I Built This City [LitRPG Lateral Progression Kingdom Building]

The warmth of the fire was a welcome change from the dreary cold outside. Winter was approaching like a charging bull, and it was one more thing to worry about. Gaining access to the Settlement Interface had been humbling, as it made Ellen realize exactly how ambitious their plan to winter alone in the ruins in secrecy had been.

Now, with their new Classes, it was possible. Probably. Barely.

But she wanted to have a backup plan.

She rubbed her hands together briskly as Village Ellen settled into a seat beside her. The smile that her other self gave was reassuring, calming. The light pat of a warm hand on hers was a little strange, but it felt nice and steadying. Ellen hadn’t gotten the chance to ask what Village Ellen’s Class choice had been, but she was pretty sure it was something focused on hospitality.

“Now I hope this isn’t bad news,” Lauren said as she dropped into the chair across from the two redheads. Despite working less thanks to Village Ellen’s presence, Lauren had lost a little weight since that first time Ellen had seen her. The middle-aged woman was still what one might affectionately call ‘pleasantly plump’ in some areas, but she looked less overweight and more had the appearance of a woman who was simply living well.

Tobias joined the table a moment later, his brow creased in worry. “Has something happened?”

This was why what she was doing was so hard. Ellen couldn’t help but feel guilty at how pleasant and helpful these two were. No wonder Village Ellen enjoyed it here.

Ellen looked to her other self, who nodded slightly.

“We haven’t been completely honest with you,” Ellen began. “About our situation, I mean. You’ve both been—the entire village, really—so helpful and friendly to us, we really want to come clean. It’s nothing terrible that will get you in trouble… we think.”

“I won’t let it make trouble.” Village Ellen cut in with a firm tap on the table. “You two deserve better.”

The resolve in her tone made Ellen give her supposedly more delicate self an odd look. I’m really going to need to ask what her Class is, she thought to herself.

Lauren sighed, “Oh, you two. I know you likely ran away from home.” She placed her hands on her lap. “I have my thoughts about that and your parents, but I didn’t want to jump into your business until you felt ready to tell me.”

Ellen looked at her other self and cleared her throat. Village Ellen shrugged back.

“That isn’t… exactly wrong,” Ellen admitted. “I did run away because dad didn’t want me to be an adventurer. With how my luck has been… maybe he has a point.”

“Definitely,” Village Ellen grumbled.

Gesturing to her villager counterpart, Ellen continued. “The big difference from what you’re expecting is that she isn’t my sister at all. She’s um… me.”

“You know, technically I’m older, so wouldn’t it be better to say you’re me, not the other way around?” Village Ellen cupped her chin in her hand as if just now considering this angle.

Ellen waved the objection away. “Maybe. Doesn’t matter.”

“Hold on,” Tobias interrupted. He placed his hands down on the table, edge down, as if holding a box. “This isn’t making any sense. You’re saying you aren’t twins, you’re both Bea, and there’s two of you? I’m not sure I understand the difference.”

Lauren’s face had a look of concern on it, but she let her husband do the talking.

Letting out a deep sigh, Ellen tried to answer. “We’re the same person. A girl who goes by Ellen Tember. Even that isn’t our real name but um… that’s for later. We went to kill a goblin and something strange happened, and there were two of us, so we decided to pose as twins and work here while we figured out what to do. That’s when you met us.”

“We didn’t like lying even from the start,” Village Ellen hurried to assure. “But it sounds pretty unbelievable, right? So we thought we should make up a story like that.”

Lauren frowned and leaned forward, clasping her hands together atop the table. “Girls… that is a very difficult thing to believe. I don’t know a lot about magic, but I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

Ellen nodded and rubbed the back of her neck. “We haven’t either. At least, nothing that would be found in a random mountain in the wilderness. That’s not the problem though. I’m pretty sure I’m telling the truth because after a while it um… happened again. A few times.”

She turned and tucked her fingers to her mouth to give a shrill whistle, then looked back to the innkeeper and his wife.

Village Ellen drummed her hands on the table. “Tobias, remember when you were worried about my sister doing all those different things?” She waited for his confused nod. “She isn’t. Those are all different people. I mean they’re all me, too, but doing different things.”

Tobias frowned, speaking slowly. “So you’re saying that there are more of you, and trying to learn how to… oh. Oh I see now. You’re building a home.”

Ellen smiled, nodding quickly. “Yes, exactly! Two of us have construction-related Classes, and the rest of us are helping them restore some of the old ruins. It’s better than showing up in the village with seven identical girls, right? But with so many of us now, we can’t keep it a secret easily.”

Village Ellen looked down at her lap. “We were hoping that you two could help us break the news to the village slowly. I know Merchant Ellen here has restricted the forest around our new home, but that won’t last forever. Someone will take a wrong turn, or even just go up the road as they clear it.”

Lauren nervously nibbled on a fingernail as she listened to all of this. “O-oh… I’m not sure I even know… even if you told anyone else, it’s a little hard to believe.”

The door opened, almost perfectly on cue. Ellen recognized the fur cloak, shoddily but lovingly made, as soon as Hunter Ellen walked in. She’d been pretty sure the keen-eared Ellen would hear the whistle from where she waited outside.

Tobias started to rise, but Hunter Ellen gestured for him to stay seated, then tucked her hood back. She didn’t keep it down, in case someone else walked in to see three Ellens, but it gave the innkeeper enough of a look to confirm who she was.

“Meet Hunter Ellen,” Ellen smiled. “We each have names for telling one apart, and this version of me lives in the forest. I’m Merchant Ellen, and Village Ellen is the one that lives with you.”

“I look the most different from the others, so I can’t really visit much, sorry.” Hunter Ellen gave a nod of her head, letting the two look her over.

“Celeste’s light, this is a lot to take in,” Lauren whispered, fanning herself. Tobias steadied her as the woman breathed deeply, looking between the three young women that were now undeniably multiplying.

“Yeah,” Ellen agreed. “We’re trying to just survive the winter, handle the dungeon, and get enough money together that we can afford a good sage to look at us. But we don’t want to be found and have one of us dragged back to our home before we have a chance.”

“Girls, I think we’re going to need a few minutes here,” Tobias interrupted. “Can you give us a moment in private?”

“Of course,” Ellen and Village Ellen said in unison. The latter blushed awkwardly and touched her fingers to her lips, giving an apologetic shake of the head.

As the two retreated to a whispered discussion between themselves, Ellen leaned back and once again tried to figure out the Settlement Interface.

It was fascinating to see, but Ellen wasn’t sure how useful it would be to her yet. The implication was that it could be upgraded, possibly through more Perks, but she hadn’t seen anything in the Perk list that directly leapt out at her. The possibilities she did see had a lot of potential, too. Just focusing on the Cellar gave her a glimpse of what could be.

She could continue to look through the items in the cellar, but without any counts. The only thing that had a number after it was the barrel of pickles, which she’d looked at that morning. Even this much was useful to her, but if she could somehow get it to update itself, it would be a phenomenal resource.

Other portions of the interface showed an overlay of what land she owned, though the village was infuriatingly greyed out. It claimed to need a name and a high acceptance of the population of exactly 187 villagers. Her acceptance rating was an abysmal 21% at the moment. Aside from the population, she couldn’t determine anything about the village.

The iron mine was listed, and so was the dungeon, oddly enough. The actual inside of the dungeon wasn’t viewable, but she could see its rough domain influence… and it was a lot larger than she’d thought it would be. There was already enough space in there for at least three floors, four if it were tight.

What interested her most was that having a Landkeeper Class—thanks to Hunter Ellen—gave her more information about the forest and land around Onroc Anroll. She knew the approximate health of the trees, the growth rate of the forest, and a rough percentage of what kinds of trees were in the forest… though there was a distressingly large percentage of ‘Unknown’ in there. About 12% wasn’t identified.

Upgrading this from ‘Basic’ might make it even more powerful.

“What Class did you take, Ellen?” Just thinking of all this reminded her to ask Village Ellen that.

The other Ellen blinked and shook herself out of her thoughts. “Me? It’s called Townsaver, and it said it was meant to make a town safer and more comfortable for the people within it, with some unique ability to defend it from attackers. I don’t know what the last part meant yet, but it seemed like a natural fit for me.”

Ellen frowned. “I didn’t see that on my list. Must be something that you uniquely qualify for. Or maybe if you chose it later than us, one of our choices unlocked it for you. Did you get a lot of weird options you’d never heard of?”

“Oh, loads,” Village Ellen confirmed. “And I waited, I was busy when the Level came through so I didn’t select a Class until I had a moment to sit.”

Tobias interrupted the quiet discussion by walking back toward them and clearing his throat.

“Girls… er… Ellens?” The man stumbled for a respectful way to address them, realizing that Ellen was technically his lord now. “Are we going to have to worry about your family? I feel for your situation… strange as it is… but um…”

“If our family comes looking for us, point them to us, that’s fine,” Ellen reassured. “I… we just need to be able to go to the village more often. If my uncle shows up, he’ll be able to help us. I hope.”

Tobias looked doubtful, frowning, so Ellen gave him her best smile.

“Trust me.”