What would be the best way to fell the trees here? It's been a long time since I cut them down for a camp while lower in Magic and MP. In the recent years of my travels, I didn't have to worry about trees falling on anything as I always felled them first.
I would just knock them down and move them out of the way, then create the camp. That's the way I did it when I had enough mana and magical power to cut down a dozen trees at once and then shift them all in seconds using [Telekinesis]. Being restricted is really a pain in the ass.
Remove branches from the side I don't want it falling toward, then set the tree to falling seems like the best plan. The weight of the branches on the other side will usually make it fall in that direction if the other side is much too light. If that doesn't work, I can just use either [Telekinesis] or conjured winds to push the tree in the direction I want it to fall in.
At least, as long as the tree isn't leaning. Most of the ones here are fairly straight so that's not a concern but any of the more slanted ones will be a bigger hassle to knock into the intended direction.
After my hunt of the wolf beast yesterday, I cleared more undergrowth around the camp, mostly to maintain the perimeter. That's what I did this morning as well, and I decided while doing so that some of the trees were coming down. This should, in theory, reduce the plant growth within the camp and ease my work.
I won't take down the trees right beside my setup first, though. I'll take down ones a little bit further away initially, towards the edge of the cleared soil. When they come down, I'll also need to store the wood as well and I don't want that right at my shelter and small work area. That would just crowd it, so they're coming down further away. Once a zone a little further is cleared, I can then take down the ones by my camp and move them to the storage section.
Fortunately, I have enough mana that I can do this in stages. I still need to conserve what I have to a degree, just in case of an attack, but I can get some work done without going too low.
At the edge of the zone I've been clearing of underbrush, I walk around one of the trees and examine it for a few minutes. I want this one to fall away from my camp for sure so I begin severing the branches on the side facing it. This tree is smaller than most of the others around, at less than two feet in diameter. There aren't many of these, but they'll be the first to go.
Removing the smaller ones first is important as it'll create more space to fell the larger ones.
Full-strength [Arc Slash]es – the spell I used to kill the wolf yesterday – are used to sever branches on the side of the tree facing my camp. Despite the tree being strengthened from the mana in the area, its smaller size makes it easier for me to cut through its wood. A single [Arc Slash] cuts through several branches before stopping and falling apart, making short work of this.
Some of the branches catch on those of other trees, with how dense the tree growth is, but that's nothing some [Telekinesis] can't help with. I use a mixture of that and my own hands to move all of the fallen branches to the side, then I cut through the trunk of the tree with an [Arc Slash].
The tree crashes down, breaking a few branches as it goes before catching on thicker ones and stopping. A few gestures from me, and the branches it caught on drop to the ground, the tree falling the rest of the way.
I repeat this process with a few more of the slimmer trees, somewhat disappointed there aren't any skinny enough to use for repairing the cabin. Those logs look to be about 10" thick, so all of these are too big. While many of the thicker trees have branches slim enough for that, said branches are also either not long enough or not straight enough.
Repairing the walls of the cabin will probably require either adjustments by me or acquiring wood closer to the edge of the forest. The latter will have to wait awhile, so I'll probably just cut branches down to where they stop being straight so they'll fit into the gaps of where the wood on the cabin has rotted. It'll probably take multiple branches per line on the walls, but it's also only really intended as a temporary fix so how ugly it will look won't matter in the longer.
Once all of the skinniest trees in this part of the camp area are felled, I use a mixture of my axe and [Arc Slash]es to remove the branches from them. To conserve mana, I move the branches and logs entirely by hand, as much as it strains me to do so.
Doing this for seven slim trees takes up as much mana as I'm willing to use on this project for today. I've gone down to 1,000 MP even with what I've recovered and I don't want to go lower. Just because there hasn't been an attack yet, that doesn't mean there won't be one.
Although… I should probably start setting up a better warding scheme for my camp. The temporary one lasts no more than half a day and needs to be reapplied every night. I did a smaller vermin ward for the cooling box, but I can make a much larger one with some effort and the right materials.
"Hm…"
It would be best to forage for reagents today. Not for the warding scheme but for mana potions. There are still more Levels that I know I'll gain quickly, but it won't be anywhere near what I'm used to using. Living on my own like this and without a steady supply of mana potions I can buy to make up for it, I'll need to brew my own.
I should still have at least two hours of light before the forest is too dark and I think I know where one of the reagents grows, even if I haven't been there yet. With two reagents containing the same property, I can use those to more easily divine the location for the third necessary item.
One of my projects over the past week has to been to use reeds which sprouted up beside the stream to weave small basket-like pouches. Two of those get fixed onto my belt, and I pluck a few leaves of mana mint and stick them into one of my normal pouches.
Those won't be able to help me find another reagent for mana potions on their own, but I want to make sure I have them for when I find another.
Now that I'm ready to go, I set off to the north, traveling as quickly as I can and scaling the cliff, as I haven't found a way around it that's faster. The northern part of the region has evergreen barrens that spread all the way onto the mountains up north, and said barrens are the perfect spot for the berry bush I'm hoping for to grow.
Upon entering the barrens, I immediately begin my hunt for the right bush. A fair few different berry bushes grow throughout the area but there's one specific one I'm searching for. The fact that it always grows in groups of at least two or three means I can ignore any bushes that grow alone, saving me time. Any which don't have blue-colored berries, I can ignore as well.
It takes me less than half an hour of hunting through the barrens, whose undergrowth isn't as dense as the forest south of here, before I find what I'm looking for. A trio of bushes with blue-colored berries grows besides a brook, close enough to it that some of their roots poke out above the water.
Upon locating the bushes, I also find a goblin. A creature around 4' in height with green skin, pointed ears, and a bald head, it's a bit on the ugly side. Low-level ones like the one have skinny limbs and necks, giving them a fairly disproportionate appearance and furthering his ugly appearance.
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His fingers and lips are covered in the rich blue juices of the berry from roughly plucking them and popping them into his mouth. Those aren't even that messy of a food and his stupidity makes him eat them messily.
Without even a loincloth to cover his more sensitive parts, it's easy to tell he's either a recent spawn or very low in rank. I haven't seen other signs of goblins around here, so it could be either one and he's without a clan.
The goblin's head bursts from a [Magic Missile] and its entire body then explodes into a black-and-red mist which quickly fades away, leaving not a trace of the creature's presence apart from its footprints.
Unlike the wolf, which was just a magic beast, the goblin was a monster. They'll leave a village alone if it's too far away, but won't hesitate to attack it in a group if its clan grows large enough. When killed properly, their bodies dissolve into mist like that and are rendered safe for the environment as well.
A decaying monster corpse releases foul energies which can cause things to spawn if they build up without having a chance to dissipate. Slaying them with something magical – such as a [Magic Missile] – skips the steps for decaying and dissipating and neutralizes it immediately. That also results in them bursting like this one did, and it dropped a piece of loot as the mist faded.
I walk over and pick up the loot item, a crystal around half an inch in size and light blue in color. So pale in color it is, the crystal holds a degree of translucence.
[Magic Crystal] A piece of crystallized magical essence.
This is why killing them with magic makes things safer. The majority of their magical essence converts into a crystal like this. All which remains after is the more foul parts, and that energy can't linger long if it's not attached to other magics. Without said attachments, the natural magics of an area absorbs and converts it almost immediately.
The crystal is a guaranteed loot drop from any monster and holds a wide variety of uses in magic crafting. Not in pure alchemy such as brewing mana potions, but I can definitely use it for other things. My warding scheme will be stronger with this and I can make magic weapons as well.
The crystal is slipped into the pouch without the herb in it, then I approach the bush, which is up to my chest in height. It resembles a blueberry bush in many ways, except its berries are almost perfect spheres, apart from the small flat part at their very tops where they connect to the branches.
[Mana Berry] A berry which stores mana which its bush draws in through its roots.
That makes two located mana potion reagents now. I fill one of my reed pouches with the ripest of the berries from the bush. Much like mana mint, they need to be processed before the mana stored within can be drawn out, so I won't be able to consume them to recover any of my MP. However, the richness of their blue indicates a decent amount of mana stored within.
I pluck one last berry and hold it and a mana mint leaf in one hand, then focus on them while casting [Divine]. There's another location within range and upon reaching it, I find myself looking at some mana mint. Some of its leaves are added to the pouch with the others, then I head south, back towards my camp.
When I'm a little bit out of my previous cast's range, I use [Divine] again and find nothing. The next use locates some mana mints and another mana berry bush, then another bush, then nothing, then mana mint… it takes me awhile to find something new.
In a completely unexpected place.
I'm nearly home when I find a reagent location that's under me. A cave I didn't know about most likely, considering I'm very close to the cliff. I descend the cliff and look along its face, not finding a cave entrance. The [Divine Spell] is clearly showing something within, however, and it seems to be behind a large bush…
Which turns out to be blocking the cave entrance. The opening is pretty small – only about three feet high and barely more than that wide. Fallen branches and leaves from the bush began to decompose in said opening, and that's where the reagent grows.
This one takes the form of disc-like mushrooms deep blue in color are the last of the three reagent types needed for the potion.
[Mana Disc Mushroom] A mushroom which absorbs and stores mana from decaying plant matter, water, and soil.
Not only do I have a third reagent close to me, but it's of a type I didn't already acquire. That's perfect for me as now I have one of each of the three types needed for brewing mana potions. I can put some branches and stuff in here to rot and they'll grow more for me, too.
What's not so perfect is that the mushroom isn't all which grows within the cave. While it's dark further in due to the evening hour and forest canopy, I can hear some soft squishing noises. A gesture with my hand conjures an orb of pale yellow light, the [Lantern] spell.
The boundaries of the damp cave are larger further in, and several slime monsters move and bounce around within. Two… three… four… I count four of them based on what I can see and hear. They're beasts made of blue-tinted translucent goo, roughly a foot in size. The particular shade of blue they are indicates they're mana slimes, which I expected upon hearing them due to the presence of the mana discs.
Useful in some potions, but I'll leave them be for now, instead harvesting a few mushrooms before returning to my camp. Properly dealing with the slimes will require removing the bush instead of just squeezing behind it, and probably enlarging the opening to the cave as well so I can fit inside more easily.
At my camp, I rebuild the fire so I don't need to rely on the [Lantern] spell, then fix myself dinner with some of the wolf meat I acquired yesterday. My warding scheme is set up as normal as I'll create a more solid one another day, when I have more materials, and that's it for the standard evening stuff for me.
Then I begin brewing my first potion since beginning this new life.
A slab of wood from one of the trees I cut down earlier is used at a cutting board, allowing me to finely chop mana mint and dice the mushrooms into 1/8th-inch pieces. Mana berries are mashed with a mortar and pestle and scraped into a saucepan, which I then add some water into and set onto the fire before adding the diced mushrooms and chopped herb into in equal amounts and in stages.
Being able to brew one's own potions is essential to any adventurer. There's no telling when we might end up short on them and without an alchemist to buy from or to have brew up more using foraged reagents, if any are present nearby. This is a skill I learned years ago and while it does take time to get right, I've brewed mana potions enough times that I can do so with expert ease.
Mostly. This isn't the best setup the potion will be lower in quality than what I can do with the exact same reagents I'm using now. It'll have to do, though, as setting things up properly will take some time.
When I finish the brewing process, I'm left with about eight ounces of deep blue potion.
[Mana Potion] A potion of liquid mana, which can be easily ingested and which will immediately restore the user's mana. Dose: 1 oz Content: 153 MP
While it says it contains 153 MP, that's not for the full eight ounces I brewed, that's for each dose. Depending on where I buy the potion from, they typically run 1.3-2.4 per 1 Mana recovered. Growing reagents required in large enough quantities is a difficult task and there are very few farms which do so. Those have to spend a lot of time and care to grow the reagents in large quantities, and they need to be in mana-rich environments such as this region.
Which comes with its own limitations.
Foraging for reagents or hiring someone to do so is the main way most alchemists actually acquire them. Fortunately for me, I'm very close to a Mistwood now and know at least the basics of how to grow these, so I can create a small garden for myself. It won't be a massive boost to how much mana I have, but it's enough for me.
I bottle the mana potion into one of the ceramic bottles Zolbiatz sent me here with, then clean my materials, use [Lesser Heal] on myself, and head to bed. Today was a long day and barring any surprise attacks which may occur during the night, I'm going to sleep quite well.