My new traps worked well.

… A little too well, actually.

A couple nights after I first put them into place they activated exactly as I had hoped. A Rabbit bolted into my zone and through one of the archways I had set up as a trap. Not but a few moments later and a Coyote in hot pursuit set the trap off and was crushed under the falling archway, netting me a MASSIVE amount of Mana as the Coyote’s lifeforce left its broken body and was caught and transferred to me by the Mana Web.

It was so much Mana that I needed to immediately invest it in order to relieve the sudden restricting tightness I felt.

I upgraded my two traps to be both harder to detect and affect a greater area with falling stones, increasing my chances of stopping a threat with them. Undergrowth and extra vines grew in strategic places, covering the existing vines which were suddenly thinner and more spread out over the area, creating low snares in addition to the trip wires. The structure of the arches grew wider and taller, including more stones as well as larger ones, and would now include the frame of the arches in the falling stones.

Rockfall Trap II

Detectability: Hard

Chance to activate: Moderate

A difficult to find trap that causes direct damage to the creature that trips it, sending rocks from above to bury and strike them. Has been upgraded to increase the area of effect and include the walls of the trap as well. Chance to activate and accuracy increased by synergy with connected Tripping Vines trap.

Tripping Vines Trap II

Detectability: Low

Chance to Activate: Moderate

High tensile, thin vines that trip and otherwise bind a target in place. Detectability lowered and effectiveness increased due to upgrade. Connection to Rockfall Trap ensures that targets that activate this trap also activate Rockfall Trap.

Afterward I wondered how I was going to reset the trap. Would I need to use my vines to pull everything back into place?

It turns out that I didn’t need to worry. I soon felt a tug through the web, and I siphoned the requested mana to it. I watched as new vines grew out and reach out to wrap around and pull the scattered pieces of the trap back together and into place. The tripping vines pulled tight again and the crushed vegetation reset itself back to normal. There was even a vine that pulled the corpse of the Coyote out of the middle of the archway and to the side. Once their job was completed, these new vines then dissipated, leaving the whole thing as pristine as when I had first made it.

Which is how things were when I found out they were, perhaps, a little too good at killing things.

In addition to my rabbit delvers, I had started to attract other animals that were interested in my resource nodes. One night a doe and her fawn decided to take an interest in the Stamina Herbs. They were sitting there grazing when one of the Anoles jumped off the wall next to them after a Firefly. Its actions startled them, resulting in the Doe starting violently… and the fawn taking off in fear.

… right into one of the traps.

They had avoided the archway on their way into my territory, not wanting to push through the vines and underbrush when there was a clear alternative. But with a potential threat coming, the fawn ran through the closest opening it could find.

The vines and rocks of the trap did not discriminate, and I had a new deluge of Mana flooding my core that I desperately needed to invest somewhere.

I quickly created another resource node and upgraded my two spawners just to relieve the pressure I was feeling. I still sensed that I was full of Mana and needed to do something with it.

Actually, I knew what I needed to do with it… but I was afraid to.

I had known when I moved my core that it was only going to be temporary. That I wasn’t going to be able to stay in the little crevice forever, I knew I was growing daily. But I had hoped that I was going to have the time to figure out a better solution.

Unfortunately, I still hadn’t managed it, and the new influxes of massive mana pools were causing growth that neither I nor my little hiding spot were ready for.

I had an idea… but it was going to be risky. It was going to put me back into the open, back where anything could potentially get at me. But I was out of time. If I was going to be able to continue managing the Mana gained over time and from the deaths of creatures in my zone, I was going to need to put myself at risk.

At least until I knew what was going to happen.

My Lizard Scion, whom I have decided to name Veldrann, was looking far bulkier and well protected now with thick and protruding scales and plates and darkening green scales. Veldrann had made his own nest in a partially collapsed section of rubble in the same room I was housed in. When he made the move, it had made me quite happy to know that he was going to be watching over me personally. He had preened when I let that sensation flow into him through our connection.

He was a good Guardian.

I watched him track down and pounce on a Mantis, the poor bug being completely helpless to stop him now thanks to his increased size and protections. I let him finish chowing down on the bug before sending out my orders.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Veldrann’s head perked up at my urging and he sprinted around my perimeter, organizing my defenders. He then came to where I was and personally stood watch with a small retinue of mixed lizards. Anoles, Geckos and Crocodile Skinks stood alert for any threat, the last of which were nearly the same size as Veldrann.

Did I mention that the upgrades on my spawners were creating a more diverse cast of defenders? I still hadn’t managed to get anything large, but they were an effective force against the Mantises and Beetles.

My Vines had changed too. I now had fly traps, sundews and pitchers to catch the smaller of my harassers. The vines also moved much faster and with more… intent?

I hesitate to say that they were getting smarter, but they certainly seemed better able to take direction.

Which is what I was giving them now.

Unlike with Veldrann, I needed to take more direct control to get what I needed done. My vines were better, but they certainly weren’t thinking for themselves.

I briefly considered what would happen if I tried spawning a Scion through the Vines, and if they would be sentient. But then remembered that I couldn’t be distracted if I wanted to get this done right.

With one last mental breath, I began to guide the vines.

I sent them into my covered crevice, drawing and prying my mossy prison and my core out. I recognized with a small portion of my mind that I had lost the Secret Sanctum designation, but gave it no further thought.

I directed the vines to create a… baggy hammock. My goal was to create a hanging nest of sorts for me on the ceiling. One that would discourage anything ground dwelling from attempting to reach me, and making it difficult for anything else to get to me.

I had the vines wrap themselves around me as densely as possible in networked layers, so that nothing I knew of could just simply rip my new nest apart or slip between the cracks. Though come to think of it, if something did try to slip between the cracks, I could just have the vines squeeze to crush it.

Moving to my new home took less time than my original move to the crevice did. Then again, I didn’t go all that far. The vines and foliage covering me was a dense patch just above where the crevice had been, looking for all the world like little more than a knot of vines stuck on the intersection of the wall and ceiling.

I was about as secure as I could be without burying myself, which I had no real method of accomplishing without destroying the ruins around me somehow. I had the feeling I might be able to accomplish something along those lines by disrupting the foundations with my vines, but there was no guarantee I could get out again or of my defenders reaching me in an emergency.

So, tempting as being completely covered with heavy stones and rubble was, I refused to do it.

Then there was the option of placing myself in or near one of my spawners.

It had the major benefit of my being right in the nest of my protectors, but the downside of putting their nest at risk to Invaders.

So far, nothing had moved to directly strike at my spawners, but if I put myself there it would draw the attention of those that wanted to harm me and, by association, force them to attack my guardian’s nests. I did not know what would happen if those nests got destroyed, and I certainly did not want to find out the hard way while relying on said nests to protect me.

No, this would simply have to do until another opportunity presented itself. I had a feeling that the more upgrades I sought out, the more options I would have available to me. But I needed to get there first.

With that in mind, I finally screwed up my courage and upgraded myself.

It was… an interesting experience.

Almost immediately my senses became sharper and more focused. My borders expanded in all directions and I now felt more of the ruins that I had been living in for the past few weeks.

Not only that… but the ruins themselves improved.

Stone grew out of the walls and ground, connecting into more defined forms. As my awareness expanded, I felt stronger walls on the outside firm up enough to support a partial roof, and on the other side of one of my traps I felt the beginnings of set of stairwells and a hallway form. The area I was in currently clearly became a set of interconnected rooms, beginning to isolate themselves from the rest of the ruins, though they were still open with breaks and collapsed portions of walls and ceilings. My other trap appeared to be situated in what is now the entryway to my ruins. Outside of that I had what appeared to be a small field around the ruins, with the rubble of a couple of outbuildings showing through the grass.

All these new options and discoveries began to give me hope. If I could completely isolate myself from the outside, I could be safe. Whether that was above or below ground, I didn’t personally care. I just didn’t want to die.

I wanted to live, and I wanted to do it without the constant fear of dying.

A tug on the Web brought my attention to something else important.

A new Spawner!

Excited, I shifted my focus to look at it…

And was immediately disappointed.

Orioles.

To be fair to them, they were very pretty birds. They had beautifully bright orange and yellow plumage and had begun singing a lovely song. But they weren’t the muscle I was hoping I would have available to me.

For whatever reason, it seems that I was destined to be starting from behind.

It wasn’t their fault, so I decided to make the most of it and put enough mana into their spawner to create a new Scion. Veldrann was going to need some help after all. Their spawner was up in an arched section above an open area roughly in the middle of my zone. The open area looked like it was once some sort of gathering area, and the new spawner was tucked away above it in what looked to be some sort of overhead window setting or echo chamber.

The upgrade and Scion spawn took a fair bit of Mana, but I still had some left to make a few upgrades. I weighed my options, then put a final push into both my Lizard and Vine spawner, making them both into Lairs.

How Vines constituted Lairs was beyond me. But maybe I was missing something there. Still, that upgrade greatly increased their efficiency and spawn rate, something that I had a feeling I was going to need.

I really should create a Vine Scion at some point in time. But I was extremely hesitant to do so without knowing just what would happen. I felt that the Mana required could be put to better use elsewhere until I had consistently had enough to do some experimenting.

Much to my surprise, the birds were already pulling their own weight. They watched from above, calling out to the lizards where the beetles and mantises were coming from or hiding. If there was no one available to intercept, they did it themselves. Winging down from on high and taking down the bugs with weight, talon and beak before fluttering back up to keep watch.

They may not be the heavy hitters that I was hoping for, but they most certainly were fitting in quite nicely.

Speaking of fitting in… “Hello gorgeous.”

The Oriole Scion had just finished spawning, and she was simply beautiful. The orange and yellow feathers that were the calling card of these birds had spread to include her shoulders, back and head. Her breast was now a bright red which faded out into the orange as it went away from her front. She still had black and white markings on the leading edges of her wings and flight feathers. She had a black cap that ran from her head down her spine to her tail in a narrow strip, and black streaks over her eyes that made her look like some sort of warrior.

“Wait… isn’t it the males that are supposed to have the brightest colors? Maybe it’s a Scion thing.”

I watched her fly around and establish herself with her peers. She spent a fair amount of time around Veldrann, getting the skinny on how things worked here and what was needed of her.

She was definitely a social lady.

Now I just need to…

Thrum.

“Ohhhh. Now what!?”

I turned my attention to the newest notification from the web, feeling the urgency and importance. The deep feeling tug on my core did not give me the warm and fuzzies.

I felt little feet prancing about near one of the out buildings. It was similar to how the rabbits hopped about, but smaller and with more purpose.

I waited patiently for it to eventually came into my borders. When it did, I felt the cold trickle of fear in my core yet again.

Invader: Ermine.