I nodded, “we can get that taken care of for sure... After we get things settled tomorrow, I can help you practice. While I might not have a ton of experience with it yet, the knowledge from the game is usually a pretty solid guideline. So, don't worry about it, we'll get things figured out.” I said.

And with that, she snuggled up closer to me, and we laid there. After laying a while in silence, we both fell asleep in each other’s arms.

---

As the morning sun rose, I found myself rousing. Rachel was still laying peacefully at my side, her soft snores signaled she was still sleeping the morning away. I decided it would be best to get started with the morning though instead of waiting for her to get up though, so I slowly climbed out of the bed and got dressed. Heading downstairs I noticed that Alex, Dante, and my Father must have had an early start to the day since their shoes were currently missing from the entryway hall. Walking into the kitchen, the selection was fairly dismal, pretty much just an array of canned goods. Most of our refrigerated items were currently being kept outside where the cool air can replace the lack of electricity.

I grabbed a can of corn beef hash and opened it up with a can opener. I grimaced slightly as I tasted my breakfast. It would be much better hot, that's for sure. I couldn't help but think. The lack of any electricity also rendered the array of heating devices in the kitchen rather useless as well, but, I figured that I could heat up the food with some magic.

I wasn't sure whether or not my mana pathways had healed, and so I pulled open my status.

My attention was only drawn to my debuffs though. I was happy to note that my mana networks were no longer being classified as overcharged but simply taxed. I was certain that by the end of the morning, should all go well, it would no longer be an issue. So, choosing to take a small risk, I channeled a small sliver of fire mana from my core and watched as it slowly snaked its way towards my hand holding the can. As soon as the fire mana finished its connection, I began releasing it.

There really wasn't much of an effect with the minuscule amount of mana I had used, but I could feel the can beginning to heat up, so I knew it was working. After a minute I cut off the flow of mana and felt as the heat dissipated in my hand. The food on the other hand? It was much much better.

So, I sat down at the table and happily ate my meal, and as I was close to finishing, Apinya, our local resident priest joined me.

"Well, how are we doing today Mr. Thomas?" Apinya asked as he nodded towards me. "Looks like you're enjoying yourself."

I smiled, "good morning Bishop."

As I watched Apinya, I noticed that he too ended up heating his food. I was curious though, "How did you just do that?" I asked him.

He smiled, "because I have been blessed, child."

I stared at him in dead silence. What in the hell.

The dead stare I gave Apinya must have made him as least marginally uncomfortable as he shifted to a more... Logical answer. "I've spent every waking moment communing with the gifts that God has given me, and I've heard his voice speak back to me! The answers behind his miracles lie within prayer to the almighty, where he blesses alms to his children."

I was dumbfounded, seriously dumbfounded. It almost seriously seemed like Apinya had morphed his religion and that of the system... Together?

Granted, there was perhaps some measure of truth to it. In reality, Priestly classes had some measure of potential to commune with... Well, something. I wasn't sure what, but at least in Holy Arc in order to revive somebody you had to sacrifice an inordinate amount of money, or more specifically, precious items. The Priests would then... Well, pray, and in a glimmer of light everything would be replaced and your ally would be thus revived.

I honestly always just ignored the entire process, I was usually always a bit peeved that so much of my hard-earned money and loot had to be sacrificed for a simple revival, but that was just how the game worked. So, if the similarities were to be believed, then I guess it meant Apinya was on the path to becoming an [Priest] at least on some sort of similar scale?

Regardless, I just nodded, "well, it looks like you've learned some more magic." I deadpanned.

Apinya in response only appeared thoughtful. "Yes... Magic, blessings... They're one and the same I believe." He turned back towards me and smiled once again, "and it would appear you have been blessed too, haven't you Mr. Thomas?" He asked me seriously.

"Uh... What do you mean?" I responded to Apinya.

"I can see it, Mr. Thomas. Unlike everyone else in our little refuge, I can see the glow of divinity enshrining you, for I have been blessed to see such things." He paused, and as if taking my silence as an invitation to continue, he said, "Now, how is it that you, rather than anyone else in this refuge, found yourself blessed?" He asked seriously.

"I- I don't know." To be frank the conversation was delving into an entirely uncomfortable and awkward atmosphere.

Apinya shrugged, "well, I'm sure patience can only be rewarded. Good luck Mr. Thomas," he said as he left the kitchen with his own can of breakfast.

"Okay, that was a little... Unnerving," I whispered to myself. Granted, Apinya was... Well, eccentric. So, without dwelling much more on the matter, I discarded the remnants of my breakfast and headed outside. There was going to be a lot of work to be done today.

As I left the house, I was immediately taken by the very small amount of ash raining down. It was enough where I no longer felt the need to wrap a piece of cloth around my face. Even if it was cold, I still enjoyed the fresh morning air. I could also hear the faint sound of metal hitting wood and the noise of falling trees. They are really going at it today, aren't they? So, as I journeyed closer, I could see that our pile of wood had grown rather substantially since last night. I figured that now would be as good of a time as any to look at the ruler menu and figure out how much had already been done.

Just as I thought too. We had around 1,200 Timber when I had performed my examination of the menu's last night, and now we had already gone over three-hundred above that. I wasn't sure whether the increase, in what was presumably a short time since the other had been out working, was caused by the increased production efficiency or not. Granted, it was such a small increase, I didn't think it would be that much. Who knew though? Even a marginal increase can spell quite a bit of results within a longer time frame. It's only been one morning though, so I was a bit curious.

As such, I headed over and grabbed a spare axe from over by the forge Jackson had built. It looked like the axes had all been sharpened, but the man was nowhere to be seen.

Walking over to where the three men were working, I kept my eyes peeled for any signs of undead or monsters from the forest. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary though, and so, with that taken care of, I made my way to the pushed back tree-line and joining in on hacking away at the trees.

It was interesting, because I did feel as though everybody was working slightly quicker than yesterday now that I was observing everything, and so I could only imagine that somehow the production efficiency modifier was influencing things in that way. Or perhaps everybody was just getting used to the motions. Regardless though, I imagined progress would be much quicker this time.

Over the course of several hours, the tree line was pushed back another ten feet all along the main road. Throughout our efforts, Kevin joined us, and to my surprise, so did William. There was no sign of his brother however, but quite frankly I doubted Alex or even myself for that matter had any real desire to see him. The man just really rubbed both of us the wrong way, and I would be content enough if he just didn't pester any of the community members. His brother on the other hand was proving to be quite the help.

Alejandro and Antonio both ended up joining us not too long after I had begun working, and so they continued to trim down the logs, cut them up, and ready them for when Jackson began finishing the enormous amount of nails he was going to need to make.

I could hear him in the distance though, hammering away. Harrison had joined him and was actuing as a pseudo-assistant in helping get the nails turned out as quick as possible. He was making quite the bit of progress too, and was getting faster the longer he toiled away. The system really is amazing, isn't it? I could sort of see Apinya's reasoning in addressing the skills of the system as a sort of magic. It really was. It allowed us to work faster than we ever could have before, and with the nearly dozen of us that there were, we had manged to turn out enough work that would require several times the amount of manpower we were using.

I wasn't one to complain though. So, I was delighted when, just before noon, Jackson brought over a bucket full of his recently crafted nails. Looking in, I could tell that nearly a hundred had managed to be crafted in the short timespan.

They were thick too, probably half an inch thick, and about six inches long, the slugs would probably be a bit difficult to hammer into the wood. With our increased strength though, I was sure everyone wouldn't have too much of a hard time. To my delight as well, I had also gained a new skill and already managed to increase it.

 

The skill itself was pretty self-explanatory, and I wasn't surprised at its description. However, the fairly simple, easy, and less-dangerous leveling was not bad at all. A quick glance at the Ruler Menu showed we were at 2,736 Timber. So I was appreciative of the skill as it was already having a very measurable effect on everybody's collection speed. I was pretty sure each of us were averaging about a tree per minute, forcing Antonio and Alejandro to work hard to keep up to our pace. It was an ambitious project, walling off the entire community. Plus everybody was motivated by the prospect of the potential dangers within our vicinity. Regardless of our progress though, everyone had stopped working in order to get a better idea on the next phase of our project, and as such we were now focused on Jackson.

"Well, there ought to be bout a hundred of the nails in there," Jackson announced.

Antonio took the lead on this one, he was, after all, our expert when it came to building anything. "Well, then, let me see one of them," Antonio stated.

Taking a minute, Antonio measured and appraised the nail. "It's rough, but it should work, the nails are just long enough too. Good work Jackson."

Jackson visibly glowed at the praise, "How much more of these do you think you all are going to need?"

At the question, Antonio turned towards our massive line of logs. They were littered all over one side of the main road, ready to be carried over to the opposite side and built into the barricade. There was also a smaller pile of bigger logs that Antonio said could be used as supporting posts.

Antonio sighed, "frankly kid, we're going to be needing thousands of the nails... At the very least ten thousand."

Jackson blanched. "T-ten thousand!? That's insane!"

Antonio shrugged, "that's the scale of the project we are doing, there really isn't any way to get beyond that. My estimate is actually conservative at best. We'll likely need more. If we use two of them nails per log... Then we can make it work. It won't be pretty, but it'll be functional."

Jackson sighed at that, "well then... It's probably fine regardless, I've already gained two levels in [blacksmithing] and I've found a few shortcuts in the process to make it faster, but that forge can only handle so much. I'll do my best though."

Antonio nodded, "good then," and turning to the rest of us Antonio continued, "We're making some exceptional progress on procuring the wood needed for the project, but... We're gonna need to start digging if we want to make sure everything is all set for the barricade to go up."

We all nodded, and stepping forward, I spoke for our group of woodcutters. "Just show us where you need the holes, and we'll get on it."

Antonio, pleased with the frankness led the way to the other side of the road. The street was raised slightly, likely to keep it from flooding so easily from the numerous rainstorms that would pass over New England.

As we all gathered, Antonio began, "Fortunately, the road was already raised, and the slight slope will initially be problematic, may actually help as far as defending the area from the forest... We have two options. Once will be a bit more complicated and surely more labor intensive, but it'll stabilize the wall immensely. The other option would be to dig holes for the larger logs to serve as posts every eight or so feet." He paused, and then continued after he finished his though, "my honest thought is that we go for the more stable wall... Especially if we want to stay here long-term. It'll also make our efforts a bit more... Permanent, if you know what I'm trying to say." He finished.

I took the initiative, "What's the more complicated option then, Antonio?" I asked.

"Well," he smiled a bit mischievously. "We'll have to dig a three-to-four-foot ditch around the entire community, and in areas where the soil isn't raised, well, we'll have to raise it. With all the dirt we'll be generating I don't think it'll be much of an issue." He then walked over to a discarded piece of bark, and, retrieving a pocketknife from his pants, he began to carve away. We waited patiently, and he was done within a minute, "here we go boys."

He showed us the piece of bark, serving as an illustration for his idea. It depicted a raised mound of dirt, where the wooden logs were placed within a trench that decorated the central area of the mound. Each of the logs were carved to a point, and every eight feet or so there was placed a larger, stabilizing post. Behind the logs that made up the fence were two rows of planks, one that ran a foot below the top of the wall, and the other that ran a foot above the bottom of the wall. They were placed sideways along the back of the logs. The nails would then go through those segments and into the wall itself, helping to reinforce them. The section of the mound behind the wall was raised higher than the part on the front, serving as a raised area for anyone behind the wall to look over.

Immediately I could see the defensive purposes of it, and I was quite amazed at the wonder of its simplicity. Just then Alejandro spoke up.

"Antonio, you want to build a goddamn Roman Palisade?" Alejandro sounded shocked. I turned towards him, and then back to Antonio, who had the widest grin in the world plastered on his face.

"Hell, if we're gonna be building a wall, we might as well do it right. Who better to reference than the Romans themselves." Antonio deadpanned.

Turning back to the piece of park depicting the structure, I couldn't help but think, it looks like its plenty doable... So, I voiced my support for Antonio. "Let's do it," and with that the decision was finalized. We were making a Roman Palisade.