Over the course of around a month, though I could have sworn it was longer, I alternated between boosting my ether conversion and tweaking the growth of the forest in several places. As such I now had an upper level consisting of entwined branches throughout the entire forest with cliffs and ledges and the occasional cave around the walls. I had also grown out the floor plan of my tree.
It started as a large open room with a large hole in the centre floor and a matching hole in the roof with a walkway leading out to the middle of the hole. I had plans to make the centre an elevator of sorts that could only be used after certain things were done on each floor. Using this as a template I made two floors above this one with the same general design, the only difference being the direction the walkway originated.
For the 4th floor, I made it half the size with a solid floor. I had plans to use it as a miniboss room. I then made 3 basement levels with the lower 2 around the same format as the boss room but different sizes. The 2nd basement floor was made with the same width as floor 1 to 3. The lowest level was made half the size again and contained my core. I intended to make it so that the elevator would only access my core room is if it was operated by my Imps or Gnolls willingly, without any coercion.
I withheld my desire to continue onto the puzzle rooms for 2 reasons:
1. I wasn't sure how to make them work.
2. The method of remodelling the interior of the tree was to manipulate it's growth as I fuelled it with mana.
It was a method that was becoming expensive rather quickly with ever diminishing effect. I decided to give it a soulstone and see if it could manage some of the details on its own.
Gathering my mana, into a point within the upper section of the trunk, as I only hollowed out the lower half of the tree, I activated my soulstone skill with the intent of making the tree the Floor Boss. For the first time in a while, I got a system prompt without viewing my status.
----------------------------------------
Soul Forming...
Soul Bonding to Host...
Refining Host's Consciousness...
Estimated Time Remaining 52 hours
----------------------------------------
I went to leave things to run their course when I paused. It seemed that not all the system-relevent information I had was accessible from the get go. It seemed i had prerequisites to fulfill before I would have a lightbulb moment so to speak.
Putting a hastily constructed plan into action, I hurriedly placed torches on all of the floors in my tree except my core room. Following that, I immersed my conscious thoughts into the soulstone and, for lack of a better term, uploaded my floorplans and trap descriptions to it with. Meeting resistance from the forming mind I spent mana to power through it.
----------------------------------------
Anomalies Found
Purging...
Analyzing...
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Directives Found
Assimilating Directives...
+5 hours
Estimated Time Remaining 56:47:21
----------------------------------------
Taking a (figurative) breath I looked at my mana and froze. It had cost me 7,000 mana and it was still draining it as fast as I could gather it. The last thing I saw as I blacked out was a message saying I was under the effects of Mana Burnout.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
Waking up in a rush, I checked my mana in reflex and cursed. Mana Burnout was still in effect, and would be for some days to come.
----------------------------------------
< Mana Burnout>
Forces user unconscious for 1 day, more if mana is still being channeled, and halves mana generation and retention for 1 week
Consciousness Refinement
4:47:18
Mana Burnout
7:25:59:57
----------------------------------------
Unsure how to feel about this, as discovering that my spur of the moment idea cost me 10,000 mana. I also discovered that some of my active abilities were locked and would remain so until the burnout passed. I had also been gauging the time wrong. The seconds, minutes and hours were the same as earth, but the length of days wasn't. As for months and years, I couldn't tell yet.
Thinking of how I could have done that better, I had a look over my dungeon. My rodents had given birth to one litter and were about to have a second. The boars had paired up and had between 1 and 3 piglets a pair while all the deer had a well established fetus each. Thinking this was too fast, I looked through my traits, perks and skills until I found the cause.
Arianne's blessing, on top of a boost to nature-type abilities and fertility, it also has an unlisted effect that causes minor adjustments to the gestation period depending on the creatures personal strength and environmental conditions. Looking over the rest of my creatures, a saw that the lizards weren't far off of having their clutches while most of the snakes had a ways to go yet. Except the rodents and deer, most of the creatures without manastones had died off in accidents or encounters with the boars. I was rather surprised by the fact that although the remaining foxes were two separate mated pairs, they were using the one den while the males worked together to provide for their females.
But what had caught my attention were the kits, 2 of them stood out from the rest. They weren't a different species, just a variant. Instead of grey like their parents and siblings, one was a mottled green and brown while the other was black with red highlights. Both were larger than their siblings by being half their size again, despite the fact that they were drinking less. They also seemed to be growing slightly faster than their siblings by about half a week or so. Making a mental note to check on them again once their eyes were open, I moved on.
Observing my gnolls, I saw that they had paired off and kept to themselves but still came together often in a large tribal sort of gathering. It seems that these gatherings were to discuss resources, threats and problem solving methods. Listening in to their current meeting I learned that they were facing a food shortage as the pregnant females needs were increasing. The problem was only so much they could gathered at a time, and their hunting methods couldn't take down large or more plentiful game. Enough for 1 mother-to-be but not for 2.
I watched one male that wasn't present at the current gathering. As I watched he would dig through the undergrowth and fallen leaves, when he found a scorpion or centepide he would bite of the stinger or claws then hold them in his other hand and keep digging. Occasionally he would trek back to camp and give his catch to his partner along with any birds eggs he found low enough to grab. After watching him for a while I noticed that he wasn't catching enough for the both of them. I may have left my creations to their own devices, but doing nothing when I know about the problem leaves a bad aftertaste in the Ether.