot spring she noticed a flurry of activity. Different races were in five different lines in front of the supply wagons that handed out tools. The tools supplied by these wagons were much higher quality than what the workers brought with them, even though their quality was still much lower than what could be crafted. The Oxen and their Wagons were being doled out to the various groups based on the weight of the materials they would need to carry and what took priority. The Hunter’s Shack, Fishing Shack
, Smoke House and Kitchen all got their own wagons while two went to the quarry, the Lumber Mill and the Stonecutters.
Already, she could hear hammering echoing through the vast open area as buildings were quickly rising in their designated areas. Most of these buildings were only temporary as the materials being used were subpar. Once they started getting in the better quality materials, they would tear the buildings down and rebuild them with the better materials and, depending on the advice of those they hired, they might actually move the buildings if it would raise the efficiency of the buildings.
Aya spotted Elohwa talking to Master Foreman Askar. The Companion turned to see Aya approaching and waved her over.
Private Message from Elohwa “Come on over, Askar has some news regarding the keep.”
As Aya got closer, Askar grinned broadly as he saw her approaching. “Greetings, M’lady! Congratulations on your victory over the Gnolls!” He clapped her on the back of her left shoulder in pride but it ended up sending her tumbling directly into Elohwa, both women going to ground with the force. “Err, my apologies ladies. Sometimes I forget my own strength.”
Aya was sprawled across Elohwa, she tried to lift herself up off her Companion but her left arm collapsed under her forcing her back down onto Elohwa. She raised her head and looked into the face of her companion, her cheeks turning bright red. “Ugh, I can’t seem to feel my arm, would you mind?”
Elohwa smiled slowly and mischievously, “I rather like you where you are.” She chuckled as Aya’s mouth dropped open, the Dreamer managed to turn an even darker shade of red. She decided to cut Aya a break considering she was likely in a bit of pain after Askar’s congratulatory gesture and gently rolled Aya off herself towards her uninjured right side. Askar leaned over and lifted Elohwa to her feet as if she weighed nothing more than a feather then did the same for Aya, but much more gently because of her injury. Elohwa handed Aya a healing potion who quickly gulped it down, the cinnamon flavor really helped the medicine go down, within a few minutes the pain died away and she was once again able to move her arm without cringing.