I Built This City [LitRPG Lateral Progression Kingdom Building]

Some days, Ellen reflected, everything just comes together.

Weeks had gone by without another death, but Ellen wasn’t letting down her guard. Things were just too fragile right now, with how close they were to winter and how much work the whole group had put into the preparations. Merchant Ellen was even here today, leaving Village Ellen to deal with the curious travelers that kept passing through.

“Here,” Merchant Ellen called out, hoisting up one of the large slats of wood. Mason Ellen, sitting nearby atop the partially-finished roofing, grasped it and slid it over, fitting it against the framing.

Ellen watched as her Mason variant slid a hand over the wood, then nodded. “This should be fine.” She’d rejected two of the slats earlier, feeling out some subtle flaws with Material Sense that Ellen herself couldn’t see, now that she’d switched to a different Perk. It just made sense to cover one another’s gaps like that.

A quick assessment with her own Efficiency Perk let Ellen know where to hammer in the precious nails. A few taps was all she needed for each, affixing the next to last sheet to the framing below. That is, presuming that she had more nails to work with.

“Hey Apprentice, are the rest of the nails ready?” She called down the question without leaning over the side this time… she’d almost met the same fate as her predecessor when trying to talk to the easily-distracted magical version of herself.

“Just rinsing! Let me dry them off!”

Just a few moments later, five more nails tumbled onto the roof, tossed there by Apprentice Ellen below.

The lengthy process of cleaning the rust off of any usable nails didn’t require a lot of focus, but somehow Apprentice Ellen enjoyed just watching the vinegar eat away at the rust, and didn’t mind scrubbing them clean… mostly because she used her magic to do it, and she liked practicing it in novel ways whenever possible.

A vinegar bath, a quick rinse in river water, and then drying off so they weren’t going in wet… and the roof had nails. No need to buy expensive iron hardware when they could salvage an entire village’s worth of stuff. After nearly a century most of it had been reduced to uselessness by exposure to the elements, but some had been shielded by stone walls or partial basements or any number of other things.

Half of the roof had already been thatched, so this was a real milestone to have it completely covered. The place still lacked doors and shutters, but Ellen had already put the framing up for those, and her Mason sister-self had filled in the gaps with the mortar she’d made. Home-wise, things were coming together well.

Ellen inhaled and wiped her brow. It was cold out, but doing this wrapped in the loose cloak really warmed up the body! She still sniffled, wiping her nose, but the slightly runny nose was just a reaction to the cold. She could still smell the weird mingling of Hunter Ellen in the workshop nearby smoking beaver meat, and of Healer Ellen chopping onions down beneath in the kitchen area.

Everyone was doing their part to make the place viable. Ellen still had worries about it, but having a dry spot to sleep that could keep them warm was not one of them. They’d had to suffer through a brief, short frost last week, but five of them huddled up under the increasingly-large pile of blankets had kept everyone warm through the short cold snap. Little work had been done, but she’d accounted for lost days due to rainstorms or other inclement weather when she’d done her estimate.

As Mason Ellen wrestled the last sheet of wood, Ellen scooted herself downward, keeping one hand on the rope so she didn’t slide off the steeply-sloped roof she’d built with the other Ellens. After her predecessor’s accident, Mason and herself had bound themselves to roof with cords, so any fall would have them caught and hopefully stopped short before they hit ground.

Naturally, they hadn’t fallen once, since they had taken precautions. Every one of the Ellens knew by now that if they hadn’t tied themselves off, they’d have had an accident by now. That was simply the way the world worked.

As Mason fitted the panel into place, Apprentice Ellen peeked up from the edge of the roof, standing on the ladder. She watched for a moment, puffing her breath to flick the lock of hair out from between her eyes. Somehow, she’d gotten her hair into wild disarray in comparison to every other Ellen. How she ever did this was a mystery, as it seemed to go in directions Ellen had never seen before.

“H-hey, do you think we can start adding private sleeping spaces? Like, there’s enough room in the attic to have maybe two rooms, four if they’re tiny. I can share one with Healer if it helps.” Apprentice tilted her head hopefully at Ellen.

With a heavy sigh, Ellen shook her head. “Not this winter. Besides, we don’t have the material to make proper beds anyway. Certainly don’t have enough building material to make another floor yet, even if it’s just one underneath the roof. If the place stays warm enough, we can claim corners for ourselves.”

Ellen held back any chiding that Apprentice would have known that if she’d paid attention to the planning. None of them paid attention at every meeting. She knew the information flow as well as any of them… they relied on one another to pass on relevant information. Healer just hadn’t told Apprentice all those details yet.

Apprentice dropped back to the ground, and Ellen smiled. Aside from the partially-reconstructed workshop and the house they were working on, other parts of the old town were falling into place. The area around each of the two most-used ruins was now flat and lacked the undergrowth, so the common problem of insect bites was lessened.

Another ruin nearby had a very simple roof already placed on it—basically just a few beams and some slats to hold up some boards with birch bark atop—to store the firewood. Most of it was still too green to use, but it would be great for next year.

Next year. Have I already decided to stay here?

Ellen looked around at the copies of her working hard, then sighed. Only one of them could actually return home, but she knew after winter they’d be found, if they didn’t do something. All of them knew that.

She shook her head and dismissed the thoughts. Turning to her side, Mason silently slid out of the way to let Ellen gather up the nails and line them up. She started hammering, working on the last few anchors that would turn the old ruin into an actual home. The place where she’d spend the next few months with only herselves for company.

It would be a functional building in a few moments. Still need thatching to be truly complete, plus the doors and shutters, but that wouldn’t take too long compared to the roof. It was exciting, and she also knew she’d be getting a ton of experience for it. She was looking forward to that as she tapped in the final nail, took a breath… and waited.

Truly obscene first-time bonuses continued to roll in, and Ellen stared as some of them began to get… weirder. Mason went quiet, and she heard Merchant Ellen below let out a startled sputtering noise. She wasn’t the only one getting strange notifications.

“Who linked the town to the Dungeon Core?” Ellen looked down over the edge of the roof, but Apprentice just looked up at her and shrugged. Merchant hurried out of the room to look upward, shaking her head in denial as well.

“I’m getting the same notifications. I’ve gone up a Level already and I’m getting a lot closer to Level 11 than I thought I would,” Merchant Ellen called up.

Apprentice Ellen nodded her head quickly, and Hunter Ellen made herself known, her ears having already picked up on the conversation.

“I wasn’t even helping you, and I got the notifications. I’m getting close to Level 11 now. Probably get there well before winter is over.” Hunter Ellen wasn’t looking directly upward, her eyes darting about as she read the scrolling notifications. Most of the ones going by now were much more minor, giving a few hundred at most, but this made it obvious to Ellen that every single one of them was getting credit for the more exotic rewards.

At last, notifications stopped, and Ellen had a chance to open up her Perk selection and take a quick look. She wouldn’t get the expected Attribute boosts at Level 10 until she selected a Perk for Level 9. A pity, since those Attribute bonuses would unlock more Perks.

Ellen frowned at the selection. She’d been expecting most of those, and had been leaning toward Material Sense even if it did overlap with Mason Ellen, but Rangefinder seemed more like a combat-oriented Perk. Why was it there?

She almost dismissed it right there, but then she paused. Accurately measure distances and lengths. She would be able to just look at a tree or length of wood and know roughly how long it was? That would be useful in construction. She wouldn’t have to measure, if it were accurate enough.

Before she could make a decision, a few more notifications popped up, as if chasing the torrent of awards from before.

Ellen looked around at the others, who also had the slightly distant look in their eyes of reading their notifications. One by one they met her eyes, and each shook their head.

Merchant Ellen was the one who voiced the question they were all thinking.

“Settlement Interface?”