LW – Chapter 16

Chapter 16

 

 

 

 

I couldn’t resist glancing at the tortured and bound fairies I’d received from the goblin stealthers. They had been so long like this that who knows if they were even sane.

Is this how the goblins received their stealth? By using the power of the fairies’ stolen magic? But how did they even capture them?

Its possible…

I’d often wondered how they did it. It seemed at the level of magic before when they’d gotten into my maze.

Naturally I had to stop examining them to pay attention to combat. Things were still dangerous right now!

This…this situation is so strange really.

I managed to pull the goblins away from trying to get me. Then I executed the ones caught in my traps immobilized. The others have returned to that camp.

But…I know they are already trying to scheme to get me still.

They must think I’ve got powerful magic.

So I withdrew back into the garden maze that I’d now made.

I took inventory of myself and my maze.

So far my maze has 3 garden plaza open area rooms once you get inside. These are good sized rooms, with some nice flowery meadow like areas where you can sit and relax in the middle, or camp out. Its good sized enough that you can try to use it for a wide variety of purposes also with the rooms being 20 feet by 20 feet in size. Each of them still has traps, but it comes down to 3 plaza areas surrounded by several halls and corridors with no ceilings with green thorny bush walls on either side.

The first plaza area is right inside the front area not far from the main entrance, with no corridors between. Then there’s 3 to 5 small corridors which twist around leading into the second plaza area, in a trail coming from the first room with the second room being about the same size as the first, and on its opposite wall of the first one. (But you still have to go down the hallways to reach it, you can’t just cross the thorny barrier.) After several other corridors is the third plaza. It continues with the main hallway that is the only one that doesn’t go to dead ends or alleys leading from the entrance area to each of the plaza rooms. Every other attempt at going from room to room will get you lost.

But still I need to put more work in it to get this to work out. Its got good progress and a good plan, but it needs to be bigger and have longer halls, more dead ends, and spread out everywhere possible.

I went to this third plaza to make some adjustments. This is the one I’m still working on. The fourth is also unfinished.

First, I tried some experimentation. (~10:41 AM)

I closed off several improved root thorny traps around a small room areas that was hidden. I did this to make a sort of green secret room that I could rest in, that’s closely connected to the third plaza room with a secret hidden entrance. This took 8 improved traps linked all together. I then made a sort of hollow tube like zone on the ground that you can crawl through to get into the inner room of this spot, which I’ll use as a shelter. This is the only way to get into this point, and the spot you have to crawl through only has enough room for one person, who has to go slow ducked down low for about two dozen feet. Then I have a vine curtain that hands in front of the entrance spot in a way that you’d not expect to be able to hide it efficiently.

Yes! This is a great shelter zone. I’ll install a few others also, from which I’ll roam every night changing where I sleep. I can create a camping zone there I hope…

Little by little I’d build it up. There will be other secret rooms also connected to some of the plaza rooms, but not the first one since its too close to the entrance.

Later I’ll add some stone water fountains and brick work flooring in the plaza rooms to make it more artful and tasteful in its architectural concept. It will look very cool when I’m done with it.

But for right now its lacking a ceiling…

Probably only the secret rooms will have ceilings. Oh, and the pithouses also.

This means I have to keep a jacket near at all times. Or even wear one. But that’s not bad. I was getting used to it. And the weather here was ideal but temperate. I’m expecting a cold winter also. If the goblins weren’t here this would be considered a land of paradise.

Do I also have to worry about how cold weather will affect the vine traps? I better check on this actually. But I can’t do that today.

I decided to try an experiment where the middle central area of these squares of vine growth are linked together with a ceiling over the top of vines, woven by mana (third plaza room).

I lost about (-20 mana) initially because I had to start over after screwing up.

Then I got it to work…after struggling with weaving mana, which then grew the vines across and through each other. (-42 mana)

By then an hour had passed!

The living breathing green vine ceiling works! And in theory I could also put other sneaky trap mischief up there if I wanted to.

Amazing!

There’s a certain Earth fairy tale that comes to mind with huge hedge bushes of thorns with a massive thorn filled unscalable wall that kills all the knights trying to rescue the princess…

In awe I realized I could build the real thing. This is totally bad ass and fun. Only I have safety and peace in this evil world…well to a point. I do want to share this with others if I can trust them. But I’m sure that won’t be easy either, to know who I can trust to be here and live with me here. I just had to keep working hard and work out the steps. It wouldn’t happen instantly, but was possible. I just had to use my mind coupled with magic.

My clock says its now only about 11:33 AM. I’d made good progress for the day.

Wow.

Well now for the main issues.

I glanced at the two fairy women again, chained to those rod like sticks. (I’m now currently in my secret room also.)(But soon I’ll have to check the goblin movements again.) They are so small I can put them in my coat pockets.

Huh, they are a make shift mage rod for goblins aren’t they? The torture device that they are bound too looks like a foot long short rod.

I could try to set them free, but it has risks. It may even injure them to get them lose also, given that this thing is crafted with goblin shaman magic. The goblins have tortured them so badly that it looks like they were being kept alive by their magic, with very slow bleeding effects, and torture. Also they have scars on their arms and legs from the goblins cutting them for no reason.

That makes me mad and quite upset.

I used the sense mana skill, and it confirms that sure enough the fairies have a small very tiny hidden regenerate effect that they are using that’s set to auto renewal.

!

If I try to unravel or unwind them from the sticks they are chained to…it might disturb the auto renewal. Further, they might not wake up right away because of their wounds? And wasn’t it worse because they were so tiny? When i finally did have a chance to set them free it would hard to do so without injuring their bodies further again.

I got some of may mana back, and I didn’t have to fight as hard today. Maybe 42% now? But…there’s still a lot of danger from the goblins.

I’ll have to buy time for them and for me before I can fix the situation for the torture rack fairies.

Also my map is starting to look cool as I turn this huge meadow grassland area into my private maze. Its also looking like a garden of Eden like feel.

I risked using two minor heals each on the two fairies.

Damn.

They didn’t wake up.

How do I wake them up? And why aren’t they sending me telepathic messages? Do they know they’d been rescued?

There’s a scent of goblin shaman magic in the rods. So I haven’t ruled out something in there keeping them asleep either. But waking them also to how bad their situation is could be worse.

In the end, I’ll have to go very slow and careful about this.

I also don’t know much about their anatomy, so I don’t want to risk anything yet, in trying to let them go, because the chain system around them is so badly punctured into their bodies in a few places that I won’t know how badly the harm will be of letting them out, and causing bleeding. (Nails punctured into them, and healed over. Looks bad…and painful.)

The two fairies were pretty though…but their faces are tearstained from the tortured existence of living with goblins. No doubt there’s trauma that won’t go away quickly.

My mana pool is now about 29%.

I need to get my mana a bit higher.

And I’m hungry for lunch now…

And while having my simple meal, I pondered how I could approach this problem better.

!

Until an interruption came…

Carefully I pocketed the fairies in my inner coat lining as I went to investigate.

I detected some wolves roaming my perimeter…which were quickly put into traps. I finished them off. 12:02 PM.

But wolf meat is stinky and full of disease. This is why people don’t actually eat it. Its full of parasites and filthy.

(3) wolves killed. (~12:07 PM.)

2 goblin stealthers were captured also, but when I went over to them, I heard feet running away. It seems the others with them retreated rather than risk confronting me, at approximately 12:14 PM.

Did the wolves come from the goblins or separate?

I went to inspect the wolves again to be sure but I can’t tell yet.

Another fourth wolf was killed, 12:16 PM after being trapped. (A straggler following the others?)

I’m starting to feel pretty confident with my plans, but my maze has some weak spots. And I need to grow it while still defending it. Pretty daunting to do both when defense costs me mana, the same mana needed for building and defense upgrades. All while my life is on the line.

I’d really had to sweat it out today over today’s combat. Just because I had skills didn’t mean the goblins weren’t scary. Plus, their appearances were so hideous that it lent flavor to the fear they induced, even though I didn’t fall for it.

I’m going to have to add a series of moats around the maze and through several sections, in order to protect from fire damage I thought. This seems like the best way to counter them trying to just burn the maze up. There could be evenly spaced canals throughout the maze also with water in them.

The goblins will try the arson trick again…

I looked up just in time.

Shit…

A squad of goblin archers is advancing towards me with fire arrows and a newly made bonfire pit outside the maze.

I had to work fast, to use create water to put them out. But the advantage with create water is that I don’t have to be next to something to dump the water above it. I can cast it from long range also.

5 fire arrows are set loose.

(I lost 50 mana curbing 5 fires.)

Then I used my trap on 2 [goblin arsonist] units.

Huh? The goblin arsonist is better XP than the others I found out. I dispatched both of them, after trapping the other 2, which were killed by the giant hornets near their nest.

The goblin arsonist units worry me a lot. They could cause me a lot of problems. It was a worry on the level of not wanting to bother with them despite their XP being higher. And I also didn’t like sharing their kill XP with the hornets…

And yes, the [goblin arsonist] is an actual dungeon job class. At least that’s what my system thinks.

1:24 PM…

I used [create item] to make a laptop that I could plug the cameras into. This wasn’t for me to play on. I could live without a computer; after all magic was addicting enough as it is. The key here was being able to network the cameras into the laptop for a security watch post to look over the entire maze!

It wouldn’t make sense to have the security cameras up without something to plug them into as a monitor. I’d wanted to do this earlier actually but the defense events had made it difficult.

But this meant I had to create a desk next with a cover drawer system; with all of this setup in the secret room connected to plaza 3. These two items together cost me about 300 mana total. I have the desk and the laptop up against the wall to be space efficient. (When I choose to move I can pull the drawer and laptop into my inventory slot system and move it. But I will have to put up and hide more camera cords because of it,…sigh.) And then also I had to rig up some wood and vines to make it moisture proof from rain.

This will work for now.

I staggered to my feet…

Now I’m drained. But the advantage is that now I have a much better early warning system. I can even watch the goblins before they approach without having to be all the way at the front of the maze. This gives me time to work and not be exposed or checking them so often. And in theory I can cast magic into places in the viewer cameras if they are in range of my normal casting range even if I don’t have full line of sight; but it might take practice.

At this point I realized I could only create item on devices that I’d used before coming to this world! Items that I’d used personally! Wow. This means I must have used all the items I’d made so far in a previous life. And because this was a discovery I’d made now in this life it didn’t give me a censorship headache like before.

I managed to get two more cameras set up between 2:05 PM and 2:37 PM (6 total now).

Back to lunch…

I risked roasting some fish openly now over an open flame. I’ve decided the third plaza could have a fire pit in the middle (which I can now use as a cooking area).

This is getting cool, as my base is expanding!

I finished lunch and clean up around 3:30 PM.

Fought off another couple wolf scouts around 3:32 PM. (Unsure if related to goblins or stand alone event).

Killed a giant hornet scout at 3:41 PM also. (Maybe it followed the wolves?)

Then I left the fire pit to dispatch monsters that had been caught in my traps. (I sure could use a fly spell of some kind…travel around a maze is a pain and never ending actually. I’m losing a lot of time wandering around now because the buildup of the numbers of hallways and corridors is starting to go up now also, which means taking awhile to get anywhere.)

Then I realized my maze was being attacked at some point while on my way back to plaza room 3. I also heard distant goblin shouting.

I routed a patrol of 30 goblins that got to the first plaza maze room. They lost about 7 of their number there, after several wounded in halls up to that point. I had to bait the others to chase after me to the second plaza room while they were trying to evade the vine traps. One after another they ended up chasing me. This split them all up and let them be controllable also. Then I routed the rest in the second plaza room. (~3:47 PM to 4:30 PM.)

By now I got a bit of mana back. I got about 42 ris also. (Cheap poor ass goblins…)

But there’s a few things I worry about here. Most of my strategy is working because not many of the goblins ever survive to escape and warn the others how to beat my system. Quite frankly they aren’t as dumb as they look. And I worry that they’ll eventually figure out that going as deep as possible into the maze while splitting up is the worst possible strategy.

In fact, splitting up gets them killed.

Why do they willingly do that?

Ah, perhaps they are worried about getting more gold than their friends, and get greed tricked into it?

But will this always work to lure them into splitting up?

I finished them off by splitting their heads and necks with the axe one by one. Its a lot of work to do this. And they often piss themselves in the process because they generally see me finishing off the others next to them one by one until they are next. That’s got to be scary.

But they are goblins. Not people. They exist solely for the existence of murder and pillaging.

!

I got worried when smelling smoke. So I ran back to the entrance. (~4:32 PM)

The goblins had been using the goblin arsonist unit to try to make a wall of fire in the wind to approach my maze and burn me out. I’d gotten there unfortunately a bit later than I should have. And already the first entrance area room has signifigant damage.

I used 5 casts of create water to put out most of it. But then I had to cast 2 more for some flame bits that were almost on me.

Oh shit! I began to get fearful as the flames approached. (I cast root trap on the goblin arsonist. I won’t let that fucker get away and come back to get me later.) Then I put down another 2 create water casts.

By now my prowess with this spell is working well. I’m getting heavy saturation and countering the fire well.

The goblins had retreated by now. I was about to start to chase and eliminate them when…

!

Then I noticed something interesting after the goblins had retreated…

It seems like when I’d accidentally put down a create water spell near where the brook touches that same position, it achieved some kind of magic critical which resulted in a small pool of water forming in that part of the meadow, merging to the side of the brook for a permanent effect! Its a spell and magic bonus of some kind!

Interesting effect…

What?! Wait, this is good!

The small pond seems very clear and clean, maybe because my element is life and pure. It looks like something heavenly, and I want to test drinking the water. There’s a fish swimming in that small pond area also, a small thing peacefully wandering about.

I dipped my hands in and drunk from it. Ahh, that feels good. Surprisingly it grants a (+1 to health regen per day) effect and a (+1 to mana regen) per day) effect also, both because I born it into this zone through a [Life element affinity] connected to the spring!

Nice. I verified and see that I have this effect in my stats now. (I’m curious if I can make it grow?)

But I’d also missed something else important that I just notificed now by checking my status screen also. It seems that I’d been getting a volume bonus on create water, because of my life wizard affinity and status also! This had been the difference in giving me enough water to put out those fires from earlier, when normally it wouldn’t have been enough! So another wizard casting the same spell would have created much less water than me, particularly if they were an opposing element like fire, or even earth element!

This is so interesting, to make a discovery that I can use!

Whew, I feel relieved!

I checked the time again. (~4:39 PM.)

My mana pool is low. I also need to rejuvenate the damage on plaza room 1 and 2. I hope to rest a bit also.

The two fairies in my pocket still are sleeping and I don’t dare disturb them as they are very weak and seem to be near death. (~4:40 PM)

But when picking up the goblin loot I found something interesting! (~4:42 PM)

Mage rod acquired! (Not a tortured fairy version, but still worth something.)

I turned it over inspecting it.

!

This item seems to be from a fallen adventurer! And that means the adventurers had come from a town! This means that this world has towns somewhere! This isn’t goblin made!

Does that mean there’s a town nearby?! Unfortunately the mage rod is a bit worn and therefore old. If its older, it means it could have traveled a lot before getting here. So it won’t help me determine how close a town location is.

I began to feel excited still.

I really did want to be able to visit a town.

Still… its probably now really close, but it could be somewhat remotely within a month or two of travel? Maybe something within 500 miles?

The mage rod doesn’t do much by itself. Its newbie gear probably, and well worn. But for someone like me, who doesn’t even have that its not bad. The only effect it can do is a +5% to spell effects, from anything casted while holding it.

If its only a +5%? Is that worth it?

[I equipped the mage rod.]

Hm… feels good. And that +5% will add to my ability to stop the fires! Plus, I think there’s an environment bonus also of the brook being naturally here! It will add to my other skills also making the vine trap and maze wall growth stronger and more also!

I tested my skills and can create a gravel pile (small) in order to put it in trenches that can link up to the main brook. This is how I can expand my network, of moats, etc, in conjunction with LOTS of elbow grease digging, and using magic to link up with the brook.

Magic is fun! This is so amazing!

I practiced using rejuvenate on any loose damage from the goblins from earlier. I also practiced using a couple rejuvenate and create water attempts on the brook. (~5:20 PM)

Huh? The brook is larger than before! Amazing!

This means…more ability for defense and food. And it means the larger the river is, the harder it will be for the goblins to get at me. It will help me expand the moats also, but unless I figure out a way to dig them out it will be very hard and long to make a moat system. (Depressed…)

And then I worried also about making the brook too big. A larger water source could draw more goblins or people also that will inevitably want a piece of my land.

(~5:22) stopped another wolf entering the maze.

(~5:23) another giant hornet had followed the wolf here and got trapped also.

But I can see trouble. I’ll have to finish them off later.

At approximately 5:24 PM I see another goblin patrol incoming.

It took me about a half hour to work out capturing them. Then I finished everything off. I also had to finish off a giant grasshopper that was almost four feet long also that had come into the maze. (I don’t know how dangerous they are but didn’t take chances.)

I finished everything off by 6 PM, but its a pain in the ass because the goblin arsonists always put a lot of damage on the maze. And that’s preventing me from growing the maze much today. (But I am at least keeping up with repairs.)

6:21 PM another goblin patrol is incoming…

The timing isn’t an accident.

Damn.

I hope this doesn’t go all night.

But I got a lucky break by anticipating the patrols the rest of the night and forcing trapping of the goblins near the giant hornet nest.

The fairies are still sleeping…

I put heals on both of them again, as they are losing health again.