House Repair

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The weapon was still in the shop.  Seriously?  How long does it take for the people to actually get to work on the weapon?  You'd figure they'd at least say 'Yeah!  I'll get on it!' but no, not even that.  It's been sitting on the shelf for a few days now without someone looking over it.  And the longer it remains in the shop, the more Baal has to pay for it.  So, since his last job with being that noblewoman's date, Baal instantly picked up a job the very next day doing something remarkably less stressful.

Well, as stressful as repairing a house as soon as possible before a massive storm rolls in.  But with Mystic Hands, he could multi-wield tools and multi-task, which should make this job remarkably easier.  Standing in front of the house, everyone at the house was in a panic trying to repair the building.  People were rushing to the roof to repair the following:

The Roof Shingles
The Gutter

Then you had people outside gathered by a tree that fell down upon the front porch, crushing the porch and everything on it.  The people there was remarkably weaker than Baal.  Baal sighed outwardly as he witnessed the old man that lived in this house direct everything from the sidelines.  Watching this mess, a vein in Baal's forehead began to pulsate.

WC: 226

"EVERYONE STOP!" Baal shouted as he grabbed everyone's attention.  "Everybody get down and away from the building.  I will be taking care of repairs here.  Now everyone prepare all of your crap inside for the storm.  I'll take care of the repairs outside," the man said.  The old man turned and looked towards Baal for a moment and cleared his throat.  After confirming Baal's identity, the man turned and nodded to the rest of his family and shooed them off.  

Compliant to the old man's wishes, the rest of his family gathered back inside, leaving the outsides to Baal.  The old man walked over to Baal and looked the man over and nodded his head in approval.  "At least the guild sent me someone that has a bit of muscle.  The last time that this happened, they sent me a wimp who couldn't even lift a piece of wood," the man said as he gruffed a bit.  "At least you look like you could lift SOMETHING," the man said as he grumbled lightly.  

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Baal asked.  While it was painfully evident, Baal needed perfect confirmation of what needed to be done.  The old man grumbled and lowered his head.  "Look!  But I suppose you guild types need things to be precise, don't you?" the man said before clearing his throat.

WC: 227

"The shingles need replacin', the gutter needs fixin', that tree needs movin', and the porch needs fixin'," the man said.  "I got extra shingles and wood over there.  I want you to fix all of this.  A storm's-a brewin'. All this needs to be done by the end of the day.  The storm's supposed ta hit tomorrow and it's gonna be a mean one!" the man said before clearing his throat.  "The tools you'll need are over there," the man said pointing to where the shingles rested.  "And cement the shingles down if ya would.  They are, after all, clay so you can't exactly hammer them in."

The man nodded his head and walked inside of his house through the back door.  With a little grumble, Baal walked over to the large tree that fell on the patio and took a deep breath.  He directed the Mystic hands towards the large fallen tree and with a quick movement, the tree splintered and split into two pieces.  With the tree splintered into 2 pieces, each piece is now easier to move around.  Baal picked up the bottom half of the tree and tossed it away from the house as he would with the second half of the tree, leaving the patio open.  

A little grumble came from Baal as half of the tree is lifted over Baal's head without showing any sign of stress.  A grimace could be seen from Baal's face as he walked away with the log in tow.  Baal disappeared for a while only to return with nothing in his possession, only to pick up the second half of the tree and disappearing for a while once again, only to return empty handed.

Taking a deep sigh outward, he turned to look towards the wooden patio and then the wooden planks off to the side.  "Well, that was easy enough.  Time to do the actual house work," Baal said.  He has no clue about human architecture, but with base knowledge of tools and putting together how the patio is supposed to look like, Baal cleared his throat and walked over to the planks and picked up his tools.

WC: 361

Well, it's time to repair the patio.  Grabbing a couple of hand-saws with his Mystic Hands, the looked at how many of the planks needed replaced.  He counted about 14 of the planks needed replacing.  Thankfully, each plank was about the same length, roughly 14 feet across.  14 planks to cut at 14 feet long.  The job couldn't be simpler.  Turning to look towards the planks provided, he glanced at them and measured them out to be at least 18 feet long.  Simple math is simple.

Baal simply took 4 feet off the end of each of the planks and cut them off, going 3 at a time.  He measured them out and put each plank above one another and began the boring job of sawing through each of them.  While Baal might have enhanced strength, it doesn't mean he can just cut the planks with a single blow.  Not at all.  It wouldn't be precise that way.

With repetitive motions, he took the 2 piles he was working on and sawed through all of them, leaving behind 14 4-inch stubs remaining.  Taking the remaining planks, he walked over to the old patio and began to tear out the bad planks.  Baal ripped them out easily, nails and everything.  With a sigh, he ditches the saws and picked up a hammer with his hand and nails in each of his Mystic Hand.  Before he hammered the first nail into the wood, he grumbled and remembered to drill a hole so the wood wouldn't split.  

He laid out all of the planks and drilled all of the holes.  With that, he began to efficiently lay out a nail with his mystic hand and pound it in with his natural hand.  He didn't need time to fish out a nail as they came fluidly only to get slammed into the wood.

WC:  309

After smacking the hammer a few times, he noticed the balcony was done in record timing.  With a nod, he cleared his throat and looked at what other tools he needed.  There were spare piping used for the gutter.  This was easy enough.  Grabbing the spare piping and with a single leap, Baal jumped to the roof and used his Mystic Hands to hang on tightly to the roof while he hung there trying to repair the gutter.  

He tore down the old gutter with spare Mystic Hands, letting gravity do it's job and letting it fall to the ground.  With proper positioning, the used spare Mystic Hands to position the bracket and then locked it into place with hammer and nails.  He did this all the way around the house until he got to the final corner.  This corner had a pipe going down the length of the house.  This pipe was used specifically for the draining.  Just like the catch-pipes, he tore this one down and let gravity do the rest.  Once the pip was gone, he adjusted the remaining pipes and ran it down the length of the building where the corner just barely fit properly near the bottom.  

Clearing his throat, he finished the last fastener and nodded his head at the completion of the gutter. All that's left now is the final and most important part; the roof. Taking a deep breath, Baal turned to look towards the cement and the shingles. It's only been a few hours, but it was remarkably faster than most groups of people could hope to achieve. He didn't require a break nor did he require much instruction on what to do. He didn't have to bother with conflicting opinions. It was jobs like these Baal liked working alone for.

WC: 300

This was the most daunting part of the job. The shingles needed to be cemented to the roof.  With a good and tight seal on the shingles, water will roll right off.  A grumble came from Baal before jumping back up to the roof with assistance of his Mystic Hands, climbing up to the top of the roof.  Taking a sigh inward, the man noticed most of the singles were missing and part of the roof was damaged.  He didn't have all the time in the world though, to repair everything.

Fortunately for this family, Baal is as efficient as a team of 20 people thanks to his Mystic Hands.  With a crack of his knuckles, the old shingles began to fly off, hitting the ground with a resounding thud.  This isn't the best time to be outside for this family.  After about an hour of fighting with the shingles, Baal finally tore off all of the shingles.  Crossing his arms for a moment, he looked towards the sky as the sun was beginning to set.  Taking a sigh outward, he jumped down only to land on his Mystic hands.  

He knocked on the door and the man that hired him opened up.  "Yeah, I'm done for the day," Baal stated.  The man ranted on about the storm rolling in tomorrow.  Yes, while Baal understood, he also ran out of energy for the day.  Baal assured the man that the job will be done before the storm rolled in.  Baal mentioned something about weatherproofing the new patio he put together and the old man nodded.  Weather proofing sealant will be here in the morning!  Yaaaaay!

But, for now, Baal's going to go get some rest, if even just for a few hours.

WC: 292

4:30 AM
The next morning...

The sound of loud thuds could be heard from the roof.  The old man of the house walked out to investigate, only to see 2 torches floating near Baal and a scraper with cement on it being in Baal's hand.  "Hello!" Baal stated before he started to rub the cement on the bare roof.  With a grumble, the employer walked back into the house as Baal returned to work.

He didn't sleep very well due to the impending storm that might be heading their way.  He quickly slathered on the cement and began to row the shingles, properly layering them from the bottom of the roof upwards, having the top-most layer slightly covering the lower layer so rain quickly slides off of the shingles and down into the gutter.  This same dull routine went on for a few hours.  The smell of eggs and bacon filled the air and the sun came up, but Baal was still busy slapping on shingles.  He'd lay down a row, go downstairs to grab a row's worth of shingles and laid them down.

This went on for a few hours before Baal grumbled and sat upon his rear, taking a short break.  His stomach growled as he smelled breakfast.  What did Baal have to eat?  Nothing.  Did he smell their breakfast the whole time?  Yes.  Was he offered any food?  Not at all.

WC: 234

While Baal was taking a break, the weather-proofing seal came in.  As it came in, Baal quickly picked up several brushes; 1 for his main hand and about 6 other brushes with his Mystic Hands.  He dipped the brushes into the paint and got to work.  Due to his ability to slightly hover over the ground, he floated above the patio's wood and painted it with the weather seal.

He made sure to do this over the nails and where multiple planks of wood met one another.  He quickly slathered on the seal before finishing everything.  He put the tools away and knocked on the man's door.  The man answered.  Baal was finished.  This forced the man to bring his entire family out for approval.  Strangely enough, they all approve of Baal's work.  They were actually quite surprised that Baal got it done that early.  An important question came up though.

"Where did you put that tree?" he was asked.

"Don't worry about it," was the only answer given to the family.  It's location wasn't important.  

The old man grumbled and nodded.  "Fine fine, here's the payment.  Let's hope your repairs stand up to the storm!  Now get lost!" the man said before his family quickly vanished into the building to wait out the incoming storm.

WC:  217
Job Completed
Total WC: 2166