Chapter 11 Part B

  Continued from Part A

  I continued to work.

  Near the end of the day, I was yelling "yes!" in excitement as the day paid off. I'd been continuing my research and building of root traps.

  [Rejuvenate skill updated!]

  The description for rejuvenate says it restores plants to health and heals the land, now that I'd unlocked its knowledge. Yellow grass becomes green, but also grows almost instantly. Seeds will be caused to sprout, by feeding off the mana energy (which can solve hunger). Plant monsters will be healed by this technique, barren spots in a space will be filled with the natural turf around them, such as a barren spot in grass being filled with live grass, but in woods, small saplings would start to grow but be limited to infant stage growth. Mana cost; 20. I don't have to be touching the area supposedly, though that might not be the case early on while figuring out how to use it.

  I sighed.

  The mana cost is a bit too high, with not a lot of effect (yet). I'll have to start practicing this to get it down.

  This is exciting figuring out how to use wizard skills also.

  And it was hard to get this because of all the combat interruptions of monster encounters of stuff coming up the hill day.

  I did acquire ~71 ris currency also total today.

  But that's not the only boon...

  [Improved Root Trap] skill acquired!

  The improved root trap functions like the previous version, except that it costs -60 mana to setup. The improved version will also be able to lie in wait until an enemy target can pass by. The trap will also only target enemies of the caster but not allies or non-hostiles. Improved version will hold targets fast and incur a one time set of damage of (-2 damage per caster level) from thorn growth and sharp protrusions in the trap. Victims of the trap are stuck fast. And in my case, its holding them there for...I'm still not sure if it will ever end, or just starve or bleed them out.

  This thing is actually pretty horrific. It basically has the vines reach out into the surrounding area and pull targets into the center of the trap, onto the thorn spikes.

  But it could be improved still. Most monsters have 100 to 200 health. So the amount of damage its doing isn't that great compared to its overall whole health. BUT it is a stronger trap that's harder to break out of.

  I then tried to feed mana into one of them to test it...

  Yes!

  This thing, can be fed rejuvenate energy also to also grow it a bit more than that! My attempts at making it into an actual wall are my goal.

  This will seriously help out a lot as a game changer...

  It means I can put surplus mana into trap making skills to prepare for the goblin invasion! And the rejuvenate skill is a sort of back door vine trap reset!

  I now have a 'Wall of Thorns' setup created! And I saved it as a custom spell in my system.

  [Improved trap + revenate.]

  ...

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  Once per hour I had been setting up a wall of thorn traps. This also is actually resembling a wall now also, since the the 'walls' can be grown by rejuvenate techniques. Its also opaque now where you can't see through it. You can see this wall now, and its a bit taller than me already but not that long. It will be quite awhile before I can fill the meadow with these.

  This ends up costing me -60 mana for the improved trap. And then I put in an additional -20 mana to grow it upwards several feet, so that I can seal the entire area eventually!

  Still...

  Its going to take a lot of work to finish the entire perimeter. I do need it though especially since I lack a lot of offensive magic.

  But already ideas are forming in my head!

  I can twist the walls around to form a maze! I'll have dead ends, and bigger traps also. I'll be able to work a defensive fortification of towers and a castle eventually also! But it also means that I have to map out each grid and make it so that everything is very organized so that I'm not ineffective with the maze but not make it too easy also.

  Yes, that's what I'll do, build a maze. A defensive maze to survive and thrive in. That would compensate for abilities I don't have in offensive magic also.

  And especially while its incomplete the monsters will just go around to find an opening, so it won't be effective as long as there's holes in the walls.

  This is going to be a lot of work, but an interesting achievement.

  I wonder how big I'll make this maze?

  But no sooner had I started this, then it was almost like the monsters figured out something was up here and that it needed to be stopped! This was when the afternoon rush of mobs began.

  I had at least one monster encounter per hour, but often 2 or 3 encounters per hour!

  Often I'd managed things in such a way as to not lose health. After all, having a heal skill, and a trap that could keep enemies off me, as well as finally having a fairly good set of gear made it so I was cushioned well.

  But that also meant the monsters were trying to get more cunning to figure out a way around my defenses. And this meant progress on my Vine Castle was slowed down considerably. Plus there were more night raids than before, which made me on edge more than the day raids.

  Wait, that's an interesting idea...

  A 'Vine Castle'?!

  I could do it...

  It would work. At the very least, I can do a vine maze labyrinth that I live inside the middle of! And my underground log house is going to be around the center. And at some point I could add another story on top of it. And then another.

  But that takes time...

  One day passed and I only had 5 new vine blocks set up in that 24 hour period, because of having to fight off so many invaders. It also seems like they want to interrupt my building.

  The vine traps are working it seems...

  But I'm not sure how often I need to push new mana into them?

  I'd also tested that they won't attack me, but do attack others.

  Day 2 of working towards a 'vine castle zone'; I managed to get down 7 more improved root traps, each one being an additional 10 foot by 10 foot by my height high. I'm trying to arrange them in blocked lines and rows, however, I can leave a single 10' wide gap between them as 'bait murder holes' for the vine tentacles to snatch at those that are tempted to enter through.

  Its still obviously not a castle yet. In fact this is just getting started on the yard area for such castle also. The castle won't be till later. And I'd need some other skills for it too. I'll need to turn the wall hedges now and start making a fully enclosable box shape; I hadn't gotten that far yet.

  However the overall, monster intensity actually increased today. I only got down the number of improved traps that I did, because I was trying to actively dodge and run while baiting monsters to run through the vine traps by following me.

  Some time passed...

  One day passed. Then a second day.

  I'd also tried to make an actual enclosure of a box like pattern like a trap fence around safe areas, to improve my ability to sleep at night. Without several of these I won't be able to survive in fact. The box shape is starting to manifest though its not as big as I wanted it to be. Its kind of small actually, but has an opening in the front approach zone.

  Day 3 came and I realized how raggedly worn out I feel. So many hits and wounds by monsters can cause the body to need a rest after awhile, even though I've healed myself up to full health after each encounter.

  I ended up resting for what I could...but that wasn't much.

  I got a nap for two hours, but spent most of the rest of the time battling monsters.

  But this shook me out of my rest mode as I realized the goblins had become desperate to take me out before I secure a fortress! They are actively trying to stop me from building a future! Their raids had gone up. And they were acting reckless. BUT they were also sending increased numbers.

  They were aware of what I was doing.

  I laid down 4 additional improved traps this morning; all of each one having the standard 10 foot by 10 foot area, which I stack as I build. I also found that by growing the existing traps with rejuvenate I could increase their reach and wall height, because of the traps being taller in their 'wall height'.

  I also discovered an interesting hidden secret! That was that casting [rejuvenate] on the brook increases and replenishes the number of fish in it! It also brought up the healthy water plant life inside it. (This is a life safer, though I'm getting tired of eating only fish every day.) And I had been worried about over hunting the brook. Now I don't have to worry about that. Plus, it had been getting harder and harder to find fish lately. (Maybe the goblins down stream had been taking them.)