The Way Ahead

Chapter 48: An Axe to Grind (With)

Edwin awoke to birdsong, and stretched trying to work out a knot in his back from where a branch had been poking him. Yeah, hed definitely need to make some kind of hammock to aid his sleep. Probably easier to make than a mattress, in any case. The stick, for its part, was cast into the fire and destroyed. It was the little things.

Breakfast was nothing much. One of his travel loaves (he was down to eight now) was enough to hold him for the entire day, and even Nutrition seemed content with his decidedly non-balanced diet. Apparently, with magical assistance anyway, it was adequate? He didnt often dwell on the flavor of what he ate, but the rations, somewhere between rye bread and fruitcake, was just barely not bland enough to be tolerable, though not flavorful enough as to actually be enjoyable. As he chewed on the tough substance, he couldnt help but wonder if it had been intentionally designed that way. You couldnt hit that balance so perfectly by accident, right?

He stood up as he tossed the last bit of the bread into his mouth, stretching and sincerely wishing he had a chair. Something to work on eventually, he supposed. If only he could accept Woodworking with a clear conscience, this would undoubtedly be a much simpler process, but he couldnt justify to himself such a narrow Skill, not when he was declining ones like Stealth or Reflexes. Maybe if it were broader in application, then he could take it, but for a Skill which would only help him here and now? No. Now, where was that formula for the wood-curing concoction?

The Grimoires instructions were as always equal parts frustrating and enlightening. There was no explanation whatsoever what each of the different steps were supposed to actually do, just what their final result would supposedly be. Edwin sighed in disbelief. Who would have ever thought that hed want something to be written more like his chem textbooks? At least the instructions were relatively clear, if not terribly precise. He still didnt know how much a pinch or a small handful were supposed to be, but he also didnt really have anything more precise to measure them with, so it more or less balanced out.

Edwin idly wondered if hed be able to get a grant to pursue research of some sort, but ironically, the closest hed seen of anything like that was when he was forced into working for the dwarves. Eh, more likely, hed be able to come up with something he could sell to fund further research, like a good alchemist, turning scrap to gold. For now though, hed live off the land and do experiments on the magical plants that grew in here. That meant hed need to get to work, though. His musings were enough procrastination for now, though his muscles were already protesting out of sheer anticipation for the amount of work hed put them through.

Edwin would need about forty, maybe fifty trees for his cabin, if he wanted four walls ten feet tall, each about a foot in diameter. That meant his first step was to simply find enough appropriate trees. He didnt want to be picky, but at the same time, he did need them all to be tall enough, straight enough, and, annoyingly enough, all the same species. That last requirement was because of the alchemical formula he was following, whose primary ingredient was ash of the target wood.

Well, he could probably make multiple batches with different base woods if he ended up needing to, but hed rather not complicate things more than needed. It would be tricky enough for him to spread out his ingredients into three small trial runs, budgeting to be on the safe side, allowing for one incorrect batch as his first attempt, an incorrect attempt to fix it, and one correct mixture before his main creation, let alone having to experiment with two different wood ashes, which may or may not affect the rest of the formula.

Edwin had never really been that keen on identifying trees, which made the fact that he still didnt need to memorize different leaf shapes and types of bark, thanks to shortcutting the entire affair with Almanac quite enjoyable. He didnt care what Tara and Lefi said, this thing was fantastic as it was. That said, there were two primary contenders for what he might use to build his house, namely not-cedar and not-fir. There were plenty of other types of trees as well, a surprisingly diverse amount at that, but they werent large enough, werent straight enough, werent enough, or any number of other problems. There was one tree with bark that reminded him of a madrona tree, another reminiscent of oak, and plenty with no easy mapping from what Edwin was used to. Hed even come across a couple truly monstrous trees, one of which was nearly as big around as the size of the cabin he was trying to build, but after a brief fantasy, discarded the idea of carving it into something he could live in. That was just asking for trouble.

In any case, neither not-fir or not-cedar were actually too much like the Earth trees beyond general structure (tall and straight) and bark quality (though not-cedar honestly reminded Edwin more of a maple tree), as both were broad-leaved rather than nettled, and even glassleaves at that, allowing light through selectively. As he studied a leaf, plucked from a nearby low branch, Edwin couldnt help but wonder if he might be able to use the leaves as windows or for light-filtration goggles or something. This property was too unique and cool to allow it to sit unused, though nothing in particular sprang to mind quite yet. Maybe the Grimoire would have some notes to give him a starting point on how to treat them into something which would last longer than a normal fallen leaf.

Anyway! Not-cedar and not-fir. Nedar and Nir, perhaps?

My naming sense is awful.

The nedar had the advantage of not having many branches, and the stringier bark should make it easier to prepare for use. Nir, on the other hand, had way more low-hanging branches, though they would be relatively easy to remove, and the trees themselves were super numerous, and though there was far from a scarcity of either, most of the nedar trees were too thick around for his purposes, averaging around two feet in diameter.

Ultimately, Edwin decided to go with the nir. While he would have preferred the nedar, for the simple reason that he liked how it smelled more it was like a rather sweet cedar scent reminiscent of how scented candles portrayed the wood, he ultimately had to go with the nir. The overwhelming advantage of having plenty of trees in the proper dimensions was more than enough to tip the balance

The first tree Edwin picked out was just off the edge of his meadow. Some eighty feet tall-

Oh yeah, I might be able to get multiple logs from a single tree. That would make things much easier!

-and a little over a foot in diameter, so far as he could estimate, it was on the younger side, but thats exactly what he needed, wasnt it?

He was neither an idiot nor a complete novice when it came to felling trees (he knew the theory, at least), so he started with his hand saw. Sure the blade may have only been twice as long as the tree was wide, but he was still able to cut about halfway through the tree without too much hassle. He could have gone further, yes, but doing so seemed risky. Also, he was sick of it binding in the wood and wanted to take his frustrations out with an axe. As it was, if the tree fell in the direction of the cut, it would fall into the meadow at a bit of a diagonal, so it would lie mostly in the clearing but not obstruct either the stream or crush his shelter.

Once he was done sawing at it, he took his axe to the log, the surprisingly sharp blade digging into the wood with ease, as he wielded it with a surprising amount of ease. Did Survival have a hidden benefit, or was that just Athletics? Maybe Athletics and Flexibility both, to help him strike with such ease every time?

It was just a few minutes before he had a sizable divot cut into the log, his axe strokes meeting where he had cut with his saw, and debris surrounding it all. Okay, that should make sure it fell in the right direction, now to actually cut it down. To do that, he took his hand saw once more, this time to the back of the tree, and started cutting.

Once his cut had nearly connected with the giant divot at the front of the tree, the entire nedar began to creak and groan. Not taking any chances, Edwin took that as his queue to vacate the area entirely, fleeing into the woods and sheltering behind a hefty tree. Hopefully, even if the log did fall in his direction, it wouldnt get past his cover.

The tree, so small in comparison to many of its neighbors, yet still titanic by most reasonable measures, swayed slightly as its branches caught in some of its peers. A flock of birds not scared away by Edwins vigorous axing of the tree scattered, flying off to places unknown. The base began to splinter slightly, and with the sound of countless branches breaking off far above, the tree began to fall.

As it turned out, he neednt have worried as much as he had. The tree fell in more or less the direction he had been hoping for, though the bottom of the trunk also shot out like a battering ram as it broke from the trunk, utterly demolishing a dead tree behind it. The bulk of the tree fell in the meadow, crashing down with enough force that even Edwin could feel it as it transmitted through the ground. Overall? Other than the pile of splinters which hadnt been there two minutes prior, it was a rousing success! Now, he just needed to deal with the colossal mess of broken and unbroken branches that occupied his meadow.

Edwin took his axe to the nir limbs, lopping them off with usually just a single blow, using his new haul to reinforce the roof of his shelter, though some of the branches were tossed into his fire, where they snapped and popped before being consumed by the flames.

It took a few hours before his tree was adequately trimmed, in large part due to caution and inexperience, which put him securely in the afternoon, but even once he was finished, he was still dealing with an absolutely massive titan of wood and bark, to the point where Edwin was rather intimidated by the whole thing. How was he supposed to render this down into logs for his home? It was enormous! Heck, a good twenty feet of the things trunk was still in the forest. Well, at the same time, there was nothing to it but getting to work.

Edwin could barely budge the whole thing, it must have weighed a literal ton, but he could manage it enough to start making cuts in the log itself. He settled on his logs being about twenty feet long, conveniently the length of his remaining rope, so hed have plenty of space inside and a bit of grace when actually cutting the notches into the wood for construction. The actual act of cutting was fairly straightforward, and before long he had three full-length logs and one about ten feet long, before the top started to taper, rendering it unusable for an outer wall. Perhaps an inner one, then? Or he could use it as his ash base.

Edwins stomach rumbled, which caught him off guard. He must have been working hard if his body wanted food already. While loath to do so, he downed another ration loaf and a canteen of water, refilled with water from the waterfall- that was a slippery mess, but doable, and boiled to sanitize it- before it could start to overly protest.

Edwin surveyed his days work, as the suns light began to slowly vanish, the star itself having descended behind the trees some time previous. One giant tree, felled and cut up to be used in his house, check. Piles of wood cuttings littered the previously pristine grass, but that was a relatively small matter. He could gather some up and toss it into the fire. Should be a good show. Regardless, hopefully future days would go a lot faster. Hed gotten three usable logs, after all, but hed need fifteen times that for the walls alone, which meant two weeks of just acting as a lumberjack unless he managed to increase his rate to two per day. And if they were all days as hard as this one? Ugh, that meant his ration supply was cut from a week remaining to three days. Perhaps he should try hunting tomorrow? Or boiling up some of his dried foods?

That might be a decent idea, actually. He wasnt hauling some ten pounds of preserved beans, flour, and rice around for fun, after all. It wouldnt be super flavorful, but he could deal with that. He Almanaced himself a note to make a setup that he could boil water with over his fire, gave a satisfied nod at his work so far, and tucked himself in around his fire. It might have been too early to go to bed, but that didnt mean hed have to push himself any more for the day. Plenty of stuff to do, but there was plenty of time for it.

He scrolled his notifications past, dismissing his offered Skills. No, neither Woodworking, Survivalism, nor Axes were good enough for his final Skill list, not when he only wanted two to three more, though Paths were always nice to get.

Level Up!

Skill Points 444461

Progress to Tier 2: 670/1590

Athletics Level 3337

Breathing Level 2930

Flexibility Level 2526

Outsiders Almanac Level 7980

Packing Level 2427

Survival Level 2128

Congratulations! For chopping down a tree and cutting it into logs, you have unlocked the Woodsman path!

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