Shelter [II]

After waking the following morning, Lucian did his business off the side of the Tile and wondered if someone standing on the other side was looking at his privates. He waved and gave the shadows a sly grin, just in case.

Returning to the pile of straight branches he'd managed to collect the previous day, he sat and began to sharpen the ends of many of them into fine points.

Lucian decided that it would be best to build a simple shack-type structure that would meet his current needs. The design was simple, but he could still make it sizeable and readily expand the building later.

He sat through what should have been his breakfast, whittling away at the many sticks. Once he felt that there were enough, he sliced the twigs and smaller branches off of each, even gouging out the small stumps left behind.

"Four meters should be sufficient," He mumbled. Once he'd determined an approximate size, he cut the pruned branches to approximately two and a half meters in length.

What he was planning was simple. It would be nothing more than a basic log cabin, but it needed to be structurally sound and require minimal work to expand in the future.

The clearing in the center of the Tile was approximately 7 meters across and almost perfectly resembled a hexagon. When Lucian first realized this, he couldn't decide if this had been done on purpose or if it was just happenstance.

"I'll find out as I discover more Tiles, I suppose," Lucian sighed.

He'd asked the [Educatus] how to travel between the different Tiles, but he'd just gotten another [Error].

Either way, each side of the clearing was around seven meters, giving him ample room for his various projects. His pelts were drying on the opposing side of the glade.

Lucian drove the various stakes he'd crafted into the ground, staggering them slightly and making a rectangle three meters wide by four meters long.

It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough. The blunt, tiny logs he'd cleaned would lay perfectly between the staggered rods, allowing them to set without collapsing.

When Lucian was satisfied with the layout, he marked a space for doors in both the front and the back. The front face pointed toward the forest and the opposing, shadowy wall just eight meters out.

Lucian arranged the rear-facing door to open up into the glade, and the tiny home could act as an entryway into a fenced yard or small fortress in the future.

His stomach grumbled while he was determining the space he would have left when he was done. With a groan, he ignored it and busied himself.

While he was working, his problems tended to fade to the back of his mind, and his pride in his work would take over the bitterness and despondency that he otherwise felt.

Grabbing five to ten at a time, he toted them over to the building site. He wedged the logs between the stakes, ensuring that they were secure.

Then, the process began in earnest. Between each layer of logs, he would slice off a thin, pasty section from one of the many pieces of bark and smother it like jelly between the wood.

He hadn't believed that it would work at first, but after laying out in the hot sun all morning, the elasticity had weakened, and the tackiness had increased.

It wasn't cement, but it was a powerful adhesive and could also act as a form of insulation. It was good enough for now.

Lucian continued this process until the walls were approximately two meters tall. The wood he'd laid in was staggered, so he had to cut away a few ends that jutted where he intended to place the two doors.

Once the frame was complete, it was time for the roof, and that would require a lot more time. The poles that he'd crafted didn't reach above two meters, so he would have to layer the logs on and allow the paste to dry overnight.

"I really should just go with a flat roof and be done with it," Lucian sighed, but he didn't submit.

If he staggered the branches properly, he planned to set up a system for catching rainwater. It wouldn't be clean, but it would solve one of his immediate needs.

Using the currently built wall as a guide, he began prepping logs for the roof. There were around 30 logs when he was done, and he decided to place ten of them each day.

"Any more than that, and it will collapse before the paste has a chance to dry," Lucian sighed.

No help. No equipment. No tools.

He looked at the dagger in his hand, "Well, I've got you. I'm not sure whose body parts you're made from, but I'm certainly glad to have you around!"

Without the knife, the structures that he could build were limited to a variety of teepees. The shack would not only be nice, but it could also help protect him from one of the Waves if he played his cards right.

"I'll have to let the walls dry before preparing for that," He mumbled. "Hopefully, the next Wave just adds a few extra rats."

The [Educatus] mentioned that each subsequent Wave would be more trying than the last, but it didn't specify by how much.

"You've mentioned this before," Lucian began, focusing on the [Educatus] that hovered toward the top of his vision. "What do you mean by the Host's Domain?"

This was something he'd wondered about since it had first been mentioned. He assumed that it meant the Tile that he was standing on.

[Domain: A Domain is the sphere of one's influence. Rankings will be available as Domains expand to a specific size.

As the Tournament continues, the Host can choose to guard or follow. Either join the Domain of another, and establish alliances for your Sector, or create your own Domain, to exhibit your Sector's superiority over the opposition]

Lucian's eyes widened, and he was both elated and devastated by this information. He either had to dominate or submit.

This was about more than survival. This was a large-scale war!

"Domination..."