I hop into my design interface for the twiglings and pull up the level one template. Then I start pumping up the levels until it's maxed out at level fourteen. Guess I leveled up enough to be able to put more levels into my minions. I’m left with a whopping thirty nine points to do what I need, it should be just enough. I add the general skill (throw objects) and start dumping points in. Unfortunately, I miss calculated and the skill only gets up to level 9, with three points left over. So I dump those into its strength to give it an extra boost to its throwing power.

Race: Twigling: Level 14 (Lesser)

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Health: 75/75

Mana: 50/50

Stamina: 200/200

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Strength: 28

Agility: 20

Endurance: 20

Magic: 5

Fortitude: 15

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General skills:

* Flora NetworkConnection - Level: 1 (Max)

* Throwing Proficiency - Level: 8

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And with that the customization is done. These guys should be fairly accurate, and I plan to field enough of them that the enemy won't be able to dodge them all. I plan to equips them with throwing spears, one in each hand. Not exactly a lot of ammo but I don't have any way to have them carry more without weaving baskets or something for all of them. That's too much effort for expendable soldiers, so I'll just have them charge in behind the melees or fall back after throwing depending on the situation. Now for the spears, it should be easy enough. Make a pointy stick, enhance with mana, break off. That reminds me, it's weird how they stay enhanced after breaking off, example, my old shield and mace. But when attached to a living plant the Enhancement slowly dissipates after a while. Maybe living plants absorb the mana or something, I don't know, nor do I have time to play mad doctor to find out. So I get back to work, first I finish off the twigling I was working on, then I switch production over to the new thrower variant.

So I grow, and grow, and grow. Next thing I know the sun is rising over the horizon and I'm mentally exhausted. But it was a good run for twigling production, I spent maybe sixteen to nineteen hours just growing. From that little run I got twelve thrower twiglings, and three more level thirteen, which I am now calling melee twiglings. I've also drained most of my nutrient stores, but thankfully the corpse flowers should have them back up in a few hours. I take stock of my little war band, I've got one level eight melee twigling, eleven level thirteen melees, and twelve thrower twiglings, for a grand total of twenty four twiglings. Now I just need to get the things armed, twenty four spears should be easy enough though. But I think for this next part I'll step out and stretch my legs, no sense being couped all day. So I start the draining process while I look around for a suitable tree to use as base material.

I finally find one as I step off the pod, about a quarter mile away just short of the base of the mountain. Perfect, the branches are long but not too thick. I start shaping the branches on my way over, and by the time I arrive I have two formed spears, reinforced by mana and ready to be broken off. They aren't anything fancy, just short pointed sticks about a quarter inch round, one and a half feet long, and having a fairly pointy tip. I snap them both off and weigh them in my hands, they are fairly light. That's both good and bad, to heavy and the twiglings won't be able to throw them very far, but to light and they might not have enough punch to them. Only one way to find out. I call over one of the new thrower models and the level eight.

Both of them get here roughly around the same time. I hand the thrower his new test weapons. First I have him test throw one at the ground about thirty feet away, just to see how well it Flys and whatnot. The twigling rears back and chucks the spear as hard it can with form similar to an Olympic thrower. The spear sails through the air and lands only a centimeter away from the designated target spot. I order it to do it again with the other spear, it switches the spear to its right hand and the test repeats with the same uneventful conclusion. Interesting, it seemed to prefer throwing with its right hand, going so far as to change the spear over without being ordered to. The accuracy is pretty good too, I bet the skill at max level would be perfectly accurate. Can't win 'em all, I'll probably look into it when I level up some more and can make higher level minions. But for now, onto the next test.

I order the twigling to retrieve its weapons, which it does with no problems, holding one spear in each hand, and return to my side. Now time for the penetration test. I order the twigling to throw the spear at a nearby tree, only ten feet away, as hard as it can. It lines up and hurls the spear with such force that it flies through the air with a whistle and embeds itself an inch into the tree trunk. Well, at least they got some power behind them. Now for the final test, I order the thrower twigling to retrieve its spear, then order it to attack to level eight, and the level eight to evade the spear. What follows in a chase through the forest with the thrower desperately attempting to line up a shot on the level eight and the level eight just running between trees and doubling back on itself. The thrower doesn't hurl his spear during the entire ordeal, except at the end where it nails the level eight right in its bulb lower torso, almost killing it out right. I order the thrower to stand down in the nick of time, as it was lining up up a kill shot on the poor level eight. I carefully remove the spear and return it to the thrower, then order both of them back to base.

Well that was fun, and informative. The throwers got a bit of power behind them, and it seems they won't throw unless they are absolutely sure they will hit their target. I'll have to find out if I can override that or not. But in the meantime, I'm low on mana and have a lot more work to do, so back to the pod.

Once I'm back in my pod I get straight to work, first healing the poor level eight, then making spears for all the throwers. Once that is done I get back to work making more twiglings. By morning the next day I have five more fully equipped twiglings of each type for a total of thirty four twiglings. Just in time too, five new…. Unfortunate souls just walked into my area.

Human (Human, Level 30 Warrior)

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Human (Human, Level 35 Warrior)

Human (Human, Level 32 Archer)

Elf (Elf, Level 29 Warrior)

Human (Human, Level 28 Warrior)

Ah look, probably a scouting party. Why they would come around this area with so little forces is beyond me. But I think I'll relieve them of some of there numerical advantage since they have been so kind as to break into smaller groups. I send out the twiglings, they move fast at first, blazing trails through the forest on the way to their ambush point. I've approximated the group's heading; they're going in a straight line that will probably pass just shy of my house, which means they are heading straight into the heart of my domain. As the twiglings approach the group I have them slow down to barely a crawl and spread out.

This should be easy enough, I'll have the twiglings waiting along their path in a U formation. Once the group walks into the U I'll have some rapidly run behind to both cut off the group and distract them. Once they turn their attention to the flank I'll hit them again with the rest and down they should go. Plans are all great in theory, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this won't go the way I want, so I'll be ready to use some branches to deal with any complications. The twigings are all in position, now it's just a waiting game. Slowly time passes, first a minute, then two, then three, and I start to get a little anxious. I'm not just fighting people here, I'm fucking hunting them. I know damn well that it's me or them, but it just feels, off still somehow. Maybe it's the last bits of my humanity trying to cry out, too bad I don't care. They have walked right into the trap, and so I string it. Eight twiglings, two throwers and six melees, rush out of the underbrush and cut the group off from the way they originally came from. A slew of curses came from everyone in the group, except the archer. He seemed to be the leader, and immediately picked up on the fact something was wrong, his shout was much louder than the rest.

"Ambush!"

To the warriors' credit, the moment the word left his mouth they formed around him in a defensive square and readied themselves for battle. I ordered the rangers to unleash their opening salvo on the archer, I don't want him providing support to the warriors so I try to take him out of the fight immediately. As the melees surge forth a volley of spears converge on the group from all sides. A look of horror comes over them as the spears cover twenty feet in the span of a second. Half the spears somehow miss, three more are deflected or slashed down by the warriors, but the remaining hit their intended target, two finding their marks. One slips under the chest piece due to the angle and buries itself two inches into the poor man just below his ribs, the second one hits him square in his left hand as he was readying an arrow. Said hand now has a nice, red, hole in it, and the archer falls to the ground screaming and clutching the spear lodged in his torso.

The warriors don't even have time to panic as the wave of melee twiglings crashes into them. Instantly the sound of steel splintering wood can be heard as the warriors start cutting away at the incoming twiglings. Two of the warriors use some kind of skill, and their blades start glowing before cutting down two of my twiglings instantly. After the swing the blades stop glowing and return to normal. Great, some kind of enhanced attack. The other two warriors aren't as lucky, clearly having less experience they, instead of opening with a skill attack, opt to parry the onslaught of blows while being forced back. The fighting continues, twiglings falling right and left, some dead, some only disabled. I order the throwers to release their second barrage at the highest level warrior while the melees make space to avoid getting hit. The warrior seems puzzled for a few moments, before the wave of spears crashes down upon him. As before most barely miss or are glancing hits, but three manage to strike him well. One looks to be stuck in his chest piece, seemingly blocked by the leather armor piece, while one is lodged in his left shoulder and another in his right thigh. It doesn't take long for the twiglings to tear him to pieces with his combat capability and mobility reduced.

With their powerhouse and archer out, a hole in their formation, and reinforcements in the form of the now empty handed thrower twiglings coming to join the melee, the others start to panic.

"Fuck this, I don't wanna die!" The Elf yells as he makes a beeline for what he thinks is a hole in the entrapment. In reality, it's the way a bunch of thrower twiglings are still coming to fill, just out of sight because of the bushes. He crashes through the bush in a panic, only to get grabbed by the five thrower twiglings waiting for him, all he could do was scream as they disemboweled him.

"Gods damn it, you form up on me! We are getting out of here! Break their formation there, that's the weakest point." The second highest warrior screamed while jumping into the spot with the least amount of twiglings near it.

Unfortunately for him, I was ready. He didn't even see it coming, the branches came down from above him and buried themselves into his neck, causing him to drop while clutching his throat. The other one sees this and panics even more, his renewed hope instantly turning into dread and fear as his last friend drops dead, and he is left to face the remainder of the horde alone. To his credit he saw the futility of trying to fight, instead opting to attempt to just run away. I guess his fear got the better of him, as he just attempted to charge past the twiglings. The only reason he didn't was because one of the throwers managed to lunge and grab his ankle, pulling him to the ground, where I proceeded to finish him off with some branches. All that was left was the downed archer, so I had the twiglings drag him under the nearest tree and I use the branches to finish him off, might as well get the full exp for it.

Defeated: Human(Level: 37, Warrior - Level: 35)

+82 EXP

Defeated: Elf(Level: 31, Warrior - Level: 29)

+70 EXP

Defeated: Human(Level: 31, Warrior - Level: 30)

+355 EXP

*Ding* You have leveled up!

Defeated: Human(Level: 30 , Warrior - Level:28 )

+340 EXP

*Ding* You have leveled up!

Defeated: Human(Level: 33, Archer - Level: 32)

+375 EXP

Oh sweet hell, that's a lot of exp. My minions only got two of them alone and I still gained two levels out of that. Hmm, I wonder if it would be worth it to try and disable them so I can finish them off personally. My paladin class is getting left behind my race here. Well, time for cleanup. I have the twiglings gather their fallen brothers along with bodies and start taking them back to base. Overall I lost five melees, with another three wounded, and a thrower somehow got injured in all that. I should be able to heal up the wounded, and the corpses of both them and the party should make up for any losses. I keep healing the twiglings along their way back to base and by the time they get there everyone is full health again. I put the twiglings back to standby while I examine the bodies of the victims of the twiglings assault. One dude literally has his guts hanging out, and the rest aren't that far behind. I’d probably be puking my guts out if I didn't do it originally after caving that dude's skull in with my fist.

I start rummaging through their stuff. The armor from three of them is all useless, shredded to ribbons by the twiglings attacks. The remaining two sets I pull off and save for later. Thankfully the armor seems to be the only thing that was really damaged. They all had the same stuff, a pouch on their waist with some salve and dried meat or biscuits, which I promptly try eating. The meat is tough as nails and tastes like salted wood while the biscuits are basically rocks and taste like one too. As for the weapons the twiglings carried back, well four short swords of unknown metal and quality, but I'm assuming it's crappy iron. More arrows from the archer and his bow, so I finally have something to shoot the arrows with. Not that I'd be able to hit anything with it, I've never touched a bow in either of my lives and if my throwing accuracy is anything to go by, the twiglings would be in more danger than my enemies.

Just a few problems with my loot, I got nothing to use it on. The twiglings seem to be able to grasp the concept of holding a sword, but not swinging it. Honestly they would probably just drop it and go claws in when confronted by an enemy. Same goes for the bow, the throwers only throw because of a skill, so without any respective skill they would probably just chuck the bow or drop it depending on which variant is holding it. The good news, I recovered most of the throwing spears so I only need to replace four of them. So…. Something just grabbed a twigling?

Night Stripe (Level 45)

The fucking night stripe is making off with one of my throwers, get back here you little shit!