Chương 96: (B2.32)

32) Fisher Ellen"I don't mind the help, mind, but I do wish one of you would have picked up being an actual Tailor or something," Ellen sighed. Farmer Ellen looked up from where she was staring out the window at the downpour that had started outside. The garden was in fine shape, but a few weeds had sprouted up, and Ellen had pointed them out to the low-level girl that intended to become a more dedicated farmer and herbalist.

As soon as the rain let up, she could get the girl on her way to a Class that would doubtless clean up the garden much more easily and quickly than her more broadly defined Homesteader Class.

"I thought about it," another Ellen said from nearby.

"But I split from Scout Ellen, and I really didn't know where to start on that. But I know how to cook and clean well enough, so I will try to pick up something to help with the clothing situation." Ellen nodded at the other self that had appeared and immediately gone to chopping up some of the green onions and a few radishes to start dinner. She'd dubbed herself Domestic Ellen, and the other one to split from Scout had been easy to guess.

Ellen guessed that the one who had called herself Shadow and slipped from the longhouse just before the storm broke had been Scout before her death. Bookkeeper looked up, squinted through her glasses, and then returned to her quiet discussion with Merchant. Good. Ellen wouldn't have to pass on that information. Those two were deep into planning what to do about the new influx of Ellens, so Ellen was glad they were paying attention.

"Once you're all trained up a little, we should raise the roof up and make a proper second floor," Carpenter suggested suddenly. She was lounging in a chair at the edge of the longhouse, near another open window as if watching the rain pour down outside.

"We have enough Ellens that we're going to have to do that, and make some more houses as well. I'll draft out some plans with Mason as soon as we get the school started." Mason glanced up, gave a thumbs up, and then returned to speaking quietly with Smith and another new Ellen, Miner. Finally, they were figuring out how to tap into the iron mine that the mountain boasted.

Ellen didn't know much about that, but she was confident her other selves—more focused on how to squeeze something out of the old mine—would figure something out. She was more interested in getting the food to stretch for four new mouths. Even with their extra preparedness, that was a big jump in consumption. She sighed heavily and stared out into the rain.

"Cheer up, Fisher!" Mage Ellen said with a smile. The newly-spawned Ellen clapped her on the shoulder.

"At least Merchant confirmed we succeeded! It'll be fine. At worst we'll have to buy some food to make it a few more weeks, but I'd bet Farmer will pick up a Class that can help you grow something. Maybe you can actually, you know… fish more often now. I'm not sure how that's fun though."

"It's relaxing," Fisher replied automatically.

"But that wasn't why I was sighing. I'm just a little upset that this happened while Cobbler was out. It'll be weeks before she learns what happened… and she'll miss all the chaos you all caused." She frowned and looked at the classless Ellen beside her. Mage met her eyes with a bright smile, unnervingly cheerful for an Ellen who had just gotten themselves killed again. At least Ellen's predecessor, Village, was still alive. She couldn't understand how the others took their deaths in stride.

"Why aren't you all um… you know?" Ellen asked quietly. Her hand made a vague gesture at Priestess and Sorceress, quietly chatting in the corner nearby.

"Doing your… thing with the others in your group? You all settled on your names fast enough, I'd have thought you would all be uh… acting as a group again." Mage shrugged back and spread her hands.

"We could, but why? We did what we needed for the dungeon, and this time we're all doing very different things. If the ones who double as adventurers want to go in as a party, they can figure it out. I think I'm done with the sharemind thing, myself. It'd be a distraction from my studies." Ellen sighed to herself and dropped into a chair, looking over the crowded longhouse. A dozen Ellens were still inside, which wasn't too crowded normally…

but with two outside and four out of town, the missing Ellens would make things a little tight. That didn't even include visits from Village or Uncle Anroll, which would make the place truly bustling.

"At least Militia and Shadow wandered out early," Mage said, guessing Ellen's thoughts.

"We really didn't expect to get killed, let alone all of us at once, but it wasn't like we weren't prepared." Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. A tilt of her head brought Ellen's eyes around to stare at her other self. No Ellen wanted to die, of course, but the Adventuring Party had always seemed a lot more willing to throw themselves into danger than the rest.

The sudden appearance of eight more in the room had been a shock, but none of the Ellens present had failed to guess which Ellens had died to result in the mass explosion in population.

"How does it feel to uh… remember that whole thing where you were in a big group… thing?" Ellen asked, unable to contain her curiosity. Such a question had been awkward while the Adventuring Party had been active… even when they talked about what they did, Fisher and the others struggled to understand it. Now, Mage seemed… normal. At least as normal as any other Ellen. Mage tapped her temple.

"We call it sharemind now. It's actually something that the System recognizes, did you know that? Once any Ellen hits Level 15, she'll be able to pick it up with a Secondary Perk. There's a stronger version that's a full Ability, too. It might also show up as a Cross-Class Perk, but that would kind of waste the slot. That's one of the things my predecessor was testing, and shortly before we went into the dungeon she got confirmation from the System that it had been unlocked." Ellen narrowed her eyes.

"You mean any of us could pick it up and we'd… start acting like that? I'm not sure I want to. I kind of like being… me."

"I don't think that's what it does," Mage corrected.

"Maybe, but I think it's more subtle than that. We'll see once someone gets to Level 15 I guess… maybe it won't be anything good and nobody will take it, but we should at least get an Ellen that has it as an option and can see what it does. I'm curious about the description, too… but mostly it's interesting that the System is adapting to us and creating new Perks. Or maybe that Perk always existed and we're the first to qualify for it? Unless someone actually ended up like that in a group…"

"It could be something just for clones," Ellen pointed out.

"We should ask Leona and Theodore about what actual clones do, before we assume. Maybe it's just something like that. I know we don't act like the clones anyone else has heard of, but do you think we might be fooling the System into thinking we're clones?" Mage once again shrugged and sprawled back in her chair. Ellen noticed the chair didn't creak at all—Carpenter had been getting a lot better at furniture. Mage spread her hands and sighed, "Who knows?

We live longer, but maybe if clones lasted longer than a few weeks they'd be a lot like us. Maybe we only live a little longer and we'll die off next year. I don't think anyone has seen anything like us, but maybe Uncle Anroll found something out. I'm a little surprised he isn't here yet, but I guess he could be helping Whisper and Stage." Ellen nodded, "Yeah… I'm looking forward to meeting them. It sounds like they're pretty different, and Cobbler and I don't always feel like part of the community yet.

I guess because our predecessor is still alive." The look Mage gave her was a little awkward, but it was Farmer—who had been listening the entire time while examining the garden—who finally broke in and clapped Ellen on the back.

"That's fine," Farmer said.

"I'm sure Mage here would love to study that! And I'm just looking forward to all I can learn from you! I know I'm a pretty big split from my sister-self, so I'll be yours instead!" That offer made Ellen smile a little, but before she could speak about it, Merchant stood up and clapped her hands loudly. Every Ellen in the room turned to the Founder, as Merchant only did that sort of thing when she wanted to run a new plan by all of them. After talking so much with Bookkeeper, a new plan was just expected.

"Okay girls! I think Book and I have put together a good idea of how to handle all this!" Merchant smiled to everyone.

"I know it's a shock, but we also have extra hands to help with a lot of things. We know you new girls are going to want to level quickly, so we're doing our best to help with that, but we do need to adjust how the place is going to be worked on. It's getting crowded and we're getting in one another's way." Ellen settled in to listen carefully. As a Homesteader she might end up knowing something that would change the plan.

Merchant and Bookkeeper were pretty careful about that, but they could still make mistakes outside their specialty. Merchant looked around to make sure she had everyone's attention, then continued.

"We're going to finish up the place next to the dungeon entrance, because it's so close to being done. The exception is Carpenter and Mason, who will be working on the Academy building. Fisher will take Carpenter's place in the entrance building construction, to get the furniture in. We'll use the better furniture from here, to make Carpenter's job easier when she has time. She'll just replace what's here." Everyone started to nod, but Merchant held up a hand.

"Farmer, Domestic, and Miner will stay here though… Farmer to work on the garden, Domestic to inventory and prepare food, and Miner will get a start on learning the mine. Once we finish up that building, almost everyone will concentrate on the Academy, except Domestic and Fisher who will put the finishing touches on the dry goods storage." Ellen glanced up at the makeshift ceiling worriedly.

"This sounds like a lot of work and we still have concerns…"

"I'm getting to that," Merchant said with a smile.

"We have a lot of Ellens now, and some of our number are out doing things. We need to be prepared for more, and more prepared for any um… incidents. I plan on building us an economy that lives off the adventurers, too. So after we get the Academy branch up and functional, we're going to plan out living arrangements. Mason will get a shrine to Celeste up for Priestess while we do this, but we'll be expanding and adding floors to this place and to the workshop, the smithy, and any other buildings.

Think about which Ellens you'd want to live with." That started a bit of murmuring, but Ellen relaxed. It wasn't ambitious or anything… just a lot of good ideas to get the town they were slowly building up into a good condition. Nobody wanted more Ellens to appear, but with more of them around, there was doubtless going to be another accident someday. Might as well prepare.