Part 11 Part A
Being a wizard really is the most bad ass of all dungeon job classifications. I have so much power and abilities! This is enjoyable even!
Today I can see that.
In front of me,...
Is the first part of my epic thorny wall enclosure protecting the meadow lands!
Several hours earlier...
I stood near the edge of the meadow, which is normally dangerous at ~8:30 AM, after cleaning up and breakfast. I'd already had to kill 3 giant hornets this morning, which are now dissolving into the ground.
I decided to see if I could link and stack the spell formulas of the [Root Trap] together and link them. Because I'm a Life Wizard I should have the aptitute and qualifications for it. I'd been trying to get this to work, but I hadn't gotten it to work until today. Basically create a wall of traps.
A trap spell!
And its intended to be an area effect spell also!
First, I set down the first root trap horizontally flat in a 10 by 10 square. (-20 mana)(~8:34 AM)
Hm...the cost of the mana has been going down over time also. When I first got this skill it cost me about double that amount of mana, but with practice I'd whittled it down to about -22 mana until yesterday, when I got it to -20 mana.
"Good...now then..." I activated the skill again, placing the second Root Trap on top of the first.
At first the energy was settling in together well, but then something happened and the second spell formula failed.
"No that isn't right. I need to tweak how the energy interacts with each other," I thought aloud.
This time I was more careful. I practiced by linking three Root Traps together next to each other instead of stacking them. And then I purposely let out free mana in the edges between one trap and where its edge met the other. This I believe would be what makes it work; to try to 'sew them together'!
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…
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I lost some time doing this playing with it…
But I made progress.
(~8:50 AM)
I poured out loose mana along where the roots could touch each other, in the crack between the two boxes of vines, much like how masonry workers would layer material in between the bricks. I had to go slowly also, and try to not get caught in my own trap, and not get too close.
It took a few minutes to do this. And the root trap itself at first didn't realize what I was doing. It took four different tries for it to start to adapt and seal the gap!
But this is because my element is life! So my element life is also synonymous to 'growth'. And that meant when the two traps met each other they were feeling growth and vitality, which the plants would seek naturally!
Yes!!!
The two traps melded into one!
Then I began practicing it on the second joining, so that all three are joined together!
So I can join all of it together into a huge wall of trapping that will snatch up monsters entering my domain. This is good.
I’m thinking I will literally cover this entire place with traps! It can work because the trap has enough… programming to tell friend from foe. Well to a point. Its not perfect at that, but it won’t go off on me. Just others.
But since I don’t have any allies here that’ll work.
And I'm trying to figure out if I can now just set up entire walled zones next. It will take a few experiments.
~9:15 AM
There are problems still...
A giant hornet just now came to scout out what I was doing and the root trap didn't attack it, and even let it fly over it. But it wasn't flying low enough (I think?)
Damn...
That's not supposed to happen.
I slammed the axe into the giant hornet (-34 damage). Then I kicked it for some bonus damage (-3 damage).
It charged at me, but I'd already used the status screen equip magic to switch directly to the katana and shield. It slammed into my shield hard, which hurt a bit (-11 damage to me). Then there was a series of both of us evading and dodging each other.
I then followed up with combos on it, as we fought each other until it was dead.
(~Breathing hard, leaning on my weapon.)
The monster encounter cost me -24 health, but I did save mana...until now.
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I activated the minor heal to bring my health bar back up (-28 mana, +20 health)! This combat took less than five minutes.
!
"Oh interesting," I thought aloud.
This is the first time I'd gotten the minor heal technique to be able to conserve mana without failing. It is now costing me only -28 mana, and not -30 mana. My health bar is only -4 points short of being full also. It does more healing per cast also since I'm a higher level also. I'm becoming more magic and mana efficient!
But I'm wary now.
More goblins will come, I'm sure.
I began to work again, but had to kill a slime 3 minutes after that, and something like an monster oak sapling also. (~Approximately 9:45 to 10:10 AM.)
…
Skirmish successful!
I survived!
The monster oak sapling was interesting. It was nearly on my level and quite tough to fight. Because its skin was so tough and defensive I lost -42 health on it, and 10 mana casting a minor burn wave on it. The burn wave scared the sapling a lot and did bonus damage. He died after that. But this fight took longer because when its a new type of monster you don't rush in right away, and spend time trying things and evaluating it.
But now my mana bar is down about 200 points when its only first thing in the morning! But on the plus side, the fights being dragged out meant my mana regeneration was working during the fight; some of that was replenished already.
Frustrating...
Health; 169/211
Mana; 591/761
Stamina; 176/200
I cast minor heal twice more to push my current health bar up to 209. My current mana bar is now at 531. (~10:15 AM)I’m basically compensating for the small heal’s inability to do more and be efficient with my huge mana tank.
I'll have to stop soon, so I don't lose all my mana before the day is up.
Huh?
The oak monster dropped something. I picked it up.
Its a form of currency maybe?
It seems like some kinds of tokens.
[You have discovered currency in another world] pings and shows up as a message box in my status screeen.
[23 Ris acquired.]
What...
So there must be civilization somewhere if there's currency, right.
And this world’s currency is called Ris it seems.
That’s hopeful. It means there should be people out there! Otherwise there’d not be a need for currency. And if anything can be counted on its people wanting to trade. People trade … they say people trade to make money. But the truth is that they try to make money because they can’t make things themselves and have to rely on others.
I wonder if there’s traveling traders or something that are around? Although if they came here they’d get eaten by those goblins.
The goblins didn't have this currency stuff before when they went after me. I’m sure of that also because I’ve killed dozens of them. So it seems that many monsters here do actually have drops? And why didn't I get drops before? Maybe the goblin bosses robbed their brethen before sending them on patrol? Or they were the newborn poor goblins?
Well...technically the hornets would have any treasure they have stashed at their nest. After I finish my experiment I'll have to go and check if I missed drops from the others.
I went back to working on my project to grow skills. (~10:16 AM)
I spread mana into the root traps again. This time I tried spreading the mana out over the top of the whole trap also and not just at the edges. But prior to now I didn't know how to get the root traps to grow into full blown walls, which was what I wanted. Basically its a floor trap but I’m trying to grow it into walls and hedging.
But now I have an idea!
I fed the root trap squares mana! And kept doing to trying to get them to reach higher!
Strangely as I did so, the Root Trap starts to expand!
Wow, its working! The mana is fascilitating growth.
The root trap started to grow up and up. I kept feeding some mana. Initially, I was feeding the middle root trap block, but now with the other two on its sides connected, they also began to grow, but not quite as fast!
Ping!
I glanced at my system notification and see that its rewarded me for my efforts!
[Rejuvenate spell] acquired! (~10:37 AM)
I clicked on it. Surprised I'd gotten a skill out of it.
Huh?
A new spell is good!
When I tried to read the description in the skill box, I haven't unlocked that yet. So its giving me '???' as the description for this skill. The mana cost also says, '???'.
'So I have to figure out what it does by myself?' I wondered.
And maybe I still need to alter this thing a bit more also?
What if there's more than one type of function, that I can get it to do?
I had a series of cheap monster encounters with some weird dragonfly insects, that were also over sized like the giant hornets, as several single mob encounters from (~10:39 AM to 11:17 AM) I managed to preserve most of my mana bar, with a few minor heals fairly equal to my mana regeneration.
Its also going to rain soon, I thought also. That worries me also. In a pit house you have to be really careful about moisture getting inside.
Well I'll keep working as long as I can.
Still...I can do this!
I'm so close to having another skill!
Wait, why don't I test the new skills out on the monsters?
It didn't take long before another goblin troop started marching up here. Like before its a patrol of about 7 of them. They are also marching in a formation of a line this time, with spears out set to receive a charge.
Weird?
Did someone train them? And they have better equipment this time.
I began to worry a bit.
They haven't gotten here yet, so I watched them engage some of the giant hornets. The giant hornets banded together and carried one of them off and dropped him on his head from fifty feet up with a group of 8 of them. Then they did that to two more goblin, but the last one managed to get free with only minor injuries.
Looks like I'll really have to engage them, I thought. And now they can see me!
My status screen clock says its about 12:09 PM.
When the goblins finally got to within attacking distance its 12:11 PM, after they'd rushed up the hill towards me. The high ground does seem to help me fight them.
I spread out mana into the 3 linked overgrown root traps as they are marching around it. The goblins started to charge...
But then the with the fresh mana into the root traps, the traps shot out with their vines and ended up grabbing several goblins!
!
"Woah," I breathed out surprised.
What a nice surprise! After growing the root trap its efficiency and ability is stronger.
The goblins are terrified now that they see that the root traps can kill them even when they aren't fresh! And that means I also still have 2 other root traps that were set off already behind me in the meadow. And there's only 2 goblins left that aren't entangled, with 3 of them entangled! They aren't just being trapped by it now... its tightening down on them for damage from the strength of the roots tightening.
I ran back towards the other traps, the other two goblins charged after me with their wicked spears.
But when I approached the other root traps they grew terrified and wouldn't come any closer. Its turned into a stand off with neither side willing approach each other. But this current team doesn't have archers, while they are trapped! I have openings to finish them off easily!
I used my 3 throwing knives, with them all hitting the second goblin. Then I hit it with a minor flame wave. And while avoiding their attacks.
Another thing is... I'm purposely trying to use as many skills as possible when I hunt goblins now.
Goblin 4 is slain, registers on my screen. Already the bodies of the slain goblins are disappearing into atmosphere, less their loot.
The last goblin then decided to run! I gave chase!
Having them run isn’t good. It means they’ll give information of how I act and what I can do to others...
With my gear weighing me down it took longer than normal to catch up with him. I almost set off some of the giant hornets. But my katana severed his spine and sent him into the ground.
Goblin 5 is slain, showed up after a few quick strikes to finish him off.
After that I finished off the others that aren't dead yet.
Not a bad day. Its now about ~12:17 PM. And because of my cheaty system the root traps are still there!
…
Continued in Part B
