Construction Experience

That night, Li Wei slept in a shack reeking of mold. Even after two days under the blazing sun, it was still damp.

A single sheepskin blanket was all he had.

When he had first arrived last night, he had been exhausted beyond measure and barely noticed the mosquitoes biting him.

Tonight, with too much on his mind to sleep, he finally learned what it felt like to be bombarded by mosquitoes.

He only managed to fall into a deep sleep in the middle of the night.

When he woke early the next morning, as expected, he was still covered in huge welts.

It was hard to imagine how Phila and Penny had endured this.

Still, the good news was that Penny's expensive herbs had actually worked. The festering, inflamed wounds on his hands had begun to improve, and it looked like calluses would soon form.

He could finally become one of the working people.

After heading downstream to relieve himself as usual, he washed up in the creek. Though he was starving, the vivid feeling of being alive still filled him with gratitude.

Yes, being healthy was wonderful. Being alive was wonderful.

When he returned, Phila had already cooked the Barley Porridge. This time, Li Wei no longer felt guilty about taking over someone else's place. He deliberately looked at her a few more times. She seemed to be around forty or fifty, with graying hair. Though her clothes were shabby, traces of former refinement could still be seen.

In any case, even judging by the world's background, she definitely had not been born into a farmer's family.

Yet an air of decay lingered around her, much like the feeling one got from seeing someone gravely ill.

If he had to describe it in one phrase, it would be that her end was near.

Penny, on the other hand, was small and thin in every way, but her vitality was truly vigorous. Not even her ragged clothes and messy hair could conceal it.

"George, don't waste time. What we're doing today is important."

Perhaps sensing Li Wei's scrutiny, Penny urged him on, displeasure in her eyes.

"Okay!"

Li Wei did not ask further. In truth, he still had no idea how they were supposed to build this house.

He had brought back ten logs, each with seven or eight meters of usable length, but how were they supposed to cut them without a saw?

He chewed the Barley Porridge carefully and forcefully, taking more than ten minutes to finish a single bowl.

This was all experience.

The stuff was too coarse. Eating too fast could easily cause indigestion and produce a lot of gas.

Meanwhile, Penny had already gotten busy. Li Wei had no idea how Construction Experience was calculated.

By the time Li Wei finished his bowl of Barley Porridge and walked over, Penny had taken an axe to the thinner ends of the ten logs, cutting them into different lengths.

Without a doubt, that should have been one of the stages that yielded the most Construction Experience, but it was already too late for him.

Penny's strength when swinging the axe was completely different from his. Each swing cut through the air with force. In her hands, the axe was like a divine weapon, and she could chop off a section in just a few blows.

Li Wei roughly estimated that Penny's Strength Attribute was at least around 10 points. Her one-star Artisan Card probably also provided a substantial bonus to her gains.

Just like his own Novice Farmer class.

"George, dig holes where I marked. They need to be deep enough to bury the logs. Four holes in total, each as deep as your chest."

Penny gave the orders, and Li Wei did not bother fighting for anything. He grabbed that clumsy thing that seemed to be a shovel and began digging away. Yet the moment he started, he found that this awkward-looking tool was actually quite handy. Digging dirt felt far more comfortable than chopping wood, and the work came naturally to him.

Perhaps it was because the wounds on his hands had scabbed over and were healing, or perhaps this body had already adapted to such grueling physical labor. As he dug, he even began to work with growing vigor.

Before he knew it, the four holes were mostly finished, even though it was not yet noon.

He even had some strength left over.

How strange!

Could it have something to do with his status as a Novice Farmer?

"Not bad!"

Li Wei could not tell whether Penny was simply praising him or truly praising him. She crooked a finger at him, calling him over. Together, they carried a thicker log section and placed it into one of the holes.

Li Wei held it upright while Penny filled the dirt back in.

Once the hole had been filled and the soil packed down with their feet, Li Wei received a notification without warning: Construction Experience +1.

He had no idea how much Construction Experience Penny had received, but when they carried over the second log section, she directly shoved the shovel into his hands.

"You do it!"

Li Wei did not mind. He still had stamina to spare and was no longer in the miserable state he had been in during the first two days.

Working together, they buried and tamped down the four thickest log sections, forming a square frame with sides roughly five meters long.

The ground inside the frame was covered in a layer of stones, serving as the foundation.

Behind it stood an earthen slope about two meters high. Its top had also been leveled, and Penny had piled up a three-meter-high stone wall there.

By this point, Li Wei understood Penny's plan for building the house.

The four logs were four support points, while the stone wall atop the slope behind them could serve as additional supports.

That meant the house would have six support points in total.

If they used two six-meter log sections and secured them in place, they could serve as main beams.

Then, thinner logs could be laid lengthwise between the two beams, followed by even thinner pieces of wood laid crosswise. As long as they did not make a gabled roof, it would be fairly easy to accomplish.

Still, the lifespan of this wooden house probably would not be very long.

It could only serve as a temporary solution.

After lunch, just as Li Wei had guessed, Penny took eight rough, rust-covered iron nails about thirty centimeters long from the small box wrapped in layers of cloth inside the Ox Cart.

But as she took out those eight iron nails, he also received the price list for what he needed to pay Phila: a staggering four experience points.

That was way too expensive!

Li Wei looked at Penny, only to find her glaring at him with a fierce, stern expression, as though she would stab the nails into his head if he refused to pay.

Fine. He could not afford to provoke her.

So the four Construction Experience he had earned through an entire morning of hard work vanished in an instant.

Still, those eight iron nails truly had the power to settle everything.

After Li Wei and Penny worked at it for a while, they nailed the two six-meter main beams into place, and the wooden house's structure had begun to take shape.

Afterward, the two of them adjusted the final two support points, adding and removing stones to distribute the load evenly and improve the structural stability of the house.

By then, Li Wei had successfully gained two points of Construction Experience, one point for each main beam.

"We don't have any nails left, right?"

Li Wei asked then. More nails would undoubtedly have been ideal.

Penny rolled her eyes at him, too lazy to answer. She merely called him back to work, exactly like an experienced player bullying a newbie in a game.

Li Wei had no choice but to be ordered around everywhere.

Fortunately, the work that followed was not too complicated. They just had to lift log sections about ten centimeters thick into place and tie them down with rope.

Luckily, they did not need to buy the rope, because Penny simply cut it from Li Wei's shack.

Once Li Wei's shack had been used up, they used hers.

They barely managed to cover the area above the main beams. They only needed to add another layer, then they could smear wild grass mixed with mud over it to form the roof.

However, by the time the two of them had worked to this point, the sun was already setting. No matter what, they would not be able to finish the house today.

Fortunately, there was still good news.

[The house construction progress has reached the two-thirds milestone. Calculating rewards. The total reward currently available for settlement is 60 Construction Experience.]

[You participated in the construction of the house's main structure. You gained 20 Construction Experience.]

[You currently possess 5 Logging Experience and 28 Construction Experience.]

Wait, why did he only get 20? Did that mean Penny had taken 40 all for herself?

Li Wei was shocked and confused. He had even sacrificed a shack for this.

But in the end, he chose not to ask. Penny surely did not have the final say in how these experience rewards were distributed. There had to be some mechanism he did not understand.

Penny, that experienced player, had undoubtedly taken advantage of her veteran status.

It did not matter. He could take it slowly.

Hadn't everything already gotten on track?