It was annoying. I was tired, my head hurt, and this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I looked around to see that this was the only zombie, and he didn’t look like the ripped fast running kind of scary zombie that will take over the world. This dude looked like a slightly more in shape version of Walking Dead zombies. He could probably jog. I went and found my small axe that was a gift from last Christmas. It was for practice as she had proven that she could throw an axe better than me. Man, I am never going to live that down. Axe in my right hand, and a stone gauntlet on my left, I pulled open the door and spartan kicked the zombie. He landed on his back in my front yard. I gestured up with my hand and the earth softened like quicksand, encasing the zombie from the neck down. Bringing my axe up, I let his head have it. It did not smell good. I didn’t think that it would, but I never really thought it would be that bad. My stomach also agreed by covering the split head with its contents. Now this is just too much. Using my magic, I sank the whole mess about 6 feet under, and then transmuted the earth to stone. Earth magic is great for cleanup.

  The next day came too soon. I had passed out on the couch, my weapons strewn around me just in case. Putting my hand on my woman, that egg-like feeling was still there. Still no movement. I didn’t sleep well, and dawn was here. Coffee is my normal go to morning routine, but my dumbass had no fire or electricity. Eh, I could experiment. I covered the coffee table in front of my in stone, and then conjured a small stone pot. Then, I put a rune for fire in the bottom of the pot and conjured water to fill it up. If I could get this to work, french press coffee! Inserting a small bit of magic into the rune caused it to bubble a little, and just a bit more made it bubble a lot. I put my hands right next to the pot without touching it, heat, SUCCESS! Five minutes later, I had perfect french press coffee. Now, if I could make a pot that heated water magically, then I should be able to help out my now powerless fridge. I conjured four square stone blocks, put a rune of ice onto each one, and imparted the concepts of absorbing heat. To be clear, the runes I use are pretty much anything I want. The magic only seems to care about the intent and the fact that it has something to hold on to. I could be wrong, but it works for now. I put one fridge block in the fridge, and three in the freezer. If this works, I should be set for preserving food. Hell yes. It’s barely after dawn and I’ve solved my two biggest problems, coffee and food preservation. Then I took the food that had weirdly spoiled and stuck it in a paper bag, and tossed it into the back yard. Turns out I could bury it with earth sorcery from twenty feet away. 

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  Talking to my tree lady might make me seem a little nuts, but it definitely helped to talk out my plans. I mean, she couldn’t disagree with me right?  

  “Ok babe, I do have a laundry list of shit to do today. Check on acorns, plant them, and turn them into my house protecting slaves. Find a solution to the way-too-close graveyards near me. I could probably just transmute the dirt around the coffins into stone right? That shouldn’t be too hard, just time-consuming. Man am I glad that we went grocery shopping three days ago, so I don’t have to worry about that right now. Oh! And figure out some magic that’s effective with distance. Earth and ice and nature. That’s some close up shit. Yes, yes, I know that I have two guns, but my ammo is limited, and I honestly don’t know how effective it will be in the long run.” 

  I had an idea or two, but there were rather iffy. I needed to see how my basement plans were coming along first. Going down into the basement was heady. I could feel the mana just washing over me. The batteries on the left were full, and the left and middle generator were just churning out mana. Checking on the enchantments showed my boneheaded mistake. I didn’t put a governor on them at all. There was no conditional trigger to turn off. The good news was that the enchantments themselves didn’t degrade at all. Fixing time. About an hour later, it was all taken care of. The left generator had 10 slots for the crystal batteries and it would turn off when they were full. The middle generator would be off until something decided drain the house reserves of energy by attacking it, at which point it would turn on until the reserves were full. The right generator had soaked my little acorns in energy. They were ready.