I do realize three generators might be a bit much, but I honestly don’t know how long enchantments last, or if the whole thing will explode because I did something dumb, or if I can even make enchantments with the kind of detail that my mind can plan. I’m a smart guy, but the just above average kind of smart. I’m not that in shape or particularly muscular. My best chance of survival is reliance on complete paranoia and utter overkill. I only have the first right now. My fight with the spiders served to remind my dumbass that I didn’t grab much offensive power during my journey through the Primordial Chaos. Lightning, pure energy, fire, force, time, space. Some great options. And I didn’t grab a single one of them.

  My last plan involved me going outside. Not a huge fan of that. I had an idea and am not completely sure that it will work, but if it does, fuck yes I’m awesome. I want a tree, four of them. The concept is to gather some acorns and plant them at the 4 corners of my house, link them to the life giving generator in my basement and connect them to the wards of my house. Then, the trees will sprout in the shape that I want due to my Nature magic, and my house will be covered and protected by four big ass, magically reinforced oak trees that know me and love me as their own. My house would then be an epic double-layered stone shell with a magical oak covering. Fortress, druid style. But I still had to go outside, and it was almost dark. There was an old oak tree just across my street where the neighborhood squirrels loved to gossip and throw nuts at people. I can sprint there and back pretty fast. Making sure I had my usual getup on, with my weapons in my pockets, I looked out my front window. Didn’t really see much out there. Was really hoping there wasn’t much out there. I don’t even want to think about what my new neighbors are thinking right now, or the small town drug dealer across the street either. Acorns. That’s my focus.

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  Throwing caution to the winds, I hurtled towards the old oak and began scrambling around the gnarled roots for acorns. “One, two, three, come on! Where are ya you little bastard. Just one more . . . , gotcha!” Acorns in hand after 20 seconds of searching, not bad. Shoving them in my pocket, I turn to make my way back to safety when I hear a low moan. Nope. I do not have time for this. This moan didn’t sound human, it sounded hungry. I made it back to my living room in record time. The door locked and sealed with stone. Once I caught my breath, I looked out the window. It looked like a freaking zombie, and not a fresh one. Cemeteries! FUCK! This damn house is 80 yards away from a cemetery, and 500 yards away from another. Why in the goddamn world do I live in historic Fredericksburg, VA during an apocalypse where apparently the dead come back. What fucking luck.

  The ugly fuck stumbled towards my house, which was mostly covered in magically reinforced stone at this point, and began to bang on my front door. I ran downstairs to my middle generator to check the house enchantment. Almost done. The only thing left was the roof and the outside. The inside had a nice granite layer two inches thick and all the windows were either quartz or reinforced with it. To hell with it. I have to get rid of the zombie without attracting more attention from other ones. But these acorns come first; I am safe for the moment. I turned the generator on the right on, and then set it to emit a small bit of power, and then split that four ways. Cupping the acorns, I soaked them with what I want to call an ‘intent enchantment’. The intent was for them to soak up energy without growing, and crystallize the concepts of protection, strength, and hardiness. This way, when I plant them tomorrow and open up the energy tap to the generator, I can remove the stasis part of the enchantment and have fully grown oak trees in a month. I placed the acorns on top of the generator and went back upstairs. Now that the semblance of the future plan is underway, time to get rid of my immediate problem. Mr. Moan was still there, mindlessly banging away.