Lanek sat in his chamber after a long day of running about while still recovering from the loss of his mana from the dedication ritual. After speaking with Eldros and Talwarg, he had ridden Maximilian to the monastery and put the Primordial into contact with Letha, who seemed eager to accept his offer. He suspected that it had a lot to do with wanting to be closer to nature and the obsession that all creatures in this world seemed to have with evolution. In Letha’s case, it seemed like only thirty seconds had passed from the moment he touched her forehead to the moment she began trotting to the west gate.
He had also taken a moment to check in on Lira and Liv, finding that the former had awoken but was still incapable of really walking at the moment or staying conscious for very long. Liv had told him that Nerek had checked on her and determined that she was fine, but that her weariness probably had something to do with how long she had been without a body compared to Lanek. Before taking his leave, he had assured her that there was room for both of them when they were ready to join him.
Now that the day was done, he stared at the scroll that the myrmidon had given him. Steeling himself, he reached for it and began opening it by the light from the fire burning in the hearth. Alright, you’ve put this off long enough.
However, the scroll’s contents were not what he expected. Instead of a message, warning, or threat, there was a simple image of one of the orbs that he had carried for the first few days in this world before Lira had told him to get rid of it and a few words in a language that he could not understand. As he focused on the words, a System notification appeared.
Would you like to cast the spell inscribed on this scroll?
MP Cost: 2,000
Well, now I don’t feel bad about not opening the scroll sooner. I’m going to need to improve my spirit attribute if I want to see what this does. I could just ask Eldros as well.
Lanek reached out along the connection he shared with his patron, waiting patiently for a response. It took longer than he expected, but he wouldn’t be surprised if the Primordial was exceedingly busy now that he was a bit more capable than before.
Greetings, Lanek. You have my thanks for the swift recruitment of Letha. Is there something you needed?
Sorry if I’m interrupting something, boss. But I have this scroll from the dungeon that I have no clue about. I was hoping that maybe you could look at it for me?
From the Depths? How strange…
It was an odd feeling to have a higher power look through your eyes, which Lanek was experiencing firsthand. He wasn’t a fan of the process, but it wasn’t like he had any other options aside from taking the scroll to Eldros’ other grove or asking the Primordial to drop everything and come to him. While Eldros was a pretty easygoing and casual power, Lanek was not about to demand that the Primordial drop everything to help him out.
It is a one-time use communication spell. Judging from the picture, I would assume the spell would put you in touch with the Ashen Depths itself. This is intriguing, I believe that it would be a good idea for you to boost your mana to cast it. If nothing else, we may gain some insight into one of our biggest foes.
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That is interesting. I do want to make contact, if for no other reason than to satisfy my curiosity as to why it saved and sheltered the cats. I mean, that is very contrary to what I’ve seen it do since coming here. Anyway, thank you for that, I don’t want to keep you too long.
Of course. Fair warning, I will not be able to provide much aid or conversation for the next few months, I have much to do now that I have a measure of my power back.
Understood. Good luck, boss. Lanek replied, shutting down the connection after Eldros said his own farewell. Shaking his head at the absurdity of not only speaking to gods, but now a dungeon as well, he prepared himself for bed.
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When Lanek rose from his bed the following morning, he was happy to discover that his mana had replenished to a decent degree. He wasn’t full up by any measure, but it would be enough to start working on the walls. After a quick breakfast, Lanek left the gatehouse and was surprised to find Khurzag waiting for him.
“Morning, Khurzag. Something I can help you with?” Lanek asked, seeing the orc and his patrol looking around the area curiously.
“We’re here to help you, actually. Talwarg needed to get back, but he sent us here to help out since we can’t really do all that much with the weather like this.” He replied, gesturing at the falling snow. “He said something about moving stone?”
“Ah, then you’ll be working with Ivan. He is probably ready to start blasting these cobblestones and buildings apart now.” Lanek said, pointing toward the lothenae. Ivan was at the far end of the area designated for the grove, eyeing a large house and muttering to himself. Meanwhile, the orc nodded in acknowledgment and led his patrol to speak with Ivan, but not before handing Lanek a large sack of seeds and acorns.
Lanek walked to the opposite end of the area, figuring that he would be better off working on the defenses well away from the blast zone. For the most part, Lanek knew what kind of design he wanted. He was hoping to have the wall rise up to the equivalent of a three-story structure with a wide enough top for patrols and guards to walk across with a short battlement for his people to take cover if needed. He had no need for the wall to be as tall as the one surrounding the city, the size he had in mind would be more than enough to deter everything he had seen in the city short of the matriarchs or myrmidons.
As for how the guards would get on the walls, he had told Ivan in very clear terms to not demolish the final stretch of buildings along the streets that would form the pathways for his walls. The plan was to have guards and the cats reside in those structures after hatches were cut into the roofs and ramps were built to connect them to the top of the wall. Of course, this wouldn’t be for every house as that would be impractical.
He began by digging through the sack of seeds, specifically looking for acorns, pine cones, and seeds that his skill told him would grown into a large tree. He wanted trees to anchor the wall. Once he had sorted them out, he walked along the side street, aiming to space the trees at regular intervals until he reached the end of the north side of the planned wall. He ended up with a few left over, so he doubled up on the corner and halfway down the length of the wall where the north gate would be. Afterward, he filled the spaces between those trees with as many of the regular seeds as [Nature’s Rampart] would allow, stopping only when the north side’s outline was complete.
Lanek then found a spot on the roof of a house nearest the future gate and was joined by Kazuma. It seemed that his furry companions had decided that one of them would have the duty of guarding him while they were out hunting. Since he didn’t have much for them to do, Lanek had requested that Maximilian, Kazuma, and Sanguineus collect seeds once they were done hunting and stow them near the gatehouse for future use. He had plenty of seeds to complete the wall for the most part, but he was already out of anything that would grow into a tree.
With a deep breath, Lanek leaned back against the dozing Kazuma and started to feed his mana into the design. In the end, he was hoping for a nine meter tall and two meter wide wall, so he knew that it would take a god awful amount of mana. He could feel his mana trickling away as the seeds took root and began reaching down into the ground, finally anchoring into the bedrock below them. Suddenly, with no other way to go but up, the seeds that had punched through the stone with their roots started to expand, causing the cobblestones to shift as the plants grew.
Before he knew it, several hours had passed and his mana pool was almost empty. He had been so lost in the spell that he had barely registered the passing of time and only now came to because he physically could not maintain the effort any longer. Descending from the roof with Kazuma’s aid, Lanek looked upon his work and sighed. The wall was underway and vegetation did indeed extend the entire length of the planned north wall, but it was only as high as his ankle.
“I guess I know what I’ll be doing for the next few months, right Kazuma?”