"Anima! You did such a great job!" Ruby yelled out to me.
It was the next day and after eating a terrible meal constructed by the liar who wanted a carpeted kitchen, we all had laid down in the living room staring at the ceiling. This was much more like a home and less like a base...
While Ken was out fabricating his horrendous dinner, I went over to a designer a couple of blocks down and asked him how to mimic his magic. Apparently, he had used a specific type of marking magic that was permanent and used it to paint houses. He was a genius, creating a business off of a mistake in his magic studies.
Anyway, he taught me whatever he knew in exchange for a couple of magic potions and I was off with these new skills. Since I could change the color of any wall to whatever I wanted, I tried out Ruby's idea of a red front wall... then I tried light red... then I scrapped the idea completely.
I spent the rest of the day using a torch in my inventory and designing the walls. At long last, as I was laying on the floor, I realized that I could take a break.
"Anima, I broke a wall." Ruby leaned her head over mine while I was laying on the floor and she smiled like it was some sort of joke.
"Ruby! How the hell did you break a wall already?!" Ipa was even mad at her. I found it... odd, that we got along so well and so fast. I wouldn't necessarily call Ruby's case of breaking an entire wall off of the supports as getting along well, but it was like we had been lifelong friends or something.
Ipa chased Ruby around the house, knocking down wooden planks and pushing down rolled-up carpet that was leaning up against the walls. I hate to say it, but I think Ruby was faster than Ipa. She would've made a great assassin.
"Whatever! Just don't break another wall!" I heard Ipa shout out. I leaned upwards to find Ken eating something in the corner while facing away from everybody. When I observed the broken wall, it actually looked good with the house. It cut the kitchen's separation from the rest of the house and we were left with an open area. We could turn something like this into a base. I'm sure of it.
"Just leave it. I'll figure something out. Hey, Ken, go out and get me some food. Anything you can buy with this money." I threw a leather bag of money at the back of his head and it hit the floor harder than his head did.
"Yes Sir. Are you looking for ingredients or fast food?" He asked me.
"...define fast food. What is it?" I asked him. I feared the worst when he pointed toward our unfinished and ungated backyard.
"There are plenty of worms and bugs outside, along with some pigs in the forest I'm sure." I stared at Ken as those words left his mouth for about thirty seconds before he got my hint and walked out of the front door to go get ingredients.
"What shall I do, Commander?!" Ruby asked, faking a salute as she stared at me.
"Ruby, you have something on the corner of your lip," I told her. She wiped it off with an embarrassed face and I turned to Ipa as she tried looking for any reflective surface to get rid of it.
"Can you go get us some gear? More specifically, get Ruby and Ken some gear? We should stock up on spare armor. While you're at it, get some ingredients for health potions. Take a look at the shop in town and ask them what they use to make potions, and return to me with a list of what makes what. I can make potions with maximum efficiency." I told Ipa. He nodded and left soon after.
"Did I get it?" Ruby asked me. I nodded, not even looking because I was lying in the first place.
"So, what shall I do?" She asked me. I ignored her and sized up the first floor, trying to see how I could fashion what was left of this home into a base worth defending.
I could put the armor over there... the weaponry over there... the potion stash over there... my alchemy table near the wall by the entrance...
My thought process was interrupted after I felt a tug on the back of my shirt. "My family died in the attack... in Gaia... I saw you walk off with Claire and tried to chase you down as fast as I could... please... don't cast me aside again..." Ruby told me.
Her cheerful mood was shut out and I suddenly felt horrible about myself. Ruby was absolutely correct.
I didn't fulfill my duty as a Hero there. I only went to look for Claire and left behind all of the children and those hurt within that small town. I didn't have any regard because my mind was so small that I couldn't think of what to do. I let my emotions drive me and they told me to save the people I knew in that trying time. I completely disregarded Ruby and her feelings towards Joro. She lost something, maybe even more than I did, and I wasn't paying attention to her. What a terrible person I am...
"Can you help me figure out this first floor? I want to put a bunch of stations here... I was thinking that since I'm so good at making potions, I should put the alchemy table near the front right there. What do you think?" I asked Ruby.
"Hm... we should put some of our weaponry and armor near the front door too, so we can't take up all of that room. How about we put the alchemy table... there?" Ruby asked, pointing towards the left side of the living room.
Logically speaking, we wouldn't be fitting any televisions or stuff like that in specific rooms, so we had a lot more to work with. We decided on Ruby's idea and I put a piece of wood where I wanted it.
"Next... you'll be our Buffer Mage, so we need to find a station for you. You know more than I do about specific types of Mages, so what should we reserve for you?" I asked Ruby.
"Well, I can use buffs like [Raise] or other helpful things like [Bright], so if you get me a jewelers table and tools then I could put my buffs into them and everybody could wear one!" Ruby suggested. That actually wasn't a bad idea. So... she was capable when she wanted to be.