I felt Grigor’s surprise as he laid eyes on our construction as the four dangerous Woltar walked over to Sania and me, bringing with them an air of tension.

“This is an impressive feat, Clive. Built in a day, too. I’m surprised,” Grigor remarked as we headed over to climb the muddy rock part of the fortification. From the flattened area at the top we were able to look out over the pass which headed down toward the forsaken lands.

“It’s a waste of time,” Niko said. Eying the wall with scepticism. “What’s it supposed to stop exactly?”

Grigor ignored the barbs. “I can see how it would slow an advancing enemy down if only temporarily. It gives an excellent view down the valley, too. It might be a good idea to post a small force here?”

“It’s a good idea,” I agreed. “We all know it’s limited in its effectiveness. Hopefully, it will give us a little bit of extra safety as we try to build more.”

“What we really need,” Joel said coming over with Scralex and Grastad by his side, “is a palisade wall around the Far Reach whitan where we can defend from and hopefully build in relative safety. With those who worked today, I think we could get a palisade built within three days, if I can get a few people on making rope.

After that I can spend some time on producing a stone building which will provide us with a safe place that can stand up to some real punishment.”

“The elderly can make your rope, Joel,” Sania said. “They probably shouldn’t be used too much for the heavy lifting.”

“Your all insane,” Niko snapped and in a single leap bounded down to the ground from the wall and stalked off in the direction of the whitan.

“It seems like a sound plan if we are determined to dig in here,” Grigor said. “Best just to ignore Niko.”

Joel beamed. “We shall begin tomorrow then?”

A round of nodding and grunts of agreement answered.

“Same plan again tomorrow?” Grastad asked almost excitedly, “Nystiobek on trees, Krysan on trenches?”

“Absolutely,” Joel clapped. “The rest of the Wultr who want to help can assist with either of those tasks. Alternatively, while we build the palisade, if anyone has spare time, it would be great to have any rocks, boulders and the like brought near the whitan and stacked up for when we start the building.”

“What have you done with Joel?” I asked both amused and impressed with the all-new Joel in front of me.

“I’ll tell you tonight once we’re settled. Right now I need to go have a lie down before I drop down.”

We made our way back to the camp, and despite wanting to sit down and not move till the following morning, I had a job to do. I took some mint from Joel and was relieved to say it had remained in perfect condition within his robes of holding. Sania collected a hefty chunk of Wultr roasted meat, which essentially meant it had been quickly burnt on the outside. Then we headed over to the cauldron tended by Gilna, the Wultr lady who I’d made the tea with last time.

Putting the meat in into a hand full of simmering water. We sat by the fire together with Gilna who was busy repairing one of the leather packs she carried.

“What shall I put the points in?” I asked Sania.

“Where are we most likely to need the points?”

“We have ten to use, we could split them.”

“Seems a waste. Whenever you eat this, it’s most likely going to be when we’re being attacked. Choose Speed, Strength, Stamina or a combination of two of those.”

“It would be good if we didn’t have to use this before I can make a food item for each stat,” I said thoughtfully.

“Why stop there. Surely the aim would be to make many for each stat. Then we can always have them to hand no matter what the world throws at us.”

“I wonder if they stack. Can you imagine eating them all in the middle of a fight and jumping up all those levels?” I said thoughtfully.”

“As amazing as that would be, it is highly unlikely. There always seems to be a balance to such things and that has the potential to make someone far too powerful. It’s still worth testing it out, though,” she added.

“If it doesn’t work, we lose a lot of value.”

“A problem for when we have plenty to test with, now concentrate on the cooking and choose Strength.”

I did as she said and threw the perfect mint in with the hunk of deer meat.

“Won't that just be deer meat in mint tea?”

“Ha, at the minute, I’d call that a mint broth. By the time we’re finished, it’s going to be mint infused deer fillet, with a perfect mint reduction. I could do with something to wrap it with once it's finished cooking. Do we have anything like that?”

“Here,” Gilna said raking in her pack and producing a leather square a foot wide. “Wrap the food in this.”

“Thank you,” I said bobbing my head as I took it in some kind of weird half bow.

“Hey, Sania. Why did you choose Strength?”

“Why not Strength? We didn’t really have any reason to pick one over the other of our three main options. So I just picked the first one on our physical statistics list.”

“As always, you don’t fuck about do you?”

“Time is too precious to waste on pointless pursuits unless they are fun.”

I laughed at her summation of life and found I fully agreed with the sentiment.

While the liquid in the pot reduced, we were greeted with the arrival of Joel and Lierin. I thought he would be pasted to his bed for the rest of the night after all of the work we’d done.

“Hey guys,” he said tiredly. Lierin just smiled at us as they sat down.

“So, I’m recovered enough now, to talk a little.”

“He couldn’t keep it in any longer, Clive. He wanted you to know,” Lierin said, with a wide smile for Joel.

“It’s true. Back at the wall I didn’t want everyone overhearing, just in case. Not everyone here is necessarily a friend to us.”

“Fair enough. You know Gilna’s here, though, right?”

Joel smiled at Gilna, who gave him a small wave back.

“I didn’t mean our pack, Clive.” He said, as if I’d lost his mind. Even though I had no idea, he now considered Sania’s pack ours. It made me happier than I thought it would to hear him say it.

“Anyway, I got my skill up. It’s fucking mental, man. Like really disconcerting. I reached level 34 in Building Construction and Management. Here, let me tell you what it says:

Building Construction and Management Level 35.

+20 Strength when engaged in construction based activities.

+20 Dexterity when engaged in construction based activities.

+20 Speed when engaged in construction based activities.

No rest for the builder (Unlocked Level 10)

+20 Stamina when engaged in construction based activities.

No stone unturned (Unlocked Level 20)

+20 Agility when engaged in construction based activities.

Building management (Level 1) (Unlocked Level 30)

+ 35 Intelligence, when engaged in construction related activities.

Ability to see properties of construction materials.

Building Management Imprint Buffs.

By imprinting one of the materials used in the construction of your building project, you can impart one of the following buffs:

+10 points to building defense. X2 to speed of healing. (Roofed buildings only.) 15% increase in productivity. (Roofed buildings only.)

Architect (Unlocks at)

“Holy, fucking, shit, man. That intelligence! Them buffs!” I said almost drooling. “This is fucking huge!”

“I know, right? That’s why I’ve decided on building the palisade around the settlement first, with a +10 defense. It makes the most sense. Then I want to rebuild the whitan in stone, again adding the defense buff. After that, I was thinking a house of healing with the healing buff, obviously. Then… and I don’t want to get a head of myself here, but if you guys are going to stay here for a long time, we could set some buildings up for trade shops. Blacksmiths, stone masons, carpenters. We could give all of those buildings the increased productivity bonuses!”

Sania snorted. “You guys are crazy. Clive died this time yesterday and all was lost. Today we’ve begun making a settlement with the enemy pack and I’m now living with Nystiobek, Krysan and Woltar!”

“Let’s not forget Clive had no legs a little over a week ago,” Joel added sagely.

“I see your intelligence has disappeared,” I said with punch to his arm and a wry smile.

“Yeah. It’s so weird being that smart and then it just disappears. Even when it’s there, it really only works when I’m thinking about buildings,” he chuckled. I can look at the existing whitan and can see it’s about six inches out of square, front to back. One glance tells me there are approximately 98 posts in its externally facing walls, though there will be at least 160 feet of timber tying those walls together internally with four roof trusses. Then if I look away and try to work out something like 7 times 8, it takes me ages and I have to work it out the same way as always. It really brings it home how much intelligence matters and we’ve all overlooked it from the beginning.”

“That’s what happens when you haven’t got much intelligence to start with, mate. It’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy and I found that out the hard way, too. I’ve used the temporary Intelligence boosts from the cooking skill a few times, and really missed it when it was gone.”

“You saw I leveled again, right?”

“No mate, I missed it,” I said casting a glance above his head showing he was now level sixteen.

“Well I did. I got 400xp for building the wall.”

“Congratulations. Keep on building and you’ll be super Joel in no time. What did you put the points in?”

“Guess?”

“I’m guessing it wasn’t Constitution like we talked about.”

“Nope, Intelligence. I’m now at nineteen. I realized it was easily the most important thing I could choose next. Now that I have the increased intelligence, do you know what I’m going to choose next?”

“No idea, mate. Hit me with it.”

“Turns out I now think you were completely right about bolstering Constitution,” he laughed. “I intend to keep working on Intelligence, still. I want it up to 30 as soon as possible, but I want to survive too. The clarity of mind is remarkable, and it’ll help me make much better decisions in the future.”

“Hey man, you don’t need to convince me. I’m leaving my own as it is for now, because I still need to fight, but honestly, we have that many strong warriors around us now. Unless we’re desperate, you’re far more use to everyone building rather than fighting and that hospital sounds like a fucking awesome idea.”

Joel nodded happily and Lierin seemed content, too. Leaning against his arm. I wondered after this how he was feeling about going back home. I wasn’t going to ask him now. I’d let him tell me in his own time. I suspected he might change his mind, though.

We chatted for a good while until it was time to pull out the meat, now coated in the mint reduction. I laid it in the leather wrap Gilna had given me and wrapped it up still hot, handing it to Joel, immediately.

He looked at me with an unimpressed expression. “You not wanna let it cool first, Clive? Or are you trying out scientific experiments with hot meals in my robes?”

“You caught me,” I laughed. “Damn your increased intelligence!”

He shook his head, still smiling. “I can’t wait until you get your own whatever of holding,” he grinned popping the steaming package into his robes.

“And on that note, I’m off to bed,” he announced rising from the fire. “Another busy day tomorrow. Lots to do.”

The following morning before any work started, I gathered Joel, Sania, and Grigor, along with Grastad as the Nystiobek representative, Scralex as the Krysan, and Niko, so he didn’t feel left out, which would just make him worse.

I was aware that everything had changed so fast and rather than keep heading down a path that would cause problems, I thought it best to talk about it now.

I had spoken briefly to Grigor across our bond to explain my thinking, and he was going to lead the discussion. It would only lead to conflict and raise questions if I were to do so, and that would lead to animosity. Particularly from Niko who hunted reasons to be offended like a starving Wultr looking for its next meal.

“We represent the prominent members across what were once our own individual packs. Now we are one,” Grigor started.

“Why is the Demon Spawn and Sania here then? Do they get two representatives? The little human, too. Is he one of our senior people now?”

Grigor opened his mouth to speak, but Joel was quicker.

“I’m here to speak in matters relating to construction for the pack, and what we can achieve if we can all agree on a unified goal in relation to developing a fortified position here.”

I fought to keep the smirk from my face as Joel’s Building Management Intelligence clearly just came to the fore.

“Then you aren’t needed here, because it is a waste of time,” Niko spat. He was never going to be happy whatever was said, but Joel’s interruption had distracted him momentarily from why both Sania and I were here. Which was good, because we didn’t really have a good enough answer with the subterfuge we were running.

“Why is it a waste of time, Niko?” Grastad asked. “We lost everything of our territories. We always running and fighting and dying for many years. We have so very little children left and soon we become no more if we keep doing what we are already doing.”

Scralex nodded enthusiastically at the statement, which boded well. “Krysan are not nomadic. Prefer one strong place to nest.”

Niko sneered. “You think you can build something that will keep out the creatures we face?”

“I would argue that we try to draw the battle away from our base camp as it has always been, Niko,” Grigor said. “It would only be used defensively as a last resort. As were we leave our children, injured and old has always been.”

“As it has always been? In the past we could always move them further away if we needed to! Here, they will be stuck in one spot like a lame deer,” Niko retorted.

“I understand your point, and that is a concern, Niko,” Sania said. “But as we’ve already talked about. The Craster ranges does not stretch south forever. If we were to run south as a full pack, we would reach the southernmost limit of the mountains in no more than five days. After that, we would be fully in the lands of the Gods of light. I assure you we are not welcome among them. There is nowhere left for you to run. If Destructions forces come, we will have to fight them somewhere. Better here than further south.”

“Oh they’re coming,” Niko said, grimly.

Grigor nodded. “They are, and we already knew when we came here that this was likely our last place to make a stand, Niko. We need an anchor in the storm.”

Niko’s head sagged. He was the only one who seemed to be fighting the plan. “I can see why you would like somewhere for our family to be safe while we fight. I see there are benefits to this path. I don’t even mind the little human builder man.” His eyes fell on me, and he pointed a long clawed finger. “But you, demon spawn. You, I do not trust.” He spun on Grigor. “I will agree to the plan of building a fortified place for us here, but I wish to leave and rove the border, freely away from that thing you’ve invited into our ranks. I will scout and pick up any incursions into our new lands.”

“As you wish, Niko. That is a task that needs doing and none will do it as well as you. Come, we will arrange who will go with you.”

“I can pick my own people,” Niko snapped.

Grigor surprised me by laughing. “You will only pick people from your old pack when we need to come together, not have further divisions forming. Take five each of the Krysan and the Nystiobek. Kuhn will come in my stead with four of his choosing. Then take five of your own choice. I expect you all to work in harmony, Niko.”

Niko didn’t reply, but waved his hand in dismissive acceptance as he stalked off across the camp. There was an instant easing of the tense atmosphere as he left.

“So we’re all agreed on doing this?” Joel asked.

“We are, Joel. Please tell us your plans,” Grigor replied.

“I have ideas of what and when to build. Wall first and then a new whitan. Then I wish to build a hospital.”

“Hospital?” Grigor asked intrigued.

“A house of healing,” Sania offered a little unsure herself.

Joel nodded. “In that building, injuries will heal twice as fast, and we can perhaps have someone who is skilled in treating the injured work in there. After that we can see how everyone feels about what we think the next steps should be.”

With unanimous agreement, the meeting swiftly concluded, and Joel left with Scralex and Grastad to begin the work. Leaving only Sania, Grigor, and me remaining.

“These are strange times indeed,” Grigor said, once they’d moved out of earshot. “If I hadn’t seen that wall go up so quickly yesterday, I would have been dubious about any of this. Yet, despite my own predicament here, with you, Clive, I have a glimmer of hope for my people that I didn’t have before.”

I was interrupted from responding by a cry of alarm. A Krysan ran into the camp, screeching that we were being attacked. Sania and Grigor began barking out orders immediately. I looked round like a headless chicken. Only Joel returning and tossing my hammer focused me.

“Thanks, man,” I shouted over to him. He gave me a thumbs up and then went to stand over next to Lierin his own short sword in his hands. I looked down at the Fledgling Hammer of Pitiful Absorption. It was barely any use to me now. I could heal myself far better than it could, and my own fists did more damage. That wasn’t even counting Neuma. As its stats sprung up, I accepted that it was essentially useless now.

War Hammer of Pitiful Absorption:

Rarity: Uncommon

Damage: Bludgeon - 8

Peirce - 10

Weight: 3lbs

Durability: 8

Attribute: drain one point of health from an opponent on every penetrating blow

Warning: Repair weapon before durability reaches 0 and the weapon is destroyed.

Still, I figured it had one good throw left in it.

“They’re at our new wall, Clive. C’mon,” Sania said, interrupting my inspection. I nodded and took off after her running through the forest.