So I'm a fucking fanboy when it comes to Paradox Interactive Games. Found out about a week ago that a new game called Stellaris will come out, and Paradox is the BEST grand strategy game producer and developer, so I am Fucking. Hyped. Up.
Enjoy the new chapter.
Day 46:
I fucking hate this. I really do.
"Of all the days for the day to be hot... It had to be today," I growled as he toiled through the dense forest of the mountains.
I felt a bit bad for the rest of the colony as well. Under my orders, they had gone out in search of a place to build our new shelter. I felt bad for them because they could've been using this time to train and collect food instead of toiling under this hot sun. Was it summer now?
Unlike the others, I had come alone to the other side of the mountain that we had temporarily settled on. It was also close to the cliff where we had looked upon the region. Thankfully, I had not seen any hostile creatures around here so far.
So this was what I was planning.
1. Find a new spot to build. While at it, find more imps to recruit.
2. Help the evolution of several other imps to trolls or onis before starting the construction.
3. Finish construction of fort.
4. Secure our "clan" as the dominant force of this particular mountain.
5. Search for allies to take on the bullywugs.
6. Make a city-state(?).
I had thought of the list on a whim this morning, but it was a solid enough outline of what we needed to do.
The particular bit about finding ally had come up when I remembered that killing Bullywugs the a few days had increased my reputation with human settlers in the area. That meant that even if I didn't know, my ability had abilities that were much more penetrating of the world around than what I could do. It was actually a scary thought that one.
Regardless about my own ability, I came to a conclusion that bullywugs were probably going to engage in hostile raids upon my clan once we grow big enough to become visible. And I couldn't have that. So raising good relationships with the local friendly cities would help me and my clan survive better in this world.
The idea of the city-state had come from when I had thought about the boring history books I had come across in the previous world; I was actually surprised that I could even remember such things - perhaps my increased WIS and INT were helping with those previous "data" but I would probably never know the indepth mysterious of how my ability, the Gamer, works.
Back to the knowledge from other universes, the one about the History of Aerok Empire by that asshole of a shopkeeper had come to my mind frequently. According to the book, Aerok Empire had originated in a part of the world where centralized government didn't exist.
That led to my thinking about government.
What was our clan becoming? Right now, it was composed of four medium-sized and more than thirty smaller sized members. It was a nomadic group so far, but for how long? We were a nomadic group surrounded by hostile frog people whose very description was "torment others for pleasure." If we were to not die and gather power, we would either have to be individually strong and form loose bonds, but we weren't individually strong. I know that I was OP plz nerf thanks to my Gamer ability and Shirou was strong because he was a reincarnation of a super strong hero or something like that, but the rest weren't. To keep my clan together we would need a system of government that would keep people in line and safe, especially so because Shirou -from what I remember- was going to be insistent in taking people in. He said so himself.
'We must help those we can.'
I agreed, but it was feasibly impossible right now with current resources.
Which leads us back to the fortress.
Whose birth ground still eludes me, even though I have spent the better part of the day searching for it.
Urgh, how is this so much harder than Crafting?!
...
I should've just hunted, instead.
When I returned to the campsite without much fruit for my efforts, Yan and Shirou looked happy and even friendly if their avid but loose conversation was anything to show.
I invited them to sit around me as we cooked and ate our basilisk meat, and told them to report what they saw.
"So, what did you guys find?" I asked them as I pulled off the largest remaining leg for my meal.
Shirou opened his mouth first. "Well, both of our groups found the same place, and it was pretty good, I think."
I tilted my head to the side.
"We call the place Twin Peak Pass because it's right in between two peaks. You can see them from here, I think," he said as he looked to the west. I followed his gaze, and saw what he was looking at.
Compared to some of the mountains in the region, the two peaks were a small thing. They were tall enough that from where we were, we could see the peaks -just barely- but if anyone in the valley were to attempt to look at it, they would find their immediate mountainside blocking their view.
"Okay, go on."
It was Yan who continued for the two. "We also found good lumber in the area. Thick, heavy, and straight."
"The soil is very fertile. It's not compact at all, filled to the brim with worms, and if the smell was anything to go off it, it actually had some mana circulating in it."
I blinked. "Wait, seriously?"
Now, I knew what Shirou was suggesting rather bluntly; the area was saturated in enough mana that the soil of all things had mana in them. Not only would this make the area a very good place to set up mana-intensive magical defenses, it can be used to grow rare magical herbs and creatures if we ever get to domestication. Even if we didn't settle right there, it would be prudent for us to stake our claim in the area before anyone else did.
Shirou nodded. "But what I found to be more interesting were the natural caves." He then reached into his knapsack, something I made for him (Shirou had tried to make one on his own, but for some reason anything that weren't shaped like swords ended up being a failure for him. Well, swords and foods). From the bag, he pulled out a ... crystal?
The crystal was as big as his palm, but it glowed lightly under the late afternoon sky. "I found these in the caves, and whenever you channel mana into them..." With that, he did as he said, and the glow became stronger and stronger until it was the brightest thing in the camp.
"Well, damn," I muttered after he put it away. There were a lot of resources in that area.
"Structural Analysis on the caves also revealed that it had a heavy iron and small amounts of gold," he added. "There were also iron-heavy gravels in the less vegetation filled areas, so I don't think it'll be completely necessary to push for mining operations for now."
I nodded. That was always a welcome news. I know that mining is an intensive work with too much hazard for a small group like ours. To know that we won't have to go down the caverns for mining was a relief.
The discussion went on with the three of us, and I really hoped this would turn out to be alright.
Day 47:
I came with Yan and Shirou the first thing to the spot they were talking about along with the imps that accompanied them.
The Twin Peak Pass -as we all decided to call it- was a wide stretch of land between two slopes that ended with the peaks. The area itself was lightly wooded, but the woods themselves were thick and strong, but the adjacent area was packed with trees. The soil itself seemed to be nice as well. My hands easily dug in, and the fresh smell of dirt was strikingly powerful.
And the magic in the air...
I thought about how we could use it, and then I suddenly had an idea.
'Reinforcement,' I mentally intoned.
Jagged green lines glowed lightly underneath my skin. I looked at my mana bar, and confirmed that it did not decrease. I deactivated the spell.
I looked at the area again. It was wide enough to snugly fit in a very small city. It was slightly slanted towards the west, but I didn't find it to be a bad mark about the site.
"Seems good enough. Just like what you told me."
The two of them grinned.
"Let's bring our people over here, then. No time to waste."
It took the three of us two or so hours to get back to our camp, and got our clan to move. Due to there being elderly imps as well, it took time to start moving, but by noon, we were all setting out to our new home.
The slow procession took about four hours, and by the time we arrived, the sun was tilting heavily to the west.
Guess the actual construction would have to wait.
Day 48:
Much to my delight, two more imps evolved. One became a troll like me, and another became a Oni like Shirou. I used [Observe] on them all, and saw that the trolls generally had more Stregnth, Endurance, and Power while the Oni had better Agility and Dexterity. So I sent Shirou and Yan out to hunt while the trolls, me, the new troll (whose name was Dodo), and Yan, began to chop down the trees.
After the first tree fell, we cut off the branches. Thick branches were saved for other uses while smaller ones went to fuel the fire.
It was there I realized something.
I couldn't lift the lumber by myself.
Now as a very wise troll (*coughcough*), I knew that this would not help with the speed of the construction. It would take all three of us to move the lumber, and we would have to go back to chopping down trees after being exhausted. No, it would not do.
So I looked at the points I had ... and dumped half of it into strength and endurance.
Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap-.
Ping!
[You've reached 100 Strength! Removing Weak trait!]
... I blinked. It was all I could do.
Then it was like my muscles were spasmming. Nothing was happening on the surface, but I could feel the muscles all over my body tighten and coil up like a spring.
When it was done, my body felt ... heavier. For sure, it was heavier. It also felt slightly more bulkier yet lighter.
All thanks to ten points into strength so far.
Derp.
[Power Overwhelming] was indeed Overwhelming.
I threw in another twenty points into STR and END each, increasing STR by a total of 80 after the Weak trait's disappearance.
Ping!
New Trait!
[Trait: "Strength is Key"
*Every 10 points of STR increases HP by 5 points.]
I peeked at my HP, and gawked as I stared at my now 278 points of HP. Forget, LvLing Up like crazy, I needed to spend my points!
Just as a test, I walked over to the lumber. It was a nine foot tree trunk that could probably crush any other troll or oni if it fell on it. I gulped as I placed my hands on it. My heart was pounding, and then I -!
...
I stared at the lumber in my hands. My arms were straining, for sure, but it wasn't life-threatening or anything like that. This was too easy!
I dropped it... and proceeded to dance. "Oh yeah, oh yeah. Who's the boss? Who's the boss?!"
When I stopped, I found both Yan and Dodo staring at me in confusion. I blushed in embarrassment and told them to cut down more trees of similar size.
Then I dumped another ten points to END and STR again. Then I decided that being a rounded individual would be better and dumped the rest of the points evenly to the rest of the stats, leaving me with just 8 points.
With no more delays, I hefted the lumber and made it over to the camp, where the imps gawked at me as I passed by them, and ceremoniously dropped the tree trunk as if it was a sack of potato.
The resulting tremor made me realize that it was me that got stronger, not the world that got weaker.
When I came back, the duo were still chopping away at the base of the tree.
I shrugged, and waited for them.
'Actually...' I thought as I stood up. I walked over to a tree whose trunk was slightly bent. It was unfit for use as part of the wall, but I was sure if I got to chop it down that we'll find a use for it.
So I wrapped my arms around it and pulled-!
..
...
...!
...!
I let out a explosive gasp as I backed off from the tree. "Nope, I can't pull that out of the ground so easily," I muttered to myself.
By noon, we have ten logs of eight to nine foot tall trees, and I was going to start staking them into the ground.
It was at that time that Shirou and the new Oni who went by Dori -a girl!- returned from the hunt.
Shirou was dressed in basilisk leather armor, a black slick looking thing that I had the pleasure of personally stitching together. He had no weapon on him, as he used Tracing to do so, but he had a deer slung over his shoulder.
Dori wore a deer leather armor, one I made for her, that fit loosely around herself. She held a bow, but from the way she held it, she was still unused to hunting with it. Eh, she'll get used to it in time. She had a deer slung over her shoulder as well, but it was significantly smaller than the one Shirou carried.
"Nice timing. Everyone is hungry as hell," I remarked as I stood up.
Shirou froze when he saw me standing up. Then he spoke. "Wow, what happened to you?"
I frowned. "What do you mean?"
Shirou looked at me once over before scoffing. "You went from a tall, skinny, red skinned troll to a tall, muscular, red skinned troll.
My frown became deeper. Well, I knew that investing in all those points had changed my body but I didn't notice much difference. So how did he?
Shirou put up a hand before letting it down again. "Honestly, it's not that big of a change. But if you just stop and look, it's quite visible."
So that's what I did. I stopped and just stared down at myself.
I heard Shirou sigh. "For someone so intelligent, he's sometimes not right in the head."
Once we were done with our lunch, we got back to work again, this time with Shirou working alongside us.
Shirou dug the holes where the lumber was going to be placed into vertically. I would then move the lumber into place, staking it into the ground about two feet in. Then I would go back to where Dodo and Yan were chopping down the wood, and move any logs that they had prepared.
By the end of the day, we had a third of our wall prepared right next to the caverns where Shirou found the glowing crystals.
Day 49:
The moment we woke up, I had us working on the fort walls again. I pushed all of us hard. We only ate between the works. We only rested when it was impossible to go forward. Imps flew by us, supplying us with our food and water.
But by the end of the day, we all watched as I pushed in the last of the lumber into the last section of the wall.
It was complete.
Bathed in red of the setting sun, we all looked upon our new home. There was nothing inside it; we had no time for that yet. The wall, however, was complete. It wasn't much compared to what I knew of the world beyond our simple forest, but it was a magnificent structure that WE had built. It was the product of our hands.
And we were all proud of it.
Ping!
New Skill!
Construction (Crafting Subskill) (LvL 1)
Buildings are quite different from hatchet making... Don't move that cornerstone, you idiot!
*Quality of constructs dependent on LvL of this skill.
*-1% decrease in construction time
Cool.
With that, I keeled over along with the rest of the secondary evolutions.
We were so tired, even if it was worth it.
Character Status by the end of Day 49:
Naruto [Imp Ruto] [Troll Ruto]
LvL 39
The Gamer
HP: 168.5(+120) (+1.5 HP per hour regen)
Mana: 590 (+5.9 per minute regen)
STR: 231
DEX: 72
AGI: 69
END: 102
INT: 79
WIS: 80
CHA: 40
Unused Points: 8
Spirit: 35
Magic: 24
Power: 24
Traits Taken + Earned:
Ambitious, Quick, Genius, Cynical, Stressed, Content, Teacher[Neutral] (Unavailable), Power Overwhelming, Strength is Key
Focus:
Growing
Racial Traits:
Beast Slaying (max)
Troll Blood (max)
Skills:
Archery (LvL 1)
Ambush (LvL 7)
Baiting (LvL 21)
Blade Mastery (LvL 4)
Charging (LvL 7)
Clairvoyance (LvL 1)
Crafting (LvL 3) - Construction (Subskill)(LvL 1)
Fishing (LvL 6)
Intimidation (LvL 7)
Leadership (LvL 9)
Listening (LvL 14)
Observe (LvL 40) + Structural Analysis (Reveals Physical/Chemical/Magical properties of target if LvL of Observe is high enough)
Physical Durability (LvL 2)
Projection (LvL 2)
Running (LvL 15)
Sonar (LvL 3)
Throwing (LvL 10)
Trapping (LvL 19)
