The next day, I cut up the large wildwood block I had successfully made. I did my best to cut them into squares that were about the size of the round coins I normally used. I had first tried to cut out a circle and failed miserably. Even with a knife that could cut through it easily, it was difficult to make a circle. I even tried to use another coin as a guide and ended up ruining both.

I reproduced the carving on the squares and to my surprise and pleasure, the ward worked and accepted my magic to activate. Needless to say, I started making a mold every day of wildwood. The down side of doing that, was that I had to use original wood in each mold. The potion grown parts did not reproduce and the potion just became like goo and made a mess. I guess you couldn't copy a copy.

I also tried to read the last three books that the Hag had left behind in her hiding spot. I couldn't make heads or tails of them. The pictures were neat, with swirling fire, wind, water, ice, dirt, something that glinted like metal, something black, and a few other things that I didn't recognize. All three books were filled with whatever it was and it had the same weird writing inside as the names on the covers of the books that I couldn't read, no matter how much I tried.

I gave up on them and locked them, put them back on the shelf, and went about my normal winter routine.

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Montage mode engaged. Daily chores and tasks streamlined. Remaining food at 57%. Carving experience 78%. Enchanting experience 53%. Potion making skill 91%. Secret mode of using number ten potion in small quantities to increase potion ingredients discovered.

Spring skipped (winter extended). Initiating summer thaw. Done.

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Winter lasted an extra two months this time, and it was bad. Very, very bad. It was so bad that I couldn't even venture out on my winter journey to gather more fungus blooms and mushrooms. My front door was buried with snow most of the time and I had never seen it that deep before. I realized then that I should have made an escape hatch or something on the roof. I would need more hinges and locks and door handles, though. I wasn't going to leave something like that open all the time.

At one point during the winter, while I was brewing more of the number ten potion, I had spilled some onto my potion ingredient preparation area by mistake. I was about to curse my stupidity for ruining my nice work table, when I saw that the roots I had been chopping up for the next batch had spread through the spilled potion and merged with the wood of the table.

I almost lost my damn mind.

It had never occurred to me to try and fill in ingredients like I did with wood, stone, and metal. That was just insanity, wasn't it? I stared at the thing for nearly ten minutes before I started thinking again. I tried using one of the large stone molds to make more of the roots, and it was the same failure as trying to make more of a copy... except for one difference. The root I had tested it on had dissolved and spread out to about a stick wide circle, or one feet.

I used some of my new wildwood and made a mold that was eight index finger tips wide and long, or eight inches. I also only made it a little thicker than the root, since I knew excess potion was just wasted. I added a root and the number ten potion to almost fill the mold, and let it sit. Since there was almost nothing in the mold, the entire thing became just like the root very quickly.

I tested it and chopped it up. As far as I could tell, it had the same properties as the original root. I quickly made up another batch of number ten potion, using the newly expanded roots, and it worked. It surprised the hell out of me, because I could use a number ten potion to make more ingredients to make a number ten potion.

The gains were ridiculous, considering it took almost no ingredients in the first place, and now I could make a bunch more of it, practically for free. So, I did. I made dozens of little molds with the new wildwood and used them to make copies of the roots I used. I even tried it with leaves, several sprigs, flower pedals, seeds, buds, grasses, bark shavings, fronds, and herbs. It all worked and it was amazing.

Thanks to that discovery, I actually met Mack's old order quota, even though he hadn't ordered anything from me. I filled up the usual crates with vials of both general health potions and healing potions, in the proper quantities, and stored them in the front room. I wasn't taking any of them into town for the first trip, because I had no idea what town was going to be like. I wasn't risking loosing all of my work by them stealing it from me.

I replaced the wards that were hung on my walls and took the special books and locked them with magic, stashed them into a new hidden space in the kitchen, and I extinguished everything that was burning or cooking in the split kitchen and potion room. All the smokers had been cold for months, too.

I went outside for the first time in a while and used the vigilance technique. I didn't see, smell, or hear anything moving, so I went back inside and prepped for my quick journey to the fungus bloom area. I needed to replace the ward there, so I wouldn't have to worry about it while I was in town. Plus, I had missed my normal pruning trips during the winter and I was a little worried that it had either overgrown or had started to die out.

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I packed up what I needed, grabbed my knifed-pitchfork and bandoleer of potions, and headed out after locking and sealing everything up. I only had one large sack and one small sack for ingredients, since this wasn't a long trip. I only intended to go to the proper spot and come right back. Unfortunately for me, what I planned was not what happened.

I killed a few recently awakening things along the way, namely marsh bunnies, and tied them to my pack. When I was getting close to the area where the fungus blooms were, I heard a very distinct roar. I damn near jumped out of my skin and the sound nearly deafened me, because I was listening so hard for marsh panthers. This was their normal returning time and they almost always came for the fungus blooms.

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You have a critical choice to make. Depending on what you choose, you may die.

A) Run. B) Creep closer. C) Slink away. D) Look for another area. E) Attack. F) Yell. G) Cry.

Well, damn. Those are not the best choices, no matter what one I choose. This is the only place around to have the fungus and the tasty mushrooms, so D is out. Running, attacking, and yelling would bring the monster right to me, and crying would probably do the same, if it was loud. I thought and read the last two options. I could leave and hopefully not gain the attention of the beast. Or beasts. I held in my sigh, because I didn't know how many of them there were, and that was a scary thought. Dammit, I have to know how much danger I'm in. I choose B.

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I was very tempted to run for my life. Very tempted. I recognized the roar, even though I had never actually seen the beast for myself. My curiosity got the better of me and I ducked down as best as I could and crept closer. I knew I was being stupid and reckless. I knew it. I just couldn't resist taking a look, because I had to know. I peeked out from behind a nearby tree and covered my mouth with my hand to stop my sharp intake of breath.

It was a marsh dragon. All thirty feet of it. It was also laying down right in the middle of the fungus blooms. I stared at the glittering leathery scales that shimmered slightly. I couldn't tell if it was the light coming through the trees or maybe magic, because the scales went from grey to yellow to orange to red, then back again as it moved.

It has to be the light. I thought and looked at what it was eating. It had the guts of a marsh panther in its mouth and it chewed as if he couldn't taste it or cared what it tasted like. I looked down at the large clawed feet and saw several gutted marsh panther carcasses scattered around. That was bad for the marsh panthers and really good for me, if I wanted to be stupid.

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I'm not even going to bother giving you a choice. You're doing this, just so I can see what happens.

A) Distract the marsh dragon and steal its kills.

You son of a bitch! I exclaimed in my thoughts. If I die, I'm going to kill you!

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I carefully backed away, seeing as how it was quite busy picking apart its meal. I slowly made my way away from there and back quite a ways. I took off my pack and hid it under some brush, dug out my rope, and went searching. I had to divert from my normal path a lot to find what I was looking for.

Hello, my beauties. I thought and smiled at the near-deer male and several females. I wasn't worried about the marsh dragon hearing what I was about to do, because I wanted it to. In fact, I was going to make the male near-deer yell as much as possible.

I tied the rope to the handle of my knifed-pitchfork and took the proper position as I poised to strike. I waited until the near-deer was turned mostly away from me, then threw the knifed-pitchfork as hard as I could... at the rear flank. If I had wanted to kill it, I would have aimed for the chest.

The four reinforced knives sunk into the ass of the near-deer and it let out a startled and pained sound that cut through the fairly silent marsh. The females scattered and ran away. I held onto the rope as it tried to run to follow them. When the slack was gone from the rope, the knifed-pitchfork jerked and sliced the flesh up as it was pulled out. The near-deer collapsed to the ground and the pain sounds it made were very loud.

Perfect. I thought as I quickly rolled up the rope and pulled the knifed-pitchfork back to where I was, wiped it off with a piece of cloth, and then retreated. I heard the mighty roar of the marsh dragon and smiled, because it took the bait.

I wasn't as concerned about making noise as much now, because there was lots of it with the females running away. I backtracked and went back to where I had stashed my backpack, untied the rope from my weapon and then ran towards the fungus bloom area.

I took out my trusty knife and quickly sliced off the pelts from the marsh panthers that were there. I was tempted to take the heads as well, then changed my mind. Diane said the pelts were very expensive, so I made sure to get as much of them as I could. I even took the pelt from the marsh panther that had been torn in half.

I could hear the dragon smashing through the trees and there was a rumble as it landed. The cries of the near-deer cut off and I looked forlornly at all of the squished mushrooms and torn up fungus blooms. I didn't have time to try and save anything, though. I quickly sliced up the marsh panthers to try and cover up my scent, then took off running.

I had made it back to my pack when I saw the shadow pass over me. I let out a sigh of relief as I tucked the pelts into the large ingredient sack and then I ran a bit more. When I thought I was far enough away, I slowed down to resume quietly walking through the marsh. I took detours, backtracked, took more detours, and muddied up my scent as much as possible. I even intentionally dunked myself in the water a few times in different spots.

The large sack was waterproof, so I didn't have to worry about spreading the panther's blood in the water or spilling any out on the ground for the dragon to follow. I would need to be careful when I took them out, though. I had no idea how far the thing could smell, so I would wait until I came back from town before taking them out.

I had gone out to find ingredients and found a marsh dragon instead. My blood was pumping and I had a huge grin on my face, because I had done all of that without relying on something that I had always relied on. My potions.