Much to my surprise, the barbed wire-like Creeper Thorn masterfully snared the next invader. Two ranbi came barreling out this time side-by-side, slamming and twisting up in the dried thorn. My Manifested Body was safeguarded, yet I repossess it right away.
Current Freeform Time: 00:02:38
Remaining Time before Re-Manifesting: 00:02:22
Five minutes wasn't very long, but deploying these traps was easy enough to do in that time span. More importantly, in my current state they didn't seem able to see me. So rather than immediately rush off to become trapped in the body of a plant, I watched the struggling duo until, surprisingly, both fell still.
Enemies Slain Trap Kills: 2
Rewards: 0.2 Mana
If I or my summons don't kill something, we don't gain favor. I guess it's because traps are part of the dungeon.
I didn't exactly know the best route to making use of my isekai knowledge with the situation shaping up like this. A quick check of the Quest even confirmed that there were only one of the five kills registered. The use for Favor still hadn't become obvious but for now, I had some grasp of a strategy. Given the trap was completely pushed out of position due to its victims' corpses, I also used the chance to repair the trap.
The process was simple enough, too: hold my hand over it and think Repair as hard as I can. The Creeper Thorn had been mostly mangled and pushed from its original spot, but a mere twist of my hand made it vanish and reappear in its original position in perfect condition. As unceremonious as it was, I wasn't going to complain when there was a bigger question plaguing my mind.
All three of their bodies are still here. That must mean they're not useful for a resource. I don't think I can make use of them like this, though.
For now, I returned to my Creeper Thorn form and set to dragging the two ranbi over to the first victim. With both of my ranbi to help me, we hastily pushed them toward the western end of the Creeper Thorn trapline and used them almost like a natural barrier for the time being. Most likely I could do something like burning them... but trying to burn anything with my plant-like body was probably a very bad idea even if I had fireball-like magic.
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Four hours into my new world experience and I had profoundly grown to understand that my traps could at best block, snare, and kill four ranbi. Nothing else had surged at our clearing but the slow drain on my mana wasn't easy to ignore. We'd gone through nearly twelve ranbi in that time with my pair joining in to try and prolong the trap lifespan as long as possible.
Out of all of us, I still had yet to score my own personal kill. Ranbi #1 and #2 had respectively earned three and one kill each. Our fighting style was a lot easier to use after some organization. Although they were just rabbits, the two summons had begun exhibiting some level of tactical planning: the first Ranbi disoriented them with a kick, the second one went for a vital bite and wrestling assist, and if that hadn't killed them the first would throw another kick.
So aptly, I named them Bomber (#1) and Ivy (#2). Bomber's kicks were our strongest attack — we tested using one ranbi and seeing how far they could kick each one, as I still don't know their stats — and Ivy clung to an enemy much like I did. Everyone told me I was bad with names but at the time, I had no idea just how bad these names were: it was more about getting myself into this gamelike world's way of working as fast as possible without acknowledging the reality I was butchering creatures almost methodically.
At the top of the fifth hour, I had spent about a total of 2 Mana. Paired with the summon cost for the Ranbi, I had 2 of my Dungeon's mana remaining. At the rate things were going, we'd be running out soon without any means to defend beyond our SP. It made me rather dreary despite the lackadaisical smiles from Bomber and Ivy between their meals; the prospect of surviving beyond that meant the holdout scenario was becoming ever more likely.
In the situation that my body died, I didn't know whether or not I would die with it. My anxiety had driven me to pace around the clearing and eventually tossing one of the bodies in frustration. It was quite difficult with my vine's low strength but it landed on the edge of the stairs and tumbled down into it. The sounds of the ranbi falling eventually stopped, leaving me staring at the still-grass and searching for any sort of plan.
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My only solution was that I needed to figure out more about Mana. Not the resource kind, though.
So I began casting Growth as I had originally been doing. Its cost of 2 MP and my regeneration of 5 MP per minute, then I could train in bursts: five Growth-uses every two minutes. My body's growth was fine while keeping a safe barrier of 10 MP until I regained the 10 MP back for my total of 20.
Repeating this cycle was boring. Extremely. Compared to the loftiness of a harem isekai or one where you started OP, it was drastically taxing to continuously feel my entire being expanding but to know that it was purely physical. By the time the fifth hour had ended, my body had grown positively massive.
And at hour six, something finally happened.
[Notification]
Total Body Length has now reached 5 feet.
Condition Met: Granting title.
New Title: Grand Reach
You must grow if you want to reach for greatness!
Passive Effect
+ 2 Maximum SP
+ 1 STR
+ Gain Spell: Thorntwist
Equipped Effect
N/A
Did I learn a spell from a title? This reminds me of an old anime MMO I played once...
Even though I contemplated that for more than a good ten minutes, the short-stick of this is that titles were extremely helpful. Although I had access to the Title window, none of them were visible. There weren't any hints, either; it was a perfect demonstration of a scenario where I would have to guess and experiment. It wasn't lucky but it was an option that granted me some comfort. Particularly the fact that the spell I got was an actual attack spell.
Thorntwist Learned / Acquired Nature-type A close-range Attack spell originated from knowledge or personal body features, the user can form magic thorns to attack.
Costs 5 MP.
I had tons of bodies lying around so I figured I would test it. I set-up one ranbi corpse on its own and then a pile some distance away from it.
First, I fired at the sole body to see how the spell worked and what kind of damage it did. When initially casting the spell — mentally shouting its name — I noticed thorns burst out along the length of my vine-like body and radiate a deep-green glow. Seconds later, I fired the thorns out all around me. Thankfully both Bomber and Ivy were on the outskirts, all of the magical glowing darts fading away after traveling five feet out from me. Although dead already, the corpse had been hit and riddled with the attack; puncture wounds littered its side and with the thorns gone, they had begun oozing blood.
So the first lesson of Thorntwist is that it was an area-of-effect attack. If I could isolate an enemy on its own, the most effective way to use it would be to use Vice and then cast the spell. Completely wrapping around a ranbi and using a spell like that would probably give me some fairly effective kill power.
Next, I modified the pile to instead be a line. I needed to determine what sort of penetration power it had.
Oh, and I wrapped up the one I had hit before. I figured it was in such bad shape that I could do a double-testing for a confirmation on the lethality.
That was a big mistake, as I'd soon learn. Both Bomber and Ivy watched me with disappointed head-shakes mere seconds before I activated the spell and blood exploded everywhere. I might have been a plant but goring the ranbi in my hold immediately flooded my camera-like view of the world. A vast majority of my snaking body had been dyed red so it took a lot of struggling and flailing around before I found one of the ranbi to wipe myself down with.
Although I didn't have eyes, I still had special eyes, I guess.
Once I was at least able to not freak out and feel blood all over me, dripping down my back, an-... once that was over, I checked the ranbi. As far as penetration power, it was fairly obvious that it would be pretty good from practically turning the already damaged body into a fine mist.
The first ranbi would have definitely died, while the second one was pierced through in only a few spots. And even then, one of them had gone through to hit the final ranbi. Maybe it was because they were fleshy targets or maybe magic was busted.
All I knew is that we had an ace up our sleeve against the ranbi now. We had a way to buy time and hopefully complete the day. It was possible that we might actually be able to endure if things didn't get as busy as the first few hours.
For now, I had to rest. I wasn't physically tired but I was definitely mentally exhausted after that ordeal. In the meantime... I had my two allies move the bodies farther out and guard me.