August flipped the [Bone Saw] over and handed it to her, handle first, and then she simply picked the slice of the log up into the air with her lower set of hands, already moving the saw into place.

“Thanks,” August said, still breathing a bit heavily. “You sure you don’t want to keep talking with the others—Melon looked pretty overwhelmed by everything.”

Kalter glanced back in the direction of the group before shaking her head.

“I wasn’t much help with that anyway,” Kalter said, “What’s this piece for?”

“Bench seat,” August said, “Each half of the circle is going to be one of the legs, with two or three planks nailed on the top.”

“This isn’t for the workbench?” Kalter asked.

August watched as she sawed through the last of the crosssection and then placed both pieces down onto the ground—they remained in place, thick enough to stand up straight on the flat side of the semicircle.

“You said you wanted to help finish it, so I decided to wait until you actually came back,” August said, wiping at his forehead. “I’ve got enough mana to start making more nails, so the only thing left to do is cut the planks down to size—I did one of them already, so you can use it as a measure for how long the rest need to be.”

Kalter seemed to consider his words for a while, studying the plank in question in its place atop the unfinished bench.

“That’s fine,” Kalter said, “I’ll do the ones for the bench seat, too, if you tell me how long they need to be.”

August nodded at the words, moving to align the two legs of the bench parallel to one another and then dropping a plank across them. It bowed in the middle, so they moved the legs inwards until it was strong enough to hold either of their weight and then marked three planks off to be cut at that size.

“I’ve got it from here,” Kalter said, waving her hand at him in an attempt to shoo him away. “Go make the nails—and try not to cut yourself in half this time.”

“Thanks,” August said, voice a bit dry. “I’ll try not to.”

August left her to it, moving to recover the leftover pieces of the chain he hadn’t finished with and then began the process of converting them into nails once more. He had something of a wariness in him now, borne from injuring himself earlier, but he used it to keep his attention focused entirely on the task. The smooth, controlled pace he set had the stack of nails growing larger by the minute. By the time Kalter finished both the planks for the bench seat and the ones for the workbench, he had more than a dozen nails ready for use, along with some mana left to spare.

“Have you made a hammer yet?” Kalter said, “Or are we still using a rock?”

“Rock for now,” August admitted, ferrying the pile of nails over. “I’ll get it done once the workbench is up and running.”

Kalter took some of the nails from him, finishing her efforts to nail the rectangular frame to each of the legs with the rock they’d used earlier. August shifted the planks around until on top until they were all sitting flush against the frame, leaving a bit of overhang on each side.

“Maybe avoid nailing it into the frame where you can manage because it’s probably going to split,” August suggested, “If we use the tops of the logs instead, that should work just as well.”

Kalter moved to start the process of hammering the planks down onto the workbench, and he watched with half an eye while he spent some more of his mana making another couple of nails. August moved to drag two of the longer offcuts over, making sure each was the right size, before holding on flat against two of the legs.

“Kalter?” August asked. “Can you nail this one in—it’s a brace to keep the legs from moving too much.”

“The legs are heavy enough that it’s not going to move,” Kalter said, but she still moved to follow his direction. “Have you got enough nails for the bench seat?”

“I think so,” August admitted.

Kalter finished nailing both planks into place, and then he attempted to give the whole structure a shake, but the weight of the four heavy legs was more than enough to keep it well in place—he nodded at the end result.

“Nice work, Kalter,” August said, “It looks like it’s going to work just fine.”

“You said this was going to hold your tools,” Kalter said, looking down at the [Workbench]. “There are no shelves or anywhere to put anything—it’s just a bench.”

“That’s true, but we can make a little box to hang off the side or something to sit next to it for all the tools to go in,” August admitted, “This is more of a place where we can do stuff without having to go searching for a stump, or doing it on the ground.”

Kalter made a noise of agreement in the back of her throat before glancing over at the unnailed bench seat. August nodded as she caught his gaze, and they moved to finish off the last of it as well. They had to level off the top of the legs to make it work, but once they had, they managed to make the seat itself two planks wide.

Bench Seat Blueprint Unlocked

“Neither of them is staying over here, are they?” Kalter said, straightening up. “Where are they going?”

August turned to look at the [Workbench] for a moment, wondering how he ever would have moved it without the Voithos—he’d have probably been forced to build it somewhere else, in its final location.

“We should probably put it up the end near the [Draft Furnance] and the [Kiln],” August said, rubbing at the back of his neck. “May as well keep all of our tools and production stuff in one area for now.”

Kalter bent down at the waist, caught hold of two of the thick legs, and then lifted the entire [Workbench] off the ground—August made a brief attempt to lift up the [Bench Seat] and then quickly gave up, only really able to lift up one end at a time. Instead, he set about cleaning up all of the material they’d used, sorting the uncut planks with one another and the offcuts into a separate pile. He watched Kalter move past the others into the back corner of the walled-off area and then placed her burden down against the wall, a few meters away from the [Kiln]. He collected the rest of the nails he’d made, the [Bone Axe] and the [Bone Saw], before moving it all into his inventory.