The setting of the sun brought a new set of challenges.

I was safe from the Mantises and other beetles and bugs, at least for now. There was still the concern of things burrowing underneath or through my vine-walled home, and I knew I was going to need to figure out a better housing situation.

My little lizards continued to protect me through the night, despite not having the best vision for it. Because of this a few nocturnal insects got close to my Sanctum, some even managed to land on the ivy shield that covered me. Those that did I was able to detect fairly easily, and I directed my guardians to deal with them before they could find a way to squeeze in between any gaps.

Then there were the Fireflies. They did not register as invaders and did not give me any Mana for some reason, but my lizards chased them down all the same. I spent the moments of peace that I had available amusedly watching the little Anoles chasing down and jumping for the luminescent bugs, their antics lit by the stars and the insect's glowy butts. There was no Moon this night, at least not that I could tell. Not that I could see the sky as it was well beyond the edges of my domain and perceptions, but I knew of these things either way. In spite of my experiences thus far, I started to relax.

Then I was reminded that complacency kills.

I got the sensation that something different was entering my peripheral senses and sent out a mental warning for my defenders to prepare. My newest addition actually got them into beneficial positions rather quickly. My first Scion, the Anole that I had attempted to speed out earlier that day and that had spawned just as the sun went down, was... different than the others. The normal Anoles could stick out a colored sail under their necks for display, but my Scion had a sail-like crest on his head and tail in addition to his throat and was a little bit larger and stronger than they were. Where the regular Anoles might actually have trouble with a Mantis alone, my Scion shouldn't have any difficulty as he was large enough to stuff most of an entire Mantis into his mouth.

He was also far more serious and disciplined. I don't know if this was because of my needs and state of mind when I called on him, or if it was just a part of him being him.

Regardless, he corralled my scattered defenders quickly and efficiently to meet this new potential threat. He skillfully commanded them into cover and hidden ambush points, both protecting them and setting them up to respond to the unknown new arrival. To say I was impressed would be a massive understatement.

The thing pressing in on my space came on slowly, as though it was unsure of itself or its surroundings. Maybe it sensed me in some way? Or maybe it was just naturally timid and cautious. My defenders and I sat and waited anxiously for it to finally make an appearance.

Finally, the creature broke through the fog surrounding my limited perception range.

Delver: Rabbit

“…Delver?”

The knowledge of what a Delver was and what they do wasn’t a part of my natural knowledge for some reason. Which meant I was completely at the mercy of this thing until it did what it came here to do.

I watched the rabbit as it sought out and chewed on some clover, and the fear that it would chew through the vines covering me began to take root. It wasn’t actively trying to come for my core though, so instead of antagonizing something that I wasn’t entirely sure my defenders could stop, I waited… and watched.

The fluffy rabbit slowly patrolled through my grounds, stopping at various patches of vegetation that caught its fancy and munching for a bit before moving on. I began to wonder if there was some way that I could… encourage it to forage somewhere away from where my core was.

As I followed that line of thinking, an option presented itself to me.

Create Healing Herb Resource Node?

“Resource Node? Healing Herb? Is that something the rabbit would want to eat? I suppose it is worth a try. Not like I can do anything else right now.”

I sent my Mana to course along the web to create a node. I chose a spot not too far from the rabbit’s current position, but in the opposite direction from my core. It was in a shaded corner where two of my ruined walls met on the outer edges of my perimeter.

I watched as the Mana took hold and seeded itself into the ground, sprouting small buds that would be sure to grow in time. This particular herb seemed to flower nocturnally, and would have stronger effects if it was harvested while in bloom.

Not sure if I liked the idea of more visitors at night, or of more visitors at all really, but I as I was musing about that something interesting happened.

The rabbit, apparently bored of its patch of clover, hopped over and began munching on one of my erroneous spawner vines that covered much of the ruins. It didn’t completely destroy the vine, but it did chew off part of the stem. When it did, I was surprised as I gained a small amount of Mana.

“… Huh? I get Mana for it destroying my denizens? Oh, there it goes.”

Apparently, the ivy didn’t taste particularly good to it. It wandered away from the vines and then paused, its little nose twitching as it smelled the air.

“That’s right buddy, smell the pretty little herbs. You don’t want anything else.”

The rabbit stretched as it followed the new, sweet scent. I continued watching it as it shuffled its way towards the new patch of herbs, and away from me.

Mana Gained!

I get Mana for that too? More than the vines, more than anything else, actually. The rabbit raiding my resource node provided me with more mana than any of the individual Invaders my defenders had killed.

“So, is it a good thing that Delvers come and take from me? Does this mean that I should try and attract them somehow?”

Curious, I send a command to the nearest lizards to reveal themselves and move closer to the rabbit. I watch it closely for any sign of aggression, but it doesn’t even react to their presence. I even send one of them to come close enough to sniff at the delver, and all it does is sniff back before going back to eating the healing herbs.

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It doesn’t appear that the rabbit is something that will actively seek to harm me at this point. In response I send a mental urge for my defenders to relax from their sentry duty and return to their usual job of patrolling the area. My Scion chooses to stay in the same general area as the rabbit, apparently he isn’t convinced that it will stay a passive visitor.

That is fine by me. I am glad for his vigilance, to be perfectly honest. I am going to have to come up with a name for him at some point here. He is a unique denizen after all. He deserves the recognition.

While I am pondering what to call him, I feel a jolt of alarm from him coming across the web. I refocus my attention and see the rabbit’s ears perk up, then see it bolt.

“It’s so FAST!”

I make a mental note to never underestimate something by its looks again. It isn’t headed towards me, but rather is trying to get out of my perimeter. My Scion slinks back into the shadows as the other Anoles scatter to the four winds at this new active threat.

I feel them now, the presence of two large somethings on the edges of my boundaries. One trailing the rabbit at speed, and the other moving to cut it off. Excited yips called out as they close in on the fleeing Delver, yips that sounded oddly deep and murky in my little bubble.

Just as the rabbit reaches an open exit and makes a break for it, something darts into my borders after it, striking my unfortunate visitor with sharp teeth before leaving again.

Invader: Coyote

A… what!?

Delver killed! Mana Gained!

… Wow. That is a lot of Mana.

The surge of Mana I gained after the death of the rabbit made all other sources I had discovered thus far pale in comparison. I wasn’t going to be able to discover what that meant for me just yet, though. I had only one thing on my mind after that display.

“I need to get off the ground.”

_______________________________________________________

The rest of the night passed uneventfully, thankfully. It allowed me time to plan. Once I had an idea of what I wanted to do I used the Mana I gained from the rabbit to start putting things in motion.

The most important thing was to upgrade myself. I noticed the option when I reached a certain threshold for stored Mana, and the rabbit’s death and antics had pushed me up over that level. I knew that I was going to need it if I had any hope of accomplishing something more than lying about and waiting for something to come and get me. But it was going to have to wait until my core was secured. Ensuring the core’s safety was more important.

I had noticed that the Coyotes weren’t active Invaders. I didn’t know yet exactly why, but I had a few ideas. Foremost among them was that they simply weren’t interested yet. I hadn’t grown enough to be an attraction for them, not more than their rabbits at least. I also hadn’t yet encroached my territory onto theirs.

I planned to use this lack of interest to my advantage while I still could.

In order to enact my plans, I needed to begin upgrading my spawners. At this point it was obvious that I was at the mercy of the world around me. I had nothing separating me from the dangers, and anything that wanted to could walk right up to me and do what it wanted. Especially the things that were far bigger than my Anoles.

I was finding that my defenders weren’t going to be up to the task of protecting me, not if something the size of those Coyotes was out there. I wanted to upgrade them to the point that they could at least contend with them, if that was even possible. I wasn’t sure just yet if I even could do that, but first things first.

I also created a couple more resource nodes in the outer edges of my area and upgraded them all. I spawned in another healing herb and a “Stamina” herb, which I think was used to combat exhaustion in creatures. This Stamina Herb was a daytime blooming herb, which I hoped would attract more delvers across all hours.

The day also brought a new wave of insectoid invaders. Beetles and Mantises made their way to me, and were in turn intercepted by my protectors. Though not without loss. Some of the Anoles were taken out by the larger Mantises, an act that didn’t earn me any sort of Mana.

Even so, my Mana reserves continued to grow as time passed on.

The next part of my plan involved the Vine spawner. For one, I needed to know what upgrading it did. For another, my plan was to use the vines to suspend me off the ground up near the ceiling. If I could somehow get them to scoop me up with the moss and pull me up it would protect me from the Coyotes and other ground-based invaders. Obviously, the bugs could still get to me, as most of them had some sort of wings and could climb. But it would be harder. For them to actually reach me without an Anole intervening.

I was going to need to wait a bit, unfortunately. I had already burned through the Mana gained from the rabbit placing and upgrading the Nodes. I saw it as a necessary investment for future Mana.

The next couple of days passed in relative peace, with no more visits from large predators. I did get another couple of rabbits visiting the nodes, as well as a groundhog and a deer! Thankfully all of them registered as Delvers, and showed no interest in my core. But their donations of Mana allowed me to put my plans into action.

I upgraded the Ivy spawner several times and was rewarded with an increase in the toughness and speed of the Ivy vines. This was definitely going to work. It was still going to take time, but I knew it was going to work.

I waited until nightfall before sending the commands out across the web, not wanting the larger insects that were active during the day to have a chance at me. The vines responded, slowly burrowing underneath the moss I rested on and enclosing me entirely.

Then they began to recede, pulling me and my mossy bed up the wall in a viny cocoon of sorts. The place I chose was an overhanging corner up above me, and just underneath the Anole spawner. Hopefully this would mean that they could respond faster if something were to start attacking me.

It took all night, the vines were still just plants after all, but by daybreak the Ivy had me secured in my new little nook. I was up off the ground and, with the help of my Anole Scion, stuffed into a crack inside of a clump of moss that kept my glow from reaching the outside.

My room had even updated, Secret Sanctum.

It looked like my efforts had paid off and placed me somewhere difficult to gain access to. Thanks to the upgrades I put into the Vine spawner, they also came out with new types of vines that I immediately placed on the outside of my Sanctum and around the ruins. Sundews and Fly Traps and Pitchers. These should make things a little easier on the Anoles and make it harder for Invaders to reach me.

So now it was on to the next step. While exploring my options for securing myself and placing my resource nodes, I discovered some new options waiting to be used.

Traps.

My choices were for these tools were rather limited, but that wasn’t going to prevent me from using them to the best of my ability and combining them for greater effectiveness.

I currently had only two options; Rockfall Trap and Tripping Vines. At least I knew what they were capable of.

Rockfall Trap

Detectability: Hard

Chance to trip: Low

A difficult to find trap that causes direct damage to the creature that trips it, sending rocks from above to bury and strike them.

Tripping Vines

Detectability: Low to Moderate

Chance to trip: Moderate

High tensile, thin vines that trip and otherwise bind the target in one place. Detectability varies depending on placement.

My current plan was this, set up the Rockfall and Tripping Vines together. I would be placing the Tripping Vines in such a way as to prevent anything larger than the rabbits from entering certain areas. The Tripping Vines would then be connected to the Rockfall Trap, so that anything that tripped the Vines would then be crushed under the Rockfall.

This should work quite well for the Coyotes. They were my biggest concern for the moment, as they were an identified hostile creature that could freely come and go as they wished. With more rabbits and other creatures visiting, I was expecting them to show up again very soon.

I had been monitoring my Delvers as they entered and left my area and had an idea as to where to set my traps up. I had enough Mana to place two complete traps, so I chose the high traffic entryways and hoped that they would prove to be useful. I then dumped the remaining Mana I had into my Lizard Spawner.

Now all that remained was to wait for more Mana and see if my efforts were enough.