It's about mid after noon the next day when I finally get all the twiglings I can up and running. The corpse flowers for the cratacumbas finally blossomed and started contributing, the bear will probably be ready by tonight or tomorrow morning. Those were a huge boost in resources, so I was able to make seven more twiglings before finally running out and needing to take a break. This brings my total up to nine level thirteens and two level eights for a grant total of eleven twiglings. Unfortunately they are so low level they can hardly damage anything, much less take a hit. This was perfectly demonstrated last night when that poor level thirteen almost got chewed to death in seven seconds flat. The good news is then snow is gone, the bad news is that the valley seems to be a giant mud pit at this time. I think it will clear up in a few days with the heat. Speaking of clearing up I remembered to check on the s branch a few times over the course of the night after the attack. It seems the mana leaves the branches slowly over the course of a few hours, but I still don't know when it starts to degrade since it started during my nap.
I'm wondering if I should do patrols with the twiglings. That would be a total pain in the ass actually, I'd have to queue up every order every time and all that micro management seems like a pain in the ass. I'll just keep them close to home and send out the horde when the time comes. Speaking of, three (Spike Antler deer) just entered my range, time to deploy the horde. All eleven twiglings all detach from their stations and make a bee line for the deer. Three of them immediately get their feet caught in the mud and faceplant with a wet splat while the rest run off into the woods. Wonderfull, honestly I don't know why I keep expecting any level of competence from these things. I guide the three out of the mud and soon enough they are trailing after their compatriots. As the twiglings make their way through the forest I turn my attention back to the deer.
Spike Antler Deer (Level: 24)
Spike Antler Deer (Level: 21)
Spike Antler Deer (Level: 29)
Oh boy that last one has some levels, and all the deer seem to be on guard. They will probably turn and run but I might be able to get one of them down with the twiglings. I’m watching the deer when they do something weird, one of them snorts and stomps, then they all change direction to head deeper into my domain. Odd, what was that about? Before they were moving along the edge of my range and would have eventually left, but not before the twiglings got to them. Now they are basically heading straight into the approaching twiglings. So what spooked them? I start scanning across the projected old path of the deer, a lot of which is the new area that I’ve acquired since I first woke back up. I didn’t have to look long, about twenty five feet along their old course is a new plant, a weird plant. It’s a small tree, with a very thick trunk and branches, the leaves are green but have black stripes down the middle, hanging off the branches are a bunch of transparent kidney bean shaped pods filled with a vivid yellow liquid with red swirls. Hold on, why isn't this thing in hibernation like everything else?
Blast Pod Tree
A small, bush-like tree that grows in temperate and cold environments. It grows year round and through conditions most plants would find inhospitable. It reproduces and spreads by creating explosive pods attached to its seeds, which contain a liquid sap that reacts violently with air. When punctured the pods explode, sending the seeds flying away from the plant. These pods also act as a deterrent to grazing animals, as they are thin enough that a sufficient bump can puncture them. The plant is resistant to the blast of its own pods and pods of other plants, pods still attached are also resistant to explosions.
Uh yea, I’d avoid that too. Wait, they explode, how the hell does that work? Crap, I'll deal with it later, the twiglings are upon the deer. I order them to mob the one in front while I try to stab the highest level one at the back. As the twiglings get closer the deer get spooked, clearly being able to hear the horde coming from a mile off they turn to run. That’s when I attack the one at the back, stabbing it with many branches and making damn sure to keep it in place. It lets out a blood curdling scream as the other two turn in a panic and run the opposite direction, right into the approaching horde of twiglings The twiglings and remaining deer collide through some bushes, the twiglings jumping up and smashing into their prey mid air. The lowest level deer is dragged to the ground instantly and mauled by all the twiglings while the other one manages to escape further into my zone, for now. I finish up what I’m doing, aka I stab the highest level deer until it stops moving, while the twiglings finish mauling the other one.
Defeated: Spike Antler Deer (Level: 21)
+ 31 EXP
Defeated: Spike Antler Deer (Level: 29)
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+ 195 EXP
Hold the fuck up! Why did I only get thirty one experience!? What is this bullshit, was it becouse the twiglings killed it? No they have helped me kill stuff before, was it because only they killed it? Wait the other one is getting away, gotta deal with that first. I quickly stab the final deer to death as it tries to frantically escape its way through my domain.
Defeated: Spike Antler Deer (Level: 24)
+ 170 EXP
*Ding* You have leveled up!
Oh fuck yea, more points! Now I’ll deal with that in a bit, first I want to check out that new bush. I order all the twiglings to grab the corpses and bring them back to the pod, except for one. I have one of the level eights approach the bush. I’m not risking one of the high level guys on the off chance the bush decides to explode. Slowly it approaches the bush, the explosive beans simply dangling on the underside of the mini tree, far enough down and apart not to bump into each other. While the twigling approaches I examine the tree from all angles, looking for anything weird. It seems like a normal tree, aside from the explodey bits and being smaller than usual, it’s still taller than the twigling though. I order the twigling to carefully reach up and grab one of the beans, a decision I instantly regret. The twigling reaches up and not so carefully grabs the nearest bean, causing it to instantly puncture. I don’t even have time to think any profanities before a massive fireball erupts with a huge boom, a moment later the sound hits my pod. The twigling is dead instantly, tossed away from the explosion point missing the offending arm and covered in charred bark. It lands with a crack and splits in two at the torso, leaving sad bits of charred twigling laying on the ground. And that's why I had a level eight do that first, note to self, explosive beans are very explosive.
…………
I’ve been a tracker in this part of the Ocerstand Valley for twenty years. I was only a few weeks from retiring when Sunflower’s rampage struck the valley and areas around it. Lucky, I've been called. Funny, I don’t feel lucky. I left home for a few day trip to the city when I got word from my mother that father was dying. First father died, then Sunflower happened. My wife, three sons, two daughters, none of them made it out. Everyone in the kill zone was just gone, I couldn’t even find bodies to give a proper burial when I returned to what was left of our home. Only a day's walk between his hometown and the city, but that was far enough that one was butchered while the other was left in horror and shock. Now I’m left as one of the few guides who knows the valley area and how to traverse it. I’ve made more money in the past year than I have over the entirety of my life before, but money still wont bring back my family. Family, a word those whackos in the church have hardly heard of, much less understand. But they pay well, which is why I’m guiding a group of them into the valley for this little expedition of theirs. I don’t know the details, something about a deacon pissing off a local priest. As such he was sent off with a handful of guardians, the church’s soldiers, to go hunt a night stripe to ‘atone for his misgivings’. So he hired me to guide his little expedition into the valley and locate the monster. Once we found it it would be up to his men to bring it down and then I would guide them back out. That is where we started encountering problems. Night stripes are notoriously hard to pin down, being agile and having stealth skills that render them near imperceptible unless you look straight at them. I located the creature, and when the deacon's men attacked they promptly lost the creature and I had to find it again, repeat this three times and now here we are.
A shame it is not a monster, monsters have no intelligence unless they are a named variant, which causes normal ones to simply charge straight at anything with total bloodthirst and haphazardly use skills, only stopping when one of the parties are dead, or has escaped the monster's scenes completely. Sometimes this can be a boon however, as a weaker opponent charging straight at you makes for easy disposal. Animals on the other hand, like the nightstripe and spike antler deer have some degree of intelligence, usually enough to run at the first sign of trouble. It’s even rumored that the giant lumercus inhabiting the eastern planes can learn to read. That unfortunately means that the nightstripe runs every time the assortment of hired hunters and guardians attempt to take it. And now I have to track it, again.
“Well, anything?” Bob the guardian assigned to guard me asks.
“Yes, it came this way. And very recently to boot, not even a full day ago.” I reply.
“Should we go back and get the others then? I think we might actually have our plan lined up enough to take it down this time.”
“Not quite yet, I want to get a little close...”
A loud boom echoed through the forest, coming from a mile or so ahead. My guard immediately went for his weapon but I remained calm. I recognized that sound, a rare one, but still heard in the valley on occasion. Something just had the unfortunate luck of triggered a blastpod. I gestured for him to out his weapon away.
"Well, something just had a bad day." I say.
"What by the nine was that?" Bob asks.
"That was a blast pod, nasty plants that tend to explode when touched. And it sounds like something touched it." I said as I got up and walked towards the source.
"Wait, we aren't actually going to check that out are we?"
"Of course, we need to mark on the map where the thing is so no one else runs into it. Won't hurt to find out what triggered it either."