Chapter 156: Thera's Perspective
Chapter 156 of "Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube" starts with: Once again sheâd woken up alone. Giving it a bit of thought, unless Ben was... Continue exploring!
Once again sheâd woken up alone. Giving it a bit of thought, unless Ben was up late into the night working on something he would typically be up before her, out to her uncleâs shop with breakfast waiting on the table. It seemed like it was around noon though, so she got up and dressed before going out of the room to see what everyone else was doing.It looked like she was the last up, with the others already recruited into work. Sachel and Ralia were tending to the fire, extracting tar from the wood that had been gathered while Skoe was back at the oil press.
She didnât see Ben immediately, but felt him off to her right and found him at the side of the house, dealing with the most challenging issue of replacing some of the wood it was built with, without damaging the entire structure.
âYou look like youâre having fun,â She said, as he was oh-so-carefully wedging a few logs into the wall to act as support for when he started his construction.
âWell, I wanted to put this off a bit longer, but then I inspected the house itself and decided this was a priority.â
âThat bad?â
âIf Iâd known what it was like beforehand I would have insisted we get the shed. Only a couple places are rotten through and need to be replaced, but one is a major bit of support for the entire building, I thought I was going to have a heart attack seeing it.â
Thera winced, the thought of being buried under a collapsed building was far from an appealing prospect. âSo how long will it take you to fix?â
âWho do you think I am? Iâll have it done in half an hour tops. Once I get the next bit after replaced, all Iâll have to do for the house is cut away any of the lesser rot and coat the outside with a mixture of the tar and oil to seal the wood.â
âAnd the roof? I donât really want the ceiling caving in while we sleep.â
âThankfully no issue. It uses wood shingles and they seem to replace those often enough to keep it functional. I just wish they had a proper craftsman in the village to deal with this. I know a place this small doesnât need anyone with a dedicated construction skill, but the more I see the more there is to do.â
âYou donât need to do everything you know. No matter how good you are, a single person canât rebuild an entire village.â
âAt this point Iâm just going to stick to improving enchantments, fixing fences, weatherproofing, and repairing anything that I think could get somebody killed. Itâs probably manageable.â
She asked herself, thinking of what sheâd seen in the village. There were about thirty houses around and none of them were in great states, she was almost certain heâd be working on every one of them if the villagers let him. At the very least he was lucky there werenât more. It seemed like the dryads still formed family units together, even if there was no relation between them, and multiple generations might live together as well. It was definitely a close community, and thankfully in this one case that worked to their advantage.
âAnyway, now that youâre up, do you think I could trouble you to go with the others to go cut some more trees down for me? I got Skoe to do it before so he should know what to do.â
She grimaced a bit but agreed, not doubting that if they didnât get everything heâd need heâd spend another night awake making and gathering resources to use, no matter how bad of an idea it was.
There were still hours before they commenced their hunt after all, and sheâd have to get used to the most distasteful member of their group eventually if they were going to be working together for the next little bit.
When they got to the forest Skoe immediately took the stone ax Ben had made earlier and started chopping a tree before Thera stopped him.
âWhy are you bothering with that?â
âWeâre here specifically to gather wood,â He said in an annoyed tone, not that her own had been any better. âWhat else would I do?â
She could only sigh at the prospect of dealing with this for days. âSachel, canât you use your water blade spell to cut them down?â
âUm, I donât think I can manage something as thick as a tree trunk. Flesh is a lot easier to cut.â
âSee, now just let me deal with this.â
âOr stand back and wait a few minutes so I can get this done quickly,â She told them all, shooing them to the side before stretching out her hand towards a section of trees.
After a couple minutes of seemingly nothing happening, the four-armed warrior was getting grumpy. âCan we just get this over with and let me cut one do-â
He couldnât finish his thought as multiple load cracks filled the air and eight trees crashed to the earth, leaving the three onlookers with mouths agape. With how much her magics had improved, her overall control had as well by a significant amount, letting her power her telekinesis with her overwhelming mana to push the trees down. The skill made a nice addition for her, though its combat potential was less than sheâd initially hoped. While it was showing that it could supplement some of the control she lacked when using her earth magic at the cost of increasing the time it took to cast a spell, it wasnât so easy to use it directly in combat. When sheâd experimented with it during her hunts, the creature could always feel the mana slowly taking shape around them and was able to easily escape, making the spell she was setting up useless since it couldnât follow its target as it was being put together. For a stationary thing like a tree though, it was perfect.
She turned to the three of them, still staring at the destruction sheâd caused so easily and let herself feel a little smug. âIâll knock a few more down to the right, you guys should probably get to work cutting off the branches on those ones.â
Even though they still didnât seem to be able to accept the situation they got to work on their task as Thera quickly brought down seven more, taking a seat to watch them after she was done.
The waiting was boring, but their stunned reactions to seeing her magic had been worth it. With all the times sheâd been told she should quit adventuring because she wasnât cut out for it, being able to do her job so easily and then lounge around as they rushed to keep up gave her a small vindictive thrill.
Sheâd half considered pushing down a few more, but she didnât know how many Ben would even need and she didnât want to damage the forest any more than sheâd have to, even if she could get some entertainment making a bit more work for the other.
Eventually, they managed to finish their work, though left with a different problem.
âWhen we did this last time, he did something to dry them out,â Skoe told them. âI doubt we could have dragged them back if he didnât. Sachel, do you think you could-â
âNope. At my current skill level pulling the water from a plant isnât possible.â
âSo should we go get him, âcause otherwise these are staying here.â
âOr Iâll just handle it again,â Thera told them. It wouldnât be quick but sheâd be able to get them back there as long as she got plenty of breaks in between, and with an effort of will she began just that, this time using her staff to direct her spell but slowly gathering them up and moving them until she felt her control start to slip before taking a break and starting again. It wasnât fast, but it was the best option at the moment as they made their way back.