Chapter 74 – Stacks

Sal realized his mistake the moment he filled Erika in on the situation. The entire team had assembled to listen to his report on the tower. He decided not to hold back on the details and thought that it would likely result in them changing their plan.

“So, all you need is essence and wood? And you can turn this place into a fort?” Erika’s eyes had lit up at the prospect of having a more defensible structure, and Sal tried to manage her expectations.

“An insane amount of both! Infusing the wood with essence refines it into a smaller and more compact material. If I was to follow the blueprint for the tower and tent, it would take over fifteen hours of nonstop work while managing my own essence. That’s assuming we have all the wood that we need, which we don’t.”

Sal’s voice was earnest as he tried to make her understand, but Erika just smiled as she shook her head.

“And you said about the walls, like fortifications? You just need essence and wood again. Right?”

She was almost giddy at the prospect, and Sal felt like he was talking to a stranger. Her cold and broken visage had been replaced with a face filled with excitement. Sal wondered whether she had finally cracked and become delirious because of the stress and expectations on her shoulders. He didn’t want to be the person to burst her bubble, but he needed her to understand what she was asking of him. It was a monstrous amount of labor that wasn’t even guaranteed to work out. All the predictions from the visor were just that—predictions.

“Erika, even if we had the wood—and it would need to be at least twenty times what we’ve gathered so far—the essence requirement is more than I’m capable of outputting. Fifteen hours was the estimate based on my recovery rate, but I’ll need to take breaks to eat and sleep. It’ll massively impact the time we have available before the next ambush. I think we need to brainstorm a different solution.”

Sal looked around at the others to see whether he had their support, but they were all looking at Erika for her reaction.

Erika smiled as she tapped Brophy on the chest. “We’ll get Brophy to help on the essence front. Rochelle can use her Transference ability to act as a conduit between the two of you. That should give you enough essence to get through the project.” She turned and gestured at Ioseph. “Ioseph and I will gather wood. Brophy and Rochelle can join us while your essence reserves are high.”

Sal was dumbfounded by the suggestion. Erika Clifton was going to collect wood for their team? He looked around at the others and saw them nodding at the prospect. Sal didn’t know whether he was just anxious about having so much responsibility on his shoulders, or whether he was finally going insane, but he tried his best to convince them that there was a better way.

“Even if we use Brophy for the essence, we’re placing a lot of faith into this one plan. If Ioseph is in the forest getting wood, then we won’t be refining the battle-wards and barriers for the camp. If I screw this up, we’ll be set back by days.”

Sal finally addressed the concern that niggled in the back of his mind. He wasn’t confident in his ability to complete such a large-scale project, especially with the stakes being so high.

Erika sighed and placed a hand on her hip as she gestured at the campsite with the other. “Look around. We’re essentially a tent with a few barriers. We don’t have the element of surprise anymore, as our opponents know our abilities and what to expect. Having a defensible structure that gives us range and versatility in combat would be a huge advantage.” Her hand circled their group as she kept her eyes locked on Sal.

“Right now, our environment is the best it can be because of Ioseph’s barriers. Brophy, Rochelle, and I can’t contribute meaningfully to the camp construction, which is why we need to rely on you.”

Sal wanted to interject, but Erika raised a single finger to halt him. He stopped and followed her finger as she pointed to the tent behind them.

“You made that with rocks and duffel bags. You’ve already shown how reliable you are as a Support, and everything you’ve told us sounds like the best method for upgrading our camp. I wanted you on this team because of your versatility, but I had no idea just how resourceful you would be. If you had said that it can’t be done, then that would be a different story.” An uncharacteristic smile crossed her lips. “But all you’ve told us is that it’s possible but will require a lot of effort.”

Sal shoulders sagged as he let out a sigh. “You want to go with the fort option, I take it?”

Erika’s grin was answer enough.

Sal ate his food quietly as he mulled over the task ahead. It was eerily quiet in the camp as everyone watched him expectantly between bites of their own meals. His assigned rations from Rochelle were still packed with vegetables, and Sal had long stopped complaining about the lack of meat in his diet. Behind him, the once towering stockpiles of wood had been transformed into neatly formed stacks. It had initially taken much longer than the visor had predicted, but Sal had picked up the pace as he got used to the refining process.

All the twigs and branches had been fused into uniformly cut stacks of wood. The blackened trees had kept their ominous hue and the addition of essence had given them an almost reflective quality. In their basic state, they had been a Common material, but with the infused essence, it had been enough to bump many of the stacks into the Uncommon grade. The preparation was complete and now all Sal needed to do was start the assembly. That was the reason for the silence during their meal.

Brophy’s hand trembled as he raised the fork to his mouth. Sal felt a massive pang of guilt at seeing the man so close to the dregs because of Erika’s plan. He had operated as a battery for Sal throughout the entire day, and he was clearly close to his limits. Rochelle was physically fine, but her eyes were filled with concern when she looked between Sal and Brophy. Only Ioseph and Erika looked unfazed by the tension around the stove, with the latter eyeing the stacks that dominated their campsite.

“Do you need to wait for Brophy to recover, or do you have enough essence to finish the project?”

Her tone was controlled, and Sal wondered whether he had imagined her smile from the previous day.

Sal shook his head as he glanced at Brophy. “I can get started without him. If I start to struggle, we can use the Transference. That should give him enough time to recuperate. The essence absorption rate here is incredible, so he’ll probably be back to full within an hour or two.”

Brophy grinned as he placed his plate on the ground. “An hour is more than enough. I can’t be the only one who’s excited to see our new accommodations?” He looked around the group, and his easygoing smile managed to alleviate some of the tension.

Rochelle smiled as she took Brophy’s empty plate and stacked it beneath her own.

Ioseph had his arms folded as he stared at the stacks of wood. “It’s hard to believe that all the wood we dragged here only amounted to that. I can’t get my head around how much they’ve shrunk.”

Erika nodded as she followed his gaze. “Are they just more compact?”

Sal shrugged, which caused a few looks of surprise. He raised his hands defensively and smiled. “I just know how to do it; I don’t necessarily understand everything about it yet. Most of this stuff has been learned through trial and error. I’ve only had a handful of Crafting classes with Upgrade and haven’t learned anything about refining from her yet.”

Ioseph frowned. “I know it’s rude to ask, but I can’t figure your ability out at all. Are you an Appraiser, or a Crafter?”

Sal met his gaze and smiled. “Yes.”

Ioseph chuckled and shook his head. “Suit yourself. It’s really impressive, though. I don’t know where we’d have been sleeping without it!”

At those words, Erika got to her feet and stretched her back. “Speaking of which. I’d very much like to sleep tonight in our new fort. We’re not going to get any closer to it by chatting here.” She gestured for Sal to hand over his plate, which he did wordlessly.

It was finally time for him to get started. His essence was fully restored, and he had the blueprint firmly ingrained into his mind. He exhaled slowly as he moved toward the first stack of wood. Mythcrafter prompted him with the placement of each component and Sal was relieved to see that it looked like a giant puzzle.

All he needed to do was stack the pieces of wood in certain positions and his essence would keep them in place. The weight of each piece of timber was putting an unforeseen drain on his essence, but Sal ignored it and continued. He had to enter their tent a few times to place a few of the larger pieces, with most of them creating a lattice-like effect across the sloped ceiling. Sal didn’t question the blueprint as he stacked some of the wood on top of each other, leaving it for the ability to figure out when it came to flooding the thing with essence.

When he added the hundredth piece of wood, Sal was nearing his breaking point. With a wave to Brophy and Rochelle, they got into position and Sal felt his essence being bolstered artificially. It wasn’t like the cores he tethered to in the workshop as it was an already refined essence of another person. If he had to describe it, it wasn’t neutral…but still worked for what he needed it to do.

There were another three stacks to go, and Sal guessed that he was around sixty percent of the way to completion. The tricky part was climbing up onto the tent and having Ioseph hand him the large planks that would act as the basis for the tower. Smaller pieces were able to be thrown up to him, which sped things up considerably.

Sal continued to work for another couple of hours, long after all the pieces had been assembled. With so many parts of the puzzle, he couldn’t afford to take a risk and activate it. He checked each piece to see whether anything had dislodged and was relieved about his decision when he found more than five errors scattered around the tent. One had been a large mistake in the interior that likely would have caused the project to fail. Sal wondered whether it would result in all the components falling or whether they’d just fuse together incorrectly.

Erika stood with her arms crossed as she watched Sal intently. Maybe she had looked into his mind and knew that he was close to the finish line, or maybe she had been watching the entire time. Sal didn’t know which it was as he slid off the roof and admired his handiwork. It didn’t look like much at the moment, but it would transform into something truly great. His blueprint had given him a fair idea of the finished outcome, and Sal was excited to see their reactions. It had been almost two days of refining, and he was ready for it to be finished.

The sloping tent was barely visible with all the planks of wood surrounding it. The tower looked more like a roughshod assortment of small panels and branches, with a series of planks visible at its base. The slate color of the rock enclosure contrasted with the blackish hue of the wood, and to everyone staring at it, it looked terrible. All their work had culminated in a tent surrounded by wood and it wasn’t hard for Sal to read the apprehension on their faces. Only Erika looked confident, but Sal knew she was cheating.

With a deep breath, Sal flooded the structure with his essence and pulled sharply on the tether Rochelle had given him. Brophy’s essence mingled with his Mythcrafter essence and blended into both the tent and the surrounding wood. Sal watched in fascination as the planks started to fuse together.

Each component hungrily drank in the offered essence and glowed vibrantly. It truly was a sight to behold as it took shape. Sal moved into the tent and applied his essence to the lattice on the ceiling. Pillars of glowing wood pierced through the tarp as the tower above started to take shape. Sal needed to stay underneath it as it would be impossible for him to scale the tent in the construction phase.

A few gasps from outside told him that it was starting to take shape, but Sal zoned out those thoughts as his visor picked key areas that needed his attention. Essence needed to be massaged into certain points that hadn’t fused automatically. Planks had to be repositioned and the tent needed to be pulled in different directions to accommodate the change in layout. It was a slow process, but Sal was happy to do it. With every little tweak or change, he saw the improvements it would make to the overall result.

When he finally exited the tent, he was met with a look of pure astonishment from Erika, which made the whole ordeal worth it. Brophy was equally impressed as he moved around to inspect the structure more closely. Rochelle prevented him from getting too far away as she yanked his sleeve back to keep him tethered. Ioseph shook his head in disbelief, and it warmed Sal’s heart to see their reactions to his work.

After some final touches, Sal noticed that the structure was no longer taking any of his essence.

He deactivated his ability and stood back with the group. It was finally time to see the result.